Website Ideas

Here are 2 ideas I came up with for our website. I used the website creator Wix.com which I found really east to use because of the lack of html coding and the focus on the "drag and drop" idea of website creation.

These font on these design won't be exactly what we want as we have picked our typography yet. I prefer the bottom design because the writing is a lot more clearer due to the less busy background picture. Also the use of social networking site links make the website seem professional due to its ability to reach a wider audience.

Promotional Package; Website Development

Below is a basic idea for our website. This was mainly so that I could try out the website creating software and discover how much creativity we could have. This is a very basic idea that will need a lot of work. We are just trying to come up with a number of ideas so that we can chose the best one as a group.




This is a very simple layout. However, there are flaws in the design. The layout does not take the viewers eye towards any particular important thing (especially the title). This will definitely be something that we need to work on.

Codes & Conventions of British Drama Posters

In order to create a poster for a teaser trailer that fits the British drama genre, we must first look at existing posters of the genre and identify the codes and conventions. These need to be identified so we can stick to them when developing our final design.

After comparing these posters we came up with a list of codes and conventions for a British drama poster;

- Clear, easy to read font is used

- Protagonist is featured on the poster

- Any character featured on the poster is looking directly at the camera

- Title is in the center of the thirds

- A tag line is used

- Font colour contrasts with the background colour

- Patriotic British colours often used

- The clothing which the characters are wearing in the poster gives away their personality

- Background usually features an attribute of city life/the film's location

- Credits are placed at the bottom
- Other films created by the director are sometimes mentioned
- The first item the eye is drawn to is the title

By identifying the codes and conventions we can now start developing our original poster ideas. If we stick to these conventions, then our final design should be a successful poster for the British drama genre.

Location Photos.

Here are some photos from the under ground, graffiti tunnel we will be using to film a lot of our footage for our final coursework piece;

Initial Poster Ideas

Below are a few poster ideas which we drew ourselves.;

Design 1

This design is based on the photos which we took in our photo shoot in London. The design includes our actress staring at the camera to intimidate the audience which gives an insight to the type of character our protagonist is as well as hinting to the genre of film being portrayed. the design also incorporates a graffiti style font being used to emphasise the suburban setting of the film.

Design 2

The main idea of this poster is that it will be a photograph of a cardboard sign saying "Thick Skin" which we would have written on before hand. However the problem with this design is that it doesn't give much away about the narrative or genre. This can be a positive thing as it entices the audience however I feel it needs to give away slightly more so a better understanding of the film is gained.

Design 3

This poster design is also based on our previous photography as well as the HOMELESS image we found when creating a mood board. Although it is poorly portrayed in the drawing, we would like the title "Thick Skin" to run along the wall just like in the HOMELESS image. The design also includes our protagonist which introduces the character. We will ensure any font used will stand out against the poster so that it is clearly read. This will be done by using a contrasting colour and striking font style.

The next step in creating our film poster is develop our initial ideas. We are planning on looking at codes & conventions of British Drama posters as well as speaking to a graphic designer who can help us create our ideas whilst offering any additional advice which will aid our final design.

Teaser Trailer; Anchorage Development

Within our trailer it may be necessary to have effective anchorage (wording/key information) at some points during the teaser trailer. As use of anchorage will be key for our teaser trailer, I have begun to look into different British Drama films and the use of anchorage within them.

Fish Tank;

To the left, is the anchorage used within the fish tank trailer, shown in the trailer from left to right in order. It is important to remember that this is used in a theatrical trailer not a teaser so there is longer time and more narrative to give away within the time given. It begins with stating nominations and awards that the film has received. This is encouraging to the viewer as it leads them to think that the film will be worthwhile watching. However, this technique may have been necessary as the director and actress are rather unknown. Also, the genre of film is of a niche target market and so perhaps they could not to use their reputation to encourage people to view the film.


The anchorage used gets more frequent and has a shorter time on screen towards the end of the trailer as the tempo of the music and tension is increased. This could be effective in our teaser trailer to create excitement to watch our film. However, we need to look into how the anchorage can be used to its best effect and what wording to use.


