Required Props and Equipment

In order to ensure that our trailer looks as visually appealing as possible, with a strong degree of realism, it will be important that we use an accurate selection of props. I have wrote up what props and equipment will be required, so that on the day of filming we wont be with anything important and essential to the trailer.

Props:

·         Drugs (cocaine) the idea of using bicarbonate of soda was solidified due to how real it looks when compared with an actual dose of drug. Competent research was also performed in order to identify the Hollywood “substitute” to hard drugs, and bicarbonate of soda was Identified as this.

·         Syringe – we decided to use a real, fully functioning syringe in order to aid the realism of the clip. There may be an issue with capturing the actual injection of the syringe, as we do not have the expertise to do this safely, so it may be a requirement to suggest the injection, through varying camera shots.

·         Car – in order to genuinely show the audience that one of our characters was in fact killed in a tragic car accident, it is essential that we capture footage insinuating, if not showing this to a varying degree. In order for this to appeal real as possible we will need to use one of our own cars, and attempt to film this scene, yet due to the hazards involved, it may be a case of merely filming footage that much like the syringe scene, suggests that this has taken place.

·         Knife – in conjunction with the dark atmosphere within our trailer/film plot, I believe it to be essential that we film our mugging scene with a real (yet blunt knife), this once again aiding the realism of our clip, as a plastic knife would not have the same feel or appearance as a real one. It will however be important that the scene is well planned in order to ensure there is no risk of injury.

·         Fake Blood – although not an essential prop, and one that may not be used at all, the presence of fake blood in certain scenes would aid to the visual appeal of certain clips, such as the car crash scene if required.

Equipment:

The props however would be effectively obsolete with we need not have the necessary equipment to capture the footage to a high standard. To ensure we do not turn up to any filming without the essential equipment I have also decided to note this down.

·         Camera – the most important piece of equipment is the camera used to film the footage, as without it we would be rendered useless, unable to film any of our clips.

·         Tripod- although not essential, a tripod will be extremely useful when it comes to filming certain footage, as it enables us to utilise an entirely steady camera when the camera is recording. It will not be required for some shots, such as dolly shots were the quivering camera aids to the realism, but for those shots were a steady camera is needed to capture emotion from a characters persona, this will be essential.

·         Computer with good editing software – it would be pointless capturing all our footage if we had no effective way of combining all the clips and embedding our soundtrack. For this the program “sony vegas” has been suggested, as it is a high tech editing software enabling us to basically combine the clips and introduce a variation of special effects.

Group Roles

Group roles

Member	Role
Callum	Camera work, producing
Tyler	Acting, Producing
Michael	Editing, acting, producing
Will	Acting
Ellie	Acting

When it came to the filming of the trailer, we each provided ourselves with the roles we felt most comfortable with. I chose to provide the filming for the trailer, as I could create a steady shot with a good use of angles and camera work to help capture the shot. Michael will his computer editing skills to create the final piece and edit each of the shots together. The final member of the group tyler will use his drama skills and experience to deliver a performance as one of the main characters within the trailer. Each member will also play an active role in the way of producing the trailer, each contributing ideas about how the trailer will be put together and steadily improved. In order to film the best possible trailer, we also intend to use two external actors, so that we can then film the short and make it work the way we desire it to.

WonderLand Trailer Storyboard



In order to aid with oour planninfg we constructed a trailer storyboard in order to gain a better perspective of how the trailer would look, as well as provide us with a basic plan, so we know in what order the trailer would be put together once we have finished filming all the nessacary parts of the trailer.

Wonderland Presentation Peer Review

In order to gain some feedback about the potential success of our project, we gave a presentation about our idea, with a basic plot synopsis aswell as details on our inluences, and who we intend our target audience to be. Once the presentation was delivered, we asked out peers to give us an idea of how they felt about our idea, and to provide us with positive and negative criticisms, so we can alter and improve our ideas where possible.
Here is a video interview with our teacher, Mr Morris, delivering us his insight on the project.

Magazine cover and poster analysis

nningTrainspotting

Appearance within a well established film magazine would give the film a good amount of positive publicity, which would also be free, as they will be more than willing to advertise the film if it provides them the opportunity to generate sales from its purchase. Not to much about the film is given away on the cover, as it would void the need to purchase the magazine as well as viewing the film.  The films title is in large and bold writing though, and this ensures its catches the attention of possible readers. The size of the image utilised is also enables it to be the centre piece of the cover, clarifying that it is the main article of the magazine. Much like our created film some elements of trainspotting would not be included in the magazine, such as details of the extensive drug use, a key part of the film, as it may not be acceptable to be viewed by certain potential readers, such as those of a young age.





The film poster cleverly depicts the main characters within the film portraying a pose which represents their personalities within the film, such as begbie, the aggressive character, swearing at the camera. This gives the audience a very vague idea of what each of the characters will bring to the film without giving anything away. The use of names also helps with regards to people who have read the book, so they can get an idea of how accurate the portrayals are of these characters. There is also a small note at the bottom of the poster, highlighting that the soundtrack can be purchased, showing that the film has produced merchandise and therefore another possible method of creating revenue. It was also important that the nature of the film is not shown on the poster, as it almost definitely be seen by people to young to see the film, and therefore legal issues could arise if content such as drug abuse is shown on the poster in a public place. This again is an issue that will arise with my film, as the plot of the story does involve exstensive drug use. At the time of the film the cast was also relatively unknown, so they have used all the main characters in the poster and not just the one leading star, something that may be relevant to my film aswell.

Filming Schedule

Here is the filming schedule that we intend to comply with in order to finish our filming with plenty of time left to edit our clips. To ensure that there are no issues when it comes to the clip we are filming, we have created the schedule in table format so we can easily indentify who we need for that sessions filming, along with the loction that we will be using. It is a neccesity that we stick to the deadlines we have set ourselves, as if we dont, we may be left with unfinished and rushed work, which would seriously effect the overall quality of the project.

Practice Video Analysis

Innocent Intentions

Idea: the idea my group and I had for my practice video was that of victim being stalked through an alley and then attacked. We chose this idea as it was not only simple but also gave us the opportunity to experiment with different camera angles in order to break the clip up.
Location: The location we chose was a large alley by our school, which was spacious enough for us to be able to film the clip from different angles without the use of any high tech equipment, but was still identifiable as an alley. The connotation of the alley being that it is a potentially dangerous and hard to escape from, and thus this added to the mood to the scene, as our audience could predict something drastic would occur, but they were not certain of what.
Sound : within the clip we do not have an diagetic sound, this is because we believed it took tension away from what was happening on scene, we did however employ a strong us of non-diagetic sound, in the way of the theme that was playing throughout the clip, which was the soundtrack from the film “jaws”. We used this music as the tune is universally known for the way that it builds up tension within the film of its origin. This ensured that when our clip was played the audience they understood that we were building up the tension in order for a dramatic climax. The music was also in sync with the cuts within the clip.
By creating this clip we were given the oppurtunity to identify a variation of shots and camera angles, and the gain experience practising and using this, with the potential of utilising these at a later date, when it comes to creating our actual media piece.

Feedback: we presented our clip to the class in order to receive a constructive feedback of what we done well, and what we could have improved upon. In order to do this we constructed a questionnaire which we delivered to the class when they watched our clip, and then they answered the questions after the screening.
Questionnaire:
1. What was your overall opinion of the clip?
2. Could you see the themes we were trying to portray in our clip?
3. Do you think the music we used went with the flow of the video?
4. Do you think our use of camera angles was effective?
5. What do you think we could have improved?

