Our Final Film. Tracing Steps

Our commentary

Our final magazine cover...with a small addition

This version is very very similar to the original one we posted, however, whilst editing this cover, we had difficulty in applying a barcode to the cover which is part of the conventional style of a magazine cover. So to make this happen we transferred the picture from the Mac onto the PC where we found it easier to copy and paste a barcode picture onto the front cover. It might be small and slightly pedantic to do this, but we want it to be perfect.

Our magazine final cover

This is our magazine cover

Our inspiration

This magasine cover is part of our inspiration.
It is the front cover from Empire magazine from November 2008. It is a clear shot of the main character from The Godfather and so is a non-conventional front cover of a magazine. It is in black and white with a fairly unhappy man on the front cover; The whole cover is the title 'EMPIRE', the picture of him and a slogan on the bottom 'The Godfather, The Greatest Movie Of All Time'. A typical magazine cover has a lot more information about the magazine to advertise and persuade their customers to buy it. We like the Black and white style on this though. So are thinking more towards the black and white picture

Shots possible for magazine subsidary task.

It is between these two pictures one being in black and white, and the other in fully saturated colour :)

Magazine names

These are all the film magazine titles that we found online :)

Boxoffice
Box office results, top ten, movie reviews.

Bright Lights
One of the best film magazines online that examines classic, commercial, and independent films from a wide range of vantage points from the aesthetic to the political.

Cineaste
Selected articles from the magazine on the art and politics of the cinema.

Close Up
Online UK film magazine. Find reviews, features and interviews for new cinema and dvd releases, articles on independent, low-budget and regional filmmaking, more.

eFilmCritic.com
Australian movie magazine offering film reviews by visitors to the site.

Empire
Features news, reviews, top movies, upcoming releases, box office results (UK), forum, and more.

Errata
Presents collection of essays, reviews, commentary, and discussion about cinema.

Eye For Film
UK site with movie reviews, news, critique and festival coverage.

Film Comment
Quality magazine providing articles on films old and new, foreign and domestic, narrative and documentary.

Film Journal
Movie reviews, news, and interviews for Hollywood, indie, and foreign films.

Film Threat
Covers cult films, underground shorts, alternative films and independent features.

Filmink Magazine
Provides film news and gossip, movie reviews, video and DVD releases, Australian and international film industry information.

Filmmaker Magazine
Presents an insider's perspective on the world of independent filmmaking, including: interviews, case studies, financing and distribution information, festival reports, technical and production updates, and more.

Films in Review
Online version of the oldest film magazine in the US. Find reviews, interviews and feature articles.

Future Movies
British movie review guide features profiles of new movies, cinema releases and latest DVD reviews.

Guardian Unlimited Film
Film news and reviews from the Guardian and Observer newspapers.

Hollywood Reporter
Newspaper providing movie reviews, box office info, entertainment and celebrity news, more.

iF Magazine
US magazine on indie filmmaking.

Images Journal
Quality reviews and analytical articles on old and recent movies, and popular culture.

Inside Film
Provides news and information on the world's film festivals.

Kamera
Intelligent UK magazine that mainly concentrates on arthouse and independent films.

MovieJuice
Hollywood's movie satire site.

movieScope
Magazine explores the various aspects of filmmaking from the perspective of the filmmakers themselves.

MovieMaker
Guide to independent film and filmmaking from around the world.

Premiere
Features Hollywood movie news, reviews and previews, celebrity interviews and inside stories.

Preview
International magazine packed with information on the latest big screen movies.

Rotten Tomatoes
Reviews and previews of Hollywood movies and videos from the nation's critics.

Screen
Online edition of the bollywood weekly magazine offering Indian movie news and interviews with stars.

Screendaily
Daily film industry news from around the globe, reviews from the world's leading festivals and box office comment from every major territory.

Senses of Cinema
Online film journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema.

Sight and Sound
Well-known magazine from the British Film Institute. Features top ten movies, the best film music, in-depth interviews, retrospective articles and news.

Strictly Film School
Online journal offering a collection of short essays featuring the respective filmmaker's notable films.

Uncut
Popular UK music and film magazine. Features hundreds of music and movie reviews, interviews and news.

Our test subsidary tasks - Poster

These are mocks of a poster we could use.

