Evaluation Videos Participation.

We decided as a group for our evaluations to create video entries for each of our questions as our characters in the trailer. We felt that to get good marks, we had to be creative in our evaluations and it was agreed that we would film each question in a location that the character relates to the most.

This idea was thought up between me, Harry, and Michael whilst Jack wasnt in school. We then proceeded to inform Jack of our idea and plan but he however decided that he wanted to take a different approach to his evaluation questions.

We were fine with his desision, and tried to keep him in the loop with what was happening with our evaluations. As it happened we conducted an audience interview for our question 3's and we felt this was something Jack may be able to use so we asked him, and he included it in his evaluation.

I decided to post this as i didnt want it to appear we had discluded Jack from doing the videos.

Final Poster

This is our final film poster for Curtis and Summers.
We had to gain permission for the use of the images in this poster, which did prove difficult but in the end we were able in my opinion to combine the two images to give us the desired effect that we wanted from the poster.
The poster does exactly what we want it to. It makes the car stand out, and also pushes across the message of our trailer 'clearing up the streets'

Final Magazine Cover

This is our final magazine cover.
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
You can then furthe enlarge it by using the zoom function in your browser

Poster Creation

The creation of the poster took a long time and a lot of effort because we had to make sure to keep it in a 1980s style and also make the poster look attractive and make people want to watch the film. We decided that we had to include a main part of the trailer and something that our audience could either relate to or see was a key part of it. We decided on using the car, which was iconic and rememberable because of the big explosion at the end of the trailer. This was also done because of being inspired by other film posters, most notably the 'Starsky and Hutch' poster.

We then had to decide how we would arrange the poster and what background we would use to make the car stand out and be in the forefront of peoples mind when looking at the poster. We researched the internet for suitable suggestions, which should also relate to our slogan: 'Clearing the Streets'. Here is a step-by-step guide on how we created it:
















We firstly loaded up the image of the car
We then deleted all shadowed areas around the car
We then cut out the large pieces of background around the car
We then used the zoom in and out functions in order to concentrate on certain aspects of the image
We then deleted the small pieces of shadowed areas and background around and under the car that was missed previously.
We then changed the colour of the background.
We then put in our chosen background picture.
We then inserted the car with the background so that the car looked a natural part of the location chosen.
We then added in the text, lighting effects around the title, the 'poster lines' effect.

This is an email that was sent in order to gain permission for the use of the background in the Background street image used in the poster.



N.B. : For the use of the car, we gained permission verbally with the owner to take pictures in order for us to use it as part of the poster, and as part of the










Here is a copy of the photo we used in the poster, we found it by just doing a simple google search

Magazine Cover Creation

We decided to do use the main protagonists of the film for our magazine cover, as we feel that the cover needs to show the characters in the film which are the most important and will create the right message for our trailer and film. The two characters that we have used are DC Summers and DC Curtis, along with the Drug Lord. This shows DC Summers and DC Curtis arresting the Drug Lord. Once we took the picture and uploaded it onto the computer, we played around with different effects to see which would look most effective. These are 4 we looked at using:















We then chose the style we felt looked best, and started to add onto the picture. We then transferred the picture onto Microsoft Word, where we added in text boxes. We then used the title format on Microsoft Word and used Doctor Atomic because of this. We then chose our title and inserted it. This though showed us a problem as the title went over the top of DC Curtis' head. We then decided to cut out the image of Robin's head, and then post it again in the same place, but just over the top of the title writing.













We then had to decide what other information we were going to include on the trailer. After looking at existing covers and our deconstructions, we discovered that giving away prizes was a big part and this enticed the reader even more into wanting to read the magazine. We then decided on a big prize, entered the picture onto the cover and created the competition. We felt that this feature was extremely important to include as it means the audience will want to win the prize and will also read the magazine.










We then transferred the whole cover onto Microsoft Word and saved it. This then meant it would be easily transferable. Overall, this was intriguing for us to create as we could improvise with effects and text, and this meant we could come up with a successful magazine cover.

