Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Voiceover
We decided to use the main female protagonists voice as the voice over because it would give further anchorage that this is in fact her point of view and that she is key to the plot of this film/trailer.
This is the dialogue that we added:
"The definition of love is the object of warm affection or devotion. But what do you do when your love is to be with another, someone else's other. your love is to be married and it is not to you. do you runaway, do you make him sacrifice everything to be with you? Together forever or apart till death. For All I Know."
Taylor Swift "Love Story" Music Video
If the video is two small please click on the video to be taken directly to the video on YouTube.
This music video gave us some rough ideas for our teaser trailer. We already had the story/plot planned out when we remembered this music video which gave us some further ideas. this music video does include some modern aspects which our trailer does not but its a similar genre and a slightly similar plot to our teaser trailer.
Storyboard
Evaluation: How Did You Use New Media Technologies In The Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?
Scribd.com
· This is a document upload site which allows you to upload word files and embed them onto your blog and other sites.
· I have used it to upload long word files which I would find hard to copy into a blog post.
· I have also used it allow the viewer to view the word document easily.
· An example of me using Scribd on my blog is my screenplay: http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/screenplay.html
YouTube
· YouTube has allowed me to look at various tears trailers and clips from period dramas which would help me with researching and planning.
· I have also used it to upload videos onto my blog by using the embedded code given on the YouTube videos information.
· An example of this is on my post about a music video that had given us inspiration to create our teaser trailer:
http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/taylor-swift-love-story-music-video.html
· YouTube allowed me to change the size of the video, the quality and change the colour and boarder of the video.
Blogger
· Blogger has allowed me to show the progression in my work over the past few months.
· This is done by me creating separate posts with work I have completed.
· I have used Blogger to upload all the written aspects of my coursework.
· I find it very easy to use and it allows me to update my work at home as well as school.
IMDB.com
· I have used IMDB for most of my research into period dramas, teaser trailers, film budgets, film settings, actors and actresses included in a film and recommended films of a similar genre.
· IMDB works like a search engine but it is classed as a database.
· IMDB has been very useful in my coursework especially for research into Period dramas. This helped for me to know the directors involved in these films, the actors/ actress’s, the budgets, the box office takings and were they filmed these films.
· This allowed me to edit our teaser poster, our poster and our magazine cover.
· I was able to incorporate several images into one document allowing our posters and magazine covers too include more than one image.
· With Photoshop I was also able to save my work as JPEGs which allowed me to post them on my blog.
· Some of the images used on my ancillary tasks were taken directly from our teaser trailer.
· Example of using Photoshop is our poster: http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/film-poster.html
· Facebook has been very helpful with audience feedback of our teaser trailer.
· It allowed us to post our first rough cut onto Fcaebook to get audience feedback from our friends and family, this then allows us to improve it.
· The users of Facebook are our target audience so using this social networking site was vital and allowed us to get feedback from different people.
I Movie
· We used I Movie on the Macs at school to edit and produce our teaser trailer.
· We did find it hard to do work out of school though because neither of us in our group had a Mac at home resulting in neither of us having the appropriate software.
· I Movie also allowed us to save as a certain file type so that we were able to burn our teaser trailer onto a DVD and upload our teaser trailer onto our blogs.
· It also allowed us to use some effects in our teaser trailer.
· We used a scanner to scan our storyboard onto the computer so that we were able to put it onto out blogs.
· An example of when i used the scanner is on this post which shows my storyboard: http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/storyboard.html
· We used this to record the voice over for our teaser trailer and the non diagetic music.
· This was handy because it allowed us to record in a quiet room because it was portable.
· It was easy to use and we were able to upload a few recordings onto the computer.
· This piece of hardware allowed us to record our teaser trailer.
· It involved using a DV tape and a tripod for shots that needed to not be shaky.
· These camcorders were easy to use and easy to transport around.
· They allowed us to shot our footage and upload the footage straight onto the software we were using ( I Movie)
Evaluation: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?
We knew that it was important to gain audience feedback in the very beginning of coming up with our first ideas for our film. This involved me and my other group member lorna coming up with our own idea for a period drama. So I created an animatic which I would gain audience feedback for and take on board. We both wanted to create a period drama and so both of us came up with our own concept/ plot for a film so that we could make a teaser trailer from it. Both our ideas were similar but different and we decided to stick with one idea because the other was too difficult to accomplish which we found out from audience feedback.
http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/anamatic.html - My animatic
After deciding the plot and genre of our teaser trailer we had to come up with a name. This we found hard because we wanted it to signify the genre of film and the time the film was set. For example the title Pride & Prejudice signifies 19th century period drama because it is a famous novel by Jane Austen who wrote the novel in the late 18th Century and had it published in the early 19th Century. After researching 19th Century sayings we found the saying “ For Aught I Know” we decided to get audience feedback on this and found that very few understood what it stood for and we found it confused the audience. We decided to change it to “For All I Know” because this is a more modern take on “For Aught I Know” but it still signifies the genre and the plot of the film which is the main female protagonist not knowing whether she will be with the man she loves, whether he is engaged to another and whether she can leave her family to be with him.
