Market Research.

Market Research
Are you male female?
Male Female
On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate a psychological drama? (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest)
Name a Psychological drama that you have seen/ wanted to see?

What sort of music would you expect to hear in a psychological drama?*Drum beats and heavy music
*Violin music/ classical
*Loud beats and harsh sounds
*Other... (show below)

What type of key plot events do you prefer to see in a psychological drama?*plot twists
*binary opposites (good and evil)
*Stolen identity
*government cover-up
*Split personality/roles
*Over coming personal issues
How do you find out about new films?

What do you want to see on a film webpage?*Music downloads
*Wall papers
*Trailers
*Activities
What do you want to see in a film magazine?*Film reviews
*Inside knowledge
*Film posters
*Other… (show below)

Film Magazine Front Cover Analysis

This is a front cover of the British film magazine "Empire", and I am going to analyse aspects of the front cover and maybe adopt some of the ideas that it shows us. As you cansee straight away, the colours that are shown in the image and background correlate to the colours of the font which makes the front cover look more smart and organised; for example if the font was pink, it wouldnt go with the theme of the spiderman films which are more dark, hence why the colours potray the feeling of the film. The font consists of three colours- red, black and white; the red goes with the "Empire" name itself, and this theme goes within all the front covers of Empire, and this automatically draws the target audiences attention as it stands out from the dark background. The black and white font comes from the costume that Spiderman is wearing, and this as I explained before conotates the dark theme of the film. The image of Spiderman himself is a mid-shot which shows both his emotions and his character of spiderman as it has his web wrist out. Another good effect used in the front cover is that on the left of the background, it is much more lighter than the right side which is much darker, and this potrays that spiderman has two sides to him, one more darker than the other. In white font, it also has in big letters the word "Free", which draws attention to the audience as everyone likes something thats free; it also displays little images of the posters that are given free in the issue, which also gives the audience a taste of what they are going to get. The red + sign also draws attention as it has the blackness of spidermans suit behind him and draws attention towards the font below it.

Analysing a Film Poster- Bridesmaids.

Film Ideas/ Brainstorming.

Genre

·         Horror – too boring

·         Thriller- freaky plus can be applied to an action film for an interesting twist.

·         Action- applies to a mass audience plus it will make it better than a normal, boring horror to have action and thriller combined.

Names

·         Vacant – could hint at the fact for the main character has a empty head, however you may associate the word with comedy which wouldn’t go with the thriller/action genre.

·         Void- according to Charles it sounds to “Spacey”

·         Unutilized- what does this even mean? :L

·         Bewildered- sounds like how an animal is scared when being disturbed when being hunted.

·         Cursed- Possessed theme goes well with this title.

·         Corrupt- corrupted mind, implying she is mental; however you may associate it with a crime film.

·         Extinction- one of her kind, maybe a dying breed

·         Frenzy- an sudden reaction/freaking out

·         Misplaced-

Potential setting

       ·         Spence Level, Old Gang: a old lead mine, which you can basically walk into, and a natural mist on the ground of it coming out of the entrance which is a good effect for a thriller.

·         Brandy Bottle Mine: could be used as the “exit” of Spence Level however you can’t get full access to the mine which was there however the archways and it goes about 20 meters down into the ground so it could be used for a shot.

·         Level House: was a house on the moor however it is quite in ruins now and doesn’t have much resemblance of a house, however stone foundations and walls still remain which may be used in order for some shots maybe a mid shot of close up of a frightened person

·         The moor itself is quite a bleak and remote place, and they have been known in Manchester that Jack the Ripper disposed of his victims bodies on the moors, which gives the moorlands in a horror way, scary connotations because you have nowhere to run other than more bleak moorland.

·         Old Gang Smelt Mill: this again is a ruin building from the lead mining industry; however it is more intact than other places such as Level House. Here there are big ancient walls which could be effective in a psychological thriller, and also the big distinctive chimney, which lets say portrayed in an establishing shot with a fade intrigues the audience to know what it is, however in the story it doesn’t have to be a lead smelting mill.

