Real Media Text Research | Empire Front Cover Analysis

Real Media Text Research | Empire Front Cover Analysis

"Empire" is one of Bauer Media's most well-known brands with a supposed circulation of 145.177 (ABC July - December 2013) in print and digital versions. It oozes the quality of which fellow film magazines aspire too and it is heralded as the "best film magazine in the UK".

You can see the quality of the magazine in the issue displayed to the right, of which promises special, exclusive features and a marvelous cover design.

The cover itself is dominated by its Main Image and the adapted Masthead, which both are trying to resemble Guillermo Del Toro's franchise of "Hellboy". This particular issue is used as a promotional device for the franchise giving it pivotal coverage in the magazine to it's devoted film lovers in exchange for a high end exclusive which attracts more readers then per usual.

The Masthead is in it's usual big red font, but this time adapted into a fire covering which helps to expose the reader to Hellboy's dark back story and his fiery, passionate personality. It also is alot more eye-catching then usual making on-lookers naturally attracted to the cover. The size of the Main Image proves the high end nature of the exclusive as explored above. It heralds a large fan base and a devoted cult following and this is why the size is increased. The magazine also wanted to show off their exclusive symbolising their dominance in the film magazine market, but they also wanted to symbolise Hellboy's large and intimidating nature, adding this with his large clinching fist, it does this well. This does mix well with the black background which helps to contrast against the red fire, but it also suggests that Hellboy has a dark background and by going to watch the film you'll find out all the details.

The magazine's conventional layout is again presented, and possibly over used when looking at the two Pugs (one being exclusive for the digital version). Pugs help to try and seduce the reader in wit news and features completely unrelated to anything else on the cover. In this case the main Pug attempts to bring in readers with notions about "sex" which obviously is completely unlike anything else of the cover.  The second Pug as said above is exclusively for the online, digital, versions making the experience of reading the magazine far easier then just picking it off the shelves as it promises more then pictures and words.

The sub-text of the middle left is used to act as a last ditch attempt to attract any 'on the fence' on-lookers, by offering news and features off topic to that in the Splash.  Examples here consist of the films in the Indiana Jones and Hobbit franchises. This is also used to bring the devoted fans of those brands to buy the magazine.

"The Deprived" | Shoot Video Diary No.2

"The Deprived" | Shoot Video Diary No.2

As continued on my previous post here are some more 'behind the scenes' clips from our first shoots. 

Here we see my group debating a particular camera angle and quarreling over the fire. Whilst fellow group member Lloyd Pocknell makes a joke whilst preparing the mise-en-scene... 

Below is a multi-angled drafting version of a shot we will eventually use in the trailer. You could view this shot as a very early version of a shot that would eventually be seen in the trailer. Please note: a different camera and different sound equipment will be used in the real trailer 

"The Deprived" | Shoot Video Diary

"The Deprived" | Shoot Video Diary 

Whilst conducting the first shoot I found it benefiting to record some parts of the shoot. This I believe helps to depict the process of the first shoot and possibly the development the group undertook during the various shoots.

Here is a clip of the group preparing and shooting a early shot from the trailer. 

Here is another clip where we prepare for a over the shoulder shot, similar to the one above. Here you can see our group preparing for the shot, whilst undergoing some light hearted banter. 

"The Deprived" | The Animatic w/ Analysis

"The Deprived" | The Animatic and it's Analysis

In this post you will find the final antimatic for my trailer of "The Deprived". Please do note some, I believe three, of the shots have mysteriously vanished from the display. So I would like to apologise for the bizarre shot absences. 

Also this is just the antimatic, it does not hold the final shots, the final mise-en-scene etc. The soundtrack although jolty will feature in some parts of the final piece. 

 



A Critical Analysis of the Animatic Process

The animatic is the most up to date and professional document after the actual trailer. It profiles every shot in order, with time, dialogue and soundtrack. It is created to help assist the filming process. The process of making the animatic can be a long and strenuous duration. It involves stills of the shots you would eventually wish to include in the trailer. They would only be draft images, but would give you the vague image of how it would eventually look. The animatic involves the still, the draft soundtrack, the intertitles and the dialogue.

