Research for AS Music Magazine

I have looked at three different magazines in particular as an inspiration for my music magazine front cover. The magazines in question are Classic Rock, Total Guitar and Rolling Stone. All three of these magazines cover generally similar musicians.

What I like particularly about this Classic Rock cover is the sultry and darkened tone. To me it suggests sophistication, as if the magazine holds deeper messages and not just the pop, brightly coloured, ‘celeb news’ of a lot of magazines. It is also a very simple front cover, it has the subject directly in the middle of the page, a large white title . All the subsequent titles are purple/ pink and writing in white. This style is very simple, it doesn’t require much effort to take in (owing to its darkened tones and straightforward font and colouring). The image used, as well, is very simple, there is a sole figure (Axl Rose) taken at a mid-shot. The picture does, however, stray from the usual conventions of a magazine cover, which is usually well lit and bright, and has Axl half shrouded by shadows. The subject matter concerning Axl Rose is quite dark, which is connoted by the strapline ‘Machine guns, LSD and ‘Ayatolla Axl’ as well as the dark picture and black background. Up in the top left of the cover there is a small promotional offer, on what is made to look like a post-it note, offering a free CD. On the same side of the cover but below the main title is a red circle on which it advertises a ‘lost issue’. The red circle stands out against the black background and the fact it offers a ‘lost issue’ makes it seem as if the audience member reading is reading something exclusive and never before seen.

There is one thing in particular that i like about this Beatles edition of Mojo magazine and that is the fact that two of the titles on the page seem to run together whilst also working independently. In large white font it says ‘The Beatles’ then immediately to the right of it is a separate title saying ‘101 greatest songs’. The effect this causes is that at a glance (how most magazines would be viewed in a shop) it seems as if it says ‘The Beatles 101’ denoting a deep examination of The Beatles with extensive coverage, information and perhaps interviews (old or new with surviving members). Again, as with the last cover, I like the fact that the font is simple large white font with straplines in grey. This doesn’t overwhelm the reader with colour or a confused looking front cover full of writing. It also has a dark background, like the last one, which again denotes, to me, a sense of sophistication.

Audience Feedback from research

1. Should the magazine cover have loud, vibrant colours or duller or darker colours?

Brighter – 16                  Darker – 4

At this point I asked an open question and will briefly summarize the general response.

2. What about the front cover of a magazine first grabs your attention?

I put forward a few ideas to help move the conversation along and prompted with ‘is it the colours? the pictures? the text?’ To which a lot of people said the pictures were the most important thing. They said that when they first glance at a magazine they generally stop and look because they see a celebrity they like and then from there they take into account the text and colouring. From this the general consensus was that the picture was most important.

3. What is the best option for the text font?

Bold – 20                Plain – 0            Handwritten – 0         Cartoon – 0

The previous question was an unanimous answer made by the audience, they all felt the other three were not appropriate for a magazine front cover

4. Is a consistent colour scheme important to you as a reader?

Yes – 14                 No – 6

5. Should the language in an article be

Written in an interesting way – 12                        Used only to further the topic at hand – 8

This last question may not seem clear, what I meant by it is should the language in the article be used only to drive along the topic of the article itself, thereby the information is what is interesting and the linguistic style is unimportant or should it be both, i.e. provide the same information but be written in a less direct and more ‘flowery’ or interesting way.

 

Research for Film poster A2

http://www.filmposters.com/catalog/results.asp?ProdCat=22&PosterSize=&star=&director=&title=&decade=&country=&ScrollAction=Page+6

I’m gathering ideas from across the internet for my film poster and I am looking at horror in general as well as specifically psychological horrors. From the examples I find I will take ideas for my own poster.

The two posters (Bundy and Dark Places) are examples of horror movie posters. DP is a typical horror from 1974 concerning the idea of evil forces, dark spirits, evil cults etc (typical of its time with movies such as The Exorcist and The Wicker man) and as such follows a typically Gothic theme with a green/grey skull placed behind a red scythe. The green on the skull would have been used to denote age and depth of decay that has occurred in the skull, the red obviously denoting blood, danger death etc. Bundy on the other hand is much more of a psychological horror detailing the mind of a deranged serial killer. As the style of horror is different it uses different methods to display the content of the movie. Instead of Gothic/ religious connotations to express evil and demons etc it is more the evils of humanity and of individual humans. This poster sees a mid shot of a man looking into a mirror that has two extra mirrors framing it, giving three copies of the original man each one blurred or warped in some way. This connotes his unstable murderous mind (as presumably the man in the poster is Ted Bundy) and shows how human beings can look so normal and alike one another but truly we are all warped and deranged.

