Research & Planning: Magazine Masthead Ideas

Here are two quick designs that I imagine my masthead to look like.  I've added an innder shadow to add depth to the image as well as a white outer glow to the second design as I thought it gave the image a sharper look.  For this set of designs I used the font "Crystal Deco"

Research & Planning: Colour Scheme Ideas

 Black, White and Green

This scheme could be manipulated well with my ideas. However,  I feel that the colours are too harsh against each other and that they'd probably clash when I put them together.  I could try to tone down the green so that it isn't as sharp on the eye but I think it needs the sharpness in order to project the feelings I want.

Black, White and Blue

 I think that these colours would work well together.  However, blue gives off a very calm feel which is the complete opposite of what I want my magazine to look like.  I need a colour that isn't too harsh yet still gives off a dangerous feel that entices an audience by making the page look exciting.

Black, White and Red

These colours are ideal for my magazine cover as they arent too harsh together and they still create a mood that suits my genre of film.  The red is quite dark when compared to other shades featured in my Photoshop Palette which adds a slightly sinister feel.  This would work well with a special horror / thriller edition of my magazine.

Research & Planning: Magazine Front Cover Draft

Here is a quick sketch of what I want my magazine to look like.  However, I am still undecided with whether I want two characters or just the one.  If I ended up choosing one, I will adjust my shot type to a medium close up in order to stick to my guidelines I created in the post below.  I will also create my own background.
     As you can see,  I intend to have my characters surrounded by text, titles and my masthead in order to make my cover look busy, but not crowded.  This will make my cover look exciting but still retain a professional feel that is relatable to other film magazines.
     Over the next few posts, I will decide on a colour scheme to suit my magazine along with a few masthead designs that I feel suit the feel of my magazine as well as my film that will be featured as the main focus of the cover.

Research and Planning: Magazine Shot Analysis

Medium Close Up

As you can see, medium close ups consist of a character being shown from the chest up.  These characters are usually the main hero or villain featured in the film and rarely occur when there is more than one main figure.  Notice also how the character is positioned in front of a customised "EMPIRE" masthead in order to give the cover depth as well as tying the whole page together to create one solid image. 

 Close Up

A close up, once again, features one of the main figures featured in the film and this particular magazine also has a customised masthead to tie the cover in with The Joker and The Dark Knight.  The advantage of having such an overpowering figure on a cover is that it can be shown to make direct contact with the audience.  This image shows The Joker looking straight down the barrel of the camera and therefore making eye contact with the audience.  Notice how this image is situated behind the masthead unlike the medium close up image above.  This is something I need to consider when I'm creating my own magazine cover.  

 Long Shot

Much like the medium close up, a long shot's character/s overlap the masthead to emphasise the figures and also add a level of depth to the cover.  This long shot, however features the two main figures in the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and this is where a long shots advantages come into play.  Due to the area a long covers, more than one character is able to be shown comfortably on the page such as the duo shown above.  A long shot also seems to include a scene of some sort in the background, creating even more depth and allowing the audience to look "into" the cover which can't be achieved as well with a close up or medium close up.

I need to establish what I want to include in my magazine cover and apply these factors to whichever shot I choose in order to gain a professional looking product that works well within itself.

Research & Planning: Analysis of Audience Feedback

Genre

Most of our audience managed to gather a good idea of what our genre was and this is a good sign as we only used rough shots that might not be included in the film.  However, due to the lack of footage, our narrative wasn't understood by everyone but this will improve as we add more material to replace the animatic story board.

Strengths of Our Trailer So Far

Our audience found that our use of:

• Editing, 
• Heartbeat Sound Effects, 
• Location, 
• Low Key Lighting, 
• Night Vision Effect,
• Cinematography.

Both the Heartbeat sound effect and the cinematography were mentioned throughout the reports of our peers as they felt, when they were combined with the location and other mise-en-scene, they gave our trailer the dark, scary mood we were trying to achieve.  This can now be enhanced with the rest of the shots we plan to produce over the next few weeks.

Areas to Improve and Develop

Our audience thought that the main areas to develop on were:

• Camera quality,
• Wider range of editing,
• Clearer narrative,
• More filming.

Me and my partner discussed the areas we need to improve and came to the conclusion that most of these will be accomplished when we add more footage to our trailer along with our titles and music.  We will make sure to add a larger variety of editing that still suits our genre when we gain more shots and our camera quality will be improved as we hope that we will be able to film with an HD camera.  However, we may not be able to acquire one at this moment in time. 

Research & Planning: Magazing Shoot - Location Recce

Research & Planning: January Podcast