Unlike the storyboard the animatic uses actual photos rather than just drawn pictures, this means more time and effort is required to ensure the right shot, angle, lighting etc is properly produced. The transition was slow at first in adapting from pictures to photos, it was hard because it required more time over every shot, making the whole process a lot longer and prepared. The storyboard it ensure we had a schedule, not in chronological, but in locational order. We shared the shoot in three major groups, each with different locational backdrops. This ensured we could get the bulk of the shooting done whilst saving valuable time, this meant our time management was used wisely. The various locations seen in the animatic don’t really depict the desolate nature that would be seen in the final product, this was to save time and maximise the time to edit, which we felt would be the most lengthy part of the procedure. In the animatic it depicted one major place of which we will be showing in the final product. It portrayed a desolate building with a mountain backdrop with a ruined wheat field. This was a setting that was fairly close and fairly easy to access, and was a place we immediately knew we wanted to incorporate. It mixes in with our mise-en-scene very well and will require very little fixing to eliminate anything that would interfere with the correct mise-en-scene. So this is the ideal shooting setting, which will eventually be colliding with the misty mountains of the Blorenge Mountain and desolate buildings and factories. We have checked for our health and safety authorisations and we are ready to shoot.

The props were often donated to the group via our peers, but they were chosen in consideration with our mise-en-scene. In the animatic we as a group made the decision early on to minimalise the focus on props as we believed it would limitise the time for editing. However in the final version of the trailer we would have focus on the bloodied watch, which would have stopped at 7:13 symbolising the religious and superstitious aspects and combining them to make the trailer more compelling for the viewer. We would also highlight the various backpacks of the characters. This would symbolise the level of devolution humanity has undergone, and it would show that survival is paramount now, contrasting to our comforts rather than needs. The actors were fellow members of the group which helped to speed up the shooting process, as we didn’t need to go out asking for help. When actually shooting the animatic we decided in the heat of the movement to change the order of some shots in order. For example we were shooting at a particular location and whilst considering the structure of the animatic we as a group chose to change a few things. Notable examples consist of the fire shot with the feet shots. I feel this made the structure and feel of the animatic more professional as the trailer seemed more progressive and suspenseful.

The length of the shots did dramatically vary throughout the animatic process as we actually witnessed the longevity of every shot, again something we couldn’t experience when using the storyboard. One example is the panning shot of the two boys tied sitting against the camera, which we first expected to last for approximately four seconds, but once we discussed at experienced the shot at four seconds we as a group decided the audience needed to be exposed to the poignant shot for a longer time. So the animatic opened our eyes to things such as timing that we couldn’t have realised using just the storyboard. Adding to this were the various transitions. We as a group focused on the idea of slow fade outs predominantly to black, which would symbolise the decent to metaphorical darkness for humanity, but upon testing the various different fade ins and outs we had improvised, and in my opinion bettered our original ideas on transition.

The actual construction process was quite long, arguably the longest was the shoot. This was because we were worried at the start of the quality of the shots, we needed an assurance that it was primarily a planning document and a very early rough draft of the final product, one we had this verification we moved forward. We began with the shooting getting the shots with three different groups and shoots, meaning the time was on our side. Once we knew we had the shots we went about their order, length and transitions. At first it was very hard to adapt to having to this to every single shot. This required time and made us feel satisfied we allowed each other more time to get to know the editing software. In this situation we essentially allocated roles once in the suite, one’s job was to always refer back to the storyboard, giving a fellow group member at the computer the information on the shot order, length and transition. Whilst others worked in the music suite making a suitable soundtrack that would give a realistic mood and atmosphere to the animatic. These allocations ensured we all knew our responsibilities and what we all had to do, this allowed to meet the final deadline with a reasonably respectful animatic.