I saw this Pandora poster and the darkness of the skin caught my eye, how it is made to look grubby and mud-covered. Also they way the wires become the veins I thought looked particularly good. I also enjoyed the fact that this doesn’t have any particularly horror features about it yet still seems quite creepy and makes you feel uneasy with it.

Researching Film Posters

Final Destination

In this Final Destination poster we see that the main body of the poster is taken up by the image of a glass face, with a skull jaw, smashing. It’s made to look like a portrait either as a picture frame or mirror that is being smashed, connoting the idea that a bad event will cause destruction, of some ones life or physically. The black background, used to suggest the unknown and therefore fear, accompanied by a light smoke around the edge of the poster. The top of the poster has the tagline for the movie ‘Rest is Pieces’. The tagline is a play on the phrase Rest In Peace, a phrase used when referring to the death of a person, but is used in this case to suggest a cruel or painful death. The title of the movie is along the bottom of the poster, much larger and brighter than any other text used. The only other text is at the very bottom which gives detail of the release date and production company etc.

Scream

This poster takes a similar approach as the Final Destination poster. It has a picture, again a face, as the main focus, taking up the large majority of the page. This is a close up shot of a woman’s face, her skin colour has been lightened to make her seem paler, more deathly. Her face shows shock, or horror, denoted by her wide eyes and hand across her mouth as if in shock. The Title of the movie is displayed at the bottom of the page in large, bold font. At the top of the page is the film’s tag-line. Under the title are the actors credits, producing information and release date.

The Strangers

This poster shows a woman in a room seemingly oblivious to a ghostly character in the darkened corner of the room. The lack of any emotion in her face and body position denotes that she is either unaware of the horror she will face or is herself a part of it. The picture takes up the main body of the poster with tag-line at the top. The Title is again near the bottom, under the main picture, but this time has the names of the main actors listed above it. Below the title it is told that the movie is based on true events, with production details at the very bottom in small print. The title is written in a different font, with a glowing effect in place.

The Number 23

This again shows a close up of a face. Faces, more particularly, eyes, seem to have a strong connection with the horror genre, perhaps since human eyes mean that you are being watched by a conscious being and the emotionless expression can be quite unnerving. In this case however, the face is that of Jim Carey, so there is a recognition with the face but he is still blankly staring at the camera. This time the name ‘Jim Carey’ is adorned across the top of the poster and the title is relatively small, tucked in the bottom right of the poster, yet still due to its bold white font, it sticks out. The name of the actor on this poster is bigger that the title but due to its dull red and elongated, yet not heightened, font. The tagline is small and only distinguishable from the production notes because of a different font and the same red colour as the actors name.

Overall

The main body of the picture is always the main focus of the poster, not the title, release date or actors names, the picture must either intrigue people enough to want to find out the details or it must tell enough about the type of movie it is to make people want to see it. The movie title is not as important as the picture but is second to it. All films have tag-lines, usually a play on a well known phrase or lyric, sometimes a pun, sometimes a quote, bible quote etc. The title of the movie never goes at the top (like a magazine title), usually the top of the bottom third of the poster is the title. Dark, dirty or dusty is the general norm but I think it is possible to strike a message of horror without this, like the example of the movie ‘The Strangers’.

Update to the Plot of my horror movie A2

To bulk out the storyline more and also to help the believability of the story as a whole I had to flesh out certain areas of the story. This has lead to there being a few alterations overall.

The Book – The book contains one entry per page and each entry states an address, a day and a time. Underneath each is a signature. Every third signature is a member of his family.

The ‘cult’ – A small christian denomination started in the 1700’s based on the lost gospel that has an interpretation of biblical events from the point of view of Mary Magdelaine. This gospel describes how Jesus married and had children and therefore descendants. There were three families that collectively claimed to be descendants of Jesus. Along with this belief they also hold that the crucifixion of Jesus was symbolic of his sacrifice to purge mankind of sin but not the actual purging itself. They believe that it was as the last supper that the purging of sins occurred. As Jesus was of God he was able to make the bread and wine physically become his flesh and blood and by eating it his disciples became pure, like him, and therefore forgiven of all sin. Owing to the fact that as humans we do not possess godly powers, we are not able to change the wine and bread into flesh and blood and so the three families offered up their first born sons as the necessary flesh and blood to purge the families of their sins. Each generation the first born son of one of the families was killed ‘by an accident’ and then eaten privately in ritual. Over the years the other two families had died out due to one generation not producing any children and the other by way of a genuine accident. Therefore only one family remained as the supposed heirs of Jesus. To prevent this family from dying out also the future victims were only eaten if either, they had a sibling or they have a child of their own.

