Plan for filming Spence Level.

Here is a complete plan which we will use in order to get everything prepared and organized for the shooting of our Trailer. We have decided on a date, and that is going to be on the Saturday 5th November.
Equipment:

• 2 Big Cameras, for filming both the actual trailer, and the actual production and behind the scenes of the trailer filming. 
• Handheld Camera for shots inside the mine if its not possible for the bigger cameras to do so.
• Still Camera of pictures of the filming.
•  Go Cam
• Boom pole or whatever its called?
• 2 tripods for the big cameras
• Handheld Torches/ Spotlights
• Head torches
• Technical Equipment: Laptop to edit and analyze footage. Also to upload images taken.
• Helmets for mine.
• My car in order to carry equipment.

Clothing: 

• Waterproof jacket
• Leggings
• Fleece
• Wellies
• Rucksack for technical equipment
• Spare clothes.

Cast Equipment/ Clothing:

• 3x Bikes
• Cycling Equipment
• Zippo Lighter 
• Cycling Clothing - Helmets, gloves, body suit, shoes etc.

Storyboard

The Decent Trailer

First of all I am going to analyze the trailer for the film "The Descent", which is a British Horror, and is basically six women in an unmapped cave system, whom get trapped and are pursued by flesh-eating humanoids. The main reason why I picked this film to Analise is that it is in a cave, and therefore relevant to our idea, as of the themes linked with darkness, close-up shots, emphasized sounds and also the cast and how they suffer with the effects of claustrophobia etc. However when reading about the information Ive read on the internet about the film during the filming it explains how they found it too hard and time-consuming to film in an actual cave, and so they filmed most of it in a studio, which obviously is going to be a problem with the filming of our trailer. As of this "barrier" which holds us back slightly we're going to have to not go very deep into the mine, as of the reasons being that it will be more of a risk and also harder to film, so I am going to look into maybe using a green screen for certain shots if the facilities are available to do so. I have watched the film before, and it was quite freaky with some powerful horror scenes which I got scared in, but then again when it comes to horror films I am pathetic! Anyways I'm going to analyze the trailer and pick out some points that may be relevant to our trailer and see if we can apply some of their ideas to our own. Here is the link for The Descent Theatrical Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5I1q4KhKNU
At the beginning of the trailer, it starts of with quite a nice calm atmosphere through camera shots, as you can see with the group shot of all the girls getting a picture together all happy and showing the relationship they have which seems good; however almost straight away the editing is foretelling the audience what is to come as of the quick fade into darkness, with the sound of the camera emphasized, that draws the audience' attention in order to watch the rest of the trailer. After this, there is the quick clip of the scene of them in the car, where one of them says "Ive never been lost in my life!" which again is telling us that this will obviously be a new experience for her, even before the events of the humanoids come into play. It also has a good effect when they start the noise a split second before the shot while it is still in fade, which we could apply in our film trailer, for example the noise of rustling starts during the fade which draws the audience' attention, which then goes on to show the shot of them getting prepared to go down the cave, which is giving it a more tense atmosphere which is relevant to their genre of the film, as well as our genre of our idea. There is more talking between the girls at the beginning of the film trailer compared to the end of the trailer that I have picked up on, and this shows us that the relationship between the girls is broken showing the downhill from the beginning to the end of the film. Sound is possibly the biggest part I think in this trailer, and I to prove this point I watched it with and without sound, and the difference is amazing in the sense of fear and tension that is created upon the audience. Without sound when watching this it seems quite interesting, as you want to know what is going on however that is given even better with sound in the trailer, as it gives you slight hints that the soundless trailer doesn't. Also another note during this trailer whilst being watched without sound, when it gets to the dramatic part where the humanoids are first introduced, it doesn't have the same scary effect, just has an almost monotone feeling throughout, unlike when there is sound introduced to the trailer, it has the tension building from the beginning, which is suddenly converted to the horror aspect when the humanoids are introduced, and makes the trailer more jumpy, giving the feeling the target audience are seeking for when they go and see a horror film. Throughout the trailer there are words that pop up on the blacked-out screen that are basically the themes and feelings of the characters that are portrayed in the film (e.g. Claustrophobia, Disorientation, Fear etc). I think this effective as it registers in your mind, and this is followed by the next clip of the scene which is relevant to the word, and meets the expectations that the target audience want a horror film to achieve, so when applied to a film trailer I think it is a good aspect and makes people want to go see it. From 1:10 of the trailer, it starts to get at its most freaky, and starts of with the word "Fear" in the blacked-out screen that begins to shake violently with a tense noise, which goes to the mid-shot of the woman with the use of night-vision camera, shouting "Is anybody there!" in a stressed out voice, that sends shivers down your spine, and this is followed by the monster standing behind one of the women, and very quick editing of it striking, jumping around and my favorite shot of the trailer of the headlight falling, and smashing on the ground which leads the light to slowly dim out into the next black-out fade. I think we will use a shot like this in our trailer and we have discussed already before using this technique with a lighter to light up the darkness which gets blown out. Following this there is tense noises that are played however not as up-beat as the part when the monster strikes, and it is when the women are almost reuniting in the cave, however all the words that have been shown in the fades before are all in action creating this stressed, hysterical atmosphere. Also within this part of the trailer there is the line of "The battery's on our lights will run out" which is showing how they have little time before there is no hope whatsoever. I think in our trailer we should have some effective lines such as this that doesn't give anything away, yet gives it the effect that there is little hope for the characters. From here on the trailer I think isn't that great in order to apply to our film, as it is mainly screaming of pain that the monsters have inflicted on the characters, and them fighting them, but that wont be in our film.

