Ancillary Tasks - Making of our Poster

Production - Fonts for Titles and Poster

Originally, as seen in our rough cut, we used one of the default fonts in Pinnacle for the titles in our trailer, but we decided that it would look more professional if we used a different font, and Pinnacle only gave us a narrow selection of fonts which we could use. Also, the title in our trailer and on our poster should be in the same font which we could not do if we used fonts from Pinnacle as we made our poster in Photoshop. After looking online, we found a website called www.dafont.com, which provides a large archive of fonts which are freely available. 

We chose to use this font on our poster, in our trailer, and on our website, as it fits in with the horror genre as it is not very over the top or showy, which would make a font more suitable for a film in another genre, like comedy. It is also easily readable, so people viewing any aspect of our promotional package will know what the film is called.

We used this font for the tagline on our poster, as it looks like it was written by a typewriter, a technology people would have used in the era when part of our film was set (the 1940's), meaning it fits in with the themes of the trailer, closely adhering our poster and trailer together, creating an effective promotional package.

Ancillary Tasks - Initial Plans for Poster

This is the initial paper plan for the North Chamber poster. We planned our poster in the form of a mind map, each branch of the mind map being something we needed to include (Main Image, Tagline Ideas, Ratings, Billing Block, Release Date), or an aspect of the poster's design (Font, Background), apart from "Research into Similar Film Posters" which lists the horror film posters which we used as inspiration for our poster. We have included rough sketches of two possible poster designs, one showing our antagonist's face with a shadow cast over it, inspired primarily by the poster for the film Dark Touch, and one showing a noose hanging from a tree, alluding to the fact that our antagonist hangs herself from a tree, but not explicitly showing this as that would spoil the film. This poster was chiefly inspired by the poster for The Conjuring.

Ancillary Tasks - Initial Plans for Website

This is the initial paper plan for North Chamber's website. Firstly, we decided which pages we should have on our site on the "Pages" branch. Following this, we looked at these pages in more depth on other branches of the mind map (Cast, Behind the Scenes, Synopsis, Home, Gallery, Audience Review Page, Competitions) and then wrote down ideas for the site's design, in the form of "Colour Scheme", and "Music". We aim to create a website with all the aforementioned pages and features.

Production - Shoot Diary 16th January 2015

Call Sheet 16.01.15

Before this shoot we arranged for Rebecca to pick up one of our actors after school had finished and for them to arrive on set at 15:45. When they arrived, they changed into their costumes and make up. Kaitlyn Knight's costume proved difficult as it included a contact lens, and Kaitlyn had not worn contact lenses before, so it took a lot of time to put the lens in.

We did not film the first scene on the call sheet, as it was too dark outside by the time our actors were ready. We decided that, with the footage we had already filmed on previous shoots, we had enough footage for our trailer without filming that scene, and it would not be worth bringing our actors back to our location just to film one scene.

The first scene we filmed, second on the call sheet, was problematic as it featured a part where we had to drop a ribbon into shot to show that the ghost character was behind our protagonist. We had to get one of our crew, Hannah, to stand on a chair off camera and drop the ribbon into shot, but we could not get a shot where the ribbon fell naturally, so we had to make do without this shot. We decided that showing our antagonist walk behind the protagonist was enough for our trailer, but if we were shooting for a real feature length film we would have had to have found a way to get a good shot with the ribbon.

The next scene on the call sheet also posed a challenge, as our actor Kaitlyn had to walk down the corridor as someone turned the lights on and off from outside the corridor, meaning she had to move in time with the lights, so this required several takes to get right.

Overall, this shoot went well and we are confident that we now have all the footage we need to complete our trailer.

Ancillary Tasks - Website Conventions

Like posters, websites have their own conventions, which include showing the film's trailer, showing images of the film, giving background information about the cast and crew, having a similar design and colours to the film's poster and trailer, having a film title masthead similar to that of a poster, linking to social networking sites and encouraging audience interaction, showing the film's slogan, and providing a brief synopsis of the film.
The website for the film Interstellar, opens by showing the film's trailer via YouTube, which can be viewed and then closed to get to the full site.

 

The website's Home page:

The website's "Story" page:

The website's "Videos" page:

The website's "Gallery" page:

The website's "Downloads" page:

All of the above pages feature "Credits" and "Share" buttons, which show the following when clicked:

The website also features interactive games, which allow people to become more engaged in the film and its universe:
Our website should adhere to conventions which people are familiar with. The flat plan of our site is as follows:

Ancillary Tasks - Poster Conventions

When searching for film posters in Google, it is easy to notice a clear pattern in their design. The majority of posters conform to the below conventions.

TAGLINE
MAIN IMAGE: COULD BE OF MAIN PROTAGONIST, ANTAGONIST, OR KEY SETTING NAMES OF KEY ACTOR(S) AND DIRECTOR
MASTHEAD
BILLING BLOCK: PEOPLE INVOLVED E.G. ACTORS, DIRECTORS, PRODUCTION COMPANIES
	RELEASE DATE

The large image and title are very eye-catching for the viewer and the actors featured in the form of the main characters will attract an audience if the actors are big stars. If the film is part of a famous franchise, for example the Halloween movies, the name itself could also attract an audience, as famous film franchises often have large cult followings. The tagline at the top should be memorable and make the film stay in the mind of prospective audience members. The billing block at the bottom of the poster is rarely looked at by viewers, but those involved need to appear on posters. The release date is located in the central bottom of the poster in the midst of the billing block in a larger font to make it eye-catching, so people who see the poster will know when the film is released in cinemas which will increase anticipation for this date. If the film has any star actors in it, their names will often appear above the name of the film. The 'star appeal' of these actors will attract viewers and sell the film. This, however, is uncommon in horror films as they do not often feature star actors.

Another convention in horror film posters is the main antagonist, instead of the protagonist, being featured on the poster. Often, it is the villains of horror films (Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees) who become icons, not those they torment, as they are often just normal everyday people. As a result, the villains can draw more of an audience when seen on a poster as they have distinct identifying characteristics which the main characters do not. However, if the protagonist is played by a big enough star, they will probably be featured on the poster.

Daniel Radcliffe had a large star appeal after appearing in the Harry Potter films, and as a result he was the main focus of poster marketing campaigns for The Woman in Black.