Brainstorm
_We found that in order to produce an effective and good teaser
trailer we had to know what one was, unlike a normal trailer, a teaser
trailer is released a year or so before the main trailer to promote
its release and to generally advertise an upcoming film. Unlike a
trailer it doesn't go into so much depth but highlights maybe a key
scene and presents to the audience an ident that represents the movie.
We started to brainstorm some ideas by looking at different genres and mind mapping different storylines that we could use. We found that with Action, we had a lot more ideas of what we could base our trailer on and it could be more elaborate, however this may be very hard to capture with the CGI needed.We particularly liked the whole idea of featuring a hit-man tied in with romance but found that being creative and original with that would be hard.
The horror genre splits into many different aspects and sub genre such as slasher, we though if we were to do horror we would stray from that Slasher generally loved by teenagers. Film Noir could be very hard but it would be very good to do as we could have a hybrid of action/thriller set in 1940's of the Film Noir. We then moved on to looking at movies in the thriller genre and this was inspired by the movie Se7en and the American TV series 'CSI' as we found that they both adapt this genre in their own unique ways by combining gore and realism - something that we all liked and wanted to achieve. So we decided to chose to create a thriller trailer with a hybrid of crime
The horror genre splits into many different aspects and sub genre such as slasher, we though if we were to do horror we would stray from that Slasher generally loved by teenagers. Film Noir could be very hard but it would be very good to do as we could have a hybrid of action/thriller set in 1940's of the Film Noir. We then moved on to looking at movies in the thriller genre and this was inspired by the movie Se7en and the American TV series 'CSI' as we found that they both adapt this genre in their own unique ways by combining gore and realism - something that we all liked and wanted to achieve. So we decided to chose to create a thriller trailer with a hybrid of crime
Analyzing Film Trailers
Trailer One - Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
In this teaser trailer, it is seen to be very dark and gloomy to make out that something bad has happened and help may be needed. The sound in the trailer matches what is going on as the sound is very slow but loud, which brings more emphasis on what is being said by the man on the hospital bed. This is important because the producers have to try sell their movie as much as possible in the teaser trailer and in my opinion, this is how they gathered my attention.
In this teaser trailer, it is seen to be very dark and gloomy to make out that something bad has happened and help may be needed. The sound in the trailer matches what is going on as the sound is very slow but loud, which brings more emphasis on what is being said by the man on the hospital bed. This is important because the producers have to try sell their movie as much as possible in the teaser trailer and in my opinion, this is how they gathered my attention.
Trailer Two - The Avengers
In this teaser trailer, there is a lot of quick cross cutting which matches with the fast building tension scenes which can relate back to the sounds used in the teaser trailer. These two features of the teaser trailer combined because it can show the correlation between the genre and how it adapts itself to the sounds of the teaser trailer. For example, the sounds in the teaser trailer are meant to be for an action film.
In this teaser trailer, there is a lot of quick cross cutting which matches with the fast building tension scenes which can relate back to the sounds used in the teaser trailer. These two features of the teaser trailer combined because it can show the correlation between the genre and how it adapts itself to the sounds of the teaser trailer. For example, the sounds in the teaser trailer are meant to be for an action film.
Trailer Three - The Raven
The teaser trailer is in very dark locations but how the producers used fast sounds can show the audience that the film can be made out to be an action/horror. The contrast between the light and sound is important because everything is made blatant to the audience to attract them more to get into the film.
The teaser trailer is in very dark locations but how the producers used fast sounds can show the audience that the film can be made out to be an action/horror. The contrast between the light and sound is important because everything is made blatant to the audience to attract them more to get into the film.
Storyboard
Initial Ideas
The Silence of the Lambs |
At the beginning of our trailer, we decided that we will have a news report in the background. We will hear a news reporter, talking about a serial killer who is targeting women to help get the audience into the storyline. We will not show the news reporter but their voice will be heard in the background on top of the newspaper on screen, therefore we would need to make a newspaper.
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Hannibal |
We also looked at the trailer for 'Hannibal' and really liked this shot used. We thought that if we were to do a crime/thriller then we would need shots that have a murky mysterious edge to them. we observed this screen shot and decided that it creates suspense and fright for the audience, which is what the directors wanted.
