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 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 trailer.

Final Poster

This is the final poster. This was difficult for us to create as we had to gain permission for the use of the pictures, the background picture and the use of the car. We also had to combine both of these images in the creation of the poster in order to give across the right message. We took influence off our poster deconstruction, which is the image of an important part of the trailer, that being the car. This car wasn't owned by any of the cast and because of this, we didn't want to edit it by using special effects within the poster. We then decided to choose a different background which was in conjuction with the message of the trailer: 'Clearing up the Streets'. As the car was red, we had to pick a background which made the car stand out. This took a lot of time because of this. When we found a suitable location, which made the car look '1980s', we added in the extra information which is typical of posters, like the actors, the title, the slogan and when it is out for viewing.

Magazine Cover

This is our completed magazine cover for our film trailer. We completed this idea through our ideas of the film and inspiration from other film magazine covers, especially the deconstruction I completed of 'Beverly Hills Cop'.

We wanted to first get a shot which would make the audience want to find out more about the characters. From this poster, the audience will be able to tell that Jack is a bad character through his facial expression, they will know Harry is a policeman (DC Summers) as he has handcuffed the drug Lord (Jack) and they will know that Robin (DC Curtis) is also a cop, but like mentioned in the character profiles, he does not take his job as seriously as he just assumes a pose which suggests this with him brandishing a gun in an attempt to show power. We made sure beforehand we had all of these characters in the same shot with individual roles in order to show their characters personalities and how each one differs and we feel that this shot shows their different personalities.

One thing that I took inspiration from my individual deconstruction was the information often used above the title which hypes up the magazine. For our poster, the phrase: "The Best In Entertainment News". This lures the audience in as they will want to look at a magazine which claims to be the best in their field and the audience will want to see what this magazine offers over other rival magazines to make it 'the best in entertainment news'. If a magazine did not air a confident approach, the audience would think it was ordinary and not want to read on.

Another feature that I took from my deconstruction was making the main article title bright and stand out in order for the audience to be drawn to it. We made the title bright red because of influences from other action films in the 1980s era. They mainly used this colour and an example of this is on my deconstruction. The title normally along with the picture grabs the audiences attention first and it needs to be catchy and standing out from the other elements of the cover. The colour of red also relates to the trailer and the gun brandished by DC Curtis towards the Drug Lord as blood is represented and is used in the trailer when Billy shoots Toby.

For all successful magazine covers, a strong magazine title is effective as it must entertain and inform the audience. The title of 'Action' is a very strong word which grabs the audience's attention. We also wanted the title to resemble our trailer and our genre and this phrase resembles both of these. The way that the font is used with 'Action' strengthens it even more as it is typical of what 'action' represents. I feel that the use of a sharp and eye-catching font would make the audience want to read on about the main film and others in the main magazine.

We chose a certain location for this scene because we felt this was the best place to capture the overall mood of the piece as well as involving the main characters that play the biggest influence in the trailer. As DC Summers is the serious, hard-working cop, he would be the one arresting the Drug Lord, the Drug Lord would therefore be unhappy and angry and this is shown. The picture of DC Curtis also shows that he helped with the capture, but he is less serious and hard-working with his relaxed stature and a gun pointing at the Drug Lord suggesting he thrives on power. We also felt that the most likely place that an arrest would take place would be down an alleyway and as in the trailer we are searching for the Drug Lord at this specific location, we felt it would be silly to go elsewhere.

The way in which prizes are offered on the main magazine cover entices readers as well. This was a main feature of all magazine covers that we researched and offers of expensive and valuable items make the audience think it is a magazine of high quality and has the money to be able to pay out big money for people reading the magazine. If the magazine didn't receive any revenue, then they wouldn't be able to afford to pay for items such as an Ipad.

Interviews with the biggest film stars shown on our front cover was inspired from other magazine covers and we felt was an important thing to incorporate as if top stars are appearing and accepting interviews for our magazine, then the audience and particularly the fans of these film stars will want to read and buy the magazine as they will want to find out what they have said.

Altogether, the magazine deconstructions that the group did and other magazine covers that we researched have had a huge effect on this cover and we feel we have added and developed the poster to a higher standard and that people will be drawn to and want to read the magazine.

Editing Part 1

This is the editing that Robin completed via the Sony Vegas software- 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'.



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

Evidence of Framing and Shot Lengths

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

Inspiration for our trailer

A main reason for us choosing to do the type of trailer that we have done is because of programmes that we have watched and knew of so we could watch them and take influence from them. These two programmes were 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Life on Mars'. These are both police dramas which were mainly broadcast in the era that we want for our trailer and as all of our group had watched these programmes and enjoyed them, we wanted to do a similar sort of performance and take inspiration from the success that these two programmes have achieved.