Group Magazine Deconstruction-Empire

Our group magazine deconstruction is from the magazine 'Empire' which is a very famous magazine. It is seen officially as the most successful magazine in Britain above Total Film and we as a group felt that we had to take inspiration from a magazine that is so popular with British films. Also the fact that the front cover broadcasts action film genre, which is our chosen genre for our trailer, makes it obvious to us to want to use it as a basis and inspiration for what we want to do in our film magazine cover. The main feature of the magazine cover which jumps out is the picture of the main protagonist Robert Downey Jr as the 'Iron Man'. The use of costume attracts the audience as it is shows off his strong physique. This is typical of a main protagonist in an action film as he is strong and fierce. Also his stance of clenching his fists and frowning shows power and this is a big feature of a magazine cover. The character also appears to have a head in his hand and a bright device on his body. This is very common of action films as the audience will want to know what the thing is on his body and what and why he is holding something in his hand. The fact that the name next to the picture (Robert Downey Jr) is so famous, this makes the audience think that it is going to be a really good film as it can attract a top film star. There is also a small phrase next to the picture which says: "Attitude? You damn betcha!." This is effective as a lot of main characters in all films have an iconic catchphrase which represents their character personalities; with this one showing his dominance and attitude. The use of colour is also a strong part of this magazine cover. The use of red in the main magazine title represents danger and suspense, which is what an action film genre is strong at producing if successfully made. The fact that most of the other colours used in the rest of the cover are lighter or more faded than the title makes it stand out more; and therefore the audience are drawn to this along with the title. Both of these things are what the producers want. The use of a grey faded background is effective for this cover because it gives off the idea of somebody walking through it. This leaves the audience on the edge of their seats and they are wondering what is through the murky mist. The only other colour used apart from those already mentioned is white. This is an effective colour as it is the perfect colour to mix in with red and grey. It is very bright and stands out over the text which is in smaller print. The use of the sub-title also escalates the magazine and makes the audience want to read more into the magazine. 'Meet the new action A-list!' is very cleverly included as the audience will not know who the 'a-list' are. They will then want to know and buy the magazine. The use of the exclamation mark also gives off the tone of excitement and shock which is what they want their audience to feel when reading this statement. To the right-hand side of this magazine cover, there is the use of images from other films with famous actors which the audience will recognise. This improves the magazine as there is more for them to find out about, rather than just the film used as the main attraction in the centre of the magazine. For example, the top picture shows Shia LeBeouf, who is one of the most successful actors of recent times. The audience will want to know about his film as well, as it is similar in many ways to Iron Man. Also the use of additional features which show what else in the magazine, shows the depth and quality of the magazine. The fact they have squeezed in the information at the bottom shows how much the magazine has to offer to its audience, and it also is of very high quality and the audience will know and want to read about them as well. Overall, they get a lot of quality for money when reading, which is what we want to do for our magazine cover. This has proved to the group through careful and concise research why this is one of the most successful magazines out there. The features of this magazine are very strong and we will aim to use these, challenge them and develop them as best as we can. We know that if we can get it near to the standard of this magazine, we will have produced a top-notch magazine cover.

Group Poster Deconstruction- Starsky and Hutch

This is a picture of one of the promotional posters for the 2004 Starsky and Hutch film. As this film was a big influence on our group we decided it would be a good idea to use it for our group de-constructions. the poster is a picture of a car which, from prior knowledge, we can tell is the iconic red Gran Torrino from the 1980's TV series' of Starsky and Hutch which the film is based on. we can tell that it is this car from the iconic white decal on the side of the car. the white of this decal is mirrored in the title.

the wheel of the car is spinning, this can be seen by the smoke around the tire. this is probably an effect put on the picture in editing but it has been used to show the fast pace of the film itself and makes the audience want to see the film.

in the reflection of the car we can clearly see palm trees. this sets the scene as their is no background to the picture. this has probably been done to draw focus solely to the car as this is the main focal point of the poster. this is also mirrored in the cars wing mirror which upon closer inspection seems to be added in.

below the text their is some writing in a different shade of red, this text is a mixture of the cap line of the film and the release date. this is a good use of space and a clever effect as it makes the audience think and therefor remember it.

the overall effect of the poster is sharp and bold. the reds are deep and the car is shiny. this shows it as being a mainstream film and not an amateur piece.

we will have to experiment with effects when creating our poster, this will make it seem bolder and stand out.

