Planning

G324 ADVANCED PORTFOLIO Planning

I create an Emaze presentation to present my planning ideas for my film trailer

To help with my planning and plot synopsis I found several trailers in the psychological thriller genre but ensured that they were all very different in the plot line to give me a wide range of trailers to look at and take inspiration form.

Plot synopsis

The film is set in a suburban, quaint  town, a family are brutally murdered, fortunately a young girl survives she is the ‘middle’ child of the family. After being taken to hospital for her wounds she beings to see flash backs of that night. The doctors say her memory is damaged but the unknown face of the murdered haunts her thoughts . To help her remember she finds the help of a ‘viewer’ – someone who can access people’s subconscious memories – She entrust in him her deepest darkest secrets of the past as the viewer begins to unlock the girls troubled mind. AS her memories begin to appear and become more vivid her personality changes and her actions more hostile , she finds herself blacking out and ending up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Becoming increasingly nervous and anxious at what the viewer saw in her memories he sent to have her tested, shortly after this the viewer is found dead at the hospital and the girl released. She decides to hire a P.I. Looking through the case over and over the P.I finds a ‘trail’ and begins to act upon it . Suspiciously after this the P.I is murdered , the girl then takes the case back into her own has picking up from where she left off. Months pass by and continuous deaths of those who try to help the girl occur yet the police have uncovered nothing and her case is getting nowhere. For her own safety she is taken under Witness Protection to prevent her from being the next target, the police suspect the killer is tormenting the girl and making her life a living hell. the girl becomes increasingly more agitated and has personality shifts, after moving to her new location the police provider her with counselling and help for her audial. Through this she unlocks more mysterious memories, even remembering murders she was never there to witness. Years pass by and eventually the girl settles and puts her traumatic past behind her, she starts a family and a completely new life. However the dreams and thoughts haunt her still has she beings to see the victims of her past being murdered as if see was looking down on them. One day her daughter finds a journal with records and a dairy entry of each of the victims in her mother’s past, seeing what her daughter has found she is keen to take a look. However she is horrified at what she reads on the blood stained pages of this little black book, eventually reaching the last pages in the book she finds pages entitled with her husbands and each of her child’s names. The book has one last thing written in the back ‘the ending is always the best’ All of a sudden she has a flash back to the night of her family were murdered and then finds herself standing over her husband’s body with a blooded knife and the little black book. 


 After creating my plot synopsis i converted my ideas into shots and created a storyboard templete to present them on. I then colour coded each of the individual shots to which setting they are being flimed in. 

After planning out my shots in my story board we decided to make an animatic from the image I drew out on my paper copy of my story board. We used premier pro to insert the imags and create our animatic. 

After planning my plot synopsis and creating my story board I decied to work in a pair on my trailer, this helped me with the filming schedual and timing for getting all the filming done and able to edit.

Audience Profile

After research into audience profiles I created my own audience profile.

Audience Profile for a Psychological thriller

Sex:  Male      Female

Age:

Status:  Married    Single    Divorced    Partner

Education:  High School   College  University/Graduate 

Income(per year): Less than £10,000   £10,000-£30,000     £31,000-£50,000      More than £50,000                                                                                                              

 Here are two other trailers from the psychological genre :

Seven  & TheSecret Window

·         What do you like about the trailers

·         Is there ‘Star appeal’ that makes you want to watch the film

·         Do you feel it fits the genre

·         Which trailer did you prefer

What plot ideas can you think of the relate to the psychological thriller genre ?

Potential names for a psychological thriller film

·         Ghost of future past

·         Animus

·         Demons

·         Never not be afraid

·         Remember

·         Expenditure

Which of the names do you prefer? 

Which one would you say links most the psychological genre?

Who are your favourite film stars/celebrities ?

Can you think of any ‘stars’ that are commonly in Psychological thriller films?

For Psychological thrillers, can you think of any typical/common endings for a film?

Here is our film trailers plot synopsis and a few questions to answer after you have read it.