As you can see to the left, the wording (not reviews or awards) used is; "All her life, She kept the world out. All around her, Life came rushing in. How much can you give, How much can you take, FISH TANK". the use of the rhetorical questions are very effective as they push the audience to consider how they would react if they were her and this involves the audience and may make them feel attached to the film and would, encourage them to see the film. The anchorage tells the audience a lot about Mia as a character and gives an idea of the storyline. It reflects that the issues within the film have been happening 'all her life'. It indicates to the audience that what happens in the film may be out of her control. The anchorage, together with the mise en scene reflects that life is a constant struggle for the main character. It also indicates, problems with her mother/family and shows her relationship with other characters in the film.


In our teaser trailer we will not have as much time to portray as many issues, and as a teaser trailer we we would not want to. We need to discuss as a group, if we chose to use narrative anchorage, what problems our protagonist face's in our film and if we want to portray this within our teaser trailer. However, the use of short two or three words on screen in concession has a much better impact on the viewer and is much more effective than lengthy phrases for anchorage. Also, there is not much vocal interaction between the characters in the trailer and this may be why anchorage was needed.


London to Brighton;



Above is the anchorage used within London to Brighton's trailer, there is much less in comparison to Fish Tank. However, during the trailer there is diegetic and non-diegetic conversations between characters that gives away a lot of narrative and sets the tone of the film. Again, the director has decided to use reviews from film critics as a way to attract the audience. This is clearly an effective technique, especially from respected people within the film industry. The anchorage used has been shown on a black/out of focus background. This helps he viewer to focus on the writing on screen and not what is going on in the background.
There is a gap in the middle from anchorage on screen and again, the frequency increases towards the end of the trailer as the tension comes to a head.
The interaction between characters flows from diegetic conversation to non-diegetic sound where the conversation continues but the mise en scene has changed to a different point within the film. The lack of anchorage has a good impact on the viewer as it is more memorable and stands out more to the audience.

It may be effective within our teaser not to have any anchorage at all apart from the title as this could create deeper interest for the film due to curiosity. However, the film may not be established enough to be able to rely on this method to work. It is important that we consider if the approach is too risky.

Having looked at the two trailers and the anchorage used within them, it is important we decide on how much narrative we are going to give away in the acting/mise en scene of the teaser trailer and if it will be necessary to have further anchorage to demonstrate more narrative. However, it is also important that we are careful if we cross 'the 4th wall' as this will compromise the reality and authenticity of the film.

PhotoShoot

While we were filming at an excellent location for our teaser trailer we also took still pictures of our actress to be used for our poster and website. The image quality is not great because we took the stills using the video camera.

In order to use any of these pictures we would have to re-shoot them with a better quality camera so that the photos come out less blurred and the colours would be less washed out. Regardless we feel these photos came out well and that we shall definately incorporate them into the designs for our ancillary tasks.

Website Building

As part of our promotional package for a teaser trailer film, we need to create a promotional website. To start with I searched round the internet for a suitable and easy to use website builders. After trying out various websites such as Moonfruit.com, Webeden.com and 350.cm I found that these were quite complicated to use and were not really offering the appropriate layout for a film website. Therefore I spoke to a friend who has expertise in website building and he suggested Wix.com because of how easy it is to use. After testing this website out I found it to be extremely user friendly and no prior knowledge about html coding was needed. This website builder simply uses the drag and drop method and lets you make a page completely from scratch whilst providing help tips along the way.

Therefore in order to create our promotional package website for our teaser trailer, we will be using

Production Companies

I have researched into which production company will be best suited for our film.

Revolver Entertainment is one of the UK's leading ‘All Rights’ distribution companies, shaking up the industry with a unique approach to managing its enviable and edgy slate of Film and DVD releases. Many of Revolver entertainment's productions have been British action films for the youth generation in 'gritty' London such as, Shank and Kidulthood.

IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by Rainbow Media. It distributes independent films and documentaries. The majority of films distributed were dramas such as spring forward, American gun and fish tank.

Ken and Paul formed their production company Steel Mill Pictures in 2006 when they produced their first feature film, the Award-winning, critically-acclaimed "London to Brighton". Financed with private equity and completion money from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, the film screened in competition at several prestigious film festivals around the world, winning many awards and accolades.

Poster Idea

Whilst searching Google Images for pictures of homelessness to create our moodboard I came across this image which I thought would make an excellent poster design. The image quality is poor due to the resizing.