_This camera shot can be very useful as it is very creative and focuses on match on action, which as a group feel we need to do to portray our trailer as professional. Having the camera in the van is also a good idea as we could copy this and transform it. For example we could use this to show the setting. This would give a professional edge to our trailer and help us expand our camera angles to make it more captivating to the audience.
This screenshot from Hannibal is useful to us as we can use it as a template. Having the computers and documents/files will give the scene a more realistic view. The colours used gives the scene a murky dark serious atmosphere, the props used in the scene are mainly just computers, projecting a cold empty environment - this also hints to the audience on the case being a serious, cold hearted one. Having the two police detectives in this room together late at night working will show the audience the case is a tough one to crack and that the case is complicated so a lot of time an effort has to be put in from the detectives to figure it out.
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Texas Killing Fields |
This screen shot presents a dark and scary scene. This shows a gate being opened to a crime scene investigation which relates to our idea as we want to show a similar entrance to the crime scene. It made us feel apprehensive to what was on the other side and made us want to know more.
The low key lighting used produced shadows which connote a dangerous suspenseful atmosphere. This screen shot can relate to our idea as we want to show the crime
scene being taped off by the police so investigations can take place. We also want to show a light beaming onto the victim which can also be used as the only source of light, projecting all attention on the victim. The taped area like in CSI, adds to the seriousness of the situation that if we cross over the tape, we're likely to end up like the victim - the tape acts as a safety barrier for the audience. We like the idea of quickly flashing a close up of the victims body all disorientated. We wanted a quick flash of it as it is a teaser trailer - we don't want to give too much away as as mentioned, a teaser trailer is a marketing tool to get you to be anxious for the real trailer; by only quickly flashing the body, it makes the audience want to see more and therefore would go see the real trailer.
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SE7EN
- We found that the movie Se7en really focused on gore and the sublime - trying to shock viewers by showing disturbing images some of which may seem unbearable or understandable.
- This scene in particular taken from a high angle shows the victim brutally scorched creating fear and shock to the audience. - We thought of having a scene where we briefly show something like this as it will leave the audience wanting more._ |
CSI
- Looking at CSI, this shot shows them all peering over a dead body in front of a famous landmark surrounded by a 'crime scene do not cross' tape.
- We found that if it weren't for the tape, the scene wouldn't have had as much of an impact. The tape shows that something bad has happened to the extent of which it needs a barrier to keep you in the safe. - The uniform worn by the detectives also shows their status and adds a sense of authority._ |
Music Research
_In order to make our trailer effective, we realised
that after watching some trailers on mute - sound is everything, it
directs the audience into helping them develop feelings and emotions
such as being shocked or happy. As our chosen genre was Thriller/Crime we researched into soundtracks of movie's that fit in with our chosen genre.
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We really liked the music used in the trailer for Heat, it had a subtle yet sinister amount of bass throughout the clip tied in with a heavy beat and sharp cuts. Without watching the trailer and only listening to it, it created a chilling and suspenseful atmosphere which is something we wanted to achieve.
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In comparison to Heat, Texas Killing Fields also uses a deep continuous bass line to create suspense and again like Heat, uses a narrator throughout. During the fight scene the music sharpens, it quickens the pace of the fighting.
The quick paced soundtrack at the end is almost like an orchester, it ties in everything with each other creating a sense of danger and like its building up to something.__ |
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Script
Police chief's script
A second body has been found in London, again brutally mutilated and left for dead. We are linking this to the previous murder that occurred on October 2nd as patterns are evident. The murderer seems to be leaving photos of the victim with a male companion other than their husband. No suspect has been found. We are warning people to be extra careful when out at night, especially girls as they are what the killer seems to be targeting so far. We have our two best detectives investigating the case but for now we would like you to be extra cautious. No further questions.
Kitchen scene
Jess: Try this.
John: (motions 'one minute' while looking at paper work)
Jess: You never have time for me anymore! Might as well not be here.
John: What do you want me to do? Work is work.
