Trailer : Youtube Tagging

Question 3 : How effective is the combination of my Main Project and the Ancillary Texts?

Question 3 : How Effective is the Combination of your Main Project and Ancillary texts? - Director's Commentary

Poster : Technology

Despite the fact that I am going to make a video on this same subject, I thought that I would make a list of all the Software/Technology that I have used to create my advertising package.

In terms of Software I have used :


Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Flash CS5




Final Cut Pro




Adobe Dreamweaver CS5




Livetype





Microsoft Excel






Microsoft Word





Apple Iphoto





Websites and Online Technology that I have used:

Poster and Trailer Work : Fonts

My aim with the fonts was to get a vaguely gothic font that appeared primarily creepy and mysterious, as opposed to action orientated.

MAIN TITLE

I decided that for the main title, I wanted a germanic/Old English font but with modern effects. An early favorite was "Deutsche Zierschrift", however it reacted badly to having effects such as 'bevel' applied to it, due to the fact that it was designed to look physically shaded. In the end I chose ''Faith Collapsing" over it, due to the fact that it looked better with editing than the other one. Also, its faded look made the title look more like dried blood which was a more effective look that just a gothic font.

NAME

Next to the title was my name, and to make this look effective, I wanted something that looked like a signature, in the end, I rejected "Bickham Script Pro" (No hyperlink, this font is pre-installed on Mac) on the grounds that it looked too much a font and not like a signature that I would have. I also rejected "Angel Tears", because it looked too much like the 'Coca Cola' Logo, which would look gimmicky. In the end, I chose the font "Quid Pro Quo" because of it's actual similarity to my handwriting, it made the poster look hand-signed. I wanted a level of personalisation, the Ben Rogers' gives the impression that it has been sent by me to the audience as a gift of sorts. I also did this because it reminded of directors like John Carpenter who put their name at the beginning of every title

BILLING BLOCK

When it comes to the billing block, there are two main fonts. I used both of them, but only one of them for the billing block. "Steel Tongs" appears on first glance to be more associated with action, whilst there is more subtlety in "Universal Accreditation". The reason for this is the fact that "Universal Accreditation" is slimmer and rounded slightly, whilst "Steel Tongs" is square and thick. As well as this, it, as a font is more versatile to editing, I was able to achieve a more metallic effect on the wrting than with "Steel Tongs". However, I did use "Steel Tongs" on the rating next to the 15 Certificate. As well as this, on the poster, next to the Billing block there were two little blocks of text, written in "Bordeaux Roman Bold LET" (Installed on Mac), I saw that on the internet this was considered a graphic design font and thought that if it was being recommended by the experts, I might as well use it, it works very well to the metallic effect I applied to it

OTHER FONTS USED

I used the remaining fonts on the award on the poster. Again two of these were described in a different article (here) as Professional, and I thought that Trajan had the Grandeur I was looking for when it came to writing 'Winner', it is a useful font. Helvetica (Installed on all computers) wasn't really used all that much, due to the fact that it is quite plain. I used Metropolitan for one of the Awards because it is an instantly recognisable movie font, and so Film Awards might choose to use it. Justice by Dirt2 is just used to write 2011, and it is a nice looking font I had installed.

Audience Work : Screening

At long last, I have finally shown my trailer to an audience of twelve people as well as, potentially, an upcoming online audience via. youtube and facebook. Here are some pictures of my screening...

From this short questionnaire given to my audience, I have learnt what I need to do and I have already re-cut the trailer to accommodate some of the ideas that were put forward, certain issues were difficult to change, and so some things remain unchanged, but then again, no product is perfect. Underneath are my findings from the questionnaire. As well as this, I will make a Wordle of words (I assume this is the way you refer to a Wordle) out of the summaries put forward by the group.

As a whole, the focus group came back with some pretty solid recommendations.

