Main image on the magazine...

The image on the magazine was too much like a poster image, as you can see below.

So today i set about changing this. To begin with i increased the saturation, which made the image look far to orange and fake. Take a look...

I had a play around with the effects on photoshop, and in the end i came up with this...

Which i still didnt like. I thought the image looked too orange/pink still and the 'wind' effect as its called just makes the image look a bit strange.

After removing the wind effect, i made the image both colder and darker. I finished up with this...

This is the image as i will use it in the final magazine now. I think it words better as a magazine main image and doesnt jump out and detract away from the other features so much.

Slight change to the trailer

Today i changed the end of my trailer very slightly. I changed the music over the end part to a heartbeat because i felt that with the main soundtrack it confused the narrative slightly. With the heartbeat it tells the audience more about the story of him and his life.

titles....

I've decided to change to font and colours of the title. I feel that they dont accurately reflect the trailer, and in the same way they dont link to the magazine and the poster enough. Today i changed them to be more like them. You can see screen shots of this below.

These are the new titles...

and these are the old ones...

As you can see, i've changed quite a lot. To start with, ive changed the font of the writing 'alex coleborn' so it is the same as the text which is on both the magazine and the poster. As well as this, i changed the colours because i felt the red was too bright and didnt work well. I also added an effect to the 'pushing the boundaries' writing to make it look a little warn. The effect was called 'subtract'.
I've now added this new title into the final trailer and i thing it works a little better.

I thought id throw a screen shot of when i tried the red font in just to show you.

New magazine title

Today i changed the masthead on the magazine to something i am much happier with. Below you can see the old title and the new one next to each other so it's easy to tell whats changed.

Old masthead:

New masthead:

As you can see above i've kept the font the same and also the stroke. I added a new gradient overlay of red to add some colour and at the same time i added the drop shadow. As i mentioned in the changes, i added the drop shadow with no distance but a large range so it creates a sort of haze behind the text.

writing on the trailer

One of the changes i had previously thought about making to my trailer was adding more writing to the action parts. However, i have tried this and i do not like the product. I feel that the trailer works better if it is kept a little more simply without the extra writing.

I've uploaded one of the clips that i added writing to for you to see...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1KlzL5hsXI

You can also find my construction of it on youtube if you follow this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtZ72m8Uxk

As well as this, today i added in my final titles using final cut pro. I took a few screen shots for now, and then i will go into more detail in the construction documentary...

trailerrrrr titlesssss

Above are a few images that will be used in producing my trailer titles. They will be used along with a series of short clips to, hopefully, ensure the title is good. You will see how i make my titles in my construction documentary.

Complete Poster Ancillary

I've now made all the changes i'd like to, to my poster and here is the final product...

(please ignore the white strip at the top and bottom)

I've changed the title, moved the writing around and changed the font of one of the writing parts.

TV noise

I've decided that i will use a TV noise dissolve effect to start up the second action part of my trailer. Originally i had thought that i would just bring it straight back in, but after watching the trailer i feel that it doesn't really work. I took a few screen shots of me producing this earlier on today, and then putting it into the actual trailer in final cut pro. I used adobe after effects to merge the TV noise effect with the next clip.

I also had to source and create the sound effects for this TV noise idea, and i have some screen shots as seen below. I used soundtrack pro to do this and it was very helpful. It was very simple to make, i searched through the soundeffects in soundtrack pro to find ones that may work. After choosing the ones i liked, i mixed them together to create the desired effect.

music...

I've found some new music to put over the more emotional section of my trailer, as after watching my trailer back, the music i had originally used was to 'piecey' and not long enough to cover what i needed it for. After looking through soundtrack pro i found a new soundtrack that would suit my trailer well. In the construction documentary you will see me adding it into the trailer and removing the old one.

trailer title

As i've already blogged about, i came up with a new idea for the title of the trailer. Below i have shared a link to a first draft of this which i completed. It is quite a simplified version and is not perfect, but it was just a first attempt to give me some sort of idea as to how i would need to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD0ezU4u3mM

To create this i used after effects. By freeze framing a section of the clip i desire i will have a shot of alex on his bmx freezing in the air. The background and the titles are moved around by key frame, meaning i can move them where ever i like. As for the paint splats, i can move those around too and get rid of the black background using colour dodge. In the final titles i will use colour effects like 'colour correction' to add colour to the titles. In my construction documentary i will show how i made the final titles.

