Planning continued (Movie poster and magazine front cover)

Movie Magazine front cover

Brand logo and identity

Empire magazine has gone for a name that really puts it on the pedestal, almost bigging itself up against any movie magazine competitors. Empire is a word used to show the grouping of countries or counties who are ruled by a single ruler or country. This immediately makes me think of this magazine as the ruler and colonial leader of all the movies within the media capital. We therefore expect a professional looking magazine that covers all of the latest movies and references to any gossip within the media world. This also puts across the genre of the magazine to the consumers, they are a magazine that covers all movie genres, but only contains films that are hot and are at the top of the most talked about movies. This can ensure that their magazines sell and they make the profit that they strive to retain and increase. 

The font itself appears to be elongated and stretched up. This may have been done to emphasise the fact that its on top as a movie magazine and can be relied upon by consumers as a magazine that will bring them all the latest movie news and updates. The fact the font is tall almost looks intimidating as a title and makes you feel like you can trust the magazine more as a consumer. 

The typography choice itself somehow makes the letters look like relics or temples of high value or importance in themselves. This is certainly the case with the letter 'M', which looks like a free standing temple of high importance. The choice to have this typography style may have been to again to show the magazine as a magazine that is of the highest status and is on the top of its chain when it comes to movie magazines.

The colour red has been used in the movie title. The colour red can represent multiple emotions and feelings ranging from hatred and anger to love and passion. The fact they have used a colour that holds multiple meanings may have been done to show itself as a movie magazine. The fact that movies try to capture different emotions and feelings may be what Empires logo is trying to capture, trying to resemble as much as a movie as possible.

Font Design

Now we have looked at existing movie magazines we now need to begin to begin planning our movie magazine for our movie LifeLine. We have gathered some fonts from the website Dafont.com in order to see what ones work best with our genre and what effect they bring with them.

Lifeline

The first font we looked at is called 'Electrofied". This typography we felt looked quite unique with the look of the curved inner edges of the letters. When thinking of a lifeline, which is represented using an ECG, the monitor is shown in waves. The look of the inner side of the letters could be seen as a wave like structure by the way they curve and shroud the letter with minimal straight edges. 

Lifeline

The second font we looked at is called 'Supreme'. We chose this font for a number of reasons, first one being the way the font tilts to the right. This gives it a look like its moving, which when you think about our movie title 'LifeLine', an ECG, which shows a persons life line, we see it moving, which is what we wanted to symbolise within our choice of typography.

LIFELINE

The third font is called 'Stasmic'. We liked the fact that this typography combines both the curvature of the letters and the tilt of the title. Both of these features help the title to appear as if it is moving like the motion of waves by the use of a tilt and the curv on the inner side of the letters. This helps to define both our genre and the resemblance to what Lifeline corresponds and relates too. We have chosen to show our title meaning and genre through what the typography looks like, which is what our existing researched products have used within their movie posters.

LIFELINE

This fourth font is called 'Neuropol'. We admired the look of the rounded edges. We wanted to reflect the title of the movie within the typography used for our movie title. When we think of  lifeline, we think of  the life of a person and the continuation of someones life span, so we wanted to show this with the use of rounded edges. We felt the use of straight edges could resemble something to do with a lifeline, we thought straight edges could be read as the end of someones life. We felt this could lead the audience to read our movie poster as more of a horror genre rather than a sci-fi/ thriller. After looking at existing Sci-fi movie poster such as Tron we can see they have used rounded edges within their choice of typography, which helps it to look more Sci-fi and mysterious. 

What typography we like most:

The typography we thought we would use on our movie magazine is the 'Stasmic' font. This font combined both of the features that we wanted present on the font, which was the curvature of the letters to represent a wave like motion, and the slight tilt of the letters, which would give the feeling of movement. Both of these features we felt would give off the look of an ECG, to help show the meaning of a lifeline through the typography.


Logo Development

I have used Photoshop CS6 to create my logo for my movie magazine, TheBigScreen. With each logo design I will try to achieve a different look, which gives me more variety when it comes to choosing my final logo design for my magazine.

I have chosen to call our movie magazine 'TheBigScreen'. This was chosen to put out the genre of the movie magazine to the consumer. When people think of the 'The big screen', they think of the cinema and movies that they watch at the cinema.

This is my first logo design for my magazine front cover. I have taken the Stasmic font and typed in our magazines title, TheBigScreen. I have then taken a tool that allows me to add numerous styles to the text, and then added a style called bulge and adjusted the size to make it larger. This allowed the centre of the text to become bigger and then towards the ends of the text it became narrower, which gives it a stretched look. This effect i felt gave the look of a cinema screen, which we know to be large stretched screen. This may help us to reveal the genre through the logo by making it look like a cinema screen, which is what movies are shown on at the premiere or release dates. I have followed the same convention that Empire have used, the convention to show the genre through the design and look of the logo and the typography used. I have also followed the code for using the colour red as the font colour. I felt that by using a colour that can be rad in so many different ways relates well to what I'm trying to averts in my magazine, movies. One convention i have also followed, which Empire have used is the typography style itself. Empire had elongated the letters to make them  look tall and superior to correspond with the name of their magazine, i have stretched out the font to make it look like a screen. I also felt this was a good way to put across the magazine genre to the consumer quickly and in a creative manor. 

This is my second logo design for my magazine front cover. I have taken my first logo design and changed a couple of features. First of all i had changed the colour of the logo to a dark blue colour, which was decided to try and see how different colours worked and the impact they had on the overall look and the effect given. The colour blue we associate with rust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. I thought if I used the colour blue instead of red as the logos main colour, we could give out the fact that the magazine is trustworthy, sticks to the truth when it comes to movies and brings with it confidence and intelligence in all of its articles. I have also changed the font style itself to a more bold, solid font called Terminator real NFI. I felt by changing the typography to a style that looks more solid in it self, may present a whole different opinion of the magazine to the consumer. The consumer may feel that the magazine is more professional and strong in terms of presentation, style and the articles presented within.

This is my third logo design for my magazine front cover. In this draft i have changed the colour of the logo to black. This colour represents power, elegance and mystery, which is what i wanted this logo to demonstrate about the magazine in which it is representing. I have also changed the typography style to something that looks more cinematic and stylised, this I thought may reflect the genre within the magazine to the consumer, being a movie magazine. The typography itself looks like the ends are starting to be pulled from an external force, something that sounds quite sci-fi. This may not work as we  want to show the entirety of genres through our logo rather than just one.

What logo style we like most:

After looking at our three logo designs i felt that our second movie design was the most suitable as our movie magazine logo. This was due to the fact that it looked the most professional, which will immediately appeal to our audience as they will develop trust and loyalty within our magazine. I also liked the style of the typography used, terminator real NFI, which made the logo look like a cinema screen, which helped to put out the magazine genre to our audience members, much like Empire have done in their logo. I also liked the colour that was chosen as this reflected many emotions and feelings within that one colour, which correlates well with movies and the way different genres appeal to such a vast majority of audience members.

Camera Shots

When it comes to taken photos you don't just take random shots as they might not give you the effect you are looking for and you may think why this is. Therefore its best to plan your camera shots before you take them. There are a number of shots that I can consider, these include long shot, mid shot, close up and extreme close up. Here are some examples of researched images I found of hip hop artists presented using these  different shots. 

This shot of Dr Dre and me in a Mid shot. A mid shot presents the subject in more details while still giving an impression of the entire subject. A mid shot is from the waist up. They help to display facial expression, helping to emphasise emotion of the subject in the photo and reveal body language.

These shots are close ups. Close up shots present detail of the subjects face rather than the scene. They are useful in capturing emotion within the subject's face. 

These shots of Nikki Minaj and me are called long shots. This shot refers to the subject being displayed in full view, the audience can see their entire body. This reveals body language and expression. This shot isn't useful for displaying emotion because the facial features aren't entirely clear, as with a close up or extreme up.

Within my photos shown below, I have made important decisions such as costumes, made up , jewellery and camera shots etc. I have made my model wear a leather jacket above a blue t shirt, along with two chains. These are typical costume designs seen in most of Nikki Minaj's photo shoots. I had shot these photos in her bedroom, the plan originally was to shoot them outside, but I felt that I wanted to control the lightning in the photos. The decision to take the photos inside I felt worked well because I was able to control lighting, which overall allowed me to control the entire image from the Mise en scene to the lighting to the camera shots. I also wasn't restricted by the weather and was able to spend as much time as possible on the photos, which overall were successful and contributed well to my magazine.

Camera Angles

Just like with camera shots you also need to consider camera angles when it comes to taking a photo. There are several angles that exist all bringing a different feel to a photo. The way that the camera is positioned has a big impact on the way that the audience perceives the photo.

High angle shot: This is a shot that is positioned higher than the subject. This gives the impression that the subject isn't important, that the audience are of higher status.

Low angle shot: This is the opposite to a high angle shot. The camera is positioned lower than the subject. this gives the impression of domination and power.

Eye level shot: with this shot the camera is positioned eye level with the subject. This has no effect on the viewer, it would feel like they are in a neutral conversion.

Point of view shot: This shot shows the audience the image through the subjects eye. 

Aerial shot: These shots are usually used to establish a scene or at the end of the film, to give the audience the idea that they are leaving the setting. usually done with a camera attached to either a crane or special helicopter.

Overall, I would not be using the aerial shot or the point of view shot as they are designed more for cinematic films. I am trying to capture emotion and power from a Hip Hip queen within a still image, these effects wouldn't capture this. The low angle shot I feel would be very ideal when it comes to capturing emotion and power within the photo. I will also use Eye level shots to help engage eye contact and establish a connection between the consumer and KD. The eyes being placed in the centre of the image would also allow them to be the one of the first features to be noticed, establishing a connection early.

Photos

These are the photos that were taken to use as a cover photo. Our aim here is to ensure that the cover star is holding eye contact with the camera. This is to establish a connection between the consumer and the cover star. This image will reflect our entire movie and this has to be shown to the best possible way through our cover image.

This photo I took is a Mid / Long shot of Kennan with his hands spread apart to look like he's wielding lightning, which i will implement using after effects. I have established a connection with the consumer by ensuring that Kennan is looking directly at the camera. The Mise en scene has been carefully thought about. The light we didn't need to consider as the background will be replaced in After effects and replaced with a black screen to allow the lightning to have more of an effect. We have chosen Kennan to wear a red hoody to make him look like a typical teenager, we didn't want the audience to feel that he is someone out of the ordinary in terms of clothing and looks.

The posture of Kennan has also been taken into account. His hands have been placed at his sides opened up to allow me to incorporate lightning from his hands. We have to consider the effect used once the image is taken to ensure it looks right and delivers the desired effect. he has his head tilted down slightly to make him look more serious.

In this photo I have also used a Mid/ Long shot to show Kennan to the audience. From the last shot the only feature I've changed is the posture of Kennan. Instead of having his hands out to the side I wanted to set them somewhere different to try and visualise the effect of where the lightning will lie. The way the hands are brought together may look good for creating a bolt of lighting through the middle, but I feel I need the lightning to travel up the sides so we can see the rest of his posture easily. I also feel he looks to happy in the photo and will make the audience feel that this is a comical movie and won't take it seriously.

In this image I have also used the Mid/long shot of Kennan. Again I have changed a couple of features including the arm position, which I moved to the sides of his body. This posture makes him look superior and in full control. To enhance this idea of power I have ensured Kennan is looking directly in to the camera and with his head level with the camera also as if we were talking face to face. I liked the position of his hands as I will be able to draw the lightning up and around his body instead of through the middle without looking natural. The lightning look will need to look natural and realistic.

