Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main poster and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 1: In what was does your media product use, develop or challange forms and conventions of real texts?

Final Trailer: 'The Christmas Film'

Final Poster

Final Magazine

Photoshop Skills!

Today, I have been in the process of making the screen for the end of my trailer. This was made on the software of Adobe Photo shop, a software that I have a proficient amount of experience with. I used various tools such as the magic wand tool, the lasso tool and the rectangular marquee tools, these are just some of the tools that helped me create and craft the end image that I was hoping for. This end screen is conventional of trailers and on these screens it is expected that you see convergent social media links such as links to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Also on my end bookmark screen features the institution logo and information and a hash tag as a form of marketing.

Poster Computer Draft 1

 

Audience Feedback

• Add institutional information, including social media links and producers etc.
• Take a new photo as this photo has too much background and we need a sharper focus on the characters/central image.
• Font needs to be more professional
• Cannot have white font as cannot see text clear enough.
  
  

Trailer Draft 2

This is the second draft of my trailer, although there is still other improvements that need to be made based on my audience feedback and I am very much aware that there is a large amount of footage that needs to be added. However since my large version of my trailer a few days ago, I have manipulated the sound based on audience feedback and I have added 'bookmarks' to the start and end of my trailer to give it more of a professional look.

Take a look at my second draft below!

Trailer Draft 1

Audience Feedback

• Consider a voice over in order to tell the story
• More footage including a variety of locations
• Bookmarks at the beginning and end of the film
• Inter titles last too long
• Rearrange placement of interitles 
• Jarring sound at the end
• More footage of the main protagonist

Magazine Digital Draft 1

Due to being well underway with the filming and editing process, my team member and I thought that this was a appropriate time to revisit our magazine draft and begin to make a initial digital draft 1. Due to the fact that we have already made the paper draft it was a simple process to put together a ruff magazine featuring the actual cast members and the mise en scene in which we hope to include. We are very much aware that this is not a final draft as we need to retake a picture of our cast that will feature as the main central image on our poster - as currently, the images on the magazine have been Photoshoped and manipulated to merge together, where as we want to take a photo that is one shot of all four girls, not four separate shots. Despite the image, it is evident that the font and positioning of some of the features need to be changed, and we also need to add some Puffs and Puggs; conventional features of a magazine cover. The next process will be receiving feedback from my teacher and peers on how my co producer and I can improve this. 

Magazine Layout

Now that we have made the paper draft of our magazine, we feel that making a digital version indicating the layout of the magazine, and what is going to be included will help us immensely when we come to making the final magazine, as we can refer to this if we are unsure of where to place a feature. We have included digital elements and conventions of a magazine such as Puffs and Pugs that are a key feature when producing a magazine. I also have located cover lines where I feel that this is going to fit around the image that we are aspiring to produce. At the top of the magazine cover will be the type of magazine such as Entertainment Weekly. This is something that is rigid when making our magazine as we cannot change the location of the title as it commonly is found at the top of the page and this is where it would be most suited. The strap line and cover lines are all features of magazine that aid to promote other medias and productions, this is conventional of a magazine front cover. 

Intertitles Planning

Due to the fact that my film is starting to come together, i think that this is an appropriate time to start thinking about the inter titles in more depth. Previously i looked at some 'chick flick' Christmas films and analysed the inter titles however now i have looked more closely at designing some. Based on 'love actually' I have designed some inter titles by hand, however these will not be the final ones as i will be designing officially via Adobe Photoshop. Although they are not perfect, these are just inspiration and something to work towards. 

Actors And Characters

Below are the actual actresses that are going to feature in the trailer, from these images these are all characters that would stereo typically feature in a chick flick film. As these are 4 friends in the real world, having them as actresses as friends in the film will add a sense of realism to the film as they will be able to act in a genuine way. These 4 protagonists are fitting due to the fact that they all have the same similarities and interests due to being in the same friendship group therefore this will be able to be portrayed throughout the trailer. 

Although these four characters are similar in a sense, they would all play different roles within the trailer and this would be more evident if the trailer was then to develop into a actual film. 

