Wednesday 28 April 2010
Trailer
The making of the trailer was emotional to say the least. Its fair to say that film and video isnt my fortay, and that I find it hard to realise my true intention.
After our original brainstorms we had decided to make our film a combination of social realism and gritty thriller. A combination that worked really well in the film “Eden Lake.” A film that uses heightend suspence and a fictional setting but uses a semi social realist set up to deliver a terrifying message on the state of the nations youth. The result is an effective thriller/ horror where the villains are no different to the teens that tabloids would make you believe you see on every street corner.
As our deadline got closer and due to absences within the group, the pressure was on to get the trailer filmed. How ever, our original plan was more than slightly ambitious. It would need multiple actors and extras as well as camera skill far exceeding my own or those of any members of our group.
We went back to the drawing board and cut out all the unneccecary pieces out. I thought it would be great to make our lead seem isolated. Highlight that he is alone, taking on the antagonists.
The easiest way for us to do this was to film him in interview form and intercut with flash backs of his plight.
Shooting on the day was made more difficult due to yet more absences, unavoidable as they may have been. Myself and Becca met Lloyd (our actor) at the college and headed to my house which would be our location for the few interior shots and stand as our characters house.
Unfortunatly we were let down by one of our actors who was a no show, fortunatly the part didn’t call for dialogue, it was for a static shot. I stepped in, however, unfortunatly, the static shot involved me playing a corpse washed up on the shore, covered in seaweed, facedown in the water. I have to say that being infront of the camera myself made direction simple. And with Becca behind the camera we both knew what we were after and we were able to work together to get the shot.
The second day of filming was our, interior, interview setting, a college classroom lended us a white background and added to the verisimilitude that he was perhaps being interviewed by students.
Editing was tough. As I say video production is not my fortay, and nither myself or Becca had used Adobe Premier before. So the process had a steep learning curve.
The visual edit went fairly quickly but the issue was making the audio consistent.
I used the colleges radiol weet to create drones and noises with the aid of the keyboard/synthesizer.I then added the drone over the clip and dropped the echoed clattered in at opurtune moments and a heart beat that increased in speed to bulid suspense.
After our original brainstorms we had decided to make our film a combination of social realism and gritty thriller. A combination that worked really well in the film “Eden Lake.” A film that uses heightend suspence and a fictional setting but uses a semi social realist set up to deliver a terrifying message on the state of the nations youth. The result is an effective thriller/ horror where the villains are no different to the teens that tabloids would make you believe you see on every street corner.
As our deadline got closer and due to absences within the group, the pressure was on to get the trailer filmed. How ever, our original plan was more than slightly ambitious. It would need multiple actors and extras as well as camera skill far exceeding my own or those of any members of our group.
We went back to the drawing board and cut out all the unneccecary pieces out. I thought it would be great to make our lead seem isolated. Highlight that he is alone, taking on the antagonists.
The easiest way for us to do this was to film him in interview form and intercut with flash backs of his plight.
Shooting on the day was made more difficult due to yet more absences, unavoidable as they may have been. Myself and Becca met Lloyd (our actor) at the college and headed to my house which would be our location for the few interior shots and stand as our characters house.
After a while of filming at the house, including a particularly annoying shot through a window that insisted on refelecting the camera and alarming some of my neighbours. We headed for castle cove beach.
Thanks to a friendly relationship I hold with the proprieters of Castle Cove sailing club and the accompanying beach, we were able to use the beach of the title. And conditions were perfect. A mist rolling in of of the sea, which was at low tide and perfectly calm, hid the horizon, as well as a group of kayakers who had launched from the sailing club. The Mist worked really well to highlight the isolation of Lloyds character “Ethan.”
Unfortunatly we were let down by one of our actors who was a no show, fortunatly the part didn’t call for dialogue, it was for a static shot. I stepped in, however, unfortunatly, the static shot involved me playing a corpse washed up on the shore, covered in seaweed, facedown in the water. I have to say that being infront of the camera myself made direction simple. And with Becca behind the camera we both knew what we were after and we were able to work together to get the shot.
The second day of filming was our, interior, interview setting, a college classroom lended us a white background and added to the verisimilitude that he was perhaps being interviewed by students.
To fit the continuity of the clip I reaplyed the makeup effects but made them look older. Lloyd was also wearing the same shirt as the end of the trailer, hinting that perhaps “ethan” may have been in custody or detained after the events of the trailer.
Editing was tough. As I say video production is not my fortay, and nither myself or Becca had used Adobe Premier before. So the process had a steep learning curve.
The visual edit went fairly quickly but the issue was making the audio consistent.
I used the colleges radiol weet to create drones and noises with the aid of the keyboard/synthesizer.
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Web Page
My web page developed morefrom the images I had at hand than anything else.
I knew that I wanted to hint at the dark subject matterof the film but for thetre to remain an ambiguity. The enigma of the trailer is that the plotof the film is only hinted around. I liked to follow that on my webpage. At once subverting the convention of advertising but creating an effective viral page, reinforcing the the enigma of the overall campaign.
The websites that I looked atfor research,including “the box” use a desaturated aesthetic. It creates the distressed look that I wanted to go for.
A sinister line that reinforce the thrillier context.
The final steps were to add a feathered image of lloyds eyes, hovering over the type. And to aid in the viral campaign... the links to two web 2.o stalwarts. Facebook and twitter.
I knew that I wanted to hint at the dark subject matterof the film but for thetre to remain an ambiguity. The enigma of the trailer is that the plotof the film is only hinted around. I liked to follow that on my webpage. At once subverting the convention of advertising but creating an effective viral page, reinforcing the the enigma of the overall campaign.
The websites that I looked atfor research,including “the box” use a desaturated aesthetic. It creates the distressed look that I wanted to go for.
I think that the effect works really well, the absence of colour suggests darkness and the absence of light. Dark is perpetually scary carrying connotationsof threat and unknown danger. To desaturation removes the colour without losing any of the quality of the imagery.
I used stock photos to create a composite for what is essentially a landscape. This composite combined with the use of Photoshops path tool(when desaturated and coloured dark grey) created the sillhouette of the castle on the clifftop against the grey sky and sea.
The dark colour pallet catrries the connotation of a storm and the dangers there in. I decided then to add some distressed texture to the image. I feel that this gives the impression of an old photograph. Found tucked away in some secret hiding place years after the event.
A subtle change but it does make the difference.
For the typography I used a simple impact font which I then distressed in Photoshop to help its seem settled onto its backdrop and become more a part of the whole piece.
A sinister line that reinforce the thrillier context.
The final steps were to add a feathered image of lloyds eyes, hovering over the type. And to aid in the viral campaign... the links to two web 2.o stalwarts. Facebook and twitter.
Monday 26 April 2010
Magazine cover
I Decided early on to design my cover for an issue of Empire magazine. It’s a magazine that I personnally subscribe to and enjoy, and therefore I have an understanding of the visual language of the magazine.
Unfortunatly when it came to putting my cover together I found that the on set photos we had taken, and that I had intended to use werent going to be suitable. Due to the fact that our actors head was missing the top. This meant that I had to re-shoot with Lloyd in a make shift studio (a toilet cubicle in the college).
Luckily these photos gave me more scope to edit and I could direct him into poses suitable for an empire cover.
I recreated the magazines famous typography using Adobe illustrator’s pen tool and then transported it into my photoshop file.
Castle cove is intended to be a crime thriller with gritty british social-realism adding simple semiotic devices such as these helps to connote the tone of the film to the magazines audience. This is then anchored by the tag line “..indy thriller cinema.”
Empire issues have a modern, “edgy” look to them. More akin to lifestyle magazines like GQ or FHM than the “stuffier” industry magazines such as sight and sound. Infact Empire quite often share cover stars with FHM which strongly presents it as a masculine magazine.
Unfortunatly when it came to putting my cover together I found that the on set photos we had taken, and that I had intended to use werent going to be suitable. Due to the fact that our actors head was missing the top. This meant that I had to re-shoot with Lloyd in a make shift studio (a toilet cubicle in the college).
Luckily these photos gave me more scope to edit and I could direct him into poses suitable for an empire cover.
I recreated the magazines famous typography using Adobe illustrator’s pen tool and then transported it into my photoshop file.
Castle cove is intended to be a crime thriller with gritty british social-realism adding simple semiotic devices such as these helps to connote the tone of the film to the magazines audience. This is then anchored by the tag line “..indy thriller cinema.”
Over all I am happy with my cover. The quality of the photograph has hindered the edit quality but, content wise the signifiers are all there. And the photos that I took would help with my web page.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
SHOOT DAY!
Today is the day of filming for the trailer...
Due to absences within the group we havent had many days where all memebrs are present. through the last week Becca and myself have written and re written drafts of the dual collumn script. With the deadline looming we diciced to streamline the process and simplify our script.
Now our trailer is predominantly going to be a single shot of our protagonists face being interviewed. In the edit I would like this shot to resemble a handy-cam shot, like an amateur interview for documentary. Having this feel to the trailer will add to the viral nature of the campaign.
Due to absences within the group we havent had many days where all memebrs are present. through the last week Becca and myself have written and re written drafts of the dual collumn script. With the deadline looming we diciced to streamline the process and simplify our script.
Now our trailer is predominantly going to be a single shot of our protagonists face being interviewed. In the edit I would like this shot to resemble a handy-cam shot, like an amateur interview for documentary. Having this feel to the trailer will add to the viral nature of the campaign.
Friday 27 November 2009
Magazine workshop
Red Magazine Website
It’s this vanity that magazines like red exploit and reinforce effectively to sell their issues. They make it seem that they have all the answers to the reader’s questions that can help on the road to self actualisation.
For my cover I played on the insecurities that women are told to have in relationships. My stories on my cover include “Get Him: How to get your ideal man” and “Keep Him: How to stop him leaving,” though more blatant perhaps than the average header the content will have been repeated in countless issues. Women’s lifestyle magazines such as “cosmopolitan” and “Women at Home” fill their issues with quizzes on how to be a better partner, how to please their men sexually and gastronomically. Despite allegedly supporting the independent woman, these magazines portray a reliance upon having a man in their lives and being a part of a “healthy,” “normal” relationship.
My cover star is a young woman in her mid twenties. Magazines regularly use models younger than their demographic in order to increase the readers’ insecurities and sell more issues. Particularly effective when selling anti-ageing products or articles. I expressed this in my cover. “167 anti-age must haves.” 167 may seem like a random number but it lends itself to making the reader believe that the article is all encompassing. If it was 150, or 200, the reader may think that the writers reached that number and stopped. However 167 means that the writers must have really tried to write as many options as possible, they reached 150 then had a few more to include. It makes the reader feel that the magazines producers are trying their hardest to help.
Rule one is that media is a business, as a media producer Red magazine has to sell units. Its best way to do so is, through interpellation, connecting with its audience directly. To become its readers friend. Including stories that play on women’s insecurities and promising quick fixes (14-day exercise regimes) and answers (“how to keep your man?”) means that “Red” becomes the readers oracle, the magazine becomes the person who the reader turns to in times of crisis and can find comfort in reading other people’s problems.
To me these life style magazines are all about Maslow’s hierarchy. In men’s magazines you can read “how to pick up women” or “mix the perfect cocktail” in women’s magazines it’s “meet a good man” and “how to cook the perfect roast dinner.” Magazines reinforce the expected modes of speech, dress codes and behaviours that have been in place for generations. If you can perfect your cocktail stirring, fashion sense, chat up lines or culinary techniques you are that much closer to self actualisation and living nirvana.
