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.  

Trailer analysis: 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon'

‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ (2011) is an American science fiction action film and is the third instalment of the ‘Transformers’ franchise. The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Tyrese Gibson. This trailer is set in space when humans arrived at the moon for the first time. It shows two astronauts making a discovery and finding a huge robot buried under the surface of the moon. The visual’s shown is a combination of old real life footage and filmed shots for the movie.

This trailer starts off quite slow and shows numerous shots of old real life footage when humans were first travelling to the moon. This immediately tells the audience that this film will be a sci-fi movie. After the various shots of archive footage it then moves to a series of mid shots which show the space ship arriving on the moon and the astronauts landing on the moon. The non-diegetic sound of music starts and the tension is initiated. The music includes enhanced screeching sounds produced using a string instrument perhaps a violin. These sounds create a feeling of unease for the audience and increase the tension and suspense. The tempo and volume of the music gradually increases then suddenly stops which gets the audience on edge. As the astronauts spot the huge robot on the moon, non- diegetic sounds of heartbeats starts and builds up the suspense and anxiety for the audience. A long shot is used to show how huge the robot is in comparison with the two astronauts’ and this then creates an increased sense of worry and anxiety. Towards the end of the trailer the music becomes very loud and constant which increase the tension for the audience. The speed of shots also increase which adds to the tension.

This trailer would appeal to male between the ages of 12-25 due to the sci-fi action genre. The trailers include robots and spaceships which would most probably appeal to men more than women. Furthermore, the Transformers franchise is about fighting robots which again would appeal more to the young male audience. This trailer has not focused very much on the story or the main characters in the film but has focused on its unique selling point which is the robots from space. The younger audience will probably not really focus on the character development or the story which also tells you that the target audience will most probably be younger as they have included neither in this trailer.

Trailer analysis: 'Age of Heroes'

‘Age of Heroes’ (2011) is an action-packed British thriller based on the real-life events of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando during World War II, which takes our heroes from the edge of defeat on the beaches of Dunkirk to the mountains of Norway on a search-and-destroy mission behind enemy lines that, if successful, would change the course of the war. The movie stars Sean Bean who is the leader of the Special Forces team and also stars Danny Dyer and Isabella Miko.

‘Age of Heroes’ teaser trailer was released in 2010. This teaser trailer is very intense and fast moving to emphasize the action. It contains a lot of gun fire and explosions which visually makes it very epic. The teaser trailer uses various camera techniques such as close up shots of the soldiers fighting, but also many long and establishing shots to show the audience the rough and treacherous terrain they must travel across. The different camera techniques used help emphasize to the audience the seriousness of the film. The sound in this teaser trailer is used to represent war. Diegetic sounds such as explosions and gun shots are used to accentuate to the audience that this is a violent film. The non- diegetic sounds like music is very fast paced and uses many string instruments which is commonly used for historical epics like this one. In the beginning of the trailer there is no music, but it slowly builds up to create tension for the audience.

The target audience for this trailer would primarily be men between the ages of 20-30. The theme of this film is historical war so it will probably be unsuitable for young children. This film is focused towards men as it is violent and also contains only men which show that it is targeted towards men. ‘Age of Heroes’ (2011) is a historical film set in World War II so it may appeal more towards the older generation who may have more interest in history than the younger generation.

What are Trailers?

A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be shown in the future at a cinema. Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these selected shots are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year; if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.

The first trailer shown in a U.S. movie theatre was in November 1913, when Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theatre chain, produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.  Movie trailers have now become popular on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, as well as on the Internet. Of some 10-billion videos watched online annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video. There are two types of movie trailers:

Teaser trailers:  A teaser trailer is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming film, television program, computer game or similar, usually released long in advance of the product to ‘tease’ the audience. Movie teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Teaser trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies. Their purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on internet downloading and the convention circuit. An early example of the teaser trailer was the one for the Superman film by Richard Donner. The film was already nearly a year late; it was designed to re-invigorate interest in the release. The teaser for the Batman film starring Michael Keaton was an emergency marketing move that successfully convinced angered comic book fans that the film would respect the source material.

Below is an example of a teaser trailer from the film ‘Brave’ (2012):

Theatrical trailers:

Reflecting back from last year

 

Starting A2 Media Coursework

My name is George Robinson and I am an A2 Media student. For my coursework I will have to create a teaser trailer with my group and will also have to create a poster and a magazine. I will be using blogger to help demonstrate the journey of creating these different forms of media. I will have to plan, design and construct each of these forms of media and will be assessed on each of them. I will aim to post at least once a week showing our updates with the project. This project will take me an academic year.