The DVD cover has been made using the trailers of the movies in the DVD Trailer - Ideas post, plus a clip I shot in my own home that I have used as well. All the audio has been replaced, I have used two music tracks, one piano, one dub-steb. I have also used a selection of samples of things like door creaking or people calling to fill in the missing audio. I have placed several titles over the top as a teaser to the story as well as a way to integrate the different scenes.
Now the music itself my seem like an odd choice, while clearly a good
dub-step track these types of movies don't typically have music. The one
reason for this is simply for making a damn cool trailer rather than
the viewer not getting into in in just the short time they see it,
secondly it supposed to be a haunting, why are ghost only interested in
light switches and frying pans? Casper crank that stereo, that's what I
say!
The first clip is when the character from pulse starts receiving messages from the character who died. I added a typing sound clip right at the beginning to make it look as though she stopped typing when she noticed the messages. Later in that clip a sudden movement darts across the scene, I added a thump clip and after a clip of a girl saying hello. The creepy piano melody starts at this point, very film noir. An additive dissolve is used to blend to next scene.
This scene is from my own shoot, just walking up some stairs, but the with the message I put in to make it seem more of a journey. The scene dips to black at the top of the stair are reached.
This blends into an approach of a door, also from my shoot, as the door is reached the next message starts and as the door opens in creaks ominously. The scene fades to white.
The next scene from pulse fades in, almost as if the eyes were just adjusting, I add a girl calling hello over where she called for Josh, as she walks down the hall the beat of the dub-step track kicks in. She turns a corner and gasps, a gasping sample is used here. A film dissolve blends and this scene to the next.
This scene is another self shot one, walking slowly down a corridor towards a corner, it was daylight at this point so as the light increases the scene fades to white with it, and into the next scene.
I decided to use the covers being wafted by the ghost for this scene. The girl form the Amaray cover in inserted as a very translucent and faint image, pulsing in with the beat, this really works well to up the pace of the video with the music. Then the door slams shut on its own, and at the same moment I have inserted a bang noise I used a dip to black but adjusted it so it cuts to black and cust the music and fades to the next scene.
Then we fade into another corridor, walking very slow and shaky, the girls gasping has been slowed but the pitch has been keep, she sounds so scared she can barely breathe, just the effect I was after.
The scene then fades out and back into the scene from paranormal entity where the camera looks up and sees foot prints on the wall by the ceiling, it's at this point the dub-step kicks back in.
A moment later and a random invert transition is used to create a weird pixel effect that takes us to the top of the stairs in the home shoot, the character begins to walk down them, some way down at the same moment a shocked gasp is added, the music cuts and the camera lifts up as though the character had just been picked up, a repeated muffled gasp for air is added as though something has her she's then dropped the camera speeds to the floor but about half way down the video cuts to the last scene, several loud and painful bangs are heard.
The last scene is the Amaray cover with title of the movie, a message saying 'Out Now' and the logos of the invented production companies.
Music clips availble at:
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Chris_Zabriskie/Preludes/15_-_Prelude_No_15 - creepy music
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mochipet/2999_1111/Mochipet-Petdestroyer - dubstep
https://www.freesound.org/people/jjastr1/sounds/134962/ - Typing
https://www.freesound.org/people/Adam_N/sounds/164664/ - door slam
https://www.freesound.org/people/rivernile7/sounds/234244/ - door open/close
https://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/132839/ - creak
https://www.freesound.org/people/AlucardsBride/sounds/173114/ - hello
https://www.freesound.org/people/tcrocker68/sounds/235586/ - femail heavey breathing
Monday, 12 May 2014
DVD Trailer - Ideas
I have collect up a few examples of DVD trailer ideas. I've found the trailers for the movies on line.
