DVD(back cover) blurb

Based on true story, Three years after witnessing a shooting outside a club and forced into police protection , Carla is forced back into the world she thought was forgotten .After new evidence is obtained concerning her life threaten experience’s she is forced to come to terms with and confront those who destroyed her family and turn't her life upside down. The movie is set over a period of a week tackling such topics as, sex, violence guns and drugs to which screenwriter Noel Clarke (kidult hood/adulthood) again successfully portrays the genuine truth, and mind blowing reality behind youth crime and the consequences that follow.

Ihaven't been able to update my blog recently as i have had problem's with arranging times and locations for both me and my actors to get on and finish the production of the photos need fr my DVD cover and Movie poster , although we have manged to arrange a time this week to get this done a finished . Although this time has given me more time to concentrate on my final draft of my film review which is nearly complete and within the next couple of days will be posted as the final piece .

location/test shots

I produced a few test shots of both the locations in which i could take my images for my DVD cover and poster to see which ones would work best and whether the actors met my expectations in the production of the final piece . Above is the test shot of one of the pictures i aim to use in my final DVD cover being the close up of the main character nestled within he col age of others within the back page .
Above is another test shot taken form the back cover i wish to produce , testing both the actors and the location of where the hsot would be taken place . From this i rleised i need to have this taken in at a later time at night to make it look more authentic .
This shot was only to look at the actor and how he would fit into the cover though i have chosen to use this actual picture in my production of the DVD cover on the back cover with the first picture portraying each main character
This shot is just a location shot to see whether the stairs could be used in the pictures of the main character in both close up and also to suggest an (estate) enviorment.
This is another relocation I could use int he picture of the male character holding the main character up against the wall , just to see different aspects in using this shot.
This location shot was to see whether i could this block of flats in both the DVD cover and movie poster in being blurred behind the main character . After taking this shit i believe a closer shot should be used as this shit has not fully grabbed me in using this part of the estate and also the time in which it was taken .

Mock Ups

I have designed two detailed mock ups of both my DVD covers (front and back) and the movie poster over the last couple of weeks, looking at what types of shots could be used the layout and typography to professional standard to create a successful piece of production work. By using my product and institution research I was able to get a rough idea of what types of shots to include in portraying the genre of the movie advertised and also the production values as well as plot. As shown in my product research the crime drama genre to display close ups or extreme close ups of the main character as the focal point of both products. In knowing this I decided to apply this convention into my own mock ups.

Above is my final mock up of my movie poster. I have chosen to use a close up of a white teenage girl (aged 16-20) this will enable the target audience to identify the central character. Preferably with blond hair to connote the idea of the characters innocence, though subverting this aspect through the genre and plot of the movie .as the movie is names 'faceless' I have decided that the main charter should wear a black or dark coloured hoodie to one identify the type of character involved within the movie and two have the hood covering the girls eyes and majority of face to link to the title in being the girl is 'faceless' connote her loss of identity an belonging. Her facial expressions should be sullen capturing the mood of the character to display the mood of both her and the film. another convention linked to the drama crime genre I found during my product research is that the title of the film is usually located on the bottom of the main picture if at all , so again decided to follow this trait and put my title 'Faceless' underneath the central picture. The font of the title I would preferably like it that similar to that of the font used in police tape (don't not cross.) I have chosen this font as it again hints at the Genre being to do with crime and hinting at the plot. The background is be a block of flats(estate) during against a night skyline though slightly blurred distorting the image , so that the audience are fully focused on the main picture rather than the background. By doing this the main picture again is seen as the focal point and although the audience are not fully focused on the background it is instilled within the audience the production values and connects with genre and plot of the movie.

