Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos - Final Trailer

Finally, after taking over two months to film and similarly long to edit, we have got the completed product for our trailer. We are extremely happy with this trailer and have gotten excellent feedback from our peers. We have learnt a lot from filming this trailer, and we believe we have improved since last year's opening sequence when we were new to editing. Whilst filming this trailer we were constantly looking back at our old opening sequence and other real life trailers for inspiration and ways to improve. Despite many difficulties and challenges, including arranging dates to meet up and finding days we were all free, we think we were patient enough to overcome the obstacles and have produced a trailer we are personally very happy with.

'Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos' - Ottakes

Due to the extremely long time frame it took to film our trailer, we ended up with many outtakes (bloopers). This videos is significantly longer than last year's blooper reel which shows how much more we filmed this year. In this video we showcase more editing techniques but we also give a feel of how many different places we filmed in. It is also very funny.

Task Thirteen Ancillary Products 1) Film Poster

This is our finished Film poster to our trailer for Rebellion II rise of Kronos. in the picture we displayed all the significant characters that star within the Film. We added the planes and helicopters to show the level of danger that faces the protagonists as well as to add to the action appeal of the poster. We then added the smoke, sparks and debris at the bottom of the poster to further emphasise the point of the action genre of the movie. furthermore we took inspiration from the GI joe retaliation movie poster to add the smokes and sparks as well as how we positioned the characters on the poster. we put Charlie in the centre as he is the leader of the group. Michael (reaper) was positioned next to him as he is his right hand man and plays a higher role in the movie than the others. Yassir (Oracle) was put in front of Charlie so that we could get a full shot of his sniper which is a weapon that Yassir's character uses as an efficient weapon throughout the movie. George was put behind Charlie, Yassir and Kofi, however he is still clearly visible in the poster. We positioned him their as Georges Character (hulk) is on the balance of sticking with the group through out their encounter with Kronos. a snippet of this was shown in the trailer when he confronts Charlie's character explaining that he does not agree with his plan. We put both Kofi and Harmony's characters at the corners of the characters layer as they play lesser roles in the movies. Efue and Rhyss' characters were put at the top of the poster as they are the main antagonists in the movie and we wanted Kronos (Efue's character) to look allusive (by reducing his opacity) however dominant. We did this by enlarging the image of Efue, as if he is looking down on them.

Magazine cover for Odin

We decided to put Odin in a city/urban environment with chaos proceeding in the background. A large fire can clearly be seen behind him, emphasising the danger of the mission and the destruction that is taking place. Big Ben is a major symbol of the film and is also briefly seen in the trailer. We wanted to make it stand out in Odin's magazine cover as he is the leader of the group and it shows both his importance and the importance of the landmark in the film. Odin is also placed quite high in perspective to the city - this once again shows his dominant role in the film. This magazine cover follows the same template as the others with the character placed in front of the Empire logo but behind a slanted band which features the other magazine covers. It also includes sell lines such as "Meet Odin" and "World First!" which are short and snappy in order to draw in the reader. We also have our tag line, "You think the war is over?" at the top as it is an iconic line in the trailer and is the first thing that Kronos says in his television broadcast. We used a red colour for Odin as red is a bold colour and we believe this reflects his bold personality. He is the leader and therefore has a magazine cover that arguably stands out more than the others. Another thing to notice in this magazine cover is the fact that Odin looks very relaxed, holding his gun down, as if he isn't ready. This actually links to his character as he is seen as very laid back character, as seen in the trailer when he says "He bought the war to us" in a very calm voice after Hulk had just shouted at him. The background of this magazine cover was actually taken from an edit picture of London from the internet which was originally made for another film called "London Has Fallen", a film which is very similar to ours. We also added the issue date and price in £ and $ between the "M" and a barcode as accustom to Empire Magazine's covers.

