Trailer First Version Feedback

After completing the first version of my film trailer I decided to ask a selection of people for their feedback on it. I did this so as to discover what people thought of it and to identify any areas that people felt I could improve on. I obtained this feedback by messaging a number of people I knew via the social network ‘Facebook’. I sent the following message to people:

The feedback that I got was as follows:

“I like the look of your trailer so far. The locations and acting that you used were very nice. However I feel that it could be made better if the audio were to be changed”
– James Smith

“I didn’t like it because I’m not into that genre of movies. The camera work was decent though.”
– Amy Jones

“Lovely trailer, but I didn’t really understand what was going on.”
– Luke Cameron

“Ha, it’s a lot better than my trailer. Really decent piece of work, the narrative is quite vague however and the sound effects could have been improved.”
– Stanley Mills

To conclude, the responses of people seemed to be mostly positive. However they have identified some of the key areas of improvement that could be made. I had already considered changing the majority of the negative things mentions, but it was a positive experience hearing that other people felt that they needed to be changed as well.

Props

The genre of our film was action and crime. These types of movies generally contain a lot of props and outfits for their characters. However since my group was going for a realistic, small scale production about a thug that is out for vengeance after his friends money was stolen, we did not require a massive amount of props. The props that we ended up using were a rounders bat; a bike; a poker table and cards; a bag; a list of names and outfits for Jason Dyer and Sam Williams.

The rounders bat was used as the primary weapon of Jason Dyer as he enjoys fighting with blunt weapons. In addition to this guns are illegal and very hard for people to obtain in the UK, therefore it is unlikely that Jason Dyer would have been in possession of one.

The bicycle was used as a means of transport of Rory Macbride. In addition to providing him with transport it was used to subconsciously remind the audiences that his money had been stolen and he was therefore unable to afford to use his car.

The poker table and cards were used so as to make the poker scene believable. We chose to use poker as the character’s game of choice since it is extremely well known and is often used for gambling. In addition to this, there are similar gambling scenes in many other crime related movies.

The bag that Rory Macbride used was to carry his possessions. It was also used as a reminder that he had lost everything and now carries everything he owns with him.

The list of names was used to show the targets of Jason Dyer. The title of the film relates to this list as it plays a major part in the movie. In the trailer, Jason Dyer shall be shown crossing names of the list thus symbolising that he has eliminated his targets.

We decided that some of the characters needed unique clothing. We therefore decided to give Sam Williams a leather jacket and Jason Dyer his iconic clothing. These can be considered props as the actors were required to wear them in the majority of the footage.

Film Script

Due to the nature of our film we opted for the usage of narration entirely instead of using character dialogue within the actual video footage. One of the major positive aspects of this was that it allowed us to get a crisper and nicer sounding set of audio as we were able to use microphones instead of talking straight into the video camera. The sound was therefore vastly improved as it eliminated most of the background noise that we would have otherwise had to face.


Script:


Rory Macbride (Intro) - I was involved with some bad people. And one game, a fixed game, was where it all went downhill.

Rory Macbride - Sometimes it just takes a few phone calls and all your problems are gone, just like that.

Jason Dyer - I don’t care who they are or where they are. You give me their locations and I’ll find them.

Rory Macbride - So I wrote a list and gave it to the only person I knew who could deal with the problem. Jason Dyer!

Jason Dyer (Credits) - The world’s a dangerous place to live in, you’ve got to constantly be looking over your shoulder.

Below you can listen to the script being read by computer generated voices:

 Here is a picture of what the script looked like when it was printed off. We used this sheet for reference when the lines were being recorded.

Below is an image of Joseph Inns reading through the script. He was one of the main voice talents in our trailer.

Font Selection

One of the main designing aspects of the project was deciding which font should be used for the logo of the film. The font would go on to be used in the poster, film trailer and possibly even the magazine cover. To decide what font was to be chosen I selected ten different fonts that would be appropriate. I then showed these fonts to the various group members to get their opinions on them. We after the discussion we decided to choose the font titled ‘Bank Gothic’. This font was selected primarily because it was smart and seemed as though it would fit nicely onto a range of different promotional film products. In addition to this it was similar to fonts from other successful action and crime movies such as Hot Fuzz, Django unchained, the Bourne identity and In Time. The other fonts in the list had various undesirable qualities. Font 2 seemed too tribal; fonts 6 and 7 portrait the wrong message as they didn’t seem serious enough and font 8 and 9 were too difficult to read. Fonts 3, 4, 5 and 10 were all good enough to be chosen but font 1 was the favourite of all the members of our group.

Final Pieces

Film Trailer:

Film Poster:

Magazine Cover:

Final Trailer

Trailer Audio

In the end my group decided to use different music to songs that we had originally intended to use. The two songs that made it into the final production were ‘Genesis’ by ‘Justice’ and ‘Tick of the clock’ by ‘The Chromatics’. We decided to change the music after receiving some negative feedback about the previous selection of songs. The criticism was that the songs used were too repetitive and that they did not fit well with the video footage. After watching the previous version of the trailer again, I could see that their points were valid and that the audio did need to change. I feel that our new selection of songs works far better in the trailer and that overall the decision to change the music was positive.

Justice – Genesis

The Chromatics – Tick of the clock

The other audio used in the production was a selection of different sound effects. These sound effects were found on a variety of different websites including soundbible.com, soundjay.com and Youtube. The only issue with using these sound effects would be that we could have got into trouble for possibly breaching copyright laws if our trailer was to have been created for an actual film that was to be sold.

Planning Methods

Mood Boards:

A mood board is a collage of text, images and other objects. Mood boards help people to visualise the general feel and direction in which they are wishing to take their product. In addition to this they can be used to communicate people’s ideas to other project members. One of the purposes of a mood board is to map out the ideas which they have had and aid them with deciding what to do. In the pre-production process, mood boards generally come before even the storyboard. In terms of usefulness they are rather useful but I would consider the other methods of pre-production to be far more effective, as mood boards are essentially just a collage of assorted images and text made simply to convey the general themes, ideas and flow of the product. The mood board I created was of relatively little use as my group and I already had a strong idea of what we wanted to achieve with the product and the ideas, themes and direction were largely decided in conversation.

Software which can be used to make mood boards includes: Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Pintrest and more.

Mind Maps:

Mind maps are a type of diagram used to display a set of information. They usually start with one word in the centre (generally the theme or name of project) and have words branching out from it (generally divided into themed clusters), connected to other relevant words with lines. Mind maps can include a range of other things as well such as different images and colours. They are one of the most popular forms of pre-production and are taught to students in many schools. In addition to this they are also able to be created either digitally or by hand. In the pre-production process they are used to map out the ideas, themes and a variety of other information (e.g. characters, props and locations). They can be used to easily communicate the ideas to other project members as well as giving the creator a stronger idea of what they wish to create. They are generally used before creating the storyboard or script.

Software which can be used to make mind maps includes: Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Prezi and more.

Visualization Diagrams:

Visualization diagrams are diagrams which use visual imagery to communicate their ideas. They are used in a range of things such as engineering, science, education, animation and more. The term visualization is extremely broad as it simply means visual imagery, therefore visualization diagrams can be any images which aid in communicating ideas. In the preproduction process, visualization diagrams can be used in many different ways and at a range of different stages. For example a visualization diagram could be created to show what the stage is supposed to look like and what props should be included. Another use for example could be to display the technical elements of a prop (e.g. a robotic model such as Yoda from the early Star Wars movies).

 The range of software which can be used to create visualisation diagrams is extremely broad. I used adobe flash (for the drawing) and adobe Photoshop (to label the image) to create the visualization diagram for my project.

Storyboards:

Storyboards are sequences of images and text which display the key moments of a story. The storyboarding process in the form which it is known today was originally invented by Walt Disney Studios (a large company which specialised in animation) in the early 1930s. Storyboards can be created either digitally or by hand and can contain either drawn images or photographs. The purpose of storyboards is to display what is actually going to happen to happen in the film or advert. They can show a range of things such as the stage directions, expressions of actors, peoples positions, props, camera shots and the location which is being filmed. In the preproduction process they generally are made after the creation of mood boards and mind maps and can come either before or after the script.

Software which can be used to make mind maps includes: Photoshop, StoryboardThat, Toon Boom, Storyboard Pro and more.

Legal and Ethical Issues

There are legal and ethical issues about being photographed or filmed on private/public property or capturing people in backgrounds without permission.

When taking film or photographs most people assume that they automatically have the right to use them (e.g. for causes such as selling them as stock photographs or videos). However that is not always the case. In order to publish photographs professionally or sell them people must first get permission to use all of the buildings and people which they have captured in their photographs. In order to achieve this they must either get verbal permission or a release form. There are three sorts of release forms which are vital in photography. These release forms are property release forms, minor (children) release forms and adult release forms. Without obtaining the proper documentation, photographers can find themselves facing a range of legal and ethical issues. If a person finds that they have been photographed without their permission then they are able to take legal action against them or request that their image is removed. For example, the photographer Philip Lorca Dicorcia took a range of photographs of unaware people for one of his projects. One man who was unaware of this occurrence and had been photographed decided to take legal action against him as he believed that the photograph portrait him in an undesirable fashion (as a stereotypical Jewish man). Although the photograph had simply been of him walking through an area being unaware that photos had been taken of him, his offence to such images caused a range of problems for the photographer as he had been using the image commercially. It is therefore always better to obtain the proper documentation before taking a photograph or afterwards if it intended to be used either professionally or commercially.

In the media sector for photography it is always important to obey the laws set by people. To obtain permission to use people or buildings in their photographs, photographers must use release form with their models (even if they are unaware that the photograph was taken) otherwise they risk facing both legal and ethical issues after publishing their work. The release forms which are available are property release forms, minor (children) release forms and adult release forms. Although people are often unaware, buildings can have copyright on them. An example of a building with copyright on it is the Bluewater shopping centre in England. The reason for this copyright is that the architect believes that the building itself is an art piece. Due to this, photography is banned within the area and any photos taken of it must have proper permission from the copyright holders before publishing their photographs. Copyright (displayed via the © symbol) is a legal form of protection for people’s intellectual property (intellectual property is a unique thing created by somebody). Copyright can be used to protect:

·         original literary and written work, like novels or content on websites

·         original dramatic, musical and artistic works

·         television, film, sound and music recordings

·         computer software

·         illustration and photography

·         typographical arrangement of published editions

However the item must physically exist in order to be copyrighted and therefore people are unable to obtain copyright for only an idea. Copyright is not meant to restrict people’s creativity but to protect people’s original work. Another important thing is trademarking. Trademarks are things which make your brand recognisable (most commonly a logo or set of words) and registering a trademark allows you to stop people from using it without your permission first. Unfortunately trademarks have been abused in some cases. For example the company ‘King’ which is responsible for developing mobile apps such as the massively popular ‘Candy Crush Saga’ trademarked the word ‘Candy’. This caused massive controversy as candy is a common word and should not have even been able to be trademarked. They have since used this trademark to bully smaller developers and stop them making anything even related to the subject. Cases such as this show flaws in the legal system and if people are able to trademark common words like this then there shall soon be no words left in the dictionary to use.

First Version of A2 Film Trailer

This is the first version of my group’s film trailer. I believe that so far our trailer is looking good. However I feel that there are a selection of improvements that we could add to it to get a better trailer overall. The issues I identified in this first version are as follows:

• The music is repetitive and does not properly convey the intended message of the film. To improve this we should replace the song with a more suitable one.

• The narrative of the movie is not fully clear. To solve this issue we will need to add more text to the scenes and addition narration from our voice actors.

• The sound effects used are poor at times. This can be solved by replacing or removing the sound effects that don’t fit in well with the movie or rearranging them on the video’s timeline.

I also intend to ask a selection of people for their feedback on this copy of the trailer. Their insight may provide us with new ideas and allow us identify any areas that may be weak.

Actors Roles

Name: Tom Nelson

Role: Jason Dyer (The Main Character)

Information:

Tom is set to play as the main character Jason Dyer. Jason Dyer is an aggressive cockney character with a personality that takes inspiration from movies such as Snatch. He wears an iconic jacket and has a recognisable hairstyle throughout the production. The main role of the character is to act as the hitman of Rory Macbride (a close friend of his). In general Jason Dyer is an unpleasant person, this is displayed via his willingness to hunt down and murder the people that wronged Rory Macbride.

Name: Joseph Inns

Role: Rory Macbride (Major Character)

Information:

Joseph Inns is playing the second most important character in the film, Rory Macbride. Rory is a relatively timid character that turns to Jason Dyer after his money is stolen in a fixed poker match. Despite seeming weak in comparison to Jason, Rory will essentially be acting as his sidekick and shall develop as a character throughout the film. He tends to wear plain, rugged clothing and is seen to change his clothes on various different occasions throughout the trailer whereas Jason primarily stays with his signature look.

Name: Alex Fox

Role: Sam Williams (Major Character)

Information:

Alex Fox is playing as Sam Williams. Sam Williams is a dealer on the black market and a heavy gambler. He is thought to have stolen Rory’s money and is therefore on the list of people Jason Dyer is setting about killing. One of the scenes in the trailer will show Jason Dyer attacking him.

Name: Dominic Williams

Role: Bouncer (Minor Character)

Information:

Dominic Williams is going to be playing as the bouncer. The bouncer is an incredibly strong man and is practically invisible throughout the film. He works for David Wilkins and has a short temper as well as being a very violent person.

Name: Christian Turner

Role: Extra (Minor Character)

Information:

Christian Turner is set to be an extra. His role will be to fill up space in a few of the scenes that need it. He will primarily feature in the poker scene.

Name: Stanley Pugh

Role: James Bowen (Minor Character)

Information:

Stanley Pugh has the role of James Bowen. James Bowen is a dim-witted small time crook and a henchman. He appears on Jason Dyer’s list of target and can be seen getting into a range of situations that involve fighting.

Name: Joseph Dunkerley

Role: Extra (Minor Character)

Information:

Joseph Dunkerley is appearing in the film as an extra. This means that he shall only be appearing in the background of scenes such as the poker match.

Name: Micah Hills

Role: Barry Bright (Major Character)

Information:

Micah Hills is playing as Barry Bright and is a major character. He is seen as being the main gang leader and is high on the list of Jason’s targets. He will end up escaping from most of the encounters with Jason Dyer and will be the last of his targets to die thus leading to the end of the film. His death will not be shown in the trailer however as it would spoil the story for the viewers.

Name: Mark Rowland

Role: David Wilkins (Minor Character)

Information:

Mark Rowland will be appearing as David Wilkins. David Wilkins is the owner of the location in which the poker match occurs and has an intimidating bouncer working for him. He heavily relies on his bodyguard for protection and is also after the stolen money. However his intentions are to take the money for himself once he is able to find it.

Trailer Proposal Feedback

After presenting the proposal for my group’s trailer we asked a selection of people for their feedback on it. Getting feedback from these people was important as it allowed us to identify potential issues with our ideas as well as seeing the initial reactions and people’s opinions of the film trailer that was proposed.

The first person interviewed was Micah Hills, a student currently taking media studies:

The second person to be interviewed was Mark Rowland, a former media studies student:

The third person to be interviewed was Megan Smith, a student currently taking media studies:

Overall the responses from people were positive. Their feedback has given us an insight into people’s opinions on the ideas presented. Due to what we have heard, our group has decided to keep on heading in the direction that we were planning on taking the production.

Fictional Studio Name Change

Originally the name of my group’s fictional studio was ‘Unstable Productions’. This title was suitable for the creation of our practice video as it was short, catchy and contained a subtle pun (because our practice film was about a horse whose ambition it was to dance). However my group has decided to change the name from ‘Unstable Productions’ to ‘Anarchy Films’. This modification was done because they felt that a more fitting and mature sounding name was needed. I was personally against the change as ‘Unstable’ and ‘Anarchy’ both sound as if they could be used for a studio that produced serious action/thriller movies. This change also means that I shall have to redo the 3D cinematic studio intro which I created, which seems like an unnecessary amount of effort for such a minor change. However I was outvoted by the other two members and therefore the fiction studio is now name ‘Anarchy Films’. On the bright side, it will give me a chance to produce a better looking and more suitable intro and may possibly improve the overall feel of the final movie trailer. Many studios change their name at some point, for example Disney-MGM Studio changed its name to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2008.

Update: My group has now decided that instead of creating our own unique production company introduction we shall be using a shortened version of the Lionsgate introduction.

The Lionsgate introduction is shown below:

Film Storyboard

One of the stages of planning our film was to create a storyboard. Creating the storyboard allowed us to see how our trailer would look in a visual format. It was important for deciding the sequence of events, the particular actions in each scene and the shot types that are to be used. The storyboard shall aid my group and me immensely as it’ll mean that less video footage will need to be taken to display the story. Without the storyboard we would have likely taken a vast amount of unnecessary video footage thus wasting both time and space on the video camera’s SD card. The scenes were decided in a group meeting and the storyboard was drawn up by Joseph Inns whilst being supervised by Tom Nelson and I. Joseph Inns was chosen to do the art work for the storyboard as he had most experience in drawing pictures on paper.

Film Trailer Mindmap

Mind maps are a type of diagram used to display a set of information. They usually start with one word in the centre (generally the theme or name of project) and have words branching out from it (generally divided into themed clusters), connected to other relevant words with lines. Mind maps can include a range of other things as well such as different images and colours. They are one of the most popular forms of pre-production and are taught to students in many schools. In addition to this they are also able to be created either digitally or by hand. In the pre-production process they are used to map out the ideas, themes and a variety of other information (e.g. characters, props and locations). They can be used to easily communicate the ideas to other project members as well as giving the creator a stronger idea of what they wish to create. They are generally used before creating the storyboard or script.

Software which can be used to make mind maps includes: Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Prezi and more.

'Dyer's List' Mood Board

A mood board is a collage of text, images and other objects. Mood boards help people to visualise the general feel and direction in which they are wishing to take their product. In addition to this they can be used to communicate people’s ideas to other project members. One of the purposes of a mood board is to map out the ideas which they have had and aid them with deciding what to do. In the pre-production process, mood boards generally come before even the storyboard. In terms of usefulness they are rather useful but I would consider the other methods of pre-production to be far more effective, as mood boards are essentially just a collage of assorted images and text made simply to convey the general themes, ideas and flow of the product.

Software which can be used to make mood boards includes: Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Pintrest and more.

Production Studio Title Sequence Variations (First Edits)

For the preliminary task, I created an animated title sequence for my groups’ fictional production studio (‘Unstable Productions’). I was very happy with the result of it in my preliminary task. However I decided that for the actual trailer I am producing it would be unsuitable. The factors which I believe make the old title sequence unsuitable are its music and brightness. When it was first produced these factors were fine as the video I created for the preliminary task was an abstract comedy in a partial documentary style. Due to the main video project being an action/thriller movie, I believe that darker music and visuals are required.

In my attempt to produce a better title sequence I created three different versions of the video. In these versions I have changed the background music and experimented with various effects.

Below are the various versions I created of the production studio’s title sequence:

Version 1:

This version is the original video I created. It has bright visuals and upbeat music as it was made for the practice video I made with my group. As mentioned previously, I have used this to create a set of other potential title sequences to appear before the advert.


Version 2:



This second version of the introduction contained the same visuals as the first version but had different music. The music was changed as audio used in the first version was not appropriate for an action/crime movie.

Version 3:



Version three is essentially the same as version two but with a special effect added to it that gives it the appearance of being filmed with old fashioned equipment. Unfortunately this version seemed to suggest that the film was going to be in the horror genre and was therefore not appropriate for usage.

Version 4:



This version is the same as version two but with a different effect added to it, thus giving it a more artsy feel. I felt that this was more appropriate than the other title sequences that I produced. I will likely be using this in the final trailer.

Location Scout

Before filming, my group and I decided to a location scout. The location scout was done in order to find good locations for filming our film trailer and to familiarise ourselves with the areas before shooting there. In addition to this we were able to assess the problems that we may face in each zone as well as deciding on which scenes we were going to shoot at each location.

Location: Pembury

This church was ideal for giving our film some religious symbolism. One of the main positive factors about the building was that it was always open so that people were able to pray there whenever they wanted to. This would allow us to access the building and film the scene needed without encountering anybody. Another positive thing the church had to offer was its beautiful stained glass windows. We decided that the stained glass windows would make a perfect backdrop for a shot. 

Location: Tunbridge Wells

This area was an empty car park with a bridge. It was possible to get past the gate below the bridge thus opening up additional possibilities for filming. We concluded that we would be able to shoot multiple scenes at this location if we filmed from different angles. The scenes we have in mind for this location are an encounter in the car park and an interrogation on top of the bridge.

Location: Pembury

The graveyard we decided would be good for symbolizing loss and possibly the deaths of Jason Dyer’s targets. It is a pleasant area and has strong ties to religion.

Location: Pembury

This is another shot of the graveyard pictured above. As can be seen, it is a large area and could be used in a variety of different situations. It is unlikely to be populated by any people when we film there.

Location: Pembury

This was a small deserted communal area. It seemed very grotty and unpleasant; we therefore decided that it would make for a good area to film a fight scene. It was easy to access and is unlikely that anyone will be using the area when we film there.

Location: Tunbridge Wells

This is another shot of the empty car park with the bridge. As can be seem, it can be used for multiple scenes.

Location: Tunbridge Wells

This was a location outside a busy supermarket. It is likely to be highly populated and will make a good contrast as the other areas are mostly unpopulated. The only issue would be if people were to interfere with the filming e.g. staring at the camera thus making the footage unusable.

Location: Tunbridge Wells

This dark abandoned tunnel would provide our group with a great filming location. The only issue was that the ground was flooded. However we could still use the tunnel as a backdrop for one of our scenes.

Location: Pembury

This bushy area will not of major importance but could provide us with a nice natural background for one of our scenes.

Location: Pembury

This is another picture of the empty communal area in Pembury. As can be seen, it would make for a good fighting zone.

Location: Tunbridge Wells

This is another image of the empty car park; it shows the area from further away.

Location: Pembury

This bridge goes over a busy road. It would be useful for filming a dramatic moment on. One of the shots we had in mind was an over the shoulder shot of the main character staring at the traffic below.

Location Pembury

This memorial has religious symbolism and linkage to the world wars. However we are unlike to film here as it’ll give a wrong feeling to the film and possibly confuse its message.

The location scout was very useful for deciding on the area which we shall be using for the filming. However we were unable to visit all of the areas which we are intending to film at due to time constraints.

Film Pitch Presentation

Pitch for ‘Dyers List’ from Joseph Dunkerley

Title Generators

As part of the process of selecting a title for our film, I used a variety of online movie title generators for inspiration. Unfortunately I was unable to find a one which was suitable for the type of film my group had in mind. This was because the majority of the title generators which I were able to find were not solely intended for actual film naming processes, but were designed with comedic purposes in mind.

(http://phrasegenerator.com/actionmovies)

The first title generator which I used was ‘Action Movie Title Generator’. I used this website because the film which I am creating shall be a hybrid genre combining crime, action and thriller elements. This website generates a range of ‘movie titles’ by combing two action related words from a large word bank which they have created. I found these titles to be unusable as they seemed either too generic or unfitting for my film. I believe that these titles were more intended for fully action movies such as Rambo and Die Hard. As can be seen in the screenshot, one of the titles which the website generated for me was ‘Fatal Punishment’.

(http://www.gandronics.com/bmovie.php)

The next generator that I used was called “B-Movie Title Generator”. Unfortunately the titles which it was able to produce were fairly limited and lacked quality. As shown in the screenshot, it came up with overly generic titles such as ‘The Gangsters’. This was not the sort of thing that my group members and I were looking for and we ended up not using any of the titles.

(http://www.hanttula.com/exhibits/b-movie-title-generator/)

The next generator used was also called ‘B-Movie Title Generator’. It provided a wider range of titles than the previous generator, but the titles which it came up with were too specific and ridiculous. Also the titles seemed to be primarily science fiction and horror based. One of the titles generated was ‘Revenge of the blood-thirsty space robots’. This site was clearly meant to produce only comical movie titles and was therefore not appropriate for use in our project.

(http://mdbenoit.com/rtg.htm)



The following title generator was simply named ‘Random Title Generator’. The good thing about this title generator was that it displayed six new titles each time, thus allowing for a faster time with less hassle. Unfortunately the majority of the titles were not suitable as they were primarily fantasy based and our trailer is to be for a crime and action movie.

We ended up deciding not to use any of the titles that were generated as the vast majority of them were either unrelated to the genre or undesirable. Instead of using title generators to create the title of the movie, we simply had to come up with a selection of names ourselves.