Film Trailer so far

Our film trailer is progressing nicely. Most of the shots have been edited and included although at the moment sound has been muted so that we can work with incorporating background sounds to create tension. The non linear motion of the film trailer works well although we are unsure wherever we will experiment with changing shots around in a different order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuhf1kdO7tk

Our Trailer Titles

As we begin the process of editing our film trailer, we need to produce titles that can be incorporated into our film trailer at different points. Researching film trailers its evident that all film trailers include titles with reviews and casting actors and producers. The titles we have decided to include:

• From the director of taken (first)
• Recomendation form empire
• Will Hicks(Actor)
• Isabella Cameran (Actress)
• After a night they will never forget... (Tagline)
• Comes a day that will never end (Tagline)
• 10 Missed Calls (credits)

 

Above are a few fonts we have been experimenting with to use. 

Editing

After all are filming is now complete we have begun editing all our footage. To edit our film trailer we are using Windows Movie Maker Live. Although, using this programme has cause some problems as the high quality footage takes very long to render. In terms of transitions and animations the programme is great.

Final Filming Session

We proposed as a group that the idea of filming at a party would be a hard task therefore the argument seen between Matt and Jodie will be filmed at school in a classroom with lots of extras to fit the brief of sticking to a party atmosphere. I also said that when editing we should lower the volume and incorporate background music this way its still evident that the couple are arguing but it will also create more tension. The final scene was filmed outside of school on a deserted road which was ideal for our Corfu scene. The Costumes were kept the same and the weather was perfect for filming. All of our shots have now been filmed.

Final filming Scenes to do

After the Christmas break we still a few more scenes which need to be completed before we can begin editing our film trailer. The scenes that need to be filmed are:

• The party scene- where Jodie and Matt have an argument Jodie leaves the party and walks home on her own.
• Corfu Scene- where Matt is in Corfu and asks a lady about the card that he found, he asks her where the place is. This scene needs to be filmed on a day where the sun is out otherwise it is a miss representation of what we are trying to portray of Matt being in Corfu. 

Second Filming Session

Today was another successful day of filming. Building upon our abandoned house scenes we focused today on our school scenes and spent a lot of time manipulating and varying different camera angles to create the perfect shots. The scenes in school include a build up of the couple of Matt and Jodie, where it is portrayed that they are a couple. We also have a school scene after Jodie gets taken and involves Matt asking where Jodie was this scene starts to create tension and we focused heavily on the dialogue and the tone of voices used by both Matt and Jodie's friend Frankie.

First Filming Session

Today During our coursework lesson we begun our first filming session. The location was an abandoned house about 15 minutes away from our school so this gave us plenty of time to film. We took with us our video camera as a tripod was not needed during this filming session. We had all our members of the group and our two additional drama student actors. Within our first session we managed to complete all our shots needed for the trailer plus several other additional shots that would all be edited and then as a group we would decide what shots to include into our trailer. From this the lighting was perfect as it was the middle of the day and the location meant that for any shots where the lighting needed to be varied that dark house gave us this option. In terms of our storyboard, we followed exactly what we had devised as a group.
Below I have some still shots of the fascinating house.

Synopsis

The synopsis of the story for our trailer will be this, there is a happy school couple called Jodie and Matt , they will have an argument and Jodie will storm off, Jodie will be kidnapped after leaving her door open , her boyfriend will look for her and when he finds out that she is kidnapped he will go to her house and find a card , which will lead him to Corfu , to an abandoned house to where she has been held. There will be a big fight scene at the end where Matt fights to get Jodie back.

Costumes

When portraying are cast one of the most important tasks was making sure that both Matt and Jodie fit the brief of being a "schoolboy & schoolgirl" therefore costume choice was pivotal. For most of our filming these items would be worn to reflect the style of a schoolboy and school girl. We questioned members in are class on their opinions of our items and wherever they perceived the items as suitable for our characters, all members said yes they were suitable.