After conducting various amounts of research into the production and publishing of DVD covers I found that many independent films especially linked with the crime and drama genre use very similar almost identical images within both the movie posters and DVD covers but with a few minor differences such as close ups of original image or change of colour. In knowing this I produced a detail mock up shown above linking closely to the movie poster displayed earlier. The front cover displays a young teenage girl aged sixteen -twenty in a mid shot from her waist up .This would display the types of clothes hair colour facial and body expressions so to let the audience evaluate the type of film it is and also identify with the character presented and her surroundings. The girl displayed would preferably have long dark hair covering majority of her face showing just part of her eye and bottom of face to link with the title and the concept of her being overshadowed and her loss of identity. This is also emphasised by her long hair adding to the sense of being overcome by darkness and 'faceless'. The characters face should be sullen as like the expression of her in the movie poster so the audience can ink both movie poster and DVD cover together. She would be wearing a dark top or hoodie to convey her social class age etc as well as emphasising again the title and its being. The background would be night skyline as in the movie poster blurred and distorted putting the audience's full attention on the character displayed.

The title would be located gain at the bottom of the case in a police tape style font printed faceless in white to represent the idea of innocence breaking through corruption. As well at the title the usual labels such as the certificate and Production Company's name would be located on the bottom of the cover. The certificate would be a 15 as the film would be first targeting young adults from fifteen upwards, as the film would portray real life in displaying drug use , strong language and strong violence. Lastly on the front cover there would be a review and star rating to complete the authentic look.

The back cover would again have the distorted, blurred building background. The main picture would e of the young girl dressed din all dark clothes face covered by her Hoodie as in the movie poster to portray the idea of in hiding or lose of identity. This picture would be show the whole of her body showing her walking away from the background connoting her walking away or leaving that part of her life behind her although overshadowed by its past .

On the right hand side would be the blurb and over view of film and below that a small section telling of the special features on the disc. On the bottom left hand side would be the certificate as well as the information of the duration of the film as well as the production labels and logos.

Lastly above is another DVD cover mock up I decided to produce. As you can see the main picture on the front cover is very similar to that of the last mock ups back cover and also the movie poster and so as them decided to have a young girl with blonde hair dressed all in dark clothing, with her face hidden to portray the type of genre, plot and story behind the character. having her hands in her pockets as well adds to the idea that she wants know one to see who she is and also the idea of identity is brought up and many looked at fingerprint to identify someone and as she hides her hands away this suggests she either has no identity or is trying to hide it .

In the background other characters are shown watching her walk away this suggest the idea of her walking away from them and that kind of life though also could suggest her hiding away from them not wanting to be recognized. The characters within e background would be as her aged between the ages if sixteen to twenty one. The boys dressed in either tracksuits or jeans with foodie's on both. On the left-hand side the boy presented would also be carrying a baseball bat to convey violence and the use of this bat within the movie. The girl leaning on him would be dressed in brighter colours; this is significant to the plot as although she seems to be part of those involved in the background plays a significant role within the movie in bringing light to the storyline suggesting her important role within the film. On the right hand side another boy dressed in a tracksuit would be sitting on a wall watching as the other's at the main character underneath him police poster would be shown presenting the words , ' if u have any info ring 02087665466' . This poster hints to idea of what the film and characters positions within the film as to why our main character appears to be in hiding. The title would be located not the top of the cover overlooking the image in a font style to that of a fingerprint, that I had chosen in my typography research. Underneath the man picture a review with a star rating and certificate would be advertised.

The back cover background would be just plain black with images taken form the film collaging the page the back cover. one image shown in the right hand would show a young black man holding the main character against the way by her throat , this suggest the violence within the film and leaves the audience wondering why he's in doing this . On the left hand side a collage of characters would be arranged showing firstly and young mixed race guy aged sixteen -twenty dressed in a dark vest, hair shaven looking slighting off form the camera. Underneath him a young man of the same ages and girl would be located talking to each other dressed in darker clothes and next to them our main character hooded up looking distraught straight at the camera in a close up. These shots are important as they are of be clips from the actual film and this way the audience can identify the key parties with the film and how they are to relate to the plot.

