Research and Planning: Podcast

Research and Planning: Teaser trailer conventions

For my coursework this year I will be making a teaser trailer, a magazine cover and a film poster.  A teaser trailer is a short glimpse of a film to gain interest from the audience to make them go and watch the film.


This is a very good teaser trailer but due to the high technology they have used (CGI) it will be hard to copy.



This is another good example of a teaser trailer but due to it being an independent film makers, it will be easier to re-make.

Some conventions of a teaser trailer are:

• Title.
• Distribution and production companies. 
• Subtitles.
• Montage of clips from the film.
• Stars.
• Release date
• MPPA warning certificate.

Research and Planning: Group meeting 1

I have now been put into my group.  I am working with Keisha Hughes. I am glad I am working with Keisha as I feel we have similar ideas and we work well together as a team.  Theses are our roles:
Keisha: Cinematography, editing and sound.
Lucy: Cinematography, mise-en-scene and sound.

We have had some ideas for our genre and plots.  We have decided we want to do a horror.  Some plots we have come up with are:

1. A group of teenagers decide to go camping as a celebration of finishing college.  They find a plot of land, and set down to camp.  However things turn bad as a mad killer lumberjack is around in the isolated woods. We have a final girl scenario. 
2. A group of teenagers decide to go camping as a celebration of finishing college.  While camping they are told a myth about a scarecrow that comes alive and kills students.  As they don't believe this legend they start to annoy the scarecrow by poking and prodding it.  Then things start going wrong with the students going missing one by one.
3. Again the teenagers go camping and they find a plot of land near a old haunted pub, as things start to wrong the students decide to call it a night and split up. However some of the students stay and bump into the mad lumberjack killer and to escape they go to the old pub and find a nasty surprise.

Research and Planning: Target audience for teaser trailer

Target audience for teaser trailer on Prezi

This is the top 20 horror films voted by IMDB views.  This is mixed gender.

 This is the top 20 films rated by Males.  There is a mix of genres but horrors do come up a couple of times.

This is top 20 films rated by woman, it is a mixed genre but horror does come up a couple of times.

Research and planning: Audience theroies

The hypodermic model
The message of media text that goes straight to the brain. 

The cultivation theory
How watching TV may influences viewers' ideas of what everyday world is like. Cultivated by certain media.

Desensitisation 
People are exposed to so much violence in the media, violence no longer makes a stronger emotional impact upon them.

Modelling or copycat theory
You copy what you see on TV or films.

Uses and gratifications theory
The theory focuses on the consumer/audience and asks 'what people do with the media' rather than 'what the media does to people'.  

Research and Planning: Production company names

At the beginning of teaser trailers we always see a production company name and logo.  Here are some ideas of what we could call ours:

• Vision twist productions
• Darkness
• Lightning pictures 
• Dark dreams

Research and Planning: Facebook and Twitter research

This is the research I got off facebook and most people liked the sound of the scarecrow. This has helped me as people who ansewered this question are the ideal age range for my target audience.  This means that they would be interest in this type of film. 

This is the research I got of twitter and yet again most people voted for the scarecrow, again they are in the age range of my target audience. 

Research and Planning: Interviews for teaser trailer.



Research and Planning: Questionaires

Here are ideas from my questionnaires:

• People are attracted to the trailer by the peaks that are shown. 
• Peoples favourite genre is horror. 
• They prefer to have a mix of music and dialogue to create tension.
• Out of the people I asked their favourite horror film is 'Insidious'.  This shows they like paranormal kind of films.
• Most people expected jump cuts scences, dramatic scenes and peaks in a teaser treailer.
• Most people prefered to see a horror which is an 18.
• People prefer to have a voice over rather than subtitles in a teaser trailer.
• They also expect a horror to be set in a woodland area. 

Now I have collected my results I can now start applying them to my teaser trailer.

