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.