Trailer analysis - 'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012)

Sound Introduction

Sound has always been a huge part of films. Different forms and types of sound can give very different effects on audiences. For our teaser trailer we will have to look at various forms of sounds which can be used to make our teaser trailer more powerful and which can emphasize the visuals we will have filmed. There are some soundtracks which I will research and aim to analyse in the future as we get closer to the editing of our trailer. The soundtrack we choose must match the genre we have aimed to film because if we choose the wrong soundtrack we may give a very different impression from what we originally aimed. One option we have is to create our soundtrack using I movie which will allow us to personally get the sound specific to our trailer but this may take a lot of time and effort so this may not be an option. The two sound types in movies are:

Diegetic sound: Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. For example, dialogue in the film, sounds made by the surrounding environment, music represented as coming from instruments in the story space. Diegetic sound can either be on or off screen depending on whatever its source is within or outside the frame. Another name for diegetic is actual sound. Diegetic sound in are teaser trailer will be hard to obtain as we do not have any additional sound equipment which can pick up natural sound. We may include some dialogue in our trailer but this may be difficult and we do not have a ‘shotgun microphone’ which we can continuously have just outside the frame which will be able to pick out the dialogue very well. Another form of diegetic sounds which we will have in our teaser trailer is sounds made by the surrounding environment. Natural sounds are very good as they can create a great sense of realism for the audience. These sounds may also be hard to obtain as the camera we use are not designed for that purpose. We may have to use a form of Non-Diegetic sound called Foley whereby, we will be able to record these sounds separately.

Non-Diegetic sound: Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. For example, music from an external source, narrators commentary and sound effects.  Another name for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity, or to surprise the audience. When we are edit are teaser trailer non- diegetic sound will be a big factor in how powerful the overall trailer is. The main form of non–diegetic sound we will be using is music. I will be looking at some soundtrack used in movies and see what effect they give on the audience and how we can emulate these techniques to our teaser trailer. Last year I had found that different instruments create different emotions for the audience. String instruments for example can be a good cause for tension due to the highly peculiar sounds which create a sense of unease. Another form of non-diegetic sounds that we have looked at is including a narration to make up for the dialogue. We will be able to record this separately in a studio of some sought and will prevent any unwanted background sound in the narration. The last form of non-diegetic sound we may use is Foley. This is recorded sound effects that can be applied and synchronized to the visuals on screen. This can help make up for some of the lost ambient noise obtained naturally during filming or create high amounts of emphasis.

Filming: Day 3

This day of filming was fairly short as we just wanted to get some establishing shots of London Victoria. I had recently gone there and thought this might be good place to get some street shots so we had spent some time at London Victoria getting some establishing shots of the streets and some pedestrians. These shots will help add to the realism of the teaser trailer and give a different range of shots. One problem with filming at London Victoria was that there were a lot of people because we were located right next to the station. Many people looked into the camera while they were walking by so it took us a bit of time to get the shots we aimed to film. This location overall matched fairly well with the previous locations we had filmed such as London Bridge and Canary Wharf.

Practise poster 3 (By Murray Wilson)

This practise poster was created by another person in my group. The poster was created using ‘Adobe Photoshop C3S’. Similar to the second practise poster that I had done, a lot more time and effort went into to producing this. In this poster there is a faded image of London which helps the audience to identify where the location of the film will be. This image was from the internet and was copied into ‘Photoshop’ where it was then edited. The colour and fade of the image gives the impression that London is evil and is home to many criminals due to the darkness of the image. In the background of this poster there is also a faded image of what appears to be the main character in the movie. In the first poster are group had done this same group member was in ordinary college clothes and was not in costume, but in this poster the costume is more realistic to what we would want for our final poster as he is wearing a suit and tie. The facial expressions of the character and the background behind however do not fit the genre of crime thriller as the character is smiling and the building behind appears to be a school. For our real poster the facial expressions of the characters will have to look serious and the background will have to be taken into more consideration.