Research and Planning: Teaser trailer analysis 1

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi984023321/
Final destination 3. 
Media language
Cinematography

• At the start of the trailer the camera is used with a tilt, and an establishing shot of the plane the cast are in. This is to show that the people in the plane are in danger. It also shows the situation of the whole plane instead of just one person. 
• It then has a lot of movement in the camera to show the planes movement and the rush of fear in the passengers.  It then also have medium close ups of the passengers to show the fear rushing through their faces.  The clips on the plane are a montage, this may of been used to cut down the trailer and to only show the peaks of the film.  
• Then there is a series of straight cuts to show it is in the real world and is based in a real life situation. 
• As it is finally showing the final film it has an establishing shot to show the real life situation the teenagers are in. 
• As the roller coaster is breaking down the shots do change. They do this to show that the real life situation is soon going to become bad.  This is shown by a close up of the wheels of the carriage. 
• Then as we see the coffins we have a birds eye view shot to show the situation which they have been left in.  This show that death is also a major part of the film. 
• We then have a wipe across the people at the funeral and then a zoom into one person, showing that this one person has more significance than the others at the funeral.
• There is then a close up of a girls face, to show that she is worried, this shows the audience that something is going to happen, then there is a POV shot which is also a low angle shot of her looking up at the planks of wood which is going to fall on her.  
• To finish it off it shows a low angle of the roller coaster falling off. Showing that it is not going to be a good ending to the film either.

Editing

• The start of the trailer starts off with the MPAA warning showing that this trailer is suitable for every audience. We normally see this as the beginning of most teaser trailers. 
• When the actually trailer starts there is a blue ting to the black background, and then we see a bluey/grey smoke come across the screen.  This blue makes it look mysterious and can represent the death which final destination is about. 
• We then have the studio name, we have this fade to give the impression of spookiness and to represent the genre. 
• After all this slow editing of the studio name and smoke we then get a series of fast clips of the passengers on the plane.  These clips are around 1 second long and then cut to black.  There is 2 of theses clips then it goes back to the slower editing of the smoke.  This time we have text which is centered and white to stand out from the bluey/black.  The text is zoomed in towards us to show us that it is important to read it.  It is slower editing than the clips but not as slow as the studio editing. 
• Then it goes back to the 2 1 second clips which cut to black of the plane, this is to show there is disruption on the plane and to show the genre of film. 
• Then when it goes back to the smoky bluey/black screen, the writing gets zoomed in quicker to show the tension is building up. 
• We then have a montage (Kuleshov's theory)  of the second film to show that theses events are happening at the same time.  The editing in this is fast, quick pacing to show that the action is beginning to get more violent.  At the same time the editing is fast but the actions in the clips have slow down.  This is so you see what actually happens but shows its all fast pacing.
• It then has a log going into the car window, and this makes it cut to black. 
• Now it goes back to the bluey/black screen with the writing, this time the zoom of the writing has slow down to show that this is the actual film they are advertising. 
• The writing is zoomed towards us but at the same time, in the background there is a roller coaster and there is a track as if we are going on the journey of the roller coaster. 
• As the roller coaster track effect begins the writing starts to zoom faster to compliment the track. 
• We then have 7 1 second clips which then go to cut to black, this is to show, that this film is the most action packed and to show this film is the one you need to concentrate more on. 
• Instead of following the pattern of clips then text, they have carried on with different shot types.
• We then have a cut to black then a 360 degree twirl of the coffins, this is to show the seriousness of the film. 
• The editing in this part has gone from fast editing to slow editing to show the Todorov theory to show equilibrium, distrution, equilibrium resolved. 
• Once the clip of the coffins is shown we have a track over the people at the funeral and once one of the main characters are in the shot the track gets faster and zooms right into them and we then have a cut away from the boy to an ambulance and paramedics.  
• We then have a first fade to black, to show that death is finally catching up to them. 
• We then have a another series of jump cuts with cut to black between them of the roller coaster to show that the action is starting again.  
• Then we have the sunbed clip and it starts of with slow straight cuts so you can see why the fire is starting, then once the fire is started we have fast straight cuts. 
• We then have a jump cut to the two teenagers in the bedroom and then another jump cut to show the roller coaster.  This shows the two teenagers was on the roller coaster.  
• We then have a series of clips all from different parts of the film including theses two teenagers which have been in the trailer the most. 
• We then have a match cut of the swords coming down to the roller coaster spinning round, this is to show that everything is linked together in the film. 
• We then have another series of jump cuts of different parts of the film to show how chaotic the film will be. 
• It stops the jumps cuts with a stop of the roller coaster. The editing then slows right down and ends with the carriage of the roller coaster coming down on us. As this comes down it then goes straight to the blue/black screen again with the name of the film.  
• The name of the film zooms outwards this time and then fades out. This could be to make it look mysterious and to make the audience want to watch the film. 
• It then has subtitles of producers ect. Then a quick flash of coming soon to finish the trailer off to make the audience be suspense and wondering.  

