Marmalady Commentary

Voice Over Commentary - click here

How like film posters and magazines are your ancillary texts?

Do some comparisons of your own compared to examples of real versions.

Our Film Poster was successful as it approached the conventional displays of a real film poster. We applied reviews and star ratings to create a professional look. We created our own names for the review such as "Kingdom Magazine" and "The weekly post". The blown up phrase of "Heartfelt and Hilarious" reviewed by "The Pinewood Informer" suggests that the movie was successful and highly anticipated. This was also progressed in the poster for "The Diary of a Teenage Girl" of which had multiple reviews, and additionally doodles and drawings, also evident in Marmalady. We also used credits beneath the protagonist, common in movie posters, and also evident in "TDOATG". We placed the main characters above the film title, showing importance to those actors, and suggesting their role in the movie, being the main characters. The use of a "Coming Soon" was also a key part of suggesting it was a film poster, as this makes the audience aware that this is a production and you will soon be able to see it, either in cinemas or online.

Movie Poster for A2 Production "Marmalady"

Our Magazine cover was the part of the production I was most proud in making as I put a lot of effort into the professionalism of this cover, trying to target a large audience, as opposed to just film fanatics. I decided to name the magazine with a one-worder that sounded fancy and looked sleek. We decided upon the name "Vivienne" because it was similar to Vogue and looked professional in this graphology. We thought that approaching a magazine that specialised in culture and arts would appeal more than just a film magazine, thus showing the films independence. We used a photograph I previously took and posted onto instagram where Lola is on the grass looking into the distance, quite similar to the ending scene in our trailer. I enjoyed editing this Magazine the most as I am quite skilled in graphic design so it was fun to attempt this project. I used a software called "Paint.Net" which i use very often as it is simple and capable of Photoshop techniques. We Made the title of the magazine the most noticeable and used a vibrant colour so it would stand out from the rest. We used a slim font that was common in fashion and photography magazines. Above the magazine title we came up with a slogan that would be shown in the rest of the issues "The very best in culture and the arts" thus suggesting that this isn't just a film magazine, but overs all aspects of media. Between the letter "N" in Vivienne, we subtly placed the issue number, conforming to a real magazine, and beneath, we placed the date of the published issue, which subsequently made it look more professional, and viewers were able to see the release date.
I downloaded brush stroke images which i layed over the left hand side of Lola and covered this with a pre-downloaded font that fit the general atmosphere of the magazine, stating the actors name. Many film magazines use the line of *ACTOR NAME* IS *TITLE OF MOVIE* we progressed this idea in our magazine and said "Luiza Paulielo is Marmalady" which grips the viewers attention and makes the viewer want to buy a copy and read on. Another aspect in suggesting the replication of a magazine cover was the bar code and price, we simply downloaded a non-copyrighted bar code and estimated a price for the issue and placed them beside eachother, in the right bottom side, usually where they are placed. The Clash magazine was a different type of film magazine as this was the film issue, that portrayed a quote/ slogan, in which we also approached in our magazine cover.

Vivienne Magazine Cover Promoting upcoming Movie "Marmalady"

How have you made your trailer seem like a trailer?

Take at least twelve snips and write up why these moments are significant and their appeal to the target audience.

By looking at these individual screenshots, it is evident that this is from a trailer. Firstly, the institution titles conform to that of a trailer, and up the professionalism of the production. The centre placed titles and consistency flow with the trailer and conform to our trailers genre. The use of a personally created green band conforms to a trailer, as this is commonly shown at the start of a trailer. We made our own on the software "Paint.Net" as we just wanted to replicate both the red and green band into one. Many indie coming of age movies show a scene in which two people are at the beach, this was progressed into our trailer to suggest time over a long period of time, as it is evident that the seasons change as it is contrasted between a shot of the protagonist and love interest kissing with winter coats on, as opposed to swimwear at the start of the trailer, and during the montage. The use of the sock scene was also a factor in recognising it as a trailer, as most trailers use close up shots of body parts for transitioning to the next shot.

The shot of Sam close up saying "Are you fucking serious" is an evident portrayal of a trailer as this is where the fast pace music is cut off for the characters dialogue and for the audience to laugh out loud. The fast pace of the shots by its use of jump cuts and transitions apply to a trailer as it doesn't drag out the story, and keeps the key aspects of it, while intriguing the audience. The contrasted portrayal of the relationship between Ricky and Lola in the party scene and the Montage is evident in suggesting a trailer like production as this is suggesting a progression over time which is most commonly shown in trailers.

