Our Trailer On Youtube

http://youtu.be/ynZCLu56HqQ

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

During our construction, research, planning and evaluation stages we used many different media technologies to develop our final products. We made extensive use of www.google.co.uk especially in our planning stages to find out about certain films and images of posters. To research genres I used the website www.filmsite.org, which I found particularly useful on sub-genres during my initial research.www.youtube.com was very useful to watch trailers to note conventions we should follow, and gain inspiration.

We created our movie magazine front cover and film poster on Indesign. We edited our pictures on Photoshop and Paintshop Pro, by adding effects such as contrast, shadow and colour for a more professional finish.

To make our texts for our trailer we used Microsoft Word for the captions at the beginning of the trailer. For our 'Betrayal' title we used the website www.dafont.com. To source the most suitable text for our trailer.

To construct and edit our trailer we used Movieplus. This was a simple software to use but enabled us to create some good effects. We were particularly pleased with the CCTV shot. This software proved useful and relatively simple to dub out background noises which would have made our product unconvincing and amateur. This software also allowed us to import gunshot sounds which we downloaded from the Internet which played an important part in this trailer. This process was simple and straight forward.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback we have used 'Facebook' online social network to be the hub for our audience feedback. The photo shows the feedback we have had on our film poster. From this we have learnt that perhaps we should take a closer look at our picture composition, and think about our graphics.

This is our film trailer uploaded to 'Facebook' by Tristam. By using 'Facebook' as our main hub for our audience feedback we thought it would be great for instant feedback as it is a main source of communication for our age group. The cons of using this social network service is it may only get opinions of a certain age group and being a social forum we will expect to have a few comments that are not particularly helpful or useful.

We have received a lot of comments which was very useful and constructive they have been helpful to see our strengths and weaknesses.

The second comment above was particularly good to read from this I can learn that the music we chose worked well. The feedback on pace in particular holding close-up shots for longer to add tension, are very helpful.

Piers has uploaded our trailer onto www.youtube.com in the hope we can have some comments from different people from those on 'facebook', and get a more varied audience feedback.

We have got one positive comment already. "I like the parody aspect of this!" This is an interesting remark as it was not our intention to make a parody of a 'gangster' film but make a serious storyline.

Piers showed that we do not own the songs we used in our trailer to stop any copyright issues.

I handed out a Audience Feedback Questionnaire to those who watched the trailer, and looked at our magazine cover and film poster. From the results I can gather that our genre was clear, the props were good, and the trailer was exciting. I also learned that for some the storyline was hard to follow.

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

I think that the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks work well. I think there is a reoccurring theme through out. Each task compliments each other and creates a brand.

The main product, our trailer, conforms to its genre and challenges it too, with a leading female protagonist. The magazine front cover layout has been inspired by looking at many well known and established 'movie magazines' such as 'Empire Magazine' and 'Total Film Magazine'.

Our magazine front cover which we named 'MovieReel' has been given a special 'Betrayal' edition which is a marketing scheme. The image for the background for the cover is of Sarah against a brick wall holding a gun staring at the camera in a direct mode of address. She looks like she is challenging the viewer. The lighting of the photograph adds to the sinister mood.

The film poster developed by Tristam was inspired by many crime and gangster film posters he researched. The poster shows Sarah in a urban setting with a gun surrounded by clouds this to highlight her confusion and the isolation she finds herself in this film. She is above a London skyline which was edited by Piers. The red skyline reflects the violence and blood which Sarah will experience in the twists and turns of the plot.

I think our trailer has been successful and effective as it has followed the theme of the gangster genre. We managed to conform by using guns with realistic sounds found off the Internet, and the use of the traditional trilby hat is used in a vital scene. However we deviated from the genre by adding 'hoodies' which updated the image. 'Hoodies' are often associated with criminal activity in modern Britain so they were a useful wardrobe choice for this trailer.

The magazine front cover and film poster have dark images which suggests night time, which is when criminal and sinister activity usually takes place. The choice of lighting and colours is effective and adds the whole image we have tried to portray.

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout our media production we have been researching and using media products, we have also tried to challenge them too. Before we began production, once we had decided on a genre we researched into several gangster/crime films and trailers so we could fully understand the conventions, forms and expectations of this genre.

This was a great starting point because it gave us aims and plans to follow. We realised that crime and gangster films are based around a male dominated world and industry. We also discