Props

These are some of the props we are going to use in our film. The girl in our film is going to be talking on the phone, have an engagement ring and will find this note on her doorstep.

Teaser Posters

So far we have looked at film posters, but as ours will be a teaser poster we have decided to find some examples of these. The Superman, Indiana Jones and Batman posters look really simple yet effective, but we're not sure we could do ours in this way because unlike these films, our film will not be a well known brand such as Superman. We could however not give much away in terms of the name of the film and the date of its release, for example the Cloverfield poster works well because it is a powerful image (we could try to create a haunting image like this) with just a release date. Not much is given away about the film at all and the poster is intriguing, making the audience want to find out more. I like how these film posters are dark which also makes them seem quite mysterious, we could try to create this in our poster or given that our film starts off happy and romantic and then turns dark, we could try to reflect this in our film poster.

Progress

Things left to do:
- Take pictures of props and upload
- Take pictures of other locations we are using - the park and shot of the front door and Lucy's house from the opposite side of the road
- Decide on actors
- Finish and upload storyboard
- Finish script

Our results from the polls

Poll Results

What do you think of our idea?

Great – 11
Good – 8
Okay – 1
Not Good – 0
Awful – 0

What motivates you to see a film?

The actors – 10
The director – 5
The trailer – 10
Review – 3
Advertising campaign – 3
Your friends opinion – 7
Other – 0

How much of the storyline do you think should be given away?

Not much, remains a mystery – 5
A few snippets – 13
Most of the storyline – 0
All of the storyline - 0

Which of these should be the main focus of a teaser trailer?

The music - 3
Voice-over - 2
Speech from characters – 4
All – 11
Other – 0

Are you interested in thriller films?
Yes – 13
No – 1
Depends on the storyline – 5

How long do you think an effective teaser trailer is?
0-30 seconds - 5
30 -60 seconds - 10
Over a minute - 2

Researching storyboards

Before I start drawing up the storyboard, I have done some research. On another year 13 blog I found some links to storyboards and websites on how to create a good storyboard.
This website is useful for information on storyboards.

http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/Storyboard%20Resource/

Here is also a video on storyboard making

How To Storyboard Your Film - IndyMogal:

Above, are some pictures of storyboards which might help us figure out how we would like ours to look. Some are much more complex than others, some have simple drawings with writing or very detailed drawings. We could probrably achieve something like the first picture.

http://hannahchelliah.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-11-11T04%3A18%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7

We may make a slideshow similiar to this where she has taken pictures of possible locations and put them together into a video. This would be good to help us decide on where exactly we want to shoot and which kind of shots we want to include.

Progress

Now that we have got some feedback on our polls, we are going to make a pie chart to show our results. We have also researched some location photos on the internet and posted these alongside pictures we had taken ourselves of alleyways and staircases. I have looked at storyboards on other media blogs to get an idea for how we want to do ours and we have decided to draw the pictures on paper and then scan them onto the computer.

More Teaser Trailers

I have looked at the following teaser trailers that are similar to how we would like ours to be filmed.

Avatar Teaser Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYurk_p-4-Q&feature=related

We like this teaser trailer because like how we want to film ours, it starts off with slow music and gradually builds up to much faster music. We like the fact that it creates a lot of enigma and doesn't give much about the narrative away, but we do know what type of film its going to be (fantasy) which is something we would quite like to do with our film. Also, we weren't planning of having much speech in our trailer, and this trailer of Avatar is the same. Something we would do differently though is that this seems like an actual trailer rather than a teaser trailer, so we would probably make ours shorter than this.

Clash Of The Titans


The length of this teaser trailer is about right as its only about a minute long, but despite this it includes lots of action. It is very fast paced from start to finish and doesn't include any long scenes, which is what we wanted to do on the second half of our teaser trailer. Like Avatar, not much about the actual storyline is given away but we do know its very action-packed which would appeal to the audience of action film fans. Like this, we can try and get across to the audience in our trailer that our film is a thriller/mystery in order to appeal to fans of that genre.

Toy Story 3


This teaser trailer is completely unlike the other two trailers we looked at, it features no actual footage from the film, is around a minute and a half long and includes a scene that has been shot specifically for the trailer. We don't know anything about the narrative of the film, but the trailer relies on the well known characters of the previous Toy story films, this is quite an effective trailer because 'Toy story' is a well known brand so not much more is needed as it already appeals to fans of Disney films. We wont be able to shoot our teaser trailer in this way, because we do not have a well known story or characters, therefore we have to rely on our storyline.

