Evaluation

Please click the clink to be taken to my Wix website where I have hosted all my answers to the evaluation questions.

http://bethanyryalls97.wix.com/bethanyryallsmedia

Finished Product - Website Homepage

http://bethanyryalls97.wix.com/the-expedition

Please click on the link above to be taken to my final and finished website homepage as one of my ancillary tasks.


Note to the examiner - The layout of my website is structured and therefore appears different on different formats. I designed my website on a regular laptop at home rather than an Apple Mac and the site appears different on each computer because of the screen sizes. Therefore on a Mac, the site has a lot of extra space down the sides however, when on a regular computer/laptop it shows that I have built the site right to the edge.

Final Product - Film Poster

Finished Product - Film Trailer 'The Expedition'

Website Homepage Finished Product - Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback - What did you like about my website homepage and did it conform to the drama genre?

• "The title on the website stands out well, the white against the black background works and gives it a strong effect."
• "The name on the site matches the style of the name on the trailer and film poster."
• "I love the red 'cracks' that you've put in the 2 corners of the title, it adds something different and gives it a slightly eerie feel which then matches the narrative of a girl gone missing."
• "It looks like a really professional site. It has all the realistic features you would expect to see such as the menu, the sign up option and the social media links."
• "The automatic gallery is a really good idea, I like how it moves on its own making the site look really interactive."

Anything I could improve on?

• "I preferred your original title where it had an eroded/splattered blood look." = My response to this - "I chose to change the title as it felt like a horror website rather than a drama."

Second Film Poster Draft

The first film poster I sent out got mixed reviews. Despite the positives, there were a lot of things that I could improve on. I took this constructive criticism and changed the elements that I felt necessary.

• The first change I made was changing the date from a numerical format to, 'Coming Soon', I felt it looked more visually appealing than the number.
• Secondly, I moved the text higher up to give the poster a more spacious look and feel. The text 'From the director of...' I moved up slightly so that it came into contact with the sun ray on the main image. I liked the reflective effect that it gave the text.
• I then added a tagline. This is a common convention of film posters and I didn't consider it before now. I added this to give the audience more of a feeling as to what the narrative was about and felt it acted as a good 'hint'. I made this in a different font because I wanted the audience to be able to tell that this text was a tagline and so served a different purpose than the other text. On top of this, I changed the opacity of the tagline to give it a fading out effect. I did this as I felt is further emphasised the mysteriousness and also showed off more of my technical abilities.

Film Trailer Finished Product - Audience Feedback

Target Audience Feedback at the first screening of my trailer; 

• "You got the feeling that it was a drama just from the first 10 seconds in, clear representation and conformation to the genre style."
• "Had an emotional feel to it that made you get engulfed into the trailer and feel like you were apart of it, you felt like you were in the trailer and the tense yet soft music helped draw you in."
• "The music suited the footage and made it flow really easily, it was lovely to watch."
• "I connected to the character straight away, it was clear he was looking for the girl on the missing persons poster, and because it wasn't clear what relation he has with the girl it makes me really eager to see the actual film to find out what happens."
• "The film reviews that were included from magazines and newspapers made it feel like a real trailer - it also matches the style of the website homepage because that has reviews on it as well"
• "You clearly kept the continuity to a high level for all 3 products, you have made their similarities really clear"
• "I found it very realistic and there was nothing far-fetched in it, really dramatic"
• "The editing was smooth and there were no jumps that ruined the flow of it. The fade-in-fade-out transitions really worked"
• "I liked the quote from another director, gave it a realistic feel"
• "It looked like a real trailer, the text bits in between all used the same black background and white font which made it have an organised and professional feel"

Film Poster Finished Product - Audience Feedback

Positive Feedback 

• The simplistic style gives it a really mysterious feel but also gives the impression that it's a really emotional film. 
• I love the background image of the sun coming through the trees. It gives the poster a calm feel and once you watch the trailer you can see that they suit each other in terms of keeping the continuity going. 
• I like the plain, simple writing, it looks almost elegant. It matches the style of your trailer and the website homepage.
• Seeing the film poster would encourage me to go and watch the trailer because it doesn't give a lot of way and makes you instantly want to know more as it has a really professional and stylish look.
• The name, 'The Expedition', really suits the background image of the poster and it gets you thinking straight away what the film could be about. Also once you watch the trailer you can see why you have used the woodland image as the background to the poster.
• The colours on the page go really well with the colours of the main image. 

Anything I could improve on?

• Maybe you could have put a picture of the main character on the poster 
• You could have used a picture of the tree with the missing persons poster on it to maybe give away some of the narrative.