We all knew of certain scenes from the two programmes that we thought were extremely effective and that we could take inspiration from. Through these scenes, we didn't just get ideas from the actual scenes, but we took inspiration from what costumes the character's wore, the props that were used and the locations that they used.

We watched these two clips on YouTube as we all knew that this was a good basis to get inspiration from. The main feature that we took from these two pieces of media was their use of costumes and props. Policeman were a strong presence in this film and through both of these clips, we got a good idea of what policeman's attire was in the 1980s era. Also, as we wanted to create a realistic interpretation of what props were used. We had our own general ideas on what props should be used, but these clips gave us inspiration because we wanted to make every scene that we had have props to represent them. For example, in the clip of Ashes to Ashes, the female cop uses the gun, and flashes her ID.

Overall, we received a lot of inspiration from other trailers and these gave us a lot of ideas on what we should do in our film trailer.

Film/Filming Difficulties and Problems Encountered

There were certain problems that we encountered through filming that proved difficult to avoid and change in order to meet our expectations. Although they did have an impact on our filming, we managed to find alternatives and other situations we could take advantage of.

One difficulty we encountered was the weather. There was a considerable amount of snow during when we wanted to film and we couldn't run the risk of filming because of the weather changes day-to-day. On top of this it also affected our actual piece as could have caused dangers and injuries. For a lot of our scenes, the characters are moving at a fast pace and if any injury was caused, filming would have been hugely affected. We solved this problem by constantly updating our thoughts and ideas about how we wanted to film during this period so when we were sure about the weather being safe, we could get straight onto filming.

Another problem was finding the right shots and angles in accordance with our 1980s era. We had to make sure that modern cars and buildings could not get in the way of the shot because it would not meet our ideas. When we would shoot a scene, we would often have to re-film because of objects running into shot which we didnt want to have in shot. We solved this problem by constantly and closely checking every scene multiple times afterwards so that we were sure it was what we wanted.

Another problem that we encountered was the effect that the public had on our piece. Because it was a police-based action film, we used fake guns and fake blood in order to create the right atmosphere for our audience. Even though we tried to make this as obvious as possible when filming, members of the public would undoubtedly be concerned and take action. We met some members of the police and after explaining what we were doing, they were happy and allowed us to continue. I feel that it was important that this happened because it allowed us to focus on our piece without worrying what the surrounding public thought of what we were doing.

As we spent a lot of time filming because of problems that we encountered, we had to continually halt proceedings because of the battery running out. This was very frustrating for us because we had to speed up filming and we often had to re-film them anyway because they were not want we wanted.

Because of other commitments, all of our group found it difficult to find time when we were all free and available to film. We decided to complete a grid to show when everyone was free so that it was easier for us to know when everyone was available and make sure we were prepared to film on the days when everybody was available.

Final storyboard

Once we decided on all of our scenes and confirmed that we were not going to change them, we constructed a storyboard. We decided on the scenes we felt would have the biggest impact on our target audience and show the outline of the story. We originally had more scenes but we knew that we would not realistically film all of them because of time constraints and the trailer would be too long. So for the extra spaces available on the storyboard, we took screen shots of each scene (the main part of the scene) to show what is happening in the scene, the characters in them and what we added to the scenes in editing. We also chose the particular screen shots to show the main part of each scene and explaining this so that it is clear what is happening in the scene. We used this originally to let us know during filming what scenes we would do and our locations for the scenes; but afterwards we added the shots to show the main parts of the scenes.

Final trailer

Contact

As we had other subjects and needed to know when we were all available, we needed to have a certain point of contact in order to confirm certain things, re-arrange things or to ask questions to each other in a easy and simple way. We decided that the easiest source of contact was Facebook, as we could create a group conversation so that we could easily post to the people in the group. This meant that when we weren't in direct contact, we could communicate about when we were filming for example, with an example shown here:



This was done at the last minute by Michael to confirm where we were meeting and what we should bring. If we didn't have this contact, we would have found the filming a lot more difficult to complete.

Improvement

We decided after the draft trailer that we needed to add in a red screen to tell the audience of the age limit for watching and if there is any other features of the film the audience should know about.

We inserted an American version of a red screen which stated that there is drug use in the trailer. This was important as it was a common feature in other media film trailers.

