Ancillary Task- Magazine Cover

One of my ancillary tasks was to create a film magazine front cover. I decided i would make a cover in the style of total film magazine, they often have one large character on the cover with everything else placed around it. My initial idea was to feature a large zombie on the cover with titles and information placed around it. I started off by dressing up a person to look like a zombie for a photo shoot, I put fake blood all around his mouth and down his t shirt to make it look like he had just bitten somebody, and gave him a t shirt with rips in to help show the zombie effect.

 Once the photos had been taken they were ready to be edited using photoshop elements. Firstly i cropped the background so it was just the zombie figure and then used some filters to make the colours a bit more standout. I then used the blur tool around the eyes to make it look like they were glowing and help make them really standout. Next i used a filter to make the red of the blood stay in colour whereas the rest of it turn to black and white, this really made the blood standout. Finally I created the background, i decided for it to be plain black as this would contrast well with the white of the zombie but have a glowing white cirlce behind the zombie just to give extra emphasis on it being there and help it standout. It would then be ready to be made look like a magazine, so i started off by putting in the title of the magazine.

Once the main Total Film title was cropped and in place it was time to do all the smaller headings and sub headings. I used the Arial font for these headings, the larger titles where in red to go with the blood on the page whilst the any other text was in white, so it could be read over the black background. Finally all the smaller details needed to be put in place to help the realism, so i put in barcode, a price, an issue number and a date.

 Overall I think it looks good and definitly looks like a real film cover. The use of the contrasting black and white and the bright red definitly makes the cover stand out and would get noticed from a glance if it was on a shelf.

Title Animation

Because the title would feature in the teaser trailer i thought it would be necessary to create an animation that could be used in the trailer. To make the animation i used LiveType on an apple mac, this allowed me to use various fonts and create lots of different types of animation.

The Font i used was Arial Bold in white, with a solid black background. I gave the title a red shadow as it represents danger and blood which gets across themes of the film. The animation i chose was for the font to shake around as if it wasn't settled, this reflects back in the narrative of the film as it's meant to be unsettling and scary.

Film Name

The title of the film is very important, most of the best films have memorable titles. A successful title will give a hint into the narrative through the words and will be relevant to the genre of the film. The title is often one of the first pieces of information the audience will find out about a film through posters and adverts, and it's one of the most important things to remember if the audience want to watch the film, therefore a memorable title will help its success.

I have chosen the title 'Hunted' for my film. When looking at this title it tells a bit about the narrative and gives the impression that the film is probably a horror or a action film. Within the context of my film i think it works well as it stick with not giving too much away as people will not know wether its the zombies getting hunted or the people getting hunted by the zombies.

The choice of the word hunted was essential as it linked back to the narrative of the film, and i think it is quite memorable as it is short and snappy.

Costume Choices

What a character is wearing can instantly tell the audience alot about a them, costume is therefore very important in a trailer as the audience don't get long at all to see the character so it can give a bit of insight into them.


News Reporter
A news reporter isn't somebody who is instantly recognisable like a policeman, but its still very important that they are wearing the right clothes for realism otherwise people could easily get confused.



News reporters will always be dressed smartly so i therefore thought a good costume would be a plain black skirt, with a shirt. Wearing a skirt shows that the character cares about her femininity, and that she is dressed smart helps show that she cares about her job. 
Because the character will only have a small appearance in a trailer it's not too important that the costume tells the audience about her characteristics and traits, it's more important that the costume is convincing and can help the audience in thinking that it really is a news reporter on screen.






Main Character- Jack Duke
Because he is the main character his clothes can perhaps give a bit more away about him than the news reporter. Because he is not doing his job like the news reporter his clothes don't need to convince the audience as much but can more give a bit of an insight into the character.

I thought he could be wearing very basic clothes like a plain hoodie and jeans, as this contrasts with what he's doing as he'll look like just an average person, but he's also a hero killing zombies. I also decided that his clothes should be very dark as the character is very lonely and still mourning the death of his family.

This outfit will look very plain and will contrast alot to what he's actually doing if he's holding guns and hunting zombies.

Props

Props are one of the most important parts of the mise-en-scene as they can really help add more depth and incite into characters. I need to ensure when making my trailer i use props that can add realism aswell as making the trailer more entertaining.

Guns
From my initial idea my character will be using guns, as it would be very difficult and expensive to get hold of real guns I will use BB guns which look very similar.

I think they are probably one of the most important props. They add to the realism of the trailer as well as making it look more like a fairly high budget film, rather than a homemade film. I believe they also help represent a bit of power towards the character, as guns are very recognisable and obviously very dangerous weapons giving the holder power. I also think they represent a bit of danger as there must be danger out there somewhere for the user to need to be using guns, this should help add to the tense element of the trailer.



Knife
I thought a knife would be another good weapon to add to the characters amory, aswell as adding to idea of giving the character more power. Giving the character all these weapons makes him look like he's well prepared and is up against a real threat, adding to the drama and the suspense of not knowing what this threat is. Having these props which aren't in anyway essential to the plot often help just make it be more believable therefore making it easier to watch for the audience and more entertaining.



Microphone
The microphone will be used by the news reporter when she is reading out the news. As it would be very diffucult and too expensive to make a whole news studio i thought it would be easier to do a live brodcast therefore having a reporter outside and speaking through a microphone. The microphone help towards making the scene more realistic.