Filming/editing

After my first day of filming I went back to my computer ready to start editing my film trailer. I started to have a few problems with the files of my film clips – the film clips weren’t supported by Adobe premiere, my favoured piece of software, therefore I decided to try out Window Live Movie Maker. I imported all my images, video clips and sound clips onto Movie Maker and got to work on putting it altogether. After my first draft of my trailer I decided that Window Live Movie Maker just wasn’t suitable editing software because of the fact I was unable to reach some of my expectations. The software didn’t allow me to add extra voice clips to re adjust the sound quality and add music to add punch to the trailer. I was left feeling very disappointed with my first draft.
I decided it was time to report back to my feedback group and see what their opinions were on my first draft.
“Good choice of music, set the pace and matched the clips”
“Transitions could be tweaked slightly to make it a little punchier, rather than drifting through with fades and dissolves”
“The sound on the video clips is mashing into the soundtrack creating a tinny noise – This needs to be changed perhaps with the voice re-recorded and put over the top of the previous audio”
“I think you should try and re order some of the clips and see what else you could get out of it”
“Music’s great, sound quality isn’t”
“Love the shots, nice range, but I don’t feel that this software is a good enough all round package”
“I think if you were to use a more advanced piece of software you would get a better quality trailer”
A lot of the feedback I received was as I expected, they could all see where the trailer was heading, yet they like myself felt that the software I was using wasn’t allowing me to do what I had first intended. When they compared the trailer to my storyboard it was clear to see that the software really had cut me short.





After filming all the shots I need for my planned Teaser trailer, I went on to editing. After a quick piece together, with no effects or any flashy editing, I decided I wanted to add more to the trailer - I felt I needed to expand my narrative, therefore I needed to draw up and edited storyboard considering what I could chop/change and add in to create a Trailer I would be happy with.
This was my first obstacle - refilimg/adding.
The second was my editing software...
I started out using the new Movie Maker, which is the Windows Live Movie Maker, however after trying to speed u a video clip I found I was unable to therefore I had to find the 2.6 version which would enable me to speed up the video clip, but unfortunately the transitions aren't as slick on the lower version of Windows Movie Maker.




Another fault I found was that the 2.6 version lowered the video and sound qualities, so again this wasn't and ideal version for me. The two versions aren't suitable for my needs. Only if they were converged would they be suitable for me, though still not the standard I require.
It is very clear to see Windows Movie Maker is just not a good enough piece of software for me.

Adobe premiere was my first choice of software, though the video clips I had taken weren't supported by premiere, so this is why I tried out Movie Maker (Trial and error... big error) In order for me to carry on with my first plans of using premiere I had to buy a video converter which I found on google - though it cost me £30 to buy it did do the job well!
So after a trial and error, retrying and succeeding I'm now ready to adjust my story board!

Setting and Locations for my trailer

Week 21 & 22

Costume



Costume is a very important part of narrative, therefore before shooting the in car scene, with my two main characters I needed to decide on what costume I wanted them to wear. Originally I wanted to show the Driving instructor in a plane black shirt with an 'L' badge - but I then decided it looked to set up and cliche. I then decided to go for the black and white colour scheme - White symbolising innocence (protagonist) and black symbolising danger/ bad (antagonist). I wanted both the characters in coats as I felt it looked more formal, along with showing the time of the year perhaps. The coats I gave them to wear were both grey, this shows relation in the characters - the fact that the driving instructor will be molding his learner driver into a killer, therefore the colour grey meets in between black and white showing a state of contentment. Unfortunately in the shot you can't quite see the colour of the learner driver's blouse (white) but the black t-shirt on the Driving instructor is clearly vi sable.

Ancillary Task planning

poster plan



For my poster I wanted to display it a little differently to the ones I'd previously looked at, so I firstly changed the page setup to landscape; this way I was able to achieve a better view of the car and road, in the shot. The tag line reads "its a short distance from the over taking lane, to the undertaking lane."
I feel this was summed up the film in short. It gives the audience a brief Idea of the film plot and its a play on words, giving the audience more to work with.
I wanted to make the title the first thing people will look at, so I will display it largely on the top of the poster, grabbing the audiences attention, quickly and effectively.

Week 20 & 21

Ancillary Task planning

WEBSITE



After looking at other movie web homepages, I decided the most effective one I'd seen was the interactive styled homepage.
Therefore as shown above, I will have an image of the car with the learner driver sat inside, surrounded by road signs, each road sign will become larger and have slight movement when the cursor is hovered over it. When the road sign is clicked on, it will take you onto the page that is associated with the particular road sign.
When the homepage is opened, the noise of a car revving and horns being beeped would be heard - I feel this would fit in with the narrative and would give the website a little more oomph!

I didn't want to have the title at the top of the page as I felt it may take away attention from the image and tag line displayed above.

Trailer beginning

I have noticed that almost all trailers have this shown at the very beginning of their trailers, it classifies the trailer as being suitable for all audiences to watch. Therefore I will be making certain I include this into my teaser trailer. This will support my following of the forms and conventions used within film trailers.

Risk Assessment

Because the majority of the shots I will be taking will be either on the road in a car there are certain precautions I will need to make sure I am taking.
When filming a moving car I will need to be sure to keep a safe distance from the road with a spotter watching each side making certain I am not in any danger whilst shooting.
As I will be filming one of the actors driving the car at high speeds, I will firstly make sure I am on a road that meets the speed limit, so to not break the law and put my cast at any risk. I will also ensure a seat belt is fitted safely whilst my actor is in motion in the car.
Of course my actor must hold a full license to be able to take control of the car.

