Poster and Empire cover development

As regards to our ancillary texts we chose to design a poster and the front cover to an Empire magazine, that were both centered around our trailer. Before rushing into creating the design using the software photoshop, I decided to sketch my ideas on paper and annotate them according to colour, positioning of labels and any connotative meanings that I had decided to implement. This way I was able to make changes and go through several ideas before coming to the final conclusion.

I had designed more than one advertising poster to get a rough idea of what I would be working with, I believed the first design wasnt broad enough with the perspective, and the positioning of characters and the tagline could have been altered to create a bigger impact, thus I came to my second and final design, which I was pleased with. The imagine shown below my first design is my final concept for the advertising poster. In my design I came up with the idea of a city scape which represents the idea of there being a long road and the buildings along that road being the obstacles and challenges he has to face. The central image in the poster is the protagonist, facing the horizon head on, with two antagonists facing him, connoting that the character is prepared to take on the challenges ahead, knowing that there may be obstacles that come his way. Finally I used the concept of a sunrise, connoting the idea of there being a light at the end of the tunnel, showing that if he travels this path he will get what he desires in the end. These concepts will act as hints to the plotline and content of the film.
Unforunately due to technical limitations getting photo's of all of these ideas seemed improbable, so my idea developed. We as a group decided that the film would have been based upon a comic book, and the storyline is something which many would imagine to be that of a graphic novel. Thus I decided to draw the design, but keeping the same concept of him reaching a goal, but in a comic book style. Although to add impact I decided to use a photograph that we had previously taken of the main character, which added emphasis.

Above is the final concept for the poster, as you can see its quite similar to my actual sketch during the design proccess, but with a few changes that I think add impact and eye catching. Here we can see the protagonist facing slightly toward us, this again was to create specific impact that caught the audiences eye, arousing their interest. Another difference is a strange glow emitting from the protagonists hand, this not only connotes the idea of a sense of power, but it reveals that this hand plays a specific part in the plot, and may have major importance which again may arouse the interest of the audience. To add to the theme of "freedom" I decided to add birds gliding above the sun rise. I believe this connotes the idea of being free and above everything else, breaking the boundaries and being above everybody else. Towards the end of the production of my poster I decided to make the tagline 'Everything has an end' this idea reinforces the concept of the road, portraying the idea of the protagonist having sheer determination, ready to fight for his freedom.

The image above shows the concept for my Empire magazine design. I decided to pursue the idea of having a military briefing file, with the words 'Top secret' stamped across the file in a similar style to that of a stamp. The colour scheme would be that of an actual folder, making it stand out to the audience, but also connoting the idea of the protagonist having a higher level of importance, again catching the audiences attention. The whole theme of the magazine was centered around the typical military stamp idea, so I decided that the Empire logo itself looked like it had been stamped on, and faded to add specific impact on the cover as a whole, backing up the idea of it being top secret. With the central image, being the protagonist, he was positioned facing the audience, with his nano tech arm concealed behind his back, this connotes the idea of him hiding something, which again reinforces the idea of it being 'Top secret'. In most Empire Magazine posters we can see the central images face is clear and easy to, I decided to distort the face, making it darker, so we cannot figure out his identity, this once again backs up the 'Top secret' idea that I had originally implemented into my design.

The image above shows my final Empire Magazine cover. Everything is similar to my initial design, although I was not able to insert the 'Top secret' stamp because of us not being able to use specific sources due copywriting laws. Also the tagline was altered, this was to add impact, I believed having it short and snappy would be more effective, and aesthetically pleasing than a tagline that consumed alot of space and over threw everything else. The new tagline I believe matches with the theme of the top secret military briefing; 'Fight for your Freedom', this sounding quite similar to phrases used in propaganda during wars. Furthermore through adding several stamping effects to the text, it helped connote the idea, making it quite clear to the audience that the theme was centered around some sort of briefing, due to the colour and manipulation of the lettering. Through these symbols and colours I was able to use previously learned media techniques to successfully reinforce my concept successfully.