Magazine Deconstruction

This is the magazine cover i have chosen for my deconstruction. It is a picture of the Max Payne edition of Total Film  from September 2004(issue 145).

I choose this magazine cover as i feel it is a good example of how to do a magazine cover for an Action film.

The Feature picture is of  Mark Wahlburg as 'Max Payne' , i feel this picture is a great example for me to use of how to incorporate a picture into a magazine cover. The picture was probably taken from part of the actual film but it almost looks like they have posed it for the sole use of the magazine cover and i think this is something we should consider when taking a picture for our magazine cover,i mean we should try and make our magazine cover look like it has been taken out of the film.

The main title 'Total Film' is also i believe a good example of how to incorporate a title without it looking basic or boring. I really like how they have placed the word 'Total' in the top of the F of Film,as i feel this jus makes the title more intresting and also allows them more space on the magazine to place the picture of the feature film.

The 'MAX PAYNE'  title is placed in a central possition just below the main picture and is in a big bold font that has a cracked effect which really in my opinion suite the type of film. It makes me realise that a good font is really just as important as the main picture.

They have made the feature film really stand out by using the special fonts and a bigger size of text.The creators have cleavly placed any other einformation about the contents in the magazine at either the  side of bottom of the cover but in a decent size that that people can still easilly read it but without it distracting to much.

Due to the majority of the background being dark colours, the creators have used yellow and white text so that it doesnt contrast, this  really is good as it allows the text to clearly stand out over the image which is what you want on a magazine cover.

In my opinion this is the magazine cover is of a high qaulity and will be a great example for us later in the project when we are constructing our magazine cover.

Poster Deconstruction: Tron(1982)

This is my poster deconstruction on the 1982 Action/Sci-Fi film 'Tron'. 'Tron' was written and directed by Steven Lisberger, and produced by Donald Kushner. Staring a young Jeff Bridges, and Bruce Boxleitner, it made over $30million at the box office.

I choose to do this film as it was made bang smack in the middle of the era we wanted to base our trailer in. Also 'Tron' was an iconic film in the 80's, and its poster was also a very iconic film poster in the 80's and still currently is and has been used in TV shows such as 'Chuck'.

As this poster was such a hit in the 80's i feel it is worth deconstructing and seeing why it was such a hit.

The first thing that springs out on me about the poster is that i can only begin to imagine just how amazed people were when seeing it in the 80's as in this era i believe this poster would have looked really futuristic and amazing to passers by, whereas today we expect high-tech films and posters like this.

I also feel this poster shows a good example of how 'less is more', i mean a big proportion of the poster is black,and the image in the middle itself is in a way pretty simple as it does not give away to much about the film,But instead intrigues you into asking questions like 'What are they doing', 'What are they holding',i feel that due to the simplicity of the image it leaves the potential audience wanting to know more.

The poster  uses a range of neon-like colours which really fit in with the time period the film was made.I feel this is something we should consider for our titles in our film trailer as it really seems to fit in,and would give our titles that 80's effect.

The texts and fonts are used to good effect in this poster i feel.The main 'TRON' text is in a bold funky kind of text which fits in with the genre,and the colors of it fit in with he neon scheme of the main picture used.The other pieces of information such as actors and director have been made small in a white font and placed at the bottom out of the way, which i believe was a good choice as it means they do not distract from the main area of the poster.

Post Production Feedback Questionaire

Here is our feedback questionaire.
This is the audience-feedback questionnaire that we have created. We will send this out to 5 random people and we will show the answers to see what we can do to improve. We picked these specific questions because we feel that they are the elements of the trailer that we want to hear from our audience about. We also think that these will give the audience scope to give responses more than other questions that we could have picked. Once we have received the answers back, we will construct the answers and see what they thought of the specific and important parts of the trailer.

These are all of the responses from our audience feedback questionnaires. These are really important as they show us what parts of the trailer need to be improved. This also shows us their ideas which we could find to be very good and work within our trailer.



We wanted to make sure that we chose the right target audience and that they enjoyed our trailer. If the results from the teenagers and young adults we received back were negative, then we would feel that our trailer wasn't successful.

