Powerpoint

GenreThe genre I chose for my trailer is Drama/Mystery, I chose this because I was interested in the conventions of these genres for example, the darkness, fast paced editing, extreme close ups and dramatic and tense music .These are things I would like to include in my trailer and I believe that my trailer did stay true to these conventions.

In what ways does your trailer develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real films and trailers?This section of my storyboard shows the name of the production company, I used the idea from existing trailers on YouTube and decided that I would like to use this convention in my trailer, I didn’t use Summit Entertainment and instead used Paramount and Screen Media Films.


real films and trailers?This clip is an over the shoulder shot during an interrogation scene. I didn’t show the whole scene and instead used small clips that could join into a different clip through sound bridges which is a convention of a trailer, because you have to keep the audience interested without giving the whole plot away.

This clip was filmed in an alleyway, which is conventional to my genre Drama/Mystery, the alleyway was secluded and dark which makes the audience on edge because bad things happen in the dark, and if no one is around there is no one to save them. The long shot shows that she is running from something, but you don’t know what which is a convention of a Drama/Mystery.


real films and trailers?In this section of my storyboard, I wanted the shot to be a mid shot surrounded by darkness- this followed the conventions of a Drama/Mystery film where low key lightening is a main feature creating a tense and mysterious atmosphere. Bellow is a screen grab of what it turned out like when I filmed it which I was pleased with because it came out how I wanted it, and I feel that it created the atmosphere I wanted to create.

I changed this frame when filming slightly, but I still wanted to stick to the conventions of my genre so I decided to make the moment more tense and dramatic to I had the actor screaming “Help! Somebody help me!” I wanted this to draw the audience in and keep them interested to watch my trailer.


real films and trailers?

In my trailer I included many shots of my actors running away or towards the camera, this I think stayed true to the conventions of my genre, because I wanted shots that kept the audience interested yet did not give away the overall plot. So, these shots I filmed show them running or walking away from the unknown therefore leaving the audience intrigued as to who or what they are running from. I used this idea from watching similar genre trailers on YouTube, where the protagonist is running from an unknown person creating a tense atmosphere. I used this convention in my trailer and thought it fit really well with my plot and music that I used.


real films and trailers?I used many dip to black’s when editing my footage , I decided to do this because I wanted to create a mysterious atmosphere for my genre, and the blackouts helped with that effect. Cutting off before the audience can know anything that will give away the overall plot.

When creating my own dip to black I changed the duration it would be on screen for and changed it to 00.00.01.00 seconds because I didn’t want it to take up too much time from the trailer, because if I had it for too long it would end up taking away the mysterious atmosphere and just be boring.

I thought the dip to black effect really worked and fit in with my overall genre and followed my genre’s conventions.


real films and trailers?From watching many similar genre trailers, I heard that they all had fast paced dramatic music to create the dramatic / mysterious feeling, I wanted the music to be playing throughout my trailer with no breaks to keep the pace fast and tense. I found the music on YouTube called “Epic and Dramatic Trailer Music” which is an ironic title as this was the atmosphere I wanted to create with my trailer.

This print screen shows how as my trailer continues, the pace gets faster, this creates a more tense and dramatic atmosphere. This fit in with my genre and storyline as I had previously decided that I wanted my trailer to get faster and faster as it went on, which the music definitely helped me with. This followed the conventions of my genre, when looking at other trailers I saw they followed a similar style, starting off slow then increasing in pace.


real films and trailers? This screen grab shows a close up of my main protagonist. Following the conventions of current films and trailers similar to my genre, they had many close up shots of the actors. I wanted a close up in my trailer to keep the audience interested and so they can see a reaction shot to an event they have not yet seen unless they go to see my film. So this keeps the audience interested in what has made this character look scared or worried. This technique I had seen in a trailer I had analysed called ‘Accused at 17’ although not in the same position the general idea came from this.

When deciding that I wanted to do a close up, I know that I wanted there to be darkness around her to create an ominous feeling and again create a tense atmosphere that follows the conventions of my chosen genre. This was the original frame I drew in my storyboard, as you can see I stayed true to what I originally did and the lines behind her represent low key lightening and again I stayed true to this.


real films and trailers?When looking at other trailers I noticed that they included captions towards the ends, either asking questions to the target audience to make them think about what the film is actually about, this has to draw the audience in so that they want to perhaps know the answer to that question- the unknown of the question fits in with the genre of my trailer and the conventions that follow.

I wanted to add captions to my trailer, because I liked the idea of almost involving the audience, having them physically answer the question when they watch my trailer. I wanted it to be big and bold so that is stands out.


real films and trailers?

I knew when filming my trailer that I wanted to do a high angle shot similar to the one seen in the trailer to ‘Gone’. Although the still in ‘Gone’ is a birds-eye view and mine is a high angle shot, I liked the idea of the low key lighting and a camera looking down, creating a sense of vulnerability, which I wanted since in my trailer the girl is dead and is now vulnerable now since she cant do anything now. The low key lighting in the room was something I thought was vital to my trailer and following the conventions of a drama/mystery genre film.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

My poster does not feature any actors because my film is generally about the atmosphere rather than the star quality. The atmosphere I am going for is very ominous and mysterious, although with my trailer I kept to the conventions of my trailer, I broke conventions by not having any actors on the front, or any credits at the bottom of the page. I wanted my poster to be minimalistic and struggled to find any similar posters, since my competitor films posters did not look similar to what I had in mind.


I managed to find two similar posters that do not have any actors or credits on the poster. The posters do not include any credits at the bottom either. These posters are minimalistic, yet they stand out because they are so different to what people would usually see. They also stick to a colour scheme, like me which I think was really effective in attracting an audience- the colours stand out to the background; with ‘Catfish’ the red is very vibrant and obviously sticks out to the black, and ‘Tron Legacy’ makes the disc in the middle to stand out because of the glow effect around it. I used this effect on my poster, with the grey writing amongst the black background, also I decided to have the red around the outside to create an ominous feeling.


When creating the text on my poster I decided to add the red outline around the grey because the whole poster is different shades of one colour.

I chose the colour red because my genre is a drama/mystery and the red creates a very ominous atmosphere which I believe to be very effective from my target audience and their view of my film. I wanted the ominous atmosphere from the red because I

wanted my audience to be drawn in, although the red is minimal it stands out amongst everything else since it is the only burst of colour on the page, making it striking and effective for my target audience.

I created the red outline through the style settings on adobe Photoshop. I had the size and opacity minimal since I didn’t want it to take all the attention away from the poster, I just wanted it to stand out in a subtle way.


When making my poster I wanted prison bars behind the text. I used this, and thought it was very effective for what I wanted to convey to my target audience. The darkness is a recurring theme within my genre, so this fit in very well with that.

The bars I think are effective since they stand out amongst the darkness behind since its silver. You can see that its rotting away therefore going black, creating an ominous feeling towards my film that its definitely not a romantic comedy.I wanted the prison bars behind the text when making my trailer

because I wanted the audience to understand the idea of my trailer that it is dark and mysterious and about someone being ‘Accused’ of something, but with this as the only image on the page I wanted there still to be an air of mystery.


This being the only other piece of text aside from the name of the film ‘Accused’ I think was very effective when catching my target audiences attention. I believe this to be effective because the only information your ever going to get will be in December, there's not even a specific date. Its very ominous about the specifics which I believe will interest my target audience.

The black background an equally as dark text I believe to be effective when attracting my target audience because although the darkness is something to be feared for some, the darkness is also something to be explored and I wanted my audience to be intrigued by this.

Although the text is quite dark I used effects to make it stand out amongst the darkness behind, I created a dark tint over the silver writing to give the impression of a metallic style, fitting in with the setting behind of the metal bars. This was a theme with my trailer poster creating a mysterious and tense atmosphere for my target audience drawing them in to what will happen in my film.


