Development ideas for the magazine cover...

Last lesson, my group decided to make a 'mock' magazine cover to try and convey our thoughts. It is difficult to explain exactly what we were aiming for, so by creating a hand made version of the cover we were able to show what we hope to achieve. We left blank the places that the images of the main character would go. My group also included captions that would feature on the front cover of the magazine. These included '5 Top valentines gifts' which convey the 'valentines' theme that we want. It also relates to the target audience because it is quite 'chatty' and 'colloquial' which will fit the age range we hope to attract. We decided that we wanted the magazine to be a pull out magazine consisting of a 'good' cover and an 'evil' cover. The 'good' cover links to the main character of the film, Isa and how she was at the beginning of the film which is 'normal' and 'good'. However the second cover will be 'twisted' and 'dark' in order to convey how Isa is as the film progresses. This will symbolize Isa's significant change and how she has gone from good to bad. We also decided on having half a heart on each front cover and when you pull out the second cover the hearts will connect. We want the 'good' cover to look like a 'normal' teen magazine like 'Company' and 'Cosmopolitan' so that it will reach our target audience as well as convey the 'good' side. We wanted to base the 'evil' cover on magazines such as 'Empire and 'V'.

Magazine Ideas

Today I edited the image that we are going to use on the front cover of our magazine. I took an image of the main character. For the magazine cover we wanted to portray a 'creepy' feel so that the readers would clearly be able to identify the genre of the film. I also made sure that the character in the photograph was making eye contact with the camera so that she connects with the readers. It will make it look like she is staring directly at the readers. I changed the contrast and used a distorted look from the filter gallery on photoshop. I did this to make the photo look scarier than the original. I did not change the red eyes because I wanted the photos to have red eyes in order to convey the 'horror' feel to the audience. I also think that making the character's skin paler also helps to convey the horror genre as well as help convey the message that this is the 'scary' character from the film. It also implies she isn't 'normal' - showing that she may have died or is possessed.

Also these are the original images of the 'good' and 'bad' theme we wanted to include in the magazine. This are the images we want to use for the pull out I have mentioned in a previous blog. One image will be a 'normal' looking photograph and then the pull out image will be a 'possessed' image'.

Evaluation

In todays lesson we assessed the evaluation sheet and decided upon the way in which we will display our answers. We will video a discussion answering the questions. We divided the questions between the group members and will prepare topics to discuss within the question. This will play a key part in the preparation for our evaluation.

The questions are;

1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4 - How did you se new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Magazine and Poster Annalysis

After discussing magazine ideas with my group, Georgia suggested that our magazine cover will have a pull out feature. On the front of the magazine there will be an image of the main character of 'My Valentine' played by Georgia White. We decided this will look like the front of magazines such as 'Cosmopolitan' because it will reach our target audience. The pull out feature will look more like the front cover of 'Empire' magazine I have included in this blog post. This will juxtapose between a 'normal' image of the main character and then the 'twisted' version. This will give the audience a sense of the character 'before' and the character 'after'. I think this idea will work well because it is unusual and its not something that is in every magazine.

We also had further ideas of connecting both of covers together for example using a heart. Half the heart will feature on the front cover and the other half will appear on the pull out. The heart symbolizes the 'love' in 'My Valentine'. Both halves of the heart will connect together to make one heart. The heart on the front cover will be 'sweet' and the other half of the heart which is on the pullout will be 'ruined'. We also had ideas of using the same pose on the front cover and pull out. On the front cover our main character will be 'normal' maybe with a bunch of flowers. On the pull out, the character will be 'twisted'. She will be in the same pose but look 'creepy'. She will also be holding the same bunch of flowers but they will be ruined and dead.

We are not sure exactly which idea we will use however we will now take this into consideration and pick an idea. We will ask for audience feedback as well as discuss in our group in order to pick one that will work with the audience.

Progress

Today we filmed the 'anti valentines' card for the trailer. We filmed a male actor opening the card to show the backlash of the dead female lead. We uploaded this onto imovie and began to finish editing the trailer. We had to make sure that it fitted in with the structure.

Also, Georgia created a twitter page www.twitter.com/myvalentinefilm in order to promote our film. The internet plays a big in promoting so we thought this would be a good way of 'getting the film out there' before its actual release. On twitter you are able to "retweet" and "favourite" posts, this would work in our favour as it would allow other people to promote our film to their followers.

Valentines Day - Ideas - Release Date

As I have stated in a previous blog, our film is set to be released on valentines day. As a group, we have further developed the idea of using the a valentines day card as the structure of our trailer. Our captions in the trailer will be written in the form of valentines day captions. As further development have decided that the captions will be written in a valentines day card as well as just being in the theme of valentines day cards.We have a couple of ideas on this. One having the captions written in a 'normal' looking valentines day card. Another idea is the captions being written in an 'anti valentines' day card so that the audience will easily to be able to understand that the love in the relationship is broken.

Futher Developed Idea ... New Story Board

After further discussions with my group we have decided that our film will be set to be released on February 14th which is valentines day. We chose this day to release our film because it will relate to the title of our film which is 'My Valentine' and the tagline Love Just Got Scary'. The film is also set on valentines day. We have come up with the final plot for the film which is our two main characters, a boy and girl who are a couple attend a valentines day party together. When they leave the party the boy decides to drive home. Although the girl is not very keen on the idea she goes ahead with it. On the drive home their car crashes which causes the death of the girl. The boy feels extremely guilty as he feels it is his fault. This leads to him questioning whether the crash actually existed as well as his girlfriend. She also proceeds to haunt him - or so he thinks. However she is actually to try and reassure him the crash wasn't his fault. The film also sees the events go back in time in which we will reverse some of the clips. This is so that we can see how the characters would have dealt with the events back in time and it also relates to the main character questioning the events. The ending will be unexpected which we think is essential for a horror film. Mystery and shock is the key. Another idea that we will be including in our trailer is the theme of a valentines card. The captions will relate and link to valentines cards and be messages you may find in a valentines card. For example; 'Roses are red violets are blue, I am now dead and you will be too' ...