Using previous Empire Magazine covers as a reference, I tried to simulate similar conventions of the magazine, upon my own. I positioned the bar code in the corner similarly so it did not intrude with the featured articles, making the text clear and easy to spot. Furthermore I used a similar technique of colour coding which related to the theme of the magazine. For example in the magazine cover shown above, the colours white green and purple are used which portray the concept 0f a clown, and the colours used for the main villain in the featured movie. So to simulate a similar concept I used red, white and black to portray the concept of a military briefing, adding to the aesthetics and creativity of the cover, raising the audiences interest. Similarly I placed featured articles on my cover, and a flash in the corner to again add to the aesthetics and follow the conventions used specifically by the Empire magazine.

Evaluation.

The group’s main focus was to apply the conventions of the action genre. Through research and planning we came to the conclusion that due to constraints of budget and equipment explosions, chases and scenes using guns was not an option for our trailer, so we went ahead with what we had available and tried to simulate the conventions of the action genre. The main aspects of the action genre that we successfully applied were the type of camera editing techniques, sound effects, music and mise-en-scene. As we couldn’t do the most obvious, as previously mentioned, we put all our effort into researching the other important, yet simpler aspects of the action genre. Together as a group we found there to be conventions such as tense build ups, low angle shots which show power, and is a very important convention as regards to action, as we see most stereotypical villains or heroes to be portrayed in a powerful manner, with something as simple as a camera angle. A perfect example is the movie Ironman (2008) where the main villain, Obadiah Stane is from a low angle, displaying a sense of power. Along with this we found a lot of action based films to have heavier music, which creates a tense exciting atmosphere for the audience, another given effective technique used by the action genre. Within the editing we used a minimal amount of CGI (meaning computer-generated imagery), this was used towards the end for more of an effect.

With no budget and a lack of software we attempted to create an effect at the end of the trailer that would attract the audience, and in contemporary films CGI is becoming more of a familiar convention for action films, and is another aspect of the convention that pulls the audience in. One of the most important devices for our film and most action films is the mise-en-scene. In a vast amount of action films there is some kind of authority figure, and the mise-en-scene backs this up to help project this, a prime example of a film displaying this is the film Die Hard (1989) where the mise-en-scene supports the action genre due to the authority figures clothing, thus in our trailer we have aimed to mimic this affect to follow traditional action genre conventions.

With this we aimed to develop and explore aspects of the genre in more detail, such as connotative meanings, and certain editing techniques such as match on actions that generate certain affects which in turn help support the feature of connotative meanings. Fades and cuts are used traditionally to portray a change of scene in a trailer, we have aimed to develop this certain technique by exercising the fading technique within an actual scene. As the Mafioso don, Don DeVici, he is shown to be a corrupt and powerful character within the trailer, as he discusses a proposition with the protagonist there are fades as dialogue is being exchanged. This was employed to create a sense of tension within the scene, it adds emphasis to the fact that the protagonist is under pressure and is in danger, and this backed up towards the end of scene as the Mafioso don says “Get him boys” This negative command to harm the protagonist supports the technique of fading out during conversation. The tense build up and suspense is almost like a heartbeat for the final sentence in the scene, it creates dramatic effect for the audience and is a technique used to not only challenge the conventions, but to create certain connotative meaning in the trailer. To support this uncommonly used technique we can see from the movie District 9 (2009) that the effect of a heartbeat, with certain editing techniques, create the connotative meaning of suspense and danger.

Within most action based trailers, giving an insight to the plotline isn’t a commonly known convention, and so we aimed to challenge that and develop it in our own way. With a minimal amount of dialogue, passages of time and snippets of action, something almost like a synopsis visually is created which furthermore is a way we challenged the conventions of the action genre.

As a group we were aware of the importance and attention a protagonist receives not only from the audience, but the characters themselves. We aspired to create a protagonist that was unfamiliar, something uncommon that was more of an outcast than most others in the action genre. We designed the character to be more of a vigilante with a twist, rather than trying to solve a problem, and solve everybody else’s problems, we can see that the protagonist is more focused with his priorities, wanting to escape without harming or bringing down any form of villain. Rather the villains go after him, a slight twist to what is most commonly used in a vast amount of action movies. Thus we have aimed to create an unusual twist which may be appealing to the audience.