Matt's clothing

Jodie's Clothing

Case Study- True events inspired films

Researching kidnapping films on the internet I stumbled across a film that has some similar aspects to our film trailer. The film was called An American Crime and was based on true events. What happened was a suburban housewife named Gertrude Baniszewski kept two teenage girls imprisoned in a basement where they were tortured and kidnapped. Its clear the narrative of this film is not similar to ours however certain aspects of the film were inspiring and from the film trailer, certain codes and conventions such as the camera angles used could be in our film trailer. Specifically the short sharp scenes and the use of voice over makes this film trailer effective as a tense atmosphere is created.

In terms of featured movies from this none were displayed therefore its evident that this is the only kidnapping film based on true events.

Considered Props

Props like most films play a major roll in the success of the film. After researching the manipulation of props in similar film trailers to ours it was evident that the majority of props used occur in the form of weapons. Therefore, for our trailer we decided that Giannaz like most mafia men and are sex trafficking girls should have a gun. Furthermore, the schoolboy Matt should have nothing more than a kitchen knife. This makes the props used believable and reflect a real life situation.

The pillow case was also a major prop used. And one with a significance. When constructing our storyboard we discussed what props we could manipulate to make the scene when Jodie gets taken more dramatic therefore we began discussing ideas and eventually decided that a pillow case would be effective.

Character Breakdown

Identifying the characters is essential. As a group we wanted to get a feel for the characters. What they would be like in every day life. And what we could do to manipulate them to fit into our trailer. Therefore, it was vital that we incorporated mise en scene into our characters to make the trailer more belivable. We used every technique and sytle that we could to make the characters better. Below is a breakdown of all the characters used in our trailer.

Main three actors

Isabella- Starring as Jodie

Will- Staring as Matt

Renz- Staring as Giannaz

Selecting an appropriate Production Logo

As part of every trailer the unique film productions company needs to be outlined. Therefore as a group we need to design our own unique production logo. Below I have researched some specific film productions companies and these are the ones that I like and would like to get ideas from as I feel they look unique and effective. As our trailer will be for a mass audience it needs to stand out.

Storyboard

After discussing our initial ideas we begun the process of constructing a storyboard for our film trailer. Before building a story board it was imperative that we looked at other film trailers to get an idea of the layout of a film trailer what to include and what to not include. Our drawings will give us an idea of what shots we need to include in our trailer and create a clear format and structure to stick by. On the day of filming we will however film numerous other shots with different angles this is due to the fact that our trailer is intense and at a fast pace to create tension. 

After reviewing several film trailers we understood that every film trailer has a movie preview screen, therefore to make our film trailer look professional and realistic we decided it would be a good idea to use the same concept and begun looking into what production company we could use as our preview screen. After researching more into preview screens in film trailers we understood that the usual duration was for around 5-6 seconds. After this was completed the preview screen would fade out to our first shot of the happy couple holding hands to convey to the audience an idea of what is going to happen. 

The first several shots are relatively slower paced however the last few shots begin to create tension with the anchoring of the fast paced background non-diagetic sound and tone of voice with dialogue. 

Tension begins to build the pace becomes faster the transition of light to dark is apparent. As the abandoned house scenes begin the action commences with fast paced short shots. Title screens need to be included however as a group we need to decide where we are going to put them in therefore they will be included in the changes storyboard with their shot number and duration. 

The rapid pace continues to the last scene where the audience is left on a cliff hanger as all that can be seen is Jodie being held hostage at gun point with Matt shouting "No Jodie" and the sound of a gun shot. This is where the audience begins to ask the questions "who got shot?" "who lives and who dies?" by the end of the trailer we want the audience to be interested and what to see the film and see who lives and dies. 

Monthly Diary November 2012

The past few weeks lessons has focussed on planning for our main coursework trailer. What was involved was trying to create an idea and in turn think up the props, setting, location, story and the cast for this. We then had to establish this into a PowerPoint presentation which we then presented to the rest of the class and on camera. We used the class as a good use of audience feedback, helping get their ideas and thoughts on what could improve our trailer idea and whether it will be reasonable to make.