Valentines Day

We wanted to look at a romantic comedy teaser trailer as our film wont have the comedy but will have some elements of the romance included. This trailer is more like the Toy story 3 trailer in terms of length. It is effective because it gives away just enough of the story for you to want to go and see it and find out more, which is what we want ours to be like. The pace of the film is different to how we would like ours however as the pace in the teaser trailer is the same throughout. Unfortunately we cannot use copyrighted music in our teaser trailer like they have done. The actors in the film are the main focus of the teaser trailer with many well known names in the titles. One thing we could do, which we like that they've done in this trailer, is include a title that is relevant to the narrative of the film so the title of the film will stick in your mind. They have titles saying "Comes a day in the life.... of love" and "Save the date" which relate both to the day the film is released and the title Valentines Day.

Draft Of Script

We start off with a long shot of the two characters from behind walking along hand in hand in a park. Happy music is playing.

Cut to:
Close up of girls face, smiling & looking happy.

Medium shot of man proposing, down on one knee with jewellery box.

Close up of girls hand, with an engagement ring on her finger.

A medium shot of girl on the phone, looking excited.

"oh my god. I'm getting married"


It fades to black and suddenly tense music begins. We have a tracking shot of the girl walking to her door. We then see a high angle over the shoulder shot of the girl holding a threatening note. "I'm watching you" We then have a long shot from the other side of the road as she turns around looking worried.

The pace then builds up and the music gets faster as we see lots of quick shots of..

The man is in a hood so you cant see his face.

Progress

Our idea is developing well and we have now got an idea of the types of shots and scenes we would like to include in our teaser trailer. We have taken pictures of locations we would like to shoot in and have got examples of music we would like to use, but have not decided for definite yet. Things we have left to do include: casting, planning a storyboard and a script if it is needed. We have looked at teaser trailers with a similar narrative to our story, but still need to look at teaser trailers which are shot in the way we would like to shoot ours. We are also in the process of getting feedback on our ideas and doing a questionnaire for our target audience. After writing up a few questions for our questionnaire, we decided it would be a better idea to make a few polls on our blog, as it would be easier to send a link to people and gain feedback from their answers on the polls rather than sending out a questionnaire.

Other Film Magazine Front Covers

So far we have only looked at Empire magazine so we decided to look at other film magazines to see how they compare and so that our Film's front cover will follow the generic conventions of a film magazine. These two front covers are from a magazine called Total Film. It is less recognizable than Empire magazine because the font used on the front cover changes along with the layout of the features. Like Empire magazine, Total Film also uses one main image to catch the audiences attention and although it does not do it as much as Empire, Total Film boasts that it is "The Ultimate Movie Magazine" and uses sentences such as "Free Posters" to persuade the audience to buy it. Overall I think Empire is more effective, but there are similarities between the two.

Questionnaire

These are some of the question's we asked people in order to gain feedback about our teaser trailer idea:

1) What motivates you most to go and see a film?
- The actors
- The director
- Teaser trailer
- Website reviews
- Big advertising campaign
- Friend's opinions
- Other

2) How long do you think a teaser trailer should be?

- Under 30 secs

- 30 - 60 secs

- Over a minute

3) Would you be interested in going to see a thriller film?

- Yes
- No
-Maybe

4) In a teaser trailer, how much of the storyline do you think should be given away?

- Not much, remain a mystery
- A few snippets
- Most of the storyline
- All of the storyline

5) Which of these do you think a teaser trailer for a thriller film should focus most on?

- Background music
- Voice-over
- Speech from characters
- All
-Other

Feedback

From what we've done so far, we know that our teaser trailer is going to be about a film where a man and woman are in a relationship and when they break up he goes crazy and vows to get revenge on her, its a thriller-mystery-stalker type film and we are going to include tracking shots of him following her home and creeping around, he is going to be in dark clothing and her in feminine colours to make her seem more vulnerable. We are not going to give much away about the man or use any shot's of his face in order to build up lots of suspense about the character. We thought about maybe filming her opening a letter or holding a note saying "I'm sorry, please dont leave me" or something along those lines to show the audience that they've broken up due to something he's done. We are thinking about starting the trailer all happy, showing the couple in a long shot from behind, walking hand in hand through a field and then the shot's getting faster, darker and more sinister looking. We have presented this idea to people and gained some feedback.
"What's good about your idea is that it's a bit different to any horror film, because it is a thriller and you're not planning on not giving away the whole story, people will be intrigued to find out what happens. I think you should definately try not to give away much about the man because it will be effective if people are wondering who he is or what he looks like."
"It sounds like a good movie to me, I like everything about that idea, so I cant really think of anything you could change."
"I think your idea sounds really good and your planning seems to be coming along well"