Website Homepage Draft - 3rd Attempt & Improvements

 Here is my 3rd draft of my website homepage. I have only uploaded the one picture below as this is the only change that has taken place. I worked on my audience feedback that I received in my last draft post and took my audience's advice on changing the title on my website to match the font and style in my trailer. I accepted this constructive criticism because I agreed that I needed to keep the continuity between my website and trailer. I am also planning to have the same font on my film poster.

The only thing I need to do to finish my website now is to add my trailer and get rid of my white template box so that I can upload the finished product.

First Film Poster Draft & Audience Feedback

Good Feedback

• I like the simplicity of it, it works with the drama genre really well.
• The title matches with the one used on the website and the trailer.
• It has a a really good eerie and mysterious feel to it.
• It conforms really well to the genre and looks apart of the whole set of products you have created.

Constructive Criticism 

• Maybe consider adding a picture of the main character on.
• You could have some of the text different colours.
• I think you should reconsider the fonts to make it and bit less repetitive
• The date could be better by saying 'Coming Soon' rather than a numerical format.

Ancillary Task Production - Website Homepage 2nd Draft & Improvements

2nd Draft 

In my previous post, I received audience feedback on my first draft of my website homepage. I took on board the comments I was given and spent a lot of time learning my way around the site even more so I had a more advanced understanding of what I was able to do with my design. This extra time I spent exploring, allowed me to discover so many other design elements that I could use.

I took my target audiences advice on reconsidering the placement on the page and rearranged it all to give it an organised, clean look and feel. Again, I used the white box as a template to show where my trailer will be embedded on the website. I used this a the focus point as obviously the site is acting as further promotion for my film trailer and so I wanted to make the trailer the main object on the screen and fit everything else around it.

From my research, I saw that some websites had reviews from magazines and newspapers. I thought I would add this element to my website as positive views reinforce the idea that the film is worth going to see and therefore the reviews I used would build up a positive influence on potential viewers if it were a real working website for a film. Overall I believe the reviews give it a realistic look.

Consequently, I kept the main colours white and red for the text. I kept these 2 main colours rather than using a large variety of different ones because I wanted to maintain the continuity throughout the page. The white and red stand out well on the black background and makes every element stand out and draw attention.

Ancillary Task Production - Website Homepage 1st Draft & Audience Feedback

Here is the my first draft of my website homepage - one of my ancillary tasks. For this brief, I have to create a website homepage which caters as a site for my main production - my trailer. Therefore, I needed to focus on maintaining continuity with the two products as well as being creative to make my site of a high standard and look visually pleasing for my target audience. 

I decided to use a wesbite called, Wix.com, a free and easy to use site which acts as a platform for you to then create your own website for whatever purpose. They had a range of existing templates for me to use, although, I started from scratch as I knew in my mind, exactly how I wanted my website to look.  

*The lines on the picture below are from the editing mode on the site, they will not show once the site has been finished*

As part of the mark scheme for my website homepage brief, I needed to show evidence of moving image on my site. This will be easy enough to do as I can simply embed and feature my trailer on the sites homepage for visitors to play. However, I haven't finished my trailer and so I created a white box to act as a template as to where my trailer will be placed once I have finished it. I also created four further template boxes where I plan on showing some stills from my trailer. 

From my research on existing website homepages for films, I found that they all varied and there was no set, conventional style on what layout to use. So, I went out and gathered some opinions from my target audience so that I could use this feedback and consider it when planning my designs. All 10 of my audience participants agreed that they would expect to find the name of the film at the top of the site to make it clear what that the site is advertising and promoting. Therefore, once I had created my banner I placed it directly at the top of the page and chose a large font to make visibility clear and precise. When creating my banner, I chose to make the 'X' red as it added a unique and creative flair to the site as soon as you looked at it. I also added two 'crack-like- effects in the corners in the same colour to make the name appear more mysterious and eerie. I found that that the white text worked well as the title then stood out against the harsh contrast of the black background. 

Moreover, I added a countdown where I selected a random date to act as the release date for my film. It is something I hadn't previously seen on any other film sites. When I asked my audiences opinion on the countdown, once again, all 10 said they liked the feature as it would build up their excitement to see the film more and also reinforces the release date even more to make people aware. 

I added a few more gadgets to the site to improve the sites social media links as every site that I analysed seemed to focus heavily on trying to get their audiences to engage with their film through their social media accounts.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK 

• Consider adding a few more page names to the menu
• Have the trailer bigger than the images next to it 
• Rearrange gadgets because some of the site looks a lot bare. 

MY RESPONSE 

I agree with all three of the main criticisms of my work and will go back to my website and follow all the advice I've been given.

Typography for Film Poster & Audience Feedback

To be able to successfully create my film poster I will need to select appropriate fonts that will help convey my genre to the viewers. To help me find the right fonts and texts that I am looking for I am going to be using a website called DaFont - a student friendly site which allows you to download different font styles which you can then download into Photoshop.

I searched through various different fonts and narrowed it down to a selective list that I like. I need the name of my film to stand out against the background of my poster and make it easy for readers to see it and identify it as the title of the film. To achieve this I felt selecting fonts that had a bold and chunkier look to them was best as these were visually easier to see. I also liked a few which had an interesting design element to them that would match my trailers narrative so I added these to my list as well.

I combined the fonts I liked into a list and then I asked a group from my target audience to give me feedback. Gathering a lot of audience feedback on my decisions is important because I want to know that I am designing something that appeals to them and be aware of how successful I am at targeting my desired audience.

From researching drama film posters, I saw that the fonts used varied in their style. Some had a calligraphy feel to them with the text being italics, whereas others used basic ones that had a sharp, stylish feel. I wanted to select a few different fonts to see which style my target audience preferred.

All these differ in style, boldness e.c.t as I wanted to see which my audience felt would be best for my narrative.

The first 3 fonts are basic sans serif, many of these types appear on film posters for dramas as the simple fonts reflect the realistic nature of the films narrative. My target audience group consisted of 10 members (male and female).

The fourth font, I found more unconventional but still a good choice as it has a slight effect on it, making it look faded/eroded. I felt this was a relevant to my narrative as it fits in with my woodland location vibe that I have in my trailer.

The final font is my least favourite as I don't feel that it conforms to the genre very well. However, I wanted to make it an option to see if my target audience recognised this. Below is my survey that I sent out, I named the fonts after the order that they appear on this post, e.g. - font 1, font 2 e.c.t.

As you can see, font 3 and 4 both received 3 votes. The most popular font was number 2 with 4 votes. This survey has proven that my target audience seem to prefer the most conventional, drama-type font. I am not going to use this font in particular, I am going to explore the different options I have to use this type of font on my poster.

Film Poster Planning - Ideas

Since I am in the midst of planning my film poster, I have been mentally planning out how it could look and what would best represent my film trailer on a print production. 

Whilst watching a film trailer in my spare time at the weekend, I came across this which acted as inspiration. I had the idea to create something very similar to feature on my film poster as it would be a different way of showing companies rather than just typing their names. 

March Action Plan (for 2nd March - 6th March)

• Make title for trailer
• Add trailer to website homepage
• Add images to website homepage
• Finish main image editing on Photoshop for film poster
• Add green audience classification to trailer
• Add header to website homepage
• Add background and edit it for film poster

Key


Red highlight - Not finished
Amber highlight - Nearly finished
Green highlight - Finished


As the deadline is approaching, I made a list of tasks that I need to complete to ensure that I achieve all my work to a good standard and meet the deadline. I have shown the list above of the critical tasks that I needed to get done this week. I have highlighted them according to the key above also, to show where I am with each of them.

Existing Wesbite Homepages - Jessabelle, Horror Genre

I was unable to screenshot of this website and so have included the link to it so that you are able to view it: http://www.jessabellethemovie.com/

Interactivity- The main homepage that you first see on the site advertises their links to social media to able audiences to share their views on the film. On their page button options one of them is dedicated as a link to their official twitter page which allows audiences a certain amount of interaction with the film such as tagging them in their tweets when they write a review or showing it to their friends e.c.t. This is good for the film itself as they can follow and track what people are saying about the film. An unconventional social media app they also advertise is their Snapchat account. This is unusual for a film as Snapchat does not really offer much apart from them being able to update audiences with pictures and videos to do with the film. However, even though it is unusual, this is what will make audiences add the account because some may want the extra 'thrill' of being sent scary videos and photos unexpectedly.


The site also gives people the chance to turn the audio on and off as they realise that their audiences will have different preferences. Moreover, they offer the option to register for updates on the film and upcoming ones from Warner Bros. Overall, the site has high interactivity levels for their audience to maximise their potential viewers.


Content - Furthermore, the site features a regular dropdown menu for uses to navigate their way around the site. These buttons are in white so they stand out clearly against the dark, ambient background. The menu is positioned in the centre of the page and this, along with everything else on the site is positioned closer to the bottom of the page. Everything fits underneath the sites title. The title is positioned in the centre of the page in a larger font to everything else - this ensures that it is the first thing that people see when they get onto the site. The typography of the title is a continuous thing as it is the exact same font that they have on their film trailer and posters. Subsequently, directly above the menu options is a large play button to allow people to watch the trailer straight away. This button is also a white colour and so follows the theme of white contrasting with the dark and eerie background that they show. The background- which also acts as the sites main image - is one taken from the film and so it carries on the genres conventions. The skull amongst the dark colours strengthen the genre codes and don't let the audience forget that the films genre is horror. Although, this image isn't actually a still, it is a gif and so it moves in the background. This gives the site a better and more professional feel as it is more complex than what a lot of film website homepages have.