• Alice Whyman - the middle right character (who plays Lindsy) in the film - acts as a outgoing and somewhat flamboyant character who returns home to her hometown to reunite with her best friends, however things have changed since she was last in town. She causes some trouble while she is back home - much to the girls annoyance. 
• Millie Nelson - the right end character (who plays Sophie) is the sensible and level headed character within the group, she intends to keep the group as a whole yet and does her best to make it the best christmas yet with Lindsy around - this doesn't go down too well.
• Emma Eustace - As the producer, (the middle left image) I also feature in the film as a character, (Polly) i appear in the film to be a party animal who loves a laugh. 
• Grace Bennett - Grace plays Abbie in the film, she isn't afraid to speak her mind and takes it upon herself to go head to head with the character Lindsy at various points within the film. 

Magazine Draft 1

The above images are the initial drafts of my magazine which will come together in due course. After previously completing some magazine analysis and research into a magazine institution in which i think would most suitably fit the type of film we are making, we decided on 'Entertainment Weekly' due to the types of media they promote in their magazine and previous films that have been promoted. We decided on a initial image that we would like to create including our 4 main female protagonists, as conventionally film magazine covers feature the main characters in order to create some familiarity with the characters and the audience. This idea may change as it is only a first draft, however in this draft we have positioned the characters in such a way shows a medium shot of the two characters at the bottom and a head shot of the two characters at the top. We decided to take pictures during the drafting process to show the journey from the simple outline, to the detail we added with the facial expressions and specific features such as the Christmas hat, and the Christmas jumper, and then finally adding a element of colour in order to make it look more appealing and give a replication of the colour scheme we are intending to use for the real front cover. Although this is not perfect and is not a complete reflection of our final magazine, this is a base for us to work around and therefore gives us an indication on what to create. 

Editing

So today I started the actual editing process for my trailer, I imported all of my footage from the camera and began to select and delete the footage in which was good and which wasn't. Due to the fact that we took many re shoots of scenes, there was a lot of footage to go through. We then started to cut and crop the footage to all fit together, we detached the audio and re imported the audio at other points in order for the footage to transcend together nicely. Although we have started the editing process, this is my no means finished, there is a lot more editing to be done. 

Poster Image

During the filming process, we were conscious of the fact that we also have to make a poster and magazine simultaneously with our film - therefore we thought that it would be a good opportunity to take the image on the day of filming. The above image is the image that we decided. We feel that this is a appropriate poster image as it features all of our characters and gives a indication to the personality of the characters especially Alice (right middle). This allows the audience to get a feel of the character before the trailer has even been realised, none the less allowing them to understand that Alice is the main protagonist due to the fact that she is acting in a way in which stands out on the poster.

Diary Post: Started Filming!

Hiya, so today my co producer Olivia and I, and our cast and crew began filming our trailer! Our filming schedule didn't follow as planned due to some slight issues with equipment yet we are now well underway to creating a trailer! Despite some stressful moments in which all producers are due to experience, I had such fun and cant wait to continue the filming process! Here are some photos below of the filming process.. 

Diary Post: Filming Schedule issues!

So as is evident on my filming schedule, I was planning to go out and film on the set dates that are shown in my filming schedule, however due to circumstances out of my hands, some of these filming days didn't quite go to plan. Although this was a issue and we had to reschedule the days in which we plan to film - this will not effect the quality or quantity in which we aim to film. 

Film Poster Planning: Feedback

Feedback received so far: 

• Add convergent links such as hashtags
• Experiment with the placement of cast names

This is the current feedback in which we have gained from putting our poster on our Instagram page. The feedback we have received has been constructive and we will defiantly take this on board when creating the final drafts. Although we are hoping to get more feedback on this poster in order to better our creation, the feedback we have received so far as been really beneficial and we can begin to adapt and change our poster based on this. It is also helpful that so far, we have gone one female opinion and one male opinion as this balances out the gender and gives us feedback from both genders of our target audience. 

Already, Instagram has been a very useful platform in order to market and gain feedback o our film as, as you can see in the above screenshots, our target audience can interact with each others comments and comment back to one another. 

