Genre Research Task

Here is a useful site to use for genre as provides a sort of check list to help identify elements of our productions that explore or represent that particular genre or certain messages within in, how that audience are addressed in the product and also how they relate to existing media (can be used for Miss Batty's part during our first go at representation as one area was to include existing media forms).

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre5.html

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Final Project Evaluation

James Corker Evaluation Interview from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Blood Debt - "Behind the Bloody Set"

"Blood Debt" Audio Commentary

Audio Commentary - Part 1 from James Corker on Vimeo.

Audio Commentary - Part 2 from James Corker on Vimeo.

Here is my audio commentary for my film trailer "Blood Debt". It's now divided into parts due to the length of the commentary which was a little longer then I thought I was talking for. Part 1 is up currently, the other 2 will be up soon as possible along with the behind the scenes which is taking a little longer then I though it would.

*Update*
All 3 parts are now up and running with little problems in regards to using Windows Movie Maker due to Premier no longer working but least up and running finally.

Blood Debt - "The Bad Blood's Origin" Written Evaluation

Blood Debt - The Undying Cut A2 Media Project from James Corker on Vimeo.

When I evaluated my last project back at AS, I did a written version as its sometimes helps explain a few things that my audio commentary may not. So I have decided to do this once again and pick apart each blood drop that was spilled for this project.

For my project, I decided to do a film trailer in a similar path to the opening of the film I did at AS. It was basically as I wanted to see if I have progressed in terms of understanding how the different parts and elements of films are planned, constructed and then presented to the target audience. Also to challenge myself and my own creativity as I worked in a group last time, now I am on my own, doing the project I wanted to do from the start with only my choices that have either lead to success of failure. We did a great project last time and working in a group would have been great but I wanted to see if I could do it on my own this time, see if I can achieve the grades and the satisfactory product on my own terms. The good thing about working on my own was the level of creative freedom I had as I had no group members to contest ideas one may prefer to another or the clashing of what the whole project might be. Sure it was a higher work load for me to do by myself but it allowed me to do exactly what I wanted in the way I am comfortable with and also a willingness to challenge myself and abilities as I will later explain in this evaluation.

Firstly, a little background behind my choices into the project I chose to do. From the start, I knew I wanted to do a film trailer. While it would have been something new to go with my old partner into doing a music video, it wasn't to my taste and deep down I always wanted to do something involving vampires. I have been a fan of the vampire genre for a few years, reading the original literature, watching the latest films and shows (not Twilight as can't stand it and the way it chose to break traditional conventions in such an unusual and frankly, silly way) so I set on doing my own version of the vampire film. Back to its rotten, coffin living roots but not totally isolating it from a modern audience or world for that matter. I wanted to go back to the horror and supernatural focus, more Angel TV series (dark, brooding atmosphere and not afraid to be grown up) rather then romantic fiction that has brooding vampires instead of the atmosphere. So when the time came to choose my type of project, I immediately picked the trailer and began scribbling ideas.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

So what makes the vampire film/genre? In my research, you quickly realise that vampires are rather more a sub genre that can fit into many of the traditional genres out there. Horror (Dracula), comedy (Vampire in Brooklyn), action (Blade) and even romance (Twilight, unfortunately). This basically allows for more freedom in terms of constructing the trailer, allowing me to dip into all this potential genres if I wanted to. The codes and conventions though are particularly common among each film with certain elements and features being predominant in each. In the various vampire mediums I have viewed and researched, the vampire characters themselves all have very common features in clothing and distinguishing features. They predominantly wear black, the obvious connotations of being a supernatural, something that is unnatural and evil that does not belong to the natural world. It also represents the traditional mise en scene of being set at night time since vampires can't survive in sunlight but it means they are in their element, blending into the darkness like they were part of it, allowing them to be the apex predator since they are stronger, faster and almost invincible. It fits in with the traditional conventions of general horror media as well as the colour scheme revolves around the use of black, red and white and red being the most dominant colour in the whole genre and project. Red immediately connotes blood, the most important aspect of the vampire genre. It's what the need to survive, what their whole world and existence relies on as without it, the simple wither away and die. It fuels their supernatural powers and abilities along with the immortality, it creates an unusual situation of to live forever they have to drain the lives of others to prolong their unnatural existence when they should have died centuries ago. The white however is a less seen colour in terms of that its no were near as dominant as the other colours, mainly seen in the vampires complexion of being much paler then the rest of society so the audience can identify who is a vampire in the product. This leads on to the other main codes and conventions of a vampire film, the effects. Now these elements are vital to a vampire film as mentioned before, it helps the audience identify who the vampires in the product as without them they would just look like the rest of the human characters. Yes they are supposed to blend in with society but they are also meant to be easily identified and that is what these effects do. Fangs growing from upper jaw, body of vampire combusting when killed and the most common of eyes turning to black when "vamping out". All these effects are key to increasing the versimiltude of the project by making the vampires believable and also enhancing the project overall through more exciting vampires that closely follow the lore of vampires. 