Paranormal Activity
A very good trailer, lots of soft transitions to begin with, and then the pace picks up and the transitions become startling. There are good static noise EMF type effects. (xXXBloodinmyhandsXXx, Paranormal Activity 1 Trailer Official HD, [video online]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TC9bKyDB5Y>. [Accessed on 12 May 2014])
Paranormal Entity
Again a good trailer, it produces a good sense of fear, viewing it from the eyes of the trailer. It's perhaps a little light on transition effects, though it is trying to give the idea that it's all home shot and cut. (asyluminternational, Paranormal Entity Trailer, [video online]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGL-rr6nouM>. [Accessed on 12 May 2014])
Pulse
Fast and frantic with lots of cuts and dissolves at the end but a good creepy build up to it. Makes a very good use of the scenes in the movie. (DimensionFilms, Pulse Trailer - Click To View , [video online]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBcoo8i33L0>. [Accessed on 12 May 2014])
Paranormal Activity
A very good trailer, lots of soft transitions to begin with, and then the pace picks up and the transitions become startling. There are good static noise EMF type effects. (xXXBloodinmyhandsXXx, Paranormal Activity 1 Trailer Official HD, [video online]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TC9bKyDB5Y>. [Accessed on 12 May 2014])
Paranormal Entity
Again a good trailer, it produces a good sense of fear, viewing it from the eyes of the trailer. It's perhaps a little light on transition effects, though it is trying to give the idea that it's all home shot and cut. (asyluminternational, Paranormal Entity Trailer, [video online]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGL-rr6nouM>. [Accessed on 12 May 2014])
Pulse
Fast and frantic with lots of cuts and dissolves at the end but a good creepy build up to it. Makes a very good use of the scenes in the movie. (DimensionFilms, Pulse Trailer - Click To View , [video online]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBcoo8i33L0>. [Accessed on 12 May 2014])
DVD Disc Label - Final Draft
The disc label has been based on the Amaray Cover, I wanted to bring the same effect from the cover whilst still making proper use of Illustrator.
I started by placing the text background from the cover into the adobe file. Then I created a mask so the image only shows what should be printed.
Next using a brush I roughly followed the edges to create a darkened shadow creeping in. The colour used was actually white with 100% difference opacity applied to reverse the colours in the border.
Next layers of waves were used to create a menacing ghostly face coming out of the electronic aether. Using a brush set to white and 5 pt. flat, that provides a small flat edge to drag, I created one large wave. As the tool is dragged in a sine like wave where it is travelling most horizontal, at the peaks and crests, the line is thickest. Where it is moving more vertical it is thinnest. This all helps to exaggerate the wave effect. The wave is then copied, scaled down and flipped twice, to produce the triple wave pattern. Then all three a copied, sent to the back, the stroke size is increased not scaled and given 90% difference opacity. The whole group then gets 70% lighten opacity which produces a good overall effect, however because when I wanted to add a hand drawn shadow using brushes at 100% difference I had to put them in the layer below with the border effects. As the group below was made from similar effects it was not a problem, it could have been.
Next it needs the normal legal text and corporate logos. I created a path a little smaller than the outside of the DVD so I could use the type on path tool to create a text wrap effect. Here I placed some authentic looking text similar to the text on the legal text on the Amaray cover, in the same font and styling. Next I placed my two logo's, HelpMe Cinema and Epic Home Release, as well as the two corporate standards, DVD and Dolby Digital. They all proved a little hard to see on the text, I considered a white dropped shadow effect amongst others, but decided on using the same tool I used for the waves but in a slightly different manner. I created a messy, half finished white paintwork effect and changed it to 50% screen opacity . This gave a nice clarity to the logos while remaining true to the rest of the style.
Last is the title, All of the text is consolas bold and so I decided to keep the title simple and just type it there rather than using any wraps or other effects, I just gave it 80% lighten opacity . I had a look a drop shadow effect, I wanted it crisp but I couldn't get it the exact way I wanted so I copied the current text, sent it behind itself, and moved it a small amount down and to the right. Changing the opacity to 100% difference creates a a nice shadow effect, but the texture beneath can still be seen.
I started by placing the text background from the cover into the adobe file. Then I created a mask so the image only shows what should be printed.