Magazine cover for Hulk

This is the magazine cover for Hulk. His background was an suburban environment to show that although it is a global war, the group are still protecting normal people just like they were in the last film. The actual background picture is a screenshot from "The Last of Us" video game which is set in a post-apocolyptic United States. In the game, all the building are boarded off and abandoned just like they would be in a war torn suburb. We also added some smoke and made Hulk look towards where the smoke seems to be coming from to show that even though he is in what seems to be a quiet suburb he is alway aware of the danger. However, we also wanted to show that even though there is a prominent danger, he is standing in what used to be a peaceful suburb. To do this we added green leaves falling in front of him to show that even in the battlefield there is still nature and life.  This magazine cover follows the same template as the others with the character placed in front of the Empire logo but behind a slanted band which features the other magazine covers. It also includes sell lines such as "Meet Hulk" and "World First!" which are short and snappy to draw in the reader. We also have our tag line, "You think the war is over?" at the top as it is an iconic line in the trailer and is the first thing that Kronos says in his television broadcast. We chose the orange to be Hulk's colour scheme because it is bright and vibrant and gives it a graffiti like feel, which you would expect to find in an suburban environment. We also added the issue date and price in £ and $ and a barcode as accustom to Empire Magazine's covers.

Magazine cover for Reaper

For this magazine cover, we decided to have Reaper running through a forest. He is the only character that is half way through an active motion out of all of our magazine covers - he is running whilst the others are standing still. We believe this shows how Reaper is a very fast paced and athletic character, as seen in the trailer, Reaper is often in active combat but is also tactical, hence the forest. We decided to have him in a dark and rainy forest because the darkness represents how mysterious Reaper is as a character, he does not talk as much as the others and is reserved with his ideas. Having him in the forest makes it seem as though he is tactically, and stealthily about to ambush a target. Many parts of the film take place in a forest, and this is sometimes seen in the trailer which is shows the synergy involved. We thought the heavy rain also added some emotion to the cover, it is almost a metaphor to say Reaper is a somewhat dark minded character. This is briefly seen in the trailer when Odin shoots someone as a POV shot from the victim, but whilst Odin looks away as he shoots, Reaper keeps looking. This magazine cover follows the same template as the others with the character placed in front of the Empire logo but behind a slanted band which features the other magazine covers. It also includes sell lines such as "Meet Hulk" and "World First!" which are short and snappy in order to draw in the reader. We also have our tag line, "You think the war is over?" at the top as it is an iconic line in the trailer and is the first thing that Kronos says in his television broadcast. Although it is hard to see on the cover, he is holding his pistol which is a crucial part of Reaper's look as a character. He doesn't go anywhere without his pistol and it is the only weapon he uses, therefore we decided it had to be put in the magazine cover. We also added the issue date and price in £ and $ between the "M" and barcode as accustom to Empire Magazine's covers.  The colour choice was blue as we thought it is a common colour used for action which links to Reaper's relation to action.

Magazine cover for Oracle

We chose to have Oracle in a desert to emphasise the global nature of this war compared to the war in the previous film which was just in London. However, to further support his reason to be in a desert we placed and image of Dubai's skyline in the background to make it seem as if there is a  major city in the background which is also one of Kronos' targets. Although the desert is not included in the trailer, it gives the audience something to look forward to when watching the film. We also included a sandstorm on our cover. This combined with the characters action of aiming his gun shows the audience that no matter where our group is in the world, there is always an imminent threat, which conforms with the conventions of our chosen genre, action. Although Oracle look as if he is isolated with no enemies around, he is still using his weapon. This shows that he is best suited to long range combat and prefers to contribute a distance so that he may use his portable tablet if necessary without any interference, which can be seen in the trailer when he is using the tablet in a fairly quiet part of the woods. This magazine cover follows the same template as the others with the character placed in front of the Empire logo but behind a slanted band which features the other magazine covers. It also includes sell lines such as "Meet Oracle" and "World First!" which are short and snappy to draw in the reader. We also have our tag line, "You think the war is over?" at the top as it is an iconic line in the trailer and is the first thing that Kronos says in his television broadcast. The colour scheme for this cover is yellow as it matches the desert environment which the character is situated in. We also added the issue date and price in £ and $ between the "M" and a barcode as accustom to Empire Magazine's covers.

