Typography

This is a technique that might be useful to our group while producing opening credits / titles for our teaser trailer.

This is a video example of the track "Drake - Thank me now". As you can observe, the concept of constant flowing text, coupled with an easy-to-read font would be an exceptional idea to implement into our trailer, perhaps, as an experimental concept, incorporating voice-over narration.

The reason why this would be a good addition is that this method is often used in conjunction with several psychological thrillers. Take Paranormal Activity (2207) as an example.



It is clear that this film aims to give the audience the impression that this film has numerous elements of tension building. The director successfully achieves this by playing on the patience of the audience watching the trailer. For example, the trailer starts outside the cinema, then the audience are seen making their way into the actual theater, then the audience prepare to watch the film, and so on. Furthermore, while the audience who are watching the film view titles and brief clips of the film, night-vision shots of the audience are used briefly in between the clips, again, playing on the patience of the viewer watching the trailer. To increase the tension, the fonts used correlate with occult subject matter, juxtaposing this with a resonant boom for the sole purpose of "waking up" the viewer.

We were intrigued by all the effects and typography used in this trailer as a result, and will certainly take this into consideration upon constructing our teaser.

We have also recognised the extent to which we can use these fonts for the website/posters/promotional material/etc. to keep the consistency of our marketing campaign in par with the psychological thriller theme.

Here examples of typography used in posters:

Other interesting fonts can be found here http://www.designworklife.com/?p=5798

New trailer directions

The group came to a discussion of the general direction of the new teaser trailer following the failure of the 1st trailer. We therefore decided to look for more ways to advertise our product in an ambiguous fashion we began looking for other ways to introduce the film and the characters without really giving away too much of the main story's information, and so we began researching into other trailers from blockbuster movies and how they went about keeping the ambiguity of their plot.

Inception is a US science thriller action heist film from 2010. Before the release of the movie the audience were given several trailers to maintain their interest in the film however the storyline is kept rather ambiguous, a key concept and what kept their fan base so strong. The trailer below depicts the main characters that the viewer will see when they watch the movie followed by what can only be assumed as their key scenes in relevance to the films plot which is then followed by an overview of the action that takes place throughout the film. This trailer is very effective as it gains the attention of the viewer through the action and the quick character introductions but at the same time it doesn't really explain the plot the film so the viewer leaves with something but nothing at the same time, this feeling is what makes the viewer want o see it for themselves, to find out what the film is really about and it is this feeling that we as a group intend to create with a aura of ambiguity surrounding the media project, maybe with a trailer similar to the one for Inception posted below.

Finished Product - Trailer

After many edits, the trailer has finally been finished. The new video was uploaded to Youtube like its predecessors and we will await audience feedback to see if the trailer is acceptable as a final task. If we and the audience who view the product on YouTube find it acceptable, we will post the link to this potential trailer on the top of the blog page alongside the other completed products.

Trailer review

After uploading our 1st draft trailer on YouTube to find out what people thought of it, we realised from the  mainly negative comments that there was far too much text in it preventing the attempt to build up of sense of suspension and instead seems to focus on storytelling through use of title sequence. We also noticed personally that the trailer only centres itself around only one particular scene/location making it quite dull and not really exploring the entirety of itself to the audience.

Taking in these comments about the trailer, we will attempt to edit it and incorporate a variety larger variety of scenes with a lot less words in-between cuts and are coinfident on producing something more practical and appriciative and instead of using the previous slow and progressivly styled track, we will be going with one with more energy.

In summary we intend to produce a trailer with;
- Less or no titles: We have learned from the feedback the overemphasis of storytelling through titles, the result of which bogs down the tension building.
- Fast paced: The track that we should use must have a steady and resonant structure.
- Storytelling: The most important element of a trailer is to put forward a story. When editing the film, we will replay it often to see if it tells a plot.

Examples of Marketing Campaigns...

Often more than not, films with lower budgets don't have the means to use more expensive marketing methods such as television advertising or billboard posters and rely primarily on word-of-mouth and websites.