Marketing: Social Media

As my co producer Olivia and I well on our way to producing this trailer I think that now, this would be a perfect time to begin to market our film in order to create a large target audience that will promote and get the film heard. After debating various ways and marketing strategies we could use, we decided to make a social media Instagram account based around our film. We felt like this would be the most successful option and social media is accessible and is consumed daily by our target audience. As our Instagram page has only just been made public, we are currently awaiting followers from our friends and family who are all going to share the page in order to get the page as many followers as possible. We will also use this Instagram page as a way of feedback, we will post drafts and versions of the trailer, poster and magazine cover in order to gain constructive feedback from our target audience.

The left above screenshot is of the Instagram page, as you can see the name of the page is 'thechristmasfilm' this is a working title for our film - not yet confirmed however we wanted to use this title for the page as it gives a indication to the genre and the media platform allowing people to know that is a film we are producing. Also, we have included convergent links such as the website to further promote the film and make it look as realistic as possible. 

We have posted one photo so far which is a hint to when the main film is being released. Despite this, we have included the marketing strategy of a hashtag in order to promote the film across social media platforms. 

Font Research And Intertitles

I have previously analysed the inter titles for the Christmas romantic comedy 'The Holiday'. This is a film that my trailer is going to be heavily inspired by as I am going to try and replicate some shots and some of the mise en scene that features in the trailer. Due to my trailer not being fully produced as of yet, it is difficult to find fonts and styles that will suit the film i am producing. As i have already looked at The Holiday, i am going to look a other films within the same genre and gain inspiration. 

The above inter titles are from the Christmas film 'Love Actually'. All of the inter titles that feature in this trailer are consistent in the font and colour scheme, this is very important to me as i aspire my trailer to look sophisticated and professional therefore producing a trailer with a consistent and fluent colour scheme/size and font is a definite. In terms of this trailer, i like the fact that the white red and black colour scheme compliment each other without being too bright and colourful. Red and white are colours that my co producer and I have previously discussed for our font as these are conventionally linked to Christmas film, as evident in the above snap. It is also interesting to notice that the inter titles and fonts accompany what is on the screen and the mise en scene at that particular part in the trailer, for example in the medium slightly left aligned shot of Hugh Grant, the titles are next to him instead of in the middle as this fits with the cinematography. This is something that i will defiantly be conscious of when making the font and inter titles for my trailer. Also, i am inspired by the fact that some of the inter-titles are accompanied by an image and some are simply located on their own against a coloured background. Therefore the isolated inter-title makes the sans serif font become the main focus allowing the text not to be overpowered by the dominant image.

Actor Release Form

Below is the actor release form in which i am going to distribute to the actors and actresses that are going to feature in my film. They will then fill the form out, give it back to me granting their consent to feature in the production. 

PRODUCTION TITLE: ‘The Christmas Production’ – Working title

PRODUCER: Emma Eustace

DIRECTOR: Olivia Ogle

ACTOR RELEASE FORM

To Whom It May Concern:

I (the undersigned) hereby grant to _____________________________ the right to photograph me and to record my voice, performances, poses, actions, plays and appearances, and use my picture, photograph, silhouette and other reproductions of my physical likeness in connection with the motion picture tentatively entitled (the “Picture”).

I hereby grant to _____________________________, its successors, assigns and licensees the perpetual right to use, as you may desire, all still and motion pictures and sound track recordings and records which you may make of me or of my voice, and the right to use my name or likeness in or in connection with the exhibition, advertising, exploiting and/or publicizing of the picture. I further grant the right to reproduce in any manner whatsoever any recordings including all instrumental, musical, or other sound effects produced

by me, in connection with the production and/or postproduction of the Picture.

I agree that I will not assert or maintain against _____________________________, your successors, assigns and licensees, any claim, action, suit or demand of any kind or nature whatsoever, including but not

limited to those grounded upon invasion of privacy, rights of publicity or other civil rights, or for any reason in connection with your authorized use of my physical likeness and sound in the Picture as herein provided.

By my signature here I understand that I will, to the best of my ability, adhere to the schedule agreed to prior to the beginning of my engagement. Additionally, I agree, to the best of my ability, to make myself available should it be necessary, to rerecord my voice and/or record voice-overs and otherwise perform any necessary sound work required after the end of filming. Should I not be able to perform such sound work, I understand that _____________________________ may enter into agreement with another person to rerecord my

dialogue and/or record voice-overs and use this sound work over my picture or however they deem appropriate.

I hereby certify and represent that I am over 18 years of age and have read the foregoing and fully understand the meaning and effect thereof.

