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.