On the top of the page would be the review pronouncing ' TOUGH, TENSE, TERRIFIC.', and a five star rating. Underneath her nestled within the pictures would be the blurb of the film nestling within all the characters. Underneath the main picture the credits such as actor's names and production company names as well as directors would be shown with a special feature tab located on the left-hand side. Lastly the certificate 15 (contains very strong language, sex and drug use) would be located on the bottom left hand side with the barcode on the opposite side

After looking at both my mock ups of my DVD covers I have chosen to link the front cover of mock up number 1 to the back cover of mock up 2. reasons being is that from my audience feed back they found the front cover of mock up 2 to be more Hollywood, main stream style and wouldn't link to the independent look I am hoping to achieve. The feedback also told me the front cover of mock up 1 was suggestive and didn't fully portray the plotline and therefore left the audience to work out as a convention of an independent film and so chose to use this image in my final design. There reasons also for choosing the back cover of mock up2 was that this was more authentic in terms of layout as a DVD back cover in displaying the main charters in clips form the film itself.

Product Research

Product Research

For my product research I looked at different types of movie posters relating to the drama film genre in order to identify the generic conventions used in layout, colour ,use of images, fonts etc in order to apply these aspects into my own production work.
The colours used in this movie poster for 'American History X ' are either black or white presented on a white background, this may display the idea of good and evil , white vs black , or even suggest the saying ' things are either black or white .. never grey ' which could identify conflict within the film itself . The use of such a starch background in contrast to the bold etched body of 'Edward Norton' connotes the idea oF innocence corrupted and brought forward by the character presented toward us . We can immediately identify that he is to be the main character as he stands alone looking stating to the audience , and so identify him as the instigator of the film already . The etched, almost drawn ,bold lines which outline his body could also represent the idea of innocence being tarnished and brought to attention. The way in which his tattoos are evidently shown could also represent the fact that he himself is the innocent party and where the bold blackness of his tattoos could represent this tarnished idea from either the past or by others . Because of the tattoos and shaved head we automatically believe this character to be a rebel as well as identify his most prominent tattoo being the Nazi sign on his chest. this leads us to believe racial violence is to be involved within the film . The way in which he is standing straight ahead towards the camera lead us to believe that he wants to talk to us the audience himself and by the expression on his face to feel empathy towards him and he tries to connect with us. The way in which he hold his chest on top of the Nazi tattoo could symbolise to us the audience that he either feels very strongly about his belief keeping it close to his heart or by the way the hand is positioned hiding it away in shame that we identify through his facial expressions . all these visual representations of character hints to us the audience at the genre plot and obviously the character we are met with, and so curious into his story . there is very limited text presented on the poster and the majority of it is underneath the main picture suggesting its unimportance to the film and instead making the picture the main focus . the only names given are that of 'Edward Norton' and 'Edward Furlong' which are positioned right by 'Edward Norton's' head at the top of the poster again reliving its unimportance but also connotes the main characters are because the names are so close to his head are drawn back to the picture itself. The title is placed right at the bottom om the poster right by his hand. written in black capitals conveys the idea of importance and the use of red on the 'X' suggesting danger . these features like the main character being the main focus point on the posters is a generic trait within the drama genre which is used also in taxi driver.

Again the main characters face and name are shown as the main focus point of the poster as on the American history X poster . the colour of the actual poster reflects the title 'taxi driver ' being American taxis are yellow . again another generic convention of the drama genre is the looking at the camera from the subject int he picture . the stare almost looks crazed and the way the title cuts through half of his face suggests a spilt personality . using the title and director as well as the main photo as a focus point is a convention of the drama genre focusing all our attention as an audience on the actor and recognition of the director . the poster in its self gain is not crowed with names or pictures regarding the film just one single shot of the main character or what we perceive to be the main character , the poster ,therefore is less busy and more focused on the subject at hand that is the character and his/her story generally recognized within the drama genre .

as well as looking at movie posters connected to the drama /crime genre i secondly looked at the ways in which DVD covers are used to portray the genre plot and more importantly attract an audience into buying them.

