Magazine Research

Publishers

Bauer Media

Empire Magazine is published by Bauer Media Group, a company which owns over 100 different brands, in particular magazines which it sells over 38 million of a week. The company was founded in 1875 and has been privately owned by the Bauer family since then. Other than Empire Magazine, Bauer Media owns Q and Kerrang, two highly popular music magazines, Heat, the definitive celebrity magazine, and Magic 105.4, a top radio show. This demonstrates how Bauer Media is not solely focused on products relating to film.

On the Bauer Media web page, Empire Magazine is described as ‘the premier movie destination, providing indispensible insight into cinema, both blockbusting and classic. Online, in print and via app Empire’s unparalleled access has led to world-beating exclusives such as the first look at Heath Ledger’s Joker, to extraordinary access to Steven Spielberg who guest edited our 21^st birthday issue, to George Lucas’s backyard in the run up to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’

British Film Institute

Sight and Sound Magazine is, unlike Empire, owned by a company exclusively based on film – the British Film Institute. The British Film Institute was formed in 1933 by the Royal Charter in order to ‘encourage the development of the arts of film’ and promote it – therefore, Sight and Sound is a slightly more cerebral magazine than Empire due to the publishing behind it. The British Film Institute has now also taken over the UK Film Council, meaning that most of the funding for British film comes from here. I think that a magazine which would have my film as the main feature would be more likely to be similar to Sight and Sound than Empire Magazine – therefore, the British Film Institute is a relevant institution to me.

Shooting Schedule - Poster and Magazine

Taking images for poster and magazine

 - General location required for main poster and magazine images is near North Greenwich tube station - an industrial area that is not far from the O2 entertainment centre and the river. This is not far from my house and takes around 15 minutes on a bus (it is also the area where I filmed the picking up the bag scene for the film).
 - I will need to take:

• Digital camera 
• 1 light
• Reflector
• The bag as a prop for the main magazine image 

 - I will need to meet my actor at this location at around 3:45 to take the magazine image, which is going to be a daylight one. However, as I need to also take a night time shot I do not want to take this too early as it will create unnecessary waiting time before taking my main poster shot. For both the magazine and the poster shot, the character will wear the same outfit, which is the one he wore during the scene where he picks up the bag.
 - I aim to take my night time shots at around 5 o'clock to 5:30. This will give the shot a night time look, but also have some light which will guarantee that the shot is clear.
 - Over the half term period I will also aim to take 4 other shots for invented films to go on my magazine cover. I am going to create a variety of images - one with hints of science fiction, one arthouse, one a mainstream blockbuster and one a period piece. I will be taking at least one of these during the second week of half term as that is the best period of availability for any actors that I may use.

Poster Production Update 23/01/13

Today's work included:

• Finishing off analysis on similar posters
• Finding potential fonts for the film poster

I have found quite a substantial amount of posters that I feel are effective and would like to model my poster on - however, most of these are quite different with regard to colour scheme, photographic content and fonts. As a result of this, the fonts that I have been looking for - on dafont.com - have all been varied so as to keep my options open, as I am still not sure what kind of underlying atmosphere my poster will have. The types of font I have collected so far have ranged from understated with an art deco edge to bold and with a grainy, blood splattered texture: which one I choose will depend on whether or not I decide to make my poster understated like the 'Black Swan' poster I have looked at, or more of a dramatic horror poster such as the poster for 'Shutter Island'.

Research into Poster of Similar Films

What makes this poster particularly effective to me is the way in which the image of the island has been edited to take the appearance of several different snippets of a picture put together hastily. This has a jarring and eerie effect and is in itself a memorable image, and it also establishes the detective concept within the story and connotes the idea of the film being a puzzle. The use of a match by Leonardo DiCaprio's face - an image which establishes intimacy - contrasts with the wide shot of the island and water surrounding it, giving him a vulnerable quality.

This poster generally has a feel of being clean and controlled - however, the cracks in the face of Natalie Portman's character are a nice touch as to me as they are not overdone, but are noticable and prominent in contrast to the clean look of the rest of the poster. They are highly suggestive of the cracking of her psyche, which is a major theme in the film, and are something which not many posters posess. The font also appeals to me strongly - it is neat and modern, but the wide lettering gives it a subtly baroque and dramatic feeling.