Name:

Address:

Telephone:

Character Name:

Call Sheet

Call Sheet # 1 – TBC

Trailer: ‘The Christmas Production’

Call time:		Weather:
Production Contacts: Director: Emma Eustace/Olivia Ogle Camera Operator: Emma Eustace/Olivia Ogle Any other jobs: Reggie Bateson		Phone numbers: Emma Eustace: 07500934198 Olivia Ogle: 07493208404 Reggie Bateson: 07538742810 Cheam High: 02086445790	Email addresses: emmajeustace@aol.com livo1998@hotmail.co.uk reggiebateson@icloud.com
Set/Scene/Storyboard frame	D/N	Location:	Synopsis:	Cast:
My Home		Cheam	Family environment, Christmas spirit, decorations and embracing the Christmas spirit.	Family Members, Emma Eustace, Grace Bennett, Olivia Ogle, Millie Nelson.
Winter Wonderland		Hyde Park, London	Filming the Christmas ambience and the general activity that happens at winter wonderland. Stalls, Rides, Bars etc.	The general day to day goers of Winter wonderland, yet no close ups or shots in which people would be able to be identified.
Church		Cheam	Outside of the church – the mise en scene of the church and holy environment, then filming footage of the inside carol concert that is being presented by members of my school.	The members of the school choir, parental permission and permission from those featuring in the footage will be required.
Harrods/Hamleys (Busy shops in central London)		London	Montage of footage for the first part of our trailer, therefore filming the Christmas atmosphere and the busy London streets at Christmas time in order to set the location for the film.	The general shoppers, yet no close ups or shots in which people would be able to be identified.

Production Requirements	Who is responsible?
Travel:	Olivia Ogle
Catering:	N/A not filming during short period of time
Props:	N/A
Costumes:	N/A no specific clothing for majority of scenes.
Hair & Make-Up:	Olivia Ogle

Preliminary Schedule – Subject to Change
Time	Action
11.59am	Train from Worcester Park to London Waterloo. Trains come every half an hour on a weekday, every 15 minutes on a weekend therefore the wait is not long if train is missed.
12:30	Arrive in London and let the day take us!....

Health and Safety

Very busy in the London area, especially at Christmas time, need to be aware of pick pockets and other dangerous things that may come our way. Equipment needs to be carefully looked after and during the filming, we need to ensure that we are not blocking anyone’s way or causing danger to any of the members of the public.

Film Magazine Research

After researching different institutions in which we can use for our film magazine. Looking at a variety of magazines companies such as Total Film, Empire, Sight and Sound and Entertainment Weekly, it is evident that they all have differentiating conventional films in which they feature on the front of the covers. For example, it is evident that Empire magazines conventionally feature big budget Hollywood hits, which is something we are not producing due to our low budget. Therefore a magazine company such as Entertainment Weekly, which features a variety of different productions across different media platforms on a lower budget, therefore my co producer and I are going to chose Entertainment Weekly as our magazine company. 

The magazine cover in which we have taken inspiration from, is the 2016 phenomena 'Bridget Jones' Baby'. From research i found it hard to find a film magazine cover of the Christmas Genre, however i am going to take inspiration from the layout and design of the below magazine cover. This is what we aspire for our cover to look like, yet with a festive colour scheme and a alternate image. 