So in creating in my version of vampires for this project, I decided to use the very traditional codes and conventions of vampires by using a majority of the points mentioned above as I wanted to go back to the horror roots of the genre and to do that I needed to give the vampires a more frightening appearance that would easily be identifiable to the audience as they will recognise the usual traits of the vampires and immediately see them as the monsters like they used to be and not the more brooding, romance types. I did not totally dismiss the romance arc however, as the genre has moved on along with the audience that view such media with such shows as "The Vampire Diaries" and "Twilight" so I incorporated parts of this into my project but didn't just use the typical codes and conventions of it but instead, developed and challenged it so I didn't alienate the new audiences and not compromise my original idea for the project. Instead of being the main focus as it is in the now traditional media of being "romance between human and vampire" it was more as a device to focus on my idea of curse/gift. Its used to show how Matt is conflicted with his new undead heritage and his ever-dwindling but still clinging humanity as he is attracted to the human and begins to spend time with her but Gabriel instantly sees this as a problem. Being completely in tune with his vampiric side, he deals with the problem how he think it should be, killing the girl as if to remind Matt what he is now and get him back on the path of the tutor like he is meant to be. Yet Matt takes it the wrong way, he feels nothing but anger and rage at Gabriel taking away someone he thought he loved that's only intensified by his newly acquired vampiric nature, making him unable to understand the reasoning behind her death. Gabriel tries to make him understand that if she remained, she would only grow old and die while he remained young forever which would have only made it worse for him, again enforcing that teacher/student relationship between them as that is the entire focus of the project, focusing on their views, struggles and interactions to create that ambiguity of if vampirsim is a curse/gift. So in all, it challenges the genre by reducing the unrealistic perception of the vampire/human romance and portraying it in a way how it would end if the traditional vampire lore is followed (a plot device some people may harshly refer it as) and creating the morally confusing nature of the characters as Matt becomes darker from it, subverting the usual representation of the "good" vampire that is very morally focused while Matt is so open to corruption and easily quick to anger which results in him quickly diving into his vampire side to unleash the rage fuelled powers that even scare Gabriel from the utter lack of control but unbelievable strength that might be more then his.That is the whole intention of the project, to challenge the usual clear cut representations of vampires that is common now like in "Twilight" in which while has problems dealing with his hunger for his human companion, the audience now he is the good guy from the amount of brooding he does if he slips from the path. I wanted to destroy this convention in mine and show a side of the characters that totally twists this perception, going for something that is used in "The Vampire Diaries" recently in which Stefan, the good guy, gives into his darker and more ruthless nature, doing what it takes to protect Elena and his brother at all costs, regardless of how decent it is or morally clear. This is what I wanted for Matt as while he may be the "good guy" he's not what the audience would expect as he is willing to just switch all the emotion off and do what he needs to get revenge on those who have taken everything away from him. For Gabriel, I did the same. Subverting typical elements of the "evil" vampire by introducing his morally grey reasoning as such. While he might have no problem killing humans for their blood, turning who he wants to, basically doing what he wants and enjoying his immortality he says he is merely doing what his nature makes him do. As he clearly gives the impression that he knows he isn't human any more so it would pointless trying to pretend, he is a vampire and is only doing what is best to look out for his fellow vampires as they are now his family and if that means slaughtering a whole neighbour hood then so be it. Hence why he killed the girl as she would have endangered not only Matt, his new protégé, but the whole clan as it were and also because its stupid in his eyes to still admire humanity. In the trailer, we hear Gabriel say "go chasing something we call lunch" and that's what he perceives them as, they are food to them and nothing more. So while still the "evil" vampire of sorts, he is simply following this nature.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The combination between all the tasks is very effective as you can see the clear links between each product and the branding that is prevalent throughout the products. In the 3 posters I did for the project, each share the same common colour scheme that is a common convention in horror related media of the black, red and whites that are used in all elements in the posters. Yet the theme in the posters is the strongest as you see the typography and background resemble in some form, blood. The background has elements that resemble blood drops which links with the point mentioned above about blood being a key part of the vampire genre as they need it and their whole lore and existence revolves around it so I had to make this idea present throughout each part of the task which can be seen. The blood cell background, the typography which resembles bloody cuts or scratches that is also slightly decayed, (also connotes the animalistic nature of the vampires are they are monsters after all that become violent in the presence of blood which is seen in the scenes where I attack Greg and also that everything around them ages but them hence why the typography suits the products incredibly well) the titles used in the trailer which also use blood cells and the magazine covers which is more subtle with the use of red as a primary text colour and the slight presence of actual blood on the Matt cover. Apart of the use of the blood element and the similar typography for the posters, the black and white used for the actor photos is to connote the imbalance of the characters as they wrestle with their vampiric nature as when viewed in the trailer, neither of them are clear cut good or bad. Sure Gabriel might be more drawn to his evil side (hence why both his poster and magazine cover are predominately in black and white while Matt is in colour) but we realise his motives but him into that shade of grey as he is only looking out for his kind, mainly Matt as he loves a human when they should only be food to survive on and he tries to correct his protégé's mistake but only pushes Matt away further while all he wants is that quite unusual mentor/father relationship with Matt. On the other hand with the Matt character, he is more shifted towards the "good" character as he is new to the whole vampire side of him so still has elements of humanity that he clings to, like the girl he loves but Gabriel puts it done to naivety so "corrects" his mistake and this is were he slowly dips into the darker side or his true self based on his undead and monstrous nature (hence why Matt's magazine is in colour to show that he is still human but is slowly dwindling due to the colour being really desaturated and the blood being present on his mouth). The 3 posters made for the project I think are very effective in their intention to show that the whole film is about these two vampires, their relationship is the driving force behind it since they are present in all the print based media and the main focus in the trailer whilst other characters are not lingered on too much to take away the presence that Matt and Gabriel have and merely further develop what the character is like with the way they treat or act around the minor or secondary characters so hence why they take pride of place in the print products.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have learned quite a lot from the feedback I have received. Many have applauded the effects used to help improve the appearance of the vampire characters and add to the verisimilitude of the overall project as it was one of the main codes and conventions that was needed. They all liked the quality of the effects too, as it looked like time and effect went in to it instead of being rushed which would have only reduced the effect it creates on strengthening the believability of them being vampires as it may have looked cheap like if I used Halloween style fangs in some scenes that are pearl white as not only is it impossible to talk through but never fit and always fall out. If I didn't do them effects properly or use more expensive fangs, the verisimilitude would have dropped and gained more negative feedback as it would have not looked remotely like a vampire film. Other things that people noticed when watching the trailer was the more horror focused nature of it compared to contemporary vampire media that are more romance orientated. They particularly noticed the scenes of the Matt characters transition from human to vampire as one of the most horrifying with the combination of the music that was used in conjunction with the effects and the way it was filmed. The music did really add to that moment as it started of slow but tense as it was quite unnerving in the way that had the slightly "Silent Hill-esqu" quality to it, its really hard to describe what's its like with the light, jarring and incredible unnerving to listen as its quite juxtaposing in the scene to but really adds to scene by immediately connoting that its a horror and one of the scenes that intends to convey such an emotion as what is depicted is itself horrifying in that the audience see him go from being killed, to coming back to life and then feeding on the girl as the even more frightening sting as his eyes go black and with the black and white effect enforces the point of it being a horror focused film even more. The people that watched the trailer repeatedly mentioned that the music did help distinguish it as the horror theme vampire film as it the beginning kept them on edge as it kept quickly changing from one piece to another but never losing its effect and oozed with atmosphere when Matt is killed, changes into a vampire but the part where it slowed down and became more softer with the human love part was liked by some in the way that it helped represent the moment and the other side to Matt as if used similar horror music from earlier, would have destroyed such a moment and be juxtaposing but in a negative sense. Others however did criticise the human love story part as immediately compared it to more modern interpretations of vampire media that they were tired of seeing and didn't add nothing new and the music change with it lowered the initial tension of the jumpy and horror laden beginning. Personally, I could see their reasoning behind it as it did suddenly change a