Virus Empire cover

FINAL: This is our finale Empire cover for our film, we chose this magazine as it's the most well known movie magazine and our film is aimed a there audiences. Like with the teaser trailer we wanted to keep it a secret what the zombies looked like. Directors such as J.J Abrams and Steven Spielberg also have done this in the production of there films (ET and Super 8). We felt doing this was effective so we collectively decided to continue with showing audiences little part of the Zombies making it mysterious. 

Using photoshop Abbie transformed the hand into a torn apart zombie hand. Although we want to keep our film current we went with an old fashioned style layout, conforming to a typical old zombie film. We felt by doing this and then having a high quality picture of the zombie hand it would make a statement announcing the new type of zombie films. 

We kept the font red as it contrasted well with the green colouring of the hand, these colours would really stand out but to not make it too cliche we darkened the title font to a slightly darker red in order to look more professional. 

DRAFT: After discussion we thought we should make changes to the origional concept of the cover, we decided to move the date of the issue from the top inbetween the M to underneath the E so that it was more visable to the viewer. We then changed the writing on the left side to bold white font and made them form a line on the side so that it looks more clean and cut. 

Virus poster Final

After feedback this was our finale result we took the strongest parts of our trailer and then improved on the weaker parts to come to a finale product we were happy with. Originally the poster was an average size but after some discussion we felt the top half of the zombie face was giving too much away and also didn't look as visually impressive as the top half. We also didn't like the names at the top of the poster as with the reviews on the side as well it just crowded the poster making it too busy. By cutting the top off we feel we have made it unique and more minimal which was important as our title is already detailed. 

In the black shadow on the side we included reviews of the film. We look at other posters to get an idea of the type of magazine we would want reviewing our film so we went with Empire, total film and the guardian. All of which are well known magazines/papers meaning people will see it and trust the opinions and ratings. 

Virus poster 1st draft

This is our first draft of the 'virus' poster, this was created give us all the same visual of how we wanted it to look. This is a picture Abbie took during her zombie tutorial. You can see the original photo below. Further back you'll see a tutorial of this Zombie makeup being done, collectivly we agreed this was the strongest pieace of zombie make up from abbie. We wanted to avoid using red as this would be too cliche we felt and would end up look unprofessional. As most of the picture was black we went with white font. The white really stood out over all of the background and the hands in the font look far more detailed than they had previously.

We had seen what the poster looked  like with just the title and felt it looks dull. We chose to have the subtitle of "we never walk alone". This could be interpreted in a number of ways, one being that the zombies group together or another that becomes clearer in the trailer when characters Emma and Shanie group together. We wanted everything at the start to be fairly vague though as it gives the audience time to discuss and guess creating buzz around it. 

Virus poster test

By combining two posters I was trying to present the two worlds that now exists on earth, the living and the dead. The eye that matches in the middle which is slightly distorted (zombie) shows how despite this divide they were at some point all the same. 

Despite our aim to match a lot of the stereotypes of a zombie film, we felt this movie poster was an opportunities for us to make our film appeal to another genre, sci-fy audience. Due to the recent growing popularity of sci-fy super hero films we felt this would be a good way to gain a larger audience. I think the divided screen doesn't match the messy layout of typical horror films it has a more sophisticated and clean look. This was to show to our audience a new side of the genre where there can be a strong story and not just pointless blood and guts everywhere.  

Virus Production Credits

We made our own company credits by using a template in photoshop, we used our own names to fill in the gaps where actors and directors names would be placed, by doing this its way more effective than using a picture taken from google because it shows that we are capable of producing film trailer/poster assets. Also by doing this we are able to control the layout and font so it can evolve with the rest of the poster through the development process.

Virus development shots

 

On our first day of shooting a few of our actors werent able to make it due to school rehursals or christmas play rehursals so we decided that we would film a variety of developing shots. On the day it was also very cloud and rainy so it was perfect for the image that we wanted to go for and inspired how the film will look today.