Within every film there is a specific representation of social groups, depending on the particular genre and varies largely as regards to this. As our trailer is the genre of action, we have aimed to follow certain representations that are commonly presented inside of this genre. Our film contains many authority figures that are represented in numerous ways, with certain differences that aim to challenge the representation and add a new perspective to them. The mafia is seen to be represented stereotypically as a menacing, cruel, manipulative and vicious group of individuals that dress in formal clothing. A popular example to help support this stereotype is The Godfather (1972) where we can evidently see Don Vito to be portrayed as quite a cruel and menacing character, furthermore he is shown to be Italian American, which in several parody’s, and gangster based movies the mafia is depicted in such a manner constantly. Thus with this in mind we attempted to reproduce this stereotype in our action trailer, where we see the character of the Don to be quite a menacing and cruel character, with a strong Italian American accent, which follows quite successfully the stereotype of the mafia viewed by the audience of today.

In addition to this frequently used stereotype, we incorporated another, but this time we aimed to provide it with a certain twist which isn’t commonly used by movie makers, therefore we used a commonly known authority which is regularly seen in film; the military. We as a society may see the military as an authority figure that protects humanity, and fights for freedom, reducing the chances of war and conflict as an end result by using a sufficient amount of force. And in the movie industry they are most commonly seen as strict, austere and emotionless figures that are straight to the point. As a group we wanted to put a particular twist on this view and simulate this particular authority figure to be the villain rather than a role model. We also aimed to incorporate the southern American accent, and irritable nature that can be heard regularly in the films that this particular authority figure is in. The movie The Hulk (2003) is a prime example which incorporates the rare usage of the corrupt military officer, as he aims to harm the protagonist, also the authority figures irritability and southern American accent is evident, backing up the commonly used stereotype. Using this stereotype we twisted the mentality of this military figure, to be corrupt and power hungry, as he desperately searches for the protagonist and the nanotech arm that was attached to him previously. This uncommon twist on a stereotype is an effective technique in terms of acquiring the audience’s attention and arousing their interest in the film, possibly raising certain questions, or giving them a new insight into another view point on the military, furthermore potentially creating a new stereotype in terms of the military. Assisting us in employing certain action conventions in our trailer to make it as effective and true to the genre as possible.

(Sam Elliot in The Hulk (2003) ) ( Thomas Gamble - Our film trailer, military figure)

With the trailer ancillary texts were an essential part of the process that successfully reflected the themes and genre of our movie. From previous Empire magazines and action movie posters such as Iron Man (2008) it is evident that not much is revealed to the audience, other than the protagonist , central characters, or closely related to our film; a power or gadget that the protagonist utilizes. We aimed to successfully achieve a connection between the film and the ancillary texts to the highest of our ability, using the software Photoshop to ensure we could create the poster and Empire which would successfully reflect the action tucked inside the movie, and the specific themes we focused on throughout the production of our trailer. To stay true to the genre of our trailer, it was necessary to incorporate certain aspects of the action genre into our ancillary texts to ensure it portrayed what we had created effectively.

For the empire magazine I specifically focused on the protagonist, and how mysterious he is revealed to be, this employs the concept of secrecy and having something to hide from others, which shows a glimpse of the action genre. More importantly is the nanotech arm that the protagonist has, as this is the main focus of not only the magazine but the trailer in general, it was crucial that it was focused on and edited in a manner that drew the attention of the audience. An ominous glow was added to emit a sense of power almost, and almost as a signal for the audience to look and arouse their interests, raising questions about purpose and any possible connotations as regards to the arm. The mystery and importance generated by the arm is similar again to Ironman (2008) as the Empire magazine cover shows the protagonists robotic armour, this mystery and use of gadgets is becoming more and more of a convention used within the action genre, due to the developments in CGI and the frequent use of it. One of the most important features is the protagonist’s stance being projected on the cover. We can see the protagonist raising his fist to his chest, clenching it as if getting prepared for conflict. This helps show the protagonists power, lack of fear, and sense of determination, a connotative meaning of taking everything as it comes just so he can reach his goal. Thus this unwavering stance effectively on the cover effectively displays the genre of action and the contents of the trailer. Although it is evident that the nano tech arm is covered, this implies the idea of secrecy, protection and ownership of the arm, subtly hinting to the audience that the protagonist has something he doesn’t want to share. These implied meanings draw the audience in raising questions that arouse an interest in the actual movie, thus successfully combined both the ancillary text and the trailer itself.