Kennan has a slight smile on his face, but nothing too forced, it  gives the look of control and omission over the shot.

Looking back at the three shots, the one I have chosen to use for my magazine front cover photo is the third one. This is because i feel that this specific photo uses some feature, which I strongly believe will sell the magazine by enhancing the professionalism and creativity. I liked the way that Kennan overall looks in control and dominating the entire shot from the way he's he's holding his arms to his sides and the way he's looking into the camera. His facial features all propose a confident young individual who can relate to the consumers we are aiming towards. 

Mock-up movie magazine page design

Below shown are my mock up designs of what my front cover will look like. These designs are a mock and may change depending on if I have made any improvements in my final design.

Front Cover

I have chosen this layout for my front cover because I felt that this represents a typical front cover. I feel the layout helps to contribute to the left side third rule. The masthead on the left, leading to the puff on the right, heading down to the left where the cover lines are placed and the bar code situated on the right hand side. 

Movie Posters

Brand logo and identity

Every movie poster has a movie logo that is specific to the film and therefore is unique as this is presented on the movie poster. I will be looking at the movie poster for Transformers: Revenge of the fallen and in particular the movie logo, the Transformers logo.
The typography itself has been placed in bold font, this has been done to give the font a strong feel to it, which would relate to the movie in terms of mechanical machines being strong and mighty. The typography look will try to represent this.
The font itself looks metal like with its shiny metallic surface and shiny edges. This look immediately puts across the movie genre and theme to the audience of the movie poster.

Font Design

Now we have looked at existing movie poster we now need to begin to begin planning our movie poster for our movie LifeLine. We have gathered some fonts from the website Dafont.com in order to see what ones work best with our genre and what effect they bring with them. We will looking at the same

Lifeline

The first font we looked at is called 'Electrofied". This typography we felt looked quite unique with the look of the curved inner edges of the letters. When thinking of a lifeline, which is represented using an ECG, the monitor is shown in waves. The look of the inner side of the letters could be seen as a wave like structure by the way they curve and shroud the letter with minimal straight edges. 

Lifeline

The second font we looked at is called 'Supreme'. We chose this font for a number of reasons, first one being the way the font tilts to the right. This gives it a look like its moving, which when you think about our movie title 'LifeLine', an ECG, which shows a persons life line, we see it moving, which is what we wanted to symbolise within our choice of typography.

LIFELINE

The third font is called 'Stasmic'. We liked the fact that this typography combines both the curvature of the letters and the tilt of the title. Both of these features help the title to appear as if it is moving like the motion of waves by the use of a tilt and the curv on the inner side of the letters. This helps to define both our genre and the resemblance to what Lifeline corresponds and relates too. We have chosen to show our title meaning and genre through what the typography looks like, which is what our existing researched products have used within their movie posters.

LIFELINE

This fourth font is called 'Neuropol'. We admired the look of the rounded edges. We wanted to reflect the title of the movie within the typography used for our movie title. When we think of  lifeline, we think of  the life of a person and the continuation of someones life span, so we wanted to show this with the use of rounded edges. We felt the use of straight edges could resemble something to do with a lifeline, we thought straight edges could be read as the end of someones life. We felt this could lead the audience to read our movie poster as more of a horror genre rather than a sci-fi/ thriller. After looking at existing Sci-fi movie poster such as Tron we can see they have used rounded edges within their choice of typography, which helps it to look more Sci-fi and mysterious. 

What typography we liked most:

The typography we thought would most be suited towards our movie poster would be the third font, Stasmic. This font i felt best resembled our genre of thriller/paranormal. The curvature of the letters and the slant of the title allow the title to look like its moving, much like an ECG, which represents someones lifeline. 

Logo Development

I have used Photoshop CS6 to create my title for my movie poster. With each logo design I will try to achieve a different look, which gives me more variety when it comes to choosing my final logo design for my movie poster. The title may help increase sales if it delivers the right message to our consumers and appears attractive and professional. Il be focusing on more on the colour, and size of the title more than the design as we already have chosen the typography were going to use, which will make the look of the title.

For my first design I have chosen to use a pale blue as the title colour. With this design I wanted to try and bring forward the theme and genre of the movie. The pale blue colour represents health and healing, which is what our movie title is about. The lifeline that presents someones heart beat, representing the health within an individual. I also felt this colour would also enhance the look of the poster by working with the lightning bolt down the middle. I wanted the lightning to pass through the font to look like it had illuminated it, so this colour i feel helps to show this.

For my second design I have gone for a dark blue colour as the title colour. My aim of this design was to bring out and make the title stand out amongst the remaining contents on the page as I feel an attractive title can say a lot about a film. The dark blue colour also says a lot about the character because of what it stands for, such as importance, authority and power. This I want to represent the character and the way I want him to be seen on the movie poster as dominant and powerful. 

What logo style we liked the most:

After looking carefully at the two designs  for the movie poster I needed to carefully analyse what design will represent our movie the most and what design will carry forward meanings and positive views on our movie, Lifeline. The design I felt achieved this was my first design. Firstly, I felt the pale blue colour represented the movie in its entirety and took into consideration what the movie title represents. The logo design also takes into account the surroundings on the movie poster and works well with the lightning bolt running down the centre, which blends through the title creating a visually stunning effect. 

Research continued (movie poster and magazine front cover)

Movie Poster Research

A movie poster is a poster containing features from the movie that it is advertising. Features include images of the main characters involved in the movie, and usually they are suspended within some sort of action scene that the characters are involved in. The event they are placed in usually depends on the genre of the movie. Within our movie poster we want to pay particular attention to the ideas of Levi Strauss and the topic of Binary Opposition. This will branch off into the idea of the Villain and the Hero and this can be shown within our movie poster. We will need to look into exisitng posters that would include this sort of look to it, these would lie in genres such as Action, Supernatural and Thriller. 