Researching Other Media Studies Blogs

http://lewishyatta2mediastudies.blogspot.com/

They have analysed film magazine front covers and film posters in great detail, including arrows pointing to specific aspects and then descriptions about what they each include. They have also used a questionnaire to find out what type of trailer their target audience would like to see. Then they have analysed the results they gained and put them into a graph, asking questions such as; What elements do people look for in a good film?
Making a questionnaire and gaining feedback on our idea is definitely something we want to include, we have already gained feedback from people in our media class, but we also need to gain feedback from people out of school. We will also make a questionnaire asking people what kind of elements they would like to see in a teaser trailer and then depending on the results, we will incorporate these into our teaser trailer.

http://the180cursehasablog.blogspot.com/

They have looked at film magazine front covers and gained a lot of feedback about what they should include on their own front cover, they have also considered the font they will use and colour scheme, how big the images are going to be and included the date on the front of the magazine and an issue number to make it look authentic.

Inspiration

These top four photos are of staircases that I found on the internet and are similiar to what we want to include in our teaser trailer. The first photo is similiar to the one I took from the top of my stairs as it is also a high angle shot.

The top two photos are ones I have found of an alleyway how we might like ours to look. Underneath there is a photo Lucy took of an alleyway near her house and the road that she lives on. The alleyways are quite similar which is good although the top pictures look more dramatic because of the effects of the camera. The first picture is more like the one Lucy took because the alleyway is square. We could include a scene when the man is following the woman home or down the alleyway. We could use tracking shots so that it is from the point of view of the man following her. It is quite light in these pictures but we could film these scenes when its starting to get dark, so it would seem more dangerous.

These two photos are of an alleyway that goes underneath the train station in Ashtead, we could include a scene where the man is following the woman walking home through the alleyway. We could use tracking shots so that it is from the point of view of the man following her. It is quite light in these pictures as they were taking during the day, but we could film these scenes when it is just starting to get dark, so it would look more scary.

These are photos I took from the top of my stairs, we will use shot's like these to make the victim look more vulnerable because it is a high-angle shot and to give the clear impression that there is someone watching and following her. There are also shot's taken from between the bars on the stairs to convey that the person who is taking the pictures does not want to be seen.

Pieces - Chase & Status

This music video has a similiar storyline to our teaser trailer, as it is about a relationship gone wrong, and the woman wanting to get revenge. She send's him video footage which includes clips of his birthday party, when they were together and happy, then the rest of the video is her trashing his flat. This is something we want to incorporate into our teaser trailer to show them as a happy couple at the beginning and then how things change and turn nasty. Also, the actual song is something we may use in our teaser trailer as the lyrics relate well to our storyline.

Tear You Apart - She Want's Revenge


This would be good music to include in our teaser trailer as it sound's very creepy and would work well with our storyline that he want's revenge on her.


Dead Celebrity Status - If These Wall's Could Talk

The music we want to include in our teaser trailer will not necessarily be scary, but a song that build's up well and conveys the way that the man is feeling towards the woman.

We have started to think about costumes for our characters. At the moment there is going to be two main characters, a man and a woman and after they break up the man turns nasty and he starts stalking her. So we think that the man should be wearing dark clothing to represent this, and maybe to show that he's trying to avoid her seeing him.
As the woman is going to be a "damsel in distress" type character, her outfit should be feminine and innocent, so maybe a light coloured top such as pink or white to show the stark contrast between the dark coloured clothes the man is wearing.

We decided to look at some front covers of film magazine Empire. The film covers show us what sort of things we need to include on ours. They all feature one main image to catch the readers attention and blood red writing, which we can use on our film front cover. Sentences such as "Unbeatable Access" "World Exclusive" "Massive Preview Special" and "Incredible!, the worlds first fully 3D cover" convince people to buy the magazine as it persuades them they will be getting something special. All of the magazines feature a website address, date, barcode and price, which is something we can use to make our magazine front cover look authentic. Apart from the James Bond issue, each of the magazine covers are quite dark which is what we could do with our front cover especailly as our film is a dark, mystery type film.