Location Recce

Location to be used: Date of when location is needed: Time of when location is needed:	Winter Wonderland – Hyde Park 2/12/2016 The location will be needed in the afternoon/evening due to the atmosphere of the event being at the most suitable for the production of our film at these times.	No additional notes
Do you need permission to record/photograph in this location? Who will you need to contact?	No, this is an open and public free event which is held in the grounds of a park. Therefore permission will not be required for the filming inside of the event as we will be filming the ambience of the park its self and the surroundings not specific people or acting out a specific scene – therefore the act of my filming process in this location will not cause any problems to the event.	Although we will not need permission to film in this event, if we were to film any specific people within the crowd that would potentially feature in our film, we would need their approval that they agree to do so.
Will the levels of noise cause a problem? If so, how will you overcome this?	No the level of noise is not due to cause a problem to us as this footage will feature as part of the montage footage – therefore there will be no acting and dialogue that could potentially be overstricken by the noise of the ambience and atmosphere.	No additional notes
Is the level of lighting suitable?	Yes, the level of lighting is suitable as the shots I am planning to film only require a dark background accompanied by the magical lights that light up the event, for example the fairground rides etc.	If the filming deems to be unsuitable on the day I will have to result in either going back to film another day, or adding a filter or playing around with the editing software in order to increase the brightness levels.
If inside, are the Emergency exits clearly visible and available? Is Emergency equipment provided?	Yes throughout the park there are various fire exits allocated around the site due to the large capacity of people that are there, there is more than one – so in the event of a fire, the fire exits will be clearly evident.	My crew and I will not be taking fire equipment with us however as this is a large event there will be health and safety people there that will have equipment in the event of an emergency.
Is there public transport easily available to you?	Yes, directly outside of Hyde Park is Hyde Park underground station with links to various tube lines which makes our journey easy and accessible, despite this Green Park station is a short walk down the road, and there is various bus stops located around Hyde Park.	Having an Oyster card makes it easier and more accessible for my crew and me to get around the busy London town on the days of our filming!

Film Poster Planning

Today I put the preparation for the actual trailer on hold and began to think more concisely about my film poster that is going to accompany my film. After researching and finding some film posters that range across all genre, I was exposed to various different styles and types that I could possibly replicate. Myself and my team member Olivia sketched out a ruff outline and draft of what we are hoping to produce, so let me explain to you our idea...

We are aiming to have two protagonists (one female and one male) pictured standing, looking and observing a large Christmas tree, immediately showing the audience the christmassy feel that we aim to exemplify throughout the film. The Christmas tree will dominate the poster as it is the largest item on the page, in the background we will have the ambience and city, passers by which we will blur out making the two characters by the Christmas Tree the central focus. The working title will be located at the top of the poster with the star on the tree acting as the 'I' in 'Christmas'. Social Media links will defiantly feature in our poster as this is a great marketing technique and a good way of promoting the film, therefore this will conventionally feature at the bottom of the poster. Although these are our ideas at the moment, this is only our first draft, therefore we are aware that our actual professional poster may deviate from this slightly.

Making My Music: Update

Here's an update of where I am at with the making of the soundtrack for my trailer. This is a time consuming task as Garage Band is a new software that I am slowly getting to grips with, however I am doing my best - and with the help of the music tech teacher - to navigate around the software and make this soundtrack the best it can be! So far, I have added numerous 'loops' of sound including, bell transitions, jingle bells etc that all accompany one another nicely and my soundtrack is starting to come together. Although I am making the soundtrack now before my filming is all complete, I am aware that I will have to manipulate the music slightly to fit the pace, transitions and footage that will construct my trailer. 

Institution Research

As I am beginning to creep into the filming stage for my trailer, I think that this is a important time to begin to research the production/institutions that are going produce and distribute my film. Due to making a film of the Christmas Genre and having films like Love Actually and The Holiday as inspiration, it is important to look at institution and company's that are significantly involved in films of this genre. My co-producer and I are aspiring to make a film that realistically would be distributed by large and successful company that falls within the 'Big 6' such as universal in order for our film to be successful and in the real world, have the most potential to be a hit film. In regards to producers, we were planning on having a production company that is independent and can mirror our low budget that we have! Therefore with a independent producer and successful 'Big 6' distributor, our film has the most potential to succeed. 

I researched the 2003 Christmas Phenomena 'Love Actually' in order to find out the production and distribution company's associated with such film. 

This is a film that is one of my inspirations as it includes a variety of Hollywood actresses and actors that work as the USP for the film attracting a wide audience, also despite this it follows the festive theme, like i wish to do with my film and cleverly accompanies various narratives against each-other. Part of the reason for the success of this film (Like any blockbuster film) is due to the production and distribution company associated.

Production company/s: 
Universal Pictures
Studio Canal
Working Title Films
DNA Films

Distribution Company/s:

Various company's were used in order to distribute the film yet the most poignant was Universal.  

From this research and knowledge of the film industry it is evident that the most popular and successful distributor is Universal. Therefore my co-producer and I are settled on the fact that Universal should distribute our film as this gives our trailer a great platform to be able to become a successful Hollywood film following Love Actually and The Holiday.