Magazine cover for Kronos

We chose not to give Kronos a recognisable background and instead just made his background black to emphasise his mysterious nature. This is also supported by the fact that only his name in known in the trailer and his location is "classified". This is further highlighted by the light which is shining from the top of the magazine. His hood creates a shadow which covers his face, annotating that he has remained hidden in the shadow, away from the public eye while secretly pulling the string, as we know he has done with Hades. This magazine cover follows the same template as the others with the character placed in front of the Empire logo but behind a slanted band which features the other magazine covers. It also includes sell lines such as "Meet Kronos" and "World First!" which are short and snappy in order to draw in the reader. We also have our tag line, "You think the war is over?" at the top as it is an iconic line in the trailer and is the first thing that Kronos says in his television broadcast. We chose grey as the colour scheme for Kronos as it matches his dark and dull personality. It particularly works well in the tag line at the top as the words "think" and "is" are on the edge of the light. Because the grey mixes in with them, is not clearly visible, one again emphasising how he can remain hidden even when there is a light looking for him. In this case the light is our group. We also added the issue date and price in £ and $ between the "M" and a barcode as accustom to Empire Magazine's covers.

Evaluation 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We decided to answer our final evaluation question in a Prezi as we felt it was the best way for us to communicate all of our points.

Evaluation 3:What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

In the video above, we asked 5 pairs to view our products and give us feedback. After taking the feedback into consideration, we have summarised what we have learnt from it below.

Trailer
One thing that most of the pairs liked was the editing of the trailer. They liked the structure of our trailer and that the shots weren't linear in terms of chronology. The music was also favoured by our audience. The music allowed us to make the trailer fast paced. We did this conform with our genre, action. It seemed to work as our target audience said that they like both the music and the fast pace of the trailer. Another aspect of editing that they enjoyed was the rewind towards the end of the trailer. Just before the Rebellion II title came up, all the clips in the trailer were quickly rewinded which seemed to draw the attention of a lot of our target audience.

We received mixed reactions about the special effects in the trailer. Especially about the CGI helicopter. Most of our audience was impressed by the helicopter as it added scale to the trailer. We included it to show that this is an actual war and not a bunch of people just shooting guns. However, others argued that although the concept was good, it was not realistic and was clearly CGI. The same was said about the CGI bullet which comes flying towards the camera near the end of the trailer.

Another common factor that the pairs did not like was the post-credit scene. It was meant to be a reference to the first movie through the use of music. However, the reference wasn't clear and so our audience were left confused by it.

They all agreed that they got a good outline of the story which was the fact that the group of "heroes" in the film are going after the main villain - Kronos, played by Efue Jimawo.

Poster

The pairs appeared to like our poster. Sam and Hollie were the only one with a question which was why there were planes in the poster. After telling them it was to show the warfare in the movie, they agreed they liked it.

After asking what could be improved, Harmony said we should have made Kronos more anonymous-looking, by maybe making the shadow over his face darker, which we believed was a good point. Therefore, this was one of the first things we changed after receiving our audience feedback. However, overall, it was made clear to us that each of the pairs agreed that our poster carried out the predominant task of drawing them in.

Another factor that we decided to change after receiving audience feedback was the colour and style of the font. Originally, we decided to use a thin looking font with a colour that blended into the background, however, after receiving several comments suggesting that people couldn't read the writing, we decided to make the font overall more bold, using a darker colour and thicker font. Once changed, we showed what we had changed to the people who suggested it wasn't clear, who then confirmed it was much more clear and readable.

Magazine Covers

The pairs all liked the idea of each character having their own magazine cover, however two of the pairs suggested that Yassir's magazine cover (Oracle) wasn't clear, and the setting appeared un-true to the story line. To counteract this, we made it more apparent that Yassir was in a desert by making the yellow fade more grainy to represent sand. This worked and several pairs agreed that the texture of the background made all the difference.

All of the pairs agreed that the synergy between the three different products was very good. They agreed that they all linked well, and helped contribute towards the success of the entire product. After clarifying why we did 5 magazine covers to the pairs that questioned it, it seemed much more feasible to them, and they agreed that it did in fact work well to help each character have 'their own moment of glory'.

