Directors Commentary - 'Deadline'



Directors Chair Interview Q4: 'How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages'?

For all stages of the overall project we had relied heavily on new and old media technologies to help us make our media products as good as possible. The research stage involved us looking at numerous teaser trailers and we had used websites such as ‘YouTube’ and ‘Trailer addict’ which allowed us to search and find almost any trailer we wanted. This was especially useful when looking for trailers that matched our targeted genre such as Taken, The Town etc. Another part of the research stage was finding good locations for us to film. There were numerous occasions when we weren’t physically able to get to certain locations, so websites like ‘Google Earth’ and ‘Google Maps’ had helped us tremendously. The use of these new websites had made things a lot easier so we were able to conduct more research as a result of this. When researching the preferences of our target audience we used a new website called ‘Survey Monkey’ which allowed us to post questionnaires which asked a number of questions that had ultimately helped us when we started the production phase of the project. ‘Blogger’ was a website that we had used constantly which enabled us to record our planning, development and we could also make the necessary changes to improve our overall products. Organization tools such as storyboards, shot lists and plot ideas were all recorded onto our personal blogs and were easily accessible.

Last year we were given fairly average camcorders so the quality of our overall product had lacked as a result of this. This year we were given brand new ‘Panasonic HDC’ camcorders which enabled us to get more definition and higher quality shots. The camera also was much easier to use, primarily due to the responsive touch screen and simple layout. Another form of technology we used again was ‘I-movie 09’ which we had experience in due to last year’s project. We were familiar with the programs capabilities so we were able to edit much faster and add in new editing techniques that made the teaser trailer look more professional. These techniques included changing the colour and saturation of certain shots.

This year we had two ancillary tasks on top of the teaser trailer which included a poster and magazine cover. We had used ‘Photoshop CS5’ during the production phase of these products and it allowed us to use a wide variety of visual effects which had made our products look a lot more interesting. ‘Paintbrush’ was another program new program and was used to create the gun shot effect in our teaser trailer. This program was very similar to ‘Paint’ which made it quick and easy to use.

Directors Interview Q3: 'What have you learned from your audience feedback'?

Following the post-production of our media products we had focused on gaining a large quantity of audience feedback as this would inform us on if we had met our target audience’s preferences. We had posted our product on a number of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These sites allowed people to post comments on what they thought of our product. We had also interviewed a number of people after the production. Although we had gained a lot of response’s our main source of feedback came through word-of –mouth where people could tell us directly their thoughts and opinions on our product and how we could have improved it.

One of our main points of praise from audiences was the choice of camera shots and music which combined well to give very atmospheric feel. The mise-en-scene was another point of interest for audiences such as the costumes and props. It created an enhanced sense of realism and seriousness which was one of our aims when creating the teaser trailer. One of the main criticisms with our trailer was the unclear narrative or plot which made it somewhat difficult for audiences to understand what was going on. However, our research on teaser trailers had informed us that teasers don’t necessarily have to make the story of the film clear, but they definitely have to make audiences want to watch more which according to our overall feedback was a goal we had achieved.

Directors Chair Interview Q2: 'How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts'?

‘Overall, we had gained a lot of good feedback on each of our media products and also on the media package itself. All of the products seemed to convey the genre of the film well and each created a very atmospheric feeling towards the audience. Although, the majority of the feedback we had gained was affirmative there was some constructive criticisms such as the poster and magazine cover including two different characters as its centrepiece. This aroused some confusion as to who the main protagonist was due to the lack of continuity between our poster and magazine cover. Another minor fault with our poster was the fact that it had the names of actors that were not present in the trailer such as Tom Cruise and Jessica Alba. This is obviously unrealistic but is easily corrected so it wasn’t much of a problem.

 

Our teaser trailer had received a lot of good comments as it clearly informed the audience of the genre and created a lot suspense and tension. The red title shot at the end of the trailer was good as it was bold, eye-catching and helped to convey some of the themes of our product such as blood, danger and death. One criticism was with the unrealistic gunshot which I had created using a program called ‘Paintbrush’. I had originally aimed to create the gun shot effect using a website called ‘Footage Crate’ but was unable to do so due to limited accesses'.



Directors Chair Interview Q1: 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products'?