They conclusively said that the titles needed to remain on screen much longer and so I have edited it, so that the titles write themselves quicker and stay on screen longer, so this should hopefully please the audience, the re-edit has positive feedback on youtube. As well as this, some brightness issues were brought up, and they were dealt with instantly... and also some sound balancing issues which were improved.

Here is a Wordle of Words that were included by the focus group in the questionnaire, the larger the word is, the more times it was repeated. For example, interesting was one of the most common words used.

What became clear from the focus group is that people around the age of 18 would usually go to to movie with their friends, but not alone which would suggest that it is a film that they are partially interested in, but would prefer to go with their friends. A majority of people said that they had friends who would go to this movie. The success within this age bracket is quite surprising, I was sort of aiming at a little higher, with a potential niche audience of older middle aged watchers.

Trailer : FINAL Trailer

Here is the Final Trailer.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products : trailer pt. 1

The final basic convention of a trailer is that of the narrative, the narrative of my trailer is that of a kidnapping and the potential revenge. My trailer is shot in a low key way, in which the real action of the film is not shown, this being a convention of film that I am personally not keen on, I found that personally it would intrigue me more, if the ‘hook’ were a little more subtle. In terms of subtlety, I think that what I would have done, if it were allowed by the Exam Board, I would have gone for a trailer with a copyrighted song and the finished product would have more of a minimalist art-house feel such as the ‘Confessions’ Trailer , which even Hollywood Films like ‘The Social Network’ are aiming to mimic. However, my narrative is presented through intercutting to violent flashbacks like in the trailer for (and the movie itself) ‘Memento’, other aspects that are similar to that trailer are the displacement of narrative and the fact that nothing is in its natural order. The narrative also has a undetermined briefcase which is left as a mystery, both the films ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Ronin’ used a briefcase as a crucial MacGuffin in their narrative.

Finally, as per usual, the links to the films mentioned above are below.

The Social Network http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB95KLmpLR4

Memento: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq9eM4ZXRgs

Confessions (Japanese, No subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1gBAbI8UQQ

Pulp Fiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFhadqrMPiU

Ronin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFhadqrMPiU

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products : trailer pt. 2

The next convention in a trailer is to establish a leading character/s. I believe that I did this well. Whilst my trailer is meant to be short, we are meant to get the impression that the Father is a ‘no-nonsense’ character, he is out to protect his daughter from those who have kidnapped her. This character is reminiscent of Liam Neeson’s character in ‘Taken’, however unlike Neeson’s character, he, from the trailer, appears to call assistance which would suggest he may be taking the law into his own hands similar to Michael Caine’s character in ‘Harry Brown’. The character archetype is deeply rooted in many 70s Vigilante/Crime movies such as Charles Bronson in ‘Death Wish’ and Clint Eastwood in ‘Dirty Harry’, hopefully an audience will recognise an attempt to hark back to this rapidly disappearing genre of movie (However, the various resurgences of this genre e.g. ‘Taken’ and ‘Old Boy’ have been wildly successful). The other aspect that he fits in with characters of this type is in his age, the character is meant to be around 40 - 55.The daughter, on the other hand, is tightly in-line with kidnapping victims in movies, she is blonde and wears clothes that denote that she is probably wealthy, films with characters similar to this are ‘Man on Fire’ and ‘Ransom’. However, my character is older than the usual character in a kidnap movie, usually the daughter is around 5-9 years old, whilst the daughter in my film is 15.

Once again, the links to all the film trailers mentioned above are below...

Taken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvUxdQ4q-Lg

Harry Brown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2S3SraFmI0

Death Wish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GieK_55uyY

Dirty Harry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Ro0Wiq6v0

Old Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLn1y9v6yno

Man on Fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4kLizDXLY0

Ransom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL4fNkypfdU

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products : trailer pt. 1

Certain conventions and clichés embed themselves in the collective mind of the audience, and in the following piece of writing, I will explain how my trailer strives to become reminiscent of, whilst not mimicking, trailers of the same genre.