 Sound

• The clip starts off non -diagetic sound of the score.  This is a mysterious wind like sound.  This is played when the blue/black screens are on.  This sound could also represent death,which is the film is about. 
• When clips of the plane are on we here diagetic sound of banging which the passengers will think is turbulence but the audience will know it is something dangerous which is going to happen.  
• We then hear crashing of the plane and people screaming which is diagetic sound, this shows how danger is occurring.
• All the way through the trailer it seems to have the same pattern when the blue/black screen is on it is a smoky sound and then dialogue on the clips from the film.
• By the time it advertises the actual film there is diagetic sound of the main characters, this is to show who will be the main characters and to show this is the film which they are advertising. 
• As the roller coaster is going round there is non-diagetic sound of a score which makes it sound like the actual roller coaster. 

Mise-en-scene

• The settings of all 3 films advertised are just everyday scenes, the first one is in a plane, but to show disruption it shows the oxygen masks and lights flashing.  
• Then in the second film, its on a road but again to show disruption by cars flying around and logs. 
• The third one is at a theme park and to show disruption we see wheels flying off and water drops ect. 
• The clothing is just casual everyday clothing to show that it is set in the real life. 
• It is like this to show that it is set in real life and its unexpected. 

Representation

• The teaser trailer is representing young adults/teenagers to show this is what type of audience they are aiming for.  
• There are also a lower class/middle class people. 
• It also shows it is for both sexes as men and woman are both represented as strong and weak in this trailer.   

Audience

• The audience of final destination 3 is a 15 certificate, so the audience is 15+.  I think it is about 15 - 25 due to the cast in the film. I think this is because they want them to link the audience with the cast, to make them feel for them. 
• I think it is aimed at both sexes.

Genre

• The genre is a horror/thriller, this type of film normally has its audience on the edge of their seats.  It also includes strong language, strong frighting images and a strong story line.  

Narrative

• The plot summary is shown in the trailer by the subtitles and the dialogue of the cast.  

Research and Planning: Teaser trailer analysis 2

Genre
The genre of Insidious is a horror. It is appropriate to analysis this as mine is going to be a horror.  The certificate of Insidious is a 15 due to the frightening images, violence and terror scenes.  The film is spine chilling and leaves you on edge.  This is how I want our film to be.

Audience
The audience for Insidious is 15+ due to the certificate .  To narrow it down I would reckon it is for 15 - 25.  I think this is because this age group seem to like horror films like this as it is paranormal and people seem to like the thrill of paranormal.  I think it is aimed at both genders as it is bout a family rather than a particular social group.  This makes it more unisex to watch.  

Representation
In the trailer we don't see much of the characters we see more of what happens, but from the trailer it seems to be a normal family situation who normally live happy in peace., but then after unforeseen situations things become messed up.  The boy who is haunted seems to be a quiet innocent boy who doesn't look like he would put a foot wrong.

Narrative
The storyline is when a young boy goes into what his parents think is a coma, until they have sleepless nights, and mysterious going on's they find out he is actually haunted.  The trailer shows this by using Todorov's theory by a equilibrium.  It starts of with it calm of him asleep then builds up by using fast editing, of a montage of clips from the film.  It then calms back down of them finding out he is haunted.  It has a number of peaks and troughs through out the trailer.  

Media language: Editing

• The trailer starts of with the MPPA warning.  This tells the audience that it has been approved for all audiences. 
• It then has a fade to black, to the production company.  This is a normal convention that we find in teaser trailers.  
• It then has another fade to black and has subtitles to show who it has been made by.  The writing is in white to stand out from the black and the writing goes fuzzy, this could be to compliment the confusion in the film. 
• It then has 3 quick editing clips, this shows an understanding of the boy before he was in a coma. 
• It then has a fade to black and a clip of the boy in a coma, the editing goes a lot slower to show that something is wrong with the boy.  
• It then has a jump cut to his mum to show she is in despair with the situation. 
• It then has another fade to black to more subtitles with slow editing. 
• Then it has 2 more fade to blacks and clips of his dad.  
• It then has a jump cut to another woman looking up the starts.  This is the montage of the film. 
• Fade to blacks are used while the boy is in hospital maybe to show death. 
• It then goes back to the black screen with the white writing. 

