Final links

FINAL WEBSITE

FINAL POSTER 
 

Problems we ran into aka. technology sucks

We ran into a few problems while editing together our trailer and making the website and poster. These problems that we ran into were mainly down to the technology we were using (hence the title).

The first problem we ran into while editing together the trailer was that the clown did not stand out enough in the shot of him standing next to the tree while one of the female characters is driving away. We had previously color edited this shot to make it darker and more mysterious. However, we felt that the clown did not stand out and was not noticeable enough. To fix this problem we decided to color edit the footage so that the clown was in full color but the rest of the shot was darkened. As we were not editing on Final Cut Pro, we found a way of doing this on Photoshop [see previous post]. 
The first problem we ran into with this was that it took us a while to change the colors on each individual layer (there were 168). Once you had saved the project once, you could no longer use the history tool to change the color of the clown. As we were color editing in hour slots, we ran into some problems with this. 
The second problem was that once we had finished editing the colors, we couldn't export it back into a moving image. 
Therefore, we couldn't use this. To fix this we edited the color on iMovie, to create a darker image, but used Ken Burns to zoom in on the clown. 

The second problem that we faced involved the website. At school we were creating the website on a widescreen Mac. This was fine for viewing the website on that particular computer. However, when changing the website at home or on another regular PC, the website did not fit onto the screen. 
To solve this problem, we changed the website so that it fit on a regular sized computer screen.

The final problem that has occurred (and still isn't solved) is one that involves the poster. As we made the poster at home, we had the font downloaded at home but not at school. The printer at home does not print A3, like we need it to be printed, we have to print it at school. However, whenever the poster is sent to school, whether it be through email or on a memory stick, the font does not work and the poster does not work how it should. 

We have come up with a temporary solution to this, as we had a photo of the poster that was sent through Twitter that we printed in an A3 size. However, this lowered the quality of the photo as it became slightly pixelated. 
Another method that we are going to try is to print the poster in an A4 size at home and then try to blow it up to an A3 size at school. Hopefully this should work.

Conventions of a Film Website

Typical Conventions of A Horror Film Website

An example we looked at was the Saw website. We found that a very typical convention of a horror film website was an intro at the beginning to show what the film is about. This is accompanied by sound which sets the mood and scene for the film and links it together. The website will also contain the key images that you are likely to see throughout the film. Saw for example uses the chainsaw image to show that this will play a particular role in the killing of characters. This allows the audience to associate certain aspects of the film with the website to help it to become more authentic. 

A film website also usually contains the main character as an iconic figure on the website. For example the Saw films have Jigsaw which is the 'bad guy' and appears throughout all of the films therefore the audience will associate this with the films as it is important to link the film with the ancillary products such as the poster and website so that it becomes a whole promotional package. 

Also they will keep the Typography the same throughout the film, poster and website which is obviously important as it helps convey the same message across to the audience. 

What's more is that the Saw website also has a 'House of Jigsaw' tab where it gives some background information about the killer in the films. This creates realism for the audience as it talks about the killer as if it were real. It also includes 'The Traps' and 'The Victims' where browsers can look through these tabs and see what traps were used on which victims in the films. This contains a concept that is related to our film and we thought we might be able to do a similar idea where we focus on the background of the clown so that viewers can really get involved with the story of our film.

Website: Final draft

This is the final draft of our website for 'Coulrophobia'

• Background image: Original for the background image on the website we used a screenshot of the clown from our footage, however we decided to go for a more professional look and therefore took some stills using the clown outfit we used in our trailer. We decided to use this image for our website and poster in order to create a well known image for our film and to link them all together nicely.
• Font: We decided to use the same font that we have used in our teaser trailer and poster in order to create a recognisable font for a film, we chose this font as we felt it fitted with the genre of our film and the crosses through the O's indicate death. We have placed the title on the right hand side of the web page as here it doesn't take away too much from the image of the clown.
• Our trailer plays automatically when you enter our website, we did this to show the visitor what the film is about before the explore the rest of our website, this also seems to be a common feature of horror movie websites which inspired us to do it.
 

 

• The tabs we have chosen are 'Home', 'About', 'Trailer', 'Gallery' and 'Cast and Crew' we chose these as they seem to be a convention of a horror movie website as we have seen similar tabs on websites we have researched which are of a similar genre to our film.

• We have also included links to Coulrophobias Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel along the top bar of our website. We decided to do this as it has appeared successful for other horror films and can act as free promotion of our film as visitors of our website can follow/like us and share it with their friends.  

As we only had to create the homepage for our website when you clicked on the tabs to go to another page it says 'Page under construction' (as shown below) However for the 'Gallery' page we added some screen shots of our film in order to make the website look more authentictic.