‘In our teaser trailer we have used, developed as well as slightly challenged the forms and conventions of real media products. Are aim at the beginning was making our teaser trailer seem as professional as possible but we also wanted to have some unique aspects and originality. Before we had even started the production process of our teaser trailer we had conducted extensive research on real media texts and the conventions they use to make their products as effective as possible. The targeted genre of our teaser trailer was crime/suspense thriller. We had found that these types of teaser trailers do a great job of building the tension for the audience by gradually increasing the pace of shots and their use of music to create atmosphere. In our teaser trailer we had replicated this convention by having a slow paced scene in the exposition of our trailer and then having a very fast paced conclusion. Teaser trailers are meant to excite and attract audiences without giving away the narrative of the film and we have definitely emulated this convention in our teaser trailer. Another aspect of crime thrillers was an assassin character which we had used in our teaser trailer. There were many examples of thrillers which use assassin characters such as ‘Vincent’ from the film ‘Collateral’ and ‘James Bond’ from the ‘Bond’ series. These assassin characters also have very smart costumes which is another convention we have adapted to our own assassin character. The smart costume represents professionalism and gives the trailer a higher sense of verisimilitude. One way in which we have challenged the conventions of crime thrillers, is by having our assassin character as the main protagonist in our trailer. This is quite uncommon as the assassin character in real media texts is usually the antagonist'.

'Our primary focus when creating our magazine cover was making it look as professional as possible. We wanted to replicate the forms and conventions of real media texts and had focused our research on two popular film magazines ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’. We had found that these magazine covers do a great job of drawing the audience’s attention through its use of visual effects, unique typography and striking images of the main characters. ‘Empire’ magazine was our main focus however as we had really liked the bold red title and the consistent layout the magazine had adopted which had made it very eye-catching and interesting.  Three particular Empire covers was are main source of inspiration such as (Public Enemies) July 2009 issue, (Quantum of Solace) October 2008 issue and (Inception) August 2010 issue. All of these particular cover centred on the main protagonist in the film and included mise-en scene such as black suits, guns and serious facial expressions which created a very dark atmosphere. We had used these conventions on our magazine cover by having the main protagonist in a black suit, looking very serious and focused. These specific parts of mise-en-scene had clearly informed the audiences of what genre our film was as we had gained good feedback from audiences. To create the magazine cover we had used Adobe Photoshop CS5 and we were able to implement other forms and convention such as barcodes, taglines and screenshots of the latest films which overall made our magazine cover look that much more professional'.

'Our film poster was a media product that we wanted to appear unique but at the same time we had still followed the main forms and conventions that professional film posters use to make it impactful and interesting. Firstly, we had used dark lighting and colour schemes to create a shady atmosphere. The use of black is common colour used in crime thrillers and can be used to represent the good and evil aspect in our film. Our poster had also centred on one of the key protagonists in our film which another convention that is used to inform the audience of the main character. We had again used ‘Adobe Photoshop CS5’ which allowed us to add in other characteristics or real film posters such as actor’s names, taglines and film credits. One way in which we have challenged the conventions of real film posters is the small range of colours we have used which is quite uncommon for thriller genre posters’.

Inspiration of Key Shots in Trailer

Presentation1.Pptx Media 

Final Teaser Trailer Analysis

Below is a detailed analysis of our teaser trailer which I had personally analysed.

Deadline Teaser Trailer Analysis

Magazine Cover Audience Feedback

Below is a video showing some of the feedback we had gained on our magazine cover. We had asked random people in our college what they had thought and had made sure to ask the people that were in our target audience.

Final Teaser Trailer - 'DEADLINE'

Here you can see our final teaser trailer that we have filmed and edited. In my opinion I think that are trailer is very good as it builds up in pace, has a wide range of shots and characters and the soundtrack is very good as well. The trailer matches the thriller genre very well but at the same time is different and unique.

Final Magazine Analysis

Magazine Cover Analysis

Film Poster Analysis

Film Poster Analysis

Magazine Creation - Final Piece

The image above is our final magazine front cover which was created by another member in my group. The cover uses a great combination of colours, imagery and sub-text to create a very eye-catching front cover. This poster not only draws the audience’s attention but also gives them an insight as to the genre of our film due to the mise-en scene. Our main target for this cover was to make it look as professional as possible. ‘Empire’ was a magazine that really stood out to us as having consistent magazine covers that were very colourful and interesting.