little quickly from me eating Ellen to the whole falling in love which was a little out the blue but my intention was merely to use as an event that shapes the Matt character and forces him to quickly embrace his new found vampriric powers to go looking for revenge, blurring the lines of who's good and bad as he quickly becomes more like Gabriel as I have mentioned in earlier points but i could have blended the segment better if filmed or structured a different way like shortened in places and did more like subtle flashes that spanned over a greater period of Matt and the Girl spending time together which was actually my initial intention but time grew short and many problems prevented getting a dedicated actress who would be able to do such scenes as they would have been more romantically intimate so I settled for the current version as it also allowed me to show how Gabriel was the one who took her away so set up the narrative much easier and more clearly which the flashes may have not done. I'm not saying I wouldn't have shown such a scene in the flashes but it was more clear cut so worked out in the end. Another problem some had was the audio quality as fair enough that was awful at times but that was mainly done to technical issues with the camera microphones which are unavoidable and didn't improve much regardless how much I used Soundbooth to clean the audio up. So yeah it did reduce the quality as sometimes couldn't hear the audio as well which was vital in areas as it expressed vital plot points and expressed qualities of the characters which I did manage to counteract a little with reducing music volume when speaking and cleaning up a majority of the distortion. If had time I would have liked to redub all the audio but that would have the downside of that the dialogue would have not sounded natural with the scene so that would have been the trade off if I did redub, which I did do a little but blended it a little better with a couple of scenes. The voice-overs did garner a little criticism too for there quality at times, mainly due to us not being very good or confident when recording the voice-overs. They were discovered in my research to be used in a few trailers as they help explain narrative, the nature of the characters by the way they speak and also add to the overall representation of it being a trailer and not an opening. I am not afraid to admit I'm not the best as doing voice-overs as my voice isn't epic in terms of tone, grandeur or smooth enough to help portray the supernatural vampire I played and you can tell neither me, Greg or Craig were very comfortable doing such things as it doesn't feel natural doing a voice over but it needed to be done so I recorded the lines, doing a few takes after we settled a little so that the lines were not too shaky or mismatched the scene as we tried to speak in our character voices or what the situation was and it worked better then I thought it would have been as I knew the voice-overs could hinder more then help the trailer but it wasn't too bad considering when I put them in the trailer but they could always be better. One thing that did annoy me a little with the feedback is that the message I laced throughout the project, the whole idea of vampirism being a curse/gift and how Matt becomes what Gabriel is with his increasing hunger for revenge and violence and their relationship in the film wasn't noticed by all the audience. It was spilt that some got it and others, didn't try to notice or understand the messages I tried to portray in the trailer which in my eyes was the one thing that really held it together but it was lost on some. Sir was the main person who saw it and even interpreted it many different ways like the relationship between Matt and Gabriel from being father/son like or even as far as that Gabriel loves Matt. It was nice to see that some saw this relationship displayed as it was what held it together, that itself was the narrative of the trailer. It was mainly vampire fans that really noticed the gift/curse debate as its a topic that is popular with the genre but not really hinged or focused on. The non-vampire fans mainly liked the more horror based approach and the effects work which "made it look really cool" to quote a friend of mine who saw it.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For this project, I used many different programmes and media technologies in different ways to achieve the various stages of construction. The research part mainly revolved around me discovering what makes up a vampire trailer and any other pieces of information that is needed before I started my planning and constructing my trailer. So to start I looked through various media forms like examples of existing vampire film trailers, posters and general magazine covers since there are very few examples of specific vampire film magazine covers to get an overview of what the typical codes and conventions were so I knew what elements that were essential to this type of genre and would make planning much easier and smoother whilst opening up areas that I can twist and give my own spin on it. One of the main areas was the "lore" part of vampire genre and media in which are the rules of such of what the vampire can/can't do, what hurts them etc. and it is a very big part that makes up the codes and conventions so I used various internet sites and also my own personal collection of vampire media like books and TV shows to get a very broad overview of the varying types of vampire lore there is which can be seen in my extended research post which lists everything that is vital to the vampire lore and film trailer. With the research area done using those media technologies, I moved onto the planning part which consisted of the traditional storyboarding, notes on possible ideas and starting to form an initial layout of what I wanted to do in the trailer. Originally, this project was something different in terms of narrative and structure as I had an idea from the start where it focused on 3 main characters, the Matt character which was more stereotypically good in line with contemporary media, Dacrual which was the evil character as such and Rose, the human who is more like the second protagonist rather then victim. I storyboarded an awful lot of this original project which can be seen in my very first few blog posts and that is quite complex with the effects that were noted on it and the variety of shots and sequences like the gunshot which I made a blood shooter for to get a very realistic look for getting shot then obviously the vampire would simply heal and keep chasing Rose. The black eye effect was present then as well which made it through to the current project as it was vital to the representation of the vampire character. Other then simple drawing on paper and scanning in the storyboards, Photoshop was used to start doing mock ups of the film posters and magazine cover as in to test how they would look if using that colour scheme, photo etc. so that I could tweak the design every time I found something that worked and make sure that the design tasks fitted in with the rest of the project, had the same style as each other you could easily identify them as linking to each other but having its own individual look at the same time like the magazine cover which must be different as it would technically be done by different group to the film in real life but had to have certain elements that linked to the trailer like its colour scheme and style with the traditional Gothic horror typography and use of red, blacks, whites and the desaturated blues to give it a more modern feel and would possibly be seen in today's market. More on the terms of experience of using Photoshop, I used it an awful lot for this project as it was the main programme used to create the design tasks and also to edit the photos taken by my director of photography, Rachel Fairbairn. At first, I had little knowledge to do really extensive effects with the programme since never used it much originally but after spending a little time coming to grips with the various tools and effects, my design tasks began to shape something that did look like film production quality. The typography being one of the key points as it was one of focal points in the film posters as it had to fit in with the project, connote various aspects that as creator wanted to express and to generally look visually appealing to look at so after I decided on the title after debating with fellow members in the class and Sir on what was more vintage vampire horror names and less "Twilight" sounding, I got to work on designing the font for the title. One thing was that the text had to be red, it signifies so much within the vampire genre that it was the element that couldn't be changed or different. With the style of the font, I went for Papyrus as it gave it that old and decayed look with the flayed edges to help signify that nature of the characters in that they never age while everything around them does. However, it needed something more then being simply bright red papyrus font so Sir showed me a set of effects and properties that I could edit so we cycled through them until we stumbled upon the bevel and other effects which generated my current title by accident essentially. It really looked more horror styled with the deeper red like oxidised blood (which is what it was meant to link to, the idea of blood being the key factor), the decay effect of the font was made more predominate with the slightly blackened edges that help highlight the age that the typography font symbolises and the more genuine quality that is showed as if it was constructed just for this project, unique in the ways its formed and not simply a not a one colour font. Editing the photos with Photoshop wasn't too difficult when I discovered how to use the various effects like edit the lighting, saturation, the basics of the photo to fix minor errors when taken or enhance the overall quality. The more complexes things I did though was the airbrushing of the actors for the magazine covers and the posters as it is used in every one of this media products to ensure it looks more visually appealing to the audience that see them and adds to the overall professional quality of the project since the effect itself is used by professionals in the business. After finding a tutorial on-line that was actual aimed specifically at generating vampire style effects with pale smooth skin etc. I attempted the effect, perfecting it with each test on simpler photos before starting on the actor ones due to the size of the photo and the amount of skin that needed airbrushing. It was based around adding blur and effects to duplicated layers to blend out any initial marks on the skin so when the black mask was applied to the top layer, a soft white brush can be dragged of the areas of the skin and would essentially blend and smooth the skin, removing imperfections. So after other tools used to add more paleness to the skin and extra effects to eyes to like make them black, the effect was done and only an extra change to black and white needed to be added and that was it, the photo's were ready to be added to the design tasks where needed.

