Evaluation

FINAL TEASER, WEBSITE AND POSTER

TEASER


WEBSITE

http://www.stmaryleboneschool.com/STUDENTSITE/MEDIA/Lucy/Index.htm

POSTER

Progress

This was my original time plan that I created to help me make sure I was organised and on schedule to complete my work on time. I feel that using Microsoft Project to make my timeplan was and extremely effective way and a software that I would consider using again in the future. It is clear to see exactly what needs to be done and by what dates, and by looking visually at the Gantt chart, you can instantly see which tasks will require more time.

However, looking at my time plan now, I realised that I perhaps did not follow it as closely as I should have done. I was scheduled to finish all three aspects of the project (website, poster and teaser) by 6th March, yet I actually completed these tasks on the 24th March, which is 18 days late. I feel that this is because I did not give hardly enough time for filming. I did not realise how long it would take to film and how many times you would need to re-film parts as they did not look too professional when loaded and watched back on the computer. In this timeplan, I also did not take into account Re-Sits. The main actor for our film along with two of the girls all had re-sit exams in the week I wanted to film and so therefore, they were unable to. Therefore I was already behind a few days. I also realised that I did not allow enough time for editing, giving myself only three weeks. The editing process took a lot longer than I expected, especially due to the fact that for one of the week's that I had scheduled for editing was taken up by a half term break. This then meant that I was not allowed access to the recording studio and therefore did not have the equipment or software to edit at home. This then put me another week back therefore resulting in each of the other tasks that I had planned to finish by a particular date ending late as well.

I have learnt from this project to make sure that I take into account other factors such as Half Term breaks, so that my final time plan is something that I can realistically follow and it would be of a much greater use to me. I will also make sure that at the end of each week I check to see how much progress I have made. This will therefore result in me more likely staying on track and completing the work on the date that I was meant to.

Final Website

Above is an image of what my final webpage looked like when I had finished designing it in Adobe Photoshop. I have made this webpage very similar to my poster, so that I can establish a sense of identity for my film. I have used the same font for the film heading as well as the same image of Nick, yet I have repositioned and enlarged it. I have kept to the same colour scheme of a white background with black text, and used the dark pink shade to highlight certain pieces of text, for example the last two words of the tagline. I have included many conventions of websites, such as including a date when the film is released, a billing box and a copyright symbol towards the bottom of the page, verifying that LSA Productions own this site and no-one else can take credit for it. I have also included an 'Enter the Site' button, as well as the option to share this page on various other social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. This increases the publicity for my film and allows for media convergence (integrating different forms of media to appeal to a much wider audience). The white space on the left is where I will embed my teaser trailer.

You are able to view my live website by visiting this address:

http://www.stmaryleboneschool.com/STUDENTSITE/MEDIA/Lucy/Index.htm

Website Analysis / Mock Up for Website

Website Analysis
I have decided to look at three other websites of the same genre of my film to help inspire me for my own website. The genre of my film is a romantic comedy, which is why I have looked at the following films: "It's a Boy Girl thing", "Rumor has it" and "Music and Lyrics". I feel that all three of these websites are successful, yet nto one of them features a trailer on the homepage. I would definitely like to present my teaser on the homepage as I feel that this is the best way to really sell your film and make users want to watch it.

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Mock Up for my Website


Above is the mock up for my website. I have decided to keep my website the same style as my movie poster, so that users will recognise it much more quickly. The font for the heading and main image of Nick will be the same as that on my poster, just slightly adapted. The trailer will be positioned underneath the heading, and I will embed my trailer using the website 'Vimeo'. To the right of the trailer, users will be able to see the tagline for my movie as well as the day it is realeased. The 'Enter The Site' button will be in the same font that I have used for the heading ('Elephant') so that my company remains consistent throughout. I will also place a box around this so that users are more likely to notice it. The billing box will also be positioned underneath the trailer.

I will have to remember to include two more things though when I finally get round to making my real website poster. The first includes icons for users to share my page on Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and Delicious. This will increase the number of my site hits, and the film will gain much more publicity. I will also need to include a copyright logo underneath my billing box so that it clearly states this website belongs to 'LSA Productions'.