We also asked people who weren't in our target audience for their honest responses of the trailer as well. We did this because we wanted to see if people of other ages liked the trailer, as when we constructed this, we didn't feel that they would as much as our target audience.



The people in our target audience gave the best responses over the people who weren't. This is what we expected and we are happy with this as it shows that we have met their needs as an audience. Even because of this, they aren't completely happy with the overall product and we know that the best way to improve the trailer is by asking them the key questions and them giving their honest opinions.



The main parts which our audience felt that we should improve was the use of camera angles and costume. We as a group will now look into these throughout the trailer, look at the feedback and decide what is best to do.

Final Trailer

Post Editing StoryBoard

This is our post editing storyboard,during editing we had to cut out a lot of scenes and switch around the places of them, so we decided to do this storyboard to show the changes we made. We felt that this would be a good way to lay out the scenes we ended up including in our blog.We originally had the stroyboard with little drawings created on the computr to help guide us through filming, but we decide to update it due to the amount our film had changed during the editing process.

Editing-Improvements-Redscreen

After creating the draft trailer, we all watched it through and decided on what improvement needed to be made.
This is what we cam up with

• Adding in somekind of green/red screen at the start
• Fixing the explosion as the main One isnt working
• Fix the bad cuts in the film such as the music cut at the end of the drug deal scene
• Make the character takling louder as it can be hard to hear sometimes

For the green/redscreen we decided to add in the american Rated R redscreen as it clearly stated this films may contain some drug material, and we felt that this was important as we have a drug scene in our peice.

For the other issues that were raised i went back into the film project file and spent sometime fixing the errors until i was satisfied

Film Trailer: Draft

This is a draft of the trailer

We all sat down and watched this a few times so that we could iron out the problems before the deadline.
The reason i am refereing to it as a draft is because it has a couple of obvious errors that will need fixing.

Most of it is done but their are a few kinks we will need to iron out before its finished

Music Permissions

We decided using these tracks as we felt they would best fit in with some of our scenes.
Frankie Knuckles- You can't hide
The Beastie Boys- Rock Hard
Michael Jackson- Beat It
Duran Duran- Union of the Snake

Hereare the emails we sent out asking for permision to use the tracks.

Editing Part 1

To start the editing process off i first imported all of the project media we had planned to use into Sony Vegas via the import media function, I imported the clips we had filmed, the music we had planned on using, potential effects, and of course the logo.
After doing this the first task i set to was to create the opening title sequence, we had decide to include in the opening the text 'from the makers of' and then our tw respective AS Level films 'Fogul, and Zompocalypse'.
I didnt want the text to appear on a black background so i set about finding a suitable background and i found the grunge one we ended up using was from braproductions( this was also suitable as they dont mind people using there images). I then thought i want the text to fly in and out in an intresting manner, so i used a variety of effects such a 'Zoom' 'Curtains' and 'Dissolve'.
The title sequence can be seen on the below 9peice board i created detailing the opening text sequence.












The task i undertook was to sort the clips into a basic order and to edit out all the bad takes, pauses, and director shouting 'cut or 'action', this task was not to difficult, but was very time consuming. Upon completing this task i noticed a major problem, that being we had nearly ten minutes of video, and this was obviously to much for a trailer so i contacted the group via facebook to tell them and to discuss which scenes we could cut.
After making the decision and putting all the clips in order of how we wanted them, we proceeded to go with the method of going through each clip one by one and adding in any effects and music.
We Started of with adding the music track 'Beat it' by Michael Jackson in sync with the opening title credits as it had already been decided this would be the first piece of music we would use with the first few clips.
We then added the Clips of Curtis and Summers chasing and catching a criminal, the logo, and them strutting down the street, with 'Beat it' playing in the background for all these clips.
Next we  added in the animation logo 'Watermark Entertainment'  straight after the strutting down the street clip, the only problem encountered with the animation was that it was slightly out of position so we used the event/pan crop function to fix this.
We then had written down that now we would put the informant scene in, and because this scene contained dialogue we used an ' audio envelope' to fade out the music.
To switch from the logo into the scene i added in a 3D blinds effect as i felt this would be a good transition to use into the scene.
The informant Scene was one of the main scenes in the trailer as i contained  a variety of effects and action.
We had to cut this scene down as it was to long for our trailer so we decided to go with the main points of the scene, the deal, the shooting, and summers shouting 'Stay with me'.
The first part of the scene was Summers walking in towards Toby( The Informant) and then them both engaging in a few lines of dialogue before exchangine a brown envelope.One problem with this scene was that some of 'he Informants'  dialogue was a bit slow so we had to speed this scene up ever os slightly. The next scene we put in was where the Informant get shot by Billy Blades, and in this scene there are quite alot of effects.
To start the scene i cut it so that you can just see D.C Summers walking away as the Criminal Billy enter the shot. Also at this point i added in the start of the music from the track 'Union of the snake' by 'Duran Duran', just as the shooting is starting to happen. At the point the gun is fired i added in clips of gun flashes, gun shot noisers, and a blood splatter. With all these clips it was important that i added them in time with the video so that the palyed at exactly the right moment.They also needed to be placed in the right posistions and to do this is used the event/pan/crop function.














