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?