It shows the obsession through a creepy and eerie style that Charlotte is trying to get across. The fact she is shown through a blurred screen shows how she is blocked off by a barrier but also is able to attach herself emotionally to Summer. The fact her hand is pressed up against the blurred background of Summer, her eagerness to touch or be connected with Summer in someway is evident here. Summer looks, in the first picture, like an angelic teenager but has a sense of worry in her eyes. This suggests that at this point, Summer may be in the know about Charlotte's psychotic behaviour but at the same time, it hasn't got to the point that she is worried about her own safety necessarily. The second picture simply shows Summer at possibly a different point in the film. She is on her phone getting on, living a normal teenage life barely noticing Charlotte.

These are simple mock-ups of some of the pictures we took last lesson. They are edited through the photoshop Picasa 2 by adding shadow and changing the colour temperature. It was made darker and less bright so that the 'dark' atmosphere pushes through. The text was also added through the same programme. The poster will have very similar characteristics but these are just tests to see how they will really work.

This lesson.

This lesson, we took pictures for our subsidary tasks. This is our poster and our magazine cover shots that we got. It included shots of Charlotte and Summer in the same shot but separated by a door or blurred background. It will be shown in a following post

New edits

This new edit involves a few things we have changed due to our audience feedback. We now have (possibly temporary) music for the montage and we have also cut a few clips as we were told some were too long.

In what ways does your media product use, devlop or challenge form and conventions of real media products.

By looking at all of our previous research into all kinds of psychological thriller type films in earlier posts of our blogs it clear to see that we have been inspired greatly by other media texts. We have not 'stolen' any ideas as per say as our idea for our trailer came early on before even finding out about the film 'Single White Female' it was simply coincedence that they were similar shots of the stealing identity of Summer by Charlotte. This shot of Charlotte looking in the mirror with a red wig on was inspired by the film (not copied it is just coincedence that they have the same shade of hair colour)









Another film we were inspired by with a a similar storyline is a modern take on Single White Female is the film coming out in February 2011 The Roomate. The girl that is being obsessed over is a kind, pretty and sweet teenager similar to Summer. This is where her inspiration came from. Some of our camera shots are similar to ones in this as we loved the creepiness of them as they're portrayed such as the quick close ups in the montage.


The famous film Fatal Attraction starring Glenn Close and Micheal Douglas was one of the reasons the idea for using the similar storyline. We both watched the trailer and loved it so much that we had to watch the film and obviously loved it. We not only loved the storyline but the types of shots in this film. They have a fair few low angle shots however we were not in a position to include these but would've liked to. Fatal attraction's progression throughout the trailer was very appealing to us so we decided to go down a similar path on this note.


Obsessed, another more modern take on Fatal Attraction is yet another film we analysed from the trailer in a previous blog

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Looking at our audience feedback, it shows that our trailer is a success. There are many complients but also lots of helpful constructive criticism. We obviously need work which is why we wanted some of our audience feedback at this stage in our process. It will help us to show us what we need to do in order to make it even more successful. The little things that we may or may not have noticed initially, the audience could tell fairly quickly which goes to show that because we know the trailer inside out from working on it so much so an outsiders point of veiw has really helped at this stage. We already are aware of the really obvious things such as music in the montage that we need to sort out so by telling the 'feedbackers'what we already knew we were going to do reassured them that it will be a good trailer...which is definately what we want to hear. We want to do our best in order to please the audience as this is who we want to sell it to and subsequently making it a success.

Our first volunteer who gave us feeback gave us a few ideas of what she enjoyed about out trailer...
-Music at the beginning
-The voice over works particularly well as it tells the story in a different way.
-All the scene in the darkness from the montage and at the end of the trailer make it creepy and particularly suspenceful as it's such a contrast from the calm beginning.

This is what they thought we needed to work on...
-The montage isn't as fast paced as a conventional trailer so we need to have shorter clips within the montage
-Having a shot to show Charlotte looking at Summer and her boyfriend Sam which would clearly show her jealousy of Summer's happy relationship with him and show her own personal attraction to him
-Having a shorter clip of Summer crying at the end so not too much is given away
-Some clips are shorter and some a bit too long which can be unconventional of a trailer.


Our second willing volunteer said these lovely things about our trailer...
-The montage is really effective and when the music is added it will be even more effective
-The overall storyline is enticing and it is successful in persuading her to go see the film
-Therefore she feels a lot of people would enjoy it and want to watch this based on the information given in the trailer.

This is what she thought we could do to make it better and improve...
-By adding more transitions such as 'Who directed/produced it', 'Who stars in it' and 'When will it be avaliable'; she said this will make it overall more conventional
-By adding music, the montage will generally be more effective in its dramatic and intense atmosphere as it really doesn't work without.

