Total Film vs Empire

I have been comparing these two film magazine giants to find the one which is more suited or what we want to mirror with our magazine poster. Both of these poster are very similar with the title being at the top of the magazine and a character situated in the middle. Furthermore you have the film that there focusing on just where the stomach of the character is. Also, there is quotes from critics  awards and other features highlighted at the cover which are in the magazine.Both magazine

However I have realised that 'Total Film' tend to be a bit more simple with its cover and Empire using its featured film as the cover theme. You can see that The font is different on the title of 'Empire' using electric to blend in with the text. Our film's main theme is electricity so we could reflect with what Empire have done.

Magazine research: Empire- The Hobbit

Electrio Poster Layout #2

We thought we'd mix things up and make a start on a different looking poster. We came to the conclusion this this didn't work because it doesnt look like it is or could become a film poster. It was also harder too see potential of improvements so we decided to abort this layout and continue with the first layout.

Swedish House Mafia analysis

Film research: Influential posters Misfits

2nd Draft of Film Poster

This is the second draft of the poster. I altered the text to 'Blade' which gives it a more scary feel. I also added a little phrase "When does a gift turn into a curse", this is relevant to our film as we get gifted with powers after being hit by lightning yet 'Lucas' turns evil against his will. I placed
 Furthermore I added a little logo above the I  after taking consideration of the Fantastic 4 poster analysis where they have there own logo.

Fantastic Four Poster Analysis

Poster 1st Draft

Brushes used: Cloud Collecttion and lightning brushes.
Font used: Magneto

This is the first draft for our poster. We will be thinking about changing the font as well as doing a reshoot to create the poster we have come up with.

Update to blog

We have currently been working on our new production Electrio , we have been working on research and production tin the summer , we have researched lots of similar films that have a similar idea of teenagers with "superpowers" in our case the power of lightning and electricity.
Some similar films that have influenced are "fantastic four", "sky high", "misfits" and a youtube clip called "Marco Vs Chris" which is a  short clip filmed by two teenagers using special effects and editing to create a fight scene with a twist.

We have begun filming doing lots of different clips and different scenes so that we can begin editing and have lots of material to be able to create a final product. We have also began producing our posters for the film , we used a green screen and took lots of group and individual shots so that we can choose from the best and make an effective poster that illustrates the action packed short film that we are producing.

The filming takes place in many different location's to begin there is a scene where our group gets struck by lightening and this is where we obtain our powers, morning routine scene from each of our perspectives, there is a chase scene in the woods and finally our big fight scene. when filming we had different problems that occurred but we worked around them so we could try and produce a film that we are proud of.

Influential film research: Feedback for Fantastic four

Action plan June

	Main Task (Short Film)
Research and Planning Under Maintenance  Started –    25th May 2012	Create, summarise and pitch our idea. Completed 25th May 2012 Research and analyse similar films. Completed 14th June 2012  Organisation of actors, equipment use, script, layout. Completed 14th June 2012  Shot list. Completed 10th June 2012 Focus Group. Completed 27th June 2012 Location Shots Completed 20th June 2012 Storyboard Completed 19th June 2012 Test with editing Incomplete - Rain test and orb test. Outfits Incomplete - Outfit pictures for all characters
Construction of our Short Film Under Maintenance	So far we have contributed a small amount of footage for our main film as we began filming at the end of June. We hope to have all the footage recorded for the following month.
Action (What Needs to be Done)	Editing Test's Outfit Schedule's Construction of our short film.

Feedback from our focus group

Callum Price influential film; fantastic four
The feedback that we attained;

Q1.Do you think this scene looks professional?
Yes professional - the editing and sound makes it realistic and you can tell that it has been expensively done.

Q2. How would we be able to create something similar to the effects in this short clip?
It could be possible with the use of green screen but may be very challenging but if the time is spent you could pull it off.

Q3. How could we show that the storm has given us these powers?
Maybe show the peoples using their powers instantly after being hit to give the audience an insight into what each individual person has.

Thomas Morgan influential film; Misfits

Q1. What age group do you think our film that is similar to this clip would appeal too?
Teenagers 15+ as they would be able to relate to the teenage characters, the clothes and situation that the actors are set in (6 form/college) and so they will understand the humour in which we hope to bring into our film.

Q2. What can we use to do something similar to the high standard storm shown in misfits?
Green screens will be need to use and slow motion , wide shot showing the storm effecting all of the characters at one and different angles to show emotion and shock to what has just happened to them.

Q3. Do you think the humour in this film is appropriate and do you think we should do something similar as our film is similar in audience?
Yes the humour is very suitable for a teenage age group which you are aiming for so would be effective however you need to be careful about the swearing as it may offend but if it works and is humorous I’m sure it will work well.

Ellis Trutwien influential film; a Spanish YouTube short film inspired by dragon ball z

Q1. Do you think that they have made the film look realistic and believable to the audience?
Yes the punching and kicking look realistic however the sound is very unrealistic and farfetched however it is effective in the idea that they have tried to copy the overdramatic fighting featured in the TV show dragon ball z. Although another downside is that the sound quality is crackly so this comes across as poorly done and unrealistic. The swinging when punching was also really overdramatic and would look ineffective if you used in your own film.