The word "homeless" written along the wall could be replaced with our film title "Thick Skin". We could maybe use a graffiti style font to make it appear as if it has been spray painted on the wall. This would represent the grimey, London location. The title would be read first by the audience because they tend to read from left to right and therefore we need to sure it stands out against the rest of the poster. We could also recreate this image by having our protagonist sitting on the floor in front of the wall instead. Although I like the use of yellow and and dark tones I feel we should incorporate shades of blue instead as it makes the image appear more harsh and real, emphasising the struggle of being homeless.

We have decided in our next filming session we will also take a normal digital camera and see if we can recreate this image. Then we'll upload it onto Photoshop to experiment with placing the font.

Music Research; Existing British Dramas

We decided to do further research in order to decide what music to use in our coursework. As part of this research we looked at existing teaser trailer for British drama films and analyse what music was used.

London to Brighton

The trailer for London to Brighton starts with a somber sounding piano piece playing alongside an underlying continuous deep string sound. With these two sounds playing at the same time, it creates a serious sounding piece of music which is parallel to narrative the being portrayed on screen. Also the use of this continuous drone is slowly building tension for the audience. Then half way through the trailer the music suddenly changes to a faster paced track which greatly uses drum beats. This is used to represent the suddenly change of pace within the trailer. The use of a repetitive drum beat also makes the film seem modern because drum music has connotations of club music and youth.

This is England

The trailer is split up into sections because of the 3 music tracks used. The first is a song from the reggae genre. This type of music has connotations of a happy and relaxed nature. This suggests that the characters being portrayed on screen are a close happy friendship group who like to hang about together. The track is also relevant as it is of the time period in which the film is set (1980s). Then the music switches to more serious sounding track when the "villain" is introduced on screen. The indicates to the audience that the characters feeling towards this new character on screen is different to those in the friendship group. The use of a heavy repetitive guitar riff also indicates the change in narrative as the music is in complete contrast to the previous track. The final piece off music used it more calming, acoustic guitar piece. This juxtaposes the actions on screen as they are more violent and chaotic in comparison the overlay ed non diegetic music. this represents to the audience that although a lot is happening in the film there is also a serious side to the narrative and the characters lives.

The Football Factory

The Football Factory's featured music is the same non diegetic track throughout the trailer. By having the same piece of music that doesn't change volume or tempo, it makes the trailer feel longer and hints that there is something always happening in the film. The music is fast paced and quite electronic sounding. The pace of the track indicates that the narrative is also past paced. It also has a high pitched string sound and seems to get faster throughout the trailer which builds up tension for the audience.

Happy Go Lucky

Happy Go Lucky's sound track is similar to London to Brighton as it also uses two different songs during the trailer. The first is an upbeat sounding classical song which gives the impression that the film is generally happy bubbly film. Also the track includes the sound of a trombone which hints to the comedy element of the film as this instrument is usually associated with classic British comedy sketches. This emphasised by the humorous events and the diegetic, jokey dialogue. The second piece of music is a modern piece of chart music to represent the modern narrative of the film. The trumpets used in the track sound energetic and celebratory supporting the idea that the film is joyous and happy. Also thelyrics of song "the sun is in the sky ..." are also optimistic sounding lyrics to suggest the nature of the film and the personality of the protagonist.

After conducting this piece of research i have a better understanding of music used in British dramas. I have discovered that usually they use more than one piece of music to symbolise the change in pace or narrative in the film. The music also usually represents what is happening on screen. However another aspect I notice is that British drama teaser trailers also heavily rely on a voiceover or dialogue to compliment the music. For our next piece of research we will look further into voiceovers and what impact they have on the teaser trailer.

Fourth Day of Filming

Over the half term we have spent a lot of our time filming for our coursework. We have been filming in various locations such as London, Bat 7 Ball and Tonbridge. Here are a couple of photos from our filming day in Tonbridge on Friday the 29th of October.

Film Title

After requesting for people to vote on our poll via various social networking sites, we have finally decided on the title of our teaser trailer film. With a majority of 43% of the vote, our title will now be;

'Thick Skin'

Now that we have a title we can now test out different typography and poster designs.