Location scouting: Waterloo

Waterloo is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a location that we will strongly consider as one of our filming locations. It has a wide range of architecture and is located in the centre of London. Waterloo is also located next to the river Thames which means we will be able to get maybe some shots of boats or the river. Another very good aspect of the location is the differences in buildings and atmosphere in the same area. There is a very public area near the river which has a lot of grand and bright buildings and close by is another area of dark and dingy buildings which is a lot more rural and will create a dark atmosphere if we filmed there.

Filming date set (Wednesday 30)

This coming Wednesday as it’s the day of the teacher strike; I and my group are going to use that time to film for our teaser trailer. We will be aiming to travel by tube to central London to get a wide range of shots. These will include wide angle shots of traffic scenes and buildings. We will also aim to get some shots of the river Thames for example which will give us some shots of water. Street scenes are also a possibility for this filming day and we could also include some groups of people or particular individuals.

Inspiration for filming: (BFI Film Institute)

Recently I had been on a school trip to the BFI film institchute in Southbank. I had learnt a lot of new and interesting things which has given me a lot of inspiration on the filming process of our trailer. We were shown various clips of very different films and discussed what made them good and bad. There were a lot of cinematic techniques used in the extracts we looked at and in astonishing to look at how much detail filmmakers put into their films. Another very interesting part of the trip was listening to a producer from ‘PATHE’ Film Company and what she does when producing films. The trip was very interesting and will give me a lot of new ideas and thoughts on how we will do our teaser trailer.

Audience Feedback - Practise Posters

After completing our practise posters we wanted to get some feedback from students in our college. We had showed our two practise posters to a class of year 12 students and asked them for their thoughts and ideas on how we can make them better. This type of direct audience feedback was very helpful as we were able to get detailed answers as opposed to getting feedback from a questionnaire. We will aim to do this type of audience feedback again when we complete more parts of the coursework as this had given us a lot of positive ideas that we can use to make our posters better.

Problems with filming

Magazine Introduction (Initial Research)

In today’s media lesson we were introduced to magazines and were told that we would have to make one of our own based on the trailer that we were producing. As you can see below are two magazines which were kindly provided to us by our teacher, these professional magazines will help give us an idea of what we would like are final magazines to look like. Magazine covers are a great way for films to gain advertising and promotion so they must make the cover eye-catching and colourful. The two film magazines provided were ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’.

EMPIRE:

‘Empire’ is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. It is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain, consistently outselling its nearest market rival ‘Total Film’ by over two-to-one and is also published in Australia, Turkey, Russia and Portugal. As you can see in this issue the primary focus has been on the new movie ‘Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol’. The magazine demonstrates this straightaway through the bold and bright title and the images of characters in the film such as Tom Cruise. The bright red title has also been the magazines trademark and is very eye-catching for audiences. At the bottom of the magazines you can see a sub-section which usually shows some of the other big films in cinema. This particular issue has focused on the 10^th birthday of the Lord of the Rings franchise and is also very eye-catching and appealing for audiences. Empire magazine at the moment is the magazine that we like the most and one that we will try to adapt into our own personal magazine cover.

TOTAL FILM:

‘Total Film’ is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features. It is the second-biggest selling film magazine in Britain behind ‘Empire’. The magazine cover has a very similar layout to ‘Empire’ film magazine. It uses one big film as its main selling point for the issue, in this case ‘Sherlock Holmes:  A Game of Shadows’. The cover shows a big image of the two stars in the film (Robert Downey JR. & Jude Law) and the title which again is very bold and eye-catching. By having huge pictures of the stars on the front of the cover this immediately draws the audience’s attention as they may be fans of the actors. The sub section is again used to present some of the other big films in the cinema and enhanced the colour and therefore makes the magazine cover more eye-catching.

What are Film Magazines?

Day 1 of filming: (Test shots)

For our first day of filming we wanted to get some test shots which will help us in the future. The aim of this was to familiarise ourselves with the camera work and cinematic techniques. We had aimed to go to two different locations London Bridge and Canary Wharf. Establishing and environmental shots was our focus and as we didn’t have any specific characters in mind this is what was easiest for us to do.