The background will be the same for the final one, however the text is likely to change so it is the same at that from the poster and the magazine front cover. The clip may not be the same either, although i am yet to decide this.

As well as the draft titles i did, i tried another one as well. I never completed this, but i did add a few different things to it and it has the basic elements as how i made the draft in it. Below i've shared a link to a screen flow of me creating it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSHln_bVdz0

Magazine front cover

After looking at my magazine front cover first rough cut, i've come up with a few improvements that i feel will make it better.

• firstly, i don't like the title i i think it needs more colour. I have decided that i will add a little red to it to make it stand out a little more and work a bit better with the cover lines and photo.
• I dont like how red the film title is, and i dont think it stands out enough, so i will change the colour of the writing 'pushing the boundaries' to white and i will try and make the 'Alex Coleborn' part stand out more whilst keeping it red.
• I think the photo needs to be darker because at the moment it detracts away from everything else and ends up making the front cover look a little like a poster.
• There aren't enough cover lines and i feel that if i add a few more it will look more like a magazine front cover, rather than a poster, which i think it has the slight look of at the moment.
• Finally, i will change the stroke on a number of cover lines and also the mast head and the website. At the moment, many of these have a small stroke on them which makes them look like some kind of tacky word art from Word. I will replace the stroke with a drop shadow, but give it no distance and a larger spread so it ends up making a black haze behind the text. Hopefully this will be enough to make the writing stand out.

Improving the trailer's narrative

The rough cut of my trailer had a confusing narrative. The focus of the film is about Alex and his talents on a BMX, but by the end of the trailer the audience were left believing that the film is about Alex's struggle in a mission to become the worlds best BMX rider. On this light, i have decided to change around the order of the trailer slightly. I will still however, use the same shots. I will split the action section up into two parts, and then by adding the emotional section between them, the film is established once more as a more action film by the end.

Ancillary - Poster

After looking at what i was going to do with my trailer, i decided i should review my ancillaries too, in order to establish a plan of what i will do.

For my poster i will...

• change the font of the writing in the top right corner
• switch the top and bottom writing around
• make the writing of the main title look more like its on the fence and also more in keeping with the style

Reviewing my trailer

After looking at the the possible ideas of changes for my trailer, i will be doing the following:

• Changing the order to show a better narrative
• changing the 'emotional music' at the end of the trailer
• Ive already moved additional shot from the beginning to the end
• adding the new title idea (with the freeze frame and effects)
• Adding a few more effects throughout the trailer to show a different range of skills

trailer...

After thinking about all the changes that i could make to myu trailer i've come up with a few new ones. Instead of mixing the trailer up i will simply change the order so it tells a better narative, as at the moment it is set up too much like just an action film.


I am still going to do the other changes, like the smoothing the end music up and adding more effects. I've had a better idea for the title, instead of having the bmx riding through it i will have one that uses more effects. The general idea is that i will use a freeze effect and then have titles and paint effects come on to the screen.
 
A link to some similar styled titles is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F68ax29Qzs

This is the trailer for the film jackass 2. It uses some freeze frame style things at the start and this is similar to what i hope to achieve, although the writing on mine will also be animated.

Ancillaries

I'm now looking at the changes that may or may not need to be made to my ancillaries. I have already changed the writing on the poster to make it look like it is on the graffiti wall as it was suggested by numerous people that it would look better like that. I'm still looking at what i could do to the magazine front cover.

Here's a print screen of the poster with the new title on it.

Trailer changes...

As well as the changes i am already reviewing for my trailer, it has been proposed that it appears to be split up into 2 parts and that i should perhaps mix it up a little bit in order to make it flow better... I will look at doing this over the next couple of weeks or so, but we're coming up to exams now so everything is very busy.

I filmed the shot i'll need for the title of the BMX over the green screen yesterday, although i dont think i will be adding that it for a few weeks or so, just before i complete the trailer and look at evaluation.