The reflection of the character of Patrick Bateman in his knife is highly suggestive of his psychopathically violent alternate persona - the poster as a whole has a clean, elegant look due to the way in which Bateman is dressed and the lighting of the picture - however, the tagline, referring to 'monsters' and the typeface on 'Psycho' feel like they belong in a different poster to the picture of Bateman within it, which reflects how shocking the film is when Bateman goes from being a Wall Street Yuppie type to a sadistically violent killer.

This poster appeals to me as every aspect of it, including the title and even the film festival accolades, tie in to the film itself, as they are written in the character of Leonard's scrawling handwriting. The infinite images are a particularly nice touch as they are very commanding and make you want to look at the poster for ages to take it in, and the way in which both pictures are slanted, giving the poster an even more twisted and rough look, is the finishing touch for me.

There are many aspects to this poster which give it an unconventional, 'cult' quality. Firstly, the pictures of the two main characters are rather goofy despite being composed and high-quality - Brad Pitt has a wide grin with a rough and beaten face, whilst Edward Norton's more somber and controlled face almost feels deliberate and over the top in comparison. Furthermore, the title itself is a striking and individual image, which means that it feels as evocative of the actual film as possible.

The fact that the face is shown very close up for a poster has a haunting effect - very little is established aside from this eerie image which makes the audience ask questions about the nature of the film. The moth with death's head on it, and in particular the way it covers the person's mouth, gives the poster a highly evil and twisted quality - if one looks closely, they can also notice that death's head is in fact built up of naked human figures and based on a portrait by Salvador Dali. This is another poster to use optical illusions, and like the one for Memento it causes the audience to unflinchingly stare at the poster.

The use of lighting in this poster is particularly important - the lights on the two sides of his face have a mysterious, ghostly glow which is fitting for the theme of the story. The way in which the number '6' is formed of the same light that shines on Bruce Willis gives the same haunting effect of something spectral being present within the story, as does the large amount of black within the poster: it denotes vulnerability and lack of security within the story, as there is no sense of location within the poster.

The way in which the characters are presented sideways has a jarring effect on the audience and gives the poster as a whole a feeling of being off-center and imbalanced. This reflects the twisted development of the character of Kevin, and almost asks the audience to look at the poster from a different angle - something which could be symbolic of the different angles there are to the main ambiguity of the story, which is whether Kevin's own psyche or the way in which he was raised caused him to commit murders.

Poster Research and Analysis

1. Following (1998)

 2. Only God Forgives (2013)

 3. Manhunter (1986)

Storyboard

Title Planning

For my title, I was influenced by mostly one word titles such as 'Memento', 'Shame' or 'Drive' - titles which have obvious and dramatic connotations. In fitting with the fact that the style of this film as a whole is generally different to the more urban, street-based stories of crime and gangs that British cinema is renowned for, I wanted my title to refer more to the ambiguities of the story and the development of the main character, in particular his questionable morality and the questionable amounts of danger that are placed upon him. Words that came to mind included:

• Uncertainty
• Doubt
• Apparition
• Illusion

However, I realised that as well as bringing to mind the ambiguities of my story, I also needed the title to have a strong and bold feel that has a more visceral tone. I came up with:

• 'Disturbed'

a title which, in my opinion, denotes brutality and makes a bold statement about the film and the main character. As well as this, I feel that having a graphic announcing this as a title after the final shots of the film - the character of Frank looking out of his house window at something the audience never see - could also suggest the ambiguities of the film, but in a more tough and dark way. 