Our magazine cover is primarily based around an image that I had gathered from some unused footage we had. This image sees myself (the main character) looking very cautious and focused. I am wearing a black suit and holding a gun which immediately informs the audience that this is a serious film that will include many forms of violence and criminality. I am also pointing the gun to the right which can symbolise that I am perhaps a ‘good-guy’ in the film, or have good intensions. In film, if a character is moving to the left it has been known to symbolise the character being bad. The red title of ‘Empire’ is bold and bright which instantly draws the audience attention. The red title can also combine with the serious appearance of our film which both gives a very dark demeanour. Our main film title ‘Deadline’ has been put in white to make it stand out from the fairly dark background. We have included a red boarder around the title to symbolise blood and death.  The sub-text on the magazine incudes the tagline which I personally came up with: ‘One Man, One Mission, One Chance’. This instantaneously creates a sense of anxiety for the audience and emphasizes the main image in the magazine as being this one man. Another piece of sub-text included on our magazine front cover is the titles of other films which a common part of magazine covers and I had found this out from the magazine research. We have also combined these film titles with images from the films which make the overall magazine cover look a lot more interesting.

Filming Equipment - HDC-SD90 Camcorder

Recently we were given some H-D Camcorders which will help us a lot when it comes to the actual filming process. The camcorder is of the Panasonic brand and is called the HDC-SD90. I personally wanted to research this camera and look at some of the reviews it was getting at this would not only tell me how good this product was but it would also tell me a range of ideas as to how and what works best on these specific camcorders. Previously we had been filming with a different camera that different have the amount of capabilities this current camera has so I was interested to find out more.

When researching on the internet I had found various reviews which had complimented the camera on its wide range of capabilities and its 3-D element. Although we would not be shooting are trailer in 3-D this was definitely helpful. The first main point was the cameras H-D aspect and its good quality. This meant that we could get a lot of good quality shots from different positions and we also didn’t have to worry about changing the focus like we had to with the other camera. Another great point was its wide angle lens which was exactly 28mm. This meant that we could get a lot of things into one shot and could keep the camera closer than we had to before. The responsive touchscreen meant that we will be able to navigate easily through our past footage which was something that was sometimes difficult with the previous camcorder. The last big point about this camera was its zooming capabilities (40x) which would come in very handy when we shoot some of our establishing or environmental shots. This way we can zoom in very far without losing the visual quality and focus which is another huge positive. On the negative side there were a couple of small fonts that I had found from my product research. Firstly, when the camcorder was in camera mode the capture image button is very stiff and pressing can often knock your image off so that it becomes blurry or skewed. Another was the zooming in button which was quite hard to control. Finally, the main negative point was its cost but thanks to our college that’s all been taken care of. Overall, I am very confident that the HDC-SD90 will make a great addition to our team and we will be able to get a lot of good shots for our teaser trailer.

 

Below is a YouTube video I had found which shows a review of the camera that we will be using the HDC-SD90. The review was done by a website called ‘Trusted Reviews’ who review a lot of different electronic devices such as cameras and laptop.

Music inspiration - 'Moving Shadows' (Two Steps from Hell)

Today I had seen the trailer for the new movie the ‘Bourne Legacy’ (2012) and had really liked the soundtrack used in the trailer. This music has given me a lot of inspiration and ideas for our own soundtrack and I may even consider including this soundtrack for own teaser trailer. The ‘Bourne Legacy’ (2012) is an upcoming American action thriller spy film which is directed by Tony Gilroy. This film tells a story centred on a new CIA operative in the universe based on Robert Ludlum's novels. The film stars Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton. The soundtrack used in this teaser trailer is called moving shadows and was created by the production music company ‘Two Steps from Hell’ based in Los Angeles.

‘Moving Shadows ii’ uses a very slow and atmospheric build up in the initial stages of the soundtrack with a very epic and magnificent ending. The instruments in the beginning of the track such as violin and cello give a sense of innocent and also create a sense of tension as the tempo increases. The build-up in tempo is emphasized through the increase of volume as well which gives a sense of anxiety as the audience know that something ‘big’ is about to happen. As the track progresses more instruments start to arise such as base drums and trumpet which continue to build up the tension. The increase in number of instruments can also build up the intensity for the audience and can add to any visuals on screen. After the slow and quiet intro, the soundtrack gets becomes very loud and a sudden invasion of more instruments with different sounds immediately shock and surprise the audience. A repeated sound of a tuba instrument is included at the climax of the soundtrack and would be played as the action is taking place, like ‘The Bourne Legacy’ (2012) has done in this trailer. The re-occurring sound of the tuba can give any visuals on the screen a higher sense of prominence and can make them much more impactful due to high volume it produces.

Music Inspiration - 'No Church in the Wild' (Kanye West/ Jay-Z)

‘Safe House’ (2012) is an American action thriller directed by Daniel Espinosa. The film stars Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington. This film is about a young CIA agent who is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge. The main soundtrack used in the trailer is a song produced by Jay-Z and Kanye West. The use of this song in the trailer makes it a lot more effective and adds to the atmosphere of the visuals on the screen.