Analysis of existing movie posters

Real Steel

This is the movie poster for the movie Real Steel. I am going to discuss the codes and conventions used in this poster that will help me when it comes to planning our movie poster for our film Life Line. The first convention we see is the text used and typography, this is usually tailored to the movie itself and the genre. So in this case the movie is Science Fiction and includes iconography such as robots. The title uses the word "steel" which suggest solid, strong elements, so the text is capitalised, bold and has a metallic silver look to it to depict the idea of steel. Another common convention used is the inclusion of the Actor's name, as this is the recognisable Hugh Jackman his name takes centre frame in particular his arms are in the middle and folded together, which could be seen as a symbol of power, the folding maybe represeting a seal or bond, or a relationship between Hugh Jackmon and the robot standing behind him. This convention is used to help sell the movie to fans of Hugh Jackman, according to Auter theory he is famously recognised as Wolverine, his most popular role. This solidifies him as an Action Hero and helps to build the audiences' expectations. The name is in bold and the letters are spaced apart, this may be to make it appear important to the audience and to help it become more apparent and noticeable against the rest of the poster. The actor is also present in the centre of the poster, which shows dominance over the entirety of the contents on the poster.

The overall posture looks intimidating with Hugh Jackmon staring towards the camera, which engages and establishes an immediate connection with the audience. The effect of the eyes looking directly towards the camera produces a somewhat connection or a portal for the audience to be taken into the movie itself.

Another convention used is the use of a slogan or a phase that sums up the movie located at the top of the poster. In this movie poster the slogan reads "If you've got one shot, make it real". Becuase they have been placed on seperate lines means you can read them as individual statements, which make them more powerful as slogans. The full stop at the end of each line also establishes that its a statement and makes the slogan seem more powerful and striking, the audience will take it more seriously and initialise the fact of its realism and importance.

In terms of colour they have stuck to greyscale colours such as black, grey and white. This may have been done to work with the colours of steel and to make it work with the colour in terms of making specific areas stand out against another one. Using colours that stand out against other colours is a good way to help areas stand out more than other less important areas. For example they have darkened the lower part of the poster to allow the text to stand out effectively, this is clearly evident as the jeans of Hugh Jackman fade into darkness, which text is then overlayed upon. This is shown on the top of the poster, where the fade of the light is applied to make it appear dark, which the text is then applied on top of. He is lit via stong spotlights, symbolic of a sports stadium. This suggests an element of sportmanship, competition and battle.

Another code and convention used is the large amount of text at the bottom also known as the billings block. This is included in almost every movie poster signifying the actors, actresses, director, production team and small details of the people behind the movie itself. It is a legal requirement that this information be present on the poster as it adheres to regulations.

Looking at the stance and posture between the two figures in the poster we can apply the binary opposition theory. We can see Hugh Jackman with his arms folded together, this usually signifies an arrogance and self confidence of the person. The robot behind has his arms by his sides in a fighting stance with his hands slightly raised. This also shows arrogance and self confidence as the person isn't defending their body and is ready to take anything that comes at them. Two similar stances have been used to show the same attitude. An alternative reading of this image might suggest team work, as the robot is standing behind him in a supportive "back-up" role.

We can also look at the binary opposition of good and evil and how each of these are shown. In this poster we can see Hugh Jackman in the foreground, we see he is behind the large robot whose shadow shrouds Hugh. The darkness, which represents evil has been placed around Hugh in the form of the robots back. This may show Hugh as the dark side of the two figures. On the other hand the robot, which is placed in the background has been placed under many flashing cameras and spotlights, where the light indicates purity and hope. This may show the robot to be the good, between them both.

Hulk

This is the movie poster for the Hulk. I am going to discuss the codes and conventions used in this poster that will help me when it comes to planning our movie poster for our film Life Line. The first convention im going to talk about is the text used and the typography, which is usually tailored to the movie itself. In this case the movie title Hulk is suspended under what looks to be a helicopter light, maybe to emphasise the fact the Hulk is wanted and dangerous. An alternative way we could also read the spotlight, is as a sign that the Hulk is the most important aspect of the movie poster and the movie itself so a spotlight is used to show this. The text is capitalised to emphasise the fact that what the letters come together to read, Hulk, is in fact strong, the text carries this idea through.

Another convention used is the inclusion of the famous actors/actresses on the top of the movie poster. This highlights the famous actors/actresses that are in the movie. It sort of looks like the names are placed on the Hulk's shoulders, like they are being placed on a pedestal to show importance. The text is in white to help it become clear to the audience against the green and blue background.

Another convention i will be looking at is the stance between the two figures in the pictures. The person in the foreground we can see is keeping his hands in his pocket, whilst looking down. This stance suggests the character holds a timid nature, or maybe looks like he's ashamed of something he's done or a secret he's hiding. On the other hand the Hulk has his hands by his sides and appears to be looking behind him at the man. The arms by his sides shows confidence and control, whilst the looking behind him action may suggest he's protecting the man from harm. After watching the movie i know the two people in the poster are the same and therefore can suggest that this poster is trying to capture how he transforms from a shy, timid guy into the giant bulky Hulk.

Another code and convention used is the use of a Billings Block. This is a legal requirement to be on every movie poster that is officially released. This is included in almost every movie poster signifying the actors, actresses, director, production team and small details of the people behind the movie itself. This convention would be essential to include in our movie poster as this would be the finished touch to making our poster look professional.

Movie Magazine front cover

What is a Movie Magazine? 

A movie magazine is simply a magazine that is directed towards the genre of movies and movie culture. Popular movie magazines such as Empire typically include interviews of movie stars, movie review, previews, movie premiere highlights, a transcript, and details of movie scenes in their magazines. They will include articles that cover that of the magazines to appeal to the target audience and sell more issues and make greater profit.