London Bridge was our first location and we had set up our first point of filming on the London Bridge get some establishing shots of Tower Bridge, The Gherkin, neighbouring buildings and boats on the river. Establishing shots were very important as they would not only set the scene for your audience but depending on what location you had shot we could give of a wide range of atmospheres and effects on the audience. Whilst on the bridge we were able to get all of the shots we wanted it was just quite difficult as there were so many tourists on the bridge. We started filming at around mid- day which may have been the reason as to why the bridge was so busy. In the future we should probably film slightly earlier to avoid rush hour. Below are some images of me and my group filming on the London Bridge.

Are second location was Canary Wharf which was allocation we had used last year and we had really liked it. The main reason for this location was the very  tall skyscraper buildings which reminded us of money and business. We were able to get a wide range of establishing shots but we also wanted to try to get some shots of character so one person in my group wanted to be that character. We had filmed some very simple shots of him walking around sitting on a chair and this was good practise for us as we had taken a wide variety of shots. Although Canary Wharf is usually very busy we had started filming there in the early evening so there were far less people around whilst we filmed. Previously we had filmed in Canary Wharf and there were a lot of people who looked into the camera constantly and ruined our footage so we were a bit optimistic about filming there again, but there were not that many people and were able to film very easily.

Below is a video of some of the test shots we had taken. We will not be using these shots in our final teaser trailer so this was good for us to familiarise ourselves with the camera and the types of shots we can use for our final teaser trailer.

Filming: Date set for filming

Me and my group have decided to start filming this Sunday coming. We will aim to spend the majority of the day getting most of the establishing and environmental shots of London landmarks and people. We will aim to go to numerous locations such as London Bridge, Canary Wharf and Wapping. To get to these locations we will use the tube which will allow us to travel quickly and easliy. It may get difficult if it gets too dark so wewill probably start filming fairly early to avoid any danger of it being to dark.

Practise Poster 2 (By George Robinson)

As you can see in the image above is a film poster that I had personally created using ‘Adobe Photoshop CS3’.To create this basic poster I had first used another member of my media group to take a picture of me standing infront of a plain grey wall. As the genre we have chosen is a crime thriller I had to avoid smiling so I had looked away from the camera and aimed to have a slighty serious look on my face. As you can see the mise-en scene in this particular poster I have created is not up to par as the clothes I have on in the image were clothes that I just happened to wear on that particular day we took the picture. When we create are real poster I will aim to be in a suit which was the decided costume of our main charatcer in our teaser trailer. The fonts I had used for the poster in my opinion gave a very bold and demonic feeling towards the audience. From the number of real movie posters that I had researched one of the factors that made a poster good was firstly, how eye-catching the writing was and also the effect that style of writing had on the audience. I had used a bright red font to give the audience a sense of danger and to also make the writing eye-catching. The faded London skyline behind me on the wall displayed to the auidence where the location of the film was and also made the film poster a lot more interesting for the audience. The tagline I had included ‘One man, One mission, One chance, I felt was good a it not only creates an increased sense of anxiety for the audience but also relates to the tilte of the film which is deadline. Both the title and the tagline both refer to in some way the aspect of numbers and time.

Prop Ideas: Briefcase

As you can see in the image above, is a briefcase that could be a good prop in our teaser trailer. The main protagonist in our trailer is a business man who is on his way home from work. We could use this briefcase to help tell the audience that this man is involved in business by including various shots of him in possession of this briefcase. The case is dark blue which is a colour which is frequently used in thriller movies. A briefcase is a commonly used prop that is good for not only giving the audience an insight into what kind of character a person is, but it is also a very effective way of drawing the audiences attention and creates a sense of mystery and anxiety for the audience as they do not know what is inside. Usually in films things inside briefcases are of great value in the movie for example, a large sum of money or high priority documents.