Here is the image of the screen that was inserted at the start of the trailer:

Film Company Logo's

Through research of other films for inspiration and techniques, we knew that all successful films had at least one logo which is either produced or helped by film companies like Dreamworks for example. We knew that because we couldn't get a real logo to support our film trailer, we would have to create one of our own logo's. We decided to split off into two teams of two and try and work on a logo that would represent and typify our genre. Once we all came back together and put forward our creations, we were extremely happy with both and decided to use both in the trailer. These two logos were called Phoenix Pictures and Watermark Entertainment. The names were made up by each group, but we knew that the name needed to be catchy and attractive to our audience. Once we created the pictures how we wanted them, we edited them to enter into the film at any time we wanted to. Unfortunately the editing of this proved difficult as one of the images that we created would not work so we decided instead to fade the original logo picture of 'Phoenix Pictures' into the film and run the 'Watermark Entertainment' logo which did work. This in the end proved very successful as we feel that they match our genre and style very well.

Draft of Film Trailer

We completed a draft edit of our trailer and watched it through as a group to determine what we need to do to improve it. We all knew that certain effects, music transitions and camera shots needed tweaking and so we decided to jot down what needed improving. The three main problems we encountered were:
1. The music transition after DC Summers throws the drugs back at the criminal and before the A Level media text appears, the music suddenly halts and changes. We need this to be a lot smoother.
2. The effects of the car explosion at the end and when Billy shoots Toby after DC Summers gets the information from him (Toby) are not as effective as we would like. We are going to go back to Sony Vegas and try and get these scenes to be more realistic and effective.
3. We found near the end of editing that during the scene where DC's Summers and Curtis are on a stake-out for the Drug Lord, we see in the car window reflection that Michael is seen filming this scene. This was frustrating for us as we could not re-film this scene because of time constraints. However, we would re-film this scene if we had the time.

Filming Session 2

For the second session, we used Church Street where we used the alleyway for the scene where DC Summers and DC Curtis wait for the drug lord to appear so they can attempt to arrest him. We chose this location as we know that a person involved in drugs would be in a private location and we feel that a alleyway would be a obvious one. We want to use an alleyway because we want to park the car outside the start of it so we can see all the way down the alley. We made sure that the car was parked in the right position so that it was legal to park there and we had a clear view down the alleyway. We then made sure that we removed items from the car that would affect the 1980s style that we wanted. This scene was filmed after a couple of takes as we had to make sure we knew which lines we were going to say as we the first couple of takes there were a few pauses and we wanted the conversations to have a relaxed tone and sense to them. We used a couple of different angles for this scene as we wanted to film their facial expressions when they see the Drug Lord; so we decided to film from outside the car and show DC Summers wind down the window and take pictures for evidence. Overall we feel that this was a big part of the trailer and one we feel we achieved and did well in.

We also filmed two more scenes in this location and was a valuable location as it met all of our demands. The next scene that we filmed was when Billy met the drug lord in order for him to be given a gun to protect himself from the police. This was a simple scene as there was no dialogue so all the drug Lord had to do was make the transition of the gun smooth and make sure that they nodded to each other to show the audience that this was a pre-made agreement. This was completed in one scene and allowed us to concentrate on more difficult scenes to complete.

Our last scene in this location was when DC Summers and DC Curtis kick down the door in order to search for one of the criminals. We wanted to build up a bit of tension in the scene through what they say and slowly counting to three will make the audience take more notice of what happens after 3. We then made sure that the DC's slowly take out their guns in order to leave the audience on the edge of their seats. We also cut the scene before we kicked down the door for the reason of suspense again and the audience will want to know what is behind the door and what will happen behind the door.

Another scene we completed was the explosion of the car which we had to make sure was a 1980s vehicle. This was one of the most difficult if not the most difficult scene to complete because we wanted to make sure that the vehicle was right. We researched a lot of different cars in the area and only really found two that suited our needs. We started with one down Station Road that we felt matched our era. We were mainly leaning towards using the other car for the explosion at this moment but we thought that we should film both to see which would be more effective. We took two takes to film this as it was on a busy road and DC Summers and Curtis had to stand far apart so that we could get the whole car in the shot. This proved difficult as the car that we wanted to use was close to other cars which wouldn't fit in the 1980s genre so we decided to do the best we could do with it and move on to the other car. We then found this much easier to do as we knew it would be there and the area in which the car was situated fitted our genre and style. We could also play with angles to get the right shot of DC Summers and DC Curtis when the car explodes. We did this in two takes as the first take we wanted DC Summers and Curtis to react to the explosion, but then we decided for them not to because it would leave the audience thinking why they are not reacting and if they knew it had actually happened.