Final Trailer

I have now finished editing the trailer and feel that the final result is successful. After presenting our trailer to the Year 12 media class, we received both positive and negative feedback.



Positive Feedback

• There is a clear storyline that runs throughout the trailer, and viewers are fully aware of the the film is going to be about. The voiceover helps with this as well.
• The storyline is humorous meaning that they were more likely to want to watch it.
  
• There is a good use of editing which helps to make the trailer look professional.
• The music fits in well with the scenes.

Negative Feedback

• Although the music fits in well with the two different sections within the trailer, the transition between the two songs could have been smoother.
• The beginning was slightly too long, and probably could have been simplified more

I am pleased with the final outcome and feel that the trailer has a clear storyline that runs throughout, meaning that users are able to understand what the film is going to be about. The editing is quite simple yet professional, which made the final teaser trailer successful.

Final Poster

Above is the final draft of my poster. I feel that my final poster is quite successful. I have decided to keep it extremely plain and simple, which I feel helps make it look quite sophisticated and professional. I have followed many codes and conventions of movie posters which also help make my poster quite successful. Firstly, I have included the actors' names at the top and in alphabetical order. If I display the actors' names, then people are more likely to be persuaded to watch it if they are aware that their favourite actor is in the film. Secondly, I have included the film name in the centre of the poster. I have used the font 'Elephant', as feel this serif font is qutie sophisticated and gives users a good idea as to the kind of lifestyle the main charcter leads. Thirdly, I have inluded the tag line "Work Hard, Play Harder". I came up with this tagline as I feel that it is short and catchy, and allows users to gain an insight into Nick's way of living without even seeing the film yet. It suggests that Nick lives quite a hedonistic lifestyle, work hard but making sure he plays harder. It shows that he takes some issues in his life seriously, but is mainly interested in making sure he has a good time. Lastly, I have included a billing box, the release date and the website address towards the bottom of the page. This is all of the legal requirements, and basically states important information that users may want to know.

Whilst looking at other films, I noticed that they normally have two or three different posters. This is probably to keep viewers entertained and also to tell more of a story and allow viewers to see characters that may be featured in the film but not necessarily be the lead. As you can see in the image below, Alfie has two posters, John Tucker Must Die
has three and Hitch has four.


Therefore I decided to make three more posters for my film, each featuring a different girl. I have replaced the tagline with a quote that Nick says in the film, yet I have kept all fonts and colours the same as my house colours so that viewers are still aware that this is still part of the film 'Nick'.

Second Draft of Poster

After receiving some feedback, I decided to change my idea slightly.

Second Draft of Poster

Firstly, I have decided to use an image of Nick only, as I feel that he is the main star of the film. The other three girls, although they do play a part int he film, it would simply look too overcrowded if all four actors were present. Secondly, I decided not to have film reviews on the page. These are normally found on websites instead, and I wanted to make sure I used standard forms and conventions rather than challenge them. Lastly, I made the heading 'Nick' much bigger. In my previous draft it was quite small with almost 50% of it covered by the images of the girls. This did not stand out and would not attract any attention if displayed on a billboard for example.

Music / Photoshoot / First Draft of Poster / Mock Up for poster / Advertising

Our teaser trailer is now almost complete. All that is left to do is insert a voiceover.

This past week, I have spent most of my time trying to find some music for the second half of the teaser trailer. This section is a montage of images that feature Nick with the three different girls, and music needed to be romantic yet happy at the same time. I found it quite difficult to find a song that matched this on Jamendo (the free music download website). However, I eventually found the song below and feel that it fits in well with the section. I did not think it would take that much time to try and find music to fit in with the different scenes in our trailer, and I probably should have taken this into account whilst creating my timeplan as it took much longer than expected and put me behind a few days.

Recently, I have also been creating the first draft of my poster for our film. Below is a photoshoot plan that I made, which made it a lot easier for me when I actually came round to taking my photos, as I knew exactly what I needed to photograph.

First Draft of Poster

I feel that this poster is quite a good first draft, but there are many changes that need to be made to make it look much more professional. These changes will be discussed when I make my second draft for my poster.

Mock Up for Poster
I feel that one of the reasons why the poster above was not as successful as I wanted it to be was because I had not created a mock up for it. It is essential to create a mock up as it gives you a much clearer idea as to what your final poster will look like. It also allows you to play around with the layout before you start inserting pictures and text and everything is final. Below is the mock up for my second draft of the poster.