This soundtrack uses a combination of a high tempo/bass-heavy beat and Foley sound effects such as heavy breathing as its main source of atmosphere and tension. The constant drumming perhaps made by a base drum can be used to represent the large amounts of violence and explosions which gives the audience an increased feeling of suspense. The build-up of tempo and instruments used as the soundtrack progresses can also create a sense of anxiety for the audience and can be used to make the visuals a lot more epic. A large range of instruments in the soundtrack give a lot of different effects and can represent different meanings. The electric instruments such as the guitar can maybe represent technology and modernization. The mid-low pitch of these guitar sounds create a sense of unease and are constant throughout the main sections of the music. The chorus of the song is of an R&B style sung by Frank Ocean and the change from a hip hop style beat with the R&B style vocals can perhaps represent mystery. ‘No church in the Wild’ uses a mixture of a bass-heavy beat with guitar riffs, synthesizers, and drums to great effect and I would seriously consider this to be the soundtrack for our own teaser trailer.

Shot inspiration - 'Pusher' (2012)

When researching and looking at various trailers for ideas and inspiration I had seen a very easy and effective shot from a particular new trailer called ‘Pusher’ (2012). This specific shot is a close up of the main protagonist in the movie holding a lighter in front of his face. This shot had appealed to me as it could be easily shot and matches the type of shots shown in thriller genre movies. It could also mean and represent a lot of different things such as the light and dark being a representation of good and evil which is a major subject of our trailer. I had aimed to replicate this type of shot for our trailer and had filmed it in my house. To do this shot I had to first make my room completely dark by turning off all the lights and positioning myself in front on my bedroom wall. I had then used the lighter as the main source of light when filming. As far as acting I just had to make myself look confused and worried which would hopefully create a sense of tension and suspense for the audience.

‘Pusher’ (2012) is about a drug pusher's life that spins out of control over the course of one week. The film is directed by Luis Prieto and stars Richard Coyle, Bronson Webb and Agyness Deyn.

As you can see in the screen shot below is the original shot used in the film ‘Pusher’ (2012). The shot manages to create a sense of tension suspense through its use of lighting.

Here you can see in this screen shot is the shot I have personally created. As you can see it is very similar as the one above and relies on lighting to create atmosphere for the audience.

Editing: Day 2

This day of editing was spent piecing the main part of the teaser trailer together and involved me looking through our main footage and putting them in order. We had previously decided that we would use an establishing shot combined with mid-shots of the actors at the beginning of the main trailer. This would not only introduce the location to the audience but also introduce the characters in the trailer as well. I had also added the soundtrack (‘No Church in the Wild’) in the trailer which had helped me get the visuals shots in time with the music. Another piece of sound I had included was a Foley sound effect of footsteps. This would create a sense of realism and tension for the audience.

Editing: Day 3 (Gun Shot creation)

On this day of editing my primary focus was to create a gunshot effect which I could attach to our original footage. I had hoped that this would make our teaser trailer look a lot more professional. When originally thinking of how I would create this effect, the first thought I had was to download a readymade animation from a website that I had found called ‘Footage Crate’ which had readymade muzzle flash animation which I could incorporate and edit into our trailer. The good thing about this website was that it had a wide range of muzzle flashes with fine bits of detail such as smoke and realistic flashes. However, due to the fact that we were using the colleges Apple Mac the programs I needed to add the muzzle flashes were somehow blocked and I would not let me do it.

My other idea was to personally create the flashes myself and somehow edit them into our sequence. I would use a program called ‘Paintbrush’ which is a program that is easily accessible on Apple macs. This program enabled me to get a screen shot from our trailer and personally edits the colours. I had to get the screen shot that was exactly when I had made the shooting motion and getting this exact point took some time. After I had got this point I had ‘Split the Clip’ and it had given me a freeze frame which I could then copy and paste into ‘Paintbrush’. To create the gun-shot effect I had made bright yellow lines which were like sparks and had added some grey lines at the back of the gun which looked as though the gun was snapping back.

(Here is a screenshot of the Website ‘Footage Crate’)

Below is a couple of screen shot from I-movie which show the difference between before the gun shot creation and after. The obvious change is the spark which makes the shot look a lot more realistic.

Here is the finished image of the gun shot.

Editing: Day 1

Today was the start of the editing process and I would spend this first day looking through our footage and beginning to piece the initial stages of the trailer together. Our time spent filming was very productive and we were able to get a wide variety of shots of different characters in a wide range of locations. One of our definite targets for the trailer was starting the trailer off slow and building up to a faster pace which would maximise the intensity and therefore create a lot more suspense and tension for the audience.