Week 18 & 19

Filming

After successfully shooting the inside of the car shots with my two characters, I decided to move onto the opening of the trailer – This evidently was a lot harder than I had previously anticipated. Because I was shooting on a busy main road I found it very difficult to shoot the church and pan down to an empty road. Because of this I decided to relocate so what before I planned to be a Church Cathedral is now the town hall. Despite the fact I have had to change the setting, I am still confident it will give across the same message that my film is based in a quiet town.
Another problem I had with this section of filming was getting the timing perfect with the car coming into the shot; I wanted the car to come into shot straight after the full shot of the Town Hall; however this was again difficult because there was still traffic around this road. On my first attempt I filmed the Town Hall and zoomed out into the entrance of the car. Unfortunately this didn’t work as other car’s came into shot and the motion didn’t look right. I then went onto to filming in two sections, so I got the whole of the Town Hall, cut and then got the shot of the car.
I took various amounts of shots of the car and Town Hall, each from different angles and different speeds. I chose a faster clip of the Town Hall as I felt it built up pace ready for the entrance of the car and that is exactly what I was looking to do. With the car entrance I wanted to go for a less steady and unfocused shot, so to create the ‘Lunatic’ vibe. So I chose a shot I had taken without my tripod, I definitely preferred the current clip as it looks as if the entrance of the car is unplanned and irregular for the particular setting.

Characters/mise-en-scene

The way a character is dressed and the mise-en-scene are very important as they are the setting to a characters persona and background, the mise-en-scene gives you hints and tips to what is expected and create a picture for the audience.

This is a scene from the theatrical trailer for the film ‘The Tourist’, Angelina Jolie is dressed in a very formal and sophisticated manner symbolising a high class in society and good relationship with money.
Angelina Jolie is a very well-known successful and beautiful actress; therefore by casting her in the role of a strong minded, successful spy, I feel that it will make more of an appeal to the audience. After all she definitely made quite an impression on the male side of the audience in Tomb Raider, so what’s to say she wouldn’t in this film? It becomes very obvious that when casting a successful actor/actress the film will appeal more to the audience. Truth be told the film may be horrendous, but generally when I top actor or actress is cast as the lead role, the audience will naturally think they were good in ‘X’ and ‘Y’ so this must be a good film.
The film is orientated around spy work and investigation; therefore the way in which Angelina Jolie is dressed becomes very significant to the role of her character. I would say that the characters in this film are very stereotypically dressed. For instance, the women are not seen in anything other than elegant dresses and formal skirts and blouses, and the men are dressed in formal suits or tuxedos. – This is something I will be needing to think about for the representation of my characters, I don’t think I will be taking the roles of gender to such an extreme, but the colours I will use I would like to separate gender with.

In the film ‘Burlesque’ the cast is somewhat unexpected, Cher and Christina Aguilera are the two names that stand out to an audience as singers and Pop performers, not names you’d expect to see headlining a film. – However it works because the film is about performing. Straight away the audience appeal has been set with top very successful singers being cast the lead roles. The costume used in this film is very over the top and showgirl-like bringing the film to life and setting the tone. The Mise-en-scene sets the scene perfectly, it is evident that the majority of the film takes place in a Bar called Burlesque, where they perform nightly, everything captured in every scene is there for a reason, and this is very evident. When building up to the stages of filming my trailer I will need to really consider everything I capture within my shot as everything contributes to the story, and anything that isn’t relevant will take away my overall objective and aim.

Week 16 & 17

Comedy through the decades

Of course Comedy has changed a lot through the years, what we may find laugh out loud, slap my knee funny now would probably have been thought of as outrageously crude and inappropriate in the 1920s, and we probably find comedies that were made in the 1930s just bore us. Needless to say times change and society twists and changes our views almost every day.


1970s
In the 70s we were bought Annie Hall, directed by Woody Allen. After watching the trailer, and comparing it to trailers I have previously looked at from the current era, I could see a huge difference. The comedy element wasn’t pushed into the face, it was a lot more subtle. The narrative was fairly different to what I had usually seen in comedy trailers, there wasn’t really a story line put across, it was just clips from throughout the film with a voice over introducing significant characters. The Mise-en-scene was all very similar and reflected the era very well, although being made in that period obviously contributed to that part of the film anyway. What stood out the most to me was the fact you weren’t shown any ‘funny’ or ‘silly’ clips, something which is now very popular in today’s society.


1980s
The 80s introduced us to Lost in America, Directed by Albert Brooks. Theres quite a change in comedy from the previous film: Annie Hall, which is quite interesting to see seeing as its only 1 decade apart. The comedy is something that connects more with the audience, its more emotional comedy than ‘in your face’ comedy.


1990s
The 90s came with the film The Big Lebowski, Directed by Joel Co en. This trailer came across as a lot more up to date in comparison to the previous two. The trailer met the forms and conventions I had originally found for this specific genre, and unlike the last two trailer, I was shown some ‘funny’ clips that did bring a smirk to my face if not a laugh.


2000s
One of our very popular comedies of the noughties – Anchorman, directed by Adam McKay. I definitely found this the funniest of the trailer out of the lot – though this is probably my age showing. This fell perfectly into the comedy genre for me, it was obvious, it was in your face, it was well portrayed.

After watching each trailer it became very clear of the change in society through the years. People have come to accept inappropriate behaviour as humour and Witt, as opposed to feeling angry and frustrated. I feel that in the earlier decades directors tiptoed a little too much around the idea of comedy. The real change is the intellect that went into the comedies, from the 70s it was humour that would be funny to a more adult audience and the same for the 80s, I feel that comedy has progressively become something that is for anyone with or without much intelligence. It slowly became something simple to watch. Though a lot of comedy is starting to become something enigmatic.