Movie magazines usually appeal to a wide audience range by offering features such as upcoming movie releases, subscription offers, movie releases and interviews with famous movie stars such as Hugh Jackamn, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise etc. The cover stars will all have a direct mode of address, where they are seen to be all looking directly at the camera, it is very rare that you will find a cover star looking away from the camera. This technique is used to hold the consumers attention and establish a connection between the cover star and the consumer.

They will feature a cover star that relates to the genre or movie that the magazine typically represents or is promoting at that month, for example Empire will host a cover star such as Danielle Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson on the month of the Deathly Hallows part two premiere. An example of a magazine that doesn't follow the movie genre include OK! magazine which is a women's lifestyle magazine.

This type of magazine features articles that relate to that of celebrity gossip that appeal to the OK! target audience being mostly females. The advertising within the magazines also targets this core readership with adverts varying from shampoo products to lip gloss. You wouldn't find these sorts of articles or adverts within Movie magazines, instead you will find adverts promoting a dvd release, an upcoming movie etc

Movie magazines such as Empire will feature some unique articles that relate to that of the months bigger movie release. The advertisements contained within may be aiming towards that of a male target audience who are targeted to buy the magazine.

Features contained within a typical magazine include interviews, movie reviews, movie premieres, movie releases, competitions, advertisements, subscriptions and what will be featured in the next issue.

Why do people read music magazines?

According to Blumer and Katz's gratifications model, people seek out media that meet their desired needs or personal preferences. We can apply this to movie magazines, people who find that media fulfils their needs will purchase the movie magazine. There are four gratifications that have been analysed. Firstly, it provides us with information, people want to find out about the world and society and satisfy our curiosity that we sustain as humans. Secondly, being our personal identity, magazines will use specific cover stars to help achieve this by using someone that we find contain attributes and behaviours that we contain. The consumer will aspire to be like this model and adapt their personality and actions to match that of the cover star as well as these we can take in information and surveillance from magazines. We can collect information such as movie release dates,  interviews with movie stars, movie reviews or information about a new movie about to be released. People may use this information and spread information by the word of mouth to their friends and people they encounter on a day to day basis. The third one, personal relationships can be achieved by media. people may use the media as a substitution for their family life, for example substituting soap opera to their family life. The media can also be used as a diversion from reality, a way for them to escape and emerge in a world that is completely controlled. For example in movie magazines the consumer can become emerged in a world which the editor controls, the placing of the contents and features allows the magazine to flow, followed by the consumer.

Maslow's  hierarchy of needs

Maslow has used the terms Physiological, Safety, Love/belonging, Esteem and Self actualization to describe the pattern that human motivations go through. Maslow has used a pyramid to describe these patterns. He has included five stages within the pyramid, describing the different stages in human motivations.

Physiological: These are the requirements for human survival. Requirements such as breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homoeostasis and excretion. Those who are best situated at the bottom of the pyramid will not purchase a magazine because it doesn't fit into there priority's, which is food and water etc.

Safety: With the physical needs satisfied to live, we can now move onto the safety of our lives. This section focuses on the individuals safety such as personal safety, safety of a job, safety of their family, safety of their health and safety of their home. People who are focused entirely on their safety may look to buy a movie magazine as an escape route from reality to a world where it is entirely controlled by the media and safety shrouds the person, no one can harm them there.

Love/ Belonging: This section focuses on the love of friendship and family. This need is strong during childhood,which can over ride the need for safety. They need to love and feel loved (sexually and non-sexually). People who fit into this category need to love and be loved, I could associate presenting a gift to someone an expression of love and friendship, if that person was into movies maybe a movie magazine would be purchased as a gift for that person.

Esteem: Humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. This includes confidence to perform actions such as presentations to a large number audience, to gain respect of and by others and feel a sense of achievement. People who fit into this level will be looking for self respect and self esteem, this may encourage them to purchase a movie magazine as they may be respected in their social group with people who share a common interest in movies. 

Self actualization: This level is at the top of the pyramid. This talks about what a persons potential is and realising that potential. They are interested in their own gains and dismiss the comments made by others. My movie magazine will incorporate information that is commented by the editor and artists involved with the issue of the magazine. Therefore they will not be interested in my magazine.

Overall , according to Maslows theory, people who fit into the Love/Belonging level and the Safety level would be the people who are most likely to purchase my movie magazine. They are the people who purchase a magazine as a safety route, to intake new information to talk about amongst their social group or to present as a gift to a loved one or a friend.

VALs hierarchy

This theory states that people are stereotyped to form nine different categories each contains its own different set of characteristics, which summarise the type of people each category presents. The category split into nine categories, which follows:

•  Belongers
•  Achievers
•  Societal concious
•  Emulators
•  Experiential's
•  'I am me' people
•  Survivors
•  Sustainer's
•  Integrated's 

These different categories have distinct characteristics that separate one from another. The purpose of me studying this theory is to determine which category or categories of people will be within my target audience.

Belongers: This group of people make up 38% of the population. These are conformists that are completely satisfied with mainstream values, meaning that they will continuously change brands and won't stick with one that they trust. as a result my magazine may be purchased once and changed the next month, meaning that these are the sort of people who I won't be targeting towards. They are not very adventurous people, which my magazine tends to explore.

Achievers: This group of people make up 20% of the population. These type of people are the ones who make their own decisions. These are the type of people who I hope will move from mainstream magazines such as Empire and will drive towards my movie magazine, TheBigScreen.

Emulators: This group of people make up 10% of the population. They aspire for a better life, but aren't quite sure how to get there. They will be good consumers of my magazine because it's something different that will separate them from people such as Belongers who follow the mainstream.

