Magazine Draft

Here is a draft of my magazine cover. I analysed it by showing arrows of where i will place certain elements and explained why. I decided to use the magazine 'Empire' because it is a well known film magazine so audiences are familiar with. 

The Plot/Cast

The cast of my trailer are: 

Sunny Patel  (Main Male)









                
Riya Shah (Main Female)












Karisma Patel (Main Female Sister)

The Plot:

There is a male (Sunny Patel) who is having a lovely relationship (Riya Shah). She has a sister (Karisma Patel) whom the male also falls for. Confusion takes place the male character has to make decisions quickly before a crack is formed between all three of them forever  This love triangle gets out of hand, relationships get damaged, bonds between them are betrayed and trust issues occur. Who will he choose? Will both sisters recover? How does the story end?

I decided to use this story line because i chose the genre of romance. The worst thing that could happen is a male getting in between two sisters, so i chose it because it brings up emotions that people have never felt and gone through. It brings this idea of trust being damaged because of love and it shows the audience of how family should always come first but how the power of love can deceive that. This story line is very powerful and intriguing  it brings the audience to want to know more and how their relationships between one another can ever go back to normal again.

Story Board Planning

Audience Feedback

I got a lot of audience feedback from my peers which helped me know what i had to change to improve all three of my media products. I got a variety of feedback giving me an idea of how i could make my products better to represent that the genre was romance. I had one to one conversations with peers after they had viewed all three of my products and i also got three stars and a wish so that i know the positive and negative points. 

I changed a few elements to make it better and then showed people again and got a better response this time. This showed me that majority of audiences were satisfied with my products and notice straight away what the genre is.

I put my trailer, promotional poster and magazine cover on different social networking sites like: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube where i got responses from different audiences so i could get a deeper knowledge of what people thought of it. This gave me a wide range of audiences to get feedback and opinions from. 

Feedback For Trailer

Pooja: 

+ Good use of natural lighting, it goes well with the romantic genre

+ Good scene layout, the use of todorovs theory is in check

+ Voice over is effective

- Needs more scenes to show the audience more

Karisma: 

+ Voice over shows the story line more

+ Text throughout guides the audience

+ Over the shoulder shot

- More dialogue from characters

Sunil: 

+ Good structure of the trailer

+ Locations used brings out the genre

+ Body language 

- Level the volume of soundtrack and dialogue

Kwesi:

+ Very good shots/scenes

+ Soundtrack

+ Good form of dialogue 

- Volume 

Natasha: 

+ Nice text structure

+ Transactions 

+ Shots 

- More scenes needed

Arabella: 

+ Good camera angles 

+ Transactions

+ Soundtrack 

- More text would make it better

Feedback for Promotional Poster Draft

Pooja:

+ Colours used

+ Layout of image

+ Structure 

- Background colour

Karisma:

+ Image taken

+ Rating

+ Professional look

- Colour of background

Sunil:

+ Font Used

+ Shot of main image 

+ Title and release date

- Need a full shot of the image

Kwesi:

+ Colours used

+ Layout of poster

+ Font of title

- Background colour

Natasha: 

+ Main image is taken well

+ Actors names at the top of the poster

+ Colours used

- Structure of the poster

Arabella: 

+ Actors names on the poster at the top

+ Colours of the poster

+ none

- Background colour

Feedback for Magazine Cover Draft

Pooja:

+ Using a popular mag like Empire

+ Colour scheme 

+ Image used 

- Better font 

Karisma:

+ Structure of magazine 

+ Encouraging text

+ Masthead

- Mixtures of colours

Sunil:

+ Main image

+ Colours used for magazine 

+ Title of magazine 

- Add more colour

Kwesi: 

+ Main image shot 

+ Where the title is placed

+ Extra information on the side

- Structure of the magazine layout

Natasha:

+ Colours used

+ Name of the magazine shown

+ None

- Not enough information

Arabella:

+ Shot of main image 

+ Colour scheme to show romance genre

+ Information on the sides 

- Background

Questionnaire Research: Promotional Poster

I created this questionnaire to find out what my target audience expected to see in my promotional poster. I created 20 and gave them out for people to fill out. I then created pie charts with all the results i gained back. This then told me what they demanded to see on my promotional poster and gave me an idea on how to design and produce it for it to have an outcome of perfection.

    

    

    

    

    

    

Questionnaire Research: Magazine Cover







Promotional Poster: The Last Song - Analysing

I analysed the promotional poster of 'The Last Song' as it is a under the romance genre category. i used CFILL to make sure i could cover all the points of the poster. I did this for research so that i could use the same techniques and conventions for my poster. 

The colour on the ‘Last Song’ promotional poster is very natural and warm. This signifies the warmth of their love and romance throughout the film. It shows the audience how close their relationship is and how pure it is. It consists of the colours: Yellow and orange these represent happiness and it is luminous like sunlight. The sun is a warm shade of yellow which is placed in between both characters to create a sincere atmosphere. The orange connotes high energy and how much they put into their relationship to show their love. The title of the film is in the colour white to show purity and innocence of them falling for each other. The colours let the audience know straight away that the genre of the film is a romance, they are all natural colours used which are generally used in a romantic film promotional poster. These colours are stereo typically used for a romance movie to give the audience that affectionate feeling.