 HERE IS THE LINK TO OUR WEBSITE:

http://deadendfilm7.wix.com/coulrophobia

 

Website deconstruction: Mama

When you first enter the Mama website the trailer for the film plays automatically, we feel this is a good idea as it gives the visitor an insight to the film before they enter the website and further promotes the film, therefore we have chosen to have our trailer automatically play on the homepage of our website.


This is the homepage of the 'Mama' website:

 

• The background image is a familiar image from the film which is also used as the image for the poster, we have decided to this with our film website and poster in order to create a familiar image for our film
• There are Facebook and Twitter links across the top of the website, this allows visitors to like or follow these social networking sites and share with their friends, acting as a form of promotion for the film. Therefore for the homepage of our teaser trailer we are going to include links to the Coulrophobia twitter and facebook pages, as a way of promoting our film.
• The same font is used throughout the homepage of the website, which is also the same font used for the titles in the trailer
• They include 'Creator of Pans Labyrinth' on the website, this creates a high expectation for the film as the creators have already made a successful film, and could attract more people to watch the film as it is likely to be of a good standard.
• There is a song of a horror genre playing as you look at the website, this enhances the genre of the film and gives more of an essence of the film as you are looking at the website.
• There is also a twitter live feed on the home page, showing tweets about Mama, this allows anyone who visits the website to see reviews from other people about the film, acting as a promotion tool.

Billing Block

To make a professional looking movie poster, it needs to have a billing block. All film posters have a billing block, which consists of the names and titles of important actors/actresses, crew members and other people involved in the production of the film.
It also includes logos from production companies and the film rating. 

Below are a few images of billing blocks

Twilight (2008)

The Hangover (2009)

The Dark Knight (2008)

A couple of popular fonts for billing blocks are

Bee

Univers 39 Thin Ultra Condensed

Tall Skinny Condensed

Triple Condensed Gothic








As you can see from the pictures, all the fonts are fairly similar, tall and "skinny". Unfortunately, you have to purchase the fonts and they are quite expensive so we tried to look for a font that was similar to these.

Typography

We used the website www.dafont.com to choose a font to use for our trailer, poster and website. Here are the ones we have been looking at:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

We have decided that fonts 1, 2, 5 and 9 are our favourite as they fit best with the concept of our film. We will therefore experiment further with these three fonts in order to select the typography to use in our trailer, poster and website.

Website First Draft

This is our first draft of our website.
We used the photo that we are using for the poster as the background of the website, linking the two together. We hope that by doing this the mask will become a recognizable image and that when people see the clown mask they will immediately associate it with our film.
We positioned the title, tagline and relese date towards the right hand side of the screen so it does not cover the mask and take away from it.
The release date is in red, making it stand out from the rest of the writing, however we think that we may change this as we do not think that it stands out enough, therefore we may change the color, make it bolder or bigger so that it makes the audience aware of the release date.
We put the three links to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and linked them to our social networking sites, where viewers can find out more about the film and the making of it.
At the bottom of the site, in the footer, we put the 'Restricted' film rating symbol to show that the film has an age limit, and we put the links to the website where visitors can find out more about film ratings.
The five links at the top of the page takes the visitors to the site to various different pages. Although we only had to make the homepage, we have linked the 'Trailer' tab to a different page which has our trailer on autoplay.

Obviously, there are some changes that we need to make to our website as this is not the final draft.

Website Deconstruction: Halloween II

• Title - this moves, drawing attention to itself and making sure that the audience knows what the film is called
• Facebook and Twitter links - visitors to the site can click on the links and be taken to these social networking sites where they can share it with all their friends. This is a version of free promotion
• Email sign up - visitors to the site can enter their email address and recieve information about the film. They can also receive emails from the companies that made the film
• DVD release date - tells the visitor that the film is avaliable to buy on DVD and Blu-Ray
• Other links - the other two links that they can click on take them to other parts of the website where they can do interactive things such as 'step into the deranged world of Michael Myers' or be entered into the 'Halloween II sweepstakes'
• Enter Site - this is the first part of the website which just introduces the visitor to the film but they can click to enter the main site where there will be more information about the film
• Background image - the image shows a still from the movie of Michael Myers with a knife making a stabbing motion, giving the visitor an insight into what will happen in the film

 



• Title - just like on the first part of the website, the title moves drawing attention to it and is in the same font as the rest of the website
• Links - the site has links down the side which you can click on which takes you to another part of the website where you can learn more about the film
• Trailer - once you have clicked on 'Enter the Site' on the first page, the main website becomes fullscreen and the trailer appears and automatically starts playing
• Open footer - you can open the footer at the bottom which contains more links to social networking sites, places to book tickets to see the film, a box to enter your email address to join the mailing list, the production company that made the film and the rating that the film has been given
• Background image - the image in the background is distorted and fades into the color of the background. It shows Michael Myers, the main character, which reveals part of the film.

Website deconstruction: Insidious