Graphics Plan

I produced this in order to test out certain templates on Final Cut Pro X and see whether they would work as titles for my final trailer. Overall, I feel that they work well for the atmosphere of my trailer and actually look quite professional. A few points of note, however:

• As it stands, I am going to use the second film festival accolade template, with the cross dissolve between the graphic and the video footage, taken by me, that plays after it - I feel that it has an immersive quality. However, this is subject to change depending on whether the cross dissolve works with the actual camera shot which will follow on from the film festival graphic.
• I am not sure about the graphics template which announces my name as a director - the way I have laid out my name, with the 'Helvetica Nue' font and the surname in bold is very professional looking in my opinion, though the way in which it fades between 'a film by' and 'Christoph Macdowall' could be too slow paced for my trailer.
• The font I used for the final title template is called 'Hei', though it is not the same as the fonts I used for the actor and director names, as putting certain words in bold within the 'Hei' font did not seem to work. However, the two fonts do not feel mismatched so this is not a particularly pressing issue.
• My idea was to, when announcing the name of the lead actor, have the surname in bold and the first name in regular typeface - what I actually did, however, was make his first name in a particularly light typeface and I feel that this is far more professional looking.

Studio and Distribution Research

The kind of film I plan to make is medium budget, sophisticated and not inherently British in the way that thrillers such as films such as 'Ill Manors', a film using the London riots as a setting, are. As a result, production companies such as BBC Films or FilmLondon are not the kinds of production companies that would produce and distribute my film - they tend to focus on more low-budget films that have a more realistic, gritty British edge. A production company that has produced some fairly prominent films that are not quite at the level of high budget blockbusters but are not totally independent and low budget is Endgame Entertainment: this year, they were attached to the successful sci-fi film 'Looper', which was made on a budget of $30 million - as it is a science fiction film with two major stars, it naturally has a higher budget than what mine would have though I still believe that ours are in a similar category of films. Endgame Entertainment also produced 'An Education' (2009), a British film, 'I'm Not There' (2007), a biography of Bob Dylan with an arthouse edge.

Another production company that I can picture being attached to my film is FilmDistrict, the ident of which is something that has also inspired me. FilmDistrict also distributed 'Looper' as well as the film 'Drive' which, of all the recent films, has been one of the most influential for me. FilmDistrict generally produces fairly commercial films, however, and is based in Los Angeles, and so it is unlikely that it would actually produce my film - only distribute it.

For the production end, I picture Focus Features as making my film. They are a division of NBCUniversal, though are responsible for making arthouse films. In the past, they have made 'Eastern Promises' (2007) and 'In Bruges' (2008), two British films that I think mine could be comparable to.

However, as my film will be reasonably low-budget and will be a British production, I feel it is necessary to address British production companies that specialise in smaller scale films. The main British production companies that produce low budget, London based films are: BBC Films, Film4 and FilmLondon.

Though my film is fairly ambitious and I can picture it having some international production and distribution behind it, I also think that with the actual production of the film - particularly with regard to acquiring locations and supporting actors - it would be necessary to work with a production company such as FilmLondon.

Ident Planning

For this trailer, I have decided to raise the bar with regard to how I produce my ident and intend to go beyond simply using a Final Cut Pro graphic template like I did last year. I have decided to play to my strengths and make an ident out of video footage and editing rather than using an advanced computer software, which I am less advanced with. 

Two idents in particular influence me for the kind of ident I want to make, Film District and Miramax:

The Miramax ident in particular is something I think I could replicate - London generally is not a high rise city, though I live fairly near the Canary Wharf district which is the main high rise centre within London, and it would be easy enough for me to get stylish and good quality video footage of the area. This is a still image from video footage I have taken of Canary Wharf in the past with my own camera, and I am hoping that with more time and a better quality camera I will produce an image suitable for my ident.

What I would like for the actual title is for them to fade in while the image itself fades to black - rather than have the title placed in the middle of the shot like Miramax, I am going to place them just above the skyline of the buildings of Canary Wharf.

Sound Planning

Diegetic sound

Recently, I practiced using microphones to record dialogue - the difference between using a boom microphone and a camera microphone, or even a directional microphone when it comes to filming dialogue in a busy place became instantly noticeable. All of my key dialogue scenes occur in busy places, for example a bar and a city street, meaning I will definitely need to use the boom microphone to film. Obviously, it is more complicated and some dangers will arise, for example:

• The boom microphone may show up in the frame when being held - this sometimes even happens in TV, and occasionally with films a boom microphone or operator is seen in the reflection of a window or mirror.
• It will also mean that I will need a clapper board in order to sync the sound from the microphone track and the video recording from the camera.