The font used on the promotion poster for the ‘Last Song’ is very bold and looks like a statement to show the audience. Each letter is in capital letters to make it stand out more. They are quite close to each other to show the closeness of the two characters. The first word of the title which is ‘the’ is show smaller than the rest of the title to create a build-up. It has a line under the first word, ‘the’ to represent the word ‘last’ in a clever way. The font for the title is the biggest on the promotional poster because this is what the audience want and need to know before they go see the film. It is a necessity for the poster. The date is in a smaller sized font to let the audience know exactly when the movie is coming out. The actors are in a smaller font so that the audience can see who is in it. This could persuade them to watch the movie if they like and recognize the actors in it. The writer is in even smaller font so that the audience can see who wrote the film. This lets them know how good the film would be without watching it as the audience would know other films the writer has written. This gives them an idea of what the film would be like.

The image on the promotional poster is of the two characters looking into each other’s eyes. Eye contact shows a lot of emotion and feelings. They both have big smiles on their faces which shows how happy they make each other and how they cannot be without one another. It shows the stereotype of the girl being shorter than the guy and the guy having his hand on the side of her face. This shows the connection they have and how they are comfortable around each other. It shows that the movie’s genre is a romance and gives the audience a teaser of their relationship. The image is faded onto a background of a sunset on a beach. This gives the audience an idea of where the film will be set and what kind of environment they fall in love in.

The language used on the promotional poster is plain and simple but yet effective. It doesn't give a lot away. Promotion posters usually have a caption under the title with a face or an enigma question making the audience have an idea of what the story line is about. This promotional poster doesn't give any detail away apart from the title, cast and writer. It makes the audience research on trailer s and reviews about the film before watching it to see what the film is rated and to see if it’s their kind of film.The layout of the promotional poster is all set correctly so that the image, main title and other font is split within the page. It gives the audience time to look at one thing at a time instead of them both squashed in together. The picture is the biggest on the magazine as it gives the characters away straight away and people want to know the cast straight away. It gives the genre out straight away, letting the audience know it is a romance film. The background consists of neutral colours so contrast with the main image, they both settle well on the page.  

The layout of the promotional poster is all set correctly so that the image, main title and other font is split within the page. It gives the audience time to look at one thing at a time instead of them both squashed in together. The picture is the biggest on the magazine as it gives the characters away straight away and people want to know the cast straight away. It gives the genre out straight away, letting the audience know it is a romance film. The background consists of neutral colours so contrast with the main image, they both settle well on the page.  

Analyzing: Romance Trailers

THE VOW: ANALYZING TRAILER 

The trailer starts off with institution showing and the sound of the car radio playing a song. The establishing shot is the couple in a car talking, this introduces their relationship to the audience. They turn up the radio and start singing and laughing which then automatically tells the audience that they are in love. The scenery outside is dark, cold and cosy. The female is wearing a red coat to represent romance and love as red shows passion. The shots used are close up so that the audience can get to see the characters in detail as soon as the trailer starts. This is a good shot to use for showing the characters for the first time as it can be used as an introduction shot. The audience can see that they are in love by the way they are talking and being around each other. By them laughing and smiling it connotes romance because a smile is an indexical sign as a smile represents love. The next scenes shows an outside view of the car stopping as the couple are about the share a kiss but then the camera shows the audience headlights from a lorry that are about to hit the car until the screen gets to bright and fades out to white. This represents that an accident has occurred as the audience can hear hospital machinery beeps. The next scene fades in and then there are flashing moments of all their happy memories before the crash happened. There are scenes of them laughing, smiling, spending time together and dancing around. A voice over is being narrative of the male character to help the audience grasp the story line clearly as the trailer plays. The narrative is asking indirect questions to the audience so that they think about the story line in their head and it makes them wonder what they would do if it was them in that situation. The scene then goes to reality when the males partner is in hospital from the accident and it goes from a blurred vision to a focused one to represent that she has been in a crash and she cannot remember a thing. It shows that she has now woken up and is trying to remember but cannot as she has been affected badly. An enigma question shows up on a white background to ask the audience and to make them think. It then fades away and a sound track starts to play to show the genre is romance more. It shows todorovs theory as half way through the scene it shows disruption and then how the repair is going to happen. It shows how the male is going to try reinforce the love they had before the accident. A lot of diagetic sound like dialogue is played to show the characters personalities more and how they are feeling. It also helps the audience understand the story line more. The lighting used is very artificial as it is mainly shot in the night time and in the winter season. This represents the dull and dark times the couple are having because of this accident that they were involved in. The date then shows up on white background the tell the audience key information that they will need to know if they want to watch the film and know when it is out. It shows the actors names right after and what other romance movies they have featured in to tell the audience that they have been in other popular romance movies before. This will tell the audience that this film is worth watching and will give them a kind of guarantee that it will be good. Another enigma question comes up with the soundtrack still playing to make the audience remember the story line and to make them keep thinking about it. Finally, the title of the movie comes up at the end because that is the key element the audience want to know the most. It will help them remember it more as it will be the last thing they see in the trailer. The date then fades in after that again, to remind the audience of when it is released and it is followed by the institutions that are on every trailer i have looked at just to show the role and importance of them. The romantic soundtrack is played all the way through the end. 

