Our Final Video

Due to blogger being down last week we were unable to post but this is our final product with
readjusted titles and more footage added

DVD Cover Reasearch

When we did research in DVD covers we found this guide outlining the fundamentals of designing them.


How to design DVD cover


If you haven’t already you can download our free DVD cover template. Once you’ve downloaded the template, you’ll need to design the front, back and side of your DVD cover. This blog post will focus exclusively on the design of the front of the DVD.


1. Set the tone & know your demographic
Is your film a sexy film? Artistic film? Unusual film? Celebrity driven? Comedy? Tragedy?
Identifying what your film is about will help you narrow down your design choices. You want there to be a strong correlation between the tonal qualities of the DVD cover design the film itself.
2. Decide on a color palette
Notice that the DVD covers below consist of gradients of 2-3 colors. By simplifying your color palette you’re simplifying your message. 
3. Decide on an image
Your image needs to represent what your film is about. It is often a character (usually the protagonist), but it can also be the film’s antagonist, an event, a location, a prop or an illustration to name only a few examples.
4. Decide on a font
Your DVD cover font is one of the most important design decisions you’ll make. Its size, style and placement needs to both complement your film and the other design components of the DVD cover.
5. Pick a design element and exaggerate it
Some DVD cover designers use pattern (see Sweetie below) or color (see Taste of Cherry below) , others use line (see Fallen Idol below), others use negative space (see The Last Emperor below). The point is to pick a primary design element (ie. shape, pattern, leading lines, texture, reflection, color etc) to help make the DVD cover stand out not just due to content, but also due to style.
6. Stay focused and simple
Look at the examples below. You’ll notice the designer often only uses 1 image, no more than 2-3 colors and 1-2 fonts in a simplified, well organized and easy to navigate DVD cover design.


Below are examples of DVD covers which we have drawn ideas from for our own cover.

Title Design

For our project we had to create titles to establish the name of the movie, i decided to take it slightly further and produce a 3d title using a CAD program. Before beginning i decided to do some research this is what i came across :

Locations of Shooting

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Lady Dixon Park



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Dunmurray Train Station


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Darren's House

Posters We Made

Quick Shot Flashback Scene Part 1

Fast Shot Killing Scene Part 1 from Blue Shift on Vimeo.


We spent 3 hours in the rain after school composing these 9 seconds of footage and only got half of what we needed. This depicts some shots of the characters fighting however part 2 will consist of the actual killing scene. Editing these shots early did however have certain advantages. It is practice for editing all of the shots in this fast paced sort of sequences. We have also decided to get rid of the bright flash at the end and replace it with a black screen

Camera We Used - Pentax K-X

The camera we used was the Pentax K-X, a 12.4 megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera. 

The built in Shake Reduction function automatically turns off in the following situations.

• Self-Timer

• Remote control shooting

• Bulb shooting

• HDR Capture

The camera is capable of recording HD Video files which made it quite popular for some independent filmmakers. The camera is using the "DV codec alike" MJPEG codec, which is a very soft compression that creates relatively huge video files but on the other hand allows editing of this video files even on older editing systems with less CPU power. The advantage of this compression method is that it saves every single frame as a progressive frame and is not only saving the changes inside the group of pictures.

Memento

1. Memento
2. Production year: 2000
3. Country: USA
4. Directors: Christopher Nolan
5. Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano

The movie, uses a favorite plot device of postwar Freudian film noir, the hero suffering from amnesia. But Leonard Shelby, the protagonist of Memento, suffers from a special form of amnesia. Due to a blow received from the man who raped and murdered his wife, Leonard suffers from short-term memory loss. He can recall his life up to the murder, but thereafter he can't remember anything for more than a few minutes at best, though he's painfully aware of his condition.

As he pursues the killer he's reduced to making notes, annotating Polaroid pictures, having essential information tattooed on his body either by a professional in a tattoo parlour or with his own needle.

This movie is significant to our coursework piece because of its frequent use of the Polaroid picture which we also plan to use significantly. The movie is also a very good film with a complex  plot and characters which even if not comparable to a coursework piece should be watched for inspiration.

Poster Ideas

We are currently in discussion about the ideas for our poster. We have been researching various posters from films we know and are using them to hopefully influence our poster.

Methods to Murder

Marion, an uninhibited secretary steals $40,000 from her employer and drives off into the night to meet her lover. During a storm she arrives at a sinister motel owned by a taxidermist, later revealed to be completely insane, whose even more demented mother lives in the adjoining mansion.

1. Psycho
2. Production year: 1960
3. Countries: UK, USA
4. Cert (UK): 15
5. Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
6. Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles

There follows one of the most disgusting and notorious murders in all screen history. It takes place in a bathroom and involves a great deal of swabbing of the tiles and flushing of the lavatory. 

This scene is a perfect example of how we plan to execute our killing scene. There is undoubtedly a murder taking place in Psycho, however, Hitchcock has directed it in such a way that shows no breaking of the skin through the stabbing, while also depicting the horror of the scene masterfully. We will emulate this this for various reasons such as we cannot literally stab our actress and that we have an overall budget of £0.  


We also preferred to avoid the use of gore as it became overly clichéd and tacky within the 80's - 90's horror scene with the release of low budget films such as Friday the 13th and scream.