Ambient sound

I also plan on using a separate microphone track from the camera, using a boom microphone, to record ambient sound. I will create separate ambient tracks to play during the bar scenes, outside the bar, the meeting on the bench, when Frank picks up the bag and when he is in the market. These will all be done on location, so I will be taking the microphone to the Zerodegrees bar, the road outside it and the Spitalfields area.

Aesthetics and Visual Style - Planning

One of the directors who influences me the most with regard to visuals is Michael Mann. As a director, he is renowned for his visual style, particularly his use of cities and modern architecture. Often, in films such as 'Heat' or 'Collateral', the architecture and shape of the cities he uses - in the case of both these films, he uses Los Angeles - dominates the framing, or is at least prominent within it. This style of filming has influenced many other directors and films, most notably the recent film 'Drive'.

Even in indoor scenes such as the famous bank heist sequence from 'Heat', Mann chooses locations demonstrating stylish modern architecture.

As well as having a mise-en-scene demonstrating modern architecture and city lights, Mann also uses colour in an expressive way in his films, particularly the film 'Manhunter'. This has influenced me very much, and I have found ways of adding colour and style to certain locations in my film and will be utilising these.

Most low-budget British films adopt a very different visual approach to what I am influenced by and how I picture my trailer to end up looking - this comes down to the fact that mine has a different subject matter to theirs. Most British thrillers are often based around social realism and are designed to reflect the struggles of British youths in an honest way, and as a result they do not try and stylise their visual style and often set their films in the more gritty parts of London such as council estates. Though there is clearly commentary behind this, I think that the handheld camera style adopted by most British thriller filmmakers and the washed out colour palettes that are often seen in British films are overdone and are uninteresting from a filmmaking perspective - above everything else, my film is based around the middle classes and is more of a morality tale with psychological themes than a story about social struggles and youth crime culture.

The kind of visual style I want to avoid.

One of the locations I have chosen is the Spitalfields area. Though it is not too far off the settings of social realist thrillers, in terms of basic appearance, to me it has very different connotations. The architecture there is a mix of old and new, and has a pristine look to it - it is surprisingly close to the city, with some iconic modern highrise buildings being within sight when one is there.

These are images I acquired while reccying the location.

Directors such as Michael Mann also often use postmodern architecture in their films, with 'Manhunter' being the best example of how he uses this.

Influenced by the kind of postmodern and often metallic looking architecture seen in films by directors such as Michael Mann, I have chosen to set some of my trailer inside a bar which is also a microbrewery.

Planning Schedule

Sound - address foley sound, comment on plans for how to take sound. Write up on our sound test. Comment on plans for diegetic sound.
Graphics - research for actual film title e.g. font, motion, positioning, stylistics. Does it carry any sound with it? Planning for graphics.
Research for ident and planning for ident.

Graphics Research and Planning

These four titles are examples of graphic titles in films that I particularly liked. The graphics for Shame (far left) and The Social Network (left) are both examples of understated fonts, the kind that I feel would fit in with the minimalistic atmosphere of my film. The colour of th etitles is white and possess no overstated animations and transitions. The main striking point of both of these graphics is that the creators have chosen to emphasise certain words via italics or bold font - this is a subtle yet highly effective approach to making titles, as it stresses the importance of what they show which in turn gives them a professional look. I strongly believe that I will transfer this technique into my trailer on whatever I decide will be the marketing point of the film - possibly my own name as a director. The other two titles are from Reservoir Dogs and Drive, two more alternative films that have enjoyed much popularity in certain circles and are cited as unique and distinctive. The graphics they use only add to this - both titles are done in a noticable colour, from mustard yellow to pink, and have a flashy font. Though this is not the kind of atmosphere I am hoping to create, one thing that interests me about both is that they are both shown over a shot from the film. In both cases, the shots have an iconic feel though are relatively basic, only really showing the characters from the film. If I were to have my graphics run over a shot from my film - which is not unlikely, as I want my trailer to have a sense of momentum and to not consistently cut to black - I would take this into account.