Four Lions achieved box-office success as a result of Facebook. Facebook is recognized as a popular social networking site and is usually deemed as the most used social networking site in the world. The producers noticed this trend in films such as Lords of Dogtown and Gran Torino. The logic and mechanics of the social networking tactic follows an almost identical path to word-of-mouth. The logic is as follows: user 'A' (a member of the production team) creates the Facebook profile and informs 'B' and 'C' of the film and its profile. The friends of 'B' and 'C' inform their friends 'D', 'E' & 'F' that this Facebook exists and there are a number of activities to do on this site. 'D', 'E' & 'F' tell their friends of this profile and continue to spread the message on until it reaches heightened popularity. In essence, the user adds the profile for reasons such as they have seen the title and liked it considerably.


The Blair Witch Project, cited as the first film to use the internet as an advertising agency, pursued a different path. The film itself, shot entirely from amateur footage from film students, promises a promising premise. At the beginning, it informs the viewer that the following footage was filmed by three students who embark on a journey of unintentional psychological horror. This premise, was spread on the internet via fan sites, web boards, mailing lists, newsgroups, trailer sites and word of mouth about the film being based on true events, garnering interest from consumers alike. Finally, the film accumulated almost a quarter of a billion dollars and is branded as one of the most profitable films ever.


Paranormal Activity draws a strong resemblance to The Blair Witch Project, in shooting style and subject matter. For example, both films are shot with amateur film cameras and feature a 'paranormal' being present in the same vicinity. However, Paranormal Activity had a unique marketing campaign that relied primarily on the consumer's loyalty. The website "eventful.com", was used to launch a demanding service that allowed the user to demand where the film was set to be shown next. Paramount announced that the film will be distributed worldwide if it reached a million demands. It did so, and the film was screened worldwide. This low budget horror film made $6 million dollars before tax, budget costs, etc. this meant that a profit was made even before the film was screened. This type of marketing campaign, in essence, developed as a dedication to the film. The fan was assured the film was critically approved, by the number of reviews and stars posted on the home page. Thus, the consumer was subject to affirmation that they will see a good film, as well as become a contributor in the worldwide release.

1st draft teaser trailer

The 1st draft of the teaser was completed and uploaded to YouTube. The clips of the film were imported from the hard drive and edited on Adobe Premier instead of iMovie like we had originally intended. Using the footage we captured over the past few lessons stemming from inspiration from trailers of films we researched during our planning stage we believe that we have successfully produced a trailer of 2:31.

 We will wait to see what sort of comments the trailer receives and edit it were necessary .
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Youtube account

We created a Youtube account which is a video sharing website which anyone with an account can upload clips. Many films have their own youtube channel to spread teaser trailers / directors comments or interviews with characters. Our youtube channel will be used to upload the trailer and can be interlinked with Twitter & Facebook so each person on these platforms will have access to view the videos we upload. We can also embed the video onto our film website.
Youtube is good to create a buzz around a film, and has been used many times before, for example
http://www.youtube.com/user/WarnerBrosPictures ( contains many of their productions )
or more specifically , an actual channel just for the movie http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottPilgrimTheMovie - which contains trailers and supplementary material for fans.

The reasons why we chose to upload our trailer to YouTube varied. For one, YouTube is attributed to be one of the single most important website on the internet, garnering at least 1 billion views a day. This type of site traffic measurement fuels aspiring artists who wish to attain some form of fame. A key example is Fede Álvarez's Ataque de Pánico! The short film comprises of an invasion of robots in a city in Uruguay. The official production budget of the film was given as only $300. In addition to writing, editing and directing the film, Álvarez created the visual effects based on computer generated imagery. The success has lead him on to more prestigious projects, working with director Sam Raimi (Evil Dead series, Spiderman films) who has hired Fede to work on several projects with him.
Another reason why we chose YouTube is, unlike other video uploading websites, there are several options for the user to interact with the video. A tool that YouTube has pioneered in recently which has proved successful amongst YouTube users is the 'like/dislike' button. Users are given the opportunity to express their satisfaction/dissatisfaction towards a particular video. This would prove useful for our evaluation section regarding audience feedback. Another addition is the comment feature. Again, users are able to express their opinions more openly as opposed to the 'like/dislike' button, giving us more in-depth knowledge about what can be improved in our trailer.

