Film Magazine Cover Research

Empire magazine is a popular British film magazine, that is published by Bauer Consumer Media.
As part of our research for the film magazine cover, we looked at empire magazine and closely engaged with the magazine's structural layout.
Below are some of the covers that we looked at :

The ' I AM LEGEND' magazine cover is something we hope to correlate with. We particulary like the simple backdrop with the main character at the centre of the page, which is effective in creating mystery, as no action is conveyed so the audience is left wondering what the film is about.
The consistent font style and lettering of the main bold title 'Empire', allows readers to easily identify with the magazine. Furthermore, at the bottom of this magazine, there are photo stills of other films of similar genres. So for readers who might not be particulary fond of the 'I AM LEGEND' film, may find the stills intriguing, which will ultimately attract viewers from all different areas of interest.













It seems like in most of the empire film magazines, the image takes up a vast amount of the magazine cover.The addition of stories being briefly described on the magazine cover exemplifies the interests of film fanatics. We hope to do the same for our film's magazine cover, to transfix a good solid fan base. The neo-colour highlighting is successful in drawing attention to particular film news that may affect future or present films and actors etc.

BLOG 3 - Generic conventions of Horror Thriller Films

The Codes and conventions used in order to demonstrate and specify the genre of the film are vital in our research and consist of features such as music script, costumes, camera angles and framing. Codes state what is used in the film (e.g. props) and conventions indicate how it was used (e.g. weapon). Those qualities are manipulated to create an appropriate theme and motive for a individual genre of the film. Our film is a hybrid of crime and horror genres therefore we are planning to combine the general conventions of both categories so that out production is successful and effectual.

In advance we plan to explore the generic conventions of horror crime teaser trailers allowing us to have a clear vision of our product and start filming as effective and efficient as possible. For instance we have noticed that the most frequent used camera shot is close ups and medium shots allowing the audience to see significant footage that builds up tension along side with the use of music, which is another element that contributes to the audiences attraction to the teaser trailer. for example slow pace sound tracks and when start off smooth then builds up into a routh and creepy rythem, getting louder and louder. moreover, the hero of the film tend to traditionally be 'macho men', who are involved in some sort of danger in the film and know previous knowledge of relative situations allowing him to take control over certain situations

The narrative usually consists of an extraordinary circumstance in an ordinary situation, which is what grips the attention of the targeted audience.

Within the genre of Crime Horror films, there are characteristics of other sub-genres such as action thriller. Action thriller films usually portray scenes of attacks, glorifying crime and violence. Usually the crime is murder, and some instances mass murders, especially in the instance of a Pyscological thriller. In a Psycological thriller, the plot is always surrounded around an individiual with some sort of mental illness.

This is a crime horror teaser trailer we carefully viewed, making note of the effect it leaves on us as an audience.  We was left in suspense and awe which is the desired effect we would like to input to our own production. Furthermore, there is usually the sub-genre of crime thriller. This usually involves a police chase and the authorities becoming the hereoes of the situation.

Blog 8 - Other inspirations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew5EYd5_i6M - Although this isn't a clip taken from a horror orientated movie, this scene was one of the main motivations for us doing a horror movie. After watching this clip, it helped us envision what we want our movie to look like and the style of our editing and pace of our movie. We also particularly like the tracking shot of one of the character's walking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHcsjO-lVbw - We also  like the whistle from kill bill as well. When first hearing it, it has a slow beautifully, haunting feel to it. Which is the exact style we are going for, a slow paced, built up tense scene, which at no point does it actually fully go into the full blown horror mode, but instead leaves you in suspense and worry the whole time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2A1ycR40Q
 - This time an inspiration taken from another horror movie. In sinister we really liked the colour correction of the trailer, and certain aspects of the editing.

This is the background sound track we are aiming to use in our teaser trailer because we believe it has a powerful effect on viewers, which will keep them active and constantly be watching the trailer. we have noticed this sound being used by many horror movies, however we have used it in a very awkward and different way, as it will be the only sound that viewers will hear throughtout the trailer along with the dialogue "where is he, is he dead" to leave the viewers with many un answered and curious thoughts, which we believe will have a big impact on the audience. 

Blog 3 - Mood Board

Blog entry 6 - StoryBoard

Blog entry 3 - Notes on planning

In order to film our teaser trailer as effective as possible we had to first visualize and illustrate the important conventions related to our chosen genre (crime horror) on mind maps and include essential information such as costume, music, lighting, props, etc. Initially, we will be filming during the daytime; shooting time would probably be 12-5PM to guarantee proper graphic quality of each scene and the teaser trailer will run approximately 30-60 seconds which is a suitable time limit to engage the target audience allowing them to get the required information about the film. The images we plan to use are really negative and destructive, such as an abandoned hospital, broken windows, doors and also long creepy corridors which will all be shot using low key lighting in order to create daunting imagery. Furthermore, the music we intend to use will add to the suspense and tension in relation to seizing the audiences’ attention and heart-rending attraction to the effectiveness of the teaser trailer. The props that we will be using are the following; a hospital bed, face masks, red food coloring as blood which will add much of the realistic elements to the teaser trailer, to be professional and we will be using costumes including, hospital overalls which will add the desired effect on the mystery character and the doctor character. our location was one of the major factors in creating an effective trailer however it was really difficult to film in a hospital or an abandoned hospital. me and my team searched for such locations and you have uploaded a variety of images of the abandoned hospitals but we were unable to film in one. however, within three days of visiting hospitals and trying to get permission to film we decided to use the colleges medical room, which also wasn't easy but we convinced the college to use the room to film. Our target audience for our teaser trailer is horror fans; they will initially find films such as 'Sinister' and 'saw v' interesting. In regards to age, the target audience will be adults aged between 18-35, which we believe to be a suitable age certificate as the film contains really terrifying scenery. We have taken marketing into consideration and contemplated about how to promote our teaser trailer, e.g links to our film's twitter and Facebook page as well as the films website with production details in the credits. moreover, due to low budget and very minimum cast and crew we could not be able to create long scenes in our final product or dialogue, which resulted in short, fast cuts throughout the trailer lasting approximately 45 seconds, which we believe to be a reasonable time duration for the audience to get a feel for the film and acknowledge its existence and release. Also it will have enough images for the audience to understand the text and already pop up questions in their minds, keeping them active and thoughtful of the film.