After getting some images for our teaser poster we added these to a presentation which showed our class the initial idea we had. We got positive feedback from the class about our initial idea and the picture of our main actress in character.
We then had a rough cut of our teaser trailer which we uploaded onto Facebook so that our friends and family could watch it and give us audience feedback. We uploaded it onto Facebook specifically because it had the write target audience for our film teaser trailer (12 +).
This is the feedback we got and how we addressed the negative feedback:
More anchorage to explain the plot of the film and the plot of the trailer
Our rough cut has no non diagetic music and no title cards which I think would signify that this is a teaser trailer and signify the plot of the trailer. Ideally we would have liked to have added more shots of the “love triangle” to create more drama and narrative enigma in the teaser trailer but we just didn’t have enough time.
Some shots are too dark
With trouble with shooting and our original actor backing out last minute we had very little time to shot the scenes with the main male protagonist. A few of these scenes were originally meant to be shot in the dark (the scene with the other woman and the main female protagonist running down the stairs and the main male protagonist running after her) but because we had little time and with it being winter we had to shot some scenes in the dark which we didn’t want to. Again due to the time schedule we didn’t have time to re shot these scenes and so had to make do with them. We considered starting to edit in final cut and see if we were able to lighten these shots but found we didn’t have time so we used the “wash in” transition on IMovie on the dark shots and used a “fade in” transition on the lighter shots.
Final Piece
Ideally we wanted to correct all these negative aspects of our teaser trailer but we found we just didn’t have time. We did however manage to add text which explains the plot more. We also added a voice over from the main female protagonist which is further anchorage that this is a teaser trailer. We would have also liked to have had a piano accompany the flute because the music is “Clair De Lune” which is traditionally a flute and piano accompaniment. We would have also liked to have re shot the scenes in the dark and sorted the colour change on the dress in the first shot but we just didn’t have time.
Evaluation: How Effective Is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?
There is also the use of pathetic fallacy because the weather in the photo looks grim and dark this could represent her mood in the film. The other photo which is less prominent also signifies the time setting and is further anchorage that the main female protagonist is going to encounter hard times in this film. It is a picture from a scene at night time and as said before there is also the use of pathetic fallacy here to show the main females protagonists mood in this film. With this photo being less prominent it signifies that it has happened and is in the past, I did this by putting this photo onto a different layer, using the magnetic lasso tool to cut it into the same shape as the landscape and changing the opacity of the photo to 65%.
Her clothes also signify that she is upper middle class which may appeal to the audience and may not.
The text used on the poster is an old fashioned text which should be further anchorage of the films genre and the tag line “Sometimes Love Can’t Be Denied” signifies that it is a romantic drama as well. But the poster does not give the narrative away to much because it just signifies to the audience the genre of the film and themes. But like our teaser poster we have used a picture from the same setting in both. This will signify to the audience that it is the same film and won’t give them mixed messages on the film itself.
The actress and actor used in our film are known from our previous film Lost In Love & War. But both aren’t well known. Our music composer isn’t well known either but in a way makes the music more personal to the film.
Our poster doesn’t include any reviews or ratings and neither does our magazine cover because it is the cover of a magazine and short reviews aren’t a common code and convention of magazine front covers. But if we had our film reviewed we would have used someone like ---- because they reflect our target audience which is 12 +. Our film magazine cover also includes articles about 3D cinema, 2009s Sherlock Holmes film and an interview with the famous actor Robert Pattinson. These articles all coincide with the films and movie magazines target audience and are relevant to what’s going on in the movie world right now. Also our film magazine cover shows the same picture from the poster which will signify to the audience that it is the same film.
Evaluation: In What Way Does Your Media Product use, Develope, or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-teaser.html - General Codes and conventions of teaser trailers.
http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-film-trailers_19.html
http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-film-trailers_5593.html - Codes and conventions of hand picked teaser trailers
But to summarise what I have found is that most teaser trailers include a voice over, either from the main protagonist either male or female, a shot of the production logo, a narrative enigma and non diagetic music throughout the trailer. There are more aspects of teaser trailers that aren’t as common and so aren’t necessarily codes and conventions of teaser trailers in general. But we have tried to incorporate these general codes and conventions into our teaser trailer.