·         Ruined buildings by Surrender Bridge: again here it is very similar to old gang, however there is a chimney which goes all the way up the hill, however nowadays it looks like a tunnel and that tunnel maybe a good shot towards a short trailer and a tunnel has many connotations depending whether you can see the exit or not.

·         Birk Park Woods: At my house there is a quite big stretch of woodland for Swaledale, which again could be used in a psychological thriller though many shots, maybe a hand-held POV, which gives us the feeling of the victim running through the woods and shows their emotions, and you could also use a high angle shot, which could be the hunter watching his victim.

·         Reeth High Moor: there is very large rock features at the top of the moor, which has the names of the miners engraved onto, which also could be a good shot, and aswell as a establishing shot on the top of them.

·         Carver Hill, Low Moor: there is a great view from there which could be used very effectively to shot the bleakness of the moor, however you would have to be careful with such shots, as you can see villages below so selecting the right angle fro mthis point is essential.

13 Week Plan

Week 1

Group whole film analysis for shot and editing ideas

¾     Shutter island

Including promotional package

Week 2

Research:

¾     Market research: Questionnaires, surveys etc. (video them?)

¾     Magazine research

¾     Poster Research

¾     Research suitable trailers for our type of film

¾     Analyse film trailer

Week 3

¾     Storyboards – initial ideas

¾     Ideas for locations/props/actors

¾     Analyse films trailers

Week 5

¾     Photo shoot of locations

¾     Photograph actors and costumes

¾     Practice with equipment

¾     Analyse film trailers

Week 6

¾     Writing script

¾     Write cast list and order

¾     Finalise storyboard

¾     Research magazine and posters

Week7

¾     Analyse promotional posters and institutional information

¾     Blog of final things and a quick list of things that need to be done

¾     Work on poster and magazine ideas eg what the shot  will look like etc.

Week8

¾     have a storyboard and script completely finalised

¾     kit list finalised

¾     Start shooting

¾     Look at what sounds we are going to use during editing

Week 9

¾     Start editing

¾     Have a soundtrack and any diagetic or non diagetic sound eg. enhanced sound of rain drips etc.

¾     Adding in shot transitions remember to refer to script/storyboard!

Week 10

¾     Editing of film

¾     If finished with film edit magazine and poster

Week 11

¾     Final editing of magazine and poster

¾     Double check trailer

Week 12

¾     Double check everything

¾     Evaluate everything on blog

Week 13

¾     Corrections to blog

¾     Add anything missing

Company Logo

Here is the final logo we created ^


As you can see this is the company logo of Dawstop Productions which will be shown in our trailer at the beginning. The name Dawstop is all three of the members of our group's names, as Dawson being Isaac's surname creating the Daw; then me being called Tom having the To and also my middle name being Paul hence the P, and Charlie's surname being Smith hence the S. I think the logo is good as of the Clapperboard obviously represents film and the name represents the group through synergy of names.

Earlier ideas of the logo we drew below:

Editing.

Editing plays a massive role in creating the genre and the themes of the film come to life within a few minutes of a trailer. The use of fast-paced editing is used often in film trailers, which gives you lots of images from the film which makes you want to know what they actually are, which is a great effect of getting the audience's attention. However normal-paced editing can be used for a family film, maybe a quicker edit such as a jump-cut to speed the process up. There are also use of editing in matters such as fades and blurrs, which again switches the scene in a trailer either fast or slow for a certain effect according to the genre. Here are some example trailers I have analysied specifically about Editing:

Planet of the Apes

Use of fades at the beginning of the trailer gives us the impression of something both out of the ordinary and maybe a dark side to the film?

Fades after every shot creates a strange but good effect

With mixture of sound, editing and camera shots you get a good effect, for example close ups of the monkeys cages, then a fade with tense/dramatic music followed by the next close-up

Pathetic fallacy is also used in this trailer, when there is the shot of the monkeys running out from the roof, the sky is black and cloudy which signifies the film and its connotations of the scene being bad.

Editing in this also shows you writing on the screen, giving you an idea of the film.

The Guard

Editing was quite an average pace and not too quick as it is a comedy genre, so they want you to hear the jokes made in the film in order to draw the certain type of audience in.