Mise-en-scene 

• All the way through the trailer, low key lighting is used.  This helps show the type of genre it is. It also helps set the atmosphere. 
• The setting is in a hospital and in the house to show it is realistic. 
• The house is dark and morbid and doesn't look friendly, to show that something sinister is occurring.
• The actors are acting sad and morbid, to show they are just as frightened as the audience. 
• They are all dressed in greys and black to compliment the setting. 
• There make-up is pale to show they don't have any life in them at the moment. 

Sound

• At the beginning of the clip, it has got non-diagetic score, to help create the tension, show what genre it is and to build up suspense. 
• The score also compliments the way the writing comes on screen and how it is shown.
• It then builds up and quickly stops to silence so we can hear the diagetic sound of the dialogue of his mum saying how he is in a coma.  This is so we know what the plot line is about. 
• We then have a quiet score behind the voices of the actors. This is to keep the tension but to let the audience know what's going on.  
• The score then gets sharper and off -screen sound starts to be heard making it hard to hear the dialogue.  
• We then have a silent stop. This shows it is intense.  
• Then we have a woman saying 'it's not the house that is haunted it is your son' this shows she is an important/trusted character within the film.  This gains the audiences trust in her.  
• We then have another series of sharp quick music to gain a climax and then it slows right down and goes quieter to leave the audience on edge and making them want to see the film. 

Cinematography

• The first shot we see is a close up off the boy, who is at the left of the screen. This is to show he is the main character in the film and the film is based around him.  This also allows us to see the dark settings.
• We then have a wide shot of the boy in a hospital bed, this show there is something wrong with the boy and that will also be what the film is based around. It is a high angle shot as if someone/something is watching him.
• There is then a medium close up of the boy lay in the hospital bed. This helps show his environment of hospital but also to shows how vacant his facial expressions are. Showing there is something wrong with the boy.  We also get to see his teddy bear which shows he is a normal little boy. 
• We then have another medium close up of the woman at the left of the screen this shows that the atmosphere and it also shows that reality has hit her that something is wrong with her son.
• We have a extreme wide shot of the house.  This show it is a grand old fashioned house which could be haunted. 
• We then have a medium close up of a man who looks confused.  This is shown by the low angle of the camera.  It also shows he is oblivious to the situation. 
• There is then a birds eye view shot of the woman again making her look initiated and frightened as if she has seen something.  
• Then we have a extreme close up of somebody eyes. This gets the audiences full attention again as it is jumpy. 
• We have a medium close up of a woman, on eye level towards the camera as if she wants the audiences help or she wants to scare the audience. 
• We have a tracking long shot of a dark corridor showing suspense.
• We then have a medium close up to a old woman and this shows that the subject she is talking about is serious, we see this through her facial expressions.

Research and Planning: Photoshop Challenge

This is my photoshop challenge that we was given after the summer off to refresh our minds on how to use photoshop.

Research and Planning: Regualtion for my film idea.

For my film idea, I think I would like to have my film as a 15. I think this would be a suitable target audience for my film because our film is about young people so would like our audience to relate to the cast.  Also my film is going to be a Horror and traditionally horror films are either 15 or 18 depending on the strengths of the violence and the horror.  

Research and Planning: Pitch

Research and Plannning: Test

• This is our test for our advanced media portfolio.  We got put into small groups in our media groups and used a camcorder and our college surroundings to create a short film.  This was so our class teacher could evaluate what level we was at.  We also got chance to play around with cinematography, editing and sound ready for our teaser trailers. 
• The story line was a girl being followed and attacked.
• To film our story we had the choice of using hand held and using a tripod.  We decided on using hand held.  This is because we used it as villians eye at somepoints. 
• Once we filmed our trailer we then imported it onto Imovie to edit our film. 
• On Imovie we started adding in transactions such as; cut to blacks/ fade to blacks this was to create the tension and to help show what type of genre our story is. 
• We then used garage band to help us with our score.  We made the score with a piano.  This helped create the tension and and a suspisious mood.