The document describes Samuel Schoettner's process over 12 days creating posters and working on sound design and filming for a film trailer, noting challenges with blending images, finding appropriate music, difficulties with actors not following direction that required retakes, and progress made with sound design, color grading, and improved second day of filming.

1. Production
Reflection
SAMUEL SCHOETTNER

2. Process DAY 1
 Today I Began and nearly finished my first poster The pictures I used in the poster I
took at home over the course of the weekend. Editing the picture mostly consisted
of adding colouring, more blood and shading to the axe as well as removing the
writing from the axe handle and some other small things.
 The sort of main tool I used while creating this image was the blending mode
‘Overlay’ I created new layers and painted of parts of the image in a certain colour
or shade (for example I would paint white over highlights) then set the layer mode
to ‘Overlay’ this essentially just brightens up that area of the Image, you can also
do this with colours and it will place the chosen colour over the image, like I did on
the tip of the axe with red. Brightening and darkening my image like this instead of
using brightness and contrast/the levels tool, gave me a lot more flexibility and I
could fine tune what I really wanted to stand out a lot easier.
 Overall I would say everything went very well the only things I had trouble with was
blending the text aspects of the image so that they showed up well. However it just
took a little while and little headache, to duplicate text layers and mess around
with blending modes as well as using layer masks to erase certain parts of the text
so that a darker/lighter text could show through from below and contrast with the
underlaying image.
Link to process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWvnMLovxd0&feature=youtu.be

4. Process DAY 2
 Today I finished editing the first poster, though it may appear as though
the poster didn’t change a lot, there were a lot of little things that I
adjusted, for example the text, this was the recommendation of a tutor
they didn’t think that the thick bevel around the text looked very good so
I decided to thin it out a bit. After printing the poster out in college I also
adjusted some of the colours within the picture, so that the colour
temperature and over all theme matched, then adding some
purple/violet tones as I was/an going for a sort of 90s classic horror
movie poster. I also used the camera raw editor to sharpen the image, as
well as changing the lens width a little so that image was slightly more
concave. Overall I am very pleased with the poster at the moment as it
has more or less become what I wanted it to be. I still am a bit weary of
the title text however I have decided to leave it for now and come back
to it another time with a fresh eye.

8. Process DAY 3
 Today I began my second poster, I used two main images to create this poster
as well as some blood textures that I shot at home.
 The first thing I did was add some more blood textures to the face using the
brush tool as well as the blood textures I photographed at home. I then added
the face to the axe using a clipping mask, and added the blood splatters over
the top cropping out the paper using blending modes and contrast/brightness
etc. The whole process was quite simple, as I already had text from the previous
poster I more or less just needed to copy and paste the text into this poster
project and readjust colours, blending modes and position but it was a lot faster
as I wasn’t starting from scratch.
 So far I prefer this poster for being a poster however I am much more pleased
with the way my other poster looks compared to this one, the other one feels a
lot more professional and high quality, where as this one looks and feels less
professional but I am not too bothered by it.
 Overall I think I have made good progress, I was hoping to already be done
with my second poster so I could move onto my third poster, however I would
rather make a few really good posters than many ok ones.

11. Process DAY 4
 Today I again fine tuned the image a little more. The first thing I did was edit the subjects
eyes. Though his face showed that he was scared/in horror I kind of wanted him to look
truly horrified so I added some redness to his eyes as well as add highlights at the bottom
of his eyes so that it looked as though there were tears. I also made his eyes a little bluer as
it made them look more watery, as well as helping add colour contrast.
 I also added a ruler guide to break the image up properly, I used an 8x9 grid as I wanted
the poster to have lots of dividing points. This was extremely helpful as it allowed me to
properly match up all the text properly so that it would be visually appealing.
 I then added a white boarder around the poster by simply cropping the image outwards.
This gave the poster more depth as the blood splatters covered both the edge and inside
of the poster, and overall I think framed the picture very well.
 I added a layer of grain, I like to do this to a lot of pictures as it gives it a vintage film feel as
well as giving the whole image unity.
 The last thing I changed was make the ‘reflection’ of the face on the axe head blend in a
little more, this was easily done all I needed to do was duplicate the axe layer and then
paint it away using a layer mask so that the face would appear underneath.
 Overall these weren’t big changes but I think they made a huge difference as they really
tied the poster together and tidied it up nicely.

