Poster Draft 2

This version has my final images, taken separately then put together through Photoshop, but the way in which I have modified them is subject to change.

Changes I am already making to this draft and will make are:

• I am going to change the central image of Callum to green rather than blue - blue does not seem to stand out enough from the background image, while green will do this but also go with the title colour.
• The overlapping of the images does not quite work to me, and so I will place them further apart.
• I will also add a tagline to the poster, as it is a key component of a theatrical poster which sells the film as a whole to the audience.

However, I am quite satisfied with the way in which both images have come out - my background image of the North Greenwich location with Canary Wharf is particularly strong so I may draw upon this location in my tagline, while the central image of Callum also blends quite well with it - something I am happy with as I was worried they would not go at all.

Magazine Draft 2

This is the second draft of my magazine, and possibly my final draft before the finished product as I feel that it has almost fully taken shape. Changes I have made from my first draft include:

• Inserting a picture of Callum done in black and white - I anticipated doing a picture in colour but in a strange way, I found this particular picture done in black and white to be more effective when contrasted against the colours in the graphics.
• I have added shadows to some of the graphics such as the title and the graphics that are laid over Callum in order to make them stand out and look more iconic.
• I have added a puff - 'essential coverage on UK cinema' - to give the magazine more flair.
• I have put a round British flag over the dot of the I, in order to make the title look more like an iconic logo.

Final changes I think that I will make include:

• Some final colour adjustment - the 'on set exclusives does not stand out enough for me so I will either change this colour or add shadow to it.

Magazine Draft 1

This is the first draft for my magazine front cover - the only things missing from it at the moment are the image of Callum and information such as a barcode and the date of the magazine issue. However, some things that I have decided to work on, modify or add are:

• A logo for the 2013 London Film Festival - as the initials LFF have a certain ring to them, it is likely that I will base the logo around that motif. 
• Develop the title 'UKFilm' into something more iconic that looks like a logo in its own right - one thing I am thinking of is embedding a union jack within the dot of the I - any larger British motif might detract from the understatement and classiness of the poster, but it is definitely necessary to add something to the title to make it stand out more.
• Puffs - I will add a small puff anchoring the magazine such as Sight and Sound's 'every new film reviewed', but I will also add puff images from other imaginary films or perhaps of film festivals/premieres etc.
• One thing I need to make sure of is that the colour of the title 'Meantime' is exactly the same as the colour that is also in the poster and trailer itself.

Depending on how the actual images I have taken look in the framework of this poster, other aspects of it may also need to be modified, mainly to do with the colours of the different graphics. I may also take more images denoting the 'mean' and tough quality the character develops - something I have already done is have Callum loosen his tie in the images in order to suggest the idea that this is a character who has gone off the rails.

Poster - Photoshop Draft 1

This is the first draft of my final poster, made through Photoshop and using an image taken directly from my film.

Things that are incomplete about this poster:

• I have yet to take the final image for the poster, and I would imagine that it will look significantly different from this one - though Callum will have a similar pose except from a wider angle, I intend to take the image at night, and also in an entirely different location.
• I have yet to create a slate with the entire cast and crew on it - something which I feel will give the poster a generally more professional look.
• I have yet to add a rating to this poster. 

Positive aspects of this poster:

• Though incomplete, this already has something of a realistic, documentary style, but also feels iconic due to the unconventional colour choice on the title. 
• The font and shape of most of the titles seem to work quite well - I am pleased with the effect of putting surnames here in bold.

Areas to improve:

• I am not quite satisfied with the 5 stars I have added - the colour is slightly off for me but this is something I can easily remedy. However, the shape of the stars themselves - the way in which the lines forming the star points are slightly curved gives them a slightly cartoony look which is not often seen in 5 star ratings for films.
• The placement of the graphics is something I will modify, as they do not all look completely centered.

Soundtrack/Score Development

When making the trailer, I had three pieces of pre-existing in mind, one for each act - the first was 'Hand Covers Bruise' from The Social Network, the second was 'On The Beach' from Drive and the third was the theme to the film 'Heat'.