STORY BOARD

After creating the basic plot and structuring my ideas out onto paper, I went on to create a story board for me to work from.
For the establishing shot I wanted to use a pedestal shot, so that introducing the car into the shot would be a smoother process. I wanted to use quite a pacey piece of music, to set the speed of the trailer and build more adrenaline. As I had noticed in other Teaser Trailers, the title of the film usually interrupted quite early on in the trailer, therefore I chose to slot my title in after the 3rd shot. I wanted to used a range of shots, or as many as I could within reason. Therefore when planning my storyboard I tried to think of different ways I could introduce different camera angles and shots. I estimated that the majority of shots I took would last for around 3-5 seconds, which gave me a basic time slot of around 35-40 seconds, which is ideal for a teaser trailer.
This is only my first draft, once I go out on test shoots, I'm sure I will decide to make some alterations and tweaks.

Week 14 & 15

Reviewing decisions


Laura Mulvey would have a lot to say about my film trailer; I have chosen, although not by fault to use a male as the antagonist and the female as the protagonist. The male in my trailer is older than the female of my movie and very much holds the authority of the trailer. On the other hand the female character is of 17 years old and appears to be some what naïve. When researching ideas for my trailer it came to my attention that the majority of the driving instructors are men, at least in my area they all seem to be men. I felt that the best way to get that quirky and undefined identity of a wacky driving instructor was to put his persona across in the image of a male. I don’t think a female ‘wacky’ driving instructor would have created the image I had most desired. The female of my trailer acts very innocently and comes across as the weaker of the characters, which repels the feminist film theory. However despite the fact my female actress is weak and naïve it doesn’t support the male gaze theory; I haven’t chosen to make the female of my trailer a symbol of sex and seductiveness, she’s simply naïve and clueless towards the situation.
My trailer in a sense is a boost to the male ego, it portrays men to be strong minded, dominant and somewhat different whereas it portrays females to be weak and easily lead astray, some may argue that my trailer is sexist towards women and their rights, but to me it was the best way to portray my film plot, without the egotistic, sexist approach it would become dull and unbelievable to an audience.
Sigmund Freud once said: “Women are mutilated and must learn to accept their lack of a penis” – a very sexist and crude statement made by Freud, but then is this how all men look at the ways of women? Truth be told, the majority of people in today’s culture will at some point in their lives ponder on this very thought, because of the way generations before us treated women. Nowadays we have feminists and strong willed women that support the welfare of women around the world. – However this will never change the opinion and characteristics of every man. Could this be the reason that I and many others still choose to portray men as the dominant stronger character? As a female it would have been generally guessable that I would have chosen to support Laura Mulvey and the feminist theories by changing the conventions of my film trailer and choosing to role reverse my characters portraying the female as the strong and more dominant character, but as I stated before I didn’t feel it fitted to my plot.
So therefore, I feel the way I have portrayed my characters is well suited to my plot.

L for Lunatic script/draw up

Green preview slide

Soft/calm music

Cut to:
SHOT OF A CALM VILLAGE WITH A WELCOME SIGN

VO: Brading, Isle of Wight a sleepy little village, until it got itself a new driving instructor!
Cut to:
INSIDE A STATIONARY CAR, AN INSTRUCTOR IS SITTING IN THE PASSENGER SEAT WHILE A YOUNG PUPIL IS BEHIND THE STEERING WHEEL.

INSTRUCTOR: (Serious)
The first thing you have to understand is that this… is a lethal weapon.

WE SEE THE PUPIL WHO LOOKS VERY CONFUSED.

INSTRUCTOR:
Or it should be if you’re doing it properly!

THE PUPIL SWALLOWS WORRIEDLY

Cut to:
Townhall building, zoom out and an down

Breed- Nirvana begins

SFX: CAR REVVING UP AND THEN THE SQUEALING OF TYRES

Car drives past camera quickly, brief shot of the ‘L’ late on the back of the car

VO: You’re in for one hell of a ride!

Shot of Title

VO: “L for Lunatic”

Shot of release date

Vo: announcing release date

Week 12 & 13

Pre-filming

Today I have started to develop my ideas for my trailer; I am starting to plan the set up and the plot of my film. I have decided to take a different approach to my trailer so that my desired audience that will be watching my trailer will be taken on a different track and will be unsure of what is actually going on. I want to kick start my trailer with the use of Voice over as I feel a lot of the successful comedy genre trailers use voice over and manage to create a holistic and comforting atmosphere. The soundtrack for my trailer is going to need to be very specific and well linked to my plot as I feel that the soundtrack to a film really sets the whole tone and mood, and as I have found from my research, others have that same opinion.
I’m currently in the process of creating and planning my storyboard, so I have been considering different camera shots and angles. Because a lot of my trailer is going to be shot inside a car the majority of my pictures will need to be mid shot or close ups, but I feel that by using these shots I will still be able to incorporate some low angled shots of my driver, creating domination and power. I am hoping to start doing some test shots and experimenting for my film within the upcoming week. By starting test shots and draft pieces it will help to get more of a polished end effect, this way I can learn from trial and error and hopefully come out with something that I am very happy with. Because my trailer is only going to be going on for a maximum of 90 seconds I don’t want to shoot anymore than 10 minutes of film time, otherwise I will be cutting into editing time.
When editing my trailer I shall use Adobe Premiere © for the moving image side of editing, however I may need to adjust sound which will involve me using Adobe Audition ©, this will allow me to further edit sound levels and background noise to a small degree. I want my trailer to sound and look polished therefore I may need to redo the sound at a later date, as the microphone on my camera will probably pick up quite a bit of background noise that I don’t want to be heard in my polished trailer.

REPRESENTATIONS OF CHARACTERS WITHIN TRAILERS

As a general the main characters are the only ones shown in a teaser trailer, because they are the most significant characters in the whole film. One of the extras that pours a cup of coffee that has absolutely no relevance to the synopsis or narrative to the film is highly unlikely to be featured in the trailer. The way the characters are represented in trailers firstly depends on the type of genre; for instance if the film is a horror you wouldn’t expect the main character, let’s say the killer to be dressed as a fairy shown as happy and innocent (unless the plot of the film has an enigmatic twist). You would expect the killer to be dark and mysterious with an anger and dark tension throughout. The way a character is represented isn’t just down to the acting ability and camera shots. It is also picked up through mise en scene: clothing, surrounding and so forth, therefore when I am planning my trailer I will need to decide on a costume structure and possibly make up in order to be certain my audience picks up the vibes I intend.