15. Process DAY 5
Today I created my 3rd and final poster, this is a teaser poster so It has far less detail than
the other posters, only the title and the release date. I do like the simple and minimalistic
design of this poster as it is very subtle, which really is the point of a teaser poster. The only
problem I have with it is unfortunately a very big one. It doesn’t work, let me explain why.
The two previous posters are (subjectively) very 1960-1990s style movie poster, there's is
plenty going, on the colours are vivid, the subject is very obvious and they have a ‘messier’
style, now compare it to this poster and you will see very quickly why this poster doesn’t fit
in. This is unfortunate as I was very happy with this poster and this poster concept was one
of my first, however it wasn’t meant to be. This poster would simply be an anomaly and
incoherent of it was placed next to the other products.
Overall I really like the poster but in its current state it will not work for my final products as
it will throw of the theme.

18. Process DAY 6
 Today I tried making one more poster of a typography nature as I am not sure how
well the teaser poster works in comparison to the other two main posters, as the
other posters are quite vibrant and bright but this poster is very dark and
desaturated. However I was not enjoying making the typography poster as I got
stuck quiet a lot, I tried out two different styles however I still couldn’t get a grip
with it, so I decided to just move onto the music and sound design. I created a few
risers and the crashing sound effect for the car crash, this didn’t take all too long so I
also started listening to music to find a song that I could use as the soundtrack for
the trailer. The song I decided was perfect was ‘Painting the day’ by the Cowsills,
now I will contact them and ask for permission to use the song for the trailer this
evening. Overall today was not as productive as I would have liked I was hoping to
get a lot more done however the typography poster really cost me a lot of time,
which is especially frustrating as it doesn’t look good whatsoever. For now I think I
will start working on the audio/video production part of my product/project. As I
think I need to move on and return to the posters with a fresh set of eyes and look
at them objectively to figure out what's bad what's good etc.

20. Process DAY 7
 Today I began working on a title card for the film trailer I used (again) a
tutorial from ‘VideoCopilot’. Creating this was fairly straightforward I
followed the tutorial step by step however occasionally I added in things
I learned myself from other.
 I ran into a problem while editing where the text and the effects did not
work together, meaning I had to delete a whole bunch of layers (and
work) and essentially start from scratch. This was very annoying however
necessary as I couldn’t find the source that was causing the problem.
 Another thing I am not too sure about is the actual text itself, though it
looks good, I’m not sure whether the rugged, stone look really fits the
theme of the product, granted I am not yet done with the text but I am
not sure if it will really be the right choice.
 I will need to see whether I can make the text shinier or if using a
different font will fix the issue.

25. Process DAY 8
 Today I re worked the title text I created yesterday, as the text was quite rough and had
stone textures I realised it didn’t really fit the tone of my film, so I changed the texture to
be far more metallic as I felt this would reflect the tone and mood of the film much more.
The metal definitely ended up looking better, I also decided to use a different font, this was
because the font I used before (surfing capital) was not a serif font, which meant it was
more difficult to create embossing and reflections. I added a scratched texture to make the
metal look worn as well as giving the text a red tint. The metal effect was easier to create
than the rugged rough, ‘decay’ effect I worked on yesterday, which was good as it meant I
could save time while creating something the better suited the product. The biggest
advantage I found using this method was that the lighting/text effect is 100% procedural,
meaning I could change the font, the content of the text, the weight, size etc at any point
and the effect would simply update. This was hugely beneficial as I could play with
different fonts and change weigh, spacing etc, without loosing any work/progress. Also
when it comes to creating other cards that showcase lets say the names of the actors or
release date, I can again simply use this as almost a template, as I will simply need to go
into the text composition, edit the text, and it will update everywhere else.
 I had one minor hiccup as I wanted to use an After Effects plugin however it did not work
on the college computers, so I needed to do it at home. The plugin is called ‘Saber’ which
enabled me to create the light effect at the beginning of the text. I am not 100% sure if I
am going to keep this effect, however I found it looked really cool though there is not
much justification for having it in terms of what it means to the story, so I will probably
need to remove it.

26. What I mean by procedural effect.
(see next slide)

28. Lighting effects turned off and on
Off
On

29. YouTube link to title card:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BziYLhG7y6o&feature=youtu.be

30. Process DAY 9
 Today I didn’t really do much in the direction of production. I mostly
refined my research by creating a list of potential SFX and sounds I
will need as well as filling out the story development word
document. I really should have done this during the allocated pre-
production time but I thought it would make far more sense to do it
now so I know what I need to do and what I need to do it. Rather
than just figuring it out as I go along.
 I am personally not bothered about using production time to do this
as I think it will just make it far easier and quicker when it comes to
producing the product. Plus I am very certain that once I have filmed
all the footage I need I will not need vast amounts of time to edit
everything together.
 I think the thing that will take the longest will be the colour grading
and the VFX work (if there is any)