The final scene of protagonist Lola lying on the grass is the most important scene of all in suggesting a trailer, as this is shown as a reflection over the past few minutes shown through trailer, however longer period of time for the protagonist. This is commonly used in movies or music videos where the one who has prevalence is shown beginning and ending the production, by seeing them begin in a different light to how they've ended out as. This is overlayed with narration of the protagonist saying "Growing up is finding out who you are and what you want" making that the most recognisable phrase throughout the film. Once she has finished with the narration, we are shown the title "Marmalady" thus suggesting its trailer-esque portrayal, followed by the institution logo and quick paced credits, finishing with a "Coming soon" thus inferring that it will be out in cinemas shortly.

Post Production: Part 2

Here it is evident how we put together our final trailer. We used a large amount of different audio media so we could fill in every aspect, from soundtrack, to dialogue, to background noises. in this screenshot, it is visible that we used keys to change levels of the sound that suit best the shot. For example where you can see the cursor point line of where its playing, there are small dot on the blue audio, this was where we changed the levels with the dialogue, we decreased the sound when no one was speaking as this was audio from our Camera and it picked up a lot of noise. This was a difficulty in our post production.

This is the texting scene, where you can see we have overlayed text and the green boxes symbolise the sound effects that we put towards the message bubbles.

Here you can see the increase in sound in Audio 1 as the soundtrack fades into the montage.


Since our AS production, our knowledge in editing has increased due to excessive amounts of research and tutorials, and subsequently learning as we go along. A lot of the editing proceeded was improvised whilst experimenting different techniques. A large factor to our editing was the split screen, in which we had to crop the image and then zoom in for the close up of the split screen scene. This was  difficulty as we had to estimate the rough sizing of the shot and make it fit with the other footage displayed on the screen at the same time. A basic use of cross dissolve and fade to white or black was progressed throughout. For the first shot and introduction to the institution logo, we used a dissolve transition for the title, and decreased and set the speed to fit the washing of the waves, so it looked as if we deliberately placed it that way, and looked more professional.

Another struggle in our post production was the use of narration, we had to watch the trailer several times in order to find where certain parts of the dialogue would be placed, because it has to flow well with the sound of the soundtrack, and the transitioning between shot to shot. We also dubbed over the party scene with a post recorded voice memo that was recorded on our phones. This was due to copyright as we had popular songs playing in the background so we had to completely mute off the scene and cover it with a non-copyright busy bar soundtrack, along with the carefully placed dialogue we recorded over with. This was hard in the sense of getting it to match perfectly with the movement of the characters mouths, but subsequently this turned out just fine, and wasn't too noticeable.

Influences: Part 1

In your planning where did you take some inspiration from and how did this become realised in your final productions. Include some snips and analyse in detail.

Prior to creating Marmalady, we had researched into our chosen "Coming of Age" genre, and watched many trailers and full length films. A huge inspiration to Marmalady was "The Edge of Seventeen" of which we took influence from the overall concept of the protagonist finding herself, getting into a fight with her bestfriend, and the aspect of a love interest. The trailer helped us decide that narration would help put the trailer together, as it was a good way of creating a relationship between the audience and protagonist, additionally creating both sympathy and empathy. We also picked out the scene where the protagonist in "The Edge of Seventeen" is shown as a thirteen year old with pimples and a perm, we took this into account by having Lola in curlers and a dressing gown in the second to last scene.

The Kings of Summer was also a huge influence to the making of Marmalady, as we wanted to progress the summer independence atmosphere through our summer montage. We also replicated a scene that showed the three characters creating a beat in the woods on a large pipe, however we decided not to follow through with a sub-story between the best-friend and protagonist, but focus it primarily on the love interest. However, we did take into account the atmospheric display of sound, so the upbeat and playful soundtrack helped create Marmalady. Another aspect to The Kings of Summer was the humour and comedy in the trailer, there is a scene where the music cuts out and actor "Nick Offerman" sticks to what he's famous for and sarcastically says a joke, this is where the audience would laugh, and this is replicated in our wardrobe change scene.