Beyond the mere genre of the trailer, my trailer keeps to many of the key structural points of a trailer. Throughout the trailer, certain important aspects are established. In general, a trailer must simply outline the location, in my trailer, the location is established through the clearly British accents and the recognisable London suburbs. I chose not to really turn the fact that it is based in London, due to the fact that the plot is not really affected by the fact that it is set in London, in my trailer the location is apparent and not actively demonstrated. To be honest, whilst it is Film Convention to establish setting, in Thrillers, the concept behind them often needs to be strong enough that you could set the film anywhere. Due to the fact that Thrillers, Horrors and Action Movies are in their nature, High Concept e.g. The U.S. Remake of British TV Show, ‘State of Play’ as a Political Thriller movie and the (often line-for-line) remaking of Asian thrillers such as Korean romantic Thriller ‘Siworae’ as ‘the Lakehouse’ and Chinese Crime Thriller ‘Infernal Affairs’ as the ‘the Departed’. These are all examples of a plot transcending cultural barriers, and proof that the plot of a thriller far exceeds the necessity to associate a particular culture to it. Very often in thrillers, there is some form of criticism of certain social status, for example there is often criticism of Bourgeois culture which is an area of society that appears internationally and thus the criticism retains its strength worldwide. However in certain films, such as ‘127 Hours’, the setting does essentially define the film, it provides the real centre-point of the plot. There are also films that are specifically made to portray or critique a particular culture e.g. ‘City of God’, ‘Kidulthood’ and so-called American ‘Hood Films’. My product is aimed not to be specific to British culture, it is meant to create a plot that is recognisable to a multi-national audience.

This will be continued in another blog post. Links to all forementioned trailers are below.

1. State of Play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ME87tEX9Qw
2. Siworae/Il Mare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRe7E5GIq_M
3. The Lake House: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V02lqEpbk2Y
4. Infernal Affairs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO4RLrNVbd4
5. The Departed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWvwjZ0eDc
6. 127 Hours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ
7. City of God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJdW1TevoyA
8. Kidulthood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vliupa-zi8

Changes to the Plan

Due to the fact that my original plan was somewhat dull and unambitious, I have felt the need, rather late on, to revamp this project. Various changes have been made to the narrative, actors, general concept and length of trailer.

First, the narrative seemed boring, yet unachievable. The amount of actors needed and the nature of the action scene, meant that most of the shots would have ended up as an incomprehensible mess. What was originally a regular married couple with a daughter, seemed a poor idea, because they are not the sort of people who would be attacked. The idea of a random attack limited the plot and drove the narrative nowhere, it made the villains faceless and unremarkable. The general plot was blunt and predictable, the trailer appeared to lead nowhere, outlining little of the plot, without creating the required mystery, there was no Unique Selling Point. Nothing made this story watchable. I have now improved aspects of this trailer, to encompass the single father and his daughter, the attack is not planned and is even forewarned with the case sent to the house. There is now a mystery in the plot, about the father and his connections, the item in the briefcase and why they have kidnapped his daughter. Also the kidnap of the daughter as opposed to the murder, means that I have more motive to go after the villains and it spares me having to make what would be undoubtedly a poor death scene, something that is frankly impossible for a student to produce. The briefcase also adds a face to the villain/s.

In terms of actors, the characters that I had, external to the main three, whom I have kept, would honestly have distracted us from the main plot of the film. The role of the mum and Dad's friend were actually just a waste of time, and due to the fact that I am incurably awful at finding actors, I set myself the job of finding these actors, when I could have just got on with filming. I changed the father from being some awful Dulwich dad into being a character who potentially had connections to criminals, because it was implausible that he would be able to take revenge otherwise. Also the daughter has changed from an aggressive character, to a more regular character, the reason for this change is that it was a needless subplot, and subplot has no place in a thriller trailer. The dad's friend, again was a character who I had no actors for, I don't know anyone who lives in this country who could play this part.