The soundtrack we believed had to make in constant co-ordination with the shots, otherwise there was a possibility the two wouldn’t match or be on time. So, with this in mind, we constructed the two different formulas at the same time, making the whole process slower but I believe making the project fairly more successful. It was in most part one of the hardest parts of the whole process. We found it near impossible to export the soundtrack to a suitable format to be able to use on the animatic, making the process a lot slower then we initially planned, but once we had learned the exporting process I feel the project prospered.
The use of inter-titles were a very late addition to the animatic. Although we had good idea all along of the contents of the various inter-titles we planned to include in the animatic. We knew that we wanted our various taglines that we wished to include on our individual posters, an example is “SURVIVAL IS INSTINCT”. This I feel portrays the most very basic human instinct in a setting which all characters base their actions on, survival. The wording is separated in three inter-titles engrossing the audience making them ask “what comes next?” adding to the animatic’s code of enigma. The speed and the use of the inter-titles increases as the pace of the animatic quickens, this allowed us to sandwich the inter-titles against quick, aggressive, flash-like shots which portray the ugly side of humanity. We felt this made the animatic more hard-hitting for the viewer and showed our target audience was of a 25-35 age group.

The soundtrack was most probably the most fun part of the entire process as yet. In my group we do have a few musicians we allowed the group to benefit from their talents and I feel the soundtrack does show this. The slow guitar riff at the beginning is performed by fellow group member Will Kearse, who we believed had the ability to produce something good enough for the animatic and eventually the final trailer. Here he produces a grim and slightly unsettling mood which accompanies the images brilliantly, which I also feel gives off a atmosphere to the audience informing them of the bleak nature of the project. Will and I did investigate other post-apocalyptic media projects and their soundtracks and we believe Will’s piece was inspired by the motion picture “The Road” and the Naughty Dog game “The Last of Us”. These inspirations are fellow post-apocalypse projects which informed us that they were the correct inspirations to have. The animatic however doesn’t possess all of the eventual soundtrack we plan to have ready for the final trailer, we plan to have several other extracts included in the trailer. These vary from gun shots sound-effects to shuddering thumps which would assist very quick cuts.

The pace of the animatic I feel will eventual be seen to mirror the pace of the final trailer, at 1:46 it goes with the modern codes and conventions of other trailers in terms of its length and narrative style. The pace itself however was something I was very controlling over. At a very early stage I always knew I wanted it to start slow and get gradually get faster and faster and eventually plateau at a very slow ending. This came to me after watching the trailer for the low budget French film “Our Day Will Come”. It still stands in my opinion as having a very strong influence on the animatic and I hope this will continue on through to the final product. The trailer featured very quick flashes of shots, out of order with the film’s timeline which depict severe anarchy and expands the trailer’s code of enigma making the trailer more memorable to those watching it, and this is something I have been very desperate in trying to integrate into our project with a section dedicated various shots lasting half a second making the pace very fast and energetic.

I feel the animatic identifies its target audience through its bleak and unforgiving narrative. The animatic isn’t a comedy and this identified through the various intertitles such as “when they come…will you run…or fight?” Which clearly identifies the project as a sub-genre of survival, it also hints at strong violence, but doesn’t show it, these hints I feel will help to expose the target audience of a higher age group.

Improvements I feel would consist of the length of time of the shoot, I feel it would need to dramatically decrease as I feel it did damage the time for editing, although it was small, it wasn’t small enough and I feel it did damage the quality of the project. I feel in the real trailer we would need to be far more professional as a group in finishing the shoot quicker and then giving us even more time to get equipped with the software, as I feel none of us had the time before hand to be confident in the editing phase. Also the amount of soundtrack on the actual animatic as I feel the soundtrack alone is enough to influence an audience member to go and see the trailer and if we had expanded on our current extracts I feel it would have greatly benefitted the animatic making it sound and feel more professional and this is something we will have to incorporate in our final project. This leads on to quite possibly my biggest regret and that is the lack of mise-en-scene in the shots. Yes the animatic is a planning document, but I feel it would greatly improve the look of it if we had put more effort in making the shots look much more like they were from a post-apocalyptic world. This would however have taken much more time than we had, but this is something that we have to involve in our final trailer.

