Broken Mind: Directors' Featurette

Evaluation Screening and Feedback for Broken Mind Trailer (Final Cut)

Scores: 5, 6, 6, 6, 6.5, 6.5, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8.5

Average Score: 7

Positive Feedback:
Music x 15
Good Intertitles x 14
Good, clear narrative x 14
Good use of cinematography x 5
Effects x 4
Editing x 3
Body horror x 1

Suggested Improvements:
More variety of location x 10
More body horror x 9
Improve lighting x 5
Narrative x 2
More death x 1

Side-By-Side Poster Analysis

My poster compares to this poster for The Possession (2012) in many ways, and the style in which it has been designed is very similar to mine. I chose to use black as it is a bold colour and also connotes darkness and death, which leads on to the tagline ‘the darkness comes to life’. I chose this as the tagline because it shows the general narrative of what actually happens in the film without giving too much away, because the dark parts of Leo’s (Oliver Butler) mind come to life in the form of demons. The actual shot of Leo is over-the-shoulder with half of his face showing. I chose to do this because it connotes schizophrenia and the idea of having two personalities. Also, it allowed the interesting effect of having a low opacity reflection. I was in two minds about this idea because I thought it could come across a bit cliché and obvious, but I now like the symbolism of it and I think it adds a different mood to the image. For the image, I wanted the colours to be quite faint and monochrome as the film isn’t bright and happy, and so I think this helps to promote the horror genre of the film. The brick wall as the background also brings interesting textures to the image rather than a plain wall. It also connotes a grittier, urban setting which is in keeping with the fact that Leo (Oliver Butler) is a police officer who has killed a suspect. I added a subtle gore effect (blood coming from his ear) to the image just to show the different horror sub-genres within the film, and I think it works quite well in that it doesn’t draw too much attention away from the psychological aspect but still adds a dash of realistic power. All of these conventions can be seen in this poster for The Possession (2012) which acted as my inspiration when creating this ancillary product.

Side-By-Side Magazine Cover Analysis

My magazine cover compares stylistically with this edition of Entertainment Weekly in many ways. The image I used for the cover is a mid-shot of the main character Leo looking serious and ‘broken’ in a sense because he has sadness in his eyes, which gives clues as to the film’s narrative. It is a typical image that would be seen on real-life magazines and it is similar to the horror magazine covers because of the low key lighting and plain black background. For the masthead, I used a simplistic sans serif font called ‘Verdana’ as it makes it stand out from the rest of the text even though it isn’t the largest text on the page. I also used white text consistently throughout the magazine cover as I felt it contrasted nicely with the black background and stands out well. The headline for the film ‘Broken Mind’ is the same font I used for the poster. This helps combine my promotional campaign together and I like that the text is also ‘broken’ as it isn’t in a straight line. I chose to use grey because both black and white didn’t work as the other colours on the page are black and white and I didn’t want there to be too much of a contrast. Beside the headline, I added a little description of the content relating to the film which says ‘Oliver Butler talks playing mental ex-cop in the new anticipated horror film ‘Broken Mind’.’ This was influenced by the front cover of an edition of ‘Entertainment Weekly’, and this is something they do consistently on most of their magazine covers. The style of the magazine cover is similar to that of popular film magazine ‘Empire’ which was my inspiration for this ancillary product.

Class Poster Idea

6 Panel Practice Storyboard

Prop List

Vodka Bottle
Mints
Plastic Gun
Duvet cover
Mirror
Sofa
Phone
Plastic Knife
Fake Blood
Latex