Post-production: part 1

Explain a range of editing choices and outcomes, include some snips of "Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015"" screen shots and explain your choices and outcomes in detail.

One of our first scenes that successfully shows off our editing skills is our "texting scene".

 We took a close up shot of Sam's phone where her chat with Ricky is shown. We wanted to present clear omniscient narrative contrasting Lola's restricted narrative by making the suspicious messages stand out to the audience.We replicated the iMessages which are blue by copying its format from downloaded images of the speech bubbles, and editing on Paint.Net software by changing the text. We overlapped the images on top of the video and added in non copyright sound effects of typing, and sent and received notifications. This aspect of editing  is similar to our AS production where we downloaded VCR font and placed it over the video at the bottom corner of the screen so that it suggested an old home made video which conformed to our plot. Nevertheless we further developed our editing skills with Adober Premier pro CC by adding in sound effects at the exact time our text messages appear on screen making the scene more realistic. We had a minimal errors in our AS production when editing our VCR font, for example the time that the font shows changes from 7-8 very quickly making a short scene seem as it if its longer when it is not.

Use of Equipment

These were significant equipment we used to create our A2 production, post AS production we have gained a greater knowledge of how to use equipment effectively.

We chose to buy a green screen specifically for the making of our film poster as a green screen enables us to edit the background easily.We attempted to achieve a conventional film poster look for our genre. After doing a lot of research we found that the majority of film posters have their backgrounds edited with green screens in order to have a clean and smooth edit.

We chose to have Lola (the protagonist) as the main image with a light yellow background, yellow connoting happiness, a comic feel and additionally summer. Due to the nature of our green screen we were able to edit our background to how we imagined it. Additionally, we added to the background a cartoon of marmalade jars and doodle like cartoons, we experimented with vibrant colours until we found best fit.

I also invested money into buying a LED light that we could attach to our camera, as I additionally study photography, this was the perfect opportunity. The LED Light was very useful as it allowed us to control the lighting of the scenes as we could increase and decrease the levels of lighting on the LED light on the side of it. Therefore allowing us to film our scenes even in when it was dark outside. This was a struggle for us as we were filming a majority of the scenes during winter, so it would get dark quite promptly after school hours.
Our A2 production had definitely progressed from our AS production in the aspect of lighting as we did not have any equipment to help us control lighting in our AS production therefore we only presented our audience with dim bedroom lighting. The shots in the attic were sometimes unclear due to lack of lighting used, however this conformed to our chosen genre.


For the most part of the narration, we used our "Scartlett Studio 2i2" which enabled a clearer sound. However we didn't have enough time to mess around with levels so it was too clear for our trailer as it played over the soundtrack.

 The main camera we used was my CANON 700D, the same camera used for our AS Production, however used to its best advantage. In our AS production we went for a hand held concept and decreased the quality to conform to a cam-corder. Whereas, for our A2 trailer, we used it in both natural and forced lighting, and payed attention to camera angles and lighting closing, especially composition.

Marmalady (Official Trailer) - ANNOTATED

Use of camera in Marmalady

 How did you plan and storyboard the dynamic moments in your trailer. What moments are you particularly proud of in your trailer and were they planned or improvised on location?

Prior to creating and filming Marmalady, we only had a rough idea to what we were going to pursue. Although camera work is extremely vital to a successful production, we thought best to improvise, depending on the location. We used an array of long and mid shots, which enabled the audience to pick up on body language, increasing their knowledge of the characters emotions. Our most significant shot was in fact the "Dream-like sequence" at the start of the trailer, in our case, I was attempting to Focus on the characters, however this subsequently came to use for us, making it our dream sequence, an important part of the trailer. We did ultimately use a majority of the camera angles, in attempt to focus on a larger aspect of the trailer, whereas we mainly progressed with close ups and mid shots, as the dialogue was a big part of the trailer.

Our first opening shot involving characters shows two faded out figures by the ocean as the sun ripples over the waves. This runs as the dialogue of the protagonist narrating plays, "...When you feel like you belong, and the concept of love..." thus suggesting the film is primarily about a girl and a love interest.

We had the idea of having a dream-like sequence prior to filming but we had no intention of having a blurry scene, it happened to just come out that way and made the dream sequence more dream-like without having to use effects.