Soundtrack choice...

Whilst we browsed for what seemed like hours searching for the right music for our trailer we found two tracks similarly styled tracks that caught our attention, it can be said that these two tracks are most likely to be royalty-free. I made this induction on the basis that, the majority of royalty-free tracks lack vocals or lyrics, which these two tracks possess. Secondly, royalty-free tracks are very simple in style, in that they contain several notes or rhythms and are looped to save time and money. Again, these two tracks possess this quality.However just to be sure we will attempt to get in contact with the copyright owner(s0 to ask for their permission to use their music soundtrack

Royalty-free tracks are used in low budget films to conserve money, as is the case for this film. So when it is released on a global level, a viewer will hear the track and would recognise this as low budget, due to the unfamiliar nature or stereotypical nature of the track.

Unfortunately, we have already found two tracks that would accommodate the trailer. Unfortunately, these aren't royalty-free and are released commercially. One has vocals, the other doesn't. Both are found in British films.



The first track which appears prominently in the British gangster film Snatch, is Angel by Massive Attack. This track stood out in the film so we have added it to the track list of potential tracks that we might use in the creation of the  trailer.

The reason why this was because of its progressive nature. It starts merely as a drum beat then evolves into something emotional. This was used effectively in Snatch (2000). The track suddenly changes tone and the scene switches to a more morbid one. This tone would be perfect for the trailer because we want to put across the volatile atmosphere of the film effectively to the audience and this track does so as demonstrated by Snatch.



The second track is a less prominent one. Used famously in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, and then used later as a homage in Matthew Vaughan's Kick-Ass, it's called In the House - In a Heartbeat. The track is similar to Angel, in that it's progressive. It begins with a piano playing no more than three notes, then develops four minutes later into a metal tune. This track will also be added to the list of potential tracks that we may use  because of how it emphasises on the slow, almost tangible essence of eradication consistant with our thriller genre.



A main reason why we have chosen these tracks is because the royalty-free tracks are difficult to work with at an amateur level and are arduous to obtain. Since it maintains a constant and unchangeable tone, we however want it to develop into a disaster so it links in with the overall attitude this film dictates.

The big twist...

Initially, we believed  iMovie to be the most convenient video editing software for non-professionals. This is because iMovie asks to import all the necessary footage used to edit the film on to the hard drive of the Mac. This means that you can save time and there is less hassle with bothering with wires and connection plugs, because all the footage is already there on the Mac ready to be compiled together so you don't need to worry about bringing the camera.

However, today, another group encountered a problem whilst using the programme. They have shot hours of footage on their camera and imported all the necessary footage on to the Mac, only to realise the hard drive of the Mac is limited to 30-35GB. The camera itself holds 120GB of data and they've used a substantial portion of its hard drive. All morning, they've been trying to free up as much space on the Mac's hard drive to import more footage, but it still refuses anymore data and they're currently stuck.

Apparently, Final Cut Pro has the same approach to iMovie, in that it asks for footage to be imported straight to the hard drive.

The solution to this problem was a simple one. It was recommended that we use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 because it uses a distinctive import method. Rather than importing the whole thing, it only requires the image. This means, that it only grabs the necessary elements of the data, and acts as a link. The source of the video clip needs to be connected to the Mac at all times. This saves so much time and hard drive space, it is virtually hassle-free meaning I won't have to worry about trying to import more than 500GB of footage on a 30-35GB Mac hard drive.

Although it is hassle-free per se, this does pose one problem. The hard drive has to be connected at all times, even when editing. Therefore we have scrapped our plan of action because since we are unable to put it into practise and all the initial ideas will be executed on Premier Pro, making it the first time any of us have used a  professional video editing software.

