In many ways our products all follow the conventions that are standard in the industry. The use of certain techniques and certain arrangements are tried and tested to be successful due to clarity and familiarity to the audience. This is useful as it it allows the audience to fully engage with the products and immediately identify what is what (Eg. Headline on a newspaper is instantly recognisable). Our pieces however do no fully conform as there is individuality weithin the the boundaries set by the standard. In the post I will demonstrate some comparisons from our project to real media products.
Magazine Cover
Magazines have a very defined look and layout, much of this layout however depends on genre. After studying such film magazines as 'Empire' and 'Total Film' we worked out how we would create our own unique look. Here I some examples of elements that we utilised in our piece that are industry standard.
The main image
As you can see the main article is of the most anticipated film each month. Huge emphasis is placed on the article with the whole front page dedicated to it. We noticed this aspect on every single cover of every single film magazine researched so we knew this was fundimental as the main start, so we designed ours. Usually the picture is of the main charcter with the rest of the magazine based around it within that films theme. Therefore we included our main character on the front and deisgned the magazine in our products signiture black and white look.
Other articles
As you can see with the example above all other articles apart from the main tend to be round the edges of the magazine. This may be because they are positioned in a way that does not obstruct the main image. Nevertheless they are a standard for all magazines and allow the reader to quickly see what is in inside and to catch their interest. We therefore added our own but to make it more eye catching we added images and tried to make the text more noticeable and bold.
Name of the magazine - logo
This is perhaps the most important aspect for any magazine. This is the thing that gives the brand its main identity. The title of a magazine most always be bold, big and at the top. It must be eye catching and part of the main focus.
Magazine slogan
A slogan is the trademark of the magazine and is another part of brand identity. It basically advertises what the magazine is about and its accolades. We added our own but as our magazine is about independant film it cannot claim to be the most popular film magazine in the world like 'Empire' can.
Film Poster
The film name - logo
On movie posters one of the main aspects is the use of the films logo (be that a font or image). The images above are all took from their respective posters and as you can see the 'Time & Cicrumstance' logo is on our poster. This allows the viewer to immediately identify the brand of the film.
Film slogan
The film slogan basically gives the audience a snippet of the story and also creates suspense and interest. It is typical of many films but not all. We decided to use a slogan as the thriller genre relies heavily on mystery and this creates just that.
Credits
Another convention of film posters is the credits list at the bottom. This is a subtle feature but an important one as it shows who created the film and gives them publicity. This text is generally in the same or a very familiar font throughout film posters therefore I took steps to locate this font and downloaded it. I also included a film four logo at the bottom left as many posters have the film companies logo next to the credits. I also used my own designed logo for my mock film company 'Gutterfly Pictures'.
Reviews
We felt that even though not many film posters contain quotes from reviews on the front, we would. This is because for an independent film which is underground, any form of review is great publicity and peoples opinions on the film are much more valuable as less people know about the film. Hollywood made blockbusters however have constant hype and reviews and do not need to include any sort of opinion on the front of the poster as everyone is talking about the film already!
Teaser Trailer
A teaser trailer is what it says on the tin, a short trailer that gives a tease of the story line without giving anything away. It is generally fast paced and contains credits as well as the title of the film. We set out to tick the boxes in terms of what a teaser trailer should be in many ways within our own brand identity. Here are some comparisons with other media products that show some of the same features as ours.
Voice Over
Many trailers, mainly teaser trailers, contain voiceovers. Due to a limited time to work with as a teaser trailer is typically 60-90 seconds, a voice over helps get the story across a little more. The voice over depending on the tone and articulation of the speaker helps emphasize the genre too and is incredibly useful instead of titles, as they may obstruct the imagery.
Identation
The ident at the beginning basically just displays the main film company who is involved. We noticed that compared to normal trailers idents within teasers were sped up drastically. We therefore created our own ident and made sure it was only on for a very brief period of time.
Titles
The titles display the main people involved in the film and is a convention for trailers. We did not feel the need to challenge this convention as it helps promote the people involved and the film companies. Many trailers do not contain titles, this may be because they do not want to take anything away from the imagery on screen. I however think they don't make a difference in terms of immersion and I think they are useful.
Non-Diagetic sounds
The use of music and sound effects was vital in the style of our trailer. The music in the beginning helped set a slow relaxed pace that juxtaposed when the shots of the main character tied up came up. Underneath these shots we also had a drony, deep sound scape to create dissonance in the sound to make the viewer feel uneasy and to create tension. The tension from the music builds up to a climax were we are greeted with the fast paced music that go's along with the fast editing and pace of the character running. Using music to set the scene helps emphasize emotions that the film is trying to get across and emphasizes certain shots. Music is vital in most trailers and is a key ingrediant in the success of certain scenes. When the titles that display the name of the film comes up, each title that comes up has a 'thud' a the same time, this simple sound effect is a very powerful technique in making the title appear more grand and professional and is used in many trailers. (see video above to hear the non-diagetic sounds in the video)
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