Trailer Conventions Research

This part of this article particularly struck me as I have been consumed lately with trailers and the most effective trailers are the ones that only provide a sneak peak which would lead me to find out more and end up watching the whole film

http://filmmakermagazine.com/37093-first-impressions/#.UytdJvl_uSp

Some of these points given by an experienced film cutter/ trailer maker are agreeable and so I would discuss this with my group and implement it during the trailer pre-production, production and post - production.

http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/02/how-to-edit-a-trailer-for-your-movie%E2%80%A6-but-the-guy-who-cuts-trailers-for-movies.html

Mobile Communication

In order to keep in touch with each other we had a group chat on WhatsApp, which allows us to message each other for free with our phones any time and at any moment when needed. It's really useful for sharing ideas - and, most importantly, organising filming sessions on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Film Trailer: Detailed Shot List

Every film is planned beforehand to give more detailed imagery of visuals and audio so all of us know exactly what goes where and what to film.

·         First shot of protagonist asleep in a bed – close-up of a phone ringing and the character rolling over to answer it
·         Protagonist bathed in shadow, long shot of him sitting on the edge of his bed
·         Voiceover: “Alex, they’ve taken her.”
·         Extreme close-up of the handle of a gun
·         Protagonist grabs the gun, focus pulls out
·         Long shot of the character walking out of the door – fade to black
·         Zooming out from a close-up of sign to a long shot of the protagonist walking past the New Scotland Yard building with voiceover
·         “Good morning, everyone. For those of you who don’t know, I’m Chief Superintendent Adams.”
·         Cut to meeting room – mid shot of new Chief Sup. Adams as she speaks to her new team of Detective Inspectors
·         Voiceover interspersed with cutscenes to the group of detectives listening and some fast-editing of a van pulling up on the pavement next to a small girl
·         “We’ve had an incident this morning. An eight-year-old girl has been taken from outside her school. Her father is the new CEO of IBM, so we assume ransom. We’ll be keeping this quiet – it hasn’t hit the public yet. Shaw, you’re heading this one. Let’s go.”
·         Cut to protagonist and his boss arguing in the same office later in the day:
·         “Chief, please, give me this case.”
·         “Just stop. You’re a relative. It’s not going to happen.”
·         “But Chief—”
·         “Listen, it’s in Shaw’s capable hands. Relax.”
·         Cut to a dim long shot of the protagonist and his brother on a balcony. Protagonist says: “I’ll find her.”
·         Cue fast-paced shots of walking, research, tensions rising
·         Long shot of protagonist in an alleyway with a brown envelope
·         Close-up of him pulling a picture from the envelope
·         Long shot of protagonist finding a group of people in another alley – a few leave but one, the one in the picture, remains
·         Protagonist says: “I need to know about the Hudson kid.”
·         “I don’t know anything.”
·         Close-up of the man’s face as protagonist pins him to the wall, gun-to-head, saying, “Are you sure?”
·         Fade to black
·         Fast-paced editing of long shots, protagonist running down the road with the alleyway stranger’s voiceover: “There’s got to be someone on the inside.”
·         Long shot of protagonist bursting into his boss’s office with picture ‘evidence’: “I think he’s involved.”
·         Close-up of Adams: “You’ve had it in for him since the start. Give me your badge and go home.”

Storyboarding

COURTESY OF LIZZIE

Film Magazine Sketch

Here is the sketch of what I want my film magazine front cover to look like, I have made a firm choice of calling it 'Film First' as existing magazines are deemed the top and best while this name would bring the idea of fast and fresh film content that would make it seem popular as many readers want news about upcoming movies in flash

Audience Research Mood Board

Courtesy of Iuri - contains what the conventional and sometimes stereotypical view of the target demographic; this includes taste, leisure and music they listen to

Film Magazine Front Cover - Planning Sheet

Main Image; the main image is going to be character focused complementing the film poster. Either a close up or mid shot.