Another programme I used heavily was Adobe After Effects. This was were all the effects for the trailer were generated (with some of the simpler ones being easily done in Premier) and also where footage that was fine tuned or even created e.g. shaky footage, problems with lighting and the titles were done in After Effects. Initially, After Effects was scary to use or even attempt to use for that matter as I had no knowledge what so ever in how to use it so it took a lot of prior research into how to start using it and tutorial if possible in effects that I wanted to create and luckily, I found many great tutorials on the programme on the site Video Copilot. It had all the effects that I wanted to create like eye replacement (Black eye effect), the burn away effect (Ellen's body burning away into nothing) and how to create the basis of the titles (the tutorial was  for smoke so I used to learn how to do the motions but replaced it with the blood cells, background and even colour). The vampire super speed however was simply done on Premier by using the Ghost Effect and increasing the speed of the footage to about 175 - 200%, simple but extremely effective and captured the effect perfectly. So I could ramble on for decades on how I did these effects but my other blog posts on such effects are more detailed and focus on these effects but I will mainly talk about what it was like using them and how my skills have developed as from what I said earlier, After Effects is scary when first attempting to use with no prior knowledge. Yet when you learn the basics of motion tracking, reverse tracking, how to add effects and how it generally works, you can start creating full effects and even salvaging awful footage by removing the shakes. It becomes a really versatile programme if you put the effort into actually sitting down and learning how to do such things with it and it only opens the possibilities as it increased the quality of my trailer tenfold since I could actually but all the vintage vampire effects into my project so, my knowledge of this area of media technology has vastly improved as I couldn't do anything like  this back in my AS project. Adobe Premier Pro again was used to edit the trailer, like in AS but compared to when I edited the film opening back then, I have improved in this area too. It was much easier to edit the AS project as since it was the opening, it had a very clear structure in how it should have fitted together but with doing a trailer this time, it was much harder to edit since there is little pre-focused structure compared to an opening of a film, as shots are shorter in length with some only being seconds, you have to portray an overview of the entire narrative almost in 2 and a half minutes whilst not revealing too much of the plot or the ending so to entice people to watch the whole film when they see the trailer. So it was much more complex to get this balance when editing the trailer together, I had the skills from the last project so I was familiar with the program and some of the basic effects like fades which weren't used a lot during the AS project but in the trailer a lot more so as with going between so many different scenes, the fades help distinguish them as a new scene, short narrative or simply help blend the edits together as with so many different shots and scenes, it would be impossible for them all to blend well when going through each one. Even though I knew how to edit previously, I was on my own so the way it fitted together was on me entirely, not in a group like last time in that we all would agree if it fitted or looked good. So my skills in composition of the media product was the main thing that I improved in since it was only me determining which scene went where and how the overall trailer was composed since if I assemble it wrong, it overall quality falls and the trailer fails in its job to interest audiences. Also my general skills in cutting, editing and fixing footage has come a long way from last time and also developed better skill in using music in a project as my trailer had several music tracks which each had to be trimmed for a particular moment in the trailer and also not clash with the other tracks. It resulted in me generating many different audio tracks in Premier and basically mix and matching them by using some for stings whilst compared with an unnerving track for when something horrifying happens (Matt feeding and turning into a vampire). I'm much more comfortable with the software now and how the actual media products should form so when it comes to editing them, I already have a clear idea how to organise them and if something goes wrong, how to adapt and quickly find a solution which this project has shown is true with the amount of problems I have had and having to change the project in response. A tough decision which had to be made and also paid off with the high quality finished project that was created out of it.