just as both movie posters memento uses the same technique in the use of extreme close ups of what we perceive to be the main characters. the covers shows as picture within a picture foretelling and connection or story between the two characters shown. we automatically realise as guy pierce is the first and biggest picture him to be the main focus of the movie. the background behind him in his Polaroid frame is bright and out of focus suggesting firstly the idea of the light to show him as the Innocent party within the film and secondly the idea of the background being out of focus suggests his mental state or his story to be disordered and out of focus its self, lastly the denotations of his close up has been used to not distract us as the audience from the main focus which is him and draws us into him and his face. the picture within his featuring Carrie Ann Moss suggests her accompanying main character her backgrounds is solid black . making us the audience suggest she may cause conflict within the movie from the contrast of her back background to guy's suggesting the idea of good and evil . the way in which both pictures are repeated zooming out as it where also portrays the idea of a story repeating itself of not quite ended , as like the movie posters we are left struggling to understand the plot and so intrigues us into seeing the film . the title is located on the bottom of the cover on the actual Polaroid, written in an irractict way as if scribbled quickly in capitals connotes the pace of the film be echy and disordered. the idea of the writing on the the Polaroid could as well obviously hint at the plot and the way in which these pictures could fortell the story . lastly as not on the movie posters reviews comments are displayed around the main picture written is bright yellow to stand out projecting comments such as 'A master piece ' and ' A new master piece among thrillers' , tempting us the audience and trying to persuade us tho watch the film through its reviews and star ratings

Audience research results

Results of questionnaire
The results charts below show the results taken from the questionnaire to which was given out to 30 people to discover; (1) there ideas on film and film reviews (2) what they felt made a successful movie poster (3) there knowledge on gun and knife crimes (4) their views and feelings on ‘gang’ and gun an knife related culture in society.
The chart above shows that the two most popular genre of film taken from thirty recipients. The results showed the most popular two were the thriller (30%) and drama (25%) genre. By obtaining these result, they have given me a perspective on what target audience I will be appealing to in my production work, and by knowing this able to convey the generic conventions used within these genres, to appeal to that audience and create an authentic piece of production work to the best of my abilities to please the targeted audience.

In wanting to produce a film review as part of my production work I asked recipients what type of reviews they preferred and what made them so appealing. From the results shown above 50% preferred a shorter review, being more informal and giving hints and ideas of the films itself, but not giving to much away about the plot , these reviews also gave a rating out of five from the reviewers. . The most popular reason for this answer was that the shorter review is normally more informal and humorous , just hinting at the plot and the films agenda , to which my percipients found more appealing and found these reviews more intriguing , influencing them more to go see the film itself . Longer reviews were said to be quite drawn out and although were rich in information about the film became very repetitive and drawn out making them less appealing and more boring. The shorter column reviews are mostly used in the reviewing of independent films and were seen to carry opposite traits of longer reviews in given not enough information about the film and reviews actual opinion and although where given a rating out of five still didn’t provide enough information or persuasive language to influence an audiences decision in seeing a film. So therefore i have decided to produce a shorter review in order to please my target audience and influence them as well as capturing their attention to the type of film if plan to portray.

From now knowing I was to produce both a movie poster and DVD cover into my production work i next asked what things my audience felt would make a successful movie poster. As you can see form the chart the use of limited text and producing the poster to the highest of quality were the most appealing devices in grabbing the public attention to the poster itself. Also they comment on the use of bright colours the layout and the placing of the poster in advertising. So from this primary information of my audiences preferences and ideas of what makes a good movie poster, i aim to meet the criteria my audience has created in the uses of limited text, interesting layout and use of colours, but will also need to look into the product itself to be able to portray the genre of film, and in so using the generic conventions of a drama flick as well as using the ideas put forward to me from my participants.

