Trailer planning

Character profile, actor choice, music choices, emails, equipment, location,

clothing, budget and schedule.

Actor profile.On the 12th November I observed a performing arts lesson at the College of West Anglia as I wanted a person who was able to act to be in my film trailer, not just a friend or family member. When attending the session I was looking for key qualities; these were, lots of power put into their performance, great facial expressions and the ability to take on what is thrown at them. After their warm up exercises the pupils began acting in groups, I observed from afar and at this point there were about 5 actors in the class that had caught my eye because of their ability to suggest ideas and make changes where necessary. To me this shows commitment and passion. As the 2 and a half hour session continued, I eliminated 3 of these pupils as their enthusiasm at this point had dropped and I was going to need a person willing to work throughout the filming session. The one pupil that stood out to me the most was called Kingsley, he made valid suggestions, worked very well on trial and error, gave encouragement to fellow pupils and had the ability to adapt to many roles. When the session finished I pulled Kingsley aside and told him what I had been doing and asked for his contacts details in case I decided to contact him. I did contact him and the email i sent is on the following slide...

He replied to me via phone call saying how he would be delighted to take on the role and agreed to meet with me to talk more about the characters

profile od which i have explained on the next slide...

Characters profile.• Looks: tall, dark hair, wears a suit and nice shoes and this does not change even when he becomes a killer.

Personality, emotion and lifestyle: Kingsley will be playing the role of Shaun, a friendly business man whose wife, Lyla, was recently murdered. At the beginning of the film Shaun will just be an ordinary man, the audience with have no real opinion on him so there will be little use of facial expression, just simple, straight forward acting of a typical businessman. Before the murdering of his wife, Shaun was a very content, straight edged person and his wife was the exact opposite. She wouldn’t care about dangers of anything and she lived life on the edge. When Lyla dies, the audience will have empathy with Shaun and there will have to be a great deal of emotion seen in the character. These emotions will range from anger to sadness to anxiety and to numbness. However, after this grieving time passes for a while, Shaun feels a change in himself, he begins to live like her, he quits his job, he stops caring about healthy eating, and he starts loving the rush of adrenaline. The character here will have to show signs of confusion, especially when sat at home having the realisation of what he is doing. Here the wide range of acting skills will take place as there are so many different emotions in one character. Eventually Shaun realises his change and this is where the audience will realise that his dead wife’s mind is living inside of him so that she can get vengeance on her murderers. This is where Shaun turns into a violent, merciless killer; he gets the revenge his wife’s mind desires. This is the explosion of the character, he becomes something you never expected and the audience will see the contrast between him and the business man he once was. The audience will see him as a guy that will never get caught as the opposites of the two minds in his brain make for the perfect killer. In the film, Shaun will show that he never has recollection of the actual murders; he is just the one holding the weapon and standing over the body. This produces a twist in the film where his personality is split once again. Speech: Well spoken, may often talk quickly, aggressive and loud when necessary.Iconic props: Often has a cup of tea, wears a tweed jacket white shirt and black trousers.Family: Dead wife, No father, Mother has dementia, No children.Lives: Small bungalow, nice garden.

Email to music management.• After much deliberation I decided to use a section of the Chase and Status song ‘Machine

Gun’ for my film trailer. I plan to use the music from 40 seconds in to 1 minute 20 seconds because, that way I get 40 seconds of drum and base music that will fit perfectly with the fast moving action clips I plan to put in the trailer whilst the music is on. Although this may not go totally to plan, it is my idea for not and I believe that the chosen song will fit the trailer particularly well. This is something that will be confirmed in the editing stage.

To the left is an email I sent to the manager of Chase and Status explaining my situation. I used a formal tone and put my request simply.

Outfit ideas.• I would like my main actor to be dressed in a smart but casual manner. I want him to be

in a crisp white shirt to show his formality and how proper he is. But then I would like him to wear a nice tweed jacket like the one below, instead of a suit jacket because it shows quirkiness of character and a recognisable fashion. I will probably have him wearing a tie or bow tie at to once again show formality but also personality. I like the idea of having a green tweed jacket. The bow tie I think I will use as it adds quirkiness to the character and shows that he isn’t afraid to stand out from the crowd; this is his wife shining though as at the start of the trailer it states how he liked to live his life by the books.

Green tweed jacket. Dark green suggests connotations of nature and I wanted this trailer to be filmed in the countryside to show the actor out of his comfort zone of the city. Other greens also add connotations of envy or jealousy which works well with the characters personality as he is getting revenge on his wife’s murderers.

...Other actors I will have wearing either typical casual clothes like jeans and tops and some I will have in suits to show contrast of character.

I plan to have my female actor in a long black dress to once again enhance the theme of a business like attire and also add the style of elegance that will coincide well with the location of the shoot (Elm Hall Hotel). The type of dress I plan to use is one similar to the one below.