All fades to black...

One of the main components in terms of effects that were vital to my trailer was the famous eye replacement effect (black eye effect). It is a feature used to identify a character as part of the vampire side and heighten the moment when they "vamp out" as such like in "Being Human" when they taste blood which results in bearing their fangs and eyes changing black. So it was very important to get this effect correct and accurately done since without it, the project would lack the verisimilitude needed to convincingly display the chosen characters as vampires.

I had thought about using the effect when I initially started planning my project as being a fan of many forms of the vampire medium, I knew already it was a vital and widely used convention of the genre. Whilst planning the project, I asked Sir and consulted forums on-line to see if an effect like this was possible with the programmes we had and it was, but only if After Effects was used. This was were the problems started to arise mainly due to my inability or lack or knowledge with the programme since I had no idea where to even begin with it as it felt daunting to even attempt. The focus shifted to perhaps purchasing black contacts as no computer work needed and would look a lot more natural. However the potential cost for each actor who needed them would be expensive and would only change the iris not the whole eye unlike what is seen in the other media. So I decided to brave it and learn to use After Effects by viewing tutorials on the internet, mainly Video Copilot. (http://www.videocopilot.net/) This site was a monumental help as it showed me the basics like tracking etc. and then more specific examples of effects, more importantly, an actual eye replacement effect.

With the knowledge, I did a test of it by placing a motion track on the eye and creating a matte around the eyeball so it can be replaced with a black texture, and here was the first test:

You can obviously tell the track was off too much by the excessive shaking of the matte when it follows the eye and plus the texture was very plain. In all, while it wasn't too bad for a first go, it was no where near as good as it could be or professionally looking enough to make it look like it was a film trailer. So I went back through and started to practise with motion tracking and looking for better textures, finally resulting in the best examples of Craig's final reveal at the end of the trailer and mine after feeding on Ellen.