Film Poster Ideas

These are film posters I found that have some aspects we want to include in our own film poster. 'Eagle Eye' features the two main characters, a man and a woman looking in opposite directions, which is what we may want to include in ours to portray the relationship between the two characters. By also using a tagline such as 'If you want to live, you will obey', this creates intrigue from the audience as to what the film is about.
'The Ruins' doesn't include a picture of any particular character, but does portray something significant to do with the film, which may be something we will use as we don't want to give much away about the characters, so we could use some symbolism such as an over the shoulder shot of a hand on somebody's back. This could help to create mystery about the film and draw the audience in.
'Afterlife' includes a long shot of a man standing over a dead body and the background is very dark, with a bright light shining over him to draw attention from the audience and keep the focus on that character. The tagline used is 'Life is the symptom, death is the cure' which provides the audience with an insight into what the film may be about but doesn't give much else away.
'I'm Not There' uses a silhouette of the main character and includes the actors that star in the film over the top of the outline. The layout is very simple, but also effective as the audience will know who the character is meant to be and the line used after the list of actors is 'Are all Bob Dylan', which is highlighted to stand out to the audience and inform them that this is who the film is about. A tagline is not used as it is not really needed to draw the audience in as they already know that the film will be about Bob Dylan.

Teaser Trailers

We watched the following teaser trailers to research what teaser trailers look like, how long they are, what is included and what is not included, to help us get a better idea of what our teaser trailer could be like. We also analyed the teaser trailers for other films earlier on in the year.

Minds Of Glass -

In this teaser trailer, I liked how the music is quite soft and slow, but still sound's creepy. Also, when the music suddenly get's faster and lot's of action shot's are shown, although a lot of the storyline is given away whereas we want our's to be a lot more mysterious and to show less of the characters. The storyline of the film is similiar to what we want to do, as it show's a relationship gone wrong and one of them wanting revenge. It also looks like something we could shoot as it looks like a low budget independent type film.


One Hour Photo -
This teaser trailer start's off as happy and innocent, with calm music playing and the shot's flowing together softly. The pace of the music suddenly build's up and the shot's are cut together much more sharply. Title's are used saying things such as 'He knows your life' which immediately provokes a reaction from the audience. Close-ups on his eyes are used to convey that he is psychotic and to draw the audience in to the character. The voice-over is used to provide the audience with a brief outline of the plot, but not too much is given away, like in the Minds Of Glass trailer.



Public Enemies -

I like the way that this teaser trailer build's up gradually, it start's off with outlining what the story is about and including titles saying 'America's most notorious criminal' and there is not much sound, just quiet music playing. We then see a shot of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, who are the two main characters in the film and well-known actors. The music then changes and sound's a lot more cheery as many continuous shot's of John Dillinger are shown. There is a lot of speech in this teaser trailer and we are not going to include that in our's, but the titles they have used to inform the audience and also build suspense are something we want to incorporate into our teaser trailer.

Feedback

After presenting our teaser trailer idea to the class and gaining feedback, we have now decided against doing a horror film and have decided to do a stalker-type thriller. Our teaser trailer will be about a relationship gone wrong and one of the people stalking the other and frightening things happening. We will use sharply cut shot's and dramatic music to convey that this is a thriller film and to engage the audience in the teaser trailer. We are going to look at teaser trailers that use a similiar storyline, narrative and camera style to how we want to shoot our teaser trailer. Film's that have been suggested to us are; Fear, American Beauty, Fatal Attraction and The hand that rocks the cradle. We have decided to look at these films as they are all thrillers and have a similiar storyline to what we want our teaser trailer to portray.

To Do List

• Come up with ideas for presentation - powerpoint slide
• Get audience feedback
• Choose actors
• Choose location
• Storyboard
• Research other blogs
• Decide on music
• Look at pictures and other ideas from teaser trailers
• Research Film posters
• Costume and props
• Research other magazine covers (Empire)
• Take pictures for our storyboard
• Questionnaire - 3 main idea's
• Make mind map
• Decide on shot types
• Treatment (Film idea, representation, mise en scene)
• Script of teaser trailer
• Researching similiar camera styles and narratives
• Shot list

This year we are filming a teaser trailer and designing a film magazine front cover and a poster as a campaign for the film idea that we come up with.

Nightmare on Elm Street trailer analysis

2009 Trailer

Genre - The trailer starts with a car chase and slow continuous shot's of a man running from villager's on a misty evening which creates a dramatic opening scene. The man hiding and then being burned by the people is Freddy Krueger as we see him reveal his red and green jumper under his jacket. There is a sign saying Elm Street which instantly tells the audience who know about the original film that this is going to be a horror film. Tense music and dim lighting is also used in this trailer to create suspense. We hear screaming which hint's at violence and also tells us that this is going to be a scary film.

Narrative - A voice over is also used, but it is a young girl speaking in this trailer and she then says 'I'm having these dreams', which immediately opens up the main element of the story. A young girl is also chanting in the background the same nursery-rhyme about Freddy Krueger as used in the 1984 film. Title's are included saying 'Dont fall asleep' which suggests that the monster get's to people when they are sleeping. This trailer also focuses a lot more around Freddy and how he came to be the monster he now is, whereas the 1984 film focused more on the main victim of the story who was a young girl.