The first part our trailer would be a meeting between a crime boss and an assassin in a park. When editing this part of the trailer I had to make sure I had applied the 180 degree rule to ensure continuity and professionalism. One hard point of this part was finding the right pieces of footage that matched well together and as there was so many pieces of footage of this particular scene it was time consuming. Sound in this part of the trailer was minimal and I had only included some Foley sound effects which were included as the main character walks into the first character shot. I will probably include some music which will help set the mysterious atmosphere we want to create with this trailer.

Filming: Day 5

On this day of filming we had wanted film in two different locations, Kennington Park and Mansion House Station. This day of filming was a lot more structured than the other days that we had filmed as we had specific ideas as to what shots we wanted. This day of filming would hopefully be our last and therefore we will have finished the overall filming for out trailer.

The first half of the day was spent in Kennington Park. We had wanted to film a scene whereby the main character and the boss were having a secretive meeting. We had chosen this location to film as we felt this location looked very natural and the very green surrounding of the park meant that are characters stood out more due to their very dark costumes. The scene involved the boss sitting on a bench reading a newspaper on his own and then the main character suddenly arriving and sitting beside him. As the two characters had the conversation we had positioned the camera from two different angles taking into account the 180 degree rule. This would mean that the audience would clearly see the two characters in the scene.

As you can see in the images below two members of my group had a lot of fun at Kennington Park.

The second half of the day was located around the area of Mansion House Station. We had wanted to get some action shots of characters running and we had felt this was a good location due to fairly quiet side roads that this location had. We had shot this particular chase sequence from a number of different angles which we would hopefully use in the final edit of our teaser trailer. Another reason for this chose location was the well-known Millennium Bridge which was located nearby the station. We had wanted to get some establishing shots from the Bridge and from the surrounding area which we had felt matched the rest of our footage well.

Time Lapse Disappointment

Originally we had aimed to include a time lapse effect in our teaser trailer which would emphasize the theme of time and also capture the audience’s attention. We had set out to Mansion House station where we had filmed on the millennium bridge and would have myself located in the middle of the bridge with the cathedral behind me. We knew that we would have to film for at least a couple of minutes at a time as we would be increase the speed of the shot in post-production. During this process, it was fairly difficult for me to remain focused as there was a lot of people looking into the camera and distracting me. Furthermore, it was very chilly and hard for me to remain still.

Magazine creation - Original image

Today we had started the process of making our magazine front cover based on our teaser trailer. In order to create this magazine we needed an image of me in costume as I am the main character in the trailer. I had the idea of using a screen shot from the footage that we didn’t use in the actual trailer. The image we had chosen was of me posing with a gun looking like an agent. In the future we will aim to use ‘Photoshop’ and include the key parts of a magazine such as text and other images.

Filming: Day 4

Today we had aimed to get almost all of the filming completed and therefore we would have all the footage we needed to create our teaser trailer. We had travelled to Waterloo where we wanted to get a range of different shots in a different location. We had chosen this location for the final part of filming as we felt there were many different areas that looked very different. Firstly, there was a very modern area next to the river which in some way matched the style of buildings in Canary Wharf. Secondly, there was a much more old part which had cobbled streets and dark alleys which we had used to get some very mysterious and sinister shots.

Our first task when we arrived was to travel towards the river were we wanted to get some shots of myself and another member of my group in different places around the river. One problem with this was the fact that there were a lot of restaurants and shops around this location which resulted in a lot of people. The meant that we had to spend more time trying to get the shots we wanted. Although the amount of people was a bit of an issue we still were able to get some of the shots we wanted and also obtain some more establishing shots which we had not planned to shoot.

The second part of shooting for the day was located in the more rural part of Waterloo. This location had older derelict buildings and gave a much darker feel than the other location. We had aimed to shoot a lot more shots as we had not shot in this type of location before and also it was far easier to shoot here as there weren’t as much people. Many of the shots we took were mid shots of the characters posing. They were very quick and showed the differences in location well.

Evaluation of poster research

Sound: Foley

Foley is a term that describes the process of live recording of sound effects that are created by a Foley artist, which are added in post-production to enhance the quality of audio for films, television, video, video games and radio. During the editing process of our teaser trailer we will have to create our own Foley sound effects which we can use to create emphasis and meaning to parts of out trailer. The reason for the Foley sound effects is that the sound produced naturally while filming will be minimal and will not sound natural. Foley can also create an increased sense of realism for the audience. In the video below is a YouTube video I had found which talks about the process of creating Foley sound effects and gives some good examples of when they are used in films.