We are currently working on improving it thanks to the help we have recieved and now know exactly what needs changing.

Rough cut Feedback

This is our rough-cut audience feedback to give us ideas of our strengths and weaknesses thus showing us what we can improve. We asked two willing volunteers to give us some feedback and we will take onboard everything they have said.

How did you use new media technologies in your research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?

We used the camcorder as our main way of recording the actual footage. By doing this we needed to have a sturdy base. We used a tripod in order to do this. We had already learnt how to use one during our AS coursework and so it became quicker and easier when it came to using it at A2. It is what most of our shots are done on however, some shots worked better filmed by handheld. For example when the two girls are at the table talking, we used the tripod. Whereas when Charlotte appears from behind the darkness to Summer, we used handheld as the unstable motion refected the atmosphere.

E-mail was used during our trailer production in order to get useful information from person to person. For example, we used e-mail in order to tell the cast members when and where they were needed. This helped greatly as otherwise we would be alot less organised.

Our panasonice camcorder was used in order to get the footage we needed. We used this throughout our process to get our footage. This was good as it was portable, reasonable quality and picked up sound. Even though most of the sound we actually picked up on the camera is not being used, it gave us a real idea of where it would go in the trailer. We used it in conjuction with the tripod as I have previously described.

Imovie was the programme we used on the Macs in order to do the editing within our film. This included everything from peicing all the shots together, to making transitions between them, and adding music to the film and the titles. This evidently took longer than anything else put together. The actual editing involved took a massive amount of time so Imovie made this as quick as possible for us.

History of music in thriller films

Friday 13th -1980
The music from Friday 13th was composed by Harry Manfredini and at first the decision from the director was that the music would only to be played alongside with the killer so it would not "manipulate the audience" into thinking the killer was there when they were not. A quote from Manfredini - "There's a scene where one of the girls […] is setting up the archery area of the film. One of the guys shoots an arrow into the target and just misses her. It's a huge scare, but if you notice, there's no music. That was a choice.". He also decided that when something was going to happen, the music would then cut off so that the audience wouldn't expect it, and relax so the scare would be so much more frightening and effective when it did happen. Manfredini was inspired by the film Jawswhere, as the shark is not seen for most of the film and the music appears when it is present.

Silence of the Lambs - 1991
Some of the songs in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) are:
"American Girl" written by Tom Petty
"Alone" written by C. Newman and G. Lewis
"Sunny Day" written by T. Ottaviano
"Real Men" written by B. Licher, M. Erskine, J. Long
"Goldberg Variations" written by Johann Sebastian Bach
"Goodbye Horses" written by W. Garvey
"Hip Priest" written by M.E. Smith, M. Riley, S. Hanley, C. Scanlon, P. Hanley
"Lanmò Nan Zile A" written by Les Freres Parent

Unlike many thriller films such as the other ones we have researched the music about, there is not a constant composer throughout the film. Instead, there are tracks that are freaky or suggest a mood at the time of the music.

Psycho - 1960
The famous music from Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, Psycho, has been voted the scariest movie theme tune by viewers! and was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
The music was only made up of strings!
Unusual for a thriller at the time, it used ONLY the string section of the orchestra. The violin music is described as 'screeching' and is heard during the famous shower scene (which originally was meant to be silent) is one of the famous moments in film score history.

The Exorcist - 1973
Originally, Schifrin had written 6 minutes of music for the initial film trailer but audiences were reportedly too scared by its combination of sights and sounds.
Warner Bros. executives told Friedkin to instruct Schifrin to tone it down with softer music, but Friedkin did not relay the message.

Halloween - 1978
One major reason for the success of Halloween is the moody musical score, particularly the main theme. Lacking a symphonic soundtrack, the film's score consists of a piano melody played, composed by director John Carpenter. Critic James Berardinelli calls the score "relatively simple and unsophisticated", but admits that "Halloween's music is one of its strongest assets".
The theme music for Halloween has been posted on a previous blog, it shows that simplicity is sometimes the most effective way to create suspense. Only consisting of a few chords, the soundtrack is overall really effective and the simple piano instrumental piece over the top works extremely well.

Halloween (Original) Theme Music

Here is the music from Halloween to show our further research into psychological thriller music.

Our Scene board.

This is our shots so far, from our trailer just giving the audience a quick review of the scenes. Each one tells a story and this is useful when we are reveiwing which scenes we have done and which ones work well.