Transformers Trailer Analysis

Transformer: Dark of the Moon
Directed by: Michael Bay.
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Markiss McFadden, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Patrick Dempsey.
Plot: The Autobots led by Optimus Prime, are back in action, taking on the evil Decepticons, who are determined to avenge their defeat in 2009’s "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". In this new film, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a great space race between the U.S. and Russia, with a focus on the Cold War and the moment man walked on the moon in 1969, and once again human Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf )  has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of "Shockwave", a longtime ‘Transformers’ character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8bnKdf654
Analyzing the Trailer: At the beginning of the trailer it starts of with setting the scene with a small description on the screen telling us the time zone the film is setting, being "July 20th 1969". Quickly after this the use of Camera Angles are effective as we see a Metallic cylinder object flying quickly through space, drawing the audiences attention quickly to find out what it actually is. You see the object land on the Moon, which again at this point most of the audience realise it maybe mankind landing on the moon, which is shortly followed by the dialogue saying "A Generations greatest Achievement" and "Our nations proudest moment". This written information now has verified in the audience's mind this is the Americans landing on the Moon as well as the real life footage of the reaction on some Americans when this took place. There is a close up of a Spaceman's foot landing on the moon with the emphasised noise to make it more dramatic. The non-diagetic sounds at this point is a trumpet giving you a slight sense of pride at this moment, which suddenly changes to a silence and back to the offices in the States, and hearing the Spacemen through their communications, which makes the audience feel tense as if what is to happen, as it has changed in  a quite dramatic fashion. From here on the sound starts to gradually get even more tenser, and more robotic noises are heard and sounds which are non-diagetic causing the audience to be intrigued. The Spacemen also talk within this tense moment, saying things like "Your not gonna believe this" and "You can not believe what we're seeing", again not giving anything away to the audience yet, keeping the audiences attention drawn to the trailer. Both through the zooming in from a establishing shot to about a mid shot, and the talking in the background saying "No sir, we are not alone" it gives you a feeling that there is something hidden within the trailer, which you will find out if u carry on watching. There is a close up and an extreme close up of the Robot withing the metallic alien spaceship, which isn't activated but seems as though it is not in action, but then the eye lights up blue, and through going deep into the robot through its eye we see all the gears and cogs starting to move as if it is going to start up now, but infact it starts to build itself into the "Transformers" title of the film, which is a great effect as it goes with the whole transforming theme.