This is my original draft and what I ended up doing on Adobe Photoshop. The overall idea of prison bars behind the text I kept because I believed that it would overall be very effective to my target audience. I replaced the hand at the bottom to the date of when my film comes out because I loved the idea of ‘Less is more’ when it comes to my poster and thought that it would be more effective with no silly gimmicks of a bloody hand at the bottom of the page. I also didn’t want my film to come across as a horror because although there are elements my genre is mainly a drama/mystery.


When making my poster I knew that because I did not include any vital information on my poster my magazine front cover needed to show a bit more to keep my target audience interested. Looking at the conventions of existing magazines I decided that I wanted a close up of my main protagonist, when looking at existing magazine front covers with close up shots I found it very effective and I was drawn to the magazine through the use of eye contact. When making my magazine I knew that I wanted my target audience to stop when walking past, so I followed some of the conventions from other magazines.


When making my magazine I wanted to create an mysterious atmosphere, I created this effective atmosphere through a smoky effect I custom made on Adobe Photoshop, when creating this I doubled it on both sides so that it stands out amongst everything else on the front cover.

When adding the feature article photograph in front of the smoky effect, I wanted to make sure that the photo was the main feature but have the effect I made stand out from behind to again create the mysterious atmosphere that is the genre of my film.


When making my film magazine I used Empire’s issue of Tron Legacy as a template for my magazine.

To decide where to put the text on my film magazine I looked at other magazines and found one with a similar feature cover photo so I used the design idea of where to put the text from this existing film magazine.

I used the house style in my magazine I used the white and yellow but swapped which bit was which I did this because I saw how the text stood out in the existing magazine and wanted the same attention on mine so I used the colours to make it stand out.


Although the rest of my magazine has a yellow, white and gold colour scheme, I wanted to use the silver as a trademark for my trailer since in my film poster silver is the main theme.

The silver represents the colour or prison bars like in my film poster where the prison bars are behind the text.

This fits in with my overall genre of a mystery, because the silver text is on its own on the page, helping it to stand out amongst everything else.


To make sure that my masthead stands out I made it the biggest piece of text on the page, so that it is eye catching and one of the first things you see on the page.

I wanted to follow conventions and have my masthead at the top of the page but I also wanted to make it unique and different. To do this I had all of the text on the font Calibri but to change the x of box and the e in office, the last letters of each word and I changed the font to Freehand575 bt. I did this because it gave me a house style for my overall magazine displaying that we don’t follow the ‘crowd’. Making my magazine cover effective for my overall audience.

The puff at the top of the page follows the conventions of most existing magazines, I wanted to include this because I didn’t want my whole cover to be unconventional, just certain parts to show that we are unique and different but we can also follow the rules, making this effective because I am targeting a larger audience.


When taking this feature article photograph I wanted to convey to my audience straight away what kind of film ‘Accused’ is. To get across to my audience that the genre of my film is a drama/mystery I used low key lighting which I thought would be an essential when making my magazine since its creepy and mysterious, almost like the fear of the unknown.

The expression on her face presents a scared/ worried/ confused expression. I chose this for my magazine because I believed that it would be effective when targeting my audience and getting across the overall theme and genre of my film.


When creating both of my main ancillary tasks I wanted to make both equally effective but at the same time make them different from the other so that they stand out in different ways. For example, with my film magazine the main things that stand out would be the bold colours and large feature article photograph. But, with my film poster the only thing that stands out is the film title ‘Accused’ since it’s the only thing on the page whereas the film magazine is more clustered and has a lot more information about the film and other films. The differences between the two are effective as it the poster is the thing that would originally draw my target audience in, but there is no definite information so therefore that is where the magazine would give my audience the information to intrigue them even more.


I included similar features in both my ancillary task and main product. For example, in both task I have included low key lighting that fits into my overall genre of drama/mystery. This creates a menacing and tense atmosphere making my overall products effective. Another similar feature I have included into both tasks would be by including the same character from my trailer -Danielle on the front cover of my film magazine this shows that she is the main character in my trailer and therefore the most important.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Whilst in the pre-production phase of my trailer I created a quantitive survey for my demographic audience where I gave them answers to a question regarding issues of my trailer that I had not yet figured out at this point in time.