Equipment list.• Canon Eos 1100d Camera- for photo shoots.• Panasonic AVC HMC1 HD camera with microphone and tripod.• Sony PJ650VE HD Camera with tripod• Tealights• Matches• Empty beer bottle• Bow tie• Tweed jacket• White shirt• Black shoes• Black trousers• Black cocktail dress• Tie• Cup and saucer• Tea set• Table cloth• Foundation• Fake Blood• FX make up wax• Rope• Axe• Knife• Cocktail glass• tablet

I don't have an extensive equipment list as I don't feel the need to rely on a lot of props to make my trailer effective. I believe I can do this through the content of the clip, clothing, location and audio. The technological equipment ensures for good quality images and filming. Everything else just adds style, formality and reinforces the action genre.

LocationsLocation will play an important role when filming as I don’t want it to look as though it is set in a

busy city; even though the main character is meant to be a high flying business man, I want the trailer to show him out of his comfort zone and therefore, show him in the country looking for the murderers of his wife. Therefore I thought that simply using outside of houses, a hotel room in Elm hall, country roads and so on will be more effective than shooting in public or around buildings.

My first location example is out the back of my friends’ house, he has this small pathway leading to the back of the house and I thought that would make for quite a mysterious shot if I decided to do a long shot. Also this would be good for a low angle shot because to the left there is actually some high trees and this would symbolise country location. So that I don’t use the same location for too many shots I also plan to use my garden for some outdoor shots so it shows a change of location but keeps the theme of the countryside in the audiences mind.

...My next location idea was the docks at

kings Lynn, here I thought I could film some of the more distressed shots in the trailer such as when the actor is deep in thought or angry at himself; I could do long shots that provide a good outlook across the water to enhance this.

The next location is actually at the actors’ house, because of the rocking chair and window I thought that this would be good to do any dark shots needed such as the lighting of the candles (on the fire mantle piece on the left of the TV) or perhaps the dark scene of the actor drinking his tea/ putting his shirt over a cut back an any others that provoke questions. Any dark scenes that do not look good here I will suit in our families workshop as it is very dark (and messy!) and will create this same effect.

...Another location I thought would be good to use is a

church as the countryside is quote often known for the beautiful rural churches and the isolated areas they lie within. This is Walpole church; I thought it would be the best local one to use as if I was to do a low angle shot I would be able to get the steeple of the church looking very majestic. I was thinking I could probably do a fight scene here or a threatening scene to show the contrast of something so horrible happening in front of something so beautiful.

This is a picture of Elm Hall Hotels honeymoon room and I plan to do some of my filming here, especially the filming with the female character as they have a lot of old fashioned furniture that will thoroughly suit the style.

...The tea party scene is going to be a very

iconic clip in the trailer as it is going to be right at the end and therefore I needed a good location for it that still kept the country theme running. I decided that my Nan’s table would be best as it is small and therefore quaint and just the totally wrong thing to put in line with an action trailer. This is what I want, I want to confuse the audience and make them wonder why I have chosen that specific place, like at this point they would question why I used such an old fashioned and grandma style table and it is to show his wife’s style come through him and show the point in which he really gets taken over by her and he falls into an almost psychotic state.

Budget estimations

Equipment

Canon EOS 1100D Camera

Mine from home. No cost.

Panasonic AVC HMC1 HD camera with microphone and tripod.

Sony PJ650VE HD Camera with tripod

Borrowed from college. No cost

PropsCup and saucer

Tea setTable cloth

Borrowed from Nan.No cost.

Tea Lights

Tesco- £1

Foundation

MatchesEmpty glass bottleTieBow tieAxeKnifeRopeFake bloodTablet

All from homeNo cost.

Savers £1.

FX Make up wax

EBay£2.95.

Cocktail glass

Borrowed from work.No cost.

Location

Elm HallSpoke to them and agreed to film.

No other locations require admission fees, they are mostly at my house, friends houses or in open access areas.

ClothesTweed jacketWhite shirtBlack shoesBlack trousersBlack cocktail dress. All actors own or used from home.

No cost

No admission fees.

Travel

Uncertain on how much travel costs will be. Lots of different locations and places to drive to.

Estimated between £5-£10 on petrol each time I go out filming.

I plan to be able to film with a very low budget which is seen worked out below.

Shooting schedule• 09.12.13: Poster photo shoot: location, college studio room, Main actor

meeting at college at 2pm bringing suitable attire. Make-up artist contacted and products bought ready. DSLR camera and lenses ready.

• 26.01.14- magazine photo shoot: location change due to weather predicted at this date, now at Elm Hall Wisbech. Main actor is being picked up at 12pm and told to be wearing suitable attire. DSLR camera once again ready with any other lenses required.

• 02.02.14- filming: smaller HD camera, purely action shots, no sound. 3 Actors required, contacted and arranged to meet at main actors’ house at 11am, two wearing smart clothing

• 09.02.14: filming: Large HD camera, shots with sound. Two actors required, both wearing smart clothing, filming from 11am-4pm, time slots for different clips allocated according to location and weather looking promising.

• 02.03.14- final filming session, finishing touches, do over’s and voice recording. Female actor arranged to film with main actor later on, attire organised and Elm Hall contacted to ensure we are still okay to film in the honeymoon suite.