127 Hours Film Trailer Analysis

The next film trailer I am going to analyze is going to be "127 Hours", which is a biographical-adventure film that is about a mountain climber called Aron Ralston, who becomes trapped by a boulder. I really want to see this film as it is based on a true story and the plot is basically the same as what happened, other than in the film they have added obviously some more dramatic bits to make it into a blockbuster. Although the theme is different to our film as well as The Descent's genre are different to ours which is a Psychological-Drama, it has various different thing that we can apply for example what Aron Ralston will be going through mentally, and hopefully we can try and get this mental state on the same par in our trailer and if so I think that our trailer will work very sufficiently. Here is the link for the 127 Hours Full Length Official Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ
The trailer for this film is very differant to "The Descent", and in a way I prefer this trailer, as its mainly more my type of film, and it isnt all blood and guts, and actually has a decent, real life plot. It starts off with a good atmosphere, even though the first shot is with Aron with his arm trapped in the boulder, he starts with the line "Good Morning Everyone, it is 7 o'clock in Canyon Land USA!" which I think would draw any audience' attention as it isn't branded with a target audience like The Descent is. Also there are a few glances that are establishing shots of where the film is going to be based of the Canyon, which I think is a good touch as Ill expand on my point before it isn't going for a niche target audience but for a mass audience; yes you could argue that both films are rated at 15, however you can tell through this trailer yes it will have some very potent scenes in it, but in the end it will be alright, unlike the typical horror style that The Descent has where practically everyone dies, which doesn't really appeal to me or the majority of people. Although this film isn't the normal comedy as I explained before the genre is a biographical-drama, there are some comedy elements in the film, and positive parts which appeals to every audience. In the trailer at the beginning there is the part where there is an answerphone message saying that he hasnt called his mum, and to call her please etc, even though this message is while he is trapped by the boulder its still this upbeat atmosphere, that doesn't freak the audience out and no tension is created. Aron also in this trailer is creating his own amusement in a way, which is comical in a sense, when he is saying "This morning on the boulder we have a very special guest Aron Ralston!" which even though portrayed positive in the trailer, actually has a basic mental aspect if you think about it, and he is simply trying to imagine he is not there trapped under a boulder, well he knows he is there but he is trying to make it out its fine down here in his mind. In the trailer there are also some very good editing combined with shots that speeds up the process the character is going through whilst making it different and interesting, for example at 0:37 there are 3 parts to the screen with different shots; he is parking up his bike and heading towards the mountain in the central shot, then on the left of the screen is him walking up the mountain and the shot on the right is him on top of the mountain. I think this is effective as its quick but not tense quick, just showing excitement and also different techniques in filming and editing which gives the trailer a slight edge to others on at the time, as its using completely different ways to draw attention, and I find this very effective and interesting. Then later on in the trailer, he is carrying on this TV Show style act on his handheld camera, saying "Is it true that you didn't tell anyone where you were going?" followed by quick editing of him falling and his arm getting wedged between the rock-face and the boulder, which then he comments "Oops" which is slowed down to show the expression of his face, showing his teary face. He starts to get emotional and saying how much his parents mean to him etc, and wish they knew he appreciated them, with flashbacks of his past and his parents introducing him to the Grand Canyon. The Close-Up shot that his hand-held camera does is very effective as it shows his exact feelings which makes the film trailer I think. Then pathetic fallacy begins and the weather changes, and a thunderstorm begins with heavy downpour and lightning, which gives the dramatic effect which obviously we would like to apply to our film but we have limited days we can do it, and the weather purely depends on the day. It also finishes with the line "Dont Give Up" which I think we need an effective line or metaphorical phrase for our film trailer to make it stand out from the crowd like this film trailer.

Shutter Island Analysis :)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF2Lc_KCW_s

Here is a video of me and Isaac, which Charlie recorded observing the four key areas of the film being Mise En Scene,  Camera Angles and Shots, Editing and Sound :) We also discuss the film as a whole and talk about the ending and how that is effective, and how we could potentially apply these to our trailer.
I also made notes whilst watching the film which I will write down on here:
Random Infomation:
At the beginning it opens with editing fades with the Production Company, which we will use in our trailer. Also throughout the film the colours are very dark, which connotates the sinister film that Shutter Island is, so I think when applying this idea to our film trailer, we should start with the brighter colours then later on in the trailer start using darker colours. They also use pathetic falicy in the film, as during the film it is mainly a hurraciane, which stops at the end of the film when the storm stops and the last scene where the residents of Shutter Island are cleaning up the debrie of the storm, showing that the main character has accepted reality of him being a resident of Shutter Island. Throughout Shutter Island, there is vaious little hints that imply the events to come at the end, and I think when applying this to our film trailer we should reveal only a few little bits but not alot.
Mise En Scene:
Through mise-en-scene I think that Shutter Island portrayed it very well as it was around about the beginning/during the Cold War era, and the clothing of suits with hats as such were very effective. I think in the mise-en-scene section there wasn't much that we could exactly apply to our film. The actors were also good for the part as they looked the part as in the actual people looked like in their face features that they were from that era, which again made the film more believable.
Camera Angles:
There was at the beginning a kind of establishing shot, of the boat coming out of the fog which I thought was very effective, which as I discussed before works with pathetic falicy, as the fog almost reduces your vision of the film, not giving any infomation away. Also it has quite a long screen time during this shot, which creates tension from the beginning shot. Close-ups were used during the scene when they are in the Shutter Island graveyard, which also with the mixture of editing of the lightning in the scene that creates the more tense atmosphere.Again another close up which comes with the lightning, is when he is in the Wardens office, which flashes up on screen of these freaky pictures from the American Civil War.
Editing:
Editing in Shutter Island is very important, as it shows the strange moods and feelings during the film. There are various differant things which I think are effective, for example when the triggering of the flashback, there is that record playing, which goes instantly to the scene with the main character and a Nazi officer. During the film there are multipule times where there is dreams, and in these dreams the editing starts to blend with reality for example during the scene where he is in the old American Civel War headquarters, and the smoke from the ciggerette is going back into the cigerette and he is inhaling the smoke rather than breathing it out which is a really good effect.
Sound:
As I mentioned in the video above, sound is cruicial, and there is alot of use of big bass sounds, and also softer noises whcih creates tension for example violins etc.