The General concept of the trailer has changed, it is no longer quite the revenge trailer it was, because I realised that movies of this sort aren't made on the budget that I have, and also they are a genre generally more associated with huge actors e.g. Michael Caine, Liam Neeson or even action movie guys, whom I don't know, thus basing it on a formula that it is not associated with amateur/newcomer British cinematography. I have decided to make it more of a plain thriller, with aspects of mystery. The idea of action movie aspects, when I don't have the use of after effects, basically means what I film will look awful. I need to make it a bit more low-key and a bit more subtle and symbolic, less physical and blatant.

As well as this, the final aspect that needed a review is the timing of the trailer, the montage idea did not suit the pace of the trailer that I have decided on. The timing of the first scene was really slow and seemed to hark back to last year's opening scene task, and thus I needed more pace and at the same time far less. So I decided to create a mysterious trailer by intercutting multiple scenes at the same time as opposed to playing a straight scene which will bore the audiences senseless. As well as this, it will allow me to cover up the limitations that I have as a student, without intercutting, a kidnap scene would look poor, but flashing action at an audience will really pump them up as opposed to showing them the action, thus removing the element of surprise that audiences really want when they go to the cinema.

As you can see, I was incredibly critical of my original trailer-concept and thought I would somewhat obliterate it, to show my thought process, one of the reasons I wasted so much time is that I passionately wanted to make an original trailer, and I did not want to make the one that I had first thougt up, because it was bad.

Research and Planning : Sound

To be honest, sound is possibly the most difficult aspect of the trailer, it is very difficult to make my own music due to the fact that it is difficult to construct my own music for the project. I am currently looking at http://freeplaymusic.com/ because it has a large selection of copyright free music, however I do think that this website can be a little vague in terms of genre and sound on occasion.



As well as free sites like freeplaymusic, I looked at a site
that I am a member of, http://www.looperman.com/ which is based on the idea of creative commons and credited use and so if I were to use their tracks, I would have to credit them for their work and seeing as I have designed a slate, having more names to put in it could do no harm. So far, I have found a few tracks and a few artists that seem to be potential choices, I am already in contact with one of them due to a video I made outside school. So far, I have found the website to be easy to use, and I have decided that in the end the 3 categories from which potential tracks will come are Cinematic, Industrial or Metal because all three contain dark and heavy tracks that would suit the film. I am also planning to see if more electric tracks would fit with the trailer itself.

Here are a few URLs of good sounding potential music :
http://www.looperman.com/tracks_detail.php?tid=28588 (Some parts of this)
http://www.looperman.com/tracks_detail.php?tid=30432
http://www.looperman.com/tracks_detail.php?tid=11982
http://www.looperman.com/tracks_detail.php?tid=7915

Research and Planning : Titles, part 1.

I have decided on a temporary title and have been applying various effects to titles to make them look intriguing and not boring, the name of my film is currently 'ABSOLUTION', despite the religious undertones of the term, I think the word has connections with contemplation, redemption and potential revenge. As well as this, there may potentially be a church scene in the montage scene. These titles are the first simplistic design for graphics, I will soon be posting a collection of fonts that are possibilities. These are mainly simple filter jobs on Photoshop Creative Studio 3, but they show three clearly dissimilar concepts.

Research and Planning : Idents

First of all I searched for independent idents that looked reasonably professional and attempted to notice trends in the industry, I noticed that essentially one of most recurring factors in idents is the stationary logo. Many independent film companies have stationary logos central to the screen, and the more high budget company has a full screen animation. So, to begin to work on making a low budget ident. Below are examples of independent logos that are prime examples.

As you can see, they often have a 'boxed' image with text below, the image is often quite simplistic and preferably quite bizarre and memorable , sometimes they are connected to the film, e.g. (A high-budget example) the color changes and additions to the Warner Bros. logo in the Matrix or Harry Potter an often film companies that make certain kinds of film have logos that relate to the genre of film i.e. a thriller will not be made by a company that is represented by a cartoon bunny.