The film is set in a suburban, quaint  town, a family are brutally murdered, fortunately a young girl survives she is the ‘middle’ child of the family. After being taken to hospital for her wounds she beings to see flash backs of that night. The doctors say her memory is damaged but the unknown face of the murdered haunts her thoughts . To help her remember she finds the help of a ‘viewer’ – someone who can access people’s subconscious memories – She entrust in him her deepest darkest secrets of the past as the viewer begins to unlock the girls troubled mind. AS her memories begin to appear and become more vivid her personality changes and her actions more hostile , she finds herself blacking out and ending up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Becoming increasingly nervous and anxious at what the viewer saw in her memories he sent to have her tested, shortly after this the viewer is found dead at the hospital and the girl released. She decides to hire a P.I. Looking through the case over and over the P.I finds a ‘trail’ and begins to act upon it . Suspiciously after this the P.I is murdered , the girl then takes the case back into her own has picking up from where she left off. Months pass by and continuous deaths of those who try to help the girl occur yet the police have uncovered nothing and her case is getting nowhere. For her own safety she is taken under Witness Protection to prevent her from being the next target, the police suspect the killer is tormenting the girl and making her life a living hell. the girl becomes increasingly more agitated and has personality shifts, after moving to her new location the police provider her with counselling and help for her audial. Through this she unlocks more mysterious memories, even remembering murders she was never there to witness. Years pass by and eventually the girl settles and puts her traumatic past behind her, she starts a family and a completely new life. However the dreams and thoughts haunt her still has she beings to see the victims of her past being murdered as if see was looking down on them. One day her daughter finds a journal with records and a dairy entry of each of the victims in her mother’s past, seeing what her daughter has found she is keen to take a look. However she is horrified at what she reads on the blood stained pages of this little black book, eventually reaching the last pages in the book she finds pages entitled with her husbands and each of her child’s names. The book has one last thing written in the back ‘the ending is always the best’ All of a sudden she has a flash back to the night of her family were murdered and then finds herself standing over her husband’s body with a blooded knife and the little black book.

Questions

• What do you like about the story
• What do you think could be improved
• Do you think it fits with the psychological thriller genre
• Would you go to watch this film

From my audience profile I combined the answers and data I found to help influence my ideas for my film trailer.

Research into Film target audiences

When looking at target audiences for films and genres there are certain question that are asked to ensuer the film is targeted at teh right audience.
Theses are known as Audience Demographics:

By asking  these questions, market research companies on behalf of the film production company will conduct surveys/questionnaires to find the traget audience of the film:

• Sex? Male Female
• Age: Child Teen 20’s 30’s 40’s 50’s 60’s
• Status? Single Married Divorced
• Education: High school College Graduate
• Income: Low Average High

 I used a website called Raindance I found an article on "8 Questions writers must ask when developing and audience profile" by Elliot Grove in Indie Tips,Screenwriting Tips. Point 1 clearly stated the importance of Audeince demographics and ensure that you ask the right question to achieve your target audience profile. 

In Point 2 the articel went on to state what type of person you are aming your film at and what kind of influence they have, this is known as 'audience power level'. For example- if the films story line is aimed at Teenagers in high school, what kind of student are you aiming the film at: the leaders or the followers? The 'geeks' or the sociable? Could your story be opened out at all by being more inclusive of broader groups?

Question 3 of the 8 states "Give me a day in the life.." This is an optional approach when creating a audience profile. The idea of this exercise is to create a "diary" of a typical day of a person in your target audience, various questions are created to help structure this "diary". Such as-

• When do they usually get up
• What do they wear?
• Where do they lunch and do they have any bad personal habits?
• Who would they rather spend time with? 

The more of these kinds of questions you/the market research team can answer, the easier it is to build up an audience profile. 

Part 4 talks about the 'Owchers and wowchers', this is the idea that you must think about the things thta could possibly turn your audience 'off' but also what they enjoy and will enage in. At this stage in the research for an audience profile there are various variables to conider and it is best to spend time thinking creatively. 

In Point 5  it beings to talk about asking "how do they vote", not politically but what he target audiences moral values. 

Sections 6 is one of the most important when it comes to an audience profile, as it questions "How do they thrill?" suggesting to look at what your audience are looking for. for example a 'great night out'. Also what they are expecrting from a film and a key point is what kind of emtional experinece are they looking for. For an example Women go to watch, Romantic, Chick-Flick dramas, not because they want to seek action thrilling entertainment but because they feel an emotinal connection with those sorts of film genres that usualy result in a tear-jerking ending. 