With all ancillary drafts and trailer drafts completed, i am well underway to meet the new dealine towards the end of february. This allows me a lot more time for changes and improvements to all of my project pieces, in order to come up with the final productions. As well as that, it means i have much more time to ensure my evaluation is done thoroughly and well.

NEW COURSEWORK DEADLINE!!

On returning to school today, i found out that everyone has been given an extension from the 21st january to sometime at the end of february. There are numerous reasons for this, from the deadline being in the middle of exams, to Mr. Dowson being understandably absent, and also the fact that this way works a lot more efficiently for the rest of the course.

This extension in the deadline means i have a lot more time to complete the coursework, which is helpful over the exam time throughout january, and also offers me more time to improve and achieve a better standard of work.

Potential changes

After talking to the Big D about my trailer today i have come up with a series of potential changes to make:

• i want to add a few more effects to the middle section and change around the writing parts because im not too keen on how they look,
• The end bit needs a little bit of tidying up so it runs a bit smoother,
• i am going to change the music over the end bit so its not so piecey
• the additional shot i put at the start of the trailer, i will move to the end where i think it wuill fit a lot better.

I will have a play around with these changes opver the next couple of weeks and update the bloge if i change anything. At some point Mr.Dowson will have a quiick look at my drafts and see what he thinks of them, after that i'll have a look at changing parts of them.

Back to school

Today we came back to school after the christmas holidays. I've now finished bothe the rough cut for my trailer and the rough cuts of both ancillaries. Over the next couple of weeks i will go over and review all the projects and collect some audience feed back to help me in prioducing the final copies. After that i will sort out all of the evaluation and essure my blog is completely up to date. I will blog my construction documentary as soon as i have finished making everything and completed editing it together.

Rough cut ancillaries complete

Here's the rough cuts of the two ancillaries, there a likely to be improvements across the two of them to produce the final copy.

Poster:

Magazine:

Update

I'm on track for finishing my ancillaries by the time i go back to school on the 5th january, an then about a week after that i will finish my trailer and start the evaluation which will give me a couple of weeks for that.

I've now got all of the photos and i've chosen the ones i will use.

I also decided that the poster looks better without the image of alex himself on it. I will still, however, use this image on the front cover of my magazine. This means that the main focus of the poster will now be the BMX bike in the centre, coupled with the title above. I did, however, take some screen shots of me cutting out the image of alex in photoshop and i have posted these below...

This is the original photo. The background uses a variety of colours which made it a little tricky to cut alex himself out. To begin with i tried using the 'magnetic lasso' tool on photoshop, but the range of colours made this a tedious and painstaking task. I then came to the attention of a different tool of which i can no longer remember the name. This tool allowed me to colour around alex in red.

Here is what the photo looked like after i'd coloured the area i didnt want in. From here i was able to select the outside of alex and delete the rest, leaving a white background.

By this stage i could select alex and copy and paste him to where i needed the image.

These are the photos i have chosen for my two ancillaries...

I felt that of the photos i took of the actor, that this was the best one. This was simply because on his facial expressions. I intend to use this photo on both the poster and the front cover of the magazine to establish a link between the two and make it look like some kind of marketing strategy.

I have chosen this one because the BMX is in the far left of the image and it engages the rule of thirds.

This shot was meant to look quite amateur as it will feature on the magazine front cover as one of the 'extras'.

This image is the same as the above in nature. I chose these too out of the selection that i took because the character is central to the photos and they look quite casual.

This was a second idea i had for the magazine front cover, although i dont think i will use this. It's a back up plan of sorts.

This photo has a lot more space around the bike and it is for this reason that i chose it. It is different to the other one in that it would allow me to use more of the fence and ideally, work it into the poster.

I have chosen this selection of photos for  various reasons. I may not use them all and there may be a couple of different ones that i use, should i end up not liking any of these. But for the mean time i feel that these photos are easy to work with, and could hopefully produce so decent ancillaries with a little editing.

Ancillary photos

Here are the photo's i took today for the two ancillary tasks:

Update

Just a quick update as to where i am now...

