various film magazine covers

It's an essential task to carry out both primary and secondary research in order to produce a successful and effective magazine cover, poster and film opening to create a higher level of understanding of what our target audience want. To complete some secondary research I have been looking at different magazine covers in order to provide guidance and knowledge of the type of magazine cover Becka and I would like to achieve. 

Here is a magazine cover that has been developed by a real student who has previously taken media, it becomes obvious that this is an unofficial cover for Empire as the titling of the mast head isn't the same as what it usually is on the professional, official covers for the magazine. The reason why I've decided to include this unofficial magazine cover is because I like the look of the image displayed and feel this would fit into our thriller genre of our film. I believe the cover to be quite quite effective and suggests the genre it's attempting to sell immediately. The model is directly gazing at the audience and has been taken at a fairly close up shot in order to entice and intrigue the audience into wanting to see the film they're promoting. The dark backgrounds adds to the suggestion that the film fits into the thriller genre as this is when most individuals become more fearful in any situation, the expression the model pulls shows us she is in some type of danger and is essentially being grabbed from her feet. In our opening film our storyline consists of a girl who is essentially kidnapped so reproducing a magazine cover like the person who has produced 'Captured' could make our magazine cover quite effective and enticing. The shot has been taken from a close up shot as the models facial details are present and 'in your face' however it could be suggested as a mid shot as the models upper limbs and upper body is present in the image. I love the image that's used because of the danger it immediately presents, I feel that the image quality it fairly good as well as the narrow depth of field has meant that her face is completely in focus whilst her hand and the background which is nearer to the camera is slightly off focus. I believe the magazine image has a more professional approach than the texts surrounding it, in order to create a better approach for the whole of it Becka and I wish to replicate a film magazine cover by using the exact same ordering, font styles and sizes in our own magazine cover.

Here is another that seems obviously produced by someone studying A level media, I am able to suggest this because it doesn't have the quality to look official. Although it's a good attempt I don't feel the people who've made the covers have grasped onto a real professional feel of a magazine cover and the emptiness of it proves this further. The image displayed is of a good quality with all members gazing towards the camera to entice and intrigue the audience, I feel the image reveals the genre of the film straight away as I'm immediately persuaded into believing the film consists thriller or action features due to the costumes and appearance of the characters. It doesn't look professional because the titling of the magazine they're supposed to be replicating isn't the same at all, this has a negative impact on the professionalism of the magazine appearance.

Ideas that could feature in our final film trailer

Becka and I are very keen on the idea of using the thriller genre to produce the three media products (film trailer, film poster and magazine cover), we brainstormed ideas that could feature within our film trailer and the sequence our trailer could possibly play by, however this is only a rough idea. I initially thought of the idea after viewing a warning precaution from Facebook and other social sources; when reviewing social networking sites I picked up on a precaution from the Police warning people of a scam a group of youths are doing in order to rape and kidnap people. The warning message stated that people are putting prams, baby carriers or car seats on the edge of roads in order to confuse people into stopping and mistaking the pram for an abandoned baby, essentially luring the victims into a trap. After the person has stopped, the gang would then kidnap the person in order to rape, abuse or kill their victim, this precaution noticed on the social networking websites I use created the idea of using a storyline along the same lines however changing it slightly to a more interesting, gripping and emotional story.

• begin with happy scene of father and young child
• pendant is significant as it was passed down from late wife who died 
• the fathers baby is then either kidnapped, missing or died and the father longs to find her, or replace her
• father goes mental
• newspaper
• victim driving through a road (possibly country road) 
• playing music as normal
• 1 second shot of her being tied up (as a sort of flash-forward)
• notices a baby in their car seat, immediately concerned and breaks instantly 
• she looks in the car seat, looks within the white blanket and nothing is there
• she is then grabbed and forced into the wood
• see small slow motioned clips of her being violently attacked 
• fast and concise shots of her being dragged up the stairs (like the unleashed)
• search party
• her hands and feet are tied together so she is unable to escape

• at the end we are presented with the females eye 
• zooms in fast but small shots getting closer each time  (like trailer: The Unleashed)
• plot twist.... the mother wasn't really dead she took her little girl 

possible reason for abduction:

He had only but his little girl who mysteriously got taken after letting herself out from the open door, after not finding her years on he develops an unstable and psychopathic behaviour resulting into the longing for parenthood of a young, blonde girl that resembles his daughter

He then takes a girl he's observed by using the 'baby trick' on a small country lane and kidnaps her

As his little girl willingly left him he ties the kidnapped girl so she is unable to ever escape from him (like his little girl did) 

It makes him feel like he has his little girl back, the sense of fatherhood returns to him and completes him however stirs him into a higher mental level

"A father is supposed to be the one man who will never give up on you, and Jason never did"  

Quote we wish to add to our finalised film trailer to provide the viewers with a visual explanation of what's happening in our trailer... the creepy feel of the added music, visual video and this quote will hopefully create a thrill to the viewer and make them want to watch which is the aim for all film trailers.

Choosing the genre

In our AS project we were instructed to create a film opening of our choice lasting only 2 minutes using the conventions of a true film opening of the same genre, alternatively this year the task is to construct a film trailer. My hope is for my film trailer to be a greater success than the previous years coursework task, I believe it will be because we have a heightened level of editing skills with a greater knowledge of media concepts and conventions. One may argue that Becka and I failed to achieve the best quality of work in our last coursework task as we weren't always focused and believe we work better under time pressure, therefore our aim is to strive to achieve in our A2 project. 
Secondary research has been a significant factor into choosing the correct genre of film for our A2 project, the greatest source of research is through the Internet, Trailer Addict and YouTube in particular. Our last coursework task was based on the thriller genre, we had completed the same sort of research in order to obtain what conventions were used within, therefore we already have a basic knowledge of.
Becka and I are swaying to the idea of incorporating our trailer into the thriller genre, we had previously completed a thriller themed film opening in AS media which allowed us to gain skills around the subject meaning that we should be furthering our understanding using the previous knowledge and skills we’d used combined with the fresh skills we’d gain from researching the same sort of genre in our A2 project. 
We have therefore concluded on the target audience we wish to pursue within our project of a 15 rating however specifically targeted at ages 15-20, the age gap isn’t very large so applying the specific needs to our target audience shouldn’t be too hard to achieve as opposed to a larger target audience such as 15-45. To ensure we cater for our chosen target audiences’ needs Becka and I will have to carry out our own primary research involving questionnaires and interviews from individuals who fit in the category and we’ll also be researching through secondary data from looking at thriller genre target audiences’, how extreme they go with trailer content and what features to make it appropriate for our target audience.