Q2.What did you think the dramatic music and sound effects work well with the fight scene?
To over the top sounded like star wars. The music is key to the build up however needs to mirror the mood in which you are trying to create to be effective.

Q3.How can we do something similar and as effective and entertaining?
The camera angles is key in the fight scenes so that you can be safe but make it look realistic, athleticism you will need to train and practise to make it look professional and like you are skilled fighters. Rolling on floors and martial arts and free running would look very effective if you could research into these arts it would look effective in your film.

Q4.What effects shown in this film our that you know of would highlights the superpowers that are actors have attained?
Force fields, a storm darkness/ gloom highlights mood of the change in state of the actor turning evil. Will look effective if the weather can instantly change to show a disruption in the world and show the strength of our powers.

Music Permission Massive Attack -Tear drop (Instrumental Remix)

This is 'Massive Attack - Teardrop (Instrumental Remix)'  created by CBY10111. I asked many people on YouTube and tried contacting many artist's websites. Most of my attempts failed. Eventually one person replied, confirming that I can use his music in my short film, this allows me to get round the copright issue if the artist gave me permission. The music is required because I need a soft neutral beat, and when I listen to this song I get a feeling of new beginnings, which is like in our short film you have the two teenagers carrying on with their life and also the addition of Lucas possibly coming back to life after his grave gets hit by red lightning. The soundtrack will also carry on through the credits. 

Impulse Inc Intro

This is the first intro I've made for 'Impulse inc' which will be displayed at the the start of our short film. Please note that this is the first draft and it will consist of slight improvements to make it more professional by using feedback from others.

This is the second draft for our Intro for Impulse.Inc

We used the feedback from our teacher who said that "It already looks great, Ellis! The second lightning bolt seems more instantaneous in its destruction of the words. The first bolt seems to take a little too long to destroy them. That would be the only critical feedback I would offer."

So I worked on the timing  the lightning bolt struck and altered the sound to hopefully make a perfect Intro.

Influential Media - Fantastic 4

This is an influential film to us as these characters get hit by a magical storm and then they get super powers from it. In our film we are doing a similar thing as we have three main characters and they are all out together and they get hit by lightening, which is caused by the magical storm. When our characters get hit by lightening they receive these magical powers. Also in fantastic four there is one guy that miss treats his powers, so he starts to want to become more powerful and then takes his powers for bad use. We are doing something similar to this as well because one of the three friends gets too carried away and then starts to use his powers for bad, so then the other two friends have to team up to defeat there friend.

This is when the magical storm hits:

This is another shot of the magical storm:

This is where one of the characters gets hit by the storm:

This is another character getting hit by the storm:

Camera work:

The camera work in this film shows loads of close ups of the characters faces, so we can see the emotions in their facial expressions. In our film we want to have loads of close ups so the audience can see their reactions when they realise they have powers, we also want the audience to see their emotions they are going through when they discover their powers. Also in this film they use the camera for long shots as well as close ups and they also use a lot of establishing shots, so when we make our film we want a variety of different shots and different types of camera work.

This is a close up, so you can see their facial expressions:

This is also another close up so you can see the facial expressions:

This is another facial expression after she has just realised her powers:

This is also another facial expression that is used; we like how they have use a over shoulder shot and then display his facial expression in the mirror:

In our film we want each character to have their signature pose where they display their powers. In fantastic four they have a similar pose that we would like to use.

This is the signature pose that we would like to use but we want to change the flame into a small lightning bolt:

Influential Media - Misfits

Influential Media - Chronicle

Loaction Shots for our party scene (where we gained our powers)

All of these location shots are from when where walking home from the party where we got hit by lightening, so basically when we got our powers

Storyboard for "Electrio"

Music and sound

I have asked my cousin who is in a band 'Parrell Lines' if we could use one of his studio song's for our short film( to avoid copyright issues)  which is rock/ alternative style of music which will fit the audience of our film as we are targetting teenagers.
Additionly I will be using ambience sounds that match the setting or mood displayed in the scene.
For instance if there in a cemetry there will be eerie and sinister music playing and in an intense scene there will be music that reinforces the emotion of adrenaline. All these sounds I have obtained from my teacher and download online via free sites which give me permission to use the sounds. Furthermore, I needed electricity type of sounds to match the special effects shown in the frame.

Shot List for "Electrio"

This is the shot list for our film "Electrio". As the project goes along we may change, add and remove shots.

Character profile: Ethan James

Video pitch for 'Electrio'

First Test of an electric strike

This is a test run for the short film/trailer for 'Electrio'. I am currently using adobe after effects CS5.5 to create the lightning bolt and sony vegas to cut the clips. The aim was to see if I could do the desired effect our group wanted.

                                    

The first attempt at doing this consisted of looking amuterish and didnt look anywhere near the expected look. I began to panic to see if our whole idea for our film would be turned dwn by the the difficulty of the editing.

But then I changed a few things and did some research and managed to create this professional looking lightning bolt. With a sigh of relief that the film could go to plan. This is the edited clip without the sound effects.

This is the final draft for our first test run using additional sound effects. With this we are able to understand what we can expect throughout our short film/trailer. After doing this test, I know the required amount of time it takes to do this 'Electricty effect' and can use that to make sure the time management in my film is good.

Character Bio for 'Jonny Burn'

Location Shots for our big fight scene