This attempt was much better as with a more accurate track, better texture, more well drawn matte around the eye and even a little shine to the eye to make it look more authentic. The added transition from normal state to the vampire like state is also a much needed extra to help sell the effect as it turns black as my eyes open. Not to mention the sting used as well really gives it that supernatural and horrifying effect that this is more horror/supernatural theme and genre.

This one I think is my best effort of doing the black eye effect as they track and matte were done better as there is little shake or white exposed from the original eye. The general filming of it and the texture really suit the moment especially with the line he says, a little clichéd but it suits the purpose of the scene. The sting from my previous eye effect is also used to represent it as another supernatural/reveal moment as the eyes change to black and also signifies that it means a particular scene involving the supernatural characters is about to take place or has already happened in the scene with me.

Final Project Presentation

Final Project - "Blood Debt" The Undying Cut

Blood Debt - The Undying Cut A2 Media Project from James Corker on Vimeo.

Here is the new cut for my "Blood Debt" film trailer with the few tweaks that Sir suggested. I added an extra sting to the moment where Matt kills the girl and his eyes turn black, it really mixed well with the existing tracks and added like a traditional horror type of screeching as the eyes jump to black and as he bites his victim. I also extended the Blood Debt title at the end as admittedly looking back through it, it was quite short so I extended it a second or two and added a little fade as it needed the screen allowing a smoother edit to the next shot and it also had minimal effect on the music track underneath it. I also had another go at fixing some of the audio as that is the weakest point at times. The voice-over by Matt after we see his death I took another take and replaced it whilst boosting the volume and its much more clearer and easily heard compared to the original one. The rest I tried going back and tweaking the volume and trying to eliminate more of the noise but its almost impossible to have clear, crisp audio when using the cameras (hence why I used my Dictaphone to do the voice-overs) so I cleaned it up best I could as couldn't re-dub the whole dialogue as you would be able to tell it was re-dubbed as no atmosphere to the vocals and not the same tone so it would have had a more harmful effect on the film trailer. So I cleaned up what I could, added some low, undertone music at parts to help mop up any distortion left over and hope it works.

*Update* 

Added the sting to Craig's black eye effect moment at the end of the trailer to give it the same sense of horror and the supernatural it does and makes it instantly recognisable as soon as you here the sting you know what to expect. and also added the green title card at the beginning "approving it for all audiences" to make it look like a official trailer. There were a few problems as well with some of the lighting of some shots, mainly the first scene of Craig talking as it had a unnatural high red bloom for some reason even though it rest of the shots filmed weren't like that. So I went back to it, tweaked the colour balance by lowering the red tones and reduced a little of the brightness to remove the sheen while boosting the contrast to compensate and I got it to look a lot more like the previous shots as it was incredible obvious before these tweaks. Another was the shot of the bloody hand, the lighting was off compared to the following shot but it was much easily fixed. Sir suggested desaturating the other flashback scenes as well since it was a little confusing and jarring to try and tell what is the past and present scenes. So whilst I was adding these effects to the two mentioned scenes, the lighting problem was fixed just by the effect and nothing else, the only thing was a lower threshold of the "Leave Colour" effect as red was more predominate in this scene and its a constant factor that is made present throughout  the project as blood being a key element of this genre of film and for the vampires themselves as highlights their blood thirsty but also dependent, addicted and also quite routine nature as their lives revolve around this one element to keep them alive. So I simply lowered the threshold to allow of the red to still be seen and stand out as many of the shots focus in on this blood and not being able to see it would be a waste and ruin the point of these particular scene.

Final Project - "Blood Debt" No glitter in sight...

 Will comment later after sleep...

Friday 24th February Lesson - Sound/Vocal Recording

Due to being unable to edit my project at school since I have used a later version of Premier Pro, I have mainly being updating my blog with the necessary posts about effects used, progress with tweaks to final cut etc. and going through the music as that is biggest problem in terms of getting it to match the tone and introduce the much needed stings for the earlier parts. Also I started to re-dub some of the audio and get some additional voice over material from Greg to try and add something more to the trailer and fill in areas that seem to be lacking in content. Will update further when more material or thoughts on this arise.

It all turns to ash...

Here is a video of one of the other effects I created for my vampire film trailer. In vampire films, books and various other forms of media, when I vampire dies they tend to turn to ash or burn up like in "Blade" where the effect is seen in great abundance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTuGK7Ob2QI

As mentioned in my research, these particular features help identify the trailer as in the vampire genre since they are all universal for this genre, every form of vampire media will express these characteristics, each in a different way to suit the project but they are all present as it gives of this supernatural feel to the character and represents them as something beyond human. They never age, stronger and faster then anything else, every sense is heightened to superhuman levels whilst hungering for blood to sustain their unnatural lives. So I decided to make my own version of when a vampire dies, the body burns away leaving nothing behind. Of course, its not as advanced as the "Blade" one where the skeleton is seen before its ashes making it look a more appealing to see and quite satisfying as the vampires are dispatched. In mine I have managed to create a satisfying burn away effect that complete engulfs the body and slowly burns away with a little ashing around the base of the fire to help make it a little more rich and detailed. While it took a long time to make for a a two second clip, it was worth it and needed as well to help sell this trailer as a back to its roots, more action, horror orientated vampire trailer which this effect helps display.