Trailer creation...

We were assigned to compose a teaser trailer from scratch to accompany our ancillary tasks trailers. We will be editing footage shot from our project. We will be using the following software to edit what we shoot:


iMovie is an amateur video editing software designed for home use and beginners in film editing. It involves a user friendly interface and incorporates simple yet effective elements of video editing such as clip trimming and vivid titles.
We are going to use iMovie as a base for the trailer plan and creation. We will be briefly storyboarding an idea on paper then using iMovie to see if it is possible.
The problem with iMovie, is that the footage shot from the camera will be compromised and reduced from the actual picture quality. This will, in effect, provide a grainy picture and a reduction of clarity.


Final Cut Pro is a professional video editing software designed for industrial use in professional films. Numerous mainstream films have been manufactured using Final Cut Pro such as Zodiac and Burn After Reading due to its non-linear interface. For example, in the photo above, note the number of video slots and audio slots. Clips can be imported in any of the slots in par with the other slots of the audio thereby allowing room for experimentation.
When we're content on the result of the finished product, we will attempt to develop the trailer on Final Cut Pro. The concluding difference of the product in comparison to iMovie is that firstly, the clip will actually look polished. Whereas iMovie will have pixels visible, Final Cut Pro can automatically identify the resolution. Thus, a note of professionalism. Secondly, we can use the audio provided by the sound department as opposed using the camera's sound. Finally, the titles can be edited, in contrast to the limited selection of titles that is connected with iMovie.


Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional video editing software that doesn't differ much from Final Cut Pro, except from the fact that this software is based on real-time editing software. In contrast with Final Cut Pro's several audio and video slots, Premiere Pro has one of each.
 Premiere Pro is notable with its user interface, in that it displays different tools in different areas of the programme. It is clear and concise, as opposed to using professional terminology used by Final Cut Pro that perplexes various users. For this specific reason, we are perhaps more inclined to use Premiere Pro to create our teaser trailer as we would prefer to avoid being confused from professional vocabulary.

Bloody scene

Today we filmed the last scene of our teaser trailer; scene with the fake blood, this was and most probably will be by far the most adventurous and time consuming scene that we attempt as we only had 1 and a half hours to shoot and clean up before the next class came into the room. This scene involved our helpful teacher from the previous day of shooting to lie down in the sticky mix for a long period of time as we shot around him from a wide selection of angles with numerous characters in view at different times. We used such a large range of shot as we were unsure which one would make it into the trailer and we due to the mess it made, the irreversible staining to clothing and the difficulty it took in cleaning the room afterwards it would be impractical to do again.

Prior to the filming of this scene we found and tested the recipe we found on-line as to not waste time finding the right consistency when mixing and the overall effectiveness of the mixture (how similar it looked like real blood in the camera). We found the recipe that we used at www.wikihow.com with it consisting of;

• 97% Golden syrup
• 2% Corn folour
• 1.7% Red food colouring
• 0.3% Blue food colouring

We also found found out hat by adding milk chocolate drink powder to the mix gave it a more solid look and fell to to it.

Our cooperative teacher lying in a pool of fake blood

Filming scenes in the dark

After sifiting through the last lessons scenes we began filming the next stage of the filming moving on from the gemeric classroom enviroment seeting and moving onwards with the purpose of today to build up tension and create and portray a feeling of helplessness and to do this we started filming in the dark.

Filming in the dark has always been an effective way ofconvey suspense disillusion brings audience state of confusioin, used in suceesful blockbuster movies such as Saw, Darkness Falls and Silent Hill 
we used one distant light to produce a sort of natural light for the scene in the dark, we also covered the lights on the ceiling and covered the windows as the light outside was too harsh. Because of the time it took to prepare the room to use the for the scenes we could only use film two characters for the scene however we are happy with the footage we collected today.
The next day we hope to have finished filming all the footage that we need for the trailer and, hopefully we should begin the editting of the first draft in two days time.