Overall, the multi-media is limited on the homepage, however it has links to pages such as the gallery which ranges of media to allow viewers to flick backwards and forwards through images and save them if they want. It also manages to keep linking back to the film as it features the main female protagonist from the film. Consequently, it also manages to show the Shows that it’s a part of ‘Lionsgate Horror’ which is highly credited and recognised by many people. This can heighten peoples need to see the film as they can see that it is a big production that has a lot going for it as opposed to a ammeter indie film that appears at a film festival.

Existing Website Homepage

Props for filming

I don't need many props for my trailer, the main one only being the missing poster that features at the beginning. Here is the missing poster that I created. I have printed off 10 copies so that I can re-film these scenes more than once if needed to. This poster will feature in the trailer twice, once when we see it against a tree and then again when it appears on the ground. This prop will help aid the narrative along by foreshadowing the films deeper meaning that the audience would not fully understand unless they went to see the film once it's released.

Film Poster Analysis #1 - My Sisters Keeper

I am going to analyse 3 film posters that are of a drama genre. This research will help assist me when making decisions for my own poster as I will have learnt what conventions I need to include to conform correctly whilst making my poster to the highest standard possible.

Main image - features three people, who from the trailer, you know are the mother and her two daughters. The third daughter who is revealed to be suffering from terminal cancer in the trailer, is shown to be below her mum and sister as she is placed in the bottom right-hand corner. The mother and youngest daughter are sat next to each other smiling which gives the impression that their picture is from a different time to the other. This gives me the idea that I could have a picture of my main actor, Joe, in one area of my poster and then have the picture off of my missing persons poster integrated on another area to show that they are linked.

The typography is basic and so is successful in not cluttering up the main images. The white works well in keeping a calm atmosphere which the light blues help reinforce. The written text is an element I need to take into consideration for my poster. They have along the top 'From the director of 'the notebook'. The Notebook is a well-know, successful romance film and so people are likely to go and see it if it has hosted the same director. Following this they have the actors names, the films name in the biggest font to make it stand out to the rest, and then the release date and company production credits. 

Shooting Day 1

The first day of shooting was relatively successful, however, there were several areas that need to be improved through a second shooting day. Firstly,  I was unable to attain all of my footage. Once I obtained my footage I watched each of the clips back to decide which ones were good enough to be used in my final trailer. One of the main issues I had whilst filming was that there were some issues with the tripod which led to me not being able to use it. Despite this, I attempted all the scenes anyway as I thought it was good practice even if I couldn't use them in the end. Therefore, I am going to arrange a second shooting day where I can go and re-film the scenes that I needed a tripod for. This will ensure my work is up to a high standard as I am abolishing any shaky and unsteady shots as the mark scheme clearly states that a grade is affected by the smoothness of footage.

I used the website https://en.todoist.com/ to create an online calendar to help me keep organised with what my action plan is for my coursework. 

Location Planning - Changes to Setting & Hazard Assessment *Need to add assessment

During the planning and drafting of my trailer storyboards I had a change of heart about the location I had previously chosen. Although there is nothing substantially wrong with the place I was originally going to film, I felt that there would be more opportunities if I were to go further afield to another location that I know. This area has a lot more ground and is full of open and closed spaces, woodlands and paths, all of which will allow me more leeway whilst capturing my footage as I have a choice of different areas to film various scenes.
Whilst on a recent visit to the location I decided to take some pictures to place on my blog to show why I changed and developed my ideas on where to film. Below are a few photos I took from my library after I had travelled to the location to carry out some healthy and safety checks.

I took the decision to carry out a hazard assessment of the area before the filming day occurred and I brought my main actor, Joe, with me to test a few things. I made Joe wear the costume and clothing that I chose for him to wear in my actual trailer because I wanted to make sure the costume was suitable for the new environment. We also walked a far distance and over various terrains to check the footwear e.c.t was durable. After spending 2 hours at the location I was able to build further upon my organisational skills by writing down each different location that was available to me in this area and then writing which scenes I would film there. I did this to make my first filming day run more smoothly. 

Below I have uploaded the hazard assessment which I took whilst out. 

Script

The concept for my trailer doesn't involve much dialogue from my main actor, Joe. There are a few words and sentences from him that I might incorporate into the final trailer but apart from that, the main speech involved is from the voice over used in the beginning. Whilst in a planning session with Joe, he said it would be helpful if he had some notes for him to have on the filming days so he could remember what he has to do in each scene rather than me having to repeat myself over again in between takes. Therefore, I decided to devise a short script for him to refer to in his breaks during filming, the script just consists of very brief, understandable notes that simply tell Joe what he needs to do besides what I tell him such as when to look in a certain direction and when to change position e.c.t. This will help the shooting and filming days run much more smoothly. I only devised notes for a few of the scenes as Joe didn't need help with all of them and so this script is just a quick way of trying to help fine tune his acting so we get the shots rights.