Because we know we wanted to use a school as its a relatable location for our target audience we tried to go to more obsucure places. For example a panning shot from above the buildings is on a stair case to a blocked part of the building meaning nobody really does up there. As the is an view of the building students wont know it will be more intreaging. Corridoors are something we really want to include in our production due to the grim lighting that occures when we change to colouring of the trailer
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0:00 - 0:04 // We filmed whilst walking down the E corridoor and after that we edited the clip to slow it down. This created a haunting atmosphere and made the camera jult more causing the light reflecting off the wall to give the illution its flickering. This technique and location is somthing we will probably use in a death scene of one of the lead charecters. The enclosed corridoors makes the audience feel costriphobic and alone which will in turn make the audience feel for human charecters in the corridoor as you can predict danger.
 

0:05 - 0:08 // The section of the year 7 playground I film here had to be cut due to the bright colours in the art windows and the brightly coloured blue and yellow doors. From this we learnt that bold colours dont work well as they still overpower the editing making it look amature.
 

0:09 - 0:12 // The field I feel is a really strong location due to the flat landscape across it, it really emphasises how alone the humans. Aswell as this the trees at the back when editied create a dark frame around the field emphasising on the enclosed space they live in makeing the audience feel they are safe.
 

0:15 - 17// The building shown are as bright as I would would to include any colour in our production. Any brighter I think the building become to obvious and it takes the attention away from whats happening in the scene.
 

0:32 - 0:35// The playground is a good location as its the most steryotypical location in a school, reminding the audience where its set. Aswell as this the fencing around the edge of the play ground also makes it seem like a prison, making it appear dangerous.
 

0:41 - 0:45// This is possible my favirote location due to the dug up ground making the school grounds appear untended to as if it has been left. It also suggests a sort of aftermass of the Zombie apocalips as if a veichal of some sort has driven and taken up the grass. Aswell as this the puddles of dirt make it seem dirty and abandoned.

Virus Film Teaser

While we were producing our film trailer, we decided to create a teaser trailer for our film. A teaser trailer is usually released a long time before the main trailer, and is used to build hype around the film. We decided to create one, as we wanted the chance to play around with marketing, and see what ideas we could apply to the teaser. We added rock music and a special filter to the footage to enhance the cold and isolation of the footage.

We decided to have the scene set in a fire escape so that we could show that you cannot escape from the zombies, as they are everywhere.We used fake blood because Blood and Gore are constantly used in Zombie films as it reiterates the horror of someone having parts of them eaten. We don't specify wether the person behind the door is a zombie or a victim, helping to create an atmosphere of uncertainty. We wanted the audience to question what they would do if they were on this side of the door. Overall we are happywith the syle of our teaser trailer and we really enjoyed creating it.

Virus Storyboard

This video is our 'Virus' trailer storyboard.(the figures with the red parts are the zombies)

The locations for half of this storyboard will be at our school grounds, we decided this because with our time manegment we thought it would be quick and easy to film.
For some of our shots (mostly the end action shots) we will be filming anywhere we can, because these shots will only last for about 2/3 seconds we can choose a spur of the moment location and shoot there.

We decided to use 'rock' music because we want the viewer to feel exhillerating while watching the trailer, we want the music to build up to the fast action shots to create a suspense through the beginning and then creating a loud 'drop' of music in the action shots.

The special effects we will use is mostly for sound because we will have gun shots to make the props seem real, and use overlaping sound of zombie noises instead of making the actors do it in front of the camera we think we will record a backing track of the noises to create a more theatrical trailer.

we chose to do a range of shots because we wanted a diverse type of trailer, ranging around medium shots, close- ups and long shots. the medium and long shots will be used for when we are filming action and 'battle' scenes, the close-ups will be used for when we want to focus on a characters expression or their speech.

We will be involving fast black transitions, by doing this is gives the trailer a fast pace making the viewer feel like there is alot happening, and makes them wonder what is going on behind the black transitions making them want to go to the cenima and see the whole of the film to know what is really happening.

Zombie Film production Company

After researching some existing production companies we felt creating our own company would be better. Most of the ones we researched e.g. Hammer films were more on the horror genre than Zombie. Splatter Studios would be specialised in only Zombie films.

Above you can see the clip for our production company that will go at the start of the film, we felt the title 'Splatter Studio' really do with our genre. Hopefully it will grab the attention of our target audience which is 15+ with its bold and dark colouring and creepy font.