Experientials: This group of people make up 5% of the population. These are the people who are risk takers of the world. they are always willing to try out new things,which is perfect for my magazine as its a new magazine that will be published. A new opportunity to try something new and they will. Its disappointing that they make up such a small portion of the population.

'I am me' people: This group of people only make up 3% of the population. These are the people who wish to set themselves apart from the remainder, to be different. they are the ones likely to start marketing campaigns. These people hopefully will be the ones to drive the rebellious youths towards my movie magazine.

Integrated's: This group of people make up 2% of the population. They are the smallest group of people amongst the population, but are the people willing to try out different products and carry a creative mind. They are similar to Emulators in the way of trying different products that may make their life better in some way. 

Overall, the Integrated, Emulators, and the Experientials are the groups of the population that i will be aiming for. they are the people that are willing to try new things and the ones who  look for new things to improve their lifestyle.

Analysis of existing movie magazines

I am going to analyse some existing products so i can get a better understanding of what codes and conventions are used, which i will need to bear in mind when designing and creating my movie poster.

Final Artifact

Final products

Movie trailer

This is our final movie trailer. We have included a YouTube link where the trailer can be found. This is the final trailer after many drafts of our movie trailer. We have incorporated small changes each time to take our trailer from a amateur looking trailer and transform it into a professional looking movie trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vym6lvEzMdE

Movie poster

Magazine front cover

How we got to the final product 

Movie trailer

Now we have filmed all of our scenes and have already experimented with post production editing we can now begin to assemble our movie trailer together. This will be a very challenging task  because we have to think about why every shot is where it is and what effect is captured. We want this trailer to be gripping and exiting, so we know that we need to make the trailer more dramatic as the trailer unravels. This means incorporating dramatic cinematic sounds and incorporating the action scenes towards the middle and end as this will help build tension and adrenaline within the audience and the trailer itself.

This is a list we have put together of all the factors we need to consider when it comes to assembling the movie trailer together:

• The order of which scenes will appear
• The sound to accompany the scenes
• The overall aim of the trailer
• The desired effect to have upon the audience, what emotions are we aiming to capture?

All of these factors will help us to achieve a professional looking final product. The priority of taking each of these into account is vital because the factors work within each other. For example a sequence of action scenes might be paired with fast pace sounds with the desired effect to create tension within the audience.

The software we will be using to put together our movie trailer is Final Cut Pro X. This software is Apple only and therefore we can expect only the best performance. The software possess a very sleek design and seems very easy to use. The features are layed out nicely and are easy to locate. This will make putting the video trailer together a lot easier to do.

This is Final Cut Pro X main interface. As you can see the timeline is situated on the lower part of the interface, which is where i will be placing the scenes and assembling them together. The settings are all located on the top panel, which keeps things out of the way unless i need to use them. The video editing options pop up when you select the video clip you want editing.

Overall there are 46 video clips altogether that are going into our movie trailer. This is accompanied by 11 clips that include MPAA, Motion graphic titles and the production company logos. These are extra parts that we thought would enhance the professionalism of the movie trailer.

The first thing we had to do was to begin to put all the clips onto the timeline. This was an easy process as it involved a simple import process where we selected the folder that all of the video clips were situated and imported them all at once into the timeline. This was done by clicking on file, then followed down the list to import and then selected all the clips and selected import.

Once the clips are all assembled it's time to put them into an order that made sense, had some structure and order to it. We needed to split the trailer into a beginning, a middle and an end, this was because they have different purpose to each section. The beginning aims to draw in the audience but starts off slow and shouldn't contain lots of action, just enough to keep the audiences attention. The middle aims to build up tension and adrenaline within the audience, the pace is increased and things start to speed up. The middle also begins to tell the plot of the movie, enough to entice the audience and bring them in.

Each clip we used and put in place was done with an intention and wasn't done at random. We had to decide what sort of clips we were going to put into each section. This is a list of the type of shots that we wanted to put into each section:

Beginning section: In this section we want to start off by including a MPAA so the audience will treat our trailer as a professional trailer. We also want to place shots that introduce the characters involved so we will include the scenes of football match. We also want to introduce the psychologist early on so abit of mystery begins to emerge early on so the audience will start to think about the movie at a deeper level.

Middle section: In this section we need the pace to be advancing and to be speeding up slightly to get the audiences adrenaline going and to start building up tension. A disequilibrium will be established which will help build up the tension and the adrenaline in the audience. We will need to begin adding some action scenes into the trailer so we will be adding the lightning scene when kennan sees the lightning. We will also be adding shot when Kennan is running, existing trailers we have seen use scenes where the characters are running, which we felt is a good way to build up tension and forces the audience to begin asking more questions. Why are they running? And who from ? We also wanted to begin to introduce the villain, The Shadow to the audience. By introducing the villain this late on begins to introduce new questions the audience will be asking themselves, which will keep them on their toes. We will include more of the psychologist in the middle section to keep the audience asking more questions about the psychologist and his role in the movie.

End section: In this section the pace will need to be increased and the tension and adrenaline will need to be at its peak, which is what will keep the audiences attention. We will need to incorporate the action scenes that will make an imprint on the audiences mind, which they will remember and will act as the reason they want to return to watch the movie. We will include the scene were Kennan and the Shadow have the face off, we will see the shadows ability and Kennan's new ability, which is where the tension will be at its peak. This is where we aim to have the audiences maximum attention and the point in the trailer that will be remembered the most.