My first ident is designed to look like an independent studio. It has a stationary image that is

meant to look like some sort of scientific cell, the name 'Green Bros.' is both a pun on the idea of the Warner Bros. name and is also an anagram of my name. The colour of the logo is

of course, green. The image is meant to look like a green cell, there is no real reason for this other than it looks good on screen and does not disrupt from the mood of the trailer, in fact I would say that it retains it's own dark qualities. However, it does contrast from the general colour scheme of the trailer which is mainly going to be slightly greyscale footage and reddish maroon titles.

Recce - 3rd and 4th Shots.

Shot 3

I thought that this shot had an intriguing aspect to it, the angles of the walls all avoid strict 90 degree angles and I think that this makes the shot look sort of off. The arch under which someone could easily stand would make a good meeting place for two characters. I think as well that the shade and colour of the bricks (particularly in the first photograph.) are not too colourful and thus allow the shot to appear drained of colour and thus perfect for the idea of grieving and the negative themes of the film. I think it would be easy to film nice shots here, and it easy to travel here, but I may have to ask the permission of local resident.

SHOT 4

This final little alley way is once again, very close to my house and other locations that I will be filming at, unlike the areas I have looked at, this has significantly less space which might suggest less space for cameras, but at the same, it captures a more claustrophobic and tense scene, which could look better in a trailer, it gives a sense of pressure. As well as this, this area has more vegetation and appears a little more colourful on camera, to be honest this may be a negative thing, on the other hand, the area, if I am choosing to portray this as a meeting place arranged by the main character.

Recce - 1st and 2nd Shots.

I went on a photographic recce over the weekend to a collection of places in the area that I could potentially film a few outside scenes, my aim was to find either run-down areas or shabby built-up areas. In the scene, where the main character meets his 'shifty' friend and I chose areas that are inconspicuous, because I thought these would be the best place for the characters to meet secretly.

SHOT 1

In my first shot, I thought this would be good because it is a secluded area around the back of a local football and near a substation, the walls are quite grimey and the bars and locks in the background look very foreboding and link to criminal activity and danger. In a way they are almost symbolic. As well as the sort of angle-shot that I would shoot from, I have included a picture of the locks and the door in detail. This location is good for several reasons: it looks good, it is within a kilometre of my house and thus is relatively easy for traveling to and finally it is not within in the vicinity of anyone's house and thus I will not be disturbing people when filming.

SHOT 2

I thought that this shot was good because it appears really wide and so there is a lot of space to film and yet at the same time, it feels quite compressed which helps give a good feel to the scene. I think this also looks good because it looks like it's a garage that could belong to the main characters friend. The garage doors alternating between vertical and horizon patterns, this looks quite nice in shot. I think it would look quite natural to film here as it seems like the kind of place people could meet one another. Again, this is reasonably close to my house although less secluded than the first location, being on an estate, I may have to ask people if I can film here, I do not know yet.

The 3rd and 4th Shots will go up soon.

Character Designs

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR BETTER QUALITY

Trailer Analysis : Harry Brown

Does this trailer fit the usual conventions of a revenge thriller? if so how? (or if not then what is new?)

The trailer to Harry Brown is a very good example of a revenge thriller trailer. The trailer is clever in the way that it genuinely does make you want to watch the movie. The Trailer begins with the problem, violent youths on a council estate being watched by Michael Caine as Harry Brown. Yes, it sets up a victim, Harry's friend Leonard at the beginning of the trailer. As well as this it sets up the situation where the main character makes a decision that he must attempt to right, like when he fails to think properly about protecting his friend and then exacts his vengeance on the youths. However it diverts from the usual plot of a revenge movie in the way that the Police are, by the looks of it, not condemning Harry for his vigilanteism, most revenge films choose to view revenge as more

