Creating Animated Production Logos

Here is a slide share on how I created the production company video logo:

Editing of production company video logo 

Here is the final product:

Watermark Logo Design Ideas for Our Company Logos

These are the production logo's that have that I have created through Microsoft Powerpoint. I made a selection of five logos which meant that Becky could choose which logo she would like to use at the start of her trailer, however we furthermore asked a selection (15 people) of our target audience to choose what logo they liked the most which helped us to choose which two to use.  

I made them simple to read so that the audience members could identify with them easily, furthermore I tried to make them as fun as possible by creating the logos out of animals as everyone likes animals, this also creates a friendly welcome. For the third logo I made it out of the film tape because this has a strong relation to media and film logos. 

I believe that I have made these logo appear to stereotypically 'girly' so may change a few of them if I have time later on in my project. 

Lighting Mood Board

These two images show the types of lighting style that we would like to try and create for our trailer for 'Pandora'. Through the use of mise-en-scene, we will create this lighting style to support the genre of our film/ trailer. Mostly we will create these lighting effects on our movie editing software as we will be able to adjust the saturation of colours, brightness and shadows.

The first lighting style connotes feelings of unease and agitation for the audience which will will be trying to portray in our trailer as Pandora is a very mysterious character. 

Moreover I have included the second lighting style which is a lot brighter because when the clips of baby Pandora appear the lighting will be more friendly. 

In both pictures you can see a lot of mist which creates a sense of darkness and mystery especially in the first mood board, the mist is there to almost hide what is going on and to make viewers or audience members feel on edge as they wouldn't like to be entering places like these. 
Where as the second mood board uses the mist to portray a magical feeling as there are fantasy characters, for example; fairy's in the different pictures. 

Lighting, Sound and Editing

LIGHTING:

HIGH KEY – The lighting is bright and relatively low in contrast. The majority of our trailer will not be using this apart from scenes where we wish to emphasise the innocence of our main character. However, as the film is dark and has elements of horror it will be mostly dark and eerie.

LOW KEY – The lighting has much more pronounced shadows and dramatic contrasts. We WILL be using this type of lighting for our trailer as our aim is to create a scary looking setting as there are strong elements of horror within our trailer. I will create this on the video mostly using Movie Plus which is the editing software I use for editing, I will be editing the curvature and apply shadow filters to the already dark light frames.

COLOUR FX – Can include: Clod or blueish lighting (connoting cold or spookiness). Warm or yellowish (connoting comfort, eg- a beach or sunset scene), Black and White or Sepia. We may use the blueish lighting on parts using the effect options on Serif Movie Plus to make the scenes appear spookier.

EDITING:

CONTINUITY EDITING – Film sequences normally follow this type of editing so that time seems to flow in a natural and believable way. Cuts will only be used as this gives a real life effect to the movie. Continuity editing can also include “cross-cutting” which is where a sequence cuts between two pieces of action happening at the same time. But it still has to maintain the seamless flow of action. Within a trailer there is a lot of cross cutting between different scene and therefore a lot of editing will not follow a continuity structure but instead more of a montage editing structure.

MONTAGE EDITING – Opposite, the cuts are normally noticeable and do not represent the seamless flow of time. It can use juxtaposition of images to create contrast and a more artistic feel.

CUT – One image is instantly replaced by another without a viable transition. We will martially be using these as they are required for continuity editing.

CROSS-DISSOLVE – One image dissolves into another.

FADE-UP – An image fades in from black, we may be using a few of these between scenes as one at the beginning and between the production companies logo’s.

FADE-OUT – Fading out to black, like the previous we may use a few of these.

WIPE – One image replaces another, where the border between the image moving across or around the screen.

SOUND:

DIEGETIC SOUND – Sound that seems to be part of what is going on, on the screen. For example, thunder, cars, footsteps. We will be using for this birds and other forest noises which are part of the direct action. The biggest part of the diegetic sound will be the dialogue which we will write a script for.

NON-DIEGETIC SOUND – Sound that is not part of the action or what is going on, on the screen. For example a soundtrack, we will be using a soundtrack for out trailer alongside the diegetic sounds.

SOUND BRIDGE – Linking two scenes together by sound. For example we may use bird noises to link the production logo to the first shot of the forest.

SOIND EFFECTS – Sound which is added on top which is not dialogue and music. Sound is added during the post-production stage using Foley.

What is in a Conventional Film Trailer

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Research: Pandora’s Box

Pandora’s Box Research 

Pandora's Box is a legendary box in Greek mythology. It was carried by Pandora and contained all of mankind’s worst fears such as illness. In some variations it also healed many evil creatures like Gollum’s and Griffins and the Kraken like in that game Legendary. But anyway, one day Pandora was given a gift by Curiosity, and she opened the box unleashing all the evils inside. 

This is the basic story below. The expression is used when somebody starts something, usually troublesome, that cannot be stopped. Find the story in Greek Mythology. I'm surprised at your teacher's ignorance. Pandora opened the box given to her by Zeus after being told never to open it. When she did so, all the troubles in the world were released. 

After Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create the woman Pandora as part of the punishment for mankind. Pandora was given many seductive gifts from Aphrodite, Hermes, Hera, Charities, and Horae (according to Works and Days). For fear of additional reprisals, Prometheus warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen, and married Pandora. Pandora had been given a large jar and instruction by Zeus to keep it closed, but she had also been given the gift of curiosity, and ultimately opened it. When she opened it, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her box, there lay hope. 

According to Hesiod Hope indeed stayed inside because that was Zeus’ will; he wanted to let people suffer in order to understand that they should not disobey their gods. Pandora was the right person to do it, because she was curious enough, but not malicious.

The myth of Pandora’s box has been fascinating people since ever, catching the imagination of countless artists, who created frescos, mosaics and sculptures depicting Pandora and the mythological elements. The myth itself though appears in many different versions; the most distinctive difference is that in some myths Hope does come out. The main purpose of the myth of Pandora though is to address the question of why evil exists in the world.

Market Overview research and Analysis of Results

This chart shows the ways in which audiences of different ages interact or watch the exhibition of films. It is split into age groups between 16 and over 55.  It shows the difference in the way different age groups interact with media, there is a definite change in some of the different forms of consumption as the chart progresses with age.

Teenagers are represented with about 25% of them consuming with films using online software such as downloading, streaming or piracy. This slowly decreases along with age until it only represents a few % of the 55+ age group. This shows that teenagers have more accessibility to download film, there may be many contributing factors to this. Teenagers have a lack of money and therefore would be less likely to spend this money on purchasing films, they also have less time (due to full time education) to go out and watch or record films. Teenagers also have a wider access and knowledge of the internet and so can easily access streamed movies. This means that trailers alongside films in cinema are no longer as effective and so if a film is aimed at a teenage audience it is more likely to now be advertised using social media such as adverts before YouTube videos or on sites such as Facebook.

This said however a large chunk of the teenagers (around 20%) in fact go to the cinema, this may be for socialisation purposes, to hang out with friends as it is a fairly cheep (around £8 a ticket) form of entertainment. The amount of people who go to the cinema does not change drastically over the progression of age. This may be because it is still accepted as an easy form of entertainment for all different ages of people.

Something else which stays fairly even throughout the different ages of people is the number of people who receive DVD’s. This may be down to it being an easy gift to give to people for their birthdays or Christmas presents for all age groups. Renting and buying DVD also stays fairly similar which shows that these are fairly regular ways of viewing film throughout different age groups.

Around 50% of 55+ year olds  view films through recorded TV, subscription TV or live TV. This may be to do with the fact that people retire soon after this age and so the majority of their day they have not a lot to do and so end up watching the films that are on day time TV. It is also assumed that they are not as familiar with the internet which is why a very low percentage of these people watch films via online sources.

This is important as our target audience interact with media through the internet, this means that our product will have to be accessible on these mediums, as it is very easy to just switch to another film while online compared to watching a movie in a cinema the trailer is specifically important in the success of the film as it shows off the best parts of the film and makes the audience want to watch the whole film. 

This chart shows why people tend to watch films. 76% of people said they watch films for pleasure and similarly 76% said they watched it for relaxation. This shows that films serve as a purpose to entertain but also make an audience relaxed. This means that overly complicated plots are not widely popular as they cannot make the audience relax whereas a simple movie will allow them to do so. This is something directors will have to take into account when creating their movie as the more effective a film is at doing these things increases its overall effectiveness.

Focusing these groups down on gender and age showed that more females watch films for relaxation and men for pleasure. This may show that women have more stressful life styles as stereo-typically they have to care for children as well as possibly work whereas men watch movies for pleasure to entertain them when they might otherwise be bored.

Throughout age groups the most popular overall was watching films for pleasure however the age group 55+ watched films for relaxation slightly more than for pleasure. This may also be down to lifestyle as older people get tired out more easily and therefore need time to unwind, whereas other age groups of people who are mostly all in education or work watch movies as a source of entertainment and pleasure.

The next most popular reason why people watched films was escapism, escaping from everyday life with around 62% of people agreeing with this. This is also a very good factor of movies to allow the audience to escape from their reality and enter a world where they no longer need to worry about their own problems. This is another technique used by many directors to create an effective film.  It is also proven effective as over half of the people questioned in this survey said they agreed with this.

The lowest % of people was people watching films because they were passionate for them with only 40% of people agreeing with this. In comparison only 18% of people over 55 agreed with this statement, this may be because they have less connection with modern films, for example, some people may be passionate for comic book films as they have grown up reading the comics, people over a certain age loose interest in these things.

  53% of people between 16 and 24 watch movies because they are passionate for them, this may be down to again the idea that they have grown up with such stories and therefore want to watch the movies. This is something we will have to take into consideration with our young audience. 

This means that for our trailer we will have to be creating a product that mostly evokes pleasure in the audience. Something they find interesting and entertaining as it will also be used for them to relax and unwind from school or stress from school. We will also be throwing in elements of escapism to really help the audience to escape from school and from the stresses of everyday life. This is especially important for our audience who will be going through exams and therefore need this element of escapism and relaxation. Using a story which is already well known may also evoke passion from the audience as they want to watch the movie adaptation of a timeless story which they will have heard about. 

This chart shows the % of people who enjoy watching certain genres of films. As you can see the most popular film genre given by the  people who were interviewed was comedy with 64% of people saying they enjoyed this genre. Although this I the highest, 64% is still not that high and so shows the massive variation people have in their favourite genre of films and what they enjoy watching. This is why film producers narrow down their audience to make it something which appeals for the people who mostly enjoy this genre. Although a teenage male may like a comedy, an older lady may not which is why the survey was then concentrated into different social groups.

This chart shows the concentrated genres of people who consider different film genres their favourites. The survey was broken down into males younger than 35, males older than 25, females younger than 25, females older than 25. Whether they were parents or not as their social class. Comedy still appears to be the favourite genre of all different groups of people which means if you were to pick comedy as your genre of film you would have a difficult time picking a specific audience group to focus on.

 For our genre of fantasy it was preferred by women who were not parents of a middle class background, this mean this is the group we will have to focus down on during our own research. Although this survey states that it is women over 35 who prefer this genre other surveys we have look at told us that it was younger women who preferred this genre and therefore we are going to have to look into this a lot more through focus groups and researching individual people.

As our movie will be dark fantasy and therefore contain elements associated with horror films we are going to be looking at horror film audience as well. According to this survey they are most popular with younger women, this is equally spread out depending on if they have children or not and they are again mostly middle class. This means we will be definitely focusing down on this audience as a focus point. 

HOW WE WILL USE THIS RESEARCH

This research supports our planning as we now understand fully what our audience would want to see within a successful trailer. It gives us a real incite into what we are dealing with when it comes to audience, how to attract them and interest them enough to make them want to watch the full movie and what they will look for content wise within the movie and therefore what elements of this we should present within our trailer.

General Survey Results - Evidence

Research: Audience Questionaire

Me and Becky created this questionnaire to give to our ideal target audience and got them to complete 15 and then we will collect the results from these which will help us to add certain things into our trailer. 

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I have created a questionnaire to hand out to people to determine the type of audience my film trailer, and other media products, will be aimed towards.  I have used mainly closed questions so that I can analyse the results easily and create graphs and charts based on the results. The questionnaire is as follows:

Gender:

Male   [   ]     Female   [   ]

Age:

Under 10   [   ]     11 – 17   [   ]     18 – 29   [   ]      30+   [   ]

How often do you watch movies?:

Everyday   [   ]     Once a week   [   ]      Once a month   [   ]     Less than once a month   [   ]

Do you enjoy watching movies?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Do you enjoy watching fantasy/horror movies?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Does a film trailer influence if you watch a film?:

Yes   [   ]    No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Does an actor’s appearance in a film influence you to watch the film?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Does a film poster influence you to watch the film?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Which style of horror film do you find more scary?:

Realistic   [   ]     Fantasy   [   ]     Both   [   ]

Which is your favourite genre of film?:

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Where do you prefer to watch movies?:

Cinema   [   ]     At home   [   ]      Online   [   ]     Other   [   ]

Where do you find out about new movies?:

TV trailers   [   ]     Online trailers   [   ]     Magazines   [   ]     Cinema   [   ]

Do you read movie magazines?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Research: Our Ideal Audience Profile *NEEDS EDITING*