7 looks at the the likes and dislikes of the traget audience, the question states "Let's be negative". If a market research team succefully find out the likes/dislikes of their audience they may even figure out how to overcome any audience objections. For exmaple that it isn’t just going to be a typical horror story, but rather a brand new film and different elements that should be on the top of everyone’s must see list.

Finally question 8 - "Idenitfying your audience".  After looking meticuosly into what makes your audience tick

This knowledge helps to create an audience profile that will speak directly to them. you have learnt al the key points about your audience such as age, roles, values and likes/dislikes. This process enables a good relationship between the maket researchers and audience and allows them to tell the story consistent voice. 

 
Theatre audience by race/ethnicity:

•  Hispanics were the most freaquent visitors to the cinema,they represented 18% of the population
• However accounted for 25% of all films seen. 

 

From research into audinces and audience profiles for film and media, I now have a wider idea about what target audience I will have for my film  and how to better my presentation when trying to grasp my audiences attention to watch my film. I now know how to construct my own audince profile and how to collect the data I recieve from it and how this will inform my decsions on my film trailer,poster and magazine.

Research into Film trailer music

At the start of our lesson we listened to 4 different tracks of music, we then had to write down what genere we thought the music could be applied to. When listening to the pieces of music I looked for specifc points that could link that piece to the genre, for example I listened for;

• The pace and rhythm 
• key/chords - minor(usually melencolic) or major
• choice of instruments e.g Snare drum common to military scores
• Sounds effects - consistent with the genre
• Digital enhancement

From doing this activity I learnt the importance of music in a genre in conveying the genre, mood, narritive, to build atmosphere and setting the tone.

I then researched into film trailer music:

Trailer music is background music used for film previews/trailers. This is not always from the films official sound track, the purpose of the music is to complement, integrate and support the sales messaging. Because the score for a film is usually composed after its finished, a trailer will incorporate music from other sources. Sometimes music from other successful films.

Specially composed music. One of the most famous Hollywood trailer music composers is John Beal, who began scoring trailers in the 1970s in his 30 years in the industry he has created original music for over 2,000 film trailers, including 40 of the top-grossing films of all time, such as Star Wars, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Aladdin, The Last Samurai  and The Matrix. I found this information from Wikipedia Trailer music 


During my research I came across an article from thew gaurdian called 'Movie trailer music: it's not what you think' this was useful in finding further and unusual information about trailer music.

Trailer libraries

"Library" music, which is previously, composed production music. Many Trailer library companies do not offer their music to the public. But rather develop and license music exclusively to motion picture studios.  Although Immediate Music, Two Steps from Hell have released albums available to the public.

 After researching into film trailer music I chose two trailers to look at and listen to the types and styles of music of the trailers. I wanted to see if the music that went with the trailer applied to the genre and what elemenst such as instruments,pace and rhythm help to create the sense of genre. 

Maleficent - Theatrical trailer Maleficent Trailer 

The most stricking thing about the music at the start of the trailer is that the score of music is the orginal song "Once upon a dream" (Original version). However it has been adpated to make the pace slower, more orchestral and new sound eeffects/digital enhancement have been added to bring the song up to date with the film. As the original socre of music sounds operatic and has a faster pace, also the way Mary Costa sang the orginal version seems a happier upbeat version. On the other hand the way Lana Del Ray sings the new version (Once Upon a Dream new version) of the song, is more of a malevolent, slow pace and eerie kind of feeling to it.  




The Great Gatsby - International trailer  Great Gatsby trailer

 

The trailer music is split into two parts, the first section of the music is very orchestral and there is a heavy focus on a piano which ties in with the 1920s theme and art deco style. The sing Lana Del Ray is the voice piece of the song, I think that the tone and style of her voice fit perfectly with the genre of the films and the 1920s style. Also the song was written by Lana Del Ray and is entitled Young and Beautiful which I feel ties in with the plot line of the film and the story behind Gatsby and Daisy.
When the music changes half way through the trailer this indicates a change in mood and atmosphere within the plot line as the trailer begins to build up to its climax and the music is parallel to this change and build up of tension.

Analysis of Film Magazines

I researched into serveral Film magazine that are currerntly in circulation in the UK and Internationally such as, Total Film and Empire magazine. I analysed a cover from each magazine talking about how they challenged or took on conventions of typical film magazines, I also did fundamental reserach into the price and circulation numbers of eacch magazine. I did this so that when creating my own magazine I have a similar quialities and have a greater understanding of the work behind a Film magazine.