1. 

Naming the film trailer

A critical stage in my planning is to decide on a name for my film trailer. The name I choose for my trailer should be consistent to what I show in my footage to allow my target audience to understand the concept better. A trailer usually features a title which is linked to a significant part in the film or a particular scene and as the audience cannot understand the films name fully until they see it in it's entirety, it builds up their eagerness to see it. Moreover, as my trailer can be perceived as a hybrid between the thriller and horror genre, personally I believe it is more of a psychological thriller through the idea of a supernatural element that has been brought in  I wanted the name to add a sense of mystery for my target audience and create a sense of the unknown which is a marketing technique often used by film institutions. From my earlier research, I discovered that thriller films tend to have a convention of featuring a relatively short title; it often makes the trailer look and the overall sound of the film appear more dramatic and tense.
As I have planned my draft storyboards I have a strong idea of what I want my trailer to contain although I have not yet finalized the order as many of my scenes are versatile and look good placed at several different times - this is something I am going to decide once I have placed my music to my footage.
After a brief thinking session I devised some potential names that I am going to get feedback on:

• The Expedition - This is my personal favourite as I believe it fits with my narrative perfectly. I created this name to focus on the aspect of the nature and the outdoors which will be featured throughout. I feel this name fits perfectly against my trailer seeing as the main character, Joe, is wondering through the outdoors on an expedition to find his sister. Moreover, the relevance is apparent right from the opening scene and so the audience will be able to link the title to what they are seeing on the screen.
• Hunted - A less relevant title however it is more conventional to the thriller and horror genres - the two groups that my trailer is a hybrid of. The connotations of the name hunted is also apparent in the narrative of the trailer given that Joe's sister is after him and therefore you could simply compare this against the name and say that she is essentially 'hunting' him down.
• Hidden - This is a less artistic approach to naming my trailer as there is no direct scenes showing Joe hiding from anything.
• The Uninvited - This name is a good example of a title that would suit my hybrid genre as it fits nicely with the supernatural feel that is included within my narrative.
• Run - A short and straightforward name that is highly conventional of the horror genre. The shortness makes it a sharp name adding a more serious one to the trailer.

I gathered and interviewed a small selection of people whom are involved within my target audience to get some quick but useful feedback on which name they liked best. I will take these results into careful consideration when I decide on my final name. The scores are below.


The Expedition - 7 votes
Hunted - 3 votes
Hidden - 5 votes
The uninvited - 5 votes
Run - 3 votes
Total - 20.

Film trailer shot list

Film trailers include a variety of shot types, most having a more used conventional shot depending on their genre. For example, a horror consists of several extreme close-ups and close-up shots to show specific objects or character facial expressions as it adds a more tense atmosphere. I decided it was essential that I devise my own shot list to take with me on my filming day alongside my storyboard, this way I have a clear vision of the scenes I need to film.

It was my aim this week to provide myself with a shot list before my filming date to allow me to have good strong resources to take with me so that I am able to be organised on the day. My shot list is displayed below.

The Age of Adaline

The Age of Adaline is an example of a more unconventional drama film trailer. I chose to analyse this as it keeps the elements of a drama within itself yet pushes them further to the unconventional side. The soul of the narrative is the fact that the main character, Adaline (Blake Lively), has an accident and after it she finds out that she can never grow any older. This challenges the norm of a drama, which focuses on real life, raw situations and stories. Although this narrative involves an unreal situation, it deals with it in a more than realistic way. For example, obviously everybody ages, but when Adaline finds out that she cannot they keep the film realistic by having her deal with it the way that most everyday and ordinary people would. There's intense situations, character development and a lot of emotion that makes the film a sensitive and emotional journey.I decided to analyse this particular trailer as it shows you can still conform to a drama genre yet still challenge certain conventions to make it slightly different.

Furthermore, he trailer hosts a voice over through the beginning of the trailer which explains the basic premise of the narrative. They show the critical bit to add to the audiences understanding, where the car tips into the river and the 'magic' is shown to hit her car. The atmosphere then dramatically changes when the music drops and a more light-hearted song begins. It also has the added sound effect of the ticking clock which appears at certain parts of the trailer to reinforce this idea of time.

Consequently, there are basic trailer conventions once again such as the green audience certification screen, the interlinked text and the credits at the end. The text scenes keep up the trailers continuity in terms to the story line, with a dark background and a flare of light. This type of continuity is something that I need to consider for my own trailer.