Increasing Publicity for our Film

Whilst creating the first draft our my poster, I also began thinking about what other publicity our film could get to make sure that it receives as many viewers in its opening week as possible. There are many visual ways of advertising a particular film, such as the TV, magazines, billboards etc, which all appeal to a huge amount of people. However, personally I feel that one of the main forms of advertising for films that are soon to be released is on the sides of buses. Buses are constantly running in and around central London, and at busy times such as rush hour, people are very likely to look at them. Therefore I have used Photoshop to place an advertisement for our film on the side of a bus and also at a bus stop, to see what it would look like if our company decided to advertise there.

Film Poster Research

What I have been doing these past weeks
Recently, because I am the editor, I have been in and out of the studio editing the footage that we have filmed so far. I've been familiarising myself with Final Cut Pro, and capturing clips from our tape and saving them in the right places on the computer. I have then been looking back at my teaser plan and shot lists to remember what we want our teaser to look like and where about on the timeline I need to position certain clips.
I have also been researching some film posters briefly to gain some inspiration as to what I want my film poster to look like. One of the film posters that I looked at was for the film 'Alfie'. Our group has looked very closely at this film, and so I thought it would be extremely useful to see what the poster for it looked like.

As you can see, this particular poster for 'Alfie' is extremely simple, yet quite sophisticated. The 'L' has been substituted for a photo of Jude Law, which I feel is quite clever and makes the whole poster look much more visually interesting. The white background contrasts with the black text, making the heading stand out extremely well. The letters of the word have also been positioned on different levels, making the poster quite playful and suggests to the audience what Alfie's character might be like before they have even seen the film. For my poster, I want to keep it this simple and professional, yet I would also like to include images of the women that feature in the film as well, to give viewers a much clearer idea as to who is in our film.

Another poster that I have looked at is for the film 'John Tucker Must Die'. Similarly, our group has reasearched this film to gain inspiration, and so it would be useful to me to analyse the poster for this film as well.
As you can see, the poster for 'John Tucker Must Die' is aslo extremely simple yet effective. The white background is something I would definitely like to use in my poster, as I feel it makes it look much more sophisticated and does nto distract users from the main focus of the poser. The film name for this particular film has been positioned on the model's lower back and in the from of a tattoo. I feel that this is quite clever and gives an idea as to what age group this film is aimed at (normally young adults have tattoos, probably between the ages of 18-25 years). The tag line has been positioned at the top of her vest top, which I personally do not feel is a place that attracts a lot of attention from the user. However, there is not really anywhere else it could have been positioned and so at the top is the best place for it. This poster also uses a clear colour scheme of white and maroon, which makes it look extremely professional. I will therefore try to stick to the same sort of colours in my poster as well.

I have focused primarily on 'Alfie' and 'John Tucker Must Die' for my research so far, so I thought it would be useful to look at other films in the same genre as my own to see if the posters and teasers all relate as well. I decided to look at the film 'Hitch', as this is a Romantic Comedy which also focuses on one leading man.



Above is the trailer for 'Hitch', and I feel it is quite a successful film trailer. It is very entertaining, and there is a mix between clips from the film and clips that aren't. The voiceover makes the trailer easy to follow, giving users a clear idea of what the film is about. I also especially like the ending how the name of the film comes up, followed by an 18 second clip of footage and then the final text advertising when it is out on DVD appears after. I feel that this is a good way to keep the audience watching, as they are not expecting any more footage after the ending title comes up. I would like to include something like this in my film as well, but perhaps a shorter scene which is still humorous and keeps the viewers entertained and curious as to what is going to come next. Once I still have their attention, they are much more likely to see the last clip advertising when the film will be released.

I have also looked at the film poster for 'Hitch' to help me get ideas for my own poster.


As you can see, the poster is quite simple with just an image of 'Hitch' in the centre with the film name in red and on a white background. I really like this poster and feel that even though it is quite simple, it is still quite effective. It has all necessary information (apart from a tagline which I would have liked to have seen). I feel that it looks extremely professional having him lean on the film name like that, even though it is clear he was not actually leaning on it in real life. I would like to have the character 'Nick' lean on the words in the same sort of way for my poster, as I feel that this is quite humorous and gives users and idea of the sort of character he is (quite laid back and 'cool' by slouching like this). One thing that I would probably change about this poster, apart from the lack of a tagline, is the billing box. I dislike how it is split into two sections and feel that it would have looked slightly better if it was simply displayed at the bottom as a whole section.

Planning

Filming Schedule
As we are working in quite a big group, I decided that it would make things a lot easier if I created a schedule for everyone to be able to see easily where each member of our group was during the week.

I created this schedule in Microsoft Excel, writing out when every member of our group had study sessions between the hours of 08.30-3.30, Monday to Friday. I colour coded each member so that it was clear who was who, and I highlighted the different time periods in yellow where we were all in the same study sessions. I printed a copy for each member of our group so that whenever someone needed to know where a group member was, they could check the schedule and easily see. That way, there are no complications and time will not be wasted with groups members trying to find one another.

Contact List
Although the filming schedule shows you where they are meant to be, some group members may not actually be in the common room during their study sessions. That is why I decided to create a contact list so that if a group member needed to get hold of someone urgently, they could easily phone them on their mobiles or send them an email.

(I have blurred out the numbers to protect our group members' privacy)

Time Plan
This is a gantt chart that I made using Microsoft Project. It shows how long each task of this project will take, as well as the dates that we should complete them by. By creating this time plan, it means that our group can stay on track of things, and know what we need to do and when to do it by to make sure our project is finished in time.

PLANNING AND RESEARCH PRESENTATION

Alfie

Alfie, similar to John Tucker Must Die, is also about a man, this time in his late twenties, who lives in Manhattan and works as a limousine driver. He too lives a hedonistic lifestyle "meeting, romancing, and seducing women" as a hobby.

As the trailer opens, you can immediately see the different audience that Alfie is targetting. First of all, the music is a laid back sort of jazz which is completely different to the more upbeat and technologically advanced track played in the opening of John Tucker. It also shows Alfie, a working man travelling alone in a city, and not at an American High School. This immediately suggests that the target audience is much older, probably women aged between 20 and 35 years of age. Also shown in the beginning seconds of the trailer are clips of Manhattan and its skyline. This immediately sets the scene that it is based in America. However, Jude Law, the character who plays Alfie, is an English -born actor. By casting a British actor to appear in this American film it is clear that it is going to be released internationally, therefore intending to appeal to a much wider audience.

There is a much clearer message that runs throughout this film, and as a viewer, I picked it up much more quickly then I did with John Tucker, which I feel is purely just a film for entertainment value. 'Alfie' possesses much more serious issues, for example the cancer scare that Alfie has during the film. He teaches the audience not to be so shallow and to enjoy every day as if it were your last.

John Tucker Must Die

'John Tucker Must Die' is an American film of the genre 'romantic comedy'. Released in 2006, it focuses on three girls who want to get revenge on a boy in the year who has secrely been dating all three of them.

The trailer begins with clips of John Tucker playing basketball in an American High School. This immediately suggests that the target audience is probably females aged between 14-19 years. The music playing is also a song by the All-American Rejects, which not only relates to the plot of the film, but also appeals to the modern day target audience of young teenagers. As the trailer continues, we hear a voice over of the second -to-lead character, who describes to the audience the situation. The different shots cut quickly into each other, which adds to the whole chaotic atmosphere of the basketball game, and appeals very much to the younger audience who would have no problem keeping up. The language used by the character also appeals very much to the target audience, using phrases such as 'She's so hot!".

It is clear that this film is a modern adaption of the film 'Alfie', aimed at a much younger audience. However, it was given an age certificate of PG13 in America, due to the amount of sexual references throughout. We want our film to appeal to those between the age of 13 and 18 years of age, meaning that it would receive a 12A rating. This therefore means that we need to be careful when referencing anything of a sexual nature.

