Planning - Film plan and itinerary

Planning - Shot list

This was our early attempt at a shotlist, in which we laid out the order of our trailer. Here you can see that we are beginning with a short news clip which will introduce the supernatural theme. This is then followed by the introduction of the characters. These are introduced first as they are they key elements of our film. The remainder of our trailer will be filled mostly with a face paced montage to increase interest in our film. We have not chosen a direct order for this montage yet hence why it is not involved in the shotlist.

Planning - Storyboard

Planning - Initial Ideas

This is our initial brainstorm of ideas, which were so expansive that we needed two  mind maps to collate them all. We decided it was best to come up with as many ideas as possible as it would allow for us to then draw the most effective ideas from the plan, allowing us to create the best possible trailer.

We decided to brainstorm conventions of a thriller trailer, therefore we come up with the ideas to use blood, screaming and darkness and these create emphasis on fear and danger for the viewer. We also decided it would be best to introduce the characters individually as it would allow for the audience to relate with them more effectively, this is important as our main characters are all strangers therefore it would be a misrepresentation to introduce them altogether.

We came up with the idea to use social media as social media has become a large part of modern society and is constantly growing. The use of social media will appeal to our demographic as young adults and teenagers are the prime users of social media.

Planning - Film Pitch

We pitched our film to the class and gained  strong response in general. They supported out basis of ideas and believed we had a strong platform to build from. A key strength we discovered was the originality of our film and our distinct USP. This is important as we need to stand out from the crowd and we do not want to be entirely stereotypical.
However, a key flaw was the lack of substantiality within our plot. We discovered that we needed to step back and work on our storyline in order to make it clear how the strangers would be drawn together.

Planning - Film Titles

We have not confirmed our title yet as we are still early in the planning however we have 2 key ideas.

The Date - The title cold be a specific date due to our USP being the fact that strangers are linked by a specific date. This is effective as it is different to what's on the market and will make our production stand out.

'Those we trust the most' - This could be an effective title as the characters are brought together by a text from someone they believe they can trust, however it is not actually from them.

I believe that we will go for the date idea due to it's originality and effectiveness.

Research - 1408 Trailer

We watched the trailer for 1408 as a class in order to get an idea of the conventions needed and how we could use them. I took down notes and will list what I gathered from the trailer below.

• Fast paced editing, sped up towards climax
• special effects
• thunder and lightning
• continuous editing and flashbacks
• low key lighting
• fades to black often
• dialogue and sound effects
• voiceover

Research - The Purge

Settings- Large, middle class house, wealthy American neighbourhood. Set between the hours of 7pm and 7am.

Narratives - Annual Purge to allow crime for 12 hours, including murder. Set in the future in the year 2021, where the purge is believed to have saved the country in a 'New America'.


Characters- Family of four, made up of parents and their teenage daughter and misfit son. The daughter has a boyfriend who her dad does not approve of who sneaks in to their house.
Neighbours who start of as the stereotypical American friendly neighbours but then turn into the neighbours who hold a grudge towards the family and try to murder them out of jealousy.

The masked group - masked males and females with a main male leader who is psychotic and unmasked so his face is seen. They are educated and the males wear school uniform and the females wear long white dresses. They carry large weapons of swords, machetes, guns and axes.

The father of this family sells security systems therefore their house is well protected and they choose not to take part in the purge. However their son sees a man being chased and chooses to offer him shelter within the home. This leads to the house coming under siege from the mans assailants, which in turn leads to a mini war within the house. It ends with the father being shot and the family being saved by the neighbours, only for the neighbours to then reveal their true intentions to kill the family themselves. At this point there is a plot twist, with the man the son had let into the house coming from hiding to in turn save the family and allow for them to overturn the neighbours and sit through until the purge is over.
There is a subplot in which the daughters boyfriend sneaks into the house during the purge and tries to kill the father however he is unsuccessful.

 

Research - Class trailer reviews

Research- Leave to Remain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9si1m73RKI

I watched the trailer for the film 'Leave to Remain' in order to research the benefits of a trailer and how they work. I looked at several categories within the trailer such as amount of shots, settings and characters.
The trailer was 1 minute and 49 seconds long and contained 68 shots. This indicates that it was of a fairly high pace to increase the intensity of the trailer.
There were two main soundtracks within the trailer. The first soundtrack was highly upbeat and gave the trailer a good feeling. However the second soundtrack was more dramatic and also served to increase the intensity of the trailer. Towards the end it began to become more upbeat again, potentially indicating the film has a happy ending.
There were 7 inter-titles within the trailer. The first two made the film seem dramatic by signifying the importance of the events. The other five were quotes on the quality of the film, the title and the release date. These served to increase the hype around the film.
There were 33 settings within the trailer, which was particularly effective due to the nature of the film. It had to be based in several countries, and several different locations within these countries. This is due to the fact that the film is focused around immigration and the constant change of location increases the intensity of the film.

Annotated 'Empire' Cover

 

Coverline- this appeals to the demographic as it is indicating that it has the latest information and so will be up to date and interesting.

Large image- This also appeals to the demographic as it tells the audience that the magazine will be focused on Bond, and the action effect is improved through the use of the bullet marks.

Strapline- This is large and white and therefore gains attention for the magazine due to the fact it allows the magazine to stand out on the shelf.

Masthead- This is large and red which also stands out on the shelf. It is iconic and is instantly related to film. This appeals to the demographic as they know it is a high quality brand.

Background- This background is a pale grey which goes against conventions as they often use dark backgrounds. However this effectively targets their demographic as it allows for the magazine to stand out on the shelf.

 

 

 

Total Film Cover Copy-Research

I was tasked with copying the Summer 2014 Total Film cover through Photoshop. Below is the real edition.

 

This shows how complicated creating a magazine cover is and has allowed me to realise how important every decision is. This task has prepared me for creating my own magazine cover as I now know the importance of the conventions used and how the positioning and font of texts is important. Below is my copy of this film cover.