Jess: Well you do what you want, I'm going to meet my friend
This was our script but after we started to film, some of our initial ideas changed about what would happen on screen. We found that some of our ideas where much harder to present on screen and as it was a teaser trailer we didn't want to reveal too much - we had a lot of ideas and we needed to condense them. We did still stick to the rough outline of the script, just cutting a few things down and adapting to our new, more polished idea. The police chief's script however we kept to it as we used it as the voice over in the trailer.
A second body has been found in London, again brutally mutilated and left for dead. We are linking this to the previous murder that occurred on October 2nd as patterns are evident. The murderer seems to be leaving photos of the victim with a male companion other than their husband. No suspect has been found. We are warning people to be extra careful when out at night, especially girls as they are what the killer seems to be targeting so far. We have our two best detectives investigating the case but for now we would like you to be extra cautious. No further questions.
Kitchen scene
Jess: Try this.
John: (motions 'one minute' while looking at paper work)
Jess: You never have time for me anymore! Might as well not be here.
John: What do you want me to do? Work is work.
Jess: Well you do what you want, I'm going to meet my friend
This was our script but after we started to film, some of our initial ideas changed about what would happen on screen. We found that some of our ideas where much harder to present on screen and as it was a teaser trailer we didn't want to reveal too much - we had a lot of ideas and we needed to condense them. We did still stick to the rough outline of the script, just cutting a few things down and adapting to our new, more polished idea. The police chief's script however we kept to it as we used it as the voice over in the trailer.
Rough Storyline
1) Bad cop kills woman with the news report in the background. On the body there is a picture of her with another man.
2) Second victim being killed with flashbacks of him as a child with his mother cheating on his dad and his dad’s funeral.
3) Fat police man in police station telling cops “that’s 2 deaths in 2 weeks!!!”
4) Kitchen argument with good cop and wife. Good cops leaves for work and another man enters. Form a distance the bad cop is taking pictures of good cop’s wife with another man. Flash effect.
5) Cheater leaves then bad cop enters the house and kills her.
6) Good cop gets the call telling him his wife is dead. (bad cop looks suspicious at crime scene)
7) Good cop in office looking at evidence (drinking coffee, up late at night, looking at newspaper articles)
8) Good cop chases bad cop. (audience and good cop don’t know it’s bad cop)
9) Good cop catches him and makes a shocked face.
10) Film title on screen
11) Girl screaming, gets her throat cut with blood on screen
12) Coming soon on screen._
1) Bad cop kills woman with the news report in the background. On the body there is a picture of her with another man.
2) Second victim being killed with flashbacks of him as a child with his mother cheating on his dad and his dad’s funeral.
3) Fat police man in police station telling cops “that’s 2 deaths in 2 weeks!!!”
4) Kitchen argument with good cop and wife. Good cops leaves for work and another man enters. Form a distance the bad cop is taking pictures of good cop’s wife with another man. Flash effect.
5) Cheater leaves then bad cop enters the house and kills her.
6) Good cop gets the call telling him his wife is dead. (bad cop looks suspicious at crime scene)
7) Good cop in office looking at evidence (drinking coffee, up late at night, looking at newspaper articles)
8) Good cop chases bad cop. (audience and good cop don’t know it’s bad cop)
9) Good cop catches him and makes a shocked face.