Practise poster 1 (By Mejan Zaman)

This poster was created by one of the people in my group and is the first practise poster we have done. As you can see the poster is very simple and not much detail has been included. This poster was created using ‘Adobe Photoshop C3S’. To create this poster another person in our group had there photo taken of them on the phone. The person in my group then uploaded the photo onto a computer and opened it into ‘Photoshop’. Firstly, he had cropped the character from the original photo away from the background and located it onto a blank canvas where he had made the background black. The black background gives a very dark and sinister feeling towards the audience and matches well the targeted genre. However, the black background would be perfect for a horror film but as we are not doing that this would not work as a background for our real poster. The title font in this poster is very bright and bold which makes it eye-catching for the audience. The red colour symbolises death and violence which is properties that we aim to include in our teaser trailer. The date shown on this poster is wrong as that date has already passed to on our real poster we must make sure that the date we advertise is realistic. The costume that are character is wearing is does not match the thriller genre and we will definitely have to get our actual costume when we do our real poster. In the future, I and another person in my group will aim to do our own practise poster and make it a little more detailed. We will aim to show progression from this poster as not much effort has gone into this poster.   

Audience Research: Focus Group (Posters)

Today my group and I had decided that we wanted to do some more primary research which involved us talking directly to various people and asking their opinions on four different film posters. We had previously conducted a similar form of primary research when we had asked people about what type of trailers they liked and why they liked it. We felt this research had helped us immensely and had given us a better understanding of what people like.

The four trailer posters we had presented were Taken (2008), Gun (2010), Limitless (2011) and Inception (2010). Each of these film posters were very different and we felt this was important as it would give us a better understanding as to what type of film poster design we should focus on creating. The two posters that received the best feedback overall was Gun (2010) and Limitless (2011). The main reason for this is that both posters were very eye catching, colourful and were also very good at grabbing the audience’s attention.

These are the film posters that we had displayed to various people. As you can see the posters are very different from each other and all do a good job of drawing the audience’s attention.

Film poster analysis: 'The Usual Suspects' (1995)

The Usual Suspects (1995) are a crime thriller directed by Bryan singer and stars Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne and Chazz Palminteri.  A boat has been destroyed, criminals are dead, and the key to this mystery lies with the only survivor and his twisted, convoluted story beginning with five career crooks in a seemingly random police line-up. The film poster displays five of the main characters on a police line-up. This image immediately informs the audience that this movie is about crime and violence but also more importantly it highlights the fact that the main protagonists in this movie are criminals. Each of the characters appearances is unique and interesting this therefore creates an increased sense of avidity for the audience. The differences in costume, body language and facial expressions can help give the audience an inkling as to what type of criminals these characters are. The first protagonist on the left is wearing very casual clothes which could symbolise that this character doesn’t like to stand out and commits crimes that do not necessarily result in a lot of money due to his very casual cheap clothes. The second man is dressed in all black and has a big leather jacket. The costume of this character could show the audience that this character is very over confident and can make rash decisions. Also, his body language tells the audience that he is very outspoken as he has his chest out and head up demonstrating his overconfidence. The third character is wearing a casual suit with his top buttons undone and collars up. This could show the audience that he takes pride in his appearance and maybe that he is a bit of a ladies man. The fourth character looks very unhappy due to his facial expressions. We see this character in a quite cheap suit and tie which could represent he has been trying to stop being a criminal and become a good citizen. The final character looks very unconfident his body language suggests that he maybe has a disability or some sought of mental illness. The plain white background combined with the almost demonic shadows behind the characters help emphasize the fact that these characters are not nice and bad things will happen in the movie. Furthermore, the height measuring lines included on the police line-up could exemplify the fact that these characters are crooks as they are similar to the bars of a prison. The title of film is in a very bold font which draws the audience’s attention.

Film poster analysis: 'Heat' (1995)

 