To evaluate my role in the whole process makes me believe I took a commanding creative role in the group, I feel I took charge of the shoots and any creative changes involving shot angles, lengths or transitions. I ensured my desire for the animatic’s quick pace influenced the final animatic, and I feel I ensured we all were aware of shoots via social media and text message meaning we all knew the times and locations. I feel I took an active role in the creative sense of the soundtrack, making sure Will had a second opinion before finally involving it in the animatic, this was essential to ensure Will was happy with his work. I was present at every shoot taking most of the pictures as Will, Lloyd and Charlotte performed in front of the camera. This meant I had the responsibility of the angle, lighting and style of most shots. This is a role I feel comfortable with in going through into the final product but I do feel I need to be more in touch with the editing software so I can offer help and not have to rely on others to do the editing as I offer advice. So overall I am happy with my efforts, but as I said improvements will have to be made to improve the final trailer. 

 

Codes and Conventions of a Post-Apocalyptic Film

The list below holds in my opinion the main codes and conventions to a successful Post-apocalyptic film:

• A tight community of protagonists/ survivors of the apocalypse. - Such films as "The book of Eli" follow this convention, although the film does not follow the towns people, rather a lone survivor passing through. But it still gives a sense of civilisation, no matter how barren or damaged. Other movies such as "The Road" as this follows two male figures, and any signs of other survivors are depicted in cannibalistic smaller groups, or families of dead people, hanging from trees, this creates a larger sense of hopelessness in the audience and challenges these conventions. TV shows such as "Revolution" also follow this convention, showing it provides a solid basis for a successful post-apocalyptic project, This is something we, I feel wont be incorporating into our project because there are just two lone characters. This is a risk we debated as a group, but following our main influence "The Road" I feel this strategy will work out.
• Abandoned and Isolated locations. - This is a very common convention for this genre, creating a sense of loss of a civilised society, barren wastelands of derelict houses and cars does this theme justice, and again created a sense of hopelessness that the audience feels for the characters. This is seen in motion pictures such as "The Book of Eli" and "The Road" where often abandoned cities shape the harsh world, this gives me hope for our project.
• Survival. - All movies of this genre must stress the survival theme, as it allows us, the audience, to feel real fear and loss for the characters we are identifying with. This relates to the main characters of our project. Firstly Jack, willing to do anything to survival, he believes in the survival of the fittest, whilst his weaker and more dependent co-character (Adam) has to relay on other people, such as Jack to help him survive.
• Heroic male protagonist, mentally and physically. - This is again important as the audience needs a dominant character to give the narrative, and the story a chance, if the character was weak and vulnerable we would not expect them to survive the apocalypse, so making the film unrealistic. This again relates to Jack of whom is the more domineering of the two main characters, he is the one who demands attention whilst his counterpart Adam (played by William Kearse) gains more empathy and sympathy from the audience.
• Dangerous and deadly antagonists. - This can be shown in the general sense or through a single character. Usually in this genre it is a dangerous male, with a gang or group following him, that do his bidding. For example, "I am Legend" although the antagonist is not human, there is still a ranking of authority, with him at the top, and his minions below him. Again the Book of Eli is another good example of this, with a man in charge of a large gang of scavengers, making him appear more dangerous and deadly. In our project we will have a gang, most probably cannibalistic which rule over a certain area of land, planting fear deep in any of earth's survivors. This particular gang will be headed by the trailer's main antagonist, the gang leader. He provides an air of unpredictability and horror, he will strike fear into the audience giving them a reason to root for the two main characters and care for their safety much more. 
• Death. - Death is another key theme in this genre that needs to be highlighted. To create other themes in the movie such as fear, hatred, loss, and depravity, death is the usual starting point. "The Road" is a excellent example of a movie that uses this to its advantage. Showing images of families that have hung themselves and people that have been brutal killed for the basics of supplies. It is rare to find a post - apocalyptic movie without a large influence from this theme. Jack especially finds the journey in this trailer associated with death, giving the character an edgier feel, but at the same time he will gain some sympathy from the audience for the hardships he has and will face.
• A dangerous and deadly environment. - This links to both the abandoned and isolated locations and the dangerous antagonist. A deadly environment in the movie means that throughout the film there is always a sense of tension, as the characters can never really escape the danger. As they live and journey in it. And this links to the next point of. The isolated nature of the setting symbolises the fact that for the characters there is no escape they are trapped in a world of pure evil and horror, they either choose to fight it or die. And this again relates to the setting of our project, of which will be mostly set in a rural mountain area. The significance of this would be to show that the survivors are alone with no chance of escaping. The misty fog which we hope to incorporate into it will resemble the blurred morals of both Adam and Jack.
• Constant fear. -  This is something that can be seen in every post-apocalyptic movie, showing that something dark could be lurking beyond everyt urn. This makes the trailer seem much more exciting and action packed, giving the audience the idea that the film's pace will be very high helping to attract a bigger audience to the actual film. The atmosphere in the trailer/film will always be murky, symbolising the unknown and the unpredictable nature of the world the characters live in. This can be related to our trailer where the exact location of the setting is unknown as there are no rules, no guidelines and hardly any sense of humanity left to care about locations.