Name(s) of the magazine: FILM FIRST, CINE , FLIX
What are the connotations of the title? Informative as it provides up to date news on upcoming films

Colour Scheme: Bright Colours - white, less warm colours, more cold used to around to make it look more prestige, premium, linked to film - the Oscar awards

Headline: The headline will match the main image in either going behind the scenes with an interview story or giving teaser information about the film

Sell Lines: containing references to new and upcoming other films, fresh actors, directors and information about film festivals and screenings

Banners/splash: Behind the Scenes Exclusive

Magazine Tag line; FILM FIRST - THE FIRST IN FILM

Other Info: Price - £3.99 Release Date 
                            - March 2014 Issue

Film Poster - Planning Sheet

 Main Image:

A character focused film poster so that the audience can get a feeling of who is in the film (the actor) along with the characterization of the actor 

Sell Lines:

 The film may reference the specific actor shown on the poster, a director may also be shown who has done past work. Film festivals are least likely to be shown as this is an early release film poster meaning that it would be released at a later date. However it may indicate that it would be entering a film festival instead.

Film Tag line: 

Think Outside The Box

Other Info: 

This poster if produced would contain a non-specific release date or coming soon text to identify the poster as an early release poster, some or no credits and an external link to a another site such the film website so that those interested could access more information about it.

Poster Sketch Three

This is the third and final decision on how I would like the poster to look like

 The main image description:

 For this particular idea a mid shot would be displayed; having the main character looking at the audience while holding a gun to show power but also a badge to suggest that he is on the good side - police.Colour Scheme and its connotations: different shades of blue would be used to give so a lighter blue would show a contrast of warmth with the deep, seriousness of the story in a more darker blue.

Other Info: 

This specific poster if produced would contain a non-specific release date such as the year only to identify the poster as an early release poster, production credits and an external film website link would be at the bottom right for those interested could access more information about it.

Poster Sketch Two

Here is another sketch drawn form ideas of the poster

 The main image description: this is the most favourable specific shot as it could be used for the poster and magazine front cover. The character is directly in the middle, looking towards the character and presenting himself to the audience. The gun and badge are shown to give him empowerment and so leads to him being the centre of attention as the good guy and therefore create the assumption that he is the protagonist.

The colours included would be different shades of blue would be used to give so a lighter blue would show a contrast of warmth with the deep, seriousness of the story in a more darker blue. Greys and whites would be used in the background to suggest purity and bring extra emphasis that he is in fact the hero.

Other Info: 

This specific poster if produced would contain a non-specific release date such as the year only to identify the poster as an early release poster, few production credits and an external film website link would be at the bottom right for those interested could access more information about it.

Poster Sketch One

Here is the initial sketch I have made of the film poster that will be produced

The main image description:

Here is a very different concept thought of as the character is not looking directly at the camera but at something else which would make the audience feel as if this is a still of the action in the movie. The specific shot is the american mid shot - below the waist is also shown; the character is pointing his gun which would make audiences interested as they would be curious about what he has found out.

The colour Scheme include different shades of blue would be used to give so a lighter blue would show a contrast of warmth with the deep, seriousness of the story in a more darker blue in order to be closer to the genres closer and give ease to classify it as a police crime thriller.

Other Info: 

This specific poster if produced would contain a less specific release date such as the year and coming soon note to be identified as an mid - release poster, production credits and an external film website link would be at the bottom right for access as more information would be available.

Audience Research: Focus Group

Here is the participants of the focus group discussing the trailers that they have watched, made by Daniel

Repertoire of Elements

Repertoire of Elements from Group Member Lizzie

Questionnaire Answers Q8

This data shows that the all the themes are popular therefore all themes would be included in the trailer that will be made

Questionnaire Answers Q7

Comment: this data shows that most of the participants want a film trailer that promotes positive feelings from them and so we will work hard on the trailer to illicit this

Questionnaire Answers Q6

What aspect of this genre do you think made it unique?