During my production work I wanted to address a sensitive topic in London and Britain, being that of gang culture and the recent rise in gun and knife crime amongst teenagers and young adults. to obtain the information I would need I asked a series of questions carefully to ensure I could collect the information I need to draw a conclusion on people perspectives and experiences in addressing this sensitive topic . I found just form the thirty people I had asked that 65% had actually fallen victim to this crime or had witnessed this travesty, illustrating that this serious crime is being experienced by normal people each day in such a controversial way. In doing some background research also I found that only one in ten causes concerning this crime that witness had come forward, and only one in twenty cases were solved. These shocking statistics were made more real through my questionnaire when asked whether those asked if they had been involved in this this crime or witnessed it had they or would they every report it to the police or stand as a witness.

As you can see only 4% of those asked who had been involved or witnessed a gun of knife related crime amongst young adults reported it and would stand witness to it . 36% of those asked who had also witnessed an attack never reported it and 37% never would. These results showed me that gun and knife crime are a big issues in our society and that a large percentage of people and my target audience of that from ages from 16-25 are very much involved in this epidemic. You can see from the chart below the reasons why these crimes are occurring so often and why people will not come forward with any evidence or help the police to solve such cases. 37& of recipients felt if there were to get involved in such way would fear for there on safety and more so their families safety as the gang culture has become so bad . After looking at the results I found during obtaining my audience research and what they feel is a big issue I am aiming to reach the expectations of them and produce both a film review, DVD cover and movie poster aimed at young adult aged 16-25 addressing the issues connected with the level of gun and knife crime amongst society and why it has been made into such a huge problem.

audience reserch

As part of my advanced production piece for media i have chosen to do a cross-promotional package focusing on films trailer , DVD cover and movie posters. i wanted to more so aim my product at a younger generation and look at the things affecting those in and around London , so chose to focus my ideas towards the rise of gun and knife crime among gang culture which is a hot topic within the media and news at the moment . in order to realise what my audience though and felt bout firstly film trailers, movie poster and DVD covers i decided to design a questionnaire in order for me to get a wider understanding of what my target auidence would be and how my product should look ,sound etc in order to grab the auidence and capture the effect i wanted .
Below is the first draft f my questionnaire to which i piloted to see if i could get the answers i needed to forward my research and production ; featuring questions on trailers , posters and DVD covers as well as questions concerning the recipients thoughts and feelings towards gun and knife crime within society .



Questionnaire!!!
(Please tick appropriate box)
1. Gender : male female

2. Age : 13-15 16-18 19-21 22-25 25+

3. Ethnicity: white black Asian other...........................

4. In which type of area do you live: city small town suburbs rural coastline

5. Any hobbies or interests?

:.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

6. Which type of film do you most enjoy: thriller drama comedy animated action adventure other................................................?

7. Do you prefer independent or mainstream films? Independent mainstream

8. Why do you prefer watching this type of film ? ?..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


9. How many times on average do u go to the cinema : once a week couple of times a month once every month once every few months once a year never

10. when going to see a film what type of trailer do u find the most effective : longer trailer (2-3mins) shot snippets ( this can be just the title displayed) shorter trailer ( 30sec’s)

11. Why do you prefer this type of film trailer? ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

12. Where do you mostly see or her advertisements for new and up and coming movies: billboards TV adverts magazines bus stops Internet radio other..................................................................

After piloting this first draft i realised there was a few questions more i needed in order to realise more thoroughly my Target audience and what they though on the rise of gun and knife crime in Brittan and how it has affected them . I also needed to learn more about how, where and what , my audience thought where good ways of advertising and so redrafted the questionnaire to give a more accurate idea of my audiences needs and wants . I also decided on piloting this questionnaire to instead of producing a film trailer.












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I am still deciding whether to carry on media stuides next year although i have a rough idea of what what i would like to do if i continue . I was thinking to make a movie poster and a short trailer of the film its self ,as this way I wont be tied down to one paricular piece of production and as the pieces are linked wont cause to much confusion in the making . At the moment i am unsure about the story line and genre .