The response came back fairly positive, with a number of people excited by our idea and potential trailer.  The negative feedback we got was mainly to do the subliminal extras we planned to put in. After analysing this, we took this feedback on board and hope to improve it for once the filming starts

Prezi Presentation

Target Audience- 10 Missed Calls

Addressing our target audience was a fundamental point even before we began filming our trailer. The importance of drawing up a target audience is essential for the marketing and distributing of our film trailer. Knowing who your target audience is allows you to know what the consumers want and need.

After deciding that our film trailer was going to to be an action/romance/thriller, considering the target audience was our next step. Researching similar films below I have listed their certificate and the impact that this had on establishing our target audience.

• Trade- Certificate 15
• Kidnapped- Certificate 15
• Trapped- Certificate 18
• Dont Say A Word- Certificate 18
• The Collector- Certificate 18

Here we can see that most of the same type of genre of films are 15 and over. This film will appeal to both a female and male audience as the romance and thriller aspects of the film will attract females and the action and violence aspects will attract males. However, we need to propose the question that will having several aspects put off either females or males? Asking our class they all perceived the idea as inventive and insisted that having several genres will make the film trailer more appealing and attract a wider target audience.

Looking at similar  existing films with the same concept and genres as ours. We can see that the target audience will be best suited from 15 years- 30 years old of both men and women. The concept of making the target audience up to 30 is that this film could also be appealing to couples from 25-30 years old or even onwards further than that. However, we understand that have several different genres listed may put some consumers off. 

Films like this are deemed wrong to be targeting a younger audience. Therefore, in retrospect to our film with aspects of sex trafficking and violence this film trailer is not suitable for children or teenagers under 15 years old. Although, A film trailer can be modified to a lower classification if it meets the appropriate criteria of the classification. Therefore in our film trailer if we restricted the violence and language used we could select our film trailer classification as 12A. This will then set out a greater mass audience for advertising. 

More Title Ideas

When deciding a film trailer every idea needs to be linked to an aspect of our film. Using the internet, ideas were interlinked to create a suitable list of names for our film trailer: 

10 Missed calls

The abductor 

Welcome to Corfu

The Oblivious

All names listed contain more than one word, my previous post displayed all our ideas for a one worded name film trailer. After discussing as a group we have agreed that 10 Missed Calls is a suitable and effective film trailer name and reflects  a pivotal aspect of our film trailer. 

After deciding on our film trailer name we asked the rest of the class on their opinions of the top three names the results are listed below:

Title Ideas

Choosing a suitable name for our film trailer has been a difficult task below I have addressed a few one worded names that could be used as the name for our film trailer.

Peer feedback on the blog

This was my first peer feedback where I asked 2 members of my class from another group to look at the context of my blog and evaluate it giving me both positive areas and areas that need to be worked on. By addressing the feedback this will improve the quality of my blog.

Dow- "Will your blog has started well. Its clear that you have done plenty of detailed research into the process that producing a film takes. I like the fact that you have done several case studies on different films from different genres- from this you could write a post about narrowing down your options for you selected genre of your film trailer. Your what makes a trailer post needs to be re arranged as you have different fonts and different sizes within the post."

Kassie- "Will your blog looks excellent. I love the fact you have used different features to present your work. Although some your posts are vague and you are missing out key parts of information within the post for example your target audience post you need to refer more to certification and the impact this will have on your film trailer. Your pitch is good from this have you had any further reflection? if so why not write a post about it."

Script Development

Proposed Locations

Abandoned house- A recommendation from one of my friends was to use an abandoned house to film a chunk of our trailer. The house fitted the description that we needed and was a perfect destination for a hostage scene. The house fitted the action aspect of our trailer as short scenes could be manipulated by varying camera angles and with a wide range of different rooms to film in.

