Evaluation activity 3

Our audience feedback was relatively positive overall, Our media class of 6 people were our sample audience all well within are intended age rating of 15-30 year olds. All in all, the general consensus of the group was that our trailer was overall, very effective for the post apocalyptic action genre, with most of the themes, mise en scene and settings conforming to the general trend. The music was considered to be a good fit for the trailer due to its rising tempo and pace until the crescendo moment where the music and tempo gets louder, as this is relatively commonly used so it was instantly recognisable as an action movie.

In terms of criticism, many people thought that it was very hard to understand, an effect which we were trying to make but we might have overdone it to the extent that it becomes a little bit confusing. Another criticism is the overuse of jump cuts, this is not a major problem but it was common among this audience and others who we have asked.

All in all, I am quite happy with the feedback which we have received. The general sounding from our sample audience was positive, with no major criticisms. The criticisms we did receive was nothing we didn't already expect to hear and are mainly just our style of filming/editing therefore we do not need to deal with them

Evaluation activity 1

Title of the film+ font and style of title
 The title of our film comes at the very end of our trailer, this conforms to the general trend for film trailers, as it ensures that the title of the film carries a certain amount of weight, as the viewer has just seen some of the best parts of the film and has already formed an opinion on whether they like it or not. This effect is also supplemented by the last scene which was shown before the title, it is a tense standoff between the protagonist and the main antagonist. The sudden appearance of the title after this tension has a good effect as it releases the built up tension of the moment in a sudden explosion of activity, it also puts the audience in suspense as the outcome of the standoff isn't revealed, therefore the audience is left unaware of what happens next and would want to know more, making the sudden appearance of the title much more useful (as there will be a sudden desire to see the film) The colour of the title is bright white, this makes the words standout and "pop" from the background, giving a much more eye catching look to it. This pairs quite effectively with the timing of the title, as it appears suddenly at the very end of the trailer, in bright white atop a black screen, it immediately grabs the attention of the audience. The font style is a somewhat dirty, weathered look to the words, this is somewhat of a salute to the genre, as weathered, run down structures are associated with the apocalyptic setting.

Setting of the film
The setting of our film is briefly touched upon within the trailer, less of a focus than most of the other aspects to the trailer. This is relatively unconventional for trailers, as most films generally have many scenic shots of their setting, to make it completely clear to the audience. This is especially apparent in our chosen genre, as post-apocalyptic films feed off of their unique interpretations of urban decay. We have chosen not to focus on the setting too much in the trailer, even though our setting is a large part of it, instead of the typical panoramic shot of the location that most trailers use, we have decided to have shots of the main actor with the location in the background. This makes the audience much more curious about the setting, as it is not explored in depth but a few reasonably effective clues are given as to the nature of the film. The setting itself is a perfect indictment to the mood of the main character, as well as the general themes of the film: the lonely wasteland scarred by the remnants of humanity, it personifies the nature of the character and his hopeless situation


Costumes/Props
The props and costumes for our film greatly represent the style in which we attempt to create our film in. We have not tried to make any aspect of our film flashy or particularly nice looking, we have simply gone for the rough, gritty look to everything. For example the weapons are all extremely low tech: a hunting rifle and 3 pistols. This is mainly for realism, as the film is set in the UK, guns cannot be realistically included if they could not be scavenged from the house of some rural farmer or urban drug dealer. The costumes are all relatively scruffy, functional clothes, the type that ordinary people would wear for practicality rather than style. Our props and costumes all display this unpolished atmosphere to the audience, in a way that is both subtle and obvious at the same time. I believe, in this sense, we have subverted the normal conventions of trailers, as many films in this day and age value the visual feel of the film over any actual realism, in this sense I think our subversion is an attractive aspect to our trailer, as many people would be intrigued by the originality of this effect













Camera work and editing
Throughout or trailer we have tried to include a plethora of different types of shots conveying different emotions in each, however I feel this shot happens to be the most appropriate choice to annotate. For example, this shot is an over the shoulder shot using a free hand camera, rather than a tripod. The shakiness of the camera works well to convey the tension of the moment, as well as the over the shoulder shot, limiting the field of view. This high tension shot fits in well with the rest of the scene, creating a suitable atmosphere of confusion and danger. This shot (as well as most of the other shots in our film) conforms to the general trend among action films.