Movie Poster

We started off by starting a new project in Adobe Photoshop CS6. We changed the background to black to be the base for our movie poster. This wasnt chosen for a particular reason as we would be replacing the background with something else to make it more appealing. In photoshop we imported two separate images of me and Jordan into separate projects. We had to cut the photos in half but on opposite sides so they could be placed opposing to one other to give the impression of one person. This way we came up with this idea was through studying binary opposition, which is the study of related terms, which have a opposite meaning. for example our understudying of the word yes, is due to our acknowledgement of the word no, its direct opposite.For our movie poster we wanted to give off the impression of good and evil, by incorporating elements that make one side look good and the other bad. Ofcourse without our understanding of the binary opposites good and evil, we wouldn't understand the meaning of the poster we are assembling. We have left a gap in the middle of me and Jordan so we can add a strike of lightning to separate us. The lightning would give our poster an interesting element that correlate to Kennan's power. Thus may give off the impression of Kennan being more significant in terms of domination over the poster and the movie itself.

After careful analysing we felt the gap between Jordan and me was too significant and decided to close it up a bit. The split has been primarily placed so the lightning could be fit between them and wouldn't get in the way of their faces. We abhored the idea of the lightning covering up the faces so the characters were not recognisable to the audience. 

We wanted to give off the impression of the Shadow being fractious, Callous, and dangerous and Kennan as being intrepid, amiable, jubilant and kind. This we have tried to represent through the Mise en scene, in particular the lighting. Using Photoshop I have made the right side where Kennan lies lighter to emphasise his good side and the Shadows side darker to represent his sinister side. ~To achieve this look of having the building in the background we had to incorporate layers and placed an image of the building in the top layer so it will be behind the Shadow and Kennan. 

Once we sorted out the background look and the divide between good and evil it was now time to include the platform for some typical codes and conventions. We needed to include a billings box at the bottom of our movie poster as this is a code used in almost every professional movie poster. When we looked at existing movie posters the billings box were placed on top of a black box, that was faded into the rest of the poster. We wanted to follow this convention, but we also challenged it slightly by instead of making it fade out we have created rectangular boxes that we have made transparent each time, but not blended together, so this would add a style to our movie poster. We felt this effect like a transition will draw our audience down to the bottom of the movie poster so they can acknowledge the billings box that contains essential information of everyone who's involved with the movie.

Now the basis for the billings box were created it was time to introduce the lighting bolt, which would run down the entire movie poster. To create such an effect, we needed to move into Adobe After Effects CS6, which would possess the tools to allow us to create the effect much like we did in our movie trailer. I had to first import the photo into After Effects before we could do anything so I had the image to work with. The lightning was created using a useful sophisticated plugin called, Advanced lightning, which enabled me to create a realistic looking lightning bolt, which I could place in the middle of Kennan and the Shadow. 

It was now time to add the billings box details. We could have used either Adobe After Effects or Adobe Photoshop to create the text, but because we were already in After Effects we decided to use this instead. This software contains some useful tools that allow us to create the billings box to a detailed professional standard. To the bottom left you can see a box that contains all of the text tools we would need to create texts of all different styles, colours and sizes. Looking at many professional Billings boxes they all contained many different font sizes when mentioning specific information. For example the part in the Billings box when we were detailing the 'Music Composer' and who it was, we had to put the 'Music Composer in small font and then who the music composer was in big font. Maybe this was to emphasise their importance in the production in the movie trailer and without whom it wouldn't have been successful. 

We have also faded out the lightning towards the end to ensure the billings box was visible to the audience. We have also managed to create the illusion that the lightning bolt has coiled through the letter 'E', which gives it a cool look. This may also represent the link between the movie and the lightning bolt.

I had now saved the progress we made on the poster in After Effects into an image format, JPEG and imported it back into Photoshop to continue with the editing process. I still felt a lot was missing from the poster and so i took a step back and had a look at some movie posts again. I noticed a lot of them would include photos of some of the important actors/actresses that are involved within the movie onto the movie poster. I decided to play to this convention and added four images of the four of the characters within our movie trailer and placed them under the movie title. I tried to include photos that look dramatic and sinister and involved the charecter playing to an extreme emotion to draw in the audience. This may also force the audience to wonder what it is the character is doing at that stage in the picture and leaves a bit of mystery, which may help us to sell more movie tickets and increase profits.

I had also included another new feature towards our movie poster, which i feel helped to emphasise exactly the relationship between Kennan and the Shadow. In the top left and right corner of the movie poster I have included a transparent image of Kennan and the Shadow staring directly towards each other. The gaze they have upon their face tells the audience that the Shadow is purely a foe towards Kennan. 

This is our final draft of our movie poster. We have made one small adjustment to the movie poster that we felt would make all the difference. Within movie posters one code and convention that is certainly used on every movie poster is the inclusion of the actors/actresses name towards the top of the movie poster. We felt this convention was necessary and have included the names of the most important actors/actresses within our movie trailer. This technique of including the most important actors/actresses name is a method of attempting to appeal to as many consumers as possible. By including big name actors/actresses in the movie will attract fans of that specific celebrity. This is also known as celebrity endorsement.

Magazine Front Cover

We started off in Adobe Photoshop to assemble the foundation to our Magazine front cover. We started a new project and filled the white background with a black colour fill. We chose the black colour because it would act nicely against the blue lightning we were yet to formulate. We then imported our finished logo into Photoshop and assembled that onto the top of our magazine front cover. We had imported an image of Kennan that we took and placed it in the centre of the magazine, we ensured Kennan's eyes were looking directly towards the camera so this will engage the audience and make them feel apart of the magazine. This is commonly known as a 'direct mode of address'. During the photoshoot I considered the Mise en scene, in particular the costume design. I have placed Jordan in a red hooded jacket to make him look like a typical teenager, however we found after placing the photo of him onto the black background that these colours didn't go well together. This was something we had to amend.

We had also followed the essential convention of including a barcode onto the bottom right hand corner, without this our magazine wouldn't be able to be sold in retailers such as supermarkets, corner shops or the off-licence. The reason we had placed it in the bottom right corner isn't just to follow a common convention, but also to follow with the left-side-third rule. This rule suggests that when a consumer is faced with a new magazine they read in a specific pattern. They start in the top left hand side and then work there way across to the top right, then their gaze will take them across to the bottom left hand side, and finally to the bottom right. This pattern ensures they see all the important information on the magazine front cover, but also the fact the barcode is last is so before they see how much it is, they would have decided to whether or not they want to purchase it.