For our first shot of the protagonist, we wanted to use a close up shot, so the audience create that connection and intimacy with the character. This shot is overlayed with the diegetic sound of narration from the protagonist. This gave an intimate feel to the scene. Close up shots are important in portraying the characters emotion, we see the protagonist wake up from a dream, with a blunt expression, suggesting she is unhappy and isolated from society. This also depicts her sense of unusual-ness as she looks straight into the camera, creating that connection with the audience, also creating a strange feel to her character.

 We previously had the idea of a close up shot on the protagonists as she narrates whilst waking up from a dream, suggesting that she sees the world in a different light, thus enhancing her quirkiness and difference from her peers.

The close up shot of Lola's feet suggest the characters persona. The use of the one sock is significant in portraying her character, by focusing on this as opposed to an establishing shot of her waking up in her bedroom, it sets the attention and focus on her individuality by subtly picking up small features such as the sock. Additionally this links to Barthe's enigma code making the audience think and question to what is the importance of the one sock? or just simply thinking how weird is this shot.

 The mid shot of Ricky is progressed in slow-motion, at about 50% to enhance his features, and the protagonists infatuation with the character. We see Ricky run his fingers through his hair suggesting his vanity and also how the protagonist Lola obsesses over the small things he does, such as running his fingers through his hair, which is usually an unnoticeable gesture, however we are put into Lola's shoes and focus on the small things. We wanted Ricky to be on the phone in this scene as it suggests his popularity, and his constant smile suggests he is happy and content with his life.

 Here we have a mid-shot and a close up of both Lola and Sam. During the phone conversation, we cut to a close up of each character as Sam tells Lola that Ricky will be at the party she's attending. We are then forced to see the characters emotions and feelings by getting a larger insight to their facial expressions. We see the contrast in the midshot where Lola is reluctant to going to the party with her bestfriend Sam as she is unpopular and an outcast, however this changes as it cuts to a close up and we see her face light up once finding out about Ricky. This shot is also progressed to create that connection with the audience, as they also feel empathy towards the character. The use of Lola having her hair in space buns tells the audience a lot about her character, and the fact that she is in childish pyjamas contrasts between her bestfriend who is wearing a bandana.

 This over the shoulder shot is a key shot in our Trailer, as we are seeing it through the bestfriends point of view. Thus then leading to our comic turn in the trailer as we are shown a mid shot of Sam on her phone as she looks up to Lola, it cuts to a close up shot of Sam saying "Are you fucking serious" at this point the music is cut off, aiming to replicate a laugh out loud moment in the trailer. This over the shoulder and close up concept is commonly used in comedies, as we see the scene through both perspectives. Subverting the restricted narration and showing a subtle portrayal of omniscient. We decided to have the characters smiling in these two scenes to brighten up the mood and suggest a comic feel.

 Omniscient narration is also progressed in this extreme close up of Sam texting what appears to be Ricky about the party. For the most part, we see the story through the protagonist by her narration, however this shot suggests otherwise, as this is through the eyes of bestfriend Sam, Lola is completely oblivious. This shot was completely improvised as we were going to progress this text scene with a mid shot of Sam texting Ricky, and then cutting to a midshot of Ricky texting Sam. Whereas, we thought to keep it quick, but still of importance, we used an extreme close up of the phone and Sams hands where we see the individual texts pop up on the screen, creating a more in depth and intimate feel.

 This is an establishing shot, where we are aware that they are now at the party, evident in the bright lights, famous red cups, and several characters we haven't been introduced to. This is important to the trailer as the use of a party scene conforms to that of a teen coming of age genre.

 The montage of Ricky and Lola successfully portrayed an up beat and fun atmosphere to the trailer. Body language was a key aspect to these two corresponding shots. We had the two characters sit on a bench as I captured their intimacy and body language. This helped to portray their love for each other, evident in the way their legs are turned to one another and the placement of their hands are an important feature of these shots. We cut between an establishing shot and a close up to exaggerate their passion and closeness, the audience are brought into their intimacy through the change of distance in the shots.

This is where we are introduced to a Match-Action shot, in which we filmed both long shots and mid shots multiple times before finding which ones suit best and were able to flow together. We progressed with a long shot of the two characters walking down a road, this then cuts as Sam reaches out for Lola, this fit perfectly and is unnoticeable to the viewer, it looks as if it were just one shot, however cropped to a midshot. We were most proud of this shot as it was purely improvised and came out clean and professional.