In conjunction with the Empire magazine the film poster was effectively produced to reflect the set themes and genre within the trailer. The contents of the poster show the protagonist to be standing at the end of a road with buildings running down it, with the sun beaming through at the end of the horizon. Next to, or on top of specific buildings the protagonist’s enemies are standing looking toward the protagonist, as he faces them and his back to the audience. The mise-en-scene in I used producing the poster shows the enemies to have some sort of weaponry, a prime example is the military lieutenant who has in his possession, a tank. In addition to this, we are shown the Don carrying a baseball over his shoulder, with his eye line directed toward the protagonist. A movie that similarly includes the mafia is Rock n Rolla (2008) and depicts the image of a male figure holding two guns, and with this we can see the link between weaponry and the action genre. However the group has aimed to associate certain aspects of our posters with hidden meanings and messages, to create a different yet effective poster that not only to create something different, but to attract the audience’s attention in a different way, a way in which they ask questions that arouse their interests in the actual film.

As a group we were aware that the institution that would promote and distribute our movie would have to be notorious for the distribution of action based movies, and more importantly ones similar to ours, as we believed particular institutions had a larger income after release than others. After thorough investigation into the film industry, I came to the conclusion that the most appropriate institution for the distribution of our film would be Warner Brothers, due to the large success with not only such action films such as Cradle 2 the grave, and Rock n Rolla, but also its gross income from the movie The Dark Knight (2008) who’s worldwide gross is currently $1,022,345,358 (Information gathered from (http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/BATM2.php).

With this I believe our media product would be distributed successfully with Warner Brothers due to their overall experience with the action genre and their unique style and development of the action genre as time has progressed. A prime example is the movie Sherlock Holmes (2009) where the institution in question has used certain editing techniques, such as slow motion effects, and unique camera angles to not only create a traditional action film, but one which adds emphasis to these actions, which also successfully merges comedy into the experience for an improved sense of entertainment. As our movie strives to be slightly different from other action films with certain representations and implications, I believe Warner Brothers is largely similar with its unique editing styles, and challenging of the genre’s, thus deeming Warner Brothers the most appropriate and appealing institution to distribute our media product.

Another thing our group had to closely consider and discuss was the audience our product would attract and be suitable for, which came as quite a difficult task because of the content and who specifically we wanted to see it. Our film consists of a wide variety of action, but also one with deep meaning and a plotline that attracts the audience’s attention, compelling their interest in the final outcome. Thus we believe our film should be aimed at a wider audience, rather than a smaller one, this is because our film isn’t just to entertain, but to inform. The entertainment accumulated in the movie is not only entertaining for teens and above, but the fighting sequences may be quite entertaining for a younger audience from the ages of 10 – 13. With the action aside, the deep plot and relation to ethical ideas within the film may be appealing to an older audience, these deep seated issues that are around in today’s society may be something the audience can relate to and discuss making it a quite enjoyable experience for the mature. We believe our film is successfully in informing the audience, especially those of a younger generation certain moral teaching that are centred on certain topics. As a result we believe our film is best certified as a 12a, due to the wide range of content that varies, and how selective it is offering more variety to the audience. Consequently we needed to decide on how the film would be advertised, deciding that we wanted to attract as much attention as we possibly could.

I believed that a viral campaign best suited our film, the mystery and tension built up within the film would have a close relation to the viral campaign, arousing the audiences interest, raising discussions and debates about our trailer questioning its plotline and content. The film Cloverfield (2008) used its website virally to attract attention from its audience, a still frame of the Statue of Liberty was edited to show her head cut off with claw marks upon its back. This is a simple technique used that results in a larger impact, arousing interest and discussion about the viral, thus becoming infamous and creating controversy on the internet. With such a simplistic and yet effective technique at our disposal, I believed it was the best method as regards to advertising our film.

Overall to create our film trailer successfully, we needed to use the correct equipment and with not much at our disposal we used what we could to ensure we got as high a quality film as possible. Similar to other film makers we used cameras, tri-pods, editing software and props to create our film, although due to a lack of budget, and the schools resources being low, we had to make use of what was available to us. Even though our equipment was not as reliable and as respectable as the traditional film makers, we persevered and coped with any technically difficulties, and loss of quality that had arisen during the overall process. Even though we were limited we discovered new techniques to apply using the equipment, but also with the software the school had to offer. Through complete coincidence the group discovered a useful technique that did not occur to us. During the filming of the protagonist running through the woods, the camera was on a tilt, which soon reminded us of the dutch tilt. Thus we aimed to stylize that angle to our own, and we manipulated the cameras angle simulating a similar shot to that of the dutch tilt, something our group previously hadn’t considered, but realised was highly effective in terms of shooting this scene due to the impact we wanted it to have, which was to reveal the mise-en-scene with a sense of obscurity, which also at the same time portrayed a essence of power.