Camera shots

The establishing shot of the trailer is a close up of both the characters in the car; this is to let the audience know who is starring in the movie ‘The Vow’.  A two shot is used to connote the relationship they have between one another. There is a wide shot of the setting which is showing the weather and showing the explanation of the crash before it happens. There is an extreme close up of the belt to signify the importance of it and how she took it off. It makes the audience want her to keep it on for her safety. The long shot of the lorry going into the car was the explanation of the extreme close of up the belt. There are flashes of mid shots and long shots of the two showing their personalities and showing their connection to the audience. It shows the different settings throughout. A high angle shot is used to show how the women in the hospital is helpless and in shock. A wide shot of a new setting – the hospital – is used. A extreme close up of the wedding right is shown to signify the story line of the movie and represent their marriage. An over the shoulder shot is used to show the perspective from a shoulder of another person.  A long shot is used for the man when he is sitting on the hospital floor. This signifies how scared and alone he is feeling because his wife cannot remember who he is. It shows how strong their relationship of romance is. A long shot is also used to show her surrounding and how she has family and friends to support her with her situation. A extreme long shot is used to show the area and country they are living in to give the audience an idea of how to set the movie scene in their head. Mid shots are then used to give a more detailed overlook on the two main characters in the movie.

Sounds

The trailer is started off with diagetic sound of the radio being played. A romantic love song is played at the start to let the audience know the genre of the film: romance. The characters dialogue is then added in whilst the radio is playing and they start singing with the music. This shows the happiness of their love and by them singing and laughing, they are expressing it. Laughter is a great way to signify contentment. The sound of the belt, which is also diagetic sound, is used to let the audience know that it is an important noise to hear in the trailer. The horn and sound of the crash is shown to particularly show and tell the audience the reason for the whole story line. A flashback is used and non diagetic sound of beeps like a hospital monitor is used to connote her being in the hospital bed because of this accident and because she took her belt off. The main male character in the movie is played as a narrative to show that the trailer shows his feelings more and it shows that the movie is from a first person who is him. Dialogue from the doctors talking is used and soothing non diagetic music is played to show the mood and create an atmosphere. Whenever there is a comedy scene, the moods music stops and fades back in with a sparkle to represent how much he wants to reconnect his love with his wife. A sound track plays when the name of the casts comes on the screen and when the title shows the sound track slowly fades back out. 

Codes and Conventions

Dear John

Technical:

The trailer shows the main characters of the boy and the girl who share a love interest throughout the film first to let the audience know that they are the two that are going to fall in love. They show the male and female character in different angles and then show a close up of their face to tease the audience on letting them know who the main characters are played by.

The camera technique of the two joining together to show the audience their relationship in the film is shown right at the beginning. This is a typical trailer convention as it lets the audience know the genre straight away.

The lighting throughout the film is natural lighting. This signifies the purity and natural effect of their emotions, the weather is usually sunny to represent love and happiness. The face of changing the weather to rain or dullness in the middle shows the disruption of the equilibrium – linking into Todorov’s Theory.

Symbolic:

The setting of the establishing shot somewhere bright and exciting. The colour being used in the trailer need to be bright and joyful as the trailer shows the audience how the couple are falling in love. It shows where the two both live and what their living lifestyles are like. In this particular trailer, they live in America and they are both outgoing as it shows the first shot on the beach. The audience automatically know that the male character has a hobby of surfing which is a typical code and convention in a romance movie.

The body language in the trailer is very emotional and keeps the audience attached. It typically shows the two sharing an intimate moment so represent their relationship in the film. It shows the stereotype of the male character being violent and the female being innocent and compassionate.

There is always a dilemma of something getting in-between the couple’s relationship, whether it is another individual, work or family. In this particular movie, the male character, John, has to go to the army and show his commitments to that. In the trailer it shows which one he has to pick to be his main priority.

Written:

In the trailer, it shows the intuitions that the film has been produced by. It shows that the film also has a book and it shows the author of the book: ‘Nicolas Sparks’ who is a typical writer of romance. It also tells us that the author has written ‘The Notebook’ which is one of the most romantic films out there. This tells the audience that this film will have the same romantic ways as that one as the story line is written by the same author which has a similar style to all this work.

The music is always soft and calming to represent that the genre is a romance and to keep the romance in the film flowing smoothly and raising the audience’s emotions.

The layout of the trailer is telling the audience the film and then showing the actors names to keep the audience watching and wanting to find out more information throughout the film not just at the start. It then show the title of the film near to the very end to tell the audience what the film is actually called, this is done for effect. The colours used are calm and relaxing to go with the style of romance. It also shows the institution and producers of the film so the audience get a better insight. Lastly it tells the audience what it is realised because that element is the element the audience want to know the most so it keeps the suspense.

The uses of quotes from the film are used – mainly the effective ones – to bring out the romance in the film to persuade the audience to want to see it more and to let them know how deep and devoted they both are in their love relationship.