First day of filming

With the our prior extensive research into teaser trailers and with our storyboard formed outlining what we roughly wanted to produce with this trailer, we began filming. We began shooting our first scene located in the science block spanning over 3 periods; one in the morning and two after break with the  media studies new Canon 600D SLR. We started of filming the students learning in a classroom environment taught by the enigmatic teacher; for which we used a teacher who leant us some of their time during their free lessons.

The basic outline of the trailer has differed from the original plan on the storyboard this is because we thought that the new plan followed more closely with current thriller trailers. So today we filmed the students at work capturing the interactions between them with a variety of different shots and angles, we will use what we caught on film today to contrast with the interactions between them whilst feel threatened later on in the trailer which we will use to build tension. From today's filming we have roughly caught about 25% of the trailer, after sifting through the footage and deciding what we will use and what we cannot, we will begin shooting again.

Mise en Scene Blood?!

In our trailer we spoke over and thought one of our scenes would benefit from including blood. We decided not to over-do the trailer with gore as it would put off the feel & ideals we were trying to portray. We thought we would be tasteful with the use of blood, and by doing so will leave people looking for more , for the reason the blood was there. We decided according to our story board which scene would be most appropriate to include blood and we decided to place it in a scene where the teacher is at dismay / is attacked. We researched and practiced various ways of including blood in the most realistic way. We came across various techniques , we had the choice of either digitally adding the blood ,or actually have it in the scene. We decided to do it by adding a theatrical fake blood mix from a costume shop, as it would seem more realistic. We applied this to the character around the floor &  back of the head, this is the scene which includes the person laying down face up.

 

Mise en Scene Costume

After casting the roles of the characters the next step would be their clothing. We felt that their costume for the trailer would need to be comprising of average clothes that a regular college/sixth form student would wear. We felt we needed to stray away from stereotyping characters within our piece because it would give our piece more authenticity. The teacher would wear just a shirt and not over dress for such a casual role.

An example of what is now casual sixth form clothing can be seen below, Michael (left) was allocated a role in our teaser trailer and would dress similar to how he is in the picture during the filming process

 

Mise en Scene planning - Setting

During the stage of planning we were discussing where we were going to shoot the various scenes we had planned for our teaser trailer. Seeing as the plot is based around a school environment, we simply had to choose where in the school would be appropriate. For ideas on mise en scene and how to utilize objects within the frame properly & setting , we looked at how various other directors have adapted mise en scene within their teaser trailers. We wish to give enough away about the school so viewers can relate , however we wish to keep a part of it ambiguous so there is suspense within the viewers ,making them want to see more and that it's not just an average film in a based within school.

An example of what we looked at was the theatrical trailer for The Faculty, it is a film based within a college using mise en scene for the users to be able to relate to but still have a horror feel to. This was achieved by fast cuts , making it gripping & exhilarating.However it kept true to it's general scenery of school , it attempted to make it obvious that the school was the setting. So we decided not to try and stray away / hide the fact we were in a school ,however utilise this and convey it in a way that no one normally views it. This way we still hit our target market of teenagers, yet with a fresh outlook.

We went around and took images of where we plan to film for reference, these below were the places around the school that we originally planned to shoot at for the teaser trailer.

 

We later chose to limit the scenes to strictly the science room and the gymnasium as these were mostly available at the time and these were appropriate for the shots we wanted to get. These also conveyed more appropriately the school "feel"

Casting and characters

When selecting the cast that were to use to portray the characters for the teaser trailer, we sought out an assortment of different individuals within our social groups and our school that we thought gave off an 'ordinary school student' presence, however still able to present us with a sense of an individualism in personality that the audience could relate to that we hoped got through during the short duration of the trailer. When selectinig the cast, we aimed at making it as diverse as possible in terms of both gender and race, this way, the audience could at least relate to one of the characters being shown. During the shooting of the scenes we also attempted to steer away from obvious stereotypes in character persona's, and trying to give the characters ,ore of a unique personality as opposed to cliché d ones e.g. the urban black youth with a troubled family background.