Similarly during the previous year of the media course our group was not aware of the software available in school, but thanks to further investigation and information offered we came across a program by the name of “Adobe after effects”. This software allows the users to edit film, adding animation, or special effects that other software was unable to deliver. Thus due to the genre and plot behind our film we decided use of CGI would result in a more successful looking trailer, because of the rise in CGI being a larger aspect of contemporary movies, especially from the genre of action, one in which being Iron man (2008) which uses a large amount of CGI due to its super hero plotline and fighting sequences. Our film has a similar approach as the protagonist acquires a nano-tech arm, something that wouldn’t occur in everyday life. Thus the idea of a laser beam being shot from the protagonists hand would be appropriate, not only to arouse the interest of the audience for entertainment purposes, but also to hint at the possibility of more abilities to be discovered attracting the audience’s attention and increasing their interest in going to see the film. With all this in mind I set about creating the laser scene with the help of the group. First of all we had to the film the clip, so we were able to edit it, thus we filmed in a location that we thought would not only be unproblematic in terms of editing, but somewhere which would add emphasis to the story line, and maybe attract the audience and their interest yet again gaining their interest and enquiries.

The group originally had no intention of using this method for the trailer, but because of the opportunities that has arisen, we believed it would be a great addition to the trailer. Our project soon became more unique and inventive due to our familiarity with software and editing programs, from something quite basic to something we believe possessed a higher sense of excitement and pace that would attract the audience’s attention, and overall just add a larger impact creating a successful trailer that worked well together, and most importantly entertained and fulfilled its purpose successfully.

Throughout the duration of the course and the progression of this project, I believe myself and the group have acquired a vast amount of new knowledge and techniques that we can now apply easily, and effectively. New opportunities have arisen that have allowed us to manipulate and create a higher quality result toward the end. Due to progressively gained knowledge in terms of editing software, and the use of equipment, we have been able to experiment in ways in which our lack of confidence that prevented us from progressing so successfully as we have done now. New ways of shooting and applying the editing to the footage have been discovered, creating a more effective impact, with valuable connotative features. Furthermore our decision making skills in terms of location and planning have improved from quite simplistic and undefined to a more defined and competent way of applying and using our time and resources. This became evident when the group worked together as a team successfully, plans for ideas and concepts were discussed rather than disregarded and ignored, elaborate plans as regards to shooting, script and location of cameras, and filming location were created helping us progress smoothly with the creation of our final product.

After having experienced media practioners watch our trailer we were given feedback centered around the film, and whether or not they had a keen interest, and could understand the trailer successfully. When we recieved the feedback for our trailer, we found that the audiences feedback agreed with our initial intentions. The audience were successfully able to recognise that the film was created around the action genre, due to specific aspects such as the fighting scenes, special effects, narration and the music, matching our original intentions for the final product, and the recognition of the genre that we hoped to achieve. The audience were able to recognise who the protagonist was from us successfully making him recogniseable through the editing and constant use of the character. They were also able to formulate the plotline, one student said "We can gather from the trailer that something tragic happened to the police man, leaving him with his new arm, but due to certain complications he cannot be free, and is on a quest to earn his freedom". We as a group intended the plotline to be something along these lines, again showing that our original intenions worked out successfully. Also as a group we aimed for the trailer to leave the audience for a further interest in seeing the film itself, and raising certain questions centered around the film. The group again responded to our aspirations and asked certain questions such as "What has he done?" "Where is his arm?" "Is he good or bad" and through further investigation we found that all of the students would like to see this film to answer all of the questions stated previously. Thus we believe that our trailer was successful in fufilling all the criteria we believed was essential to make our trailer successful, although as a group we agreed that in terms of alteration that an improved quality of editing, filming equipment and props would be needed to improve the quality and create a higher level support for the action genre conventions that we aimed to follow correctly.

Overall progression through AS and A2 has been successful for the group with certain interferences along the way, but only to soon be resolved with a matter of logic and planning. With this experience we were able to learn how to adapt, create, be resourceful, plan and work together as a team in a more successful manner.