Analysis of film magazine covers 

Research into Film Trailers

My research into film trailers I now have a better understanding of key conventinos of a trailer and what makes a good trailer. I learnt that trailers a perfect example of multimodal texts , that convey meaning through a combination of various modes of comunication. For example , writen text on screen, moving image and music. I found that it is key to make genre of the film evident  to the target audience and make sure it apeals to them,as it can entice people to watch the film.The most importatn selling point I found that a trailer must have is a 'Unique Selling Point', this is specific to the film and helps promotion of the film. It needs to be something new and unusual to make sure the film appeals to its target audience yet attracts others that may not neccessarily go to watch the film. Another key point for a good trailer is having Credits and Intertitles throughout the trailer providing relevant information to the audience, the intertitles can be used to promote the 'Star appeal' of the film also to portray the narritive. Following on from teh narrative this does not neccessarliy have to be made fully clear in the trailer as this create tension, curisoity and anticipation in the aduience and encourages them to watch the film. When it comes to creating my trailer I will follow some the conventions of a film trailer, however I would like to make some adaptations as this would link in with my unique selling point of the film.From looking at research into trailer i have learnt about various techniques and what makes a good trailer, for example not giving too much away, not being too cryptic and make the film appealing to your intened audience.

A Theatrical trailer is usually the longest ranging from one and a half minutes to two minutes long, on some occasion maybe long. Depending on the type of film, for a big Hollywood film there is likely to be more focus on the theatrical trailer than the other types of trailers. As a theatrical trailer is used to give a bigger sense of the story line/plot, introduction of characters and to entice the audience to watch the film by gradually building up to a climax. However it doesn't give too much of the film away, it still has that since of enigma and mystery to emphasise feelings of curiosity within the audience encouraging them to watch the film. These trailers are more likely to be seen when going to watch another film or when someone has seen the teaser trailer but wants to find out more, therefore on a video sharing site such as YouTube or on the films actual website.

Whereas a Teaser trailer often ranges from thirty seconds to a minute. The idea of a teaser trailer is enviably to 'tease' the audience , it is released months before the film is due to premier and before the official trailer (theatrical trailer) is released. By using a teaser trailer this entices and interests the audience and leaves them wondering sand wanting more, it builds tension and anticipation for the theatrical trailer and in turn for the build up of the filmed release date. Teaser trailers are commonly used for horror films as they suit the fast pace, high tension and anticipation of the horror genre. Teaser trailers are more likely to be seen on TV or as an advert before a clip you might watch on the internet but can be found on most media, as it is short snappy and to the point and allows the audience to think and then want to discover more about the film.

ON the other hand a TV spot trailers are TV advertisements of the trailers that are shortened from there original length from anywhere in between thirty seconds to a minute. They are used to grab a wider target audience and make people aware of the film , the TV spot trailers are similar to green band trailers that there content is made 'appropriate' for the channel.

Top 3 trailers analysis heather lanacshire 

Here is a powerpoint I created to show my top 3 film trailers. I analysed each trailer including, sound, music, shots and camera angle and setting. I chose varied genres of trailers in order ot get a wider range of styles of the mise-en-scene elemnts and how certain genres of trailers are created according to thier conventions.


After looking into the trailers above I chose to then looked into various Psychological thriller tarilers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZbLbPv6Fs

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

Analysis of Film Posters

Wehn researching into film posters I found two different types of film posters; theatrical and teaser. I also found out the key conventions of each of these film posters, I then created word clouds to show what I think are the key conventions of film posters.

Conventions of a Teaser Poster

Conventions of a Theatrical Poster

After researching into film posters and what I think are the key conventions that a film poster should have, in order for the poster to sell and promote the film to its audience. I found film posters that had bother teaser and theatrical and have analysed each type of poster for the films.


For analysising film posters I chose 'American Hustle' and 'The Hobbit', both of these films had multiple teaser and theatrical poster I chose the ones i thought represented the key conventinos best.

American Hustle

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

This is my practice for creating a film poster for a new film.