For the trailer to be successful, the selection of the right characters was crucial. We as a group believe this because; if the audience couldn't make a connection between them during the 2 minute of the trailer it decreases the likelihood of them maintaining an interest in the media product.

The storyboard method...

With the general plot of the trailer and what we want to give away established we set out to storyboard what we wanted to capture on film. Knowing what we went the viewer to see makes shooting and drawing up a storyboard much easier as teaser trailers are not necessarily linear and therefore may mean that we will be shooting totally unrelated clips at the time, however when put into the sequence of the teaser trailer will then begin to make sense.

In an attempt to keep everything organised we decided to involve several themes;
1. Red Herrings - This film involves a plot twist, so it is perhaps ideal to mislead the viewer. Strictly speaking, not to blame other characters, but to divert attention to events.

Above is the first idea that has been drawn up.

Even though we have decided on a rough outline of the film as a whole in which the teaser trailer is supposed to represent, we purposely did not give the storyboard a plot. This was because, by hiding information from the viewers, it makes them want to see more. This is the foundation of any teaser trailer, hide important plot points from the viewers and this will increase the likeliness of them seeing it because humans are naturally curious. And since humans are naturally curious, they'll perhaps go see this film in regard to the teaser trailer they saw.

We chose this route of ambiguity concerning the teaser mainly because of one trailer in particular; the new Star Trek picture had a peculiar teaser and consisted of a construction site with construction workers constructing a UFO. That was essentially it, and this roused suspicion amongst the other media students and they wanted to learn more about the film. Luckily, our teacher already had the actual trailer at hand.




The difference between the teaser trailer and the final trailer was vast. One came across as still in the process of perfecting the film, and the other did everything it could to get the message across that this film is packed with CGI, sex, violence, sci-fi, effective editing, etc.

Another teaser trailer that had intrigued us was I, Robot. This teaser uses the total immersion effect meaning, that this trailer does its best to immerse the viewer into the world of the film. The advert consists of a robot being advertised as the answer to the future, and the viewer should consider purchasing one. This form of post modern media has absolutely nothing to do with the film's plot and instead masquerades as an advertisement for a product instead. I believe the total immersion effect is very useful, because it allows the viewer a brief insight into a different world. Another way of looking at it is, that it is another interacting method for viewers who aspire to engage in the activities of a utopian future.

The reason why we as a group supported this tactic is because of the factor of human curiosity. People innately desire knowledge of something and would most likely strive to obtain it by any means necessary. So the fact that I have a problem on paper, and lack the solution on paper influences the regular consumer to go to the cinema and watch this film.

Analysis

While searching for teaser trailers we found another A2 student who uploaded a detailed analysis of the inception teaser trailer on Youtube. This will be of help to our group as it breaks down the main aspects of the trailer and what the creater of the trailer is trying to convey with each scene / item that is placed in the trailer. Youtube also has an array of help for media A2 students and examples of other peoples pieces of work.

Teaser trailers

During our lessons our group has been given the opportunity to view various teaser trailers to films. As part of our brief we are required to put together a teaser trailer. As we have seen there are many ways in which this can be completed and the main problem we have is how to execute this without it just being a common run of the mill trailer. We looked at various ways trailers were put together and started picking out things we like from each one, inspiration that we could use and build on for our own . We wish to make it impacting and different. To get the same coverage as a normal trailer would, but with a twist so people remember it.

I will post here some teaser trailers that our group feels encompasses what our project would like to aim towards.

Inception teaser trailer, plays with perception in the mind, gives clues throughout on the films plot but doesn't give away too much.

Paranormal activity 2 , Gives away little about the plot of the film, fast paced cuts for shock.

This is one of the favourites, goes against many teaser trailer conventions, gives away little to none about plot, has no footage from the film, but just distinct voice overs, which fans of batman will be able to tell the characters apart. This makes it stand out from other teaser trailers and we should take into consideration how to make ours stand out as much as this. However, for scemeta we cannot take the same direction that the Dark Knight trailer did as we are lacking the fan base that they had before the release of the film.