As a result of these additions the following storyline has been updated from the previous post –

Protagonist comes home one evening to find a book laid on his bed. Inside every page has the address of a certain location, a time and a day. This is always identical on every page the only difference being a different name signed under each. He notices that every third name is a member of his family (ancestor not current). The last entry is that of his father, his father who died the day he was born and whose body was never recovered. This prompts him to research a few of the names and discovers that all of them died as a result of either a freak accident or suicide and none of their bodies were ever recovered. This he feels must just be coincidence and throws the book aside but after a couple of ‘near accidents’ he starts to think that he is trying to be killed and that the book and the names have a part in it. Asking his mother about what happened to his father she reveals that he was killed and eventually that he will be next. She seems calm and collected about this, suggesting that this had been planned before he was even born. Sickened by the fact that he was born purely as a religious sacrifice and that his life has had no other purpose than this he decides to go to the address at the allotted time and to kill those that want him dead. He takes a knife from his house and goes to the address. It is a big house and he climbs a fence to get into the grounds, it is whilst in the grounds that he trips over a carefully placed wire and falls onto a spike. Whilst impaled he is enclosed by people who recite unknown religious texts. Ultimately leading to him finding out his fate the story ends with him being bludgeoned in the head and the screen going black.

Planning my horror movie plot

This is a brief outline of my plotline for my final piece-

A man is walking down a road/path through the woods (it is on his way home, hence the road/ path, he is not in the middle of nowhere). He notices a shoe over near a tree and goes over to look seeing that it has been haphazardly buried under fallen leaves. He finds a coat nearby and searches through it. He finds nothing other than an old book or diary. Reading through the diary he discovers that a series of people had found this diary in various places and each one had begun writing in it, continuing from the last entry, detailing ominous events and several mentions of the word ‘cannibalism’. Taking the book home he searches the internet for the names of the people in the diary, all lead to missing people. Then searches for cannibalism and finds an age old society of ‘fine diners’ that at one point were claimed to have eaten humans but these were dispelled as rumours yet people still had suspicions. Over the next few days he notices a few strange things happening, walking down an alley he hears footsteps behind him, cars follow him, a strange and silent man walks up to him and hands him a piece of paper on which is simply written ‘Danger’. He then begins to panic much more and is scared by a few harmless events, objects falling over, wind blowing etc and decides to take the book back to the woods and get rid of it. He gets to the woods and throws the book away at which point a quiet chanting starts up ‘fourteen, fourteen’. He searches around becoming more and more hysterical shouting at nothing when he trips on a length of rope and lands on a spike, both of which have been purposefully placed, and as he lies there he is enclosed by people as it fades to a close.

Jan Svankmajer ‘Down to the Cellar’ edit

We spent the following lessons editing a short film by Czech director Jan Svankmajer, ‘Down to the Cellar’. We had to edit down 14 minutes of surrealist film into about a minute of horror trailer. I had watched this 14 minute film previously but still had very few ideas. I began by watching through the piece and cutting it down into small segments that I thought would be potentially good to use. I named each of these individual sections, largely to help me distinguish between them and film I didn’t need as well as helping me organise. Having done this I began placing a few short scenes together and joining them with a fade to black then fade into the next picture. This giving a quick and ‘choppy’ effect. I then began placing a few title screens after every other clip. It was at this point I became unstuck and ran out of ideas, short of just placing any order of clips until I reached the minimum time limit. I stepped back and decided to find some music. I had no particular ideas for music at this point but knew I wanted something solemn and haunting rather than loud and energetic. I began my search on youtube, searching for ‘haunting music’ I was met with a number of famous horror movie scores which is not what I wanted. After redefining my search a few more times I happened upon a video of a man playing cello, accompanied by a piano. This piece seemed very haunting and also enjoyable to listen to, so I chose this one. I fit the music into my piece and from here I placed the film in line with the music and it seemed to fall into place. I was quite happy with my piece despite a number of constraints concerning the software and look forward to editing my actual piece.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2920375219019187411#

I didn’t particularly know where to start with this project and so decided that the best thing to do would be to cut up the entire film into sections that I could use. I spent the most part of two lessons doing this. I then had no idea where to take the footage from there so I searched for music, hoping that this could then inspire me. I found a sombre piece on youtube, it was a piano and a cello playing together. I cut this up in iMovieHD to a reasonable length and then built my trailer around it.