The Theory of Everything Trailer

The Theory of Everything is a 2014 dramatic film, telling the truth life story of Sir Stephen Hawking. I decided to analyse this trailer because I think it fits its genre well and I can learn a lot from it.

It features the common narrative conventions. The fact that they chose to base it on a true story, when dramas are usually about realistic situations anyway mean it conforms more than well to the conventions. The intense journey the character, Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne), goes through in the short amount of time we see on the trailer, allows the audience to see how riveting and emotions the film really is. The audience are able to experience an extremely serious series of events that take place, and many of these events will provoke a reaction of strong emotions such as sadness and shock.

The trailer features a mixture of close-up shots of the characters faces, in dramas this is a particularly important shot type as it emphasizes the emotion and reaction that the character is feeling. The particular scene in the trailer where they show Stephen fall switches the a close-up  where the camera is level with the ground. The effect this has is it shows Stephens head hit the floor with a hard impact which they want the audience to see as it's an important part of the story and it shows how serious and intense the situation really is.

Moreover, the sound has an upbeat feel  whilst having a classical sound to fit with the prestigious Cambridge setting. It shows the calm equilibrium against this music before it comes to a climax when the he hits his head. After this, this is when the serious and saddening parts of the film start to be shown - this a good technique to use in the trailer because it shows how much everything has changed. The next piece of music is a dramatic piece with a lot of percussion instruments. It reaches several climaxes which matches the strong scenes being shown.

Furthermore, aside from the genre and narrative specific conventions it also follows basic trailer form conventions. It opens on the audience certification green screen which I am planning to use in mine. It also features clips of texts with dramatic lines such as 'Life is everything' and 'Love is everything' - these strong words put emphasis on the message that they are trying to put across in the film and it adds more emotion to the trailer. The text that is shown is plain and white as they put the focus on the text background which they have set as a galaxy/space design, this conforms with the science side of the film. It also has this background when the reveal the name of the film at the end of the trailer and followed by the conventional credits.

Planning - Shooting Schedule & Equipment Organisation

I was due to start filming a little over 2 weeks ago although this was delayed due to weather conditions. This had led me to develop a new shooting schedule which is going to help give me a visual calendar as to what scenes I need to film when I go out. As my trailer is all outdoor shots, I will need to rely on the weather conditions for the plan to go ahead. I do not want bad weather such as strong winds, rain and snow to be in my film shots as this will detract a lot of the quality, as well as adding a different unwanted atmosphere to my narrative.


The date I have set to film some footage is February 2nd 2015 from 2:10pm until 4:30pm. I have prepared all the equipment that I will need as well as informing my actors to ensure that they are available. Prior to planning the filming date I checked the weather forecast which revealed that it would be good, dry weather conditions on my chosen day.


Equipment List

• DSLR Nikon Camera
• Tripod
• Storyboard
• Shot list

These are the only 2 equipment pieces that I will need to film the scenes that I am going to on this date, all of which I have acquired. I will also need to take with me my storyboard and shot list - these together will ensure I don't lose sight of what my trailer is about and make sure that I am able to gather all the correct shots. I have 3 of the above required except from a shot list and therefore it is my aim this week to produce one before my filming date. 

Drama Trailer Analysis's

Seeing as I have had a change in direction with my genre I feel it is appropriate for me to do some more researching into drama film trailers as up to now I have been looking at thrillers. By doing some analysis's on drama trailers it will ensure that I have more in-depth knowledge to ensure that I know what this genre entails and can follow this brief with my own trailer. I also want to show that I am making the effort to learn more about the genre I have changed to.

Therefore, I am going to analyse 2/3 drama trailers in my following posts.

Planning for film trailer - Casting

To start my filming I need to cast the characters that are needed. For my trailer, I want to make sure that the actor I choose is right for the part and can portray the character the way that I want him to be perceived. After careful thinking and consideration I have chosen, Joe Walker, a 17 year old who I feel will be good to play the role of my main character. The first step in the casting process is for me to ask him if they will agree to participate, which I did via text message:






Now that I have chosen my only character - due to the fact that I am using a one-man casting system all that I need to organise is what he shall wear. I made sure that the person I casted was within the age range I wanted which was 17-21 which means I can go ahead with the outfit planning which I had done earlier. I am not going to dress him out of the ordinary as he is supposed to be portrayed as your average young man in the scenes shown and I want to maintain this convention of him throughout. Due to his age he already has a suitable wardrobe that matches the characters description that I have devised so costumes have already been sorted.

My Narrative

As my genre has changed from a thriller to a drama genre, I have rethought and altered my ideas for my narrative. After processing a variety of different ideas for my narrative, I have decided upon a story line that I feel suits me and my drama genre.


