The Poster Creation (Jodie)

After conducting my research on current Macbeth posters already created on the interent, I used their similarites and main attributes to create my own poster using Microsoft Word. Here is the final result;



I started by finding a picture of a blood splatter for the background becasue I thought it was very effective in one the posters I looked at for my research. Then I looked at a shakespearean style font to represent the tradition side of the play. I then looked up local performing art schools so that i could pick one to say who was performing the play. I also needed this so I can put a logo on the poster to make it look authentic and official.

The main issue i had was making the font readable against the busy background but I managed this by changing the contrast of the background image. I also made sure I used black font as this was often used in the posters i researched and it also symbolises the theme of death within the play.

As this picture is only a scan of the poster, the detailing is not clear. However when finished, I printed out the poster in A4 which means it will look quite small in an establisihng or long shot. Therefore should be used in intimate close up shots like in the toilets.

POV Shot (Jodie)

A main shot which we will be frequently using in our opening in a Point of View shot of the protagonist looking at his hands. This is so the audience can see the current events through his eyes and therefore they can see what he sees. Here is a video in which Thea is filming of Jakob's hands to give an idea of what we are wanting in the POV shot and what we are trying to create;

Tonbridge Station at Night - Looking at Lighting (Kathy and Jodie)

We went to tonbridge station at 7:30pm on the 1st February. Are aim was to see whether we would need any extra lighting when we actually filmed, as lighting is always different through a camera. Here is the video of us filming Tonbridge station in the dark;



We started off in the tunnel near the station which we thought might need extra lighting, however it turned out not too, as it was brightly lit. Therefore we consider trying to dim it when we edit to create a more dingy look. But one problem we found was the echo of the trains passing by was extremely loud in the tunnel therefore we would have to film between eahc passing of train to make surethe sound is not picked up on camera.

Then we went through the tunnel and looked at the CCTV type shot we are going to film of our protagonist running into the station, where the lighting was dimmer, and had a tint of yellow. So therefore didnt need any extra lighting. This yellow tint will also compliment the close up shot of the hands because it will enhance the colour of the blood, thus making it seem like there is more on the hands than we actually put on.

Finally we went along the platform and into the womens toilets (because tow girls walking into the men's toilets would seem weird) and again these had good lighting, and so we dont need to use any extra lighting in this section of our film opening. Although one thing we did notice about the womens toilets is that the mirrors are smaller which could be more useful when filming as there is a much smaller chance of the camera being seen in their reflection.

Rush Hour
Also one other issue we looked at was what time rush hour ends. We needed to look at this as we want as little people on the platform as possible and less frequent trains for continuety. After waiting around for a while we noticed that trains and people become less noticable on the platform around 8:15ish so we feel we should start filming after this time. However this may be different on a weekend especially Sundays as generally trains are less frequent on these days.

Name Analysis (Thea)

As we are progressing with our project, we still have the issue of choosing a name.
We have not been too keen to choose a name until we have finished filming so we can see how the film feels and what name will be appropriate. However, it is still important that we research into names of other psychological thrillers and do some audience research in relation to our target audience. (This piece of work is in a word document format that will look much prettier on the presentation!)


Audience Research for Name;
“What makes a film title good?” “Intriguing titles” (Female, 17) “A couple of words that sum up what the story is about e.g fast and furious” (Male, 52)
“Do you like abstract (where it appears irrelevant) or related titles?” “Related ones” (Male, 20) “It depends on the film, such as the ‘the hills have eyes’ makes you question it but can tell it’ll probably be a horror” (Female, 19)
“Do you think long or short names for films are better?” “Short Names” (Female, 28) “Short are better, because sometimes the long ones are annoying to say” (Male, 17)
“What is your favourite movie title and why?” “Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind because it is relevant to the film yet also poetic and unique” (Female, 46) “Fast and Furious because its short but sweet” (Male, 21)