Answered: 21                  Skipped: 1

Showing 21 responses

There's always a twist

The fact that directors are able to explore the intricate ideas of characters through this genre.

Being a hybrid genre, so it contains aspects of both the thriller and crime genres. Some recurring themes make it comparable to other film genres, however - for example, good vs evil. I think the characters in this genre are often quite complicated (e.g. the anti-hero), which stands in contrast to some other thriller films.

Different - the fast paced scenes of action where the character has to decide to kill or not

The seriousness of the detectives and the arsenal of weapons used

The combination of police and superheroes.

The story

The ending where the evidence adds up to find the culprit

The dark side of a investigator is explored

I don't know

The comedy mixed in with the plot

The way it was about magicians who "robbed" a bank instead of the normal thief or criminal which these magicians weren't

I like big, complicated plots that all come together in the end.

The issues that the detectives face during the films

The use of 'enhanced' real life situations enable the films to be both relatable through the use of human emotion and interesting through the thrilling story lines.

the factual parts where we can relate them to real stories in modern times

That we didn't know what was going to happen in the end

How relatable it can be to lives and interesting it is.

The humour

The limit of law against personal morals

The crime and thrill

My Comment: although this is qualitative data, similarities can be found within these various answers which would be implemented into the trailer such as the idea of fast paced scenes which can be done through quick cuts of not giving the whole plot away

Questionnaire Answers Q5

What is your favourite police crime thriller film? And Why?

Answered: 14         Skipped: 8

Showing 14 responses

Shinjuku Incident, because the movie explores the topic of immigration throughout eastern Asia.

Seven - unexpected ending.

Dredd because it is a remake of the original film franchise

The Dark Knight Rises

Where the big shootout happens

The Dark Knight - because of the iconic characters from the comics appear in it

Don't have one

Sherlock Holmes

Now You See Me

Sherlock Holmes.

Brooklyn's Finest because I like the plot. It wasn't slow at certain areas

Green Street because it is local and seems realistic

Sherlock Holmes, It's funny and clever.

Runner Runner because it's funny.

My Comment: here we can see similarities in the taste of our audience and so helps us to generate a more authentic film trailer due to research on the specific films that are popular among the demographic

Questionnaire Answers Q4

Please state the film(s) watched:

Answered: 14            Skipped: 8

Showing 14 responses

Shinjuku Incident

Seven

Dredd

The Dark Knight Trilogy

LA Confidential

The Dark Knight Trilogy Runner Runner

I haven't seen any recently

Now You See Me 

Now You See Me

Sherlock Holmes

Training day Pride and glory U.S Marshalls

Green Street

Sherlock Holmes

Pulp Fiction

From this list of films watched by the 14 respondents, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Now You See Me are the most popular being said twice. By answering this question with The Dark Knight Trilogy, it can be suggested that the film is very popular because of an iconic character based on comics and with a wide range of ages in question 2; it can be assumed that these respondents were in the broad ages of 20 to 50 years of age.

Questionnaire Answers Q1,2&3

The data shows that 64% of the 22 respondents said yes to watching a police crime thriller film(s) recently, this could suggest that the genre has high popularity as some of the films shown in the cinema right now are actually Police Crime Thriller Films

The majority of respondents were also 20 - 50 which is the age gap that was predicted when picturing the demographic. The highest age percentage of the respondents were 21-25 year old people which gives us a main target demographic to focus on the most but not to neglect the other audiences

The majority of respondents were males, which conforms to the predictions that more males would like to answer the questionnaire about Police Crime Thriller films as they are aimed more at this type of demographic compared to less than half of the respondents who are female

Here is the data for questions 1,2&3 of the questionnaire

There were 22 respondents in this questionnaire which were answered by people of a specific place (East London) which is a relatively small scale of people; although small it can be generalized carefully towards the entire country

 

 

Questionnaire Part 1

Here is the layout of the questionnaire, quick and easy to answer using surveymonkey.com