Synoptic Day Reflection

Today we were off timetable in order or to spend the day on our productions. I chose to use this day filming as my actress had enough free periods to get most of it done. I managed to get all my filming done and began to edit which meant that I have a fair amount of time to spend editing.

Slates

In order for my teaser trailer to make more sense I will use slates in between shots, this will emphasise the themes and put my shots into more context. Similar to the A Clockwork Orange teaser I will repeat this to imply uneasiness and chaos. Here is a selection of words I might use:

Isolation

Rage

Wrath

Grief

Pain

Depression

Hurt

Attack

Massacre

Disorder

Hate

Control

Threat

Violence

Prepare

Resentment

Malice

Revenge

Envy

Deserted

Alone

Research

The protagonist of my narrative is a girl battling with depression and her illness leads to the extreme act of violence of what would be the films climax. In order to be able to portray my characters disorder my teaser trailer I have researched the signs of depression. This will allow me to create shots that imply these signs and therefore depict one of the main themes of the film which is an important element of teaser trailers.

Photos

I took the photos for my film poster and magazine cover today, these included close ups of my main stars face and some students running. For the close-ups I took a range of different angles, I will choose which ones to use when I start to Photoshop them.

Locations 2

Locations

Photoshop Practise

In order to prepare myself for using photoshop for my film magazine cover and film poster we have been practising with photoshop. This is my practise film magazine cover, I like the effect of the black and white photo and background with the coloured text and is a style I may use for my final piece.

Music

As I have completed my Treatment the next step would be Storyboarding the plan for my trailer. However, due to the fact that I am yet to have a complete plan for my trailer I have decided to start researching into music I can use. This will make the post-production process a lot easier and will be useful for inspiring me to come up with some ideas and mood I want to create for the final product.

Here is some of the infomation I will need to find the music tracks again:

2. MC Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Opus 19 6 (2:10) - Found on MC Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Opus 19

The rowing of Venetian gondoliers is mimicked by the steady lower sounds of the left hand in this final piece.Feeling: Dark/Brooding, Sweet/Lyrical, Sweeping/Flowing | Style: Classical Instrument: Piano | Tempo: Medium Composed by:Arranged by:Leonard Handler, BMI Published by: Pleasantville Music Publishing, BMI (50%) and Freeplay Music, BMI (50%)

2. Flagship Commander (1:24) - Found on Orchestral Soundscapes Vol 4

Like something dark and sinister on the horizion a dark, troubled orchestra weaves a demonic track. With an intense string build that ends with a foreboding crash.Feeling: Climactic/Explosive, Foreboding/Intense, Building/Tension, Cinematic | Style: Orchestral Instrument: Orchestral, Horns, Strings, Percussion, Flute, Orchestral, Horns, Strings, Percussion | Tempo: Slow-Med Composed by:Patrick Smith, BMI Published by: Freeplaymusic, BMI

4. The Ruler (0:57) - Found on Soundtrack Suspense Vol 13

Slowly building, this spooky track features strange synths and blasting horns. Moodly working it's way to a explosive climax.Feeling: Suspense/Terror, Climactic/Explosive, Aggressive/Driving, Building/Tension | Style: Rock Orchestral Instrument: Drums, Percussion, Synth, Strings | Tempo: Med-Fast Composed by:Robert Mann, BMI (100%) Published by: Freeplaymusic, BMI (100%)

Mock up Poster

Storyboards

Institution Title Slates

I have started to think about what I will do for my institution title slate; I have decided to name my institution Hunter Films. In order to grasp what is conventional of them, I’ve been looking at other institutions slates. In general they are a picture with some form of movement, although some have no movement. This could make it possible to do something similar, and I will do further research into making my own animations.



Treatment

Sarah’s mother died three months ago, since then she has been forced to go and live with her dad and his new family. She’s never had friends and spent her entire school life being picked on by students and targeted by teachers. Inspired by American high school massacres, she aims to make people pay for the pain they’ve caused.