The image on the far left is an examle of the Cannes award for best director in its standard format, and it is easy to see why having something like this alone would fit into the atmosphere of my trailer as the font and style is similar. Furthermore, I would have no objection to this playing over black as it would still be a selling point for the film, meaning the audience would not be disengaged by a cut to black. However, the film festival graphics for Shame (middle) felt particularly compelling to me. Having my film festival graphics run over an important or impressive shot from the film would help the audience know what kind of style to expect from the film and would suggest to them that it is of a high quality, more so than a simple and more ambiguous film festival graphic over black. The graphics on the right are for the film Moon, and are an example of film festival graphics which have been modified to further fit the atmosphere of the film, doing what Shame does to an even greater extent. The furthest extent to which I would modify the look of the film festival logos is to remove the image of the wreath to give it the sparse look of my film as a whole which, though not a particularly big change, may be subtly effective.

Soundtrack Research and Planning

These are the two pre-existing soundtrack songs which I picture would fit best with the first act of my trailer. They are both done in a reasonably classical style, choosing piano as the main instrument, though the song from 'The Social Network' in particular has a modern sound to it due to the fact that it has a highly understated quality and mixes a classical piano sound with a minimalist electronic background layer of sound. This style I feel would work well in the opening of my trailer as it has a distinctly modern atmosphere due to the locations and costumes, but I also want it to have a universal and timeless feel, which peaceful piano music will add to.

The music that will play during the second act I feel will be similar to something like the beginning of the song 'On The Beach' from the soundtrack to the film Drive. It has no melody and is accompanied by percussive sounds that also have an electronic feel, making them fitting with the atmosphere of my film.  This kind of music should achieve a dangerous atmosphere - unlike the two tracks in the opening, it will also have less of a broad, expansive sound and instead it will back up and help carry the narrative which is what the second act of the trailer is about.

As for the third track, I also picture part of the song 'On The Beach' from Drive, except a segment of it that comes later in the track, at 4:50. This is a version of a recurring theme throughout the film - it is legato yet without a real melody, peaceful but also ramped up in intensity when compared to the other versions of the same theme. In the more desperate, intense context of my third act I picture music similar to this segment of the track to provide both a counterpoint to the frantic nature of the third act but also subtly add some intensity and drama to it.

The opening to 'On The Beach', which I think will work in my second act, is also used in the middle of the trailer for the film Drive, at the 0:50 mark.

Planning Schedule 2

Actors and characters - Friday 9th

Storyboard drawings finished - Tuesday 13th

Editing storyboard - Monday 19th

Still to do

Recce of bar sound and light

Research into studio/distribution

Design and create ident

Other graphic planning for main title, font for critics etc.

Sound

Costume Research

Costume research from christophmacdowall1

Location Test Footage

Actor Research - Influential Actors

Bar Location Research



The bar I have chosen to film the conversation scene early on in the film in is called Zero Degrees and is located in Blackheath village - not far from where I live, making it practical enough to get to and from. However, actually filming there could potentially be problematic so recently I went over to scout out the location and take some pictures of it. My three main problems with it were a) the lighting of the location, b) how busy it would be and c) the availability of it.

I went to the location on a sunday afternoon and the pictures that I took of it demonstrate how it was virtually empty at the time - evidently, filming at this time will be the best call. Furthermore, the pictures demonstrate how it is reasonably well-lit. Of course, it will not be overly bright but that is fine for the atmosphere I want to get across, as the scene is supposed to take place at night and have a moderately mysterious atmosphere to it.

I like the feel of this location as it is not what one would expect from a low-budget British thriller - films made by directors such as Guy Ritchie are often set in more traditional pubs in the east end, while this is a modern and slick location but impossible to associate with any particular part of London; also benefitial to the atmosphere I want to create, as I am trying to get across the idea that the character of Frank does not have a particularly noticable identity.

The fact that the bar is also a microbrewery means that the mise en scene will remain interesting and appealing to the eye, compensating for the fact that when I film the scene I am hoping for the bar to be virtually empty.

The first of the four pictures shows where I would place my two characters within the bar - they will be seated on sofas, which there are not that many of, in order to get across the idea that Frank is distant from other people he comes into contact with but also a regular at this particular bar, showing how his life is based on routine.