REFLECTION: DESIGNING THE FILM WEBSITE

Wix.com was used for the construction of my film website. Wix is an easy to use services that provide sleek and aesthetic wireframes that the user can edit to make their own. It also offers a multitude of features that are of great use for a film website, such as an integrated store function as well as hyperlinking with a wide range of assets. 

I began the design of my website with a black and white theme in mind, which then evolved into having hints of red for assets to grab attention. I made sure that all the assets fit within the two sidebar lines. This is to make sure that a wide range of screen sizes can see important assets. 

Wix allows for the use of galleries which is used here. You can select from a range of layout for the images to appear in, I used the masonry layout for my gallery. This give each photo a roughly equal scale so more photos are able to be shown. The gallery is useful in a film website as it allows the audience to see behind the scene photos or other media around the film, getting them invested and hyped for the film. 

The contact page features three logos of social medias. When clicked on, the logos are linked to their respective social media and takes the user to the account of the film/production company on those social medias. The email address is able to be highlighted, copied and pasted if the user wishes to get in contact. 

On the screenings page, each text asset of the name of the festival is hyperlinked to take the user to the festival's home website when clicked on. This creates an easy to use interface and allows the user to book tickets to the festival without having to search for it. 

REFINEMENTS: FILM POSTER

FIRST POSTER DRAFT

I began the first draft of my post by thinking about what themes I wanted to convey to those who see it. I wanted to put the viewer on edge to show the thriller and horror themes been shown but also to make sure the military theme also is clear. I felt the combination of Joe(actor) wearing the skull mask along with the night vision goggles(NVG) help convey both the intensity of thriller and horror with the military themes. The skull is off-putting as is conveys death as well as hides the identity of the wear, all whilst the viewer is being directly stared at. The NVG's also make it clear of the military themes due to them being recognisable specialist equipment.

SECOND POSTER DRAFT

The second draft is where I started experimenting with the use of subtle colour and how I could use it to draw the audience in. The main splash now has bright colours in use, the sunglass and the glare from the night vision goggle's red light. These small uses of colour are very effective at drawing attention due to the lack of colour in the rest of the poster, this will bring the audience's attention to the main characters and emphasize their importance. This was also where I added the billing block text at the bottom to give the post a professional look, as well as the age rating. I also experimented with the idea of having the logo being held up by the creature's hands, but for the next draft, I chose not to use at I felt it distracted from the main splash and looked out of place. 

THIRD POSTER DRAFT

For the third draft I began looking at the placement for other text around the poster, I contemplated having the cast spread out across the top area of the poster but I felt it took up too much of the top area's space. It would also take space away from other text I was yet to add. I also began looking at how to draw attention to the film logo. I felt that using a silhouette of the creature would be an effective play on words as well as contrast with the white text, grabbing the viewer's attention. 

FOURTH POSTER DRAFT

In this draft, I did some minor tweaks to the image behind the logo, lowered its capacity to give it a ghostly appearance and also added motion blur to make it look as if it is moving. Almost falling. I also moved the cast text around to fit in the production logo. The use of the logo is important to establish a sense of branding so that audiences know and identify with the team behind the film. I also added pull quotes around the edges to make the audience feel as if the film's quality has been validated and highlighting the strong words to add impact. 

FINAL EDIT

In my final edit I made some small adjustments to the previous draft. Primarily the logo was made large along with the background image, to draw attention. The names of the reviewers were removed to make the poster look less cluttered and it removed unnecessary information. Also the gutter now featured the social media @'s. 

CHANGES: COLOUR CORRECTION AND STABILISATION

BEFORE

Here in this footage Ben is running down a sloped surface, for this shoot the fijifilm camera was unavailable due to lockdown limitations this meant the scene was filmed using my phone. This proved difficult in keeping the footage stable.  

AFTER

To combat the camera shaking a stabilisation effect was used in Premiere Pro. This is where the editing software analyses the footage and warps and crops it to stabilise, making the footage move smoothly. Also here a colour correction tool in Premiere was used to alter the colour of the footage to convey a meaning or improve the overall look of the footage. 

EDITS: TRAILER EDITING

 TRAILER EDITING PROCESS

We began the editing process by looking at the video clip we could use and thought about how we could use them to link to one another, creating a timeline of events. As well as this, we looked to our storyboard to remind us the direction the trailer should take. This proved difficult as due to the complications caused by the pandemic there was a great deal of clips we had wanted to be filmed from our storyboards that weren't able to filmed. So we focused on the timeline we had just made by looking out our clips. 

Here we had begun experimenting with sound. The soundtrack had to be the first thing put onto the Premiere project as the clips would need to fit with it's tone and tempo. Otherwise it would feel disconnected.  

For special effects, Tom used the After Effects application. In this screenshot, a 3d map of the footage is being made so that objects can be grafted onto the building. The red circle is where the centre point of the 3d map is. This 3d map allows virtual depth to made for image and other assists to placed onto. This virtual depth makes the objects look real and apart of the original footage. 

Here we are applied to Ultra Key effect in Premiere to remove the background of the news clip. With the background removed, we placed the clip on top of the image of the tv. An image of the newsroom was also placed behind the clip. This constructed a realistic scene where it appears as if the audience is looking at the news from within a living room. 

To give our trailer a professional look we used colour grading to set the colour tones and the overall appearance of the footage. The colour grade setting we used was called SL IRON HDR. It gave the footage a slight blue wash and well and darkened other colours. Giving the trailer an intense atmosphere as well as a sharp look. 

Music is used to convey the intensity of the thriller and horror genres that are being used in the trailer, while also adding impact to the visuals of the trailer. The music swelling is used in tandem with the intense scenes to make for an atmosphere that will have the audience on the edge of their seat. 

TEASER TRAILER EDITING PROCESS

The teaser trailer has the task of engaging the audience within 30 seconds, this means that our teaser would need to present engaging components quickly and efficiently. In Premiere, we built up the timeline using short cinematic clips that convey the themes of the film as well as providing spectacle to grab the audience's attention. Intertitles are also utilities to build tension and give a small insight into the film's plot. These intertitles were timed to match with the heartbeats to add impact and tension. These heartbeats were used to give the teaser a consistent tension and build up.