To research these codes and conventions I used http://www.imdb.com/ to search for film trailers. I found that IMDB was easier to use than sites like YouTube because you can be re assured that the trailer is the official trailer un like some trailers on YouTube which can be fan made and claim to be the official trailer. But http://www.youtube.com/ was also useful for some research. Some trailers that were on YouTube I could be reassured were official because there had been posted by the official YouTube channel but some of these were low quality so I was unable to view the trailer fully. I also used http://www.google.co.uk/ search engine to search for trailers and information on films. I rarely used this and only used this when I was unable to find the trailer I wanted on YouTube or IMDB.
When creating our teaser trailer we were inspired by a number of media aspects. A few teaser trailers influenced the making of our teaser trailer. One which especially influenced our first initial idea was The edge Of Love trailer. This film is of a similar genre to our film and the plots for our trailer and their trailer are similar. Another form of media that influenced the plot behind our teaser trailer was Taylor Swift – Love Story music video. Even though this is a music video it has similar themes to our trailer and has the same genre. I have posted the video and why its connected with our trailer here:
Also classic films such as Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility have been strong influences; this is because we were fans of the period drama genre so we have knowledge of the various period films. These films included famous actors/actresses such as Keira Knightley and Mathew Macfadyen who were both in Pride & Prejudice and a younger Hugh Grant starred in Sense & Sensibility in 1995. Tv dramas such as Emma, Lost In Austen, Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice which included famous actors/actress’s such as Colin Firth influenced us also.
We have used some intertexual references in our trailer but hardly any. With originally getting our idea from the various classic period dramas we had seen we used some codes and conventions of the period drama genre and period drama trailers. One we used was the struggle the main male protagonist and the main female protagonist go through to be together. An example of this is in Pride & Prejudice (Movie version, 2005) in which Elizabeth Bennett finds out that Mr Darcy is to be engaged to Lady Catherine de Bourg's daughter, this puts a strain in the relationship in which the two main protagonists have to work out to be together, Their is also a struggle between the two main protagonists when Mr Collins propses to Elizabeth, her mother wants her accept but she does not because of her feelings for Mr Darcy.
Pride & Prejudice 2005, Mr Collins proposing to Elizabeth
This also gives a narrative enigma which is included in most period dramas and period drama trailers and makes the audience want to find out if the two main female and male protagonists will be together in the end. We also made our main male protagonist to be similar to Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice. This is another intertexual reference which would appeal to a female market and fans of period dramas.
Production Logo
We realised that our logo is modern and doesn't fit with the genre of our film (period drama) but like Working Title we think that our company will produce a number of different genre films so we didn't want to limit ourselves to one genre, Merchant Ivory is an example of a production company which only produce one genre of film (costume dramas)
Monday, 21 December 2009
Soundtrack
Friday, 18 December 2009
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Our New Location - Ghyll Royd School
We planned to use the entrance for the scene were Emmeline (the main female protagonist) sees the man she loves with a woman who is his wife to be. We also wanted to use the front of the school for the scene were the main male protagonist runs after Emmeline to stop her from leaving and to tell her that she is the one he loves. the entrance of the school was perfect for these scenes because it doesn't have many modern aspects that would signify the wrong time period to the audience. It also has many old fashioned aspects that do signify the right time period for our film, this includes the pillars on either side of the entrance which Emmeline is seen in one shot to be stood next to and the stairs which Emmeline runs down. We are also hoping that this large manor house will signify the class of the two main protagonists (upper/middle class) and that the grand fixtures and fittings will signify the wealth of the people that our attending the ball and that these are of the same class as the two main protagonists.
Rough Cut with Audience Feedback
This is our first rough cut and more is still to be added and changed. The interfirence in the non diagetic music will to be removed and we are also wanting to work with the lighting in some scenes because we feel they are to dark.
Ancillary Text Research - Film Posters
Names:
- Most film posters want to attract a certain audience, a way of doing this is to include a famous actor/actress, a well known director, or a link to a popular film.
- These well known actors. actress's names will be printed above the title at the top of the poster if the director isn't well known, if they are then their name will be above the title at the top.
Title:
- This is what will attract the audience for your film.
- It needs to reflect the genre and stand out from the crowd.
Tag line:
- Normally in a different font to titles, names etc.
- It can be placed anywhere in the frame of the poster.