Next using a brush I roughly followed the edges to create a darkened shadow creeping in. The colour used was actually white with 100% difference opacity applied to reverse the colours in the border.
Next layers of waves were used to create a menacing ghostly face coming out of the electronic aether. Using a brush set to white and 5 pt. flat, that provides a small flat edge to drag, I created one large wave. As the tool is dragged in a sine like wave where it is travelling most horizontal, at the peaks and crests, the line is thickest. Where it is moving more vertical it is thinnest. This all helps to exaggerate the wave effect. The wave is then copied, scaled down and flipped twice, to produce the triple wave pattern. Then all three a copied, sent to the back, the stroke size is increased not scaled and given 90% difference opacity. The whole group then gets 70% lighten opacity which produces a good overall effect, however because when I wanted to add a hand drawn shadow using brushes at 100% difference I had to put them in the layer below with the border effects. As the group below was made from similar effects it was not a problem, it could have been.
Next it needs the normal legal text and corporate logos. I created a path a little smaller than the outside of the DVD so I could use the type on path tool to create a text wrap effect. Here I placed some authentic looking text similar to the text on the legal text on the Amaray cover, in the same font and styling. Next I placed my two logo's, HelpMe Cinema and Epic Home Release, as well as the two corporate standards, DVD and Dolby Digital. They all proved a little hard to see on the text, I considered a white dropped shadow effect amongst others, but decided on using the same tool I used for the waves but in a slightly different manner. I created a messy, half finished white paintwork effect and changed it to 50% screen opacity . This gave a nice clarity to the logos while remaining true to the rest of the style.
Last is the title, All of the text is consolas bold and so I decided to keep the title simple and just type it there rather than using any wraps or other effects, I just gave it 80% lighten opacity . I had a look a drop shadow effect, I wanted it crisp but I couldn't get it the exact way I wanted so I copied the current text, sent it behind itself, and moved it a small amount down and to the right. Changing the opacity to 100% difference creates a a nice shadow effect, but the texture beneath can still be seen.
Amaray Cover - Final Draft
I have completed the Amaray cover. It hasn't changed a lot, I have just finished off the legal box and images.
The legal box just needed some actual text as opposed to Lorem Ipsum, I just used a few of the example DVD's as a guide and . The text hight and width were adjusted so as to stand tall and thin as the text normally appears on the back of DVD's. The wrap effect was adjusted so I could get the DVD and Dolby Digital logos on there, as well as the logo I created for the production company, and simple text logo for the invented publisher.
The legal box just needed some actual text as opposed to Lorem Ipsum, I just used a few of the example DVD's as a guide and . The text hight and width were adjusted so as to stand tall and thin as the text normally appears on the back of DVD's. The wrap effect was adjusted so I could get the DVD and Dolby Digital logos on there, as well as the logo I created for the production company, and simple text logo for the invented publisher.
A green colour overlay of the exact same green used in the video footage so far made. This is to give it a menacing virtual look.
I took 5 stills from the clips I am using for the video, adjusted any that had not been adjusted in teh video to fit with the grainy greenish effect. They are adjusted in size to fit in the already placed image boxes. One of the images is of the haunted girl in Paranormal Entity from the scene where she's in the attic.
I cut just the girl from the image using the lasso tool. Other selection tools can be a lot less work intensive than the lasso, however the image was already dark and grainy and any tool that looks for high contrast areas to auto select would not select the girl properly. The image was then placed over the front cover image and given a darker colour transparency, I experimented until I decided on 43% which looked the best.
The final version is pretty good, it might look like a striaght to DVD movie, but all the best horror moives are!
Logo
First I made a the name in text. For this I was assuming a white background. I a created a solid black rectangle and wrote the name HELPME across it in white Arial bold caps to produce block text. This creates a negative space effect that works very well. The work CINEMA is written underneath in black to contrast the first word
Next for a symbol I experimented with various drawing tools, like trying to make a pentagram with the line segment tool. I realised that as the text was very neat and formal the logo needed to contrast this, as the text literally contrasts itself. I thought hand drawn eyes looking scared or menacing would be great, but I could get anything working that looked like what I was going for.