 

I created a practice film poster to get a better understanding of how to construct a film poster. Creating a practive poster helped me to develope my understanding of certain photoshop processes and discover new techniques that I can apply to my film poster when I create it. For example through making this parctice poster I learnt how to use the gradient effect to fade out images, also I was able to experiment with positioning of images, headline and text so that when it comes to creating my own film poster I know what works best and what doesnt work so well. Whe nit comes to making my own film poster the practive poster will inflcuence my ideas as I will folow the typical convetinos of a film poster. 

Psychological Film Posters 

Afetr looking at a range of film posters I chose to look at Psychological film posters, as I felt this would help me find ideas and give my inspiration when it comes to creating my own film poster. 

I created a mood board to show the varying types of Psychological film posters, what they each have in common and what conventions they each follow. 

Analysis of film marketing campaign

I looked at a recently preimered film; The Guest. I looked into how the producers/fiml distrubition companies who made the film used various marketing campaigns to promote the fiilm.

I used the website Padlet to create a wall showing all the ways that the film; The Guest has been promoted.

Created with Padlet

Genre Research

The concept of Genre

Genre theory  is mainly concerned with;

• The relationship between texts, audiences and genres
• the producers 
• Identifying the typical characteristcs of genres

Why do we like genre? 

As an audeince we like genre because...

• We know what to expect from the genres we like , due to the characteristcs of that genre.
• Able to  plan viewing with certain expectations, as genres have certain concepts that as an audience appeal to us. 
• Enjoy subtle variations within a predictable framework
• Can finds genre a consistent form of release and escapis, as an audience genre of films can help to relax us and 'escape from reality'. 
• Engaging quickly, with easily recognisable plots and characte. The audience can easliy recognise a genre from the plot line, certain characters and themes 
• Enjoy predicting outcomes; as an audience we love to predict outcome in films. Therefore if we can easily recognise a genre and think of a common outcome for the film relating it to other films in that genre.
• Experience a sense of cultural and emotional security.

Producers/film makers like gerne because...

• Helps to construct the film for a particular audience(the taget market)
• Genre is a type of frame work, helps producers to plan and create the story line/plot for the film. 
• Allows them to reuse actor, as some actors such as 'Melissa goerge' who are known for a certaon genre of film can be 'reused' in a different film but the same genre.
• Repeat story lines, as genre can be very repetative producers can repeat and adpat story lines that have been used for example the 'Scream' series of films
• Reusing genres can be economical for resing pros and settings that are already bulti thid saves moeny when it comes to producing the film.
• A genre is tried and tested, therefore has a gaurnteed audience and reasures the producers they will be able to make a profit.

 Steven Neale states that as an audince we feel secure with familiairty of genres but also like a suprise. 'Please is derived from repetition and difference' . Neale aslo staed that one way of defing genre is as a 'set of expectaions'.

 Over the last decade gnere theoritsts refer to something called 'repertoire of Elements' these can be used to draw up or build up desriptions of genres generic elements;

• Setting 
• Theme
• Iconography
• Narrative
• Characters 

Genre is a key fearture in highlighting any films main features and narrativ. The Repertoire of elements explains how genre is not a fixed critera, it can be dynamic alsogenre can change arcoss cultuares and over time, its fuild. Now-a-days it is becoming increasingly rare to find a film that is just soley one genre such as Romance, there are multiple mixed/combined genres known as hybrids such as Sci-Fi Romance.

I create a genre mood board to represent the 'repertoire of Elements' of my chosen genre; Psychological Thriller.

 

My mood board is specfifc to the Psycholpgical thriller genre. I feel that mise-en-scene will be cruical when it comes to creating my film trailer. 

I took serevral film posters from the Psychological genre that I thought best represented the genre. I chose some more thriller based films such as; Seven, Shutter Island and Anna.I also looked for more psychological  based fillms as well such as ; Silence of the Lambs, Memento and Girl, Interuppted.I feel that mise-en-scene had a large role to play in conveying the genre to the audience of the film and the  audience being able to graps a sence of narrative yet also be curious and confused due to the psychological part of the genre. as through the use of lighting, props and setting can establish a theme.

My mood board conveys the repetoire of elements, for typical settings of a psycholopgical thriller I added large cities such as New York, asylums, confined spaces and the woods. I found typical iconography from the 'Psychological thriller' genre, such as shadows, street lamps, knives and confined spaces. These tie into a key iconography point, Low key lighting especially the use of shadows and street lamp. 

David Fincher