Representation - Freddy Krueger is represented to us right from the beginning and we are shown his backstory and how he got his scars. In both trailer's young girl's are shown wearing white and playing with a skipping rope . The same stereotypical character's are also shown in the trailer to be teenagers and the main character is also a young girl.

Audience - The target audience would be fan's of the 1984 film. The teaser trailer hint's at the gore and violence but doesn't actually show as much of the death's like the 1984 film. It also appeals much more to the mainstream young adult audience whereas the 1984 film was much less mainstream and aimed at an older audience.

Media Language - Blood red font is also used in this trailer for the titles to convey that it is a horror film. The shot's are cut together much more sharply than the 1984 film because this is a teaser trailer rather than the full trailer and it also build's more suspense.

Nightmare on Elm Street trailer analysis

1984 Trailer


Genre - The trailer tells us that this is a horror film by following the conventions of this genre. It includes a monster/villain, screaming and music building up suspense along with the chanting of a young girl. It informs us that the director is Wes Craven who is famous for film's such as 'The hills have eyes' and 'The last house on the left', so we know that this film is going to be scary and contain a lot of gore because of who the director is. The lighting is dark and a voice-over saying that nobody will survive which indicates what type of film it will be.

Narrative - The voice-over is a man's voice and doesn't give much away but does provide us with hints. For example, it does show us that people are being killed and that this is happening in their dream's but we do not know why. The death's are left unexplained which creates a lot of enigma to make the audience want to see the film and find out what happens.

Representation - The main character's are very stereotypical as they use teenagers, which is typical of the horror genre to use young people as the victims. The trailer focuses on one girl, who is the main character that the story is focused around and is used because girl's are seen as more innocent and fragile, so make a better victim for a horror film. Another representation is the young girl chanting a nursery rhyme type song about Freddy Krueger coming to get you which is also typical and used in a lot of horror films. The monster is not shown clearly to build up suspense as to what he look's like and we only see his silhouette or a claw-like hand.

Audience - The target audience would be fan's of the director Wes Craven and his other films. The audience would most likely be adults as the film is very gory and scary.

Media Language - Blood red font is used for the title's which fit's in with the horror genre and makes the title's seem dramatic and to stand out more.

Preliminary Task

This was our first quick attempt at making a teaser trailer. I think it's good as it builds suspense and is enigmatic and I really like some shots, although some are very shaky when they shouldn't be. We could improve on this when we do our actual teaser trailer. I think think the titles look good so we could do them like this in our final teaser trailer and i like how the name of the film is in red. It involves the audience also by including the world "your" in the last title and in the film name.

Teaser Trailers

District 9 -

The trailer opens with an establishing shot of a sunset behind the city to set the scene. In stark contrast, a woman is then shown talking to the camera and saying 'Nobody comes back late at night anymore'. This immediately suggests to the audience that this film is going to be scary and will also intrigue them as to what it is about.
There is an element of mystery, especially at the beginning as it doesn't have a voice-over narrating what is happening as commonly used in some trailers. Instead, it seems to be much more of a documentary-style as people are being interviewed and talking directly to the cameras. Titles are inserted throughout saying; 'They are not welcome... They are not accepted... They are not human'. In between these three titles, short clips are shown of people voicing their opinions on what is happening.

There is non-diegetic music played up to this point which suddenly gets faster and louder when the title saying 'They are not human' is shown, which helps to build suspense and also informs the audience that something significant is about to happen. The music starts off fairly high-pitched and sounds almost dream-like but then builds up to create a more dramatic feel. There is silence for a few seconds after and non-diegetic music is then played again which sounds much more darker and lower-pitched in order to flow well with the action being shown on the screen of helicopters flying around a spacecraft and damage being caused in the city.

'Peter Jackson presents' then comes into play which immediately suggests to the audience what kind of genre this film may be and what kind of style it may be filmed in as he is well known for being behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. By including a famous name in the trailer, they are also gaining a wider audience as people who are fans of his other films may then want to come see District 9 because he is involved with it.

A first look at the alien is then shown in an over the shoulder shot in a dimly lit room. The man is asking 'Why are you here?' 'Why don't you just leave?' Subtitles are put up to inform the audience that the alien is saying they mean us no harm and just want to go back home. The camera then zooms in to a close-up on the alien to allow the audience to see facial detail and to convey that the alien plays an important part in the film. This tells us that the genre for this film is most likely going to be sci-fi/ action as it includes the generic conventions associated with those genres; aliens/fantasy characters, sharply cut together shots, dramatic fast-paced music and special effects.