Story
I feel that this shot works quite well to sum up the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. It comes at the very end for a split second before the title appears. This already sets the stage for a large conflict between the two characters throughout the film. The amount of emphasis in this scene by the ensuing tension of Will approaching makes it clear that the film will revolve around this rivalry. Although this scene (nor do any other) reveal anything substantial about the film, it gives enough for the viewer to gather what is happening and become intrigued. This effect is practically universal among film trailers, giving enough story to lure the audience, but not enough for them to know exactly what is happening.



Special Effects
The special effects in our film are very limited, we agreed to keep it this way in order to sustain the gritty, realistic look. The only actual special effect in our film are the gunshots, to which we kept limited. The use of special effects were somewhat justified in this case, as we had no better alternative to it without blank firing guns.


Genre
Our genre was post apocalyptic action/drama , we have many hints throughout the trailer, for example the rock music transitioning from slow to fast is a relatively widely used concept of action/drama films. Another example would be our setting, the audience gets many views of the setting of urban decay, but without actually saying anything about what happened. This heavily hints that the genre will be post apocalyptic, but the audience won't know anything about some of the key points of the story, creating an enigma code over why the world is in ruins. However I have chosen this screen shot because it represents the most obvious indicator to the genre: the mise en scene. The main character and antagonists all carry guns, referring to the action nature of the genre. Also the Main character is often seen scavenging in the wreckage for supplies, a typical theme of the post apocalyptic genre.

Characters
This shot is a good representation of the two characters, as the antagonist is bearing over the protagonist, it displays inequity of the situation, that the antagonist is in control of the situation and the protagonist is at his mercy, it sets up a small hierachy within the minds of the audience. The act of the sudden violence within the trailer helps to display the antagonist's mental instability and unpredictable nature. As the protagonist does not attempt to fight back, it shows a sign of weakness that proves the protagonist is not some airbrushed marine who kills everyone, he is just a normal man with the skills any competant, prepared human being could have.

Evaluation Targets

You have worked so well this year and now, albeit in the busiest part of the calendar, you need to push yourself to achieve as many of the twenty marks available to you before the end of this term. Complete the activities set as well including director's commentaries and interviews with each other. Comment on your findings from your target audience and evaluate your progress. Analyse every techincal aspect of your promotional campaign and set future targets for yourself.

Trailer draft 1

Top 5 post apocolyptic films

Post apocalyptic films are a sub genre of films which feature a certain amount of time after a cataclysmic series of event on a massive scale. The main locations of these films are the ruins of modern civilisation, taking  advantage of the depressingly dramatic effect of urban decay. Main characters are normally ordinary people simply trying to survive, however it is not unheard of to include some ridiculously over the top action hero just to be different. The antagonists of this genre generally comes in two forms:  The same thing which destroyed the world as the main antagonist (e.g monsters, enemy soldiers or , most popularly, zombies)  this has the "we have to stick together to survive" type of vibe, having a clear enemy can make the film much more simple, also if the antagonist is interesting enough, it can attract a large audience on it's own, without the film needing anything close to a good story structure or convincing characters (we see this particular effect in World War Z). The other type of antagonist is that of the other survivors, specifically looters and bandits, these antagonists are less interesting but they serve to deliver pseudo-psychological messages about the "duality of man" or something like that. Either way, my group and I all have great respect for the genre, which is why we decided to choose it as our film genre, to show this here are my 5 favourites:

5.  CarriersCarriers is a film set in rural America struck by a deadly virus, it primarily focuses on the main character's decent into disease and madness. It is somewhat different to other films within the genre as it is less focused on the world around the survivors and more on the deterioration of the human mind during a crisis. Normally films can't really pull this off, but in my opinion this film had quite an accurate message until the disappointingly anticlimactic ending. Our film will have a few similarities to Carriers, mainly the whole atmosphere that the world is always working against the characters.


4. Zombieland
    
Although this film has no real relevance to my coursework, any list of my favourite post apocalyptic film has got to have this ridiculous masterpiece. Zombieland follows a teenager trying to get to terms with the the new, zombie infested wasteland that was once the world. It is the typical action film with over the top fight scenes and many comedic ways of zombie killing. It is not exactly a unique film but it is certainly a classic within the genre.

3. Book of Eli


The book of Eli is about one man wandering a ravaged, war-torn wasteland in search of a sacred book which he hopes can restore the world back to it's previous state. The film is full of elaborate fight scenes with impossible stunts as the main character is seemingly invincible. It breaks the trend of the normal man in a destroyed world which is the general basis of many post apocalyptic films. Unfortunately this is a trend we hope to follow, with our main character being a relatively normal man instead of the over zealous super human in The Book of Eli. One thing we hope to take from this film is the style of the antagonists, as there are no zombies, normal run of the mill thugs and bandits take the role of the main enemies. There are many "colourful" individuals used in the film, we hope to take note of certain traits in the characters and add them to our psychopathic antagonist.