Blood Cell Titles

This video shows the titles I made for my project using Adobe After Effects. Since my original titles were mainly place holders and didn't suit the vampire genre, I decided to create my own unique titles instead of relying on the the simple text and black background and make something much more fitting of the vampire genre. So I came up with this idea of doing someing as if it was inside a vein or an artery and the camera moves along, picturing blood cells before zooming in on the title. Back when I first started this project, that would seem almost impossible to do with the limited knowledge of After Effects I had but as you can see from the video above, I managed to make it a reality and stook close to my original idea.

I went through some more basic tutorils on Video Copilot to brush up on my skills and learn more on how to attempt and do such an effect, mainly this tutotuil.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

It showed me how to do the needed camera movments and other tips to create a more 3D, and visually more interesting set of titles for the project. So I gave it go and replaced the smoke with my blood cell image, added effects to make it rotate slowly and colour a deeper red to emphasis how that red is the most important colour in vampire genre films. This is all down to back in my inital research that blood is one of the most important, if not the most, element in vampire styled films as its what keeps them alive, its the one thing they need in life and crave as without it they will no longer be immortal. It gives them strength but is also their weakness so it furthers the whole idea of being a gift and a curse as if they continuly feed, they are strong, youthful and immortal but attempt to go without it, you become weaker then the food you hunt. This is why I went for this style of titles as it enforces the message about blood being a key part of the genre and is much more enfitting of the trailer by linking the idea across the whole project as well due to same colour being used throughout each part and also blood being used in the title, brand and general imagry like the poster have a blood cell style background.

So, I created the final example of the title effect and simply replaced the text each time with the one needed. The font also used is a parapyrus styled font which connotes an old and decayed feel again linking to vampires as they are hundreds of years old but never decay while everything around them does so very fitting indeed to the genre.

Blood Debt - Final Cut Ver. 2 (Improved)

Here is the improved version of my final cut. Mainly added a little extra piece of music to act as a sting for the front part and actually blended with the rest of the music quite well, increasing the tone and mood of the trailer and that particular moment much more. I also added a few sound effects of the neck breaking and the vampire bite but the latter doesn't seem right but I'll wait to see what people think before removing it. I fixed everything Sir noticed that was wrong or didn't work like changed the dissolves on the flash back and changed that scene where I was talking with no audio to something more fitting and actually a little more menacing. Also added a couple of fades on the title parts to make it a little smoother going into the the title and beginnings.

Will comment on the effects and upload the tests when I finish work.

Blood Debt - Final Cut (Hopefully)

Here is the final cut for my project with most of the improvements done to it that were made aware in the rough cut. Will comment more on the project and upload the supporting videos of the titles made for this and also the various effects after I have slept since it is 4am. Also Sir if you see this tomorrow I hope it has fixed most of the problems and only needs minimal clean up and when exporting it, for some reason it fixed the remaining sound when I played it on my computer which is a lucky bonus.

Final Project - Final Cut (Rough)

Here is the rough final cut of my project. All the shots are in sequence, with basic effects and the specialised effects that are all part of the vampire genre (black eyes, fangs and a basic super speed effect all that are noted in my research). The company logos and Lionsgate opening are put into the correct order now and the ending part is firmly complete with a rather interesting scene of were a voice over plays about Gabriel joking about the death of Matt's girlfriend, giving a bit more depth to the overall trailer even if its very short. My favourite parts are the various vampires effects that I manged to recreate for my project. The black eye effect was the hardest to get right as if the track was off by a pixel, the track points would shift and you would visibly be able to see it was a matte. Thankfully the practise I had of trying it on some test footage allowed me to ensure it looked much more professional and well executed in the final project like when I become a vampire for example, Craig's final scene being the best one I done as it was the most accurate one done with a much better outcome, if the timing or the dissolve is a little off but that is more down to me not being able to do it as he is blinking since the track and matte would have to be different to the overall one. The growing fang effect was technically the hardest to produce due to the need to track then reverse track it otherwise the liquefy effect would not be able to stay in place. Thankfully it wasn't too difficult to produce thanks to tutorials on Video Copilot which guided me through it and helped me learn a variety of effects like stabilising footage, tracking, day to night conversations (weren't used as didn't fit the final cut) etc. The structure of the trailer is fairly modern with narrative shots then action shots at the end with the beginning being a lot stronger in editing then the ending which needs a little tweaking but the order is there, just needs a few extra features here and there and tighter editing.

The only thing not done is the music, proper titles and effects on some parts as they are taking quite a bit of time to perfect and make sure they suit the project. In all the narrative is clearly evident with the action shots near the spread out with a final title screen spilt into parts to help get the last message about the film across. It just needs the final tweaks of certain effects and improved titles to be finally complete.

Final Project - Potential Music

After looking around the internet for royalty free music since none of the bands I emailed replied back, I eventually found some by Kevin MacLoed. They are mainly instrumental pieces so better suited to my trailer as it won't mask the dialogue and also add the atmosphere of the trailer to help improve the horror feel to it. It can be used as long as credit is given to the original artist.