Audience research-results

This means that my target audience is predominately teenagers, so in order to successfully reach them I’ll have to create a narrative and promote it in a way that teenagers will be drawn to.

This tells me I have a reasonably balanced audience in terms of gender, but slightly more females, so my central protagonist will be a girl in order to appeal to the majority of my audience.

This gives me an insight into my audiences lifestyle and therefore ways in which I can target and interest them.

I have already chosen to create my film within the drama genre, so in order to reach a larger portion of my audience I should add elements of comedy or thriller.  

My audiences favourite films allows me to see the type of narratives/characters/etc that they want to see which will help me when creating about my own.

This gives me a further insight into what kind of things I should focus on when thinking about my own ideas. The fact the ‘interesting’ , ‘characters’ and ‘Visual style’ were picked numerous times mean these are things I will concentrate on.

This allows me to see the promotion most effective ways of promotion for my audience and therefore which piece of my project will be important. For example; word of mouth is high suggests that what I create must be eye-catching and create intrigue.

This tells me exactly what will be important and what I will need to show when creating my teaser.

I will be influenced by the ambiguity of the ‘American Beauty’ poster when creating my own as it appears to be what my audience find interesting.

The interesting, original cover for ‘Little White Lies’ is something I will take into consideration when creating mine as it appears it be more popular then the mainstream ones. Because of this I will choose to make an independent film rather than mainstream.

Sample of my questionaire

Audience Research

1.      Age:

2.      Gender:  Male     Female

3.      What are your interests:

4.      Favourite genre of film:

5.      Favourite film:

6.      Why? _____________________________________________

7.      How do you usually watch films?   Cinema   DVD   Internet   Other_________

8.      How do you usually find out about new films?  Cinema   Internet     Word-of-mouth   Magazines/newspapers   Posters     Other_____________________

9.      What elements of a teaser trailer would make you want to go and watch the film?    Characters   Atmosphere   Genre

                                 Hint at the story   Mystery/intrigue    Other________________

10.  Which of the following film posters would make you go and watch a film?

11.  Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12.  Which of the following film magazine front covers would you be most likely to buy?

13.  Why?
____________________

Product Research 3

• This is also a very unconventional teaser trailer as it does not include any footage from the actual film. This gives the audience an insight to the character, due to the close ups of the character and fact that he is the main focus of the trailer. This implies that the character is a major selling point and focal point of the narrative which is also what the poster portrays.

• The lack of non-diegetic sound in the trailer emphasises the realistic atmosphere of the film.

• There is a very subtle hint at the narrative when he mentions drugs but this is overshadowed by what is happening in the trailer which has no relation to the actual narrative. Although, it does hint at the mood of the film and slightly surreal nature of the film.

• His speech in the film is also similar to Renton’s voice-over during the film which allows us to have an idea of how the film will be. It also intrigues the audience as we already get to know something about the character.

• This is a very low budget trailer so I could use many of the techniques use din order to create my own successful teaser trailer.

Product Research Trailers 2

• This is a very unconventional teaser trailer as it doesn’t use anything similar to other trailers.

• There is only one piece of music used, William Tell Overture which is used at the same pace throughout the entire trailer which doesn’t hint at the narrative of the film in any way. However, it does imply the manic atmosphere.

• The use of colour flashing on the screen really quickly every so often causes it to look very unsettling, manic which does suggests some of the films mood.

• The incredibly quick shots which are repeated emphasises the unsettling mood created and makes it impossible to grasp any of the narrative which causes intrigue and would make people want to go and watch the film. It is also a technique which I could quite easily use for my own teaser trailer.

• They use quick title slates in between shots which include single words such as ‘Bizarre’, ‘Thrilling’ and ‘Satiric’. These are difficult to read as they go by so quickly again making it disorientating and intriguing. It will also make the audience feel the need to really concentrate on it so they are more likely to want to see the film.

• We do however get a hint at who the protagonist is as there are several close ups of him. This is one of the only things that are given away apart from the title, director’s name and the institution (Warner Brothers).

Product Research Trailers

Product Research-Film Posters