10) Film title on screen
11) Girl screaming, gets her throat cut with blood on screen
12) Coming soon on screen._
Idents
We used MGM because they own the production and distribution rights of
Hannibal and Silence Of The Lambs. We researched four major distribution companies such as Paramount Pictures, MGM, Warner Brothers and Sony Entertainment. The distribution company, who would represent our film the best, would be MGM. They have distributed many films which are useful to us from a wide range of genres. The narrative in our film is very similar to the narrative of Silence of the Lambs. They both involve a Serial killer and the police are trying to capture him. MGM also distributed films that have similar concepts as seen in Hannibal, the group as a whole thought MGM would represent our Trailer very well. MGM suit our preferences, being one of the top companies in the business and having them work with universal will be excellent to promote the film in the way we want. Therefore MGM is well matched with our movie as it has to be the best in order to be a success, which my group and I desire to do with this film. |
We researched two production companies New Line Cinema and Legendary Pictures. These were hard production companies to choose from in term of movies they had previously produced. New Line Cinema produced different films such as 'Friday the 13th'. Legendary Pictures produced Watchmen, Superman Returns and The Dark Knight. In the end we decided to use Universal as they have a wide range of films from 'Jurassic Park' and 'Incredible Hulk' which differ a lot. This is useful as Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs done very well with them because they are a production company who can produce different styles which are mostly successful. This would benefit us as we can alter the way we represent the film in the Poster and Magazine. Having the right production company is vital as the support generated would be basing the outcome of the final product. Big budgeted Production companies make bigger and better films. Having MGM and Universal produce and distribute this would create a Hollywood blockbuster or a modern classic, as this is what we are aiming for. |
TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH
In order for us to make a successful production we had to decide on who we were marketing our teaser trailer to . So to research into what at our target audience, 15-24 year old's , liked in our chosen genre, Action/thriller, we conducted a survey asking people between 16-24 relevant questions that would help us with our planning. Here is the online survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HYPHVNW
Here are the results obtained:
Here are the results obtained:
First of all we asked 'What is your favourite genre?' to get an overall picture to what our audience favoured more towards to. Luckily for us, most people liked action and thriller. Therefore it gave further support into producing something that went with this genre. This would also benefit us in distribution as more people would go watch it seeing as they like the genre.
We asked people what they expected to see in an Action movie, we did this so we got an idea of what people wanted to see, therefore we could take their suggestions and blend them into our trailer. As expected the results showed that people wanted to see a face paced production with fighting and violence.
Most people liked Se7en. Se7en was one of the key movie's that inspired our idea so it gave us a boost in confidence that if people like Se7en, they will also like our movie. People also selected Mr and Mrs Smith with backed up the results from the next question that romance is a big attraction for both male and female audiences.
Looking at the results of this question, it was clear that people are attracted to a storyline with some type of romance featuring in it, as all participants selected 'yes'.
This question helped us narrow down what audiences wanted to see the most, it acted as an extension to question 2. Most people wanted to see fighting/violence which are key conventions of the Action and Thriller genre.
The results were almost the same as to if people like to watch something more surreal or realistic, we wanted to produce something more realistic.
Results showed that people liked to see something that had a lot of gore in it. So we're going to try to add as much of it as we can, this was it will be more appealing for the target audience.
As far as conventions go, this fitted in with what we expected that people would say in response to the female character. We aimed to go with conventions so it made sense for the female to be portrayed as the victim. This is what also the audience expected.
This was an important question for us to include as we had a debate on whether to reveal the identity or not. It shows that people didn't want the villain to reveal his identity. I think this way it makes people want to watch the movie more as they want to find out who the villain it.
Props
_We printed off some official police
reports off the internet and used them when Harveer (good cop) was
looking through files. We felt that it helped it have a more
professional finish as after our creativity lesson we wanted to focus a
lot more on mise-en-scene and using a good range of props. It made the
office scene look more realistic in terms of him being a cop.
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_We used a white sheet, lab coats and a scalpel when we shot the
lab scene. The white lab coats along with the white sheet over the dead
body made it look like a real lab. We shot this scene in the science
labs and on the projector had pictures of the victims dead body on
repeat. We covered the scalpel in fake blood that we had bought, we got
Rishveer to carefully pressed it up against her skin so it looked like
he was performing a post Morten on the body.
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Autopsy Scene
As we couldn't imitate the tutorial, we brought some fake blood and face paints and before shooting the post-mortem scene, we dressed Rupinder up appropriately. We got her to wear a white shirt, just as a body would look while an autopsy is taking place and covered her in fake blood and used black and red face paints to make her look bruised. Ensuring that we stuck to our genre and fully embraced all the connotations of a thriller movie, we needed to make Rupinder look as grim and gory as possible - this would add to the shock effect which audiences would experience and make the trailer look more professional as an action/thriller film.
Location Shots
Norwood GreenThis is in Norwood Green. We shot some test footage here. the footage was of chase scenes between the two main characters. We aimed to project an eerie atmosphere however as we don't have suitable lighting equipment, the footage we shot was too dark and unprofessional so therefore we couldn't use the footage.
Canary WharfAt Canary Wharf we filmed more chase scenes. It was brighter so the footage was usable. We chose this location as it featured tall big buildings which connote a well established environment that would make our trailer look more sophisticated.
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