‘Heat’ (1995) is an American crime thriller directed by Michael Mann and stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The film follows the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law - one a detective; the other a thief. Intense bank robberies, gun fights and a very suspenseful ending is what is great about this movie. ‘Heat’ is considered to be one of the top crime thrillers ever made. The film poster displays the main characters by using images from the actual movie. The poster primarily focuses on the contrast between the blue background and the characters which have been blackened and shaded. The technique of shading creates a sense of mystery and deception as the characters are hardly visible and the dark colour of the characters could give the audience the impression that they are immoral and ill-fated. The blue background is quite contemporary facilitating the audience’s attention of the main characters and also shows the audience that this film is a thriller as blue is a colour that is quite frequently used in thriller movies. Blue is a colour that can represent the police therefore telling the audience that this movie with include the police as well. Close ups of the characters have been used to highlight their facial expressions and convey their emotions; this immediately tells the audience that this film is serious and will definitely contain violence and criminality. The font used to display the film title is very bold and in a white colour to make it eye-catching for the audience. The simplicity of the title font not only matches the simple title of the movie but is also very effective as it does grabs the audience’s attention to the poster. The same font is used to highlight the actor’s names and this is also a very effective way of maintaining the audience’s attention on the poster. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are two very prestigious actors who have had much success therefore immediately making the film a lot more interesting and appealing. The names are placed at the top of the poster to make it even easier to spot. This film poster does not conform too many of the other film posters whereby they will rely on including a lot more content on the poster such a tagline or ratings of the film. Heat has kept is very simple but also very bold and eye-catching.      

   

Film poster analysis: 'Shutter Island' (2010)

Film poster analysis: 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

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‘Silence of the Lambs’ (1991) was directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Scott Glen. The movie is about a young FBI cadet who must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. ’Silence of the Lambs’ is a very intense and thrilling film with a very chilling performance from Anthony Hopkins who plays the fictional character ‘Hannibal Lector’. This film poster displays a very bold image of the main protagonist in the movie (Clarice Starling) with a somewhat demonic looking insect in front of her mouth.  The poster shows a contrast between light and dark; the woman’s face is pale white, and the around her appears to be fading to black darkness. This use of colour suggests the presence of good and evil in the film (her being good, and the surrounding environment around her being evil). The light and dark and the symbolism of good and evil are clear indicators that this film is a thriller. The title of the film, parts of the butterfly and the girl’s eyes are in red. This suggests that the film will include blood, death and danger. This is again another common thriller signifier as the colour red is often used in thriller movies. Through the posters careful use of colour this immediately lets the audience know what is in the film, and also helps to create a mysterious, sinister atmosphere which is also common in thriller films. The facial expression of the woman appears innocent and relates to the word ‘lamb’ in the title. Lambs have connotations with God and purity which may tell the audience that this movie may contain a deeper meaning and ask the question ‘Why is God failing to act against the terrible occurrences in the movie’. The title ‘Silence of the Lambs’ is interpreted into visual form in the poster as the main protagonist is representing  the lamb and the Insect over the girl’s mouth silencing her/preventing her from talking. The insect being in dark colours and also in red, suggests it is the symbol for the evil in the movie. Furthermore, there is a skull at the back of the insect which adds to the connotation of it being evil and being associated with death. This helps contribute to the mysterious and sinister atmosphere of the poster. Unlike many thriller films, the characters present in the film posters are primarily men however; they have used a woman not only as the main protagonist in the movie but have also used her face as the main image for the film poster. This shows how this film has challenged the classic thriller conventions through their use of a female protagonist instead of male.

Film poster analysis: 'Seven' (1995)

Film poster analysis: 'Jaws' (1975)

Audience Research evaluation

In depth trailer analysis: 'X-Men: First Class'

x Men First Class Trailer Analysis 

In depth trailer analysis: 'Taken'

Product Research tAKEN!


Magazine analysis

In Depth Magazine Analysis A2


Audience research: Questionnaire results

Audience Research Power Point


Risk assessment

Risk Assessment MEDIA


Film Title idea: 'DEADLINE'

Today in our lesson my group and I had thought of possible film titles we could use for our teaser trailer. We wanted a film title that was bold and interesting but most importantly stood out and would make the audience want to see the trailer. The film title ‘Deadline’ defiantly stood out to us as it was bold and matched our plot very well. The title immediately creates suspense and anxiety due to the word ‘dead’ and also tells the audience that this will be a serious film that will include violence and criminality. The word ‘line’ also gives the impression that there will be multiple killings and this therefore creates further suspense and tension.