After i had finished with thsi section and sorted all the effects out i added in the start of the text sequence that we planned to put in the trailer. The first part was 'Two Cops', the second 'who wont stop', the thrid 'until the bad guys',  and the fourth and final 'face justice'. For these text peices i used our entire tasks main font 'Doectuer Atomic' and added multiple effects such as 'zoom's' 'glint's and 'flashes' to create a cool funky retro 80's blue neon look. All the texts quickly zooomed in then stayed on screen momentarily before fading and flashing away. 

In between these text slides i placed a few clips, but due to the text they hads to be short clips. These clips were the gun handover scene, kicking down the gate scene, and the Summers screaming 'stay with me' scene.
Next is the drug deal scene, thsi scene was simple to edit as it only took one take. We see the deal happen whilst 'Union of the Snake' is still playing in the background, and just as Summers begins to throw the drugs at the wall and arrest Billy Blade the volume in the music rises considerably. We then hear the music considerably slowing down and the clip fading away into the text 'An A-Level film', for this as the music slowed down to its slowest point i decided to add in a blue lighting effect to give away the sense that it is restarting the music.

Next is the Scene were Summers is chasing Billy Blade down an alleyway. Now for this after it was cut to my liking, i duplicate it and placed both duplicates above the orignal in the editing bars.

I purposly put them out of sync witht the orignal clip so that i could use the 'ADD' function to create  a ghosting effect when Mr Blades turns around

I had to play around with the timing of these correct by posisting the clips correctly on the timeline.

Her is a picture of the ghosting effect, it show Mr Blades Spinny in to a ghsot of himself, we felt that using an effect such as this was good because it gets the questions going in the audiences heads.
This scene finished off by cross-fading into the next scene which is Curtis and Summers waiting for the criminals, this scene in itself was a very simple scene to edit and was simple to order. The only major change in thsi scene was the 'Union of the Snake' had faded out and been replaced by 'Frankie Knuckles' 'You cant hide'. I had to pick through the music to find the right section to play as the director had told me he wanted the specific part of the song where they are singing 'you cant hide' to be playing.
I used a yellow flash as the transision from this scene into the text 'Coming this fall' which then went directly into the main titles 'Curtis and Summers'.

For these titles is used a variety of moving effects again as i wanted the 80's neon blue look to stand out.






Now we are into the final scene which was the car explosion. Now for the car explosion i needed two clips of Curtis and Summers walking away from the car so that i could kind of place the explosion effect inbetween them.
This by far took th most time to edit as i had to mask around officer curtis to make the explosion appear behind him.
Masking is a function in Sony Vegas where  you can cut round parts of clips or even entire clips, basically it is a tool that allows you to manipulate videos and images.
I added the music 'Rock Hard' by 'The Beastie Boys' into the clip as it fitted in witht the scene really well, i then proceeded to mask around officer Curtis so the explsion would appear behind him.
Here are somepicture to show me masking the clip.

Framing and Shot lengths Evidence

Close-up Shots- Images 1 and 2
Medium Shots- Images 3 and 4
Low Angle Shot- Image 5
Two Shots- Image 6 and 7
Dutch angle- image 8