Music was average and not too “in your face” and loud, just background music to make it sound like how a comedy would, for example if it had really tense/loud music it may come across as a horror.

Harry Potter: Deathly hallows part 2

After the first shot there is a sudden black-out, which gives you a quite scary effect, which is followed by fast-paced editing of various shots, mainly close-ups giving images of random events in the film, which draws the attention of the audience as they are wondering what they are.

There is a close-up of voldemorts head with a strange breathing noise which gives a freaky effect

This is followed by another fade which also has a building-up type of noise in the background, creating a slightly scary effect.

Sound.

Types of sound:

• Diagetic/Non-Diagetic sound.
• Theme Tune
• Narrative
• Dialogue
• Music/soundtrack
• Sound Bridge

Sound plays a vital role in trailers as it can intriegue the audience to watch the film, and it can create various differant atmospheres/ effects for example tense and fast music can create the audience's impression on the genre of the film being action. Sound in a film trailer can also create the first impression of the film; for example good sound effects in a horror film with a creepy, tense type of music will give the audience the idea that it is a creeoy film, which will attract a certain audience.

I watched the film trailer of "Larry Crown", with and without sound, and it does create a differant effect, however I could tell just through editing and the laughing actions on screen that it was a comedy. However the sound created a much differant effect, for example the silences after a awkward comment in order to show the disproval of the other character making it funny. There is also a gentle background music making the film sound friendly and to appeal to a more mass audience rather than a niche audience. After the awkward situation, there is also a sound effect like a "wooshing" sound to get it back to the background music and to carry on with the trailer, aswell as a editing effect such as a fade.

The next film trailer I watched to observe sound was "Mothers Day", which is a horror, however this time I just started the trailer with watching it straight away with sound, as I have already discovered that sound creates a differant atmosphere than without. With this horror trailler, it automatically starts with tense music, which gradually faster with a mixture of fast editing, giving an intrieguing effect and makes the audience want to find out what is actually going on, as only a few hints are given to the audience. There is a bass noise aswell, which you may associate with a heartbeat, which creates quite a tense/dramatic effect, which makes the trailer more intressting. Also certain sounds are emphasised for the tense effect for example the guns of the villans cocking and firing, which adds more tension which a horror/thriller is ultimately trying to achieve.

Mise En Scene.

Mise en scene can create within the trailer mainly the characters and the setting of the film etc which will draw the audience's attention. For example in a solider/war film the unifroms of the soliders have to be perfect otherwise it would just look stupid and cheesy. It can also potray the characters personality, for example a rich guy in a film may be wearing a suit and expensive acessorys such as a Tag Heur Watch etc.
Here is a link to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EC2tmFVNNE

As you can see in this trailer through the use of mise en scene it creates the general mood for the film and the theme, as you can see right at the beginning of the trailer it starts the use of pathetic falacy through mise en scene with the weather being dark and misty of the scenes with Voldemort, and the weather being light with Harry, showing the good and bad connotations of the two groups.

The Genre of our Film

The genre of our film is a psychological-drama as it shows the progression from the characters being in a psychologically fit state to becoming mentally lost. It is also a drama as of the troubles they go through mentally and showing how they can't cope in the situation and this creates quite a sympathetic atmosphere later in the film. Also with it being a psychological drama it draws in a mass audience, as it could have the thriller fans later on into the decent of them becoming mental unstable, and also the people who like dramas as it isn't all about making you jump, as it actually has a plot and a storyline; also it appeals to other people as psychological dramas are rather popular for example Shutter Island is a very popular film with a complex, interesting plot with a twist.

Introduction

Hey, I'm Tom Simpson and I'm doing my A2 media film trailer. Im working with my friends Isaac Dawson and Charlie Smith to create the trailer, and we decided to come together as a group as we all have qualities that could contribute well towards the final production and hopefully come out as a good trailer. After discussion we have already had a few ideas on what we plan on doing in the next few months, and we decided that our genre should be something that will appeal to a mass audience but also to a niche audience, and we plan to do that by maybe combining drama with a thriller aspect, but also with a twist so the characters may have something wrong towards the end of the film psychologically. With this mass appeal of drama, it combines with the thriller/psychological aspect, well thats the theory!