This week in lesson time we had a chance to practise creating a magazine cover for a lifestyle magazine. All lifestyle magazines deal with what Foucault developed as the idea of “technologies of the self,” the tools that supposedly make you a better rounded person and working towards self actualisation, as expressed in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
I had a go at recreating a cover for “red” magazine.
“Red” is a lifestyle magazine aimed primarily at women in their thirties. Accordingly the magazines contents reflect the issues that are expected of women of that demographic. On the cover I used as a reference, from June 2005, there was a guide to a summer body. The picture that accompanied the headline was of a young woman in a bikini leaping in the air. This implies that if you follow the magazines 14-day guide you will have this models figure and confidence. I set my issue as the January issue, thus giving me the potential to use the self consciousness of my target audience in the post Christmas/ New Year resolutions season. At this time of year most people are aware that they have spent a fortnight over eating and drinking. It’s no coincidence that adverts for diets, gyms and exercise regimes are at an all time high in January, close second being may and June for the pre summer regimes.
“Red” is a lifestyle magazine aimed primarily at women in their thirties. Accordingly the magazines contents reflect the issues that are expected of women of that demographic. On the cover I used as a reference, from June 2005, there was a guide to a summer body. The picture that accompanied the headline was of a young woman in a bikini leaping in the air. This implies that if you follow the magazines 14-day guide you will have this models figure and confidence. I set my issue as the January issue, thus giving me the potential to use the self consciousness of my target audience in the post Christmas/ New Year resolutions season. At this time of year most people are aware that they have spent a fortnight over eating and drinking. It’s no coincidence that adverts for diets, gyms and exercise regimes are at an all time high in January, close second being may and June for the pre summer regimes.
It’s this vanity that magazines like red exploit and reinforce effectively to sell their issues. They make it seem that they have all the answers to the reader’s questions that can help on the road to self actualisation.
For my cover I played on the insecurities that women are told to have in relationships. My stories on my cover include “Get Him: How to get your ideal man” and “Keep Him: How to stop him leaving,” though more blatant perhaps than the average header the content will have been repeated in countless issues. Women’s lifestyle magazines such as “cosmopolitan” and “Women at Home” fill their issues with quizzes on how to be a better partner, how to please their men sexually and gastronomically. Despite allegedly supporting the independent woman, these magazines portray a reliance upon having a man in their lives and being a part of a “healthy,” “normal” relationship.
My cover star is a young woman in her mid twenties. Magazines regularly use models younger than their demographic in order to increase the readers’ insecurities and sell more issues. Particularly effective when selling anti-ageing products or articles. I expressed this in my cover. “167 anti-age must haves.” 167 may seem like a random number but it lends itself to making the reader believe that the article is all encompassing. If it was 150, or 200, the reader may think that the writers reached that number and stopped. However 167 means that the writers must have really tried to write as many options as possible, they reached 150 then had a few more to include. It makes the reader feel that the magazines producers are trying their hardest to help.
Rule one is that media is a business, as a media producer Red magazine has to sell units. Its best way to do so is, through interpellation, connecting with its audience directly. To become its readers friend. Including stories that play on women’s insecurities and promising quick fixes (14-day exercise regimes) and answers (“how to keep your man?”) means that “Red” becomes the readers oracle, the magazine becomes the person who the reader turns to in times of crisis and can find comfort in reading other people’s problems.
To me these life style magazines are all about Maslow’s hierarchy. In men’s magazines you can read “how to pick up women” or “mix the perfect cocktail” in women’s magazines it’s “meet a good man” and “how to cook the perfect roast dinner.” Magazines reinforce the expected modes of speech, dress codes and behaviours that have been in place for generations. If you can perfect your cocktail stirring, fashion sense, chat up lines or culinary techniques you are that much closer to self actualisation and living nirvana.
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