Shopping List for props

Here's a list of things I need to get before I begin filming...

• Halloween make-up
• Tripod
• Music Box
• Candle
• Cardboard boxes

Camera

I got a DSLR camera for christmas which is perfect for my trailer.

My camera is the Canon 100D, it's very lightweight which makes it good for me to use for my trailer as I can carry it around easily. The auto-focus on this camera makes it much easier than my phone to film moving things.

Here are some specifications which make this camera perfect for what I want it for.

This will be good for when I film my night-time shots

Obviously as I will be using the video more that the photo part of my camera, it's essential to have a high definition video camera.

Targets For The Next Few Weeks 28th December

My targets currently are to

• Create a shopping list of props which I need to get for filming, as now I have my camera- I am ready to film as soon as I get the props
• I also need to take new images for my poster/magazine with my new camera as the quality is better. 

Filming Update...

As christmas and new year are coming up I am going to take a break and start filming in the new year.

There are a few things I need to do before I begin filming...

• Character names
• Props/ Equipment
• Character profiles 

... which I will do after christmas/ new year.

Summary of Poster Focus Groups

I have made a Prezi of a summary from my focus group, I am going to improve the posters with this feedback and then show them again.

Did I Meet This Targets 18th December

I evaluated the small clips that I filmed last week so that I know how to better improve when it comes to filming and editing the real thing.

I also held a focus group on my draft posters, which I recorded, and now I know which of my posters to develop.

I have also been researching film magazines and already have a better understanding to prepare me for creating the real thing.

Breakdown of Film Magazine 2

Quantitative Results from Focus Group on Poster Drafts

I gathered all of my results together and made some graphs...

As you can see the preferred poster this one 

Around 54% of the 11 people I asked said this was their favourite, 5/6 of these people were between the age of 17-18 which I think is important as it shows that young people ie. my target audience found the scariest poster the best, thus emphasising why they're my target audience because it shows that most young people love horror.

Whereas 27% of the people asked said they preferred this one, 2/3 of these were my mum and dad who are obviously over 40 and again, I think this is important as it shows why they are not my main target audience. However, this could've meant that they thought the one with the black eyes was too scary and they wouldn't want their children to see it: so I asked my mum if she thought any of the posters were too scary to be put around public places where children could see them and she disagreed.

Finally, around 18% chose this poster as their favourite because they thought it looked original, however neither of them said it was particularly scary or prominent as a horror poster just that it was unsettling as his face is blurred.

Breakdown of Film Magazine 1

Other Poster Feedback

Aside from my recorded focus groups, I asked people what they thought without recording.

Victoria said that she preferred the poster with the black eyes because it looked unsettling and she immediately thought of the horror genre. I asked her if she had any improvement ideas and she said the same as everyone else in that she thought a brighter font was needed as it was hard to read, she also said that it would be interesting to put a sepia toned filter over the image to create an aged, creepy look.

To get a wider age range I also asked my mum and dad to tell me what they thought...

My mum said she preferred the poster with both Sophie and James because he looks very sinister and she thought it was the best picture. She said that it wasn't too scary and she couldn't really tell that it was a horror film whereas with the other two, she could. She said with the poster she preferred, she would use more make up to make James look scarier and also have Sophie staring towards the camera like James is and to make her look more like she's screaming. My dad also preferred this poster.

Focus Group on Draft Posters

Firstly I asked my media group as I knew they'd give me a more technical response as just like me, they are interested in films and have a good understanding of real media products.



And then I asked my friends who will be starring in the trailer because I knew they'd give me a more honest and critical response and it was good to get feedback from people who would actually be seeing the poster.

Evaluation of first clips

I'm going to evaluate the clips I filmed on the 5th of December...


The quality of the video is not very good as it was filmed on my phone, when I get my camera and film on that it'll be better.

Also when I get my camera I'll have a tripod which I can use to control my camera without it shaking from just holding it in my hand.

Targets For This Week 14th December

My targets for this week are to

• Evaluate the clips I filmed last week
• To do a focus group on my draft posters to see which one people prefer and then I can use this information to decide which to develop into my real poster
• I also want to research more into film magazines as I haven't done much research so far.

Draft clips from 5/12/15

This is my first draft scene from the trailer. Both the audio and visual aspects aren't very good because it was filmed on my phone which is why it's only a draft. When this scene has tense music on top of it it will be much more intense.

Fonts

I'm looking into lots of different fonts for my poster and I've added them all to my first draft poster...
(music box is my working title until I come up with my real one)

How I Did Draft Poster 3

I simply added a white frame to the picture to create the polaroid look.

I then added the 'dry brush' filter in Photoshop to distort the boy's face. 

How I Did Poster Draft 2

First of all I added a watercolour effect to the image to create a lot of contrast between the background and his skin.

I added an image of smoke surrounding the boy to create a creepy effect.

Next I filled his eyes in using the paintbrush tool in black.

I did the same technique of adding a drop shadow to all of the text, and for the title as I chose to do it in grey and it didn't really pop- I added some detail using the white paintbrush, 

How I Did Draft Poster 1

After importing the image into photoshop, I added a light grain
to make the image look slightly unclear.

I then made the image black and white and moved the yellow levels up to make the image appear whiter.

 I then added all of the text and added a small drop shadow to everything to make it pop from the page.

Using Photoshop

I've made 3 drafts so far on Photoshop. Here they are...

Afterlight

I used an app called Afterlight to try different ways to edit my photos before I properly edited them on Photoshop.

For this one I added a black and white filter and
a 'dust' filter to make it look old and creepy,

I added a red-based dust filter for this one and turned the
highlights up to make James look really pale.

This is the polaroid themed poster so I added a border.
I did the same sort of editing as with the others but I also added a 'flash' filter above
James' head to create the ghost time thing that 'you can see in pictures'.

Photo shoot for draft poster: Unedited

I got five different poses and I am going to use the app Afterlight on my phone to play with editing them before I use photoshop. James will be holding the music box in the real thing.

Did I Meet My Targets 5th December

My targets for this week were too

• Take some photographs for my poster - I did this and got a variety of shots for the poster
• Plan filming - I created a schedule and plan to film a draft clip of Sophie today

Filming Plans: Saturday 5th December

On saturday I'm going to film the scene with just Sophie in the living room, as this is practical for both of us. The quality will not be representative of the real thing because I'm filming on my phone rather than my camera.

Poster Shoot: Friday 4th

Tomorrow I'm going to get Sophie and James together and take some pictures of them for my draft poster, I'm going to ask them to turn up in their own clothes to make it look natural. and I will be using a better camera for the real thing.