The title of the film then comes up, followed by a short clip of the silhouette of a man walking towards the sunset and saying, 'I just want everyone watching this right now to learn from what has happened.' This leaves the audience in suspense and wanting to find out more about the film.
Alice In Wonderland -

The trailer opens with 'Walt Disney pictures' which tells the audience that this is going to be a family film and also appeal's to the fan base of other Disney films. After this we see a shot of Alice's shoes and then her running through the woods. The music starts off calm and then gradually gets quicker when Alice fall's down the hole. 'From Director Tim Burton' then comes into place which will appeal to the audience as he is a well-known name and also fan's of his other films may then want to come see this film. The trailer doesn't contain much narrative of the film, but it does give us a few ideas as to what the film is about by showing Alice falling into another world. We see an overhead shot as she is falling down the hole and then she drinks the potion which makes her shrink. Some teaser trailers shoot footage specifically for the trailer but this features footage from the actual film. The trailer builds up tension to Johnny Depp to draw in the audience as he is a very famous and popular actor. We hear a voice-over saying that the place could make you go "as mad as a hatter". It features all the well-known characters from the story such as the mad hatter and the white rabbit, this will help draw in the audience who have seen the cartoon version or read the story book. The trailer also includes the line "You're late for a very important date" which is from the book. The actress who plays Alice in the film seems a lot older than the age Alice is portrayed to be in the book, this may be to draw in an older audience or to sex up the film. It keeps the audiences attention because it is very visual and uses lots of CGI, but only shows short clips which makes the audience want to go and see the film to find out more. The trailer also builds tension by using the Cheshire cat and playing on the cat's eyes and creepy smile which is typical of Tim Burton.

V For Vendetta -

The trailer creates enigmas throughout which provides the audience with lots to talk about and gains interest in the film. It doesn't give away much direction of what the film is about except at the end, 'Remember remember the 5th of November'. We also see a guy wearing a Guy Fawkes mask which gives us the idea that it has something to do with Guy Fawkes but is left unsaid. The shot's are sharply cut which is typical of a teaser trailer to keep the audience's attention and gain suspense. This also tells the audience that this film may fall under the action genre. Some longer shot's are also used which provides more enigmas and ensures that the audience will want to find out more about the film. We also hear a woman say " Look what they've done to you, they've made you a monster", this appeals to people who know the comic and are interested in seeing how the character of V is portrayed.
'Created by the makers of The Matrix Trilogy' is used to draw in fans of that certain director to come and see their latest piece of work. The trailer does not tell us who plays the character of V, but they provide us with a famous actress' name; Natalie Portman who stars as Evey.

The Da Vinci Code -

The trailer doesn't show any footage from the actual film but uses footage shot specifically for the teaser trailer, this may be to keep up the suspense. If you did not know the story of the Da Vinci Code before watching the film then you would not know what kind of narrative the film uses, so in that respect the trailer is very clever as the voice-over says "Men have died to protect it" and " There are those would kill to expose it" which makes the audience want to find out what it is and creates suspense. Because it is a film adaptation of the book, fans who have read the book and enjoyed it will want to come and see the film so there is a definite audience. The teaser builds up suspense throughout and starts with long flowing tracking shots of what appears to be craters and rocks but then zooms out to show the painting of the Mona Lisa. This builds up suspense because the audience is not quite sure what they are seeing, while the dramatic music adds tensions and the voice-over makes dramatic statements. We can see that the genre of the film is going to be a mystery/thriller type as there is a secret running throughout the trailer and the voice-over saying, "will change the face of mankind forever". We are provided with the release date, the name of the director and some big names in the cast such as Tom Hanks. This is to draw on the fan's of that particular actor/director and convince them to come and see this film because of who made it and who star's in it as they think it will be good.

Fame -

The teaser trailer starts off rather slow with long shots of a young girl singing and playing the piano. We see a shot of the spot light which gives the audience the impression that they are performing on a stage. The theme song is then played, which is instantly recognisable from the TV series. As the shot's start to speed up, we are shown titles in between short shot's of various characters but no big names are shown. They don't give anything away about who the characters are and what they are like which encourages the audience to want to go and see the film to find out. From the teaser trailer we can immediately tell that this is going to be a dance film, as well as from the soundtrack music and the characters dancing and singing. Rather than most trailers which use big Hollywood star's in the trailer to draw in the audience, this trailer plays on the previous following of other successful dance films such as High School Musical and the previous Fame. Throughout the trailer it carries a theatrical theme with the title 'Fame' being written in lights and it saying in theatres, not cinemas everywhere September. The titles also have glittering gold lettering to add to that idea. From this we get the idea that the film is going to be of a musical/theatrical genre.

