Cloud9Production- Invictus Final

Invictus - Final Trailer (Feedback)

Our final draft of the teaser trailer was shown to a group of year 10 media students. They then wrote their thoughts about our trailer down on a post-it note saying whether they liked the trailer or not or on how we could of improved on it. We had an equal amount of positive and negative comments but most of the comments where similar which made the improvements obvious. This is some of their feedback;

Joshua, 14  - "INVICTUS, it was quite intriguing and the
                sound effects was very good."


Anonymous - "Good sound effects"
                 
                      "Good Tension"

                      "The Audio is good for the genre, the part where he runs, screaming makes it look like a                                 comedy."

                      "Really good music which shows the suspense/drama. Change the speed of which the text                              follows through."

                      "The use of non-diegetic music to create tension was good. However, the sounds should be                             more dramatic at the end."

                      "Good use of sound, Improve camera angles."

                      "Too comic, confusing story line."

As we can see, most of the comments that we received compliments on the sound concept of our trailer clearly being a very strong aspect and having a very positive effect on out trailer.

We also had a few very helpful comments on certain scenes that we can improve on, e.g. "...the part where he runs, screaming makes it look like a comedy." We have taken this certain comment into consideration as it has been a popular comment when our trailer is shown to viewers and have decided to shorten this certain scene rather than completely cut the whole running scene from the trailer as we believe that that we are able still work with a bit of comedy within the trailer.

INVICTUS - Final Trailer

Here is the final version of our horror trailer!

Title Development

The construction of the titles for our trailer proved to be a difficult task. It also took a considerable amount of time to complete one as I was at first unfamiliar with the software I had to use which was Adobe After Effects. Here are the steps I took to create one of our titles.

1

To begin with, I opened a new composition at a width of 1292px and a height of 720 px which left me with a blank, black background.

2

Selecting the text tool and then clicking in the centre of the blank composition, I then typed "Invictus". I then proceeded to the text properties and added an Animate operator and also added a scale. I then added the opacity and blur property to the Animate operator.

 Scaling it to 300% and bringing the opacity to 10% - also bringing the blur up to 100.

 3

I selected the Offset and then changed it's property to 100%

4

Selecting the blur effect and changing the shape from "square" to "ramp up", the angle of the blur was altered and the pressure of the effect differed in certain areas of the text.

5

I added a new property to the Range Selector to enable a 3D Pre-character and started the key frame for the animation. Then, I added a new Position property to the Animator.

6

 

Later in the keyframe at around the mark 10f, I added a position property and altered it to 642, I then altered both the Blur's Y and X axis to 50. After that I manipulated the Ease Low and began to experiment with it's effect before putting it at 50%.

 7

Selecting the text layer I then added a new Camera and Preset it to 28mm.

8

I selected the text layer in then third box which added a 3d property to it. I then added a another property to the Animator. At the end of the keyframe which was between the mark 20f and 1.00f, I added an Opacity property to the Animator and altered it to 100%.

9

At the last minute, I changed the text to "YOU CAN RUN" before saving the project and queuing it to render before exporting it. 

Invictus trailer draft 2 (Feedback)

After taking the first set of comments into consideration, we have edited to improve our independent film trailer. We have again screened our trailer to a new audience and have again received feedback to see if we need to make further adjustments to our current trailer. these are some of their comments;

INVICTUS trailer draft 2

Invictus Draft 1 - (Feedback)

Once the first draft of our trailer was complete we showed it to our Media Studies class and in return received compliments on our work as well as constructive criticism which we used to improve our trailer.

Here are some of the things they said:

                 "The introduction of the characters was very clear, the editing of the whole trailer was                          very slow." - Sean, 17

                 "The trailer confuses me about what genre it is." - Abena, 18

                 "The cinematography of the trailer was very good but there was a lack of titles through                        the whole trailer." - Enzo, 17

               "Immediately the trailer opens with a soundtrack that creates suspense. This works really                   well. It helps to build tension as we're watching. It's also engaging and created anticipation. 

                                                        -Kortney, 18

The first comment mentioned that the introduction of the main characters was very clear but the editing pace of the trailer was too slow. We believe that the solution to this problem would be to maybe cut the introduction scenes of the main characters a bit shorter to keep the story of the characters still there but just make the takes shorter to speed up the pace of the editing.

In the second comment they mentioned how the genre was confused, this can easily be solved by maybe cutting one of the longer comedic scenes to keep a little sense of humor within the trailer but make sure that the main genre of the movie is 'Horror'.

Finally, the last comments tells us that there is a lack of titles throughout the trailer. We will simply add more titles and make them appear more frequently in our trailer to solve this little problem. 

"Immediately the trailer opens with a soundtrack that creates suspense. This works really well. It helps to build tension as we're watching. It's also engaging and created anticipation.

INVICTUS trailer draft 1

Cloud 9Production's Logo Development

Logo Draft 1 (Standard /Simple);

Logo Draft 2 (Horror Effect);

Logo Draft 3 (Trailer Style Effect);

Casting for Invictus

Gianne Pineda

We have decided to cast Gianne as the main protagonist, as she holds the typical conventions of a victim of possession. She studies A-Level Drama which is huge addition as she is able to take order efficiently and with good quality. Initially we wanted to cast someone who holds innocent qualities and can quickly change into a 'inhuman' character, in which Gianne has these qualities. 

Valentino Pajarillo. 