Which trailer conventions does this trailer use well?
(voice over? / dramatic sound? /is it structured into 3 parts? /does it establish the genre ? how? /what audience do you think it is aiming at? )

Most of the trailer is dominated by sound-bites and voiceover that really give us the structure of the narrative, Michael Caine's voice is very well known and so this gives us a sense of familiarity to him and as well as this, he manages to convince me that his vengeance is justified. The sound used, includes violent noises and the trailer itself ends on the sound of a gunshot, this prepares us for a violent, modern urban film. I would say that the trailer is structured into probably 2 or 3 sections, the first being his friend feeling threatened and being killed, then the impression on Harry and him pondering whether he can just let his friend's killer go un-punished, and the final section (by the look of it much longer than the first two) him exacting his revenge. I believe that this trailer knows it has a huge audience, Michael Caine personally draws a large audience as one of the most respected British film-actors, this will appeal to older fans who know Caine, the idea of rowdy youth as well would suggest an older viewpoint of young society. As well as this it could be seen as a film for a younger audience as it is filled with action and violence and has a soundtrack of young urban music and the British rapper, Plan B, is a co-star in the film.

3) What are three moments or images or edits that you think are particularly effective in this trailer?

The images of the youth rioting in this street from an above angle in the dark makes it seem really ominous, this shot encapsulated the fear that Leonard felt before he died, the second image that really makes an impact is Michael Caine crying due to the fact that primarily he is a good actor and we can see how much this means to the character, Caine is also famous for playing tough characters and thus it is a strange image to see. The other is the finishing image of the trailer, where he points the gun at the screen and says ''You failed to maintain your weapon, Son.' which is the image that we are meant to be left with, thinking that he is fixed on revenge and nothing is going to prevent.


4) look at the studio idents - (what can you learn about idents and their style from these?)

The Lionsgate is the text LIONSGATE in block capitals it is black on a background of clouds in a sepia sky of clouds. They are quite interesting

Trailer Analysis : Oldboy Trailer

The Oldboy trailer is a good example of a trailer that trys to appeal to a foreign audience. As a whole I don't think that it is a great trailer, but the movie was a huge international success. The first shot of the trailer remains unexplained adding mystery to the film. Then a selling point quickly pops up, "Winner of Grand Prix Festival of Cannes 2004", for many foreign films, it is quite difficult to sell them without the authenticity added by an award at a festival. We are then given some text with a distinctive font and a patterned background. Does not just tell the plot, shows it on screen. There is also a selective use of well-framed shots that show us the character as well as his surroundings. The trailer then changes to show our character having suffered, then action and revenge constitutes a change in the music. The trailer very much concentrates on our character 오대수 and I think it is quite clear that we are meant to view him as frustrated and obsessive by his behaviour and appearance. As it gets nearer the ending of the trailer,whilst flashing quotes from reviews to reinforce that it is infact a great movie, we get more of the impression of a tragic ending with the shots of the woman crying and our main character being beaten up. In this way, the trailer presents us with an outline of a story. Then the title comes up in a distinctive style of title.

Teaser Trailer Work : What is a Teaser Trailer?

What is a Teaser Trailer?

6 Months before Trailer, they are between 30-90secs .
They aim to tease the audience.
They show the name, the date, the stars.
Best bits of the film, good framing, ACTION, PLOT etc.

Dragon Tattoo

Closeup Image, the date comes second.
More graphics.
Characters, Text.
Faster pace, few soundbites, not much explanation.
Establishing single-shot characters.
Location.
Series of shots that seemed to link a crime.
Violence shown, the punch.

Played with Fire

US Version, the titles are very good
Uses visual effects, ripples the titles, multiple colours and capitalisation ‘they FRAMED HER for MURDER’ emphasis

Hornet Nest
Focus on a character.
A little shot between titles, and the music
Actor’s names
Only a bit of action, not actually needed…
Visual impression,