NEW PROJECT - YEAR 13

AS Coursework Reflection

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used digital technologies in the research stage by analysing the opening scenes to films in the action genre that I wanted to incorporate elements of into my own opening scene. I watched the opening scenes on youtube so that I had a wide range of action film openings that I could choose from. I chose to look at the opening scenes of The Bourne Ultimatum, Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, The Dark Knight, Sin City and Hancock. What I learnt from these films was that something significant always seemed to happen within the first five minutes of the film, which leaves the audience wanting to find out why it happened. In the construction of my film I used digital technologies, using a camera and microphone. I edited my film using a computer programme called Ulead Studios. For my evaluation I asked people to watch my film and leave comment's on the blog and give me some feedback about what was good and what could have been improved.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In our audience feedback, a few people commented on the lighting in some scenes so I will definitely concentrate more on that in my next piece of work. Some of the shot's we had filmed were lighter than others as we had filmed them on different day's so we edited them to make them look darker but they were still not the same. I need to focus on keeping up continuity during the film and thinking about what times filming should take place in relation to how light or dark the shot's should be. I think that the music we chose was effective and fitted in well with the film so I will be careful in selecting future music to make sure that it goes well with what is being shown on the screen.

G321 Positive Film Of Therfield

This is the link to our negative film of Therfield School

http://sophie329959blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/baddd-school.html

G321 Film's Representing Our School

Our task is to make two film's, each lasting two to three minutes. Working in group's, we have to produce one film that show's the positive aspects of our school, aimed at prospective parents. Our second film is to show the more negative aspects of our school and is aimed to gain extra funds from prospective sponsors/investors.

Negative aspects - Litter, Graffiti, Broken computers, Common room, Toilets.
Positive aspects - Good resources, Interactive lesson's, Sports and computer rooms.

We walked around the school and filmed good and bad aspects, although when we uploaded the video, there is a lot of film but we needed to film more bad aspects of the school. We cut out all the filming that we didn't need so that we could see how much more we needed to film. We then decided to split into two groups, one editing the good aspects of the school and one editing the bad aspects of the school. We have shots of students cooking, playing sports, in computer suites, art and science lessons, school productions and working in the library. For the bad aspects of the school, we went round and filmed some more shot's of litter, broken windows and graffiti.

G321 Evaluation

We started off with filming a few shot's of our two characters arguing outside, we switched between shot's from inside the house and shot's from across the road as the argument progressed. We included a few tracking shots of our characters running along the pavement, with one of them chasing the other. We used a variety of long shot's, close-ups, medium shots, over the shoulder shots and a high angle shot. We also included two shot's at the beginning and end of the film where the character is sitting at the table and remembering the fight that happened a few day's before.

We encountered a few problems with the film not being quite long enough, but we added in titles and slowed down a clip at the end to make it more dramatic and also to lengthen the duration of our film. Our original script included a lot of speech but we weren't able to include this when filming as you couldn't hear what the character's were saying when we were filming inside the house so we thought it best to leave out the speech. Also, we wanted to film the chase just as it was starting to get dark, but when we filmed the first shots the sun was setting and the second shots were a lot darker. We couldn't film the shots again as when we had started filming there was snow on the ground so our film would not have had a continuous effect as the snow had all melted away by the next day. We decided to try and brighten the darker clips of the chase in Unlead Studio 8 so that they had a more similiar lighting to the previous shots we had filmed. We took a while to decide on what type of music we wanted in our film that would work well with our story but i think what we chose was suitable. We added the music to gain effect and to help the story flow better.

We chose to do an action film, this is shown by the shots we used such as; tracking shots, close-ups and high angle shots. We also added fast-paced music to make it more like an action film and we included a chase between the two characters. Also, when the argument is taking place I think how we cut between shot's from inside and outside the house when the two characters are arguing flow together well. We decided to add in music to build tension as there was a lot of background noise that we didn't want to include. We also thought it would be very effective to add the sound of a heartbeat near the end to portray that the character was feeling anxious while they were reminiscing about what had happened a few days earlier. We played the heartbeat after the chase had taken place, then faded to a black slide to make it seem more mysterious.

Our film followed the forms and conventions of real media products as we included elements needed to make it into an action film. For example, when the chase begins our shot's were cut together sharply and quickly which reflects the action genre and we included music that built suspense throughout the opening of the film. There is also the fact that the audience does not yet know what the two characters are arguing about which draw's them into the story and makes them want to watch more.

My media product represents two different social groups as one of our characters was posh and polite, wearing their school uniform and the other character who started the fight was a lot more rough and wearing a tracksuit and was not well-spoken.