Another use of over the shoulder shots was shown in the second to last shot where we see a boy at the door of Lola's house, it's obvious that this is Ricky, attempting to apologise for what had happened. The quick pace of this and cutting short left the audience in awe as they wonder what happens next, but are unable to find out unless they watch the movie. This is a clever aspect in trailers, making the audience come back for more.

The Last scene is a birds eye view mid shot of the protagonist lying on the grass, this is overlayed with significant narration "Growing up is finding out who you are and what you want, and I guess I know that now." this was a perfect way to end the trailer as it created an intimate feel between the protagonist and the audience. This type of shot is progressed in many coming of age movies as it is a chance for the protagonist to reflect on the events throughout the movie.

Use of titles:

How did you use titles and how did they advertise your film in your trailer?

The first title we are introduced to is our Institution logo "Le Duckelle Films" which we created in our AS Year on a software called "Paint.Net". This production title fades into the shot through the waves, which is usually progressed in indie movies, a white minimalist logo on a moving image background. We decided to progress this on a moving image background as opposed to a black background as it fits better with our genre, and looks professional. The use of white font also adheres to our indie aspect of genre. Additionally, by using the same institution logo as last year, the audience are introduced to a recognisable feature and this will bring in the audience from our previous production.

Moonwalk Film Festival was created by myself on "Paint.Net" in attempt to mimic that of "Sundance Film Festival" without copyright. I found a basic font, and placed that white, and created the design by using different shapes on "Paint.Net" to replicate the Sundance logo.

We wanted to make our titles as minimal as possible because minimal titles are more associated with our chosen genre. Typically, a Horror would suggest an out there title, whereas "Indie" movies tend to follow through with a basic minimal white logo. The use of having our own Film festival logo conforms to our genre, as this is most common in Coming of Age movies, it woulf be unusual seeing this in big production Horrors as the use of a film festival institution is for smaller and independent movies.

Here, we have our Green band Trailer of which we created on "Paint.Net" replicating both the red and green bands to create our own that would suit our rating. We wanted to be original by creating our own personal band for Marmalady, taking aspects from mainly the Green band, for example the colour. The use of "Appropriate" audiences was a mixture between "All" from the typical green band, and "Restricted" from the red band. Instead of suggesting the film was promoted by the "Motion picture association of America" we created our own title to fit our Production and Company, "Indie Filmmaker Association of Surrey" therefore giving it our own identity and also a comic appeal to the Trailer. The certificate part of the band was simply created using square boxes and the line drawer on Paint.Net, we filled this with what you would associate a 15 to be, although this is hard to pick out from the trailer, we had the general idea that this could be a raunchy film, but to an extent in our trailer, we conformed to this rating through the use of profanity from both Sam and Lola.

Marmalady's title was the most important to the Trailer, as it brings the Trailer together. We needed to pick a font that would symbolise both the protagonist and film. We went onto google and searched "Indie font download" and came across several potential fonts before choosing the final one which was titled "Shady Lane". We wanted to create an innocent and lighthearted atmosphere through the use of colour, however we didn't want to be dull and go for the common use of white, so we went for a baby blue colour, which connotes youth, youth and growing up is the main aspect of Coming of Age movies. This was additionally successful as the use of baby blue suggesting youth fit well over the narration followed through in the end scene where Lola reflects on what she's learnt throughout the movie. Evidently, Coming of age movies tend to have titles in different colours to enhance their individuality and quirkiness, white/ black font is typically progressed in Thrillers or Action movies as they don't want to use vibrant colours, as this would subvert their genre.

For the credits, we took a simple text that I had pre-downloaded a while ago, as I dabble in graphic design. We wanted to replicate the most common typography for credits, however, slightly conforming to our genre. We stuck to the theme of Baby blue as this looked good over the grass. In our credits, we firstly displayed the Actors names, followed with Writers, Directors and Producers, and lastly involving the names of the People who helped us create Marmalady with their own Soundtracks.

The "Coming Soon" was a downloaded brush stroke effect, this conformed to our genre as the handwritten effect is primarily progressed in these type productions, connoting youth and life, due to its adolescence nature.