2. I Am Legend

I Am Legend is a staple among zombie and post apocalyptic films alike, it is widely considered the best to come from it's genre in the past 10 years and for good reason. I Am Legend follows the story of a researcher in New York who is the sole survivor of a deadly virus which has ravaged New York, killing most of the population and turning many others into cannibalistic ghouls which have decimated the remaining population. The film focuses heavily on the empty shell of New York, with the backdrop being an amazing example of urban decay after the apocalypse. This film has many themes in which we intend to capture in our film, primarily the lone survivor protagonist which features heavily in this film. We intend to model Will as somewhat of a twist on Robert Neville,  however this film is much more glamorous than what we hope for, so we will add more of a gritty aspect to this protagonist.

1. 28 Days Later

28 Days Later is a British film in which we have gathered the most inspiration from, this is mainly because of its similarities with our initial idea, the obvious exception to this is the lack of zombies. The film is about a virus which afflicts England known as "the rage virus", a pathogen which turns the infected into ravenous psychopaths which only want to spread their infection. The film features a group of survivors trying to get out of London to any form of civilisation, through which they have to face the infected, as well as the newly formed paramilitary. The film is done in a gritty, hyper realistic way, which we hope to replicate throughout our film. It is my favourite post apocalyptic film mainly because of the grittiness but also because of the zombies, although we don't have any in our film (as it is extremely over done) I like the concept and this film makes the zombies genuine threats.

Poster design 2

Magazine design 1

this is the first draft of our magazine cover, as you can see, the main feature of this cover is Will's face, with the background being somewhat inconspicuous in comparison. This gives the effect that Will is emerging from the shadows, adding to the shady, mysterious and stealthy aspects to the character. As little is known about the film upon it's early release, these subtle hints and clues are extremely  important within all of our designs, as it helps the audience get a good feel of the plot without revealling anything significant. This enveloping darkness around the character also accentuates many of the features of the main character's costume and face, imprinting some of the main details of our protagonist in the minds of any readers. This type of advertising is very effective when done correctly, when one character within the film is well publicised and celebrated beyond all of the other aspects of the film, it can make the film instantly recognised by the public through this character. A few good examples of this effect in action are Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean, Jason from Friday the 13th and, most prominently The Joker from the Dark Knight. We hope, by having Will's face accentuated throughout all of our productions, we can replicate this effect to a smaller extent.

The position of Will on this magazine cover is facing the reader, however he is not looking at the camera. This duality is extremely helpful in displaying all of the effects we hope to represent our film. On the one hand Will is completely visible in the centre of the cover, making it clear he is the star of the film and fully intergrating the effect discussed above. His full visablity is also helpful in provoking the interest of the audience, as there is a large centeral image to the cover, it can quite easily stick out from the other magazines. It also provokes much more interest to the film, as this is the closest look that they have had of the main protagonist, giving full visability will provoke much more interest of the film and ensures the audience would not get bored waiting for our trailer to come out. However at the same time Will's eyes are averted from the camera, looking at the floor, this sounds like a relatively small detail in comparison to the rest of the cover but it makes a very large difference. As it makes it seem as if his attention is not completely with the audience, as if he has more important things on his minds. This combined with the distrust that comes from averting your eyes from someone adds to mystery of the character

When the viewer has stopped looking at the image of Will, their eyes will inevitably drift to the first headings they see. Due to the pronounciation of this text, the main text that will be noticed is the Empire title (due to it's bold, red letters) this is good because it means that any reader of the magazine is already interested in the film. The other piece of text that would grab the reader's attention is the title of the film "Her Majesty's Wasteland" is in the dead center of the magazine cover, in the original font of the film (The same which has been applied to our poster) this consistency in font choice has helped to make our film name much more recognisable. Also, as it is in the centre of the page, there is nowhere on the cover that someone could look without the title being in perfect view, this enlarged precence of the title combined with its constant repetition, succeeds (in my opinion) in making the title much more recognisable.

All in all I like our magazine cover so far, it works very well in conjunction with our other media due to the reoccuring themes which are present in all parts of the production. Aspects such as the attitude of Will's character  and the font of the titles have been kept the same throughout the production. Relatively large aspects such as this  have been present in every publication we have created, linking the entire production together through these aspects. All of the publications represent the film very well, however the magazine cover is the one which looks the best so far.