- The tag line provides further anchorage and exposition and could be an intertexual reference.
- It is effectively the slogan for the marketing campaign for the film.
Institutional Listings:
- Traditionally appears along the bottom of the poster
- Is often to small to read
- Includes details such as: Costume Designer, Co-Producers, Music Composer, Casting, Producer/s, Editor, Production Designer, Screenplay, Based on the novel by (if appropriate), Executive Producer/s, Director of photography and the Director.
- The Directors name often ends the list.
- The website address's are below and the company logos are on either side.
- All the names are emphasised by twice the size of role description and are in upper case.
Reviews:
- These provide further anchorage for the visual campaign but are only suitable for the main poster, not a teaser poster.
- The colour of the quote and its source are usually different
- Often two - three star ratings appear at the top of the poster with one word from the reviewer below and the source logo/masthead below that in turn.
- These are important because these reviewers have to appeal to the target audience of the film.
Logos:
- Important to include the appropriate logos.
- Posters usually include company logos, official BBFC certificate logo and technical logos.
Release Date:
- With is film being low budget it will be classed as an 'indie' film so probably wont be shown in every cinema so the poster could include the selected cinemas it will be shown in.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Initial idea
Final Proposal
Setting: Early 19th century
Casting: A woman in her late teens
A man in his mid-twenties
A woman in her mid-twenties
Music: Non diagetic music, soft and romantic
Target Audience: 15+
Rating: PG
Locations: Outside a grand manor house
In the woods
A field in the country
Our film is based in the early 19th Century and the plot is based on a woman called Emmeline who is in her late teens. One winters day she goes for a walk by the river and falls. She is helped by a young gentlemen who she feels a connection with and instantly falls in love with, they spend time together but then he leaves without giving his name. Emmeline feels a sense of loss that she may never see who she believes to be her true love again.
Institutional Context
- YouTube
Most new upcoming films have their teaser and main trailer posted on YouTube by the production company or individual posters who could already be fans of the film. This is one of the first places that the trailer is shown because this will create a following and attract the audiences attention months before the actual film is released. An example of this is Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland trailer which isn't to be released till 4th march 2010 but the teaser trailer was posted on YouTube in July 2009 and has already created a following of people waiting for this film to be released and has had 3, 863,428 views already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeWsZ2b_pK4
2. Company Websites
Another technique that film companies use to get there film noticed is by using the company website. This is a good technique because it will advertise the up coming new realise and will also advertise the company and other films they are distributing. For example on the Working Title Website homepage the main advertisement is the new Coen Brothers film A Serious man. On the website it features the trailer, video clips, photographs, Coen Brothers Q & A and News and Information. These will all give the audience what they want to know about this new film and will also advertise the film to people who have never heard of it. They have also included on the homepage 5 star ratings of the film and film festivals that this film has been entered for. Another useful way of distributing the film is by having a Q & A from the film makers and for this film it is the Coen Brothers, they have a large following and this will bring more audience for the film. The website also includes other films in production, on release, a film achieve, trailers and downloads which all will attract people to look at the website. Another way they have used for distribution is to create other media products which fans of the film can use, these include desktop backgrounds, screen savers, online games etc. These are also good to attract younger audiences if the film is for a younger audience e.g below 12. http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/
3. Viral marketing
Viral marketing is vital to the distribution and exhibition of film trailers and short films. Viral marketing includes the use of advertisement on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, video game technologies, video hosting websites and email. But most of these use different ways to advertise up coming films or short films for example the marketing campaign for the 2008 film The Dark Knight combined both online and real-life elements to make it resemble an alternate reality game. Techniques included mass gatherings of Joker fans, scavenger hunts around world, detailed and intricate websites that let fans actually participate in "voting" for political offices in Gotham City, and even a Gotham News Network that has links to other Gotham pages such as Gotham Rail, a Gotham travel agency, and political candidate's pages. The movie also markets heavily off of word of mouth from the thousands of Batman fans. Another example of the use of viral marketing is when the 2008 film Cloverfield was first publicized with a teaser trailer that did not advertise the film's title, only its release date: "01·18·08." Elements of the viral marketing campaign included MySpace pages created for fictional characters and websites created for fictional companies alluded to in the film.
Teaser trailers and Short films are both very important to the media industry. Short films are new in the industry and don't have as large following as trailers do but are well known in the industry. Film trailers are extremely important to get films advertised and known. These are perfect because they can be shown anywhere, through networking websites, video hosting websites, T.V advertisements, cinema trailers and general websites that include advertisements.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Trouble With Locations
Deciding that we need permission we emailed the Bolton abbey estate office because Bolton Abbey owned the house and asked for permission to film outside the house and also stated to them that we were also planning on filming in The Strid woods by the river wharfe and possibly the Abbey itself.