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

For our second evaluation question, we have tried to give the effect that the main actors of 'Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos' are being interviewed for the News or a TV network. In this video we each talk about the ways in which we combined ideas from our magazine covers and film poster with the trailer itself. There a few moments where we go off topic, however this is just to give the effect that it is a real interview. We touch on the fact that we used synergy to link our main product and ancillary texts through the use of costume, props, clothing and the backgrounds of each product. In addition, we talk about how we actually created the poster and why we chose to give it some of the effects it has, and why these effects worked. We also mention some of the iconic images from the trailer and ancillary texts, including 'Reaper's' pistol and the tag line "You think the war is over?". We have edited in small snippets from the trailer itself to give more detail to our explanations and have also shows each magazine cover and specific parts of the poster to give a more in depth look at what we done.

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our first evaluation question, we tried to make it seem as if the stars of the movie are approached by paparazzi. To do this we had Harmony and Rhyss, who play Eclipse and Hades, walk out first but not answer the question. Then the four of us walk out and are asked the evaluation question.

The first thing we mentioned is the racial balancing in Hollywood. There was a lot of controversy around the Oscars recently due to the fact that there were no black nominees. This caused a lot of people to accuse Hollywood of being racist and not culturally diverse. To challenge this we decided to include more black actors than we have white. We did this successfully by including 5 black actors (Michael, Yassir, Kofi, Efue and Rhyss) and only 3 white actors (Charlie, George and Harmony). However, to ensure that the argument does not sway in the other direction, we decided to split the main characters evenly by having the group consist of Odin and Hulk as the white members and Oracle and Reaper as the black members.

We then discussed how we used similar shots, camera angles and lighting to those used in real media products. For example, in our inspiration from real media we mentioned how in the Avengers trailer, there was a shot of Black Widow in a naturally lit room by herself, as the only female lead. We also did this in a shot of Eclipse practicing using her nunchucks in the mirror with sunlight shining through the window in the mirror. We also mentioned the lighting in the groups 'base'. The shots in the base were filmed in a basement that only had one light. We made use of this by positioning the Government Official and Eclipse where the light would shine on the but positioned the team where they are sort of in the shadow. This is to show that although the group have good intentions, some of their methods may seem dark. We also "borrowed" a certain shot type from the Hitman: Agent 47 trailer where he is in an interrogation room. In that particular shot, they use 3 quick cuts to show how he can take out his targets swiftly. We used this to show Eclipse's skill when she is first introduced to the team by including 3 quick shots of her taking out a guard.

Music was also mentioned. An important factor of our opening sequence last year was the use of "Power" by Kanye West as our music and were originally planning to use another Kanye West song for our trailer. However, after watching a couple of trailers we thought that those which used music without lyrics created more suspense. This lead us to search for music which would fit the structure of our trailer. We put a couple of song into consideration, such as "Ethos" by Full Tilt and "Dark World" by Sons of Pythagoras. But we ended up using "Monolith" by Twelve Titans as it fitted our trailer structure by starting quietly and fairly calmly before slowly building up and creating suspense.

We decided to introduce a female character after we received criticism for having an all male cast last year. At first we wanted the female character to be working for Kronos. This was inspired by Gazelle from Kingsman: The Secret Service who worked for Richmond Valentine, the main villain. However, we decided to follow The Expendables 2 by introducing a female government agent who is assigned to work with the group.

Kronos Magazine Cover: Editing Process

For the editing process of our magazine covers we decided to create a time lapse of the cover being create on Photoshop. It starts off with a pre made template which we used for all of our magazine covers. The template features the Empire Magazine logo at the top with our tagline "You think the war is over?" above it. It also features a slanted band which will feature the other magazine covers and the title of the film "Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos" above that. The template also includes sell lines such as "The long awaited sequel is finally here" and "We talk to the mind behind Rebellion". We then inserted a black square as the background for Kronos' magazine to emphasise his mysterious nature. We then inserted a pre masked image of Kronos (Efue), using the free transform tool to make him larger and put him into a position where his head covers part of the Empire logo. We then used the smudge tool to smudge the edges around the image as the edges were jagged from when the image was masked using the polygon lasso tool. We then adjusted the layers so that Kronos is in front of the Empire logo but behind the rest of the template. We then used the gradient tool to add a light coming from the top of the magazine. We then used the skew tool to skew the light in towards Kronos, so it looks like a spotlight shining on him. We then adjusted the light using the levels tool to give Kronos a more sinister look. We then inserted the magazine covers for the other characters. We had to rotate and resize them to fit in the white squares in the slanted band. We then used the colour blend tool to make Kronos seem as if he disappearing in the darkness. We also used the blend tool to remove the white straps and zip from his jacket as we wanted the character to seem as dark as possible. After, we inserted sell lines such "World First!" and "Meet Kronos", as well as a barcode, our magazine cover was finished.