What do we want the title to do/be;
-Be remember able
-Entice the audience to watch the film
-Be simple yet effective
-Be original and creative
-Short, but direct
-Allude to some aspects of the film but not give too much away
-Not hint who killed the girl that is in the opening, as we want this to be revealed at the very end of the production

Names of Successful Psychological thrillers;
-Rear Window -The Illusionist
-Silence of Lambs -Blue Velvet
-Taxi Driver -Memento
-Se7en -Thirteen
-The Game -Hard Candy
-Phone Booth -Straw Dogs
-Flightplan -American Psycho

Looking at the names of Psychological Thrillers, it would appear that all the titles are short (usually one or two words) and they hint towards aspects of the story (such as phone booth and Flightplan), yet they do not give too much information away. The use of two words has not changed much with time. Rear Window was released in 1954 and Phone Booth in 2002 yet two words are still used even though there is nearly a gap of 50 years. This is because two words/short titles are simple yet effective and there has been no need or reason for change.

On the presentation we will also have possible name ideas and why we do or don't want to use them.
If anybody has any good ideas for our film please post a comment!

CSI photograph day (Jodie)

Here are some behind the scene pictures I took during the day our media group focused on creating the CSI photos. here are ones I took of Katy taking pictures of the dead body;





By looking at these you can seen the true colours and tones of the scene before we edited the photos. Orginially we were going to have the photos in black and white so the bruises and cuts would look more realistic.but then we realised that CSI photos are normally in colour. Nevertheless here are some photos I took of the bruise and cut we made our selves using make up and paint, but in black and white;

Creating Advertisement (Jodie)

Although we have managed to obtain various posters from different organisations, we would still like an amateur Macbeth performance poster to emphasise our focus on the play. Therefore I have decided to attempt to create my own on microsoft Word or Publisher. I feel by creating my making my own it will add to the amateur feel; for example schools make posters for their productions. However before I start creating my own I need to look at examples of promotion for Macbeth already made to get a better idea of what they should look like to make it seem authentic.

Poster 1
The first part I notice about this poster is the position the figure is in. The hands against the head could represent the stress and anger that the character is going through. The background colours of the poster are mainly black and red to symbolise the tragic death and murder which the story of the play tells. The frayed edges of the colours also suggest that Macbeth is not a clean cut story with an happy ending and that is portrays a dark and tragic story.



Poster 2
The red colouring in the background of the poster looks as if it has been splattered across the page like a murder has just been committed. Also the large centred image of the crown focuses on the royalty and position of power the protagonist is in. Finally The details of the performance are in a black font to stand out against it's background.




Poster 3
This poster cleverly uses black and white photography to contrast against the colour of the blood on the subject's hands. By letting the blood remain in colour it emphesises its importance and how it represents a main feature within the play. Also by using a photograph instead of a 2d image, there is more focus on the actors in the play to highlight their acting abilties. The gives more of a live feel to the performance.



Poster 4
i felt this had a strong amateur homemade feel as it seems as if images have been layered upon each other but with no similar detailing. Although this is what I plan to do, I will make it seem more blended together by chosing apropriate images and colours which suit each other. However i found the font effective in this poster as it looks quite sinister because of the jagged shape and bright red colour.




Poster 5
The use of the soviet symbol and colours it would suggets this was a modern day Macbeth play tackling a modern day world issue. This subverts the audiences expectations of a traditional shakespearean era play. The use of a quote in the background is effective as the shade of the makes it quite subtle in the background but it still is visible enough for the audience to see and relate back to the traditional play. The white colour of the writing and it's centered placement puts more emphesis on the time and place of where the performance takes place, which is the main piece of information the viewer is looking for.