Where I am now

My Role:
What I have done this week: 30th November - 4th December
At the beginning of this week, I was in charge of creating a moodboard for our film 'Nick'. I created this moodboard on Animoto, as this website allows for you to create a short video with exciting and interesting effects. In our moodboard, I decided to include images from other films where we have gotten inspiration from such as 'Alfie' and 'John Tucker Must Die'. I also included images of locations where we would like to film, such as Central London and Starbucks Coffee house. This particular location of central london, and filming in coffee shops such as Starbucks really gives a good impression of where the main character is from and the life he leads. He is extremely busy and earns quite a high salary, due to the fact he lives alone in the central of London.

I have also been in charge of drawing a storyboard and creating an Animatic for our film, based on Susan's (a member of my group) shotlist that she provided. However, the story board does vary slightly from the shots that she gave me as we wanted as many different ideas as possible to make sure that our final shotlist is the best one.

When drawing the storyboard, I remembered to keep all the boxes the same. This was so that when I come to creating my animatic, it flowed better and looks much more professional. I remembered to include every single shot, even drawing a character's movements for example if someone is walking. The more frames you include, the more realistic your final animatic will be. Once I had finished scanning in my images (I chose not to photograph them as the lighting would change for every photo I took), I then cropped them on Adobe Photoshop to make sure that they are all identical in size. I then imported them each individually into Windows Movie Maker, where I set the transition to less then a second. This means that when I played my movie, the images would move extremely quickly and look like real moving footage. I then added some jazz music into the background, which reflects the lead character's personality (laid back and easy going). However, this music that I used was in fact the ssample music already given to me on the computer. Although I felt that this still worked quite well, I could have used a more unique song to make my animation different from anyone has ever seen of heard before.
I used Vimeo to upload my video and copy the code onto my blog.

Next week, I am going to be present when my group is filming, giving my advice and watching to see how it is all going. The next time I will have an active role will be when all footage has been filmed and I will begin editing it on the computer.

Animatic Video

I created this animatic which gives viewers an idea as to what our film teaser trailer will look like. I drew each image individually in the same sized box, so that when I did eventually put the pictures together, it looked as if it were moving. Although this process was quite long and required me to have a lot of patience, I feel that it was worth it as the final result was quite successful and gave a good impression of what our final teaser trailer should look like.

I created the actual animatic in Windows Movie Maker. I did this by making the duration of each images about 0.75 seconds, so that the images would flick from one to another extremely quickly. This gave the impression of movement. I then added a song by the band 'The Script', as I felt that this slow and romantic music fitted in well with the genre of the film.

MoodBoard

This is my moodboard that I created using Animoto. I decided to include many images of London City, as this is where we want our film to be set. By choosing well known landmarks, viewers will also be able to clearly see that this is a British film. I also included some images of films that inspired us when we were creating the synopsis to our film. The music that I chose for this moodboard is extremely upbeat, and the lead singer has quite a strong 'cockney' accent. This again highlights the fact that our film is a British film. Inspiration came from films such as Alfie and John Tucker Must Die.

Final Presentation

This is an updated version of the presentation that you can see below. I have basically just changed the layout of it, making it much more visually interesting and professional for the viewers.

Research and First Media Presentation

As a group, we sat down and came out with an idea for our film.

Synopsis
The genre of this film is romantic comedy, and it is set in 2010. The film focuses on a young man in his early 20s, who dates three different women simultaneously. These girls are unaware of the fact that they are all seeing the same man, and the film follows how he gets away with dating all of them. Eventually, two of the girls meet and its later worked out what he is doing. The girls get together and work out how to take the revenge, with them finally confronting him.

Target Audience
The target audience for this film we decided would be be females aged between 15-23 years of age. They enjoy watching romances, yet they also watch films to be entertained. They are either students or women with quite low powered jobs, and are likely to watch the films in the evening after a long day at work. They are unlikely to see the film in the cinema, preferring to watch it on DVD in the comfort of their own home.

Questionnaire
Although as a group we felt that we had chosen a suitable target audience, we wanted to make sure that our target audience was in fact interested in our film. We therefore created a small questionnaire and asked 10 males and 10 females between the ages of 16-18 some questions to help us determine whether or not we were in fact aiming our film at the right audience. These were our results:

Survey Results

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As you can see, 90% of women would be highly interested in our film, whereas only a mere 30% of men wouldn't. This shows that we did in fact choose the right target audience for our film.

Below is a presentation that I created which is a summary of what our film will feature.

Nick

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