31. Process DAY 10
 Today I worked some more on the sound track, I was planning on
using garage band to create some drums beats as well as some small
cut in SFX, however I found garage band very awkward to use as I
didn’t like the way you had to ‘play’ the instruments. Further more I
couldn’t figure out how to import my own music(if there is even a way
to do that) which meant I couldn’t listen to the soundtrack as I was
adding to it. So instead I looked for Royalty free drum sounds as well
as instruments. That I could download as MP3/WAV files and drop
them into Premier Pro. Here I could simple move them around and
adjust the way the sounded by editing the sound using Adobe
Audition, as it would automatically update in my Premier Pro
sequence. I found this way of working a lot easier and faster. I could
have the main audio file onto, adding all the drums snares, hi hats etc.
underneath. I am happy with my progress as I nearly finished half of
the sound track and found a vast collection of sounds that I can use to
create the rest of the sound track. This will make the whole process
easier and faster, as I wont need to look for the sound effects, because
they will already all be here, ready and waiting to be used.

34. Process DAY 11
I carried on with music production, I added further drum beats to give the music more of a core
as well as give it more structure which I can use to influence cuts for the trailer. I have somewhat
started to use the drums to build tension, and will do more of this once I have the video footage
as I will be able to really understand how much footage I have, how often I can cut, how
long/short the clips will be etc. I think the drums have added a lot of auditory interest to the
soundtrack. They gave the music texture as well as provide the mentioned rhythm that will help
influence cuts. By adding the drum beat I also gave myself the option the pace the music myself
and speed the song up/slow it down when I needed to. At the moment the progress is quite
slow however it is important progress and (subjectively) it is of high-quality.
I think that I need to film before I can really carry on as without footage it is going to be very
difficult to create the sound track for the second half of the trailer. I will be able to do some
work (for example carrying on with the music) however I will need to re-jig the music once I
assemble the trailer.
I would also like to potentially change the title card I have created I don’t know why but I find it
really does not fit the product so that will take some time but it will be an important change.
Did some colour grading to create some ‘LUTs’ that I can use later on in my production to make
the colour grading process easier, as I will have a roughly finished colour grade that I just need
to fine tune/adapt for the clip I am using it on.

36. Process DAY 12
 Today I Finally began filming, to be quite honest it went horribly. Firstly I forgot to turn on
my microphone for the first half of the day, which meant I had to go back and re-shoot a lot
of footage, this was draining for both myself and the cast. The second problem had to do
with the actors themselves. One of the actors was happy to do their job of acting, doing what
I said and taking direction, however the other actor repetitively refused to do anything but
their own improv, this in of itself is not to big of a deal for most of the scenes but there was a
few shots where it was vital that they did what I said but they simply did not do it, trying to
find excuses for why it didn’t make sense. This of course lead to a lot of footage that simply
looked very amateur. Furthermore it means I have to find a way of covering up their acting
through editing. The second problem it brings is the actor who was not willing to follow
direction, makes the rest of the actors look bad as the scene will not make sense.
 Overall I am very disappointed with this shoot, as I will probably need to re-shoot a lot of it,
and if I do I will attempt to find another actor to replace the one that did co-operate.

37. Process DAY 12
 Today marked the second day of shooting and it went far, far better. It was only myself and the actor
who was cooperative as well as inventive this meant we could closely work together and as we were
both motivate to create a good product the shots I ended up capturing were a lot better. Furthermore
the actor himself wanted to think of it as though what shots would be powerful and good to use within
a trailer, this meant I rethought a lot of shots as well as including a lot of his ideas as some were very
good. One of his ideas has tremendously improved the product. My initial idea was to let the audience
know that the protagonist was in love and had a girlfriend and then kill her, he then gets a phone call
etc. Now in this phone call I wanted him to scream in anger/sorrow at the end.
 However he said he personally would find it more powerful if in a trailer the audience heard the person
on the other end of the line saying ‘I am sorry for your loss’ and then the shot fades to black.
 This was 100% true, as not only does it give the audience initiative the feel upset, it also makes the
audience curious for the next shot. If the protagonist had just screamed ‘NOOOO’ that would have
been the climax, but instead we are given a sort of cliff hanger that entices the audience.
 This accidentally gave me a new idea to approach the trailer. Instead of the trailer starting how I said,
shots of them being in love, she gets killed, he is sad. Instead I have re-jigged the whole thing.
 The trailer starts of quite with only diegetic sound, the protagonist gets the phone call letting him
know his girlfriend has passed away. The operator says ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ and the scene dips to
black as the soundtrack begins, then the shots of him and her being in love come onto screen and
finally she is killed.
 This new version is far more powerful than the old one was or ever could be, the audience is enticed
and therefore wants to carry on watching the trailer, we get a huge clue towards the story. It makes it
more exciting as by knowing she dies we are aware and waiting for the climax in the trailer. We are also
still curious, as we know she dies, but we do not know how she dies.

38. We also built the set that day

39. Process

40. Process

41. Process