The sound I imagined for the third act comes in at around the 3:30 mark.

I have had Joseph Ruddleston (who is the brother of my lead actor Callum) working on the soundtrack instead of trying to find copyright free music or, indeed, writing it myself - this is because I want my trailer to appear to have a unique sense of mood and style that could be a selling point of it, and in order to achieve this it is essential that I have a soundtrack that is as professionally done as possible which also feels iconic in its own right. 

Joseph has sent me some draft versions of his score and so far, many of the ways in which his work has differed from my expectations has been a positive thing for me. His piano piece was less minimalistic than I pictured but this makes the piece feel more authentic as a whole, while his track for the third act has more of a melodic theme to it before it becomes dissonant and intense, but I feel that this also gives the soundtrack a more listenable quality and fits perfectly with the film.

I feel that I am at an advantage with who I have chosen to write the score as he is highly skilled, meaning that he has been developing a refined version of his soundtrack based on feedback I have given him. The soundtrack of this trailer is highly important to me and I feel that as long as it is finished within the next few days, I will be able to upload my trailer before half term with a truly effective soundtrack. 

Filming Evaluation - 25/01/13

At this stage, I have filmed most of my trailer and all of the most complicated location scenes such as the bar and the meeting with the lawyer in the city. What remains to be filmed is Callum's character picking up the bag, him talking to a friend outside the bar (in which they discuss how much money Callum's character was paid for his job) and another dialogue scene in which he is told that there was no evidence of a break-in at his apartment.

Filming evaluation

Given the nature of some of my locations, I ran into some problems with shooting which I needed to overcome, in particular:

 - Location continuity. Callum's character is supposed to have an apartment, though the interior scenes of this were filmed inside my house, which has plenty of windows. As a result, I had to take extra care in ensuring that the house did not look too expansive and no windows revealing the exterior were seen. In one shot, I have cropped out some of the edge as an open window was in shot.
 - Difficulty of shooting in certain locations. Thankfully, the manager of the Zerodegrees bar which I filmed in allowed us to film there, though as they were not allowed to close the bar down for us or give us a certain isolated area to film in, we were unable to use lights as they would have too strong an effect on the surrounding areas of the bar and the people within it. This problem was not so drastic that it meant that I have had to omit or re-film the scene, though I have been doing plenty of colour and exposure editing in order to ensure that the shots are clean and bright enough to see. Furthermore, while filming the scene where Callum's character meets the lawyer we were actually filming in a location which we were not permitted to film in - this meant that we were rushed for time, leading to some problems with sound, and were not able to take as many shots as I would have liked. However, with regard to the latter, I was satisfied with the shots that we took while there.
 - Sound issues. At certain moments, particularly during the conversation between Callum's character and the lawyer, the sound did not come out particularly clearly. This is in part due to the fact that in some locations, we were rushed for time and did not check the levels, which has meant that I have had to re-film some dialogue scenes in certain locations or, during scenes where it is not noticeable such as moments when the characters are facing away from the camera, re-record the dialogue altogether.

Changes from the storyboard

I was surprised at the fact that so far, I have made very few changes to the storyboard, as last year there was a complete change of location, which to an extent meant that we had to change the narrative. Changes which I feel have been significant to my trailer include:

• The location of Callum's character has now changed from a house to an apartment in a large apartment block. This change seemed natural, partly because my house was not convenient to film from the exterior, and partly because it seemed more likely that a very young commuter type would live in a suburban house.
• I have added moments to the montage, as a) it felt too short to be an entire third act for the film based on what I had planned in the storyboard alone and b) it did not seem to suggest a change in gear for the film, but rather that the same atmosphere and plot points would be sustained throughout. This in particular would make the trailer look like it is advertising something which is not a full length film. The shots I have added have been more dramatic, in order to suggest that Callum's character begins to go on the offensive against the character (or characters) who may have set him up, suggested by a scene where he confronts the lawyer which turns violent and a shot of him brandishing a knife in another house, suggesting he is initiating an attack against a suspected enemy.