We then saved our project as a picture file, JPEG and imported the file into Adobe After Effects. We now needed to create streaks of lightning to spread across our magazine to show off Kennan's ability. To show that it was Kennan that was creating the lightning, we made sure in the photo shoot that Jordan was holding his hands out, palms facing up, so we could strike the lightning off his hands in the editing phase. The lightning we wanted to be loose and to look natural, sticking in all directions, but we had controlled the direction of the lightning from the head up. We wanted to show a connection between the magazine 'TheBigScreen' and the movie itself. With some issues of Empire magazine they changed the look of their magazine logo to fit in with the movie they were promoting. For example I had analysed an Empire magazine issue that were promoting the movie Iron Man 2 (http://www.themovieblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/empire-ironman2.jpg) and they had changed their logo to look electrified like the core of Iron Mans chest. I have done the same with my magazine's logo, I have designed it to look like its running a current of lightning through the letters, much like the lightning that charges through Kennan's veins. I have linked up the lightning from Kennan's hands to the lightning charging through the logo of the magazine to establish a connection.

The next draft contains only a small change to the lightning direction coming from Kennan's hands. In the previous draft the lightning bolt to the left of the front cover was charging upwards and appeared to look too random. I have changed the direction of the lightning to come in closer to Kennan's head, but still wanted the lightning to link with the magazines masthead logo. I have also formulated the shape of a pyramid with the lightning around Kennan to give off the idea of Kennan being superior and dominant. The triangular shape represents that of a temple, a building that is devoted to worship of the gods or a dominant, superior being. I wanted Kennan to appear dominant and the fact he's surrounded in this veil of lightning in the shape of a temple helps to augment this idea.

I have also included the Lead article within the centre, which is positioned on top of Kennan's chest. This is the main article within the magazine and therefore the size of the title has been enhanced and made larger so it dominates over the remaining text on the front cover an shows as being the most important. I have used the original typography style, Stasmic to present the Lifeline title, this decision was made so consumers can recognise this title against the remaining products created for the movie release. The consumers may have seen the movie poster prior to the magazine so they will have had an imprint on their mind to what the movie title looks like. Using the same font style used on the movie poster will allow this movie to be recognised and therefore more issues may be sold as a result.

Finally, I have made an alteration to the overall look of Kennan's costume. In the previous draft Kennan was wearing a light red jacket that didn't fit with the other colours used within the magazine. I had to make alterations so it would look right and would fit in with the colour scheme, this was a challenge as red doesn't fit nicely with my colour scheme of blue, white and black. After many changes in Photoshop to the look of the jacket, I had decided to alter the saturation and contrast. The saturation had made the colour of the jacket turn darker and the contrast altered the tone of the red to a sharper, darker look. This I felt worked extremely well with the colour theme, which surprised me as usually these colours wouldn't work together.

Within this draft I have made several more adjustments and improvements to the previous draft. I have included a puff to the right hand side of Kennan's head to highlight and put forward information to the consumer of content that is within the magazine. This convention used helps to sell the magazine to the audience by including information of articles found within the magazine. The placement of the puff isn't random, but falls within the consumers gaze if the left-side-third rule is accurate. The consumer should come into contact with the puff as they trace down towards the bottom left of the magazine, they shall start from the top right, which is when they will see this feature. The choice of colour for the puff was a light blue background to stick to the theme of blue with the lightning and then a white and black as the primary font colours, which will be seen clearly against the blue. The colour theme I'm trying to stick to is white, black and blue.

I have also included some cover lines to the left of Kennan's head, which addresses the audience of exclusive movies that are discussed within the magazine. The placement of these cover lines were done intentionally so they would be seen directly after the consumer has seen the puff. This is so the consumer has many more reasons to purchase the magazine other than the main article. The choice of font for these cover lines was a simplistic look for the title and a bold look for the movie names. This was decided so they where clear in terms of being a title and then the contents under the title.

I have also included some more cover lines underneath the puff, which provide more information of what can be found within the magazine to help sell it to the consumer. I have placed these in blue and white to stick to the colour theme of my front cover.

The next draft I have included some more cover lines that lie within the left-side-third rule down towards the bottom left hand side. These cover lines include information about Avatar posters, which come free with the magazine. The fact the consumer gains not one, but three free gifts with the magazine may persuade them to purchase the magazine.

I have also rearranged the look of the cover lines underneath the puff so they fit to the side of the magazine rather than overlaying onto the lightning, which overall makes the cover lines very hard to read. Now the text is clearly visible for the consumer to see and it looks more professional, which may help to give off a positive vibe of our magazine to our consumers as we take pride in the look of our magazine.

I have also changed the cover lines to the left of Kennan's head. I have made the text smaller so it can be seen easier and again doesn't overlay on top of the lightning and also included some more movies to the bottom of the list to appeal to more potential consumers.

This is my final draft of my magazine front cover. I have made many changes to the previous draft to make it look as professional and realistic as possible.

Firstly, I have included a date of the issue on the top of the magazine. I have made it very small to fit it inbertween the masthead to keep it out of the way, this has been done in many magazine front covers I have analysed. I have made it white so it is clearly separate from the masthead and isn't confused by the consumer as being apart of the masthead design.

I have included photos of the Avatar posters that come free with this issue underneath the cover line situated in the bottom left hand side. These photos lie directly within the audiences gaze according to the left-side-third rule. These photos will show the consumer exactly what their getting, instead of keeping it hidden. This may help build up trust between the consumer and the magazine, the consumer may feel they can trust the magazine as there aren't any hidden aspects, their open and honest.