This is an example of one of my survey question I asked in pre-production. This question displays how my demographic audience wanted both sound bridge's and a soundtrack playing in the background. I managed to create a sound bridge here where my actor says “I was at home!” this sound bridge conveying that obviously she wasn’t at home therefore lying to police. I learnt from this question that both ideas of sound bridges and music in the background would fit in well with my overall trailer and the atmosphere that I am trying to get across.


Another question from my survey was about the setting which would be included into my trailer. I was not sure which would be more effective in terms of my idea of an abduction. The majority of my target audience requested a small town, after asking individually why they chose this they said that “A small town setting would make an abduction much more chilling.” Another answer being “Everyone knows everyone in a small town so it really could be anyone.” Deciding that these opinions would fit in with my overall genre of a drama/mystery I decided to set my trailer in a small town.


Audience feedback helped my a great deal with my planning and post-production of my trailer. I was able to understand the preferences of my demographic audience and what they thought would suit my trailer and the genre I had decided on (drama/mystery). For example a question I had asked my audience was “Would you like my trailer to have captions or voice over's?” the overall opinion was that my audience wanted neither. Although when creating my trailer I found that captions would work and fit in very well with my overall genre- so although I the audience feedback helped me lots with other questions regarding the production of my trailer, I have learned that sometimes there are things that perhaps look better than they sound, and I truly believe that the captions worked well in my trailer.


After completing my final trailer I presented my trailer to my demographic audience asking them questions such as: •Did you like my trailer?•If yes, why?•What stood out the most?•Would you see the film after watching this trailer?The answers of these questions helped me with the final post-production stage of editing where I was doing tweaks to my trailer. One of the answers for question 3 was: “I think the music stood out the most to me, I loved the pace of it and it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.” This helped me perhaps understand the importance of the soundtrack and how it really can help tie the whole project together conveying the tense atmosphere that I had initially wanted to convey.


After presenting my final trailer to a small audience, I asked for feedback on my trailer and to ask me any questions about my trailer that they would like answering.

Questions from audienceQ) Why did you use a school as a setting for the interrogation parts?A) I chose this to convey to my audience that this girl they are questioning still goes to school and they have taken her out of lessons to interrogate her. I was also trying to portray how this girl still has her schoolgirl innocence, and how she should be learning instead of being accused of such crimes which she may or may not have done.

This question made me think as a director about certain messages that I am trying to convey and how I am trying to present these certain messages. For example, I wanted to present the message of how in the 21st century children are growing up too fast, so fast that they are already dealing with certain circumstances and issues that most adults have to go through (although the abduction is merely a symbol of this issue)


The main question that I have asked to my target audience after watching my trailer was “Would you see this film in the cinema?” I asked this question to 20 people. To which the majority believed they would see the film ‘Accused’ if it were to be released in cinemas at a result of 17/3.


Another question I had asked my target audience in the pre-production stage of my trailer when I was planning my trailer was “What would you expect to see in a Drama/Mystery genre trailer?” I knew myself what would be expected in a drama/mystery trailer from my intense analysis of similarly genre trailers but I knew there were certain elements that I perhaps had not picked up on therefore I decided to ask my audience on any things that I may have missed. The answers given certainly helped me during the filming and post-production stage of my project.

Drama/ Mystery Genre

solving a crime using evidence

Real-life situations

Portrays a Journey

Relatable characters

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

stage?Throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my project I have used new media technologies such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, camera work, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to help my with my project.


stage?This is a screen shot from Adobe Premiere which is the media technology used in the construction phase of my project. Here I used the

lighting tool on Adobe Premiere for the post-production of my trailer, I wanted to create a tense and mysterious atmosphere so I experimented with this tool and was able to darken the lights in the shot.

I was pleased with the final outcome of the shot and found that it made the scene more intense and mysterious helping to convey my overall genre of a drama/mystery


stage?

I used the tool on Adobe Premiere to adjust the pace of certain shots of my trailer through time stretch.