School scenes- At the beginning of the trailer the build up with the couples will be filmed in our common room this will resemble the fact that the couple are still at school. A further scene with Matt(Main actor) on the phone will take place in one of the smaller class rooms in the six form centre. Lastly, the final school scene will take place just outside the school on a quiet road this scene will be where Matt asks a woman where he can find the address, this scene will need to be carefully planned out with the adequate camera angles as this shot needs to reflect being in Corfu. Therefore, the weather also needs to be taken into consideration.

House scenes- Two scenes are needed to be filmed in a house. However, both house scenes needs to be filmed in different houses. The first scene is a party scene whereby the couple are caught arguing, after a row Jodie gets kidnapped and returns back to her house. Therefore, using two houses is fundamental, the scene where Jodie gets kidnapped a wide range of different camera angles will be incorporated to add tension.

Film Stages

The process that a film has to undertake is massive. The 3 main stages are summarised as production, distribution and exhibition below identifies the 3 main stages in more detail. All 3 factors are essential when making a film.

1.Production

·        Motivation

·        Stakeholders

·        Finance

·        Independent cinema

·        High Concept

Every stage is linked with the next stage. Although it is fundamental to help make the entire process of the film go forward, money will be needed and so stakeholders will have to be put in place for this to happen. To get stakeholders, various pitches will have to be arranged to companies explaining what the films about, characters, cast etc. It's also pitched to groups of the public, trying to determine that it will either;

1. Be successful.

2. Will it appeal to the approached target audience.

If a film doesn’t appeal to the target audience the idea maybe changed or scrapped altogether.

2. Distribution

·        Unique selling points

·        Costs

·        Case studies

·        Trailer Conventions

·        Marketing Strategy

The next stage is distribution and this involves the whole marketing and advertising side of making a film. This very much links in with financial elements, this revolves around the advertising and marketing aspects which all influences how much money the project has. This will include trailers, posters and test screening all features included in making a successful film. Unique selling points are essential before preparing the marketing strategy as the unique selling points attract people to the film. This can also be evident through the cast which holds massive dividance to the success of the film. The cast are who will attract people to the film, and along with good plot selling points and a lot of money can result in financial success which will impact on a better film.

3. Exhibition

·        Cinema screens

·        Mode

·        Exit Polls

·        Audience figures

·        Audience Stratification

The exhibition stage focuses on the after math of the release of a film. The data collected focuses on a number of things including, how they heard about the film, the best of the part film, what attracted them to go see it. The questionnaire is pivotal for the producers of the film as they can see whether the film for the audience has been a success, if so could it become a sequel. 

Kidnapped

Directed by     Rafael Endeiza

Produced by    Mario Forniés

Screenplay by Vérane Frédiani

Story by          Emma Lustres

Executive producer Borj Pena

Cast                  Fernando Cayo, Manuela Velles, Ana Wagener, Dritan Biba, Cesar Diaz

Budget               £100,000 

Genre                 Realistic Thriller/Horror

Box office        £23,100,902

After discussing with the group we have come to the conclusion we wish to construct a thriller trailer movie. After researching thrillers that can relate to a kidnapped family I have chosen to analyse the marketing and advertising for this film.

Brief synopsis: Jaime, Marta and their daughter Isa have just moved into a luxurious new house. Marta begins to prepare the dinner and puts a bottle of champagne on ice to celebrate the move. As night falls, three hooded men violently force their way into the house. Panic ensues and soon the real violence will begin.

The Dark Night Case Study Research

Directed by                Christopher Nolan

Produced by               Christopher Nolan., Emma Thomas, Charles Roven

Screenplay by                Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan

Story by                    Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer

Cast                              Christian Bale, Michalel Caine, Health Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron                                                                                 Eckhart, MagggieGyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman

Genre                         Action/Thriller/Drama/Crime

Budget                   $185 Million

Box Office              $1,003,045,358

Brief outline of the film: When Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent launch an assault on the mob, they let the clown out of the box, the Joker, bent on turning Gotham on itself and bringing any heroes down to his level.