My trailer is pretty much finished now,  managed to do a lot of work on it in the last week of school, so all there is left to do now is put the title in place. I have to film one little bit on the green screen to do this and then make the the title with it in after effects. I'm going to use the idea of having a BMX ride through the title. After that my trailer will be finished. A for the ancillaries, they will be finished over these christmas holidays as i have photoshop at home. My actor has been in England for the last 6 months or so but he's back now, so i will be able to take some photos with him and select the best ones to use for the two ancillaries. As you already know, i've done a lot of the little things for the ancillaries so all that really remains that will take time is the photos. The rest is all quick and easy. This means that as soon as i have finished my title on the trailer i can move on to the evaluation aspect of the coursework, which means i will have about 3 weeks to do it in.

I'm currently editing together a construction documentary which i will upload at the end of the construction sequence. This will show you how i made all of the project, including the two ancillaries. 

Evaluation...

I need to start thinking about the evaluation section now, and i will do this as i put the finishing touches on the trailer. I can't properly start this until the trailer is completely finalised, but i have up till the final deadline (21st january) to do it. I won't be able to do anything to my trailer until i'm back at school on the 5th of january, because i don't have the software at home to edit it, which will set me back a little. However, i am confident that i will have enough time to do everything in the three or so weeks between then and the final deadline.

Ancillary Tasks...

Now my rough cut in finished, i can concentrate on the ancillary tasks. I can do these over the holiday's because i have photoshop at home so that allows to to use the time instead of being sat at home with nothing i can do. I've done a bit of work on the two tasks anyway as i've previously posted so there isnt too much more to do.

On a positive note, i have been to find a fence for my location down at the skatepark and there is one covered in graffiti which would be the perfect location for the photo for the poster. This means that the skatepark will be the location for the main image on the poster.

Rough cut complete!

I finished my first rough cut on friday and you can follow the link below to it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYo0fa5iUk
It's not the final copy and, of course, there are parts that need sharpening up and things like the title and the work sections that still need to be edited in. But the main structure is there to work with.

I'm not 100% sure about the music for it. It fits the genre well but it was thinking about taking a different spin on it and putting some completely contrasting music over the trailer. This would create a more abstract effect and hopefully would have a more memorable impact on the audience.

The next thing for me to do is import the rough cut into aftereffects and put the remaining components in it. This shouldn't take too long and i should be finished in a couple of weeks. As soon as im done with this i will put together my construction documentary and post it up on here.

Today

I continued to edit the rest of my trailer today, and there's not a long way left to go now. One thing i did realise today was that i needed some more musci for the end of my trailer because it was a little to quiet and the mood needed to be established. I spent about half an hour looking through soundtrack pro before finding an appropiate sound clip. I wanted something that sounded emotional and involved a pianio.

Theres 4 days until the first rough cut deadline, so i'm on track to have that completed on time. I willl post a construction documentary at the end of the month to show the various stages of me constructing the trailer.

I also had a new idea for the title of the film, i want to have the bike essentially riding through the title, and to do this i will need to filom over the green screen. I wont be able to have this done by the end of the week so i have arranged with mr.dowson to do that as soon as possible, instead of for friday.

New footage

I took the footage for the new shot i have thought of today, and i now plan to have the voice over playing on top of it, and a little less over the heart beat effect. I think that the voice over is better spread between different parts of the trailer to build excitement and tension throughout. Anyway, here is a screen shot of the new footage:

The trailer...

i'm now over half way with the trailer, i've finished the middle section of the trailer now and i'm well on track for the deadline, despite the problem we've had with the weather over here in the past week. I have, however, decided to make one change to the start of the trailer. I now plan to add an additional shot before the heartbeat begins, where Alex is lit up from the back in the dark. This will establish him as the centre of attention for the film.

The music issue that recently occurred is now totally solved and i've sorted the music completely.

One thing i did have to do the other day is straighten out a shaky image in after effects. Below you can see a few screen shots of me doing this, and in my construction documentary you will be able to see footage of it.

Whilst dealing with my music problems, i tried a different approach. I thought about having an abstract take on the trailer, with more orchestral music. An example of this kind of media is the xbox advert that was banned. You can see it by following this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuRQmvykwk

It didnt work very well with the style of my trailer, and the music clashed with the video. You can see this abstract draft of the trailer by following this link to youtube.com...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCRfX-AY8I