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.