*Music will be uploaded when possible*

Final Project - Video Editing (Black Effect Trail)

Here is a video of my first attempt of generating the black eye effect that is common in many vampire films. Apologies for the video as I am not used to using Adobe After Effects so the effect will likely look a little off and also the conversion as didn't know how to export properly. I had planned to use this effect since the beginning of my project but lacked the skills or knowledge to attempt such an effect but after finding a tutorial at Videocopilot.com for eye replacement, I attempted my first go at trying it out. I used a piece of footage where I filmed for such an occasion and followed the instructions with it turning out, reasonable okay. The were changed black and stayed mostly in place. However, it seemed my motion track was a little off as towards the end you can see a slight flicker of the eye matte. I also lacked the accuracy of using the pen tool to draw around the eye hence the slightly different shape even though one eye was more clear then the other due to the line of sight from the actor. The texture used for the eye could be better to give it the slightly reflective look seen on other vampire films or shows (e.g. Being Human).

Now that I have tried Adobe After Effects and got to grips with some of the features, I have started to experiment with other features that I have learned to do like day to night conversion which would help greatly with my footage as since its a vampire film and since I had to film during the day to ensure decent quality footage, it will allow me to change scenes to how they were intended and achieve more diverse footage. It also allows me to salvage more footage as it can be used to fix shaky footage with the use of motion tracking if done correctly and with me achieving a working version of After Effects at home is allowing me to improve my skill with the programme so when my work is satisfactory, I'll post it to my blog.

Reflection of Project

In today's lesson, we refreshed ourselves with the criteria of achieving a level 4 and then looked at our products to see what level we would give ourselves for the print and the video products. I gave myself a level 2 for the video mainly due to the missing footage and the incomplete editing. I have most of the footage needed but missing some major narrative shots which greatly effects the overall quality and prevents completion of the product. Other areas of it like audio, effects and basic editing is good as I spent many lessons cleaning up my audio since it is a vital part of the trailer. I leaned how to apply a black eye effect to my actor to show that the trailer is a vampire themed trailer and also effects to change the lighting to create a more realistic mood, tone and improve the mise en scene whilst also fixing some of the shots that have some bad lighting problems. So to help pull up my level, it will be basically film the rest if the footage I need and finish the editing since the border is there, its just filling in the pieces.

The print however, was more positive since it looks good. The colour and typography suit the product very well with the red, white and blacks  and the slightly clawed writing which all enforce the more horror side I'm aiming for with this project. The tag lines as well help bring the initial message across about vampirism being a gift/curse idea since one enjoys it but the other has trouble dealing with it as its basically took everything from him. The only thing really wrong with it the actors photos as they aren't posed the best way since left over from the original idea so retaking a few photos would help along witha  few tweaks to the colours and positions of certain elements in the print based products.

Print Based Products - Completed Versions

Action Plan for Current Term

This half term ends on the 10th February and each part of my project must be finished before then so I have devised an action plan for the coming weeks:

Week starting on the 9th Jan:

• Psychology test on 10th so little work can be done early in the week.
• May be able to get some quick scenes done near end of the week (e.g. turning scene).
• Lessons will be on completing extra and needed research to ensure high marks for blog and will put the time to good use. Will mainly be structure of vampire trailers

Week starting on the 16th Jan:

• Will work towards getting most of the footage shot as no exams and just revision to do so best time to shoot it.
• Scenes that are needed are Matt and Gabriel when they are both evil and enjoying their immortality, Matt meeting the girl that lessens his evil qualities, Gabriel killing the girl and Matt's desecention into vengeance.
• Some action scenes also needed like standard claws and bites from the vampires which some can be recycled from earlier footage but others will be needed.
• Also may put in one scene which was shown in my test where vampire is behind a victim, victim runs but vampire appears in front. This is a classic simple of what vampires do to taunt with victims so may film a similar scene to match this as its an important staple in this type of film.

Week starting on the 23rd Jan:

• Test week for sciences so will be unable to do much filming, hence why previous week will for filming.
• Will go over obtained footage in lessons to see if quality is satisfactory and can do log sheets, also allow me to see if anything is missing or needs re-shooting depending on quality of footage.
• Good safety net in case filming goes wrong (which is likely) as still have sufficient time to re-shoot if needed and editing will be main focus of lessons.

Final Project Update - Christmas Holidays

Over the course of the holidays, I have been doing various tasks involving my project. I have been looking over my design elements to see if any possible improvements or tweaks could be done and apart from new pictures, there is little I can do as I have justified my use of colour scheme, typography and other elements to create this sense of "branding" within the project from the regular colours of black, red and white used to connote it's more horror orientated and also the image of the two main characters silhouetted and the title across them which is used as a symbol of the whole project. Yet my trail for Photoshop ran out so not all tweaks could be done but as soon as I have the available tools are available they will be. Film part wise, nothing could be done at all since most actors and crew were obviously busy with Christmas plans but with my design parts basically complete, all attention will be focused on the filming part with new pictures being taken also to replace the posters since new poses will likely enhance them and make it closer to actual film poster quality. The holidays have also given me a chance to look over my plans for the trailer and think about it more clearly to see if it will actually work and fit with the conventions of a vampire style film. I have also looked over my research to see what is missing and I'll be doing more on what makes a vampire trailer exactly and the typical things that make it up.

So that is basically the plan for when I return to school. Checking over the design elements for last tweaks, research into needed areas of the project but mostly towards the actual filming as a lot of work is needed for this area.