Film magazine front cover (unfinished) and questions for magazine professional

Here is my unfinished magazine front cover to help support my film trailer. This is unfinished as you can tell and needs a lot more work to make it up to professional standard. This is why I wish to ask the print professional about how I can improve this.

Here are some questions I feel would really benefit this supporting piece of work. I really appreciate you spending your time trying to help me, it is very helpful for me and will help improve this draft a lot!


Questions

1. I've made a key mistake in my opinion and that is taking the picture in a landscape format. Is there anyway I can save this piece of work and flip it into a portrait page so it can fit an A4 magazine?

2. I've really struggled about how to fill in the blank space by some of the articles. Is there anything you could suggest that might bulk my page up, and help it look more professional?

3. Do you feel the picture used is effective? I really Like the picture but it does force the text into the middle of the page to make it look very central. Is this a good way to go about text on a front cover?

4. Do you feel there are too many fonts and colours jumping off the page? If so, what colours/fonts do you suggest I change to help the page look more organised? (If you think the colours/fonts used are fine, then fantastic).

5. is there any other tips you could give me that you feel I could benefit from?

Thank you so much for helping me out, it's much appreciated!

My Poster (unfinished) and questions for magazine professional

Here is my poster I made to support my main production (My film trailer). As this isn't the finished edition, I'm going to take up a fantastic opportunity to ask some questions to a professional print editor to help me boost the quality of this piece of work.

If you could help me out with these questions, I would be so grateful and it would benefit my work so much. Thank you.

Questions

1. My main worry about this is the shape of the poster. The image was a print screen from my trailer which I have edited, so I'm not sure how to make it either landscape or portrait. Is there a way I can just stretch it a bit to help make an A3 sheet?

2. Do you feel this poster would be more effective landscape or portrait? I'm uncertain on what would be the most professional looking.

3. I've tried to keep this poster simple but effective top capture the audience's attention, but do you feel it is too basic? Should I pad it out with more words explaining the film?

4. Is there any other hints or tips you feel would benefit my poster is anyway?

Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

Trailer (Unfinished) - Questions for professional

    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73q3eLSEp_4

The link above will take you to my unfinished media trailer. I'm almost finished, but as we have a professional coming in tomorrow, I would like some advice on how to improve this and make it the best it can be.

My 5 Questions I'd like to ask the professional is:

1. As my trailer is a U, I wish to blank out all nudity involved. Is there a software or a way I can blur out my the actors bum in the toilet scene?

2. When I zoom around the boy who has just started to become cool, the sky is grey. Then, the next shot involves the camera looking up at me and my friend checking if he's okay in a different situation. This is obviously not clear due to my public feedback and it makes the clips look connected. My problem is, it's sunny in the scene where it's looking up at the 2 boys. What would do you think is a suitable, easy way to change this so it looks like it's the same weather all along?

3. In the Nurse office scene, we're sat on a bed being filmed with ice on our heads. I've been told by a few people that the mise on scene is to busy due to posters. What would be the best solution to overcome this?

4. In the end credits, Harriet Baber is involved in them but doesn't appear in the trailer before that. She was going too, but my trailer ended up being to long so I cut bits of it out which unfortunately was her bit. Do you see this as a problem, or does it seem she'll appear in the actual film itself but just not a lot in the trailer?

5. For the credits showing who's in my film, I've used a different to my original school font. I am unsure if it looks part of the scene or if it takes away the school feel to it. I'm worried if I overuse the font, it could look boring and normal. What would you do if in this situation?

6. Is there anything else I have not mentioned but you feel looks unprofessional or needs work? This would be much appreciated.

If you answer these I would appreciate it so much! I hope your advice will improve the quality of my trailer. Thank you

My Film Company's Logo

This is my logo I have created on PhotoShop so I can put this before my trailer to show that my film company (Ross' Productions), have created the following trailer and the film it's advertising. This may also go onto my magazine and poster.

Narrative theory

For my comedy film trailer, I've decided to use a narrative theory I think would benefit my work the most. Some theories just wouldn't work in a comedy trailer, such as Propp's theory. Propp's theory is about loads different characters involved and what their part in the trailer is. This would work for a fantasy trailer, or maybe even an action but not in a comedy. I also tried to adapt Todorov's theory to my trailer. This didn't really work as it's hard his theory would be a lot easy to use in an actual film and not just in a montage of funny clips to attract an audience. This might work if I were to make the film but would probably start at the 2nd stage of his theory due to the first having an irrelevant impact on my idea and plot. The one narrative that stood out for me was Levi-Straus' theory of binary opposites. This can be used to create false suspense and surprise the audience which can lead to a comical side. At the start I am going to have 3 geeky boys who are serious and around 18 when 2 normal, aggressive and younger kids come and beat them up for money. This is a shock to the audience as one: it's very random to start a trailer like that and two: it should be the older serious kids attacker the younger boys due to stereo types. My plot is 3 boys trying to become cool, so having them geeky at one point then attempting to become cool at another part in the trailer is a binary opposite itself. I have added narrative theory into my trailer to help give it structure so it's easy to understand and will lead to a more comical side to the trailer.

Music for trailer

For my trailer, I needed 2 songs to fit the theme. One is a happy, fast and pop song to help give the trailer rhythm and almost a narrative to help it flow smoothly. I have found a song called "Happy Bee" made by a You Tuber called kmmusic. I downloaded this song from his website which is http://incompetech.com/ and has agreed that I can use his song as long as I give him full credit. For my 2nd song, I needed a fast beat, remixed, rap and base song to help change the representation that the audience has on the 3 nerds whilst they become cool. I went onto You Tube and found a song called "P-Shar productions-P-1. Diddy - Coming Home (Dubstep Remix)". I found this song on You Tube by PsharProductions and said it's free to download and use for a non-profitable use or for education matters. As he made the song, I will give him full credit here in my blog and at the end of my trailer.

Here is the link to the dupstep remix song I will be using: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opV21tqQcjw
 Here is the link to "Happy Bee": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYRNag5NJM4

To clarify, I do not own either of these songs and have not created them. I have downloaded them from the 2 artists above who have made the videos.

Font for trailer

Here are 2 of the fonts that really stood out to me from the others. They both fit my school genre comedy and have a meaning and an impact of my trailer. Both of these are clearly designed for a school matter, and is visible for everyone to see this due to the sketching in the bottom font and the guide lines for the top. As both of these have a cool school look to them, I might use both of these in my trailer. If so, I would use the top font as a title to the trailer due to the underline of it which looks similar to the date and title of school work in a book. I would also use this as my title as it looks a lot more educational and has more of a school theme than the other. The bottom font has a sketched look about it which is usually what kids do in class when they're bored. This might be good for the subtitles at the end to show who's acting in the film itself. I may also keep this theme for my poster so they both have something in common and are easily relatable and connected. I also have decided to go with the colour blue because blue is one of the most popular colours out there which is what the kids are aiming to do with their social life. It also known as a soft friendly colour which will help the representation on the boys for the audience.