From my overall research I can conclude that the similarities between the posters are what I need to include within my own. These are that the font needs to contrast againsts its background so that it can read and that what it is saying needs to be a focus point. The poster also needs to incldue shades of red and black as well as include the theme of blood. The writing on hte psoter needs to mention the date nad time of the performance as well as venue it is being held. Any images used should be of either actors or objects which sybolise death such as weapons or skulls. By including these major features in my own poster, it will hopefully look authentic enough for the audience to believe that there was an actual performacne of Macbeth at the time this film was set/filmed.

Britsh Gas Advert (Subliminal Messages) - (Thea)

No Estimated Bills w..
Watch the ad...

Here is a clip of a britsh gas advert. With special attention to the poster in the background which states "Keep Calm And Carry On". This poster has come back into fashion with these posters being printed lots more and even T-shirts being made of this slogan. It is interesting as it displays the chaos within the household which in the displayed by the mess made in the living room by the young girl.

This is useful for our media project as we are using sublimnal posters such as; give blood, mind your head, Macbeth amateurs and the MIND poster.
We are using these posters and signs to remind the audience of the situation and the chaos occuring in the protagonists head. These are intended to be rather subtle, although we are sure some may conciously make the link.
The MIND poster states that; "1 in 4 people suffer from mental health problems", this is significant as there are a total of 4 people that will be concentrated on during the 2 minute clip (The protagonist, the female victim, the woman with the handbag and the male in the toilet) and there is the one person in the two minute clip that has some sort of mental health issue.
The 'Mind your head" sign which is above the tunnel exit that the protagonist runs through will be significant as it is ironic that he is reminded to "mind his head" as he has something wrong with his hormone balance / mental state. We will lightly focus on this in the opening to note this.
The Give Blood posters/leaflets are also is using dramatic irony as it is implied he played some role in taking the life of the young girl photographed which is contrasting to the give blood poster which asks "to save lives", it is also significant as he is 'washing blood' off of his hands and wants to get rid of it immediately.
The Amateur Macbeth poster is significant for reflecting the inspiration we recieved from Macbeth and Lady Mavbethgs insanity where she washes the blood of Duncan off her hands and also the quotes we are using by her such as; "where is she now".
Hopefully, all of these subliminal messages will be very effective within the short clip for reflecting different aspects of the clip and emphasising contrasts.

PICTURES!! (kathy)

On the 6th February our media group met up to take our CSI photos which would be in the beginnig of our film opening. We had already chosen a location, so after putting a scar on my neck, bruises on my arms, breaking a heel of one of the shoes and making a black eye we were ready to take the photos. We asked Katy Fields (an ex Weald of Kent pupil) to take our photos because she is doing photography AS and we wanted them to look professional and as realistic as possible.

When we got to our location, we started to set our scene up by boardering the area off with yellow tape for out establishing shot of a CSI investigation.


Then we set up the position of the dead girl, we decided she tripped backwards over the log, which was a fairly awkward postion to lay in if im honest. We added our fake blood to the dress so that it looked like a stab wound, dirted up the dress, and laddered the tights to make it look like she had been in a struggle.



We took close ups of the shoes, the stab wound, bruises, neck and eyes, to emphasise the importance of these features and to imitate CSI photos, who photograph close ups of aspects of a body where something has been done them





We are not using all these photos, only the ones with the date, time and CN number which we edited on the computer. We printed them off onto photographic paper (8" by 6") and made a white boarder round the edge like the CSI photos we were told about and researched into. We filmed the beginning to our opening at 7pm at jodies house, using her dad to be our CID dective looking at the pictures.

OTH make up (kathy)

This is a picture of the character Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill. I found it interesting to see how the professionals did the fake bruising around the eye. As you can see, they have used a lot of purple and blacks to blend together to make a realistic bruise. They have it darker near the eye and have it slowly fade towards the cheek bone. Towards the checkbone there is less makeup used, and looks as if it is faded into the skin.

They have also put less make up on her face to make her look washed out, and so the bruises stand out more. This make up really stood out to me as being realistic because her left eye is slightly puffy and shut making her look more tired and vunerable.