Bolton Abbey estate office replied saying that they wouldn't grant us permission to film outside Bolton Hall and furthermore that we would have to ask written permission to film in Strid Woods and by the river. The email also stated that we'd have to present them with a detailed production schedule with details of dates, times, actors and equipment that we'd be using, they also asked for risk assessments and a copy of the schools insurance liability policy.
After receiving this email and discussing further options we decided to find a new location even though this location was perfect for our trailer and plot. With this being such short notice we had to find a location which would be right for the genre of film. We eventually found a local school in Burley and Wharfedale called Ghyll Royd School which is our new location.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Monday, 30 November 2009
Movie Magazine Research
- Each magazine has a main image from a new cinema/DVD release on the front cover.
- The magazines name is in bold font at the top the the magazine cover.
- Each magazine has a very similar layout, the main image in the middle, the name of the new release they are reviewing placed in the centre at the bottom of the cover.
- Other articles that are featuring in the magazine are shown in text at the sides and are in similar font and color to the main text showing a consistent house style.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Location, Location, Location
We first thought of filming at Hardwood House in Harrogate because of the large grounds and scenery. It also has the manor house which if we got permission we could use in the background of one of our shots. But we found it was to hard to travel to and if we needed to re shot certain shots it would be hard to get to the location again.
So we decided to look at the local village of Bolton Abbey. Having visited the actual Abbey itself on numerous occasions we knew that it would be appropriate for our filming and be easy to access.
We re visted it a few times and took photos of appropriate landscape which we thought we could include in our trailer/ posters. These included:
· The Abbey itself:
· The River Wharfe:
· The Fountain:
· The small manor house:
· Manor house (scene of the ball):
All these were perfect to use in our trailer because they also fitted into the plot, the manor house will be the location of the main male protagonist’s house and will signify his middle/upper class. The foundation will be were they meet for the first time and the beautiful landscape will signify that they live in the country.
We based our trailer mostly outside because we found it difficult to find an old manor house which represented early 19th century living and which we could film in. This wasn’t possible so we decided to film most of our trailer outside using the Yorkshire dales as the location. We also wanted to incorporate the winter weather into the trailer; this would signify to the audience that all this drama had happened in a short space of time.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Codes and Conventions Of Teaser Trailers
- Nearly all teaser trailers have a non diagteic voice over from one of the main actors/actress's that are in the film, this is mainly from scenes in the film in which the speech has been taken from a scene and put over a few other scenes. Some trailers also have a non diagetic voice over from a professional who does voice overs for a wide variety of trailers. These are good ways to signify the plot of the film and signify the main actors and actress's staring in the film.
- Most film trailers tend to start with the production company logo. Sometimes these logos are part of a scene in the trailer, for example in the Australia trailer, the universal production logo is part of a news paper article. This can help to signify the genre of the film that they are advertising. Normally the production logo is shown right at the begging of the trailer or at the most 10 seconds in.
- On all film trailers the title of the film is shown at some point. Normally this is at the end of the trailer and is shown through text. This is obviously important so that the audience can know what the films called and it can be further anchorage for the genre of the film.
- If the film is starting famous actors/actress's the trailer normally states the name of these actors or actresses to appeal to the audience. This is because the actors/actress's will have their own fans and if they are well known for being good at acting they will obviously attract an audience.
- Nearly all the trailers i have seen have a narrative enigma at the end. This is a common convention of film trailers because it makes the audience want to see more of the film, to see what happens in the end.
- Most of the film trailers i have looked at start with slow paced editing at the beginning of the trailer but half way through the editing becomes fast and the shots our more fast paced. This normally coinsides with slow tempo music at the beginning of the trailer which builds up and sometimes changes and becomes faster and more dramatic. This common convention is used to signify calm before the storm, how the film characters lives are before something happens to them (the beginning of the trailer) and when something dramatic happens to them (the end of the trailer). This can be used in all genres of trailer, for example romance genre films have the characters life withe the other person (slow paced editing) and then when theirs trouble in their relationship (faster paced editing). This can also be used for horror film trailers, for example their life and then when their life is under threat.
- Another common code and convention of film trailers is the use of text. This can be to explain the plot of the film, show the actor and actress's names, show ratings of the films/ critical reviews, the directors name and awards they may of won or that the actors/actress's have won. These are all further anchorage that film producers use to attract the right audience to see their film.