Research: Trailer analysis of other students teaser trailers

3D Storyboard

In order for us to get a better picture of what we will be including in our film trailer we had created a ‘3D storyboard’ using jelly babies kindly provided by are teacher. When doing this 3D storyboard we had tried to create the same scenarios that were in our 2D storyboard that I had drawn. As you can see in the images below we have used different coloured jelly babies to represent different characters. Firstly, the main character Alex Moone has been represented by the yellow jelly baby as we felt this coloured represented ‘good’ in the best way. The villains in our trailer have been represented by the black jelly babies as this colour best symbolises evil. Finally, the boss in our film trailer has been represented by the orange jelly baby. The reason for this is that orange and yellow is similar colours so this could show that these two characters are allies.  

3D Storyboard

Trailer analysis: 'The Town'

‘The Town’ (2010) is a crime thriller set in Boston, Massachusetts. The film is about a long time thief who tries to balance his feelings for a bank manager connected to one of his earlier heists, as well as the FBI agent looking to bring him and his crew down. The film is directed by and also starred by Ben Affleck. This trailer relies heavily on the action in the trailer to generate suspense for the audience.

This trailer uses a variety of cinematic techniques to emphasize the action for the audience. The shots used in the trailer vary from close ups shots of the characters faces which help display their serious emotion and also help the audience to identify who the main characters in the film are. The mid-shots in the trailer facilitate the characters holding guns which tell the audience that this film will be violent and will also include crime. The location is displayed to the audience through the use of extreme long shots and mid shots of the streets, which help convey a feeling of obscurity and uneasiness for the audience. There are various shots of the main characters firing guns which tell the audience that these characters are on the wrong side of the law. The sound in this trailer starts off with a voiceover of the FBI agent interviewing the victim. This is used to immediately show that there is crime involved in this movie and also creates suspense as there is no music. When the music starts, it has low volume which creates tension and increases which creates increased tension. The music increases in tempo and the visuals of action are increased this emphasizes the gun fights and creates more atmosphere for the audience.

The target audience for this film is men between the ages of 15-30. The film includes a lot of action and crime which could make it inappropriate for younger audiences. The story of this film seems fairly simple so would probably be targeted towards mid teenagers.

Trailer analysis: 'No Country For Old Men'

‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007) is an American crime thriller which tells the story of an ordinary man who discovers a stash of heroin and $2 million in cash. This results in cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of West Texas. This film was directed by The Coen Brothers and stars Tommy lee-Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. This trailer builds up a very sinister and atmospheric feeling towards the audience through its use of cinematography and unusual sound choice.

The cinematography in the trailer ranges from mid shots of the characters and long shots which convey the western Texas landscape to the audience. The main focus of this trailer was to clearly show the audience who the main characters in this film are by using multiple mid shots of their faces. This shows the audience that this film is very serious as none of the characters are smiling or look at all happy. Most of the time the characters had guns which also tell the audience that this film will include violence and death. This immediately creates suspense and anxiety for the audience as they will want to know what has caused them to want to kill each other. As all the characters look serious it is hard to distinguish who the heroes and villains are and this again builds up the anxiety for the audience as they will want to find out more about the characters. The trailer starts of quite slow and builds up which creates tension and excitement for the audience. The sound in this trailer is very distinct and does a great job of creating unease for the audience. Non-diegetic sound of music is absent at the start which creates suspense and also emphasizes the diegetic sounds of footsteps which is another cause of tension. The music in this trailer is quite similar to those in Western films as do some of visuals. A number of String instruments have been used in the soundtrack and combine to give a very suspenseful and uneasy feeling towards the audience. This sound track also matches the visuals well as they are both very mysterious.

This trailer is most probably targeted towards men between the ages of 18-50. The reason for this is partly due to the violence and serious atmosphere conveyed in the trailer. None of the characters smile in this trailer as well which tells you that this movie is not meant to be fun rather it is meant to be realistic and extravert. The film appears to be set in the 1980s which is also another indicator that this film will most probably appeal more towards the older generation of audiences.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard I had drawn which shows just a very basic plot outline idea that we will hopefully turn into a very good teaser trailer. The plot of our trailer involves a business man called Alex Moone on his way home from a business meeting on night where he gets kidnapped and is told he must assassinate his boss in order to save his son. However Alex realises that even if he kills his boss these men will still kill him and is son so he must find and rescue his son before the deadline.