the video footage on location.

Here is the video footage that exaplains what we did at the Mine and also just practicing the editing through the macbook pro that Isaac owns. We attempted to edit the camera shots and play around with the effects, which gave us the idea of later on when we are inside the mine, as we cant get hold of a night vision camera, we are going to use a negative effect with a green screen to make it look like night vision.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/QwIrr7_j4XI

Location.

Plan for Monday 3rd October: Mining

• Lighting: handheld torches, head torches.
• Video: Handheld Camera, "Go Cam".
• Photo shoot: Still Camera
• Clothing: Waterproof jacket and leggings, fleece, wellies, rucksack for technical equipment, spare clothes so I don't get my car wet.
• Technical Equipment: Laptop to edit and analyze footage. Also to upload images taken.

                                                                                                                              

We have decided to film the location at Reeth Moor Estate, which I went and checked out the places to film. I also got permission to film at Spence Level, Old Gang and Hard Level from the Head Gamekeeper of Reeth Estate, and we went on Monday 3rd October. Me and Isaac went in order for the photo shoot and ideas for shots, and we got 60 photo's of various ruins and mines, mainly at Old Gang and Spence Level. As well as the actual photo shoot, we recorded inside the mine, our ideas, equipment and so on, giving you an idea on what it is like outside a still image. In order to film inside a mine we had to be prepared and we did a plan for our trip as seen above, listing everything needed for shooting the footage and taking the images. We went straight after college to Old Gang, where we filmed some of our ideas for the shots of the cyclists; there is a bit of filming where we have considered a Pan Shot, where the cyclists will come around the track, which we have considered to be a high-angle shot. We took pictures of the ruins, with me and Isaac in them, as well as the shots just of the ruins, just having a bit of fun with the camera's, getting used to them and also getting ideas for the future teaser trailer. At Old Gang, there is lots of old archways which we could potentially use for our shots in the trailer, and I have footage walking through a bit of underground archway at Old Gang, which you may be able to use. Old Gang used to be a smelt mill of lead mining industry of the 18th-19th century, so the remains are reasonably old and are decaying, which gives us great potential for some freaky, ruined shots which I think will suit our genre of a psychological drama; As the walls and the location represents the minds of the people inside the mine decaying and essentially becoming "ruined" like the surroundings they will be based in. After investigating Old Gang, we got ourselves prepared for the mine, and got all the cameras set etc. Isaac owns a "Go Cam", which I think will help us in some of the shots of our trailer; the camera is only small but can be attached to the person, which will enable a good point of view shot (POV), which will portray the characters emotions in the mine, as well as an accurate view of the inside of the mine. The Go Cam also allows us to film underwater, which would be an effective POV shot if we could get the right place to do so. So we filmed ourselves before we entered Spence Level explaining what we were going to do and trying to achieve, and then we entered. Once we entered and filmed it you could automatically see that the cameras were not picking up what me and Isaac could see, and lighting was a big issue inside the mine, so on the day or another time we go into the mine, I'm going to bring a spotlight, which may help the camera actually pick up the images. After we went into Spence Level, we went into Hard Level, which is just down the road from Spence Level, but we didn't know what to expect as we haven't been down this mine before. Apparently Hard Level goes down for mines into the landscape, which was quite a cool thought we had, but then we entered and the water was up to our waste and we weren't exactly prepared for that, so we decided we may do that mine another day. However we did take the Go Cam in the entrance to show you what it is like, and it almost looks like a cave. Here we tested the underwater POV shot, which didn't exactly go to plan as lighting it up didn't work very well, but again if we got better lighting it could be much more effective shot for potentially  in the trailer.

Here are the pictures from our visit to Reeth Estate: