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.

Project Group Members

For the trailer project this year it was recommended that people worked together in groups of up to three people on their practical pieces of coursework (a trailer for a nonexistent film). The group which I have chosen to work with consists of Joseph Inns, Thomas Nelson and myself (Joseph Dunkerley). Due to the group working on the project together, the work which has been worked on collaboratively (such as the location shots and scenes films) may appear on multiple blogs, however the majority of the work posted to the blogs shall have been worked on by the owner of whichever blog happens to be in question. Below are pictures of each of the group members as well as links to their A2 Media Studies blogs:

Name: Joseph Dunkerley (myself)

A2 Media Blog Address: http://dunkerleya2mediablog.blogspot.co.uk/

Key Skills: Video Editing, Camera Work, Photo Manipulation, Sound Manipulation

Name: Thomas Nelson

A2 Media Blog Address: http://nellysa2media.blogspot.co.uk/

Key Skills: Video Editing, Photography, Acting, Sound Manipulation

 Name: Joseph Inns

A2 Media Blog Address: http://whohasdonethatwiththetoiletseat.blogspot.co.uk/

Key Skills: Acting, Script Writing, Drawing, Camera Work

Filming Session 5

Location: Southborough (Near to the Sports Center)

Group Members Present: Joseph Dunkerley and Joseph Inns

Additional People Present: Alex Fox (Actor) and Stanley Pugh (Actor)

Scenes Shot: Fight Scenes, Additional Chase Scene, Meeting Scene, Stairway Scene

The fifth session was filmed in Southborough at locations close to the school. The primary objective of this session was to get additional shots that we felt we still needed. This was because the majority of the footage needed for the trailer had already been obtained. We were able to film a selection of short clips that would add to excitement of the trailer and would allow us to do more believable montage scenes in time with the music.

Filming Session 4

Location: Southborough (St Gregory's Catholic Comprehensive School)

Group Members Present: Joseph Dunkerley, Joseph Inns and Tom Nelson

Additional People Present: Kieran Brown (Camera Man), Dominic Williams (Actor), Stanley Pugh (Actor), Alex Fox (Actor), Christian Turner (Actor) and Micah Hills (Actor)

Scenes Shot: Poker Scenes, Fight Scenes, Chase Scene

The fourth filming session was done at St Gregory’s Catholic Comprehensive School in Southborough. Due to the session being done in school, we were able to obtain a large amount of addition actors for our scenes. We used the school’s stage as it provided an ideal location for fight scenes and the poker scene. In addition to this, we were able to film the scenes in a matter than would not lead people to believe that they had been shot in a school. One of the most positive factors of this session was that we had access to mats and cushions thus allowing us to explore a greater range of fighting styles for our fight scenes without people getting injured. The stage’s lights also allowed us to toggle the lighting of the scenes at will.