A snapshot taken from the trailer Get him to the Greek, the character in this shot is dressed smartly and the mise en scene appears to be high tech and office-like, therefore we are represented with an image of importance and high class.

Another snapshot from a trailer, this time the trailer is Harry Potter and the deathly hallows the image of the character shown, represents the boy as very grubby looking and almost dull. The mise en scene is all quite bland in keeping with the word I used being ‘dull’, there is a dark tone giving off the idea this is a dark film/scene.

Week 10 & 11

Hot Fuzz - Influences

I have been focusing on the film ‘Hot Fuzz’ by Edgar White; a film that has really stood out to me. I have been concentrating on the DVD cover for the film, and this in particular has stood out for me as a having a very strong narrative. Therefore because my film plot has the same enigmatic element, I will be taking influences from the film ‘Hot Fuzz’.

From looking at the image on the cover I get the idea that this particular film genre could be Action or Thriller, however when I look at the text on the cover it reads “A NEW COMEDY FROM THE MAKERS OF ‘SHAUN OF THE DEAD’. This then throws us as an audience in to a whole new perspective and we start to take notice of more detailed elements within the picture: For example; the two main characters are wearing British Police uniforms, but they are fully kitted with guns and bullets, this is where we start to notice the comedy, it’s quite humorous because in England we don’t tend to see Policeman all kitted up and ready for action, it’s generally the Police force in the US that have that much equipment. ‘BIG COPS. SMALL TOWN. MODERATE VIOLENCE.’ – This is a basic narrative; we are given a very brief idea of the plot, in small short snappy sentences. The backdrop of the DVD cover is very enigmatic; the sunrise is very poignant and boosts the dramatic appeal. The greyscale at the bottom along with the darkness creates this contrast that fits with the mix of the audiences ideas on the story and genre of the film. In a sense we are given the end result with a few hints and clues, and we then have to create the rest of the story with the source of our own ideas.
This to me relates a lot to my film, because I have chosen to create a comedy that is quite unexpected. From the opening of my trailer you wouldn’t quite know what it is that you are going to be watching. The audience will be watching it in the same perspective of one of the characters, in the sense that they won’t have much of an idea of what the driving instructor is about. Leaving herself and the audience with the question ‘What is he going to do next?’ My film is in effect a Comedy with enigmatic elements to throw the audience into a self found narrative.

Social Networking Website

• Poster main focal point
• Links to the trailer and into the site
• You can pick your country so that the language changes to suit you
• Name of the film doesn’t seem to be a focal point
• ‘in theatres now’
• Small worded review’s on a widget from newspaper
• You can check showing times
• Share with Facebook

Again like the poster I find the layout of this very odd, it does break a lot of forms and conventions, given that the name of the film never seems to be relevant, it’s almost as if the creators of this film don’t won’t you to understand what the film is going to be about, you are very much left in the dark. The fact the background eats up the whole main area makes you feel really alone and almost disorientated. It does make me want to see the film however. I think the fact you aren’t given any massive hints and tips to what is going to be going on in this film it becomes the main reason you are left wanting to watch it and find out what really is going on. The poster is featured on the website, so again there is no further information than we got on the poster. Unlike the other websites you cannot find out about the film, you are redirected to the ‘main site’ which is just full of videos and pictures, so they really have made it so you can’t find out about the film unless you go and see it. Quite a brave move I’d say because you’ll either have people that think well I can’t be bothered to see it if I don’t know what it’s going to be about, but then you’ll have the other half that think I really want to know what this is about, it’s had good reviews so I’ll watch it.
Obviously you do have the decision to watch the trailer on this website, so by watching that I’m sure there will be a lot of hints and ideas going on that will give you more a feel to what the film will be about. Over all I did like this website because it’s so unknown, but at the same time I get the same feeling from the Paranormal Activity 2 poster, which made me think it was bland.

paranormal Activity Website

• The layout for this website is a lot like the poster for this film, though there is slightly more to look at than the poster
• The title is large and put across the top of the page, which really grabs your eye
• They have links on this page that will redirect you to buy the tickets from a cinema near you, useful but I feel takes up too much of the page
• They stated that there is a free download of the previous film that goes with the sequel, but only if you buy the tickets - this will boost sales as they are boasting a free download that will be worth the price of the film
• They have links to Facebook and Twitter, social networking sites, enabling visitors of the site to share the page with friends
• This is only the start of the website as it reads ‘click here to continue to site’
• The website and the poster may be the first thing a viewer sees so the they need to make sure that it sets the mood and tone, otherwise no one will want to watch it
• The picture in the background is very eary and hard to work out, but it looks like a child and a dog from a cctv camera, obviously something is with them as they are both starring and there’s a wind-swept effect on the picture

I didn’t like the poster for this film as I thought it look bland and unorganised, but after seeing the web design I feel a little differently about it. The only thing I noticed neither of the poster or website had was an Age certificate, now I know because of viewing the film that it is a 15, but given that it is now out in the cinemas it should actually have the age restriction printed clearly. I like the fact you can share this page with social networking sites, I know a lot of websites do, do this now, but it just shows it is reaching out to an expanded audience. The colouring on this website links with the colours used on the poster, therefore there is specific uniform of colouring used. Like I said with the poster the colours they have used don’t symbolise happiness or anything bright and playful, it is very bleak and symbolic towards death, and maybe the devil. The narrative is only shown through the colouring and the picture, they haven’t used any quotes or lines that will hint otherwise about the film, leaving you no other clues as to what you are letting yourself in for.