Odin Magazine Cover: Editing Process

For the editing process of our magazine covers we decided to create a time lapse of the cover being create on Photoshop. It starts off with a pre made template which we used for all of our magazine covers. The template features the Empire Magazine logo at the top with our tagline "You think the war is over?" above it. It also features a slanted band which will feature the other magazine covers and the title of the film "Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos" above that. The template also includes sell lines such as "The long awaited sequel is finally here" and "We talk to the mind behind Rebellion". We then cropped out a part of an image of London which was originally created for London Has Fallen, which is similar to our film. We also had to adjust the layers so that the image is in the background. We then inserted a pre-masked image of Odin (Charlie) and used the Free Transform tool to resize him and put him in a position where his head covers part of the Empire logo. We then readjusted the layers so that he would be standing in front of the Empire logo but behind the rest of the template. We then put in some smoke in front of Charlie to show that he is in a dangerous situation which is further supported by the building on fire behind him. We then inserted the magazine covers for the other characters. We had to rotate and resize them to fit in the white squares in the slanted band. After then inserted sell lines such "World First!" and "Meet Odin", as well as a barcode, our magazine cover was finished.

Hulk Magazine Cover: Editing Process

For the editing process of our magazine covers we decided to create a time lapse of the cover being created on Photoshop. It starts off with a pre made template which we used for all of our magazine covers. The template features the Empire Magazine logo at the top with our tagline "You think the war is over?" above it. It also features a slanted band which will feature the other magazine covers and the title of the film "Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos" above that. The template also includes sell lines such as "The long awaited sequel is finally here" and "We talk to the mind behind Rebellion". We then cropped out a piece of a screenshot from "The Last of Us" video game and enlarged it to fit the whole page. We then adjusted the layer order so that the screenshot can be used as a background. Next we inserted a pre-masked picture of 'Hulk' and used the magic wand tool to remove the white background. We then used the Free Transform tool so we could resize and move him so that his head covers a bit of the "M" and "P" in the Empire logo. Then we once again adjusted the layers so that he is in front of the Empire logo but behind the rest of the template. We then inserted some smoke in front of Hulk at the bottom of the cover, once again behind the template, and reduced the opacity to 57%. We then added the leaves falling and moved them into a position where they actually cover the character. After inserting the leaves we realised that the opacity for the smoke was too low and didn't represent a significant danger so we increased the opacity to 70%. We then inserted the magazine covers for the other characters. We had to rotate and resize them to fit in the white squares in the slanted band. We later inserted a sell lines such "World First!" and "Meet Hulk" as well as a barcode. After reducing the light using the Levels tool, our magazine cover was complete.

Reaper Magazine Cover: Editing Process

For the editing process of our magazine covers we decided to create a time lapse of the cover being create on Photoshop. This is the editing process for the Character 'Reaper'. The time lapse starts of with us opening up a picture of a forest that we had previously saved onto Photoshop and placing it accordingly. We then went onto google images and then copied and pasted a png image of rain onto the forest background. the opacity of the rain png was then reduced to blend in with the forest. We then did the same thing with the fog png rotating the image and also reducing its opacity. The fog was duplicated and added to the bottom of the cover. We then added a pre-made template which we used for all of our magazine covers.The template features the Empire Magazine logo at the top with our tagline "You think the war is over?" above it. It also features a slanted band which will feature the other magazine covers and the title of the film "Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos" above that. The template also includes sell lines such as "The long awaited sequel is finally here" and "We talk to the mind behind Rebellion". We took multiple pictures of Michael to get an in motion image of him running. This was done to express the high action and intense nature of the character 'Reaper'. With the image we then opened it on Photoshop cropped him out using the magic wand tool, and then re-sized him using the free transform tool and put his image layer in-front of the Empire logo however behind the rest of the template. We then inserted png images of sparks and debris then re-sizing them using the free transform tool and then placing them accordingly. We added the sparks and debris to further emphasize the dangerous conditions that the characters are faced with. We then inserted the magazine covers for the other characters. We had to rotate and re-size them to fit in the white squares in the slanted band. After then inserted sell lines such "World First!" and "Meet Reaper", as well as a bar-code, our magazine cover was finished.

