My final film poster

After creating my first draft for my poster, I decided to look back properly at my original sketches, and create a poster based directly of that design. The original sketch had been a boy walking down a corridor at school. This sketch had been the basis for one of the scenes in our trailer, were the protagonist walks down the school corridor to be confronted by the antagonist. I then decided to create a photo shoot that reflected that exact scene. Here is my poster, followed by an analysis of why and how I created my poster.

Film poster first draft.

After my photo shoot, I choose some of the photos I had taken and started to create my first draft for my film poster. I played around with different ideas based on some of the designs I had sketched in my initial design ideas. Here is one of the first drafts of my poster, followed by how and why I created and designed it.

Feedback from our First Draft

We waited for a while after posting the first draft of our trailer on the internet for people to see it and reply to us with feedback on what was good about the trailer and what we could of done better. Here is some of the feedback we received from people on Facebook and YouTube.

After receiving the above feedback we decided to go back to our editing and try and find a way of extending the music so that is plays throughout the trailer which would keep up the tension, and built suspense during the course of the whole trailer, instead of just certain parts. However, even though this was possible, we decided that it was not necessary as it would mean deleting the scenes with the new reporter, which acted as our voice over. We came to a group decision that the news reporter was a vital part in the film, and that we could not remove it, so we kept the music at the same length as it had originally been.

We received quite a few comments on YouTube about the news reporter and its effectiveness. Some of the feedback suggested that the scenes with the news reporter were unrealistic and unprofessional. After agreeing to work on this criticism, we set about changing the actor who played the news reporter. We had decided that an adult would work better instead of a teenager and we also edited the dialogue for the reporter so that it sounded more professional. By displaying our first draft on the internet we could positively and successfully use the constructive feedback given to us in order to improve our trailer.

We received more feedback from our peers, and reviewed comments made about the colouring of our production logo. Originally the production logo had been red, and we received comments about the improper use of colouring and how it did not relate to the rest of the trailer, which had teal/light blue writing. So we decided to go back to our production logo, and revert the colour to the teal/light blue that we had used throughout our media production. 

Finally, we added one more scene to the end of the trailer, where our protagonist walks down a school corridor. We did this after receiving constructive criticism that the protagonist should be the last scene that the audience views. This is because the whole trailer has built up mystery and suspense about who the character is, so the image of the protagonist walking away will persuade the audience to watch the film to find out more. 

Death Town Trailer - First Draft

As a group we had our shooting schedule and we had the initial storyboard of what was going to happen in our trailer. We then had to find the time to fit in filming it. Unfortunately filming took us two weeks instead of the initial one week that we had planned out. After filming we uploaded everything to iMovie, the program that we were going to use for our editing. As a team we sat down and edited our trailer, cutting down scenes and deleting some other scenes entirely. We then set about finding the right music to add into the background of trailer so that it would fit with the films genre, and we also added different editorial effects such as cuts, fades and intertitles which would make out trailer look professional, keeping in line with the conventions of a real film trailer. After we had finished editing our first draft for our trailer, we uploaded it to Youtube and Facebook in order to receive feedback on what we could do better. Here is our first draft;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul9dtGzfnq4

Shooting Schedule

After we had decided on our props, location and costumes, we had to organize a shooting schedule. This would involve deciding how long our filming would take us, where we would have to do it, and what each day of filming would involve. Our shooting schedule was an essential part of planning as it gave us a plan for what we had to do, which made filming much easier.

Props, Location and Costume.

As a group we had the initial idea for our trailer and what was going to happen. We had drawn a story board for our trailer, and also commented on the changes the we have and will make to make the trailer look more professional. Our next step was to organize the logistics of the trailer and how we were going to film it. We started by organizing a table that included the props, locations and costumes that we intended to feature in our film.

Props	Locations	Costume
GAMES CONSOLE – For use in the trailer, to be used as an outlet for the game to be played on and to show the audience how the game is played. GAMES CONSOLE CONTROLLER – For use in the trailer, to show what the game is played with and to emphasize the importance of the video game in the film. TELEVISION – For use in the trailer, to show what the video game is being played on and also to emphasize the hypnotising effect of the video game through the visual aspect on a TV. VIDEO GAME – For use in the trailer, to show the object that the content of the film is based around and highlight the importance of the video game.	MEDIA SUITE – For use in the trailer and for the magazine cover. I used its white backdrop for the scene with the newsreader because it provided the professional look that I needed to make it seem realistic. I also used it for the photo shoot for the magazine cover because again it provided the image of real photo shoot. BEDROOM – For use in the trailer, I used a bedroom for the scenes with the main character playing the video game because it gives the audience a background into the main character and it makes the film feel more realistic. As well the scene with the games console controller, the video game going into the games console and the curtains being shut. SCHOOL CORRIDOR – For use in the trailer and for the film poster. I used this location as it was a long corridor which was good for the main character and the antagonists to meet from either end, which is portrayed in the trailer. I also used this location for so I could achieve an image for the background of my poster.	SUIT AND TIE – For use in the trailer, in the scene with the news reader, to provide an authentic and professional look needed for to make it look realistic. SMART CLOTHING – For use in the trailer, in the scene with the bullying in the school corridor, to give the impression of being in a school in order to make the film more realistic.  DARK CASUAL CLOTHING – For use in the trailer, photo shoot and the magazine cover. This is to give the character a dark and mysterious side and make it more realistic for the film.

Poster and Magazine cover photo shoot.

For my magazine cover and my poster I decided to make a photo shoot with our protagonist so that I could achieve professional looking pictures for my media products. I used a white screen backdrop for these pictures, and took many so that I could find and pick out the good and bad ones. Here are some of the following photos.