The Whole Package

When we first started creating our whole package and idea we knew that all three features, poster, magazine cover and trailer had to fit well with each other and promote our imagined film. We have created a package that we think will attract a mainstream audience as well felt that this would be best for our chosen genre of film and would enable us to engage as many people as possible into our products.

We believe as a group and individually that our three features work very well together as we have kept aspects similar and met the conventions of each element. The poster is something that we knew would be visible to everyone as it would be seen in the street on bus shelters etc. and knew it would have to be attention grabbing. This is why we put a lot of effort and creation into this and I think we have a pleasing outcome. We used a certain font that we felt fitted well with the genre of the film and chose a colour scheme of red, white, grey and black. These are two elements that we have used through all three products. This is because it shows a link between them all and also begins to be familiar with our audience and more noticeable. Another main aspect that is seen in all three products is the symbol of a chess piece as the title of the film is 'Checkmate'. We felt we needed to carry this through in the three elements because it is the main importance of the film and similarly to the stalker we are leaving our mark with the chess piece. The magazine like the poster is going to available to most people to see but is mainly towards people interested in film as it is a film magazine. This is why we had to make the cover very eye catching and decided to use a photo that looked like a shot from the film. This is a contrast to the poster as this photograph looks very set up and was. This shows how the two have different audiences to attract but both are important to urge our audience to watch the film. Along with these two advertisements the trailer is the product that reveals the most and informs the audience more. This shows that the poster and magazine cover may interest our audience but the trailer is the main product that will help push our audience into going to watch the film. This shows how the three work together in different ways to help contribute to the audience watching the film. The three elements have a relationship as they are all similar but also different as they have their different aims but the main aim of all three is to urge our audience into watching the film and I think they all do this.

I think one of the most successful elements of our magazine cover is the layout of the cover. We have managed to incorporate different sized fonts and colours keeping with familiar colour scheme in the other products. The text surrounds the model on the cover meaning that the photo is clear to see and the writing helps draw the attention the centre. The text was one of the main priorities to us for the magazine cover as we wanted to get the right balance and felt that this would help make it look professional. Another aspect I like about the magazine cover is the photograph that we chose to use. We had many photos to choose from and in our development we tried out different ones but we are pleased with our final decision. I think the fact that the photo is outside and has an interesting background makes it different and definitely look as if it is a shot from the film. I think with the photo and the text the magazine cover would grab our audience and would make them want to read about the film. I have picked these two elements of the magazine cover because I think as well as the most important parts of the cover they have both worked well. I think the cover portrays a film magazine genre and also has the promotion element for our film. One of the difficulties we had when creating the magazine cover was at first we couldn't agree what photograph to use as we all had different ideas of how the poster should look and some people in my group like the close up photos whereas some thought this became to look more like a fashion magazine cover for some of the photos. Even though we all had different ideas we were able to compromise and had a pleasing result that we all agreed on.

I feel that our poster has worked very well as it promotes the film and has very easy layout that is attention grabbing from the emotion created from the close up of the character. One of the aspects that I think has worked particularly well is the chess piece that is covering one side of the characters face. The chess piece looks as if it becoming part of the character maybe because she can't get away from the stalker and the chess piece is what he leaves as his mark. I think the chess casting a shadow on her face makes it look threatening towards the character and represents the genre of our film. I like how our character looks upset and the smudged make up adds to her being stressed and detached from anyone else. Even though I like how the chess piece is transparent I think that it could have been slightly less to make it more pronounced in the poster. I think the colour scheme is another element that works really well on the poster because they contrast against each other and the red really stands out. When creating the poster we decided on only using the main characters name to not give away who the stalker is but now I do think that we could have had other name that could have played parts of her friends or family as she wont be the only actress in the film. However, I understand that like this it raises the suspicions of who the stalker is. Something that I don't like about the poster is the plain black background behind the chess as I think we could have graduated the colour slightly as the other side is grey.

I think one of the best assets of our trailer is the quick cuts that are towards the end of the trailer. This is something commonly seen in thriller genre trailers to create tension and build up the climax of the trailer. I think our quick cuts do this in our trailer and without them it wouldn't be so interesting and grabbing to the audience. When filming we knew that we wanted to include fast cuts and that's why we tried to film as much as we could so we could include different short angles and positions. The quick cuts contribute to the trailer looking professional and shows the influence from our main inspiration 'Disturbia' as they also have gradual fast cuts. To increase this tension we decided to make the music quicker as it plays further into the trailer. The music is another aspect I think has worked well and definitely helped pull the trailer together. I like the basic beats we have used and from our research we found that thriller trailers had no vocals included unlike what you would maybe see in a Rom-Com trailer, so we too have not included any vocals. I like the slow pace of the music at the end of the trailer because I think it fits in with the dramatic shots and also the release date and billing block enter the screen on the beat of the music which is very effective.

I think one of the weaknesses of the trailer is the title of 'Checkmate' because the smoke jogs slightly as it plays. Me and another member of the group tried prevent this and tried different transitions to see if this helped it play smoothly but we didn't have enough time or experience with the programme to be able to make it better. I am glad we tried to make the appearance better and I think that it isn't a very noticeable aspect I just think it would have looked more professional if we were able to do it. When were editing parts of the footage we found that some clips were too short like the bath clip, so we had to change the speed of them which we thought the audience might see but luckily this hasn't had a bad effect on the clips and has helped us prolong sections.

When we were producing the film we were trying to use a variety of shots and I think we have managed to do this as their are many angles during our trailer. I think this is something that has worked well and definitely fits the conventions of trailer as they have to include different shots to make it interesting for the audience to watch. I like the titles in the trailer as they expand on the screen because I think this adds to the threatening atmosphere and also I have noticed that trailers of this genre use the same effect on their titles. They have worked well because it links to the game of chess and the audience feel like they are becoming involved with the game.