1) Overall we had a good reception from the clip, as our class understood the difficulties with creating your first clip, and it was opinionated to be an entertaining watch. Despite this, criticisms were made about the actual walking substance of the clip, which was largely considered boring and an unnecessary length of time.
2) Our class responded to this question in a positive manner, as they could clearly denote from the sound, as well as the content of the film, that we were aiming to portray tension and suspense which then led to the final climax.
3) There were mixed opinions within our class when it came to the sound of our clip, as we didn’t have any diagetic sound, which many of the class thought was a poor point, as it took some of the realism away from the clip but at the same time others in the class believed that this lack of “real sound” helped to build up the mystery and tension of our clip. The non-diagetic music we used for our clip was the unmistakable theme from the blockbuster film “jaws”. From this our audience immediately knew we were building up tension and suspense, leading to the final climax. They agreed that this was successful, but some fellow students would have liked to see a more original soundtrack from us.
4) The main area of our video that was applauded was the use of camera angles, notably the side shots that we used to split up the long shots we had of the alley way. The final point of view shot where we see the assailant attacking the unsuspecting victim, was also credited, as it portrays our clips climax as well. We were however criticised on the length of our long shots, as they dragged on and dimmed the suspense that we were building up.
5) Overall we received a good response from our clip, but we asked for constructive criticism so we had a substantial idea of what we needed to improve for our final piece. The main elements of the feedback we received were to make use of diagetic sound in the clip, with the possibility of finding a less used soundtrack to the same effect as our current theme. More content was also recommended, as they found the large segment of our trailer, dedicated to the alley, was boring.

Wonderland Presentation

Wonderland presentation

View more presentations from 04cdeeney

Here i have uploaded the presentation which my group produced to present to our class, in order to gain feedback on any positives regarding our films ideas and concepts.

Basic Trailer Idea

 

Green screen. Age rating of trailer.
‘Production company’. Elle and Will going out.Walking along holding hands.
Will: So, what are you doing tomorrow night?
Elle: I hope you haven’t forgotten it’s our anniversary.
Will: Don’t worry, I’ve got everything planned. Just don’t stand me up.
Fade
Phone call, car headlights.Will standing outside restaurant, looking at the time on his phone, then calls Elle.
Will: Where are you?
Elle: I’m just running late, I should be there soon
Elle walks out into the road.
Head lights appear, camera fades, hear car brakes, phone cuts off
Funeral.Will walking out of a graveyard in a suit.
Meeting the drug dealer.Tyler leaning against a wall in an alleyway.
Will walks past and Tyler stops him.
Tyler: Alright Rob? What you up to?
(No reply from Will)
Tyler: Do you want to buy some gear?
(No reply.)
Tyler: Come with me, we’ll have a chat.
Going to ‘wonderland’.P.O.V. shot showing Will walking into Wonderland apartment.
Looking into rooms of drug addicts.
Passed out in Jesus position.
Drug addict rocking in a room.
Taking a hit.Will takes a shot of heroin.
Wonderland apartment turns into wonderland forest.
Wonderland forest.Will sees silhouette of Elle in wonderland.
Establish the cast.Will Derry – Reality (running into shot, looking through stolen wallet).
Elle Rossiter – Reality (looking in the mirror, getting ready for night out).
Tyler Andrews – Reality (snorts cocaine then looks up at camera)
Mugging scene.Mikey walking along.
Will walking opposite way.
Will pushing Mikey into a wall and get out a knife.
Will: Give me your money.
Mikey: Get off me!
Close up of knife.
Will stabs Mikey.
Will and Elle talking in wonderland forest.Elle: Why are you here?
Will: I had to come see you.
Elle: You shouldn’t have come. (Blood starts dripping from her mouth)
Elle steps back.
The sound of the car break is heard.
Will turns around, there’s nothing there.
Will looks back at Elle.
Elle is in the same clothes the night she was hit.
Elle’s clothes are torn with bloodstains with blood dripping from her mouth. Mangled
Dramatic argument between Tyler and Will.In wonderland, the apartment.
Tyler: sorry, I cant let you in
Will: no you have to, I need to get I there
Tyler: I should never of started you on this, just get out now while you still can.
Will: Its to late now, let me in !
(scuffle ensues )
Will sitting in wonderland apartment alone.
Will standing in wonderland forest (raining) alone.
Title of the film.Wonderland apartment door shuts.
Caption follows with title ‘Wonderland’
Credits.