My trailer is going to focus on a young man looking for his sister who has gone missing. I am not going to suggest to the audience how she has gone missing, or if she is even alive. I want to leave this element a mystery because from my earlier audience feedback, they disliked trailers that gave away the entire story. As I am still using a one-man cast, my idea to portray that his sister is missing is to design a missing persons poster. This will then be featured in a close-up shot on the floor and then again by a medium-shot of it on a tree. I believe this story line is the best one to use as it fits most of the drama conventions in terms of narrative.

Below is the comparison I did with how my narrative conformed to the genre narrative conventions.

Conventions of drama narratives

• Intense situations = looking for a missing sibling is a stressful and intense situation.
• Portrayal of suggested and potential character development = the main character shown is the one looking for his sister, it's clear he's going to find some leads to her disappearance which will make him develop as a character throughout.  
• Exhibits real life situations with realistic characters, settings and stories = somebody going missing is a real life event and happens often all over the world. My location focuses on a secluded woodland area which is a realistic setting and not far-fetched. 
• Purpose of a dramatic story line to move the audience emotionally = it's an emotional time and situation which audience members can relate to, especially if it's a personal experience of theirs.
• Heart of the narrative is usually conflict = the conflict is how the main subjects sister has gone missing, this will have caused a lot of conflict in her family and friends lives. 
• Depict realistic struggles, audience relations to characters = audience members can connect to the emotions of the main character by imagining what it is like to be going through this situation. 

Update on Research & Planning - Changes to Genre

Sound Planning

Choosing a soundtrack or several pieces of music to feature in my trailer is a crucial step in developing my final product into a high standard piece of work. Music and sound can create emotions and provoke responses from the audience and therefore the songs that I choose will have a major impact on how my audience reacts to my trailer. Given that my genre is ultimately a hybrid of thriller and horror, the primary genre is thriller because there are no directly scary elements to it - it's more of a psychological thriller with mysterious elements which is why I believe the genre of thriller should be used to sum up my work overall. A major element of this genre that I want to transfer to my work is the reactions and emotions of the audience, I want them to feel the tension and suspense that I am trying to create with my work and therefore I am going to need to carefully select the music that I want to use.

The software I will use to download my music is the website Incompetech which allows students like myself to download royalty free music with no copyright issues attached. It's a free and easy to use site and therefore I will be using it to contribute to my coursework. I feel it will be more appropriate for me to decide on the final music I will use once I have filmed enough scenes and put together a sequence of my trailer on Final Cut Express as this way I can test the music and see if it fits well and then go on to edit various scenes to match certain tones and pitches e.c.t. Therefore I will ultimately test out my music once I am further along in my editing process although I felt it was important to compose this post to show how I am going to go about getting the music to use in my trailer.

My plan is to have several different compositions to make up the sound that will work best with my footage. I want the music to start of slow and create a calm and tension filled atmosphere and then slowly build to a point where it is moving at a faster pace which at this point the footage will match the speed of the sound.Through research I have discovered a variety of websites that offer royalty free sound effects that will be useful in helping me search for specific sounds that I need to incorporate into certain parts of my trailer. The sounds that I require are certain ambient tracks that will help maximize the thriller atmosphere that I need to create within my work.

Although I am going to mostly use royalty free music and sounds in my work there is a particular song that I want to use as the main opening soundtrack in my work. The type of music is perfect to set the scene and tone of my trailer and this song is 'You Don't Know How Lucky You Are' by artist Keaton Henson. To be able to use this piece of music I am going to email the record company asking for their permission.

Furthermore, I found a sound effect of a reminiscent sounding montage of a girl laughing  which would be perfect for the flashback scenes in my trailer. The girl who created it said she was happy for people to use the audio for whatever they wanted but just to double check, I emailed herself.

Thriller Film Poster Analysis #2

Ancillary Task Planning - Film poster layout ideas and existing posters

Simple layout design for a film poster that I created. This is a basic layout and very easy to work with. From this step I am going to plan what is going on the poster to visually improve it along with text fonts, colour schemes and other things such as reviews, main actors names, tag line, quotes e.c.t

In all posters the main image is accompanied and surrounded often by other images, colour schemes and text and so I can play around with different images and styles to see what looks good and what doesn't. To help with my planning for the poster I have analysed some existing thriller genre film posters to help see how they convey their genre clearly through the use of genre specific conventions.

Here, I analysed the thriller film poster for Shutter Island.

Character Profiles & Conventions

Due to the fact that I am challenging the conventions of the thriller genre by using a one-man cast, this means that other things will not appear in my trailer as much as others - for example, Propps character functions. The only character type in my trailer is the presumed hero role which is my main characters, although he doesn't do anything in the trailer actually shows he is the hero role and therefore people will more than likely just assume that he is even though I do not necessarily give it away. In the trailer, there are supernatural happening all around the main character and therefore people know that these happening are the work of the villain of the story, however, the villain is not actually shown in my work as I want to carry on following basic thriller and horror conventions by leaving mystery in the narrative. Arguably, I have the hero and the villain which are the main classic binary opposites, said by Levi Strauss. By missing out many of Propps characters my work will not be affected as modern day films cannot always be applied to theories that were produced many years ago.