Film Poster analysis: 'Inception'



Prop ideas

Costume ideas

Our teaser trailer will include various characters so we will need many different costumes which will make our trailer a lot more professional and realistic. The main character in our trailer is a business man so we will need this character in a suit to show this to the audience. We wish to give the audience the impression that this character is an innocent man so we will aim to put him in a grey suit which will convey this idea to the audience. It is quite common in films today you see that the people in the black suits are usually the ones that are up to no good so we don’t want are main character to be in a black suit. As you can see in the image below is a grey suit including a white shirt and black tie, this costume is what we aim to have are main character wearing for the teaser trailer.

The second character in our teaser trailer is a very wealthy business man. In our trailer we will have this character in what will seem to be his mansion. Therefore we not have this character in a suit to show that he is at home. We will aim to have this character in an all white costume to represent wealth. The character could wear a white shirt and white trousers. One character’s costume we like is Francois Toulour from ‘Ocean’s twelve’ (2004). As you can see it the image below Toulour’s costume really shows the audience that he is very wealthy and is very successful.

The plot for our teaser trailer involves the main character being kidnapped. For the part of the trailer the kidnappers we need to be in all black and will also have to wear balaclavas to hide their faces.

Location scouting: Wapping

Location scouting: The Rookery (Streatham Common)

The Rookery is an adjacent formal garden located at the top of Streatham Common Park. It is well known for its old cedar trees and White Garden designed in the same style as that at Sissinghurst Castle. The gently sloping lawns of The Rookery are used as an open air theatre in the summer. The rookery it easily accessed by the public which makes it ideal for us as it will give us more opportunities to film. We aim to film in this location as part of our idea involves shots of a very wealthy and powerful business man. We had thought of an idea where we will make the audience think that this is the characters garden which will show his wealth. This location is especially good as it is fairly close to where the people in my group live so it will be easy for us to get to and from this location. Also, The Rookery is never very busy so it will allow us to get a lot of work done with minimal distractions.  

Location scouting: Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf is a major business district located in central London. Canary Wharf is one of London’s two main financial centres, alongside the traditional City of London, and contains many of the UK’s tallest buildings. Canary Wharf contains around 14,000,000 square feet of office and retail space. In my opinion I feel this location will be very good for our teaser trailer as one of our ideas include a business man in a suit so this location would match our costumes as there are a lot of business buildings and the character will be wearing a business suit. The theme of our trailer is a crime thriller so the tall business buildings in the background will give our teaser trailer a serious atmosphere. Another good thing about Canary Wharf is the long alleys it has in the area. These alleys would be great as we are thinking about doing a kidnapping scene in the alleys as they are quiet and fairly creepy at night. If we were to film in our local area then this could, take some of the seriousness away from the sequence so I feel this would be good for our teaser trailer if we were to film at Canary Wharf.

Trailer Pitch

London, 2012, Alex Moone is a business man who is on his way home from a meeting suddenly he is kidnapped by experienced thugs from another rival company. The kidnappers want Alex Moone to assassinate his boss otherwise his son will die however time is ticking as he's got 24 hours to not only rescue his son but also bring the men to justice...

Mood board

A2 Media Moodboard

Audience Research: Focus Group (trailers)

In this part of our audience research we had asked numerous people of different ages and gender a few short and informal questions asking for their thoughts and opinions on some of the progress we had made on our trailer pitch. We had also asked questions regarding what type of films they like watching and how often they watch film trailers. Through this research we had gained some great feedback which will further benefit us when making some of the more important decisions with our film trailer. This type of research has overall been very effective as we were able to do it quickly and also gain more specific feedback which we would not have necessarily gained if we had just done an audience research questionnaire.

Audience Research: Questionnaire

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We would really appreciate it if you were to complete this quick questionnaire, THANKYOU!!!

Initial idea 1: Kidnapping

 

The first idea involves a business man who is on his way home, being kidnapped and told he must commit an assassination or his son will die. The man is given 24 hours to commit the assassination but instead of attempting the assassination he uses that time to try and get his son back as he realises that these men will never let his son go even if he does it. After searching through London investigating leads he finally finds and rescues his son.