(In accordance with Will Kearse)

"The Deprived" | Questionnaire Results

"The Deprived" | Questionnaire Results

Above is one of 10 questionnaires that I ensured were completed by random strangers and those in our target demographic. In having the feedback I have had no real surprises. All those asked said "yes" to "watching movies". This ensures me that all ages watch movies and films which tells me that who ever watches the film have a chance to liking the film. Most responses did state they are well acquainted with the post-apocalyptic/survival genre, this has given me immense confidence that we as a group have a good foundation for something successful. Most responded to preferably watch BBFC rated "15"/"18" films, which again helps to suggest our intention of having a "18" certificate would ensure people would still be attracted to the film. 

In all the responses the respondents claim to have watched at least one post-apocalyptic/survival film, which not only gives us confidence on our chosen genre, but also tells me that those asked are aware of the genre and their answers should be really appreciated as they are very likely to be interested in the trailer. When asked why the "like" the survival genre most stated they were "engrossed" and "completely interested" in how people act in "desperate" situations. Others stated that they "loved" the "action sequences", this is something that we as a group have tried to integrate as much as possible without making a trailer unsuitable for all audiences.

Below are the official statistics of the results.

"The Deprived" | First Draft Poster w/ Analysis

"The Deprived" | First Draft Poster w/ Analysis

Sorry for the confusing rotation

To the right is my very first poster draft for the poster of my project "The Deprived".  Below the draft is my first analysis of the first draft. 

Looking back there are several problems with the draft, but with it being a first draft, I now have time to adapt it, and make it better.

I do however feel there are some good points to the poster, of which can be seen in the analysis and in the final sum up at the end of the post

Here is my analysis of the draft, along with the teacher referrals, good and bad points. These points will be summed up at the bottom of the post.

In the analysis I analyse the poster, its connotations, its deep meanings and how the audience can understand the genre. The latter is something I feel (in looking back) I did the weakest, and this is something I MUST improve to have a good final draft and offer a good, professional looking poster.

Another aspect, upon looking back that I need to improve is the lack of a realistic Billing Block. It needs to improve to provide the on-looker with at least a decent presentation and representation of the project.

To the right is actual audience feedback which states "Nice tagline" - This does give me faith that there are still some good features to keep on the poster. The tagline was something I took alot of time over, and I (after receiving this) am very adamant to keep it.

More audience feedback reads "Good title arrangements". This (like the tagline) was something that I took very cautiously. The structure of "THE" being turned in on the word "DEPRIVED" is something I have seen on many notable film posters, it helps to provide more space and it makes the film seem more slick and professional.

Teacher Feedback

To the right is my teachers original feedback. Here we can see the grading system in relation to my poster. Here I have learnt my current grade is a high D (D+) of which is disappointing but also inspiring to help me achieve the higher grades

The feedback suggests my title and tagline are of standard, but everything else (especially the attention to conventional details) needs to improve. On reading the 'Strengths' I understand my title connotations and the character's engagement with the audience are on par, but upon reading the areas for improvement, I now know what I have to do to meet my potential.

Final Summary/Demands for re-draft

Good things:

• Interesting title with successful connotations.
• Intriguing tagline which helps the audience identify the film's genre.
• Character's engagement with the audience.

Bad things/Things that need to improve:

• The un-clear structure which confuses the on-looker to think there is two pictures of the poster.
• The questionable decision to include a car on the poster, would there really be drive-able car?
• The lacking attention to conventional details, such as the Billing Block, the release date and multi-platform media to help the audience feel more engaged.
• Possible use of colour?