Dark night was released in the United Kingdom in July 24,2008 it was considered one of the best films of the 2000s and received highly positive reviews and set numerous records during its theatrical run and made over $1 billion in revenue worldwide. It is the thirteenth highest-grossing film of all time. This is due to its use of development, marketing and distribution which built a profitable success and resulted in changing the whole effect on modern day independent cinema. Marketing also  impacted the revenue of the film, In May 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral marketing campaign utilizing the film's "Why So Serious?" tagline with the launch of a website featuring the fictional political campaign of Harvey Dent, with the caption, "I Believe in Harvey Dent.The site aimed to interest fans by having them try to earn what they wanted to see and, on behalf of Warner Bros., 42 Entertainment also established a "vandalized" version of I Believe in Harvey Dent, called "I believe in Harvey Dent too," where e-mails sent by fans slowly removed pixels, revealing the first official image of the Joker; it was ultimately replaced with many "Haha"s and a hidden message that said "see you in December

Hurt Locker Case Study Research

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Produced by Kathryn Bigelow

                      Mark Boal                                                                                         

                                                                                                                              

                 Nicholas Chartier

                 Greg Shapiro

Written by Jeremy Renner
                    Anthony Mackie
                    Brian Geraghty
                  

Cast            Jeremy Renner
                  Anthony Mackie
                  Brian Geraghty
                  Christian Camargo
                  Evangeline Lilly
                  Ralph Fiennes
                  David Morse
                  Guy Pearce

Genre       War/ Thriller/Action/Drama

Budget     $15 Million

Box Office $49,230,772

Brief outline of the film: Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
The Hurt Locker is based on accounts of Mark Boal, a freelance journalist who was embedded with an American bomb squad in the war in Iraq for two weeks in 2004.  In terms of the main characters, Bigelow made a point of casting relatively unknown actors: "it underscored the tension because with the lack of familiarity also comes a sense of unpredictability”. The film was shot in Jordan within miles of the Iraqi border, to achieve Bigelow's goal of authenticity. Iraqi refugees were used for extras and the cast worked in the unmistakable heat of the Middle East. The filmmakers had scouted for locations in Morocco, but director Kathryn Bigelow felt its cities did not resemble Baghdad. In addition, she wanted to get as close to the war zone as possible. Some of the locations were less than three miles from the Iraq border. She had wanted to shoot in Iraq, but the production security team could not guarantee their safety from snipers. Bigelow sought to immerse audiences "into something that was raw, immediate and visceral". Boal's screenplay had a non-traditional, asymmetrical, episodic structure. There was no traditional "villain", and tension was derived from the characters' internal conflicts and the suspense from the explosives and snipers. The film received a score of 97% based on a sample of 209 reviews in the Rotten Tomatoes with a mean score of 8.4 out of 10. It was second highest-rated film in 2009 at Rotten Tomatoes.

What is a trailer?

A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. 

To understand the concept of a film trailer I have some examples below:
                                                                                     

Kidnapped: First trailer lasted for 1.57, and was a non linear trailer. I like this concept it works well and attracts the audience. The trailer involves both non diagetic and diagetic sounds that both anchor one another again this concept works well. The trailer does not give to much away of the film away however you know the basis of the plot.
















Safe heaven: Second trailer lasted for 2.24, a linear trailer. Gives a lot away in the film. Could be argued that this push away the target audience although everything revealed gives impressions of a successful film. Some codes and conventions from this trailer I would like to include, for example the build up of the couple works well and the characters are revealed quickly. Again in this trailer the non diagetic and diagetic sound both anchor one another for added effective however in this trailer more dialogue is used.

Taken 2: Third trailer lasted for 2.23, a linear trailer. Gives a lot away about the film. The trailer reflects the genre and the target audience of the film. From this trailer I like the voice over used, it is effective anchors the background music creating a tension. The dialogue is minimal and there is a vast amount of short and sharp shots which also reflects the genre of the film.