I changed the speed of this certain shot of my actor Danielle running, I wanted to speed up this shot because I wanted to convey a sense of urgency to this particular moment, which is where she is explaining that she is at home when in face this shot contradicts her previous statement.

The time stretch was something that helped me in the post-production of the project because I knew that for a drama/mystery trailer I would have to have fast paced editing throughout to convey such genre’s to keep my audience intrigued and tense.


stage?Another element that helped my in the construction stage of my project was the fade outs that I included in both the audio and media aspect of Adobe Premiere. I wanted to

include fade outs in my trailer to help present to my audience the idea of the scene not finishing due to it being a trailer therefore keeping the audience intrigued as to what would have come next if it were a film.

Another reason I wanted to include fade outs on both the audio and media parts was so that they could run into the next sequence fluidly because I did not want too many straight cuts throughout so the fade outs keep my trailer interesting but conventional to my overall genre of a drama/mystery.


stage?When creating my film poster I knew that I did not want to include anything but the title with no feature article photograph of any actors, so I needed to make the text stand out if I wanted to catch my audience’s attention.

In the construction phase of my task I wanted to make my ancillary task stand out I used the stroke tool in Adobe Photoshop to create a red outline around the text. This creates an ominous atmosphere which integrates into my overall genre.


stage?

Another tool I used on Adobe Photoshop in the construction phase of my task was in the effects where I used a steel effect to make my text appear as if it were metal, which overall makes my film poster more striking attracting my target audience of my genre.


stage?These are two of the photos I took in preparation for my film magazine, I experimented with many different angles and shot types such as close-ups, high angle shots/low angle shots and long shots but when deciding what photographs to use these were the ones that stood out to me therefore would perhaps stand out to my target audience.

When taking the shots I experimented with the flash and came up with these two shots one with flash and one without. When deciding I was partial to the photograph without the flash because I thought it acknowledged my general genre of drama/mystery with the low key lighting surrounding my actor making it appear sinister and haunting.


stage?For the text stating when my film will be out in local cinemas I did not want all of the audience’s attention to go to that, instead I wanted the main feature of the poster to be the name of the film. So to make the text deviate from standing out but still be unique and interesting I used the style settings tool.

I changed the ‘drop shadow’, the ‘glow’ feature, the ‘bevel’ tool and the ‘stroke’ feature. This made that individual piece of text unique and different to anything else on the page.


stage?

These are the photographs I took when blocking, I went to many different area’s which I thought would fit in with my trailer and each scene within.

In this planning stage of my task I used my camera to do different angles in many locations, this helped me to understand what shots I am likely to do when filming my overall trailer and what angles work for each location so that I am able to include everything in each shot that I want to include.


stage?When creating my film magazine I wanted to make the text stating the name of the film similar to the one on the film poster, but no a replica as this was not the main feature on the page this time, the feature article photograph is.

To make sure that the text was similar to the one on my film poster, I used the tool in style settings to edit the text using the ‘Bevel’ tool to create a metal effect similar to my film poster so that my audience can recognise the similarities between them and realise that it’s the same film being advertised.


stage?

In the research and planning stage of my task I created a quantitve survey for my demographic audience using Word to generate the answers into a Pie Chart so that it is easier to understand and distinguish as to what my audience selected as the best answer, so that I could incorporate these answers into my trailer unless not necessary.


stage?

The house style of my film magazine was silver, yellow, gold and white. To create the gold on the text however when I changed the colour to gold I found that it was too dark and did not stand out making it hard to see with the black background. So, I decide to experiment with the effects on Photoshop and found an effect that lightened the text making it appear a light gold.


stage?

For the evaluation stage of my project I am using PowerPoint to do a point by point summary of what I have done throughout the project and how I came up with my idea’s and how I used this idea’s to create certain parts of my trailer or ancillary task.


stage?

I also used in my evaluation stage when using PowerPoint the custom animation tool to make my evaluation more exciting to my audience so that when they read my evaluation there would be more to look at rather than just text and pictures.

Education

Powerpoint