If we were to make a trailer out of this story the majority of the trailer would be focused on showing the father investigating and looking for his son. We would also show the man being kidnapped and told what to do which would make it a lot easier for the audience to understand what’s going on in the trailer. The theme of this trailer would be crime thriller so we would have to give this trailer a mysterious feel as well as creating tension for the audience. We would most probably use no music in the beginning of the trailer and build the music up as it goes on as this would create good tension for the audience. We may have to show some clips in the begging of the teaser trailer of the father and son together to show the love between the two characters, this will make it more convincing for the audience and will also make the trailer a lot better. This teaser trailer would have to go from a fairly slow pace to a very fast pace as the trailer goes on thus creating maximum tension. Also, the acting would have to very good and would have to show a lot of emotion if we were to do this teaser trailer.

A film that gave us inspiration for this idea was the film ‘Taken’ (2008). This film stars ‘Liam Neeson’ who plays a retired bodyguard whose daughter gets kidnapped in Paris. He travels to Paris to investigate and question numerous criminals and eventually finds his daughter and brings her home safely. This movie uses the relationship between the father and daughter to great effect as this gives the film a lot of tension and suspense. The trailer for this film shows clips of the father and daughter and then moves on to showing the father trying to find her. The speed and pace of the trailer gradually increases as time goes on thus creating increased tension and suspense.

Idea 4:

Idea 2:

Idea 3:

Trailer analysis: 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John Le Carre. The movie stars Gary Oldman who plays George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, persepatious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence Service. The movie also stars Colin Firth and Tom Hardy.

This trailer does a great job of building up suspense and tension. It does this through the use of non- diegetic sounds like music and the build-up of pace throughout the teaser trailer. The music in the trailer really gives the audience a feeling of unease and mystery. In the beginning of the trailer the music stars of slow paced and uses continuous sounds of a violin and cello simultaneously giving a mysterious start to the trailer. Towards the end of the trailer the music grows and becomes very epic, loud and the pace of music rapidly increases. Similar to the pace of the music is the shots. As the music stars we begin seeing mid shots and close up shots of the main characters in the film. All characters are wearing high priced suits similar to that of the famous fictional character James Bond thus giving the audience the impression that these characters are all involved with the government on the secret service.  This trailer creates a very serious atmosphere as none of the characters smile and we see shots of guns and dead bodies.

The target audience for the trailer would men between the ages of 20-50. This is mainly because the movie is set in 1974 but also contains violent and mature scenes so it would probably be inappropriate for young children. Furthermore the films story seems quite complex and May not appeal to younger children who could find the film boring. This is also a feel which you may have to pay a lot of attention to in order to understand the synopsis of what is going on. This may be another reason why it may be targeted towards older men.

Trailer analysis: 'Senna'

‘Senna’ (2010) is a documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34. The trailer shows a compilation of archive footage taken many years ago which show clips and interviews of Aryton Senna and the people closest to him. The cast of the film contains no actors and was directed by Asif Kapadia.

This trailer mainly shows archive footage taken many years ago and consists of racing clips and interviews of Ayrton Senna. The trailer shows the happy and sad times of ‘Senna’ career but the majority is centred on his rise to become world champion. The changes from action to dialogue in the trailer do a great job of creating tension and excitement for the audience as you are suddenly thrown into a race. Sound in this trailer manly consists of diegetic sound such as dialogue from the characters or the revving of a car engines. These sounds are used to create a sense of realism and also help add to the emphasis to the trailer. The Foley sound effects of the revving car engines do a great job of reminding the audience that the film is about racing and also create increased suspense. Non-diegetic sound is also included in the trailer and contains traditional South American music which obviously tell the audience that ‘Senna’ is from Brazil. This music only starts towards the end of the trailer when most of the shots of Ayrton Senna very happy are shown.

The target audience for this trailer would mainly be males between the ages of 30-50. Due to the fact that this film is a historical documentary and focuses on someone that was active many years ago the younger generation may not find this appealing. The older generation will most probably have been around when ‘Senna’ was active so they may be fans. Furthermore, as this film is about racing this will most probably appeal to the male audience.