Case study trailer analysis

Pulp fiction trailer

the pulp fiction trailer begins by notifying the audience, with a caption, that the film was voted the best picture of the cannes film festival. This already implies that the film is going to be worth watching, as it has already won a prestigious award prior to its release. This caption is then appeared to be shot at, with the use of special effects, to give the audience an incline that the film will contain some action, appealing to fans of that genre. The initial sound track then begins to play, Dick Dale and His Del Tones – Miserlou, which is a fast paced song,  giving conntotation to the actual intense content of the film.  Why this song is playing we are presented with short clips from the film where each character is given some establishment. The song is then changed to the slower “youll be a woman soon” by urge overkill, this gives a basic idea to the audience that romance may play a part within this film, again attracting a far greater target audience. This then leads to a voice over naming each member of the main cast ( while a small clip is shown of them). This enables the audience to clearly see the extent of the casts fame, the final actor shown is bruce willis, this is so a lasting impression is left on the audience, as Willis is a world renowned actor. There is also a small clip of conversation between Willis and Travolta, important as its showing the films two main characters in action together. The end of the trailer gives us a hint of humour, which is also another successful  and desired ingredient in a blockbluster film. This is delivered when an unknown assailant fires his gun at john Travolta and Samuel L Jackson, only to miss every shot, we are then presented with the iconic image of the two actors looking at the gun man while pointing there gun towards him, the still of this was also used in posters ect and eventually became an iconic selling point. The trailer is then ended on the sound of the gun firing, giving final iteration that the film is predominantly based on crime and action.
I could use some elements of these trailers in my own piece, particlarily by advertising the cast within the trailer, or using different songs and themes for each section of the trailer, this would help to break it down, making it easier for the viewers to digest whats happening, potentially heigtening any appeal that resides for films of similiar genre within the viewer.

Saving private ryan trailer

this trailer commences with carious captions of world war 2 images and clips of 3 seperate letters that are simultaneously  being read out aloud, with an occasional phrase being highlighted when it is said. These phrases all imply towards to loss of life and help build up the somber mood this part of the trailer appears to be presenting, they also make clear that film is set in the war, attracting that cliché of audience. We then get more non-diagetic sound played, which depicts two men discussing how a mother will be receiving 3 telegrams notifying her 3 of her sons have died ( the images within the captions are now potraying images on men suffering and dying in combat, then going to a still of the mother looking at presumably the two men), we also get a caption of writing, a special effect, naming these 3 dead men, this helps set the story of the film and also shows us that the writers , Robert rodat, inspiration plays an essential role in the plot of the film. The audio clip concludes when we are informed there is a 4^th brother, and whom we can presume to be the senior of the two men, exclaims that they will save the final son. The trailer then moves on to show a close up of the main character who is portrayed by tom hanks, an exceptionally popular and famous actor, oftenly noted as one of the best, by making clear he is themain character the film will already attract an audience and positive attention amongst possible viewers and critics. Clips containing action and warfare are then shown while the text alters to give some more context to the film. Each of the main characters is then given a brief clip displaying them while text displaying their name has been edited in after filming. The title is then shown with a fading shot of a lone figure, almost angelic before a sun set. The screen goes black and the directors name is displayed, and as it’s the successfully and widely respected steven Spielberg, it appears a final incentive to view the film.
The use of the voiceover is something that could work particularily well within my trailer, as it will help me to anchor the plot of my trailer, thus giving any potential viewers a far more substantial idea of whats happening within the film, and why they would want to view it.