We decided to cast Val as the second main character of the trailer who plays the 'tech' guy of the group and appearance wise Val has these conventions. He holds the qualities of the stereotypical 'tech' guy as he is able to use technology properly. He is also very able to perform the character very well as they can relate. 

Jason Alves 

We decided to cast Jason as the third main character who plays the 'carefree' person of the group. Jason studies A-level drama so he very able to perform for our trailer very well. 

Location Shots

The Church will help to present the religious element in our trailer. Religion, specifically Christianity, often ties in with the theme of possession.

 Filming in the graveyard will help to create an eerie atmosphere and make audiences feel uncomfortable in the anticipation of something scary. Shots of the church will frame the scene in an almost fragile way and may lengthen the anticipation and tension.
What's also valuable is that this location is not afar distance and we can easily travel there by foot. This will benefit us if we have to re-shoot a scene.

Epping Forest - Dense forestation will work well in creating dark shades and lighting for our scenes to help create a tense and 'spooky' atmosphere.

Certfications

Feedback on Animated Storyboard

After presenting our animated storyboard to our Media class we received positive comments and constructive criticism which we will use in order to improve it.

Outline of Feedback:

Good Points:
-Great sound effects
-The editing of the the audible aspects in relation to our visual element. (The sound related to the image well).

Constructive Criticism
-The storyline seemed a bit unclear to some. For example "Why did she go into the woods?"
-Need to introduce the characters
-We need to build in more titles
-The pace of our animated storyboard needs to reach atleast 45 minutes.

Invictus Animated Storyboard 1

Hi guys, this is our first storyboard. We have used our original sketches and have transformed them into an animated version, using a few sound effects that we may choose to include in our final trailer. We hope you enjoy our little teaser trailer to our trailer.




Invictus animated storyboard 1 from Media @ St. Bons on Vimeo.

Storyboard Frame Sheet

Timings	Sketch Frames	Visual	Audio
Shot No: 1		Wide shot of main female character but is shot in an unprofessional style in order to show that characters are using a 'handheld camera' First shot mainly used to introduce characters.	Diegetic sound of talking within the library. And dialogue from 3 main characters.
Shot No: 2		Continues with the 'handheld'.	Dialogue from 3 main characters.
Shot No: 3		Close up shot of the main character hands looking for 'the book'. Introduces the book into the trailer.	Diegetic sound of talking in the library and shuffling of books
Shot No: 4		Fades into text	Eerie music slowly begins to play
Shot No: 5		Wide shot of classroom to introduce the whole meaning to the storyline. Will cut into the faces of the main characters, to capture certain dialogue	Dialogue between teacher and students talking. Quiet music still continues
Shot No: 6		Mid-shot of character looking into the mirror. Then will zoom into the mirror to reveal a change and scariness to the character.	Eerie music stops, to here the diegetic sound of character humming a creepy nursery rhyme.
Shot No: 7		Jump cuts into the close up shot of the book.	The humming of the character continues into the trailer.
Shot No: 8		Fade in of text.
Shot No: 9		Wide shot of characters entering a forest, introduces next location. This reveals full change in main protagonist.	Diegetic sound of music will be added in here.
Shot No: 10		Goes back to heldhand style recording, to show the fear in other characters. Jump cuts to a page in the book.	Diegetic sound of fast paced music will be added in here. And sound of other character heavy breathing and running away
Shot No: 11		The screen will be blank here for two-three seconds. This would anchor in with the genre very well as horror  trailers tend to have blank screens for some time to build tension. Would then jump cut to a wide shot of main protagonist walking through the forest.	It will be silent in order to build the tension.
Shot No: 12		Jump cuts to a close up protagonist in full possession effect.	There will be slow diegetic sound of the character humming.

Invictus Pitch

Cloud 9Productions Proposal

Proposal

We, Cloud 9 Productions, are proposing to film a teaser trailer for our upcoming horror project, ‘Invictus’. Our company has produced horror films, such as The Lullaby, Brocken Wards (which won a BAFTA award) and Libellus, advertisements such as Sony, Bose and Monster Drink which have been very successful over the nation. We are proposing a budget of £10,000,000 in order to produce the Invictus trailer.

We have constructed surveys and focus groups over a few months to understand various target audiences which have watched the company’s recent projects. We now believe that we understand our target audience and the appropriate form of approach needed to receive beneficial and positive feedback.

Synopsis of Invictus;

“Jason, Valentino and Gianne, a group of normal teenagers set out to complete their seven week long media project. However, a series of unexpected events begin to unfold as they discover “the book”, which contains demonic songs that start to haunt them psychologically and slowly become embedded in their day to day thoughts. Gianne unfortunately becomes the prime victim of possession and her character gradually shows signs of instability and being controlled by a supernatural force”.

Director: Jennifer Torres, Myah Bellevue

• Degree in cinematography
• BAFTA award for ‘Brocken Wards’ (Best Short 2008)

Camera crew: Myah Bellevue, Jennifer Torres and Valentino Pajarillo

• British broadcasting for 10 years e.g. Doctor Who
• Freelanced for individual film companies
• Filmed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Degree in Media

Editor: Valentino Pajarillo, Myah Bellevue

• Executive Editor for numerous fast paced music videos
• Editing crew for Procter & Gamble Company
• Degree in Art & Graphics

Timescale:

Pre - Production          4 weeks

Production                  2 weeks

Post – Production       3 weeks

In conclusion, with our extensive research and experienced crew members, we are absolutely confident with producing the trailer for Invictus within the proposed time period and within our budget.