The audience for my film would be teenagers as our characters were both teenagers so it would appeal more to them and make it easier to relate to as they are the same age group. Also, because it was an action film, younger people are more interested in this and more likely to watch the film, although adult's who like action films will aslo enjoy this. We attracted our audience by making sure that we followed most of the conventions of an action film, for example we used music to create effect and sharply cut together shots when the chase was happening to gain the audience's attention.

Audience Feedback -
"I think that it needed more confrontation in the first scene between the two characters. There were good shots and lighting. The music sounded very creepy and appropriate. I like the way that you showed the present and then went back in time. Louisa could look a bit more battered in the after shots. I liked how in the end you didn't focus the shot on louisa until the film ended, I liked that you followed the glass onto the table to finish."

"I think you have used some really good camera angles and its a good idea for an opening of a film. The only thing that you could maybe improve is that it is a bit too dark at some points, so if you were to film it again you could film it when it's a bit lighter, but other than that I thought it was really good".

"I like the sound effect of the heart beating and the scenes where the characters are running look really good."

"I think the music built up the tension well and was interesting".

"I particularly liked the part with the heartbeat as it made it dramatic, but the shot's were a bit bright in parts".

I feel that this film was an improvement on our first film as we had more time available to work on it and we avoided the same problems we came across in the first film. We included a wider variety of shot's to create meaning and were also able to film wherever we wanted, not just at school. There was a lot more freedom given with this film as we could choose which genre we wanted the film to be in and also what we wanted to happen in the story. Whereas, in the first film we were set a task of filming someone walking down the corridors in school and we only had our character for an hour. Also, during the making of the first film I learnt how to use the programme to edit our film so it was easier the second time around as I knew more about what i was doing. I feel that I have learnt a lot in the progression to my final film as we started off not being able to hold a camera steady and having no idea how to edit shot's in Unlead Studio 8 and how to add or take out sound.

G321 Our Film

G321 Locations

Here are some photos of possible locations where we will be shooting our film.


Shot of two characters arguing, outside the window.
Shot of Jane walking home from school, then being chased.

Running into this alleyway.

G321 Script for our film

LONG WAY TO HAPPY.

-- In a dimly lit kitchen, Jane is sitting at the table then looks down and puts her head in her hands. She sighs to herself; the room is almost silent except for the murmur of the television in the background.

Fades to black and words appear on the screen; ‘a week earlier’.

Cut to:

Cuts to a high-angle shot from the inside of a house, looking out the window, watching the two characters arguing outside. We can see their hand gestures and muffled shouting.

Cut to:

- A long shot from across the street, we can clearly see they are angry at each other.

Jane: I don’t know what you are talking about! I haven’t done anything!

Rosie: Shut up!! Don’t play dumb with me.

Jane: I don’t know what you mean.

Rosie: Don’t lie to me, you stuck up bitch.

Jane: Look, I don’t know what your problem is; I’m going home now.

Rosie: (shouts after her as she walks away) Yeah, you better run.

- The scene finishes with Jane leaving and Rosie left standing there still angry about what has happened.

It fades to black and the words ‘a few hours later...' appear.

Cut to:

We see Jane walking home after school in a long shot; she’s near where the argument took place beforehand. We have a few shots of her before Rosie appears behind her. All we can hear is background noise until…

Rosie: (angry, shouting) OI!!

Cut to:

Jane turns round and using an over the shoulder shot we can see Rosie angrily staring at her. Jane looks terrified and starts to run away from Rosie.

Rosie: Come back here now!!

Rosie begins to chase Jane along the road. We hear the cars driving past in the background but the main sound is of Jane's heavy breathing and her heartbeat thumping loudly.

Cut to:
It fades to black and we are back in the present in the kitchen again and she runs her hand over her black eye and is crying. This time it is deadly silent -- no background noise. She then picks up a bottle of alcohol which is on the table and takes a swig.

G321 Planning For Our Film

Costumes:

Jane is going to be walking home from school, so this is the school uniform she is going to be wearing. We will put the character Rosie in dark coloured clothing and a hoodie to make her look the opposite to Jane and portray that she is the 'baddie' .

Synopsis:

After being horribly attacked by an older girl on the way home, Jane can’t figure out what she did to deserve it. She finds it very difficult to cope with what happened and her life begins to spiral out of control. She then starts drinking which results in her taking a drastic turn. She feels worthless and is determined to get revenge for what has happened but will she find out the real reason why she was attacked? It’s not as simple as she thought; there’s a dark secret that lies between her family and her attacker’s family which puts her in great danger.