Filming Delay

Unfortunately, due to the weather and actor reliabilty, My plan of action has been pushed back a few weeks as people couldn't make it for film day. I will have to wait another week to be able to get another camera on time so I have been taking some pictures for the film poster.

The Idea I had was to create a sense of mystery and keep the gender of the stalker a mystery, although i did use a girl for the photos. In the trailer, there will be a scene with a slow pan and zoom in on a wall with lots of pictures of the girls together, even when they were little. Some have a sillouette shape cut out which sparked the idea of having the stalker sat a table cutting "themselves" out of the pictures in stead of Hayley's face with a target around it. I wanted it to be dark which was difficult to do at 11 o clock in the morning on a sunny day but I will edit that when I come to designing it.
Here are some of the shots (uneditted):

This took a while to play around with the lighting and find the darkest room. I especially like the last 2 images as you can see very clearly what she is cutting out and keeps her identity a mystery which would intruge the target audience. I have posted a poll on my blog for others to decide and get some ideas on what they like and what they dont.

Progress...

This is the start of my magazine cover which I have been doing using Photoshop. First, from the original images I took of Hayley looking disorientated in the Photography area, I cut her out and tided the edges of her up. I wanted to go for the style of empire magazine where they use the background like a scene from the film. This was tricky as I started off with a blurred background with almost like a blackhole or mirage of photos of the friends in the background. It didn't really look right and hurt my eyes so I settled for a textured background which looks like a wall which gave me the idea to have the images of the best friends in a perspective point of view, tilting backwards as if Hayley is looking back on her life.

Next I added the headline. I think that it stands out from the cover and follows the theme of a movie magazine by incorporating the movie strip reel. At the moment, I haven't added much text other than the halloween special edition down the side, following the research and trends of when thrillers and horror would be released.

Magazine Cover work

These are some of the screen shots for the magazine cover which I am designing using Photoshop.

I am trying to create a disorientated background to suit the pose of Hayley once I copiedher out of the orignal shot.

I want to change the perspective, to create a wall of images on the side to make it look as if that is what Hayley is looking at. This would work well because she is disorientated, giving the perspective of looking back on her life and what happened.

The second idea I have is to create a face using parts of both her face and mine to create a collage like with the stalker in the cornor, cutting it out. Very adventurous. Due to the lack of photoshop expertise, I have fallen behind schedule and we are about to break up for christmas which isn't good.

Magazine Shoot

Today, we used the photography room to do the magazine shoot for the promotional package because I wanted to use a plain white backdrop which would make it easier to edit in photoshop.
I directed her to do a range of positions which ended up to be really fun with jump shots and close up's and getting in to character exercises.

I have narrowed it down to three images;

The first picture, although a bit fuzzy, works really well to show the character which is the character in the trailer. Looking a bit distorted and worried works really well, similar to the shot of Leonardo DiCaprio on the front of Empire magazine. I would darken the background but make her sillouette stand out by making her light which would connatate her pure soul and would interact with the reader, making them feel emotion for her.

The second is the original medium shot I had in mind. She looks really happy and cheerful which would work on a magazine cover but I'm unsure about it working as a film magazine cover and whether it would appeal to the demographic. I want the package to be intertextual, link together, and this image would be too vibrant to suit the mood set by the trailer which would create a binary opposition.

The last image was a spur of the moment shot, taken just before she wanted to sit down after jumping. I like the lighting on her face and the relaxed position.

I have posted all 3 on a message to my friends on Facebook to get their opinions on the picture to see what would appeal to the target audience.

Colour Connotations

Before starting on the text for my Magazine cover, I thought it would be best to look at some of the connotations of the colours I may use. The obvious colours being black and red, typical stereotype of a thriller movie.

BLACK- Death, Evil, Mystery, Fear, Unknown
RED- Blood, Fire, Love, Danger, Anger
WHITE- Goodness, Purity, Innocence, Cleanliness
PURPLE- Royalty, Power, Ambition
BLUE- Sky, Sea, Masculinity, Knowledge
GREEN- Nature, Greed, Jealousy
YELLOW- Sunshine, Joy, Happiness

I want the writing to be bold and stand out from the images. From last year, I know Red Black and Yellow are the colours which catch the eye the most so I think I will have to experiment with the different fonts and colours but stay within the same area for the Magazine cover and Film poster.

Design of magazine cover

Despite the quality of the image (the scanners have broken so we have been using mobile uploads on to social networking sites), this is one of the designs I have in mind for my magazine cover. I did a survey in my class to desicde on the title, giving them 3 options;
The Big Screen
Watch This
Phoenix

The Big Screen won with 2 more votes than Phoenix which is why I have been using that title in my designs. I wanted to get the main star of the trailer, Hayley, to show her personality which she has to portray in the trailer which is why I have drawn the person with one leg kicked up, connatating a bubbly, friendly persona.

I have used my research on Empire and Total Film magazines to show where I wanted to put my plugs and strap line but I think I will play with them when I come to constructing it all together.