Ben Grant's Horror Blog: 2016

Construction:

In the construction stage of creating our actual film trailer and animatic we used final cut pro. At first it was a tricky software to get used to so we practiced on it by trying to create a Lego movie horror trailer which taught us the basics of cutting and adding in new footage to make it longer. Final cut pro allowed us to import footage that we shot for our horror trailer and then cut down the length of time to suit our trailer in order for it to follow the conventions and relate to our storyboard. Moreover, we were able to add in transitions and texts which is what a horror trailer has to tell the story of what is being filmed. There is also different effects that could be put on the trailer which makes it more horror and keeps the synergy between the trailer, poster and magazine. Final cut pro was the one software that we could not complete the project without and using it has taught us many things since the start of the project.

The software that we used to create the final ancillaries for the project was Adobe Photoshop which we had previously used in the AS year which meant we already had knowledge on how to use the software. We decided to use Photoshop for our poster and magazine due to the fact that we were able to use it on the Mac's as well as the normal lesson computers along with our own home computers. We used Photoshop to create the drafts for our audience research as well which enabled us to gain an idea of what the audience would like to see the most as a poster and magazine.

The Photoshop image below shows how we used Photoshop to get the effect of the smoke covering the eye which was the main theme running through our film. We used the image from google images to get the black smoke effect then create another layer to put it on. We then put this layer over the top of the eye and decreased the opacity to make it visible enough to see the smoke and the blue eye at the same time. We then increased the blue colour of the eye by using the colour stamp selection and increased the blue of the eye.

In the project we were also given the chance to hire cameras from the school if we didn't have good enough cameras at home to use for filming.We used the Nikon DSLR cameras which were very effective when filming as well as using tripods to make the filming smoother. Due to the fact that we were using a DSLR it meant we had to set the right amount of light for the shot which is why we also were allowed lighting kits for using in the dark when we had night time shoots. We used the cameras to film the trailer as well as take the images for the magazine and the poster which meant that the quality of the photo was very high.

The camera was very hard to get used to at first as we had never used them, but once we got used to the different settings then it was very easy. We used the camera for many different aspects of our project such as images for the research and planning as well as making the final pieces. The only negative thing about the camera is that the battery life was quite short so if we had to do a long shoot then there was a chance that it could run out.

We also used the mac computers that were provided by the school which helped us a lot when it came to completing our work as they are a much better and efficient piece of technology that enabled us to create better work. The Mac's had a lot of storage space for our work and made it very easy for us to upload our work onto the system. The fact that the Mac's are very advanced technology it meant that it already had the programs we needed installed on them which made our tasks a lot easier.