Grown ups Website homepage

• This website is interactive, when you click on the website you hear the sounds of fireworks, kids screaming and birds chirping - a lovely aspect to include, it promotes the film as child friendly and inviting
• As you hover your mouse of the different parts on the map you get quotes from the film, in the medium of sound
• At the top of the page you have the title of the film like it’s the title of the map you are looking at, which is a narrative in itself, involving you into the role of a character in the film
• Then above that you have the well-known actors names
• There are various areas you can look at on this ‘map’, each section of the map takes you off into another area of the website
• Everything is displayed like it’s a map which is really nice and family friendly
• The DVD and Blu-ray are shown in the corner, encouraging you to purchase them online or in your local store
• Social networking links at the bottom of the page give you the opportunity to share and suggest the website to friends online
• A choice of audio
• Worldwide release dates – full of information
I personally love this website, it’s really fun and child friendly, you have a section where you have the chance to learn about the film, an area that you can find out about the cast and crew, you can view both the trailers, and photos from the film, but not only that you can also play games that are themed from the film.
It’s a real action packed website, and they’ve given you the chance to have a feel of what the film is like. The narrative shows that the film is based at some sort of campsite by the lake, it is obviously about families and team work, given that they are all supporting a basketball team.
This website really does set the tone and mood for the film, and has actually real enticed me to watch the film. So it has been very successful in my eyes, and is really something very different from the other websites I’ve looked at that are simply just put in front of you to view. This film company has gone that extra mile to please the audience. - I am very impressed and an interactive website is something I will aim to create as it seems the most enticing.

Social Networking poster

• Main character clearly shown as the key focal point, drawing the attention straight in
• The name of the movie is on the side looking like it is a Facebook page, which breaks the conventions of a typical film poster
• The wording is used cleverly as it relates to the storyline
• It breaks conventions: there are no actor/actresses names shown, the name of the film looks quite hidden and isn’t a focal point
• In some ways you wouldn’t think that this was a film poster, it could be mistaken for advertisement for Facebook, or maybe a criminal wanted poster
• It’s quite dark, the only real colour is the small ‘Facebook’ blue strip down the side, which suggests this film could have hidden meaning
• There are no extreme designs, it is very simply done, representing this as a film that may need open minds
• It’s simple yet very effective
• The whole poster makes you ask yourself questions, about what is going on, whats the narrative?
• The facial expression isn’t what you would naturally expect it to be, therefore you are left with the wonderment of ‘why?’

I found this to be a very striking film poster, it boasts the question of why, but at the same time it is clear what the poster is portraying. Very cleverly done, yet very different. Definitely a poster that intrigues

Easy A Poster

• The use of quotations from the film at the top, draws you in and makes you want to know more, theres a 'tease' effect
• Main character is shown, along with her name above the title, the good thing about showing the main character on the front of the poster, is that if fans of this specific actress see the poster, they will be more likely to watch the film
• Title clearly displayed, bold and attractive
• Release date shown at the bottom, but it isn't the centre piece of the poster
• Small print shows names of directors and other actors/actresses (probably wouldn't be read by viewers, though it is a useful piece of information to include)
• Background is a chalk board so we know that this will be school based, this is a vital piece of narrative
• The names and arrows pointing towards the character, open us up to understand something about the character and develops our understanding of the narrative
• It’s a fun looking poster, good use of colour and font
• The use of colours really draws in attention

I think what I like the most about this poster is the way there is an on going narrative, we read the words written around her and think, “ah, she’s done something wrong, and obviously isn’t such a great girl”, but then we look at the top quote and what she has written on her paper and it starts to become clear that she hasn’t actually done anything wrong, which then invites the audience in and intrigues us leaving us wanting to know more.

Week 8 & 9

Paranormal Activity 2 poster



• The colours give off a very dark feeling, reflecting the genre of the film
• The picture shown, looks very CCTV-like, therefore the narrative is subtly introduced
• A review is shown at the top of the poster giving us the first opinion, with its positioning at the top of the page this also one of the first things we look at
• The picture is the main focus but it doesn't fill the whole poster, therefore we know to look elsewhere to get more information on the film
• The poster looks quite empty with a very basic layout, but this works quite well with the horror genre
• Colour red symbolises death, inferior
• The yellow ‘DEMAND IT!’ looks like a button you could press
• Website and release date clearly shown
I personally don’t like this poster, I find it very bland and it looks like it could have been a rushed job (probably the look they were going for, though I don't feel it works), there’s no clear linear narrative to it, it simply shows a picture that looks like CCTV with the name and a short review. Personally it doesn’t grab my eye because of the dull and boring colours used, and the lack of things to look at. I feel that if the poster had a tag line or some sort of sub-heading with a small link to the storyline then this poster would work slightly better.

Low budget/High Budget

EVERYTHING MUST GO – LOW BUDGET FILM
TRAILER:
• No special effects
• The dialogue hasn’t been perfectly scrubbed over the tinny sounds created through the camera (sounds tinny)
• One song played throughout
• Very varied amount of camera angles
• Very bland and basic titles a few people featured throughout trailer

Still a very good trailer, IT came off well, but didn’t make me really excited about watching it.
It was very bland but that reminded me of the film ‘Juno’ which was bland primarily so it could reflect the time and location. Therefore this could be the same.

THE HANGOVER –HIGH BUDGET FILM
TRAILER:
• Quick editing
• Very slick
• Volumes are perfectly matched along with dialogue
• Set in Las Vegas, so everything looks very pricey and pictures
• Birds eye shots, and high levels, obviously done using a crane or helicopter.
• Special effects
• Very obvious a lot of money has been put into this trailer
• Big flashy title
• Several different locations
• Lots of cast
• Well known actors/characters.
In order to further my research within the film industry I have selected a high budget film and a low budget film, and taken a look at the differences and similarities they both have.
Straight away after watching both trailers, it was very clear to me which of the films was the high budget and which of the films was low budget.
I started watching Everything must go, and within the first 10 seconds I lost focus and switched my brain off. It just didn’t have that eye grabbing attention element. There was nothing punchy to keep my interest. They didn’t use any special effects, the only one I really noticed was right at the beginning they had a television, but they had transferred they’re own moving image onto the screen, and it wasn’t done very well, as you could really tell that it wasn’t being shown on the television at the time. It may well have been done for the comedy effect, but to me it did look very poor. Another downside about the trailer was the dialogue, I felt like it hadn’t really been perfectly scrubbed over, it sounded quite tinny, although this could have had something to do with the version I was watching, I don’t quite know. The trailer only featured one song the whole way through so you didn’t have any different emotion incepted. The fact that they didn’t have any special effects or anything flashy was actually compensated with the amount of different camera angles, they seemed to have almost every camera shot used, this made it more exciting for us as viewers because there was more to focus on. I was very disappointed when I saw the titles; they were written in Arial font and were just so, so boring, there was nothing interesting or eye grabbing. I really wasn’t keen on this trailer because it just didn’t meet up to my expectations; I found it to be very bland.
The Hangover was such a breath of fresh air after watching ‘Everything must go’. The quick editing kept me intrigued, and I was given the plot within the first 15 seconds which I didn’t get in ‘Everything Must Go’, the music built up with the film which drew you straight in. The transitions between each clip were really smooth, and the volume levels were set intone with the dialogue so you weren’t fighting against your ear drums. The film is set in Las Vegas so automatically the mise en scene is very aesthetically appealing; everything looks flashy and pricey with all the glam and glitz of Vegas. The camera angles used are at times very high or birds eye views, indicating that they’ve got the budget to use helicopters and cranes. Everything is just done so nicely, they’ve used stunt doubles and lots of small special effects to piece it all together and come out with this mesmerising trailer. One thing I noticed between the two was the cast numbers, in ‘Everything Must Go’ the cast is very small, they never seem to have a lot of people featured in the film unlike ‘The Hangover’ this is where you notice the budget difference, because obviously every person that is featured in the film will have to be paid some sort of fee, so the low budget film would have purposely made it a small cast to save money for other areas whereas the high budget film would have had the money to add more of a cast.
It is clear that the high budget film made the bigger impact, but I still think that even with a low budget film there is potential to make it amazing without using all the flashy expensive elements, it just needs more thought and attention to detail.

Weeks 6 & 7

Comedy Trailers

THE HANGOVER – TEASER TRAILER
Duration – 1.05
Soundtrack – Phil Collins – I can feel it.
• Main storyline put across within first 25 secs
• Laugh out loud moments
• Over the top
• 0.50 title of film
• Fades out into title and release date
• Set- LAS VEGAS
• Medium shot/longshot/point of view/over the shoulder/close up

STEP BROTHERS – FULL TRAILER
Duration – 2.34
Soundtrack – LCD soundsystem – North American scum. Hall & Oats – You make my dreams come true.
• Titles tell basic storyline
• Titles introduce two main characters
• Music stops for dialogue
• Laugh out loud moments
• Memorable quotes
• Medium shot used a lot

SUPERBAD – FULL TRAILER
Duration – 2.00
Soundtrack – unknown
• Voice over introduces characters & storyline
• Music is minor, played but not main focus
• Laugh out loud moments
• Big titles half way through and end ‘SUPERBAD’ ‘COMING SOON’ ‘RELEASE DATE’
• Medium shoot/close up/camera follows

GROWN UPS – TEASER TRAILER
Duration -1.33
Soundtrack – unknown
• Voice over tells story
• 0.29 secs big title
• Slow motion
• Voice over introduces actors
• 1.23 ‘GROWN UPS’
• Looks like a feel good family comedy

Interview review

I wanted to do an interview with two male and two female media students so that I could collect more information on what others look for in a comedy trailer. I felt that by doing an interview rather than another questionnaire I was able to collate more of an idea of what I needed to pursue, it also allowed me ask questions in a more open and appealing manner, which I couldn’t do through the medium of text. I feel that the students were able to go in depth with their answers giving me the opportunity to develop their thoughts and feelings and put this into context for my trailer. I wanted to know how much of an impact the music actually made to the trailer, as I myself found it hard to stay focused on watching it when the music was taken away, so for part of my interview I showed the students the teaser and theatrical trailer, but I put the sound on mute; they didn't seem to think that it made too much of a change, however I could see that they became a lot more fidgety and distracted. For instance the two males started to recreate their own sound during the showing of the trailer. They even started a conversation half way through, yet they didn’t realise the difference the trailer without sound had actually made to them, as in the first viewing with sound, they were both fully focused and silent. The females both seemed to keep a similar focus that they’d had in the first, however they agreed it didn't have the same impact.
The funny clips that were shown seemed to be the most appealing part of the trailer to the students, which doesn't come at much surprise if I'm honest, seeing as you always want to know that the film is going to make you laugh, and it hasn't just been quickly placed into the comedy genre because it didn't quite fit into any other genre.
Having well known actors and actresses in a film trailer always adds more audience appeal, however this factor will not come at too much use to me as I do not have the provisions and connections to have someone like Tom Hanks or Ricky Gervais in my trailer.
From what I have managed to gather from my interviews, it’s become clear that the editing of funny clips with significant dialogue and suitable soundtrack sets and hold the tone of the entire trailer and the opinion that the audience are left with. – Keeping the audience focused is one of the most important factors of a trailer, if you don’t draw in an audience within the first 10 seconds, you will automatically lose viewers.

Interview with the girls

Interview questions

1-1 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

* Play Grown ups trailer, both teaser and full*

Which of the two trailers did you prefer?



Why did you prefer that trailer?





After watching the trailer does it make you want to watch the film, if you haven’t already done so?




*What is it about the trailer that made you want to watch it? *





What is it about the trailer that put you off the film? (If it did so)






Do you feel you understood the basic plot through watching the trailer? (If no, how do you feel it could be made clearer?)




*Play both trailers again, this time without sound*

After watching it without sound, has it changed your mind?



Do you feel that the music on the trailer plays a huge part in your end decision of the film? If yes why?

Week 5 & 6

Now I have chosen my specific genre, I need to develop my knowledge and understanding of what forms and conventions are considered within the comedy genre.
I have chosen four well-known comedies that are popular with the 15+ age group. I watched each film trailer one after the other, with no long break between them. After watching all four of them I wanted to see which trailer had made the biggest impact on me. The Hangover stood out the most to me as the most successful trailer, because of its use of flashy glitz and glam.
I then took some time to look over each trailer and briefly analyse each trailer. Despite them being all the same genre each film was portrayed very differently.
A voice over is present in three out of four of them, and the voice over generally introduces or narrates, relating back to some earlier research of mine that this is a very easy going genre and purely entertainment. Music in this genre seems to play a big part, as it really does give off the impact and set the whole mood of the trailer right from go. I noticed that in one or two of the trailers the music paused for significant or funny dialogue and then restarted with a different track. I really liked this element and it will be something I will look at doing for my trailer. Each trailer involves a typical Laugh out loud moment, this seems very vital for this genre because after all if you don’t find it funny, why is it classified as a comedy? The titles for each movie had a specific uniform within the film, so all the colours and sizes blended as one to create a whole image.
I also noticed that with the teaser trailers, they seem to have big titles that interrupt about half way through, whereas the full theatrical trailers don’t seem to show their titles until the very end of the trailer.
After researching different trailers, it is clear which elements and feature I am going to need to involve in order to come out with the best result. All points I have picked up on seem to be a key to successful trailers.

Results

I handed my questionnaires out to three different year groups (year ten, year eleven and upper sixth). All students that took my questionnaire were media students.
I have created four different pie charts from the results that I have collected, giving me a clearer viewing process. Each individual year group shows a similar result… the three pie charts that are specific to each year group all have a similar consistency; Comedy is over 30% in each year group, but then if you compare year eleven and tens results with sixth form, you can see that it’s the younger students that favour the horror genre, with both the younger year groups having results of over 20% for horror and sixth form as little as 8%. From just looking at the pie charts I very quickly ruled out sci-fi, Romance, chick flick, thriller and rom/com. On the ‘Overall’ pie chart the three genres that had the most votes were Action, Comedy and Horror, the other five were significantly smaller on the pie chart. The results showed me that by eliminating the five small genres my trailer was more likely to be a success, because I would be using a more appealing genre. When it came to deciding out of the final three, it was actually very easy to choose. I decided against horror because from looking at feedback on past years coursework, they have usually stated that the students that decided to base their coursework on horror did a lot of excellent theory work, but when it came down to their end of it, they didn’t do very well with the moving image.
Seeing as Comedy was the most popular with all year groups, it was the clear choice overall, however I do feel this will be a challenge, but I am ready to take on that challenge.
Because I have collected my results from students aged 14-18, I am going to aim my film at the ages 15 and above. So I will clearly display my film as a 15 certificate, the reason I have cut off the age at 15 is because it will give me more to work with, whereas if I had the certificate as a 12 I would need to be extra careful with the humour I use, but by cutting the age at 15 I have more freedom to use any sexual references and more mature language if needed.


After deciding on the genre and audience of my trailer I then needed to decide what other two forms of advertisement I was going to use to go along with the trailer/film.



From collecting the results from my questionnaire it shows:
Trailer’s was an obvious favourite, because the vast majority of our population consume a lot of television. Magazines clearly aren’t successfully advertising films, because only one student out of three different groups said that they heard about films through magazines. So from my results I have decided to go with the Internet website and a poster.

A lot of students said that they consumed the movies they watched online or DVDS borrowed from Blockbuster’s, this supports the two other forms of advertisement I have picked. Blockbuster’s is full of film posters, and the internet is full of online film advertisement as well as trailers. So therefore I feel I have made the right decision in choosing to make a website homepage and a poster to go along with my trailer.
My next few steps are going to be deciding on a plot for my trailer, giving my trailer a time limit and then starting to look into different camera shots and angles.

I have prepared a sheet of questions for a one to one interview with a couple of students over the age of 15. I will play a teaser trailer and a full trailer of a comedy movie. This will then give me a brief idea of what my audience notice and look for in a trailer. I have chosen to use open questions giving my interviewees no chance to give me one word answers. They will have to openly discuss their answers with me.

pie chart of results

Film Trailer Questionnaire

FILM TRAILER QUESTIONNAIRE

Are you… Male Female


How old are you?


What is your preferred film genre?


How often do you watch films?


How do you consume films?


How long do you think trailers should be?


Do you find that music in trailer’s, helps set the tone/emotion?


How do you find out about new realises?


How often do you go to the cinema, if you go?


What television channel do you tend to watch?


What do you think is the best form of advertisement for films?



After a few general tweaks I feel this questionnaire will be a very reliable source for me to gain the information I need to collect in order to progress in my research and planning.

