Risk Assessment

After doing a health and safety check of my primary film location, I found that there are a number of different issues around the location:

• Sharp objects - I need to ensure that location is clear of any unnecessary objects not used in footage to ensure that location isn't going to cause any harm to participants and also the public.

• Damage of equipment - There are potential risks of equipment being damaged, so it ill need to be used appropriately and accordingly to prevent this from occurring

• Slipping due to wet weather - Prior to filming, always check that the ground isn't going to cause slipping/skidding leading to injury. Also I will need to make sure that any people involved in film are wearing costumes which are suitable for conditions i.e. grip must be on footwear.

• Surrounding public - As I will be filming in some locations which could potentially have people, I need to make sure that they aren't going to cause damage or interruptions and also ensure that anything I am doing isn't going to bring harm to them as well.

The Woman In Black - Promotion

Hammer Film Productions' The Woman In Black used various different types of activities to create the whole promotional package of the film.

A viral campaign was created, and this seems to have increased in popularity over the years, especially since the success of the 2008 film The Dark Knight, and this was to entice the audience into seeing how scary the film may potentially be. This campaign featured an image of something suddenly appearing and the plan was to capture the reactions of people's faces who actually viewed the image. These reaction videos were then viewable from the website of the image.

They also used an interesting poster for the teaser of the film. It is very minimal and doesn't feature any what seem to be main cast. The image has been also manipulated so that they have no eyes & the tag line of the poster "What did they see?" contradict each other. I think that they wanted to create mystery and intrigue for the film. 

Then the official poster was released and it does seem to have been made in a way to answer questions because as the first poster said "What did they see?" the official poster reveals it to be "The Woman In Black"
Then obviously released the film's trailer to youtube on 18th August 2011, which is about 6 months prior to the theatrical release and this was used to basically create hype and buzz for the film as the release date of February 2012 got closer.

Film Promotion

Within film and any other business, promotion is an important part of any release because it will influence the financial risk of the project. Film studios will invest heavily into marketing for their films because they will need to ensure that the film is known and that it will be successful. They will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximize as much revenue as early as possible in the promotion cycle. The budgets for marketing usually amount to anywhere between half or three times the production budget. The publicity of films is usually handled by the distributor and exhibitors.

Initial Magazine Cover Design

This is my initial draft of a magazine cover for the second ancillary product. I took inspiration from various different types of film magazines such as Empire, Total Film etc because I think that these follow most of the conventions of magazine covers and so I think that this will help me create a cover design which will look authentic to the audiences.

The main character of the film will be placed in the centre because it is a common convention for the image from the main featured film to be placed in the centre as it allows the reader to identify that this will be the larger and more primary article of the overall magazine.

The magazine title will be at the very top of the page because this is a convention which almost all magazines follow because by placing the title at the top and in a large font style, it is immediately in view of the audience so that they notice the individual magazine.

I wanted to place some other smaller articles because this is also a common convention of magazines because if there was just the main article, the overall cover would look rather empty and won't look interesting to the reader. Also by including a variety of different article topics, it allows the magazine to attract a wider audience range because of the different target interests.

Initial Film Poster Design

This is my first draft of a film poster for my trailer to be used as one of my ancillary products.

Codes & Conventions of Film Magazine Covers

These are some of the codes and conventions which I think apply to film magazine covers

• The name of the magazine is clearly displayed
• Must be eye catching to the audience
• Actors and images are generally used as the main focal point of the cover
• Colours and fonts are used to create a specific effect and genre
• Different font styles, colours, size etc are used to suggest different ideas
• A wide number of titles are included to indicate the large amount of content inside the magazine
• The price, date, issue number, barcode etc are also clearly displayed

Film Magazine Cover Examples

These are a couple of examples of film magazine front covers. From looking at just these covers, I can see that a common convention of the covers is that most of them seem to have the main text in a font which is representing the main featured film such as the Empire cover for Tron Legacy has a futuristic typography which is also the official typography that is used on the other promotional products such as the film poster. Also the Hellboy cover has the Empire masthead on fire which is representative of the film itself because it is iconic of the actual character from the film.

Codes & Conventions of Film Posters

These are just some of the basic codes and conventions which film posters should follow:

• Age certificate is usually visible
• Release date or 'coming soon' clearly stated
• Introduces the genre of the film
• Directors and production company names are on display
• Names of primary actors are used to highly promote the film
• A large and easy to read film title
• The overall poster must be eye catching

Film Poster Examples

These are just a few examples of posters from films which i have either taken inspiration from or from the same or similar genres. From looking at these together, I can see that a common factor of thriller film posters is that the main character or object has been centralised, so that it has been the made the main focus of the actual poster

Research of Existing Posters

As part of my research for the ancillary tasks, I have decided to analyse other existing film posters to look for common codes and conventions which seem to appear. I currently am researching official film posters, I will later move onto looking at student made products and compare them together.

The first poster I have analysed is for the film 'The Others' because I think that this is the type of film which I want to achieve. This is also one of the many films which I have taken inspiration from.

Typography

For my ancillary products and also the trailer itself, they need to have a consistent typography which is relevant and conveys the codes and conventions of the psychological thriller genre. So to stat with I have found some film posters of the same or similar genres and took out the typography just to give an idea as to what styles seem to be more significant and effective than others.

Beginning of Ancillary Planning

Along with our chosen project, in my case a trailer, we also have to produce at least 2 ancillary products to go with it. Ancillary products are basically secondary forms of promotion. So for my trailer I have to make 2 out of these 3:

• a website homepage for the film
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• a poster for the film

For my trailer, I am going to produce a film poster and a magazine front cover.

Storyboard

This is my initial storyboard for my trailer idea, it isn't perfect by any means but it does give a small idea as to what direction I am taking with my trailer. I do believe that this will change during the filming process as I will most likely come up with additional ideas, so I am not saying that this will be the definite end product. I do think that the aspect which will change most during filming/editing is the length of the shots because these timings were just approximations so I think I will more than likely change this later on.