I continued to experiment and found a tool that was very good for the task, the blob brush tool. This tool is like the brush tool but it fattens itself after drawing which smooths the lines This was a godsend as it allowed me to draw an eye so it both looked professional and hand drawn.
The type of eye I settled on was an Egyptian style eye, this both looked awesome and gave a nod to the monster movies of the golden age of cinema. I applied black to the stroke and white to the fill so when a 3D effect was applied it becomes raised but very simply.
The first image was done as if it would be placed on white background.
Sunday, 11 May 2014
Trailer Mock up - Montage
I have made a mock trailer as a montage, using video provided for indi video development. I used audio ripped from the Team America clip of the very funny montage song, as the idea was to create a montage and the footage was not over exciting so I decided to make the opposite to most montages, a sequence of things not really happening.
First I simply used the song as is and created clips that best suited the verse playing, and the idea of the character going about his normal day at work. The clips were then placed on the sequence and adjusted for length. Transitions were then added to smooth the video.
The first transition is classic dip to black, a smooth transition that fades the whole scene to complete black and then back again, revealing the next clip. Very useful for a lot of transitions, especially if there is a difference in pace or time between the clips. The actor in the song says 'I know just what we need', the beat kicks in and the scene fades in.
The next is Dither Dissolve, essentially a grid of expanding circles revealing the next scene. Use to good effect here as the song goes 'show us the passage of time' the effect kicks in and the characters task blends into another.
The next is a peel where four corners of the next clip peel down. This works really well as it is timed with the drum beat.
An additive dissolve is used next, this adds the two images together in a way that is similar to normal translucency but in a way that the brightness of a pixel is not the average of the two but the sum. This is used to blend the two clips together so that two characters are scene as if over time, as in the played song lyric.
At the end of the montage song the Team America character sings 'always fade out in montage, if you fade out it looks like more time has passed in a montage'. Taking this advice, to comic effect, proved irresistible.
In the end the video did what it intended to do. However it doesn't look overly professional, some points are out of sync, and the effects need a lot polishing.
(zxxz996 2012. Team America Montage. [Video Online] Availble at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFrMLRQIT_k>. [Accessed 11 May 2014])
Wednesday, 9 April 2014
Amaray Case - Draft
I have created a daft for my case cover, without photos as yet. I used a noise based background, conveniently after looking for a texture online I found photoshop had one the closest to what I wanted, and just had to scale it to the size I wanted.
Then I added a continuous text overlay in bold consolas font with the tracking and line spacing decreased, and false bold applied to make a denser texture, with a dropped shadow so it sits above a noisy background. This is very much the effect I was going for, very spooky.
The title, front cover and spine text are layer masks created using the type mask tools in consolas as before but adjusted to sit only a little closer to each other. It has a drop
shadow protruding from it and a glow within the mask. Each of these
effects were adjusted with a large amount of noise to enhance the
general electromagnetic apparition effect, and size and other settings
adjusted for visual clarity of the text. An inner bevel was applied to
each as well however the only text that seem particularly enhanced is
the text at the bottom of the front cover.
A black box for the legal info was added on the back, the 18+ certificate was added to the top right of the box and the bottom of the spine. A barcode was added to the bottom right of the box. An L shape taking up the remaining space to allow the text to natually fill the empty area. The text was simply lorem ipsum in kalinga font with the height increased 25% and the width decreased 25%, to make it look more like the text on DVD backs.
Three transparent boxes were added together on the back for the blurb so it could fill the space between where I wanted image boxes to be on the back. The text was a bold consolas as before but without the adjustments to make it so packed in.
A transparent box was placed at the centre of the front page and 3 additional ones on the back, extra care was taken to make sure a 16:9
image would fit in these. Then I applied an outer glow with half full
noise so the image can sort of static in to the foreground.
 |
| Background Texture |
 |
| Text effect |
 |
| Title and text |
 |
| Legal Box |
 |
| Blurb |
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| Draft, complete |
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