Film Genres

Week 3 & 4

Audience Theories
The Media is the window on the world, the watchdog for the public. There are so many audience theories with their suggestions on how the attitudes and persona of people in society are affected by the media. The cultivation theory suggests that the more TV the audience consumes, the more likely it will be that they will start to develop certain views about the world. But the fear is that these views that are developed through the large consumption of TV will be forced views. Another theory is the Desensitisation Theory, suggesting that audience attitudes towards violence can be affected by having seen too much violence in the media. Also the Copycat/modelling theory with the idea that by watching a film such as Harry Potter it may influence in a positive or negative way where the Media itself will be responsible for maintaining the view that there’s a connection with the Media. These three audience theories all have the same negative outcome; the Media is influencing the world to do wrong. I don’t feel that these Media theories are entirely correct, of course no one can really tell if the reason a child is violent as an adult is due to the amount of screen violence they have consumed throughout life. But I feel that the blame is on the entire upbringing of a child, whether they go through big changes or a family is falling apart, the Media is not wholly to blame. With the Cultivation theory I believe that lies within a person’s literate thinking, for instance if someone is likely to take anything to be truthful and influential whether it be a cat running the world or a protest shown on TV to support a worthy cause, then that will reflect the outcome of how the view the world, but really I feel or at least would like to hope the world has a bit more common sense and ability to think for themselves.
When planning my teaser trailer film synopsis, I will of course consider each of the theories I have highlighted above, however this will not make much of an influence to the way I choose to represent my film, as I suspect my teaser trailer will probably end up falling into the copycat theory, as I have found the majority of films do in this day in age. Unfortunately I feel that escaping the banding of audience theories is near to impossible. But that is the beauty of the Media, every opinion is valued and considered - whether good or bad.

Notes on different film genres

DIFFERENT FILM GENRES

ACTION/ADVENTURE
AVATAR
Duration: 2:22
• Slow start
• Blue colouring to coincide with the
theme
• Gradual build of music
• Fading transitions

CHILDREN
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS
Duration: 2:23
• Voice over narrates story
• Music begins after opening section
• Dialogue is present
• Quick transition
• Big bold titles

CHICK FLICK
LEGALLY BLONDE
Duration: 2.25
• Opening funny clip to draw in audience
• Music starts, and stops during relevant dialogue
• 3 different songs are used throughout
• Slow paced
• Loud clear voice over narrating

ACTION/COMEDY
NAKED GUN
Duration: 2:08
• Music begins quickly
• Quick sharp editing
• Fast transitions
• Medium pace
• Lots of sound effects
• Loud voice over
• Actors introduced through voice over

CHILD’S FANTASY
THE LITTLE VAMPIRE
Duration: 2:23
• Music and dialogue begin together
• Voice over tells story
• Main character speaks throughout all scenes
• Slow paced
• Didn’t grab attention, I switched off after 60 seconds

HORROR
SAW
Duration: 2:06
• No music
• Sound effects
• Horrific images
• Flickers in and out of scenes
• Quick short scenes to keep you focused
• Titles that put words into your head that you will
think of when you relate back to the film
• Slow/quick/slow pace
• Builds up to a climax finish

FANTASY
NEW MOON
Duration: 1:49
• Music start straight away
• Intriguing dialogue
• Fade transitions
• Fast paced action scenes
• Slows down on significant scenes
• Sound effects
• Music intensifies as pace builds
• Build up to an abrupt ending

FANTASY/ADVENTURE
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Duration: 2:32
• Music starts straight away
• Dialogue is heard
• Quick editing
• Dissolve transitions
• Fast paced
• Build up from beginning, middle is slower paced, end builds you up, get your heart racing
• Titles to introduce big actors
• 2 different songs throughout

Genres

I have been researching different film genres and their trailers, analysing them and noting the basic set up of their trailers, both full and teaser.There are a lot of similarities between the different genres; the opening of each trailer was fairly similar in the way that the music usually kick started the moving image and straight away set the emotion and theme. I noticed that the genres like: Child’s fantasy, children’s action/comedy and chick flick’s story line was put across by the medium of ‘Voice over’; this reflects the similar tone within these specific genres. In a sense it gives off the idea that these particular genres are easy watching and don’t require any real brain power to understand them, therefore everything is given to the audience on a plate and would be in need of a typical linear progression.
However genres like: Fantasy, Adventure, Action/Adventure and Fantasy the story lines are put across mainly through the whole moving image and significant dialogue. You can see the clear difference between the diverse audiences for both styles with these particular genres being slightly more challenging for an audience to put together a basic plot. They are something you may need to put more concentration into; but this doesn’t mean the films are still entertaining, just a little more complex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtx22dZC8TQ&feature=player_detailpage

I found this clip on youtube whilst looking through different trailers, and found it really interesting to see 'behind the scenes' of what goes on during the making of a trailer/film. It really gave me an insight into the wonderful world of editing and creating! I loved the way he changed his voice to suit the genre also, I felt this was a very key convention to note.

Planning

I'm currently starting research and planning for my teaser trailer. I've drawn up a rough copy of a questionnaire; I will hand out my questionnaire to a number of different year groups that are studying Media. This way I will be getting a various amount of answers from more than just one age group, and this will benefit me in finding my targeted audience. I have used questions that will encourage people's own opinions, rather than using questions with answers for the students to pick from. This enhances my chances of creating a trailer that will be better suited to the audience I decide on.
A teaser trailer is very self-explanatory the key is in the name 'Teaser', unlike the theatrical trailer it is there to tempt the audience into watching the film without giving away too much. The teaser trailer is always released before the theatrical trailer and shows the best and key moments in a film. Generally a teaser trailer will last for the duration of 30-60 seconds in total.I have watched a number of different trailers, both teaser and theatrical trailers, in order to get a brief idea of what I should be looking out for.
• Fast paced
• Quick editing
• Key music
• Small amounts of significant/funny dialogue
• Build up to a climax
• Abrupt ending
• Bold large titles
• Slow start, gradual pace increase

Week 1 & 2

PROPOSAL
To produce a Teaser trailer along with the homepage for the film and a
poster as advertisement, suitable for my target audience using
appropriate camera shots that will suit to my chosen genre and film
synopsis.
• Analyse both teaser and theatrical trailers
• Look for the specific forms and conventions of both trailers,
film homepages and posters
• Collate data from students
• Analyse my chosen genre in more depth
• Look at low budget and high budget trailers
• Deconstruct film Web homepages and posters
• Look into audience theories and narrative theories
• Plan ancillary tasks
• Create storyboard for trailer