Ancillary Planning - Film Poster Action Plan

A film poster is a form of advertisement to a film. Studios often make several different variations of a poster for one film for various different audiences and places. Typically they contain feature photos from the film itself and of the main actor/s. Before more modern day art arrived, film posters tended to feature illustrations rather than the real life pictures from the film that feature on most posters nowadays. Accompanying the pictures on the poster, text is also featured, often included is the films name in a bold, attention-grabbing font and colour, and also the names of the main actors. It can also include a tag line, directors name, name of characters and the release date of the film.


For my film poster, I want to make it as professional looking as possible and therefore I am going to build on my Photoshop and InDesign skills to allow me to do this. To try and achieve the look I want for my poster and maintain the theme of the thriller genre it is important that I find a strong storyline to use for my film trailer itself. As I haven't decided on every scene that I am going to be using and every character e.c.t it might seem difficult to create a poster that will end up linking to what actually happens in my films trailer. However, it will not affect my poster given that I have the basis of a story line to use and therefore I even if the order of scenes change, or a character is added the actual storyline will not change, allowing me to start my poster. The basic storyline that I am working with is that there is a certain area (most likely to be a large open woodland area/park) where there strange things happen. I have drafted several ideas as to how to film my trailer although I have not come to a decision on which character I am using - I will either be showing the victim in the trailer, or the villain. Either one I use the same scenes and shot types will be used so it is just a case of more drafting to be put in place.


The things I need to include in my poster are:

• Name of the film
• Possibly the directors name/production company
• Actors name
• Release date
• Main picture that is related to the trailer
• Colour scheme that keeps with the continuity of the thriller genre

By Monday 19th January I will have a firm idea of what my poster will look like along with drafts and layout plans.

Location Planning

To conform to one of the common stereotypes that thrillers portray I have chosen an outdoor location where some of my scenes will be filmed. It is a large outdoor space with several different woodlands meaning I have a lot of space to work with. This location will work well for my trailer as when it starts to go darker it has an eerie feel to it meaning I can work with this atmosphere and play my narrative with it to achieve a thriller look and feel to my work. I can use different parts of this location for different scenes which is an advantage of using this place as I can film in different times of the day and in different areas to change the scenery to create a realistic trailer.


Below are some shots of the outdoor space and woodlands I am considering using:


The drab, wintery feel will add massively to the effect and atmosphere I am trying to communicate to the audience and furthermore it will help achieve an overall 'negative' aroma to the narrative.

Storyboards - Finding the Concept

Earlier in my research I undertook the task of researching the storyboard process and what it in involves. This has given me a good understanding what it involved and I feel confident in making my own storyboards now and this is my next step in my planning as I am now to find my narrative so I can begin filming in January.

I don't have a particular strong concept already and therefore I will more than likely be creating more than one storyboard, consisting of a variety of ideas and story lines. I have some basic ideas but I am going to try and build on these through the use and development of my story boards.

(Make a list of every convention i use in each story board( (Pros and Cons)

The Storyboarding Process

'Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence.' - Web definition 

Every film that is intended on being made needs to have a storyboard. The basic idea behind a storyboard is to be able to visualize a film as there is no footage to show for it. Storyboards tend to be basic and uncomplicated however, certain scenes on the board can have many notes and annotations added if people have different ideas and possibilities for what can happen in that particular scene.

There are a frequent number of storyboards for one film with the first set being mainly drafts to pitch different ideas. This process is an easy and helpful one as you can make as many as you like and you have your exact plan to follow in front of you. Storyboards do not just help with what to include in your video in terms of shots and camera movements they help with the organisation of your script.

I am going to be drawing up my own storyboards for the planning of my film trailer and therefore doing research prior to this will help me gain a better understanding of how they work and how they can help me. They will help me immensely as I can produce multiple storyboard and change particular things in each one if I decide I do not like something. Moreover, once I have my final idea together I will be able to see all my storyboards and clearly see how my ideas have developed and changed until I got to my final idea

How to prepare my storyboard

I will have to consider a number of things when making my storyboard such as:

• What location will I be using for this scene?
• Which actors and how many will be in the shot?
• What props will I need?
• What type of shot is it going to be?
• Is there going to be an angle? (low-angle/high)
• What is going to be happening that scene?
• How long is this piece of footage going to last for?
• Do I need to add any camera movements?
• Will I be adding any effects to this particular scene?