Oracle Magazine Cover: Editing Process

For the editing process of our magazine covers we decided to create a time lapse of the cover being create on Photoshop. It starts off with a pre made template which we used for all of our magazine covers. The template features the Empire Magazine logo at the top with our tagline "You think the war is over?" above it. It also features a slanted band which will feature the other magazine covers and the title of the film "Rebellion II: Rise of Kronos" above that. The template also includes sell lines such as "The long awaited sequel is finally here" and "We talk to the mind behind Rebellion". We then inserted an image of sand dune from a desert and used the magic wand tool to remove the white background. We then adjusted the layers so that the desert can appear as the background. We then used the sky from an image of a port during a sandstorm as the sky for our background. We used the polygon lasso tool to remove the rest of the image and keep just the sky that we wanted. We then inserted the sky onto our cover and once again readjusted the layers so that the sky can be in the background. We then inserted an image of Dubai's skyline and used a combination of the magic wand and polygon lasso tool to remove the background from the image so that it wouldn't clash with the sky which we used as the background for our magazine cover. We then used the free transform tool to make it smaller and place it behind the sand dunes to make it seem as if it is in the distance. We then opened the main image of our character, Oracle (Yassir), aiming his gun. Using the polygon lasso tool, we carefully traced around and masked the character to remove the background, not forgetting any gaps such as that left between the gun and his arm. After completing this, we transferred the image onto our magazine cover. We then adjusted the layers and resized the character so that we could place him in a way that his head covers some of the Empire logo but the he his still behind the rest of the template. After this, we inserted an image of a sandstorm in front of the character and reduced it opacity to around 70% to make it seem like he is in a sandstorm. We then used the magnetic lasso tool to remove the sandstorm effect from the Empire logo to make it stand out and catch the reader's eye when one the shelves. We then inserted the magazine covers for the other characters. We had to rotate and resize them to fit in the white squares in the slanted band. After then inserted sell lines such "World First!" and "Meet Oracle", as well as a barcode, our magazine cover was finished.

Film poster: Editing process

For our action Film 'Rebellion II Rise of Kronos' we used Adobe Photoshop to create the poster.

we started of my copying and pasting a croped out screenshot of a picture of London, using it as our background.

After we had set the background we then added the picture of a plane, resized it and added smoke trail using the 'brush tool' coming out of the engines. We did this for the next plane and helicopter.

This is what it looked like when we had added all the planes and helicopters.

Once the planes and helicopters were placed we then added the smoke at the bottom of the picture. At first the smoke was to strong and didn't seem to fit in on the poster, so we reduced its opacity and used the 'colour replacement' tool to make it a similar colour to the background image.

After this we added a picture of Charlie that we had cropped out from a picture using the magic tool. We then did this with the rest of the actors in the poster and then added them separately. 

This is how it looked once all the actors where added.

We then copied and pasted the debris and sparks png onto the poster and placed them where we wanted them to go.

After the addition of the debris and the sparks, we then looked back at the trailer and took a screenshot of the Rebellion II title as well as 'Coming Soon'. We then pasted them into the poster; screened the images to remove the background, then placed them accordingly. 

We added the light beam behind the title to make it stand out and to look more significant on the poster.

We then added the 'CMYG' logo as well as the 'LPGS' logo in the bottom corners of the poster. 

After adding the Logo's we then added the credits under the title and in-between the logos. We also added the casting of the main characters at the top of the poster. For this we downloaded the 'Steel tongs' font to have the credits and casting as close as possible to a real movie poster.

This was the finished poster.