Post Production

The magazine cover:

01.03.17 - So far, I've edited the image and filtered it to look almost animated that reflects a child because my trailer heavily focuses on a little girl. I took about 30 still images to get the exact shot i needed to use for my magazine cover,  felt that it needed to be simple but dramatic just like the one I am using now. All I've done so far is applied a blue tone to the whole image and increased the contrast that makes her eyes pop bringing the attention there. I created a white border to make it look like a real sight and sound magazine cover. It took about 1 and a half hour to get this finished look of the main image as it was difficult to manage the different layers of editing that would be affected every time I made a new change.

02.03.17- I've now added the masthead that had to be cut, pasted and then erased from the harsh edges. I placed a white rectangle and the issue and volume series on the right hand corner of the cover whose font I had to play around with to make it look professional and like a real sight and sound cover. I pasted on the bar code and positioned it just like sight and sound do which is on the border and the main image.  The cover lines are now complete, It was difficult to decide as to which font I should use, I started from 'cowboy' and finally decided on Arial because sight and sound always have bold text fonts. At first I chose a red colour for the 'PLUS' but every time I looked at it, something about it looked funny so I changed it to yellow and it looked much better.  

03.03.17 - I've managed to finish the magazine cover and I'm pretty happy with it because it looks like a possible cover for sight and sound. It was a bit difficult to decide as to which font suited the main cover line "WAKE ME UP". Initially, I went for the 'cowboy' font which was similar to a sight and sound cover I had seen before, but this wasn't looking like a campaign, the cowboy font made the magazine cover unsuitable for the campaign. I then chose the Arial bold font which matched the theme of the campaign much better and it was more eye catching too. The cover line that reads "THE S&S INTERVIEW: FEROZA TALKS" was inspired by another magazine which is mentioned in my evaluation. To make this cover line prominent, I enlarged the size of it from the bottom cover lines, but yet maintaining the main focus on the main cover line which is the name of the film. 

The Teaser Poster:

03.03.17 - This is an image of a bricked wall which I took from my iPhone camera, which was then edited using Instagram which gave the 'vignette' effect. Then I sent the image to  myself via e-mail  which I then downloaded onto a USB and brought across to the editing computer. To make the theme consistent, I gave the overall image a blue overtone by adjusting the brightness and contrast and then increasing the blue and decreasing the red tones. I'm now happy with this, I wanted a background that would make the theme consistent as I was liking the blue tones which help to convey the thriller genre. 

04.03.17 -

 At first I intended to use the whole image of the girl on the poster, but when I selected the image using the magic wand, the selection picked up on the hair as a whole separate frame which I then trialled on the brick wall to see how it would look like. I then decided that I'd go for this idea instead of what was settled by my peers when I had presented my pitch to them. To make the hair look more blended and spooky, I increased the contrast to make the black colour more strong and then used the clone tool to fill in gaps that looked scruffy. To make the image more realistic, I used the blur tool to soften the edges, which has brought me to this final image for my poster.

Above are the two images as to what I was deciding between; adding the starring actors, wasn't as complicated but required a lot of attention to detail because it was making a huge difference on the professionalism of the product. At first  I chose the format of the first image but I wasn't happy because I was thinking about how everywhere especially in the media industry, surnames are highlighted more than the forename. The poster is going to be simple so I felt that every little detail should be precise and so far, it's coming together well.

07.03.17

The poster is looking like it's almost complete now; the main title is left but that will need some more thought to find the right font. Now I've added the hashtag and 'coming soon', I was a bit confused as to where it should be positioned, as I originally wanted it to be on the low right hand corner so the name of the film could go just over it. However, when I placed the text on the poster, I felt that it was looking more better in the bottom centre as many film posters do this too. 

08.03.17

The poster is now complete. I ended with three final products, with the variation of the titles, I wasn't sure as to which looked best for my campaign and with the help of my peers we came to a decision that this was the most suitable poster for my project. To make the first film title, I simply used the Gill Sans MT font which was the same as the one used for the starring actors, this looked good but it didn't really say anything about the concept of the film. I then created another version of the title which is the middle image above, I thought that maybe a highlighted effect would make the title more prominent and attractive, however this made the poster a bit 'tacky' so I decided to look for another software that would have a more suitable font. I used an online software called 'Ribbit' to create the perfect title, Photoshop didn't have any titles that were for this type of poster. When I went onto Ribbit, I found that this painted effect in font was combining well with the overall theme as it went well with the brick wall. Initially, I wanted the colour of the title to be a blue - like tone, but there was already a strong blue overtone on the brick wall and the title being blue also would've looked too much, The white font colour looked more professional and prominent. 

The Teaser Trailer:

15.03.17

So far, I've placed all the shots in order, and broke the trailer into section where I'd possibly add the titles/captions. As a guide as to how the trailer will run, I've put on a possible soundtrack which sounds similar to thriller music but I'm not certain as to whether I'll be using this for definite. I'm using Colombia Pictures as my distribution company and I've placed this in the beginning of the the trailer for now, although I may have to make changes to the position of the distribution company because trailers don't usually do this. Trailers usually place the distribution company's credit in between the shots, so I will look to do this later on once the soundtrack has been settled. I found a soundtrack of haunting souls that sounds good for a supernatural themed trailer, I placed it on the timeline to run over the soundtrack to make it more dramatic. 

16.03.17

Now, the titles have been put into place reading "FROM THE DIRECTOR OF 'DARK FEAR'", "COULD YOU EVER IMAGINE" "YOUR DREAMS BECOMING A REALITY?". The last two titles are at the end of the trailer so that the audience remembers it the most. I got Musaiyab to record some extra voice overs of himself that haven't been imported to the editing computer yet, this will be added in the next session. To make the scene of the ghost more dramatic and thriller like, I used an effect on her voice (distortion) which makes her voice seem as though it's echoing. I used Photoshop to make the production company logo which I saved as a Jpeg and imported onto the editing computer via a USB. The logo appears after the distribution company introduction. 

17.03.17

I've found a soundtrack that I feel is suiting  the trailer pretty well, it's called 'Flight of the crow', copyrighted from You Tube. Ideally, I want it to run throughout the whole trailer to make it consistent because I feel that multiple types of sound will be too distracting and may make the product seem unprofessional. To make it evident that the first few scenes are an explanation of a dream in the past, I've used the grey scale effect to make the shots black and white.

 This is also helping the trailer to look more like a thriller trailer. I've now cut the scenes that are on the top band, these shots are separate from the rest of the trailer because it's clear to see the pace at which the trailer will run at. I wanted an effect for the titles because they seemed to simple on their own, so I played around with the effects for a while and found the 'paint splatter' effect which fits really well with the poster as the title on the poster looks like it's been painted. 

20.03.17

The trailer is now complete. Today I made a lot of final changes, which have changed the trailer completely. The trailer now starts off with the soundtrack of the haunted souls by itself and then the first shot has the voice over running over it. The main soundtrack now starts on the second shot, to make the trailer more suspenseful, I placed a gap of about 1 second after the second title is screened which gives a shock-like effect to the audience because they aren't expecting this. One thing was very time consuming; to get the timing right for the sixth shot in accordance with the soundtrack that had a 'whooshing' sound making it seem very dramatic. I finally got it right by cutting the sound at various points and then extending the caption by a second that finally fit right with the music. 

The next step was to blend the first section of the trailer from shot one to shot twelve, this makes the trailer run more smoother ready to make the fast paced section of the trailer more effective in creating tension. To make this section more fast paced, I was struggling because it was difficult to cut the scenes as each shot was important, so I cut the shot of Feroza holding the knife and placed it before and after each shot in this section. The voice over of Muskaan saying "Come on...You can do it... After all it's just a dream" runs over the shot(s) which makes it less confusing and adds to the drama and mystery. 

Some other changes made today were like the placement of captions, I added the film's title and the "COMING SOON" "#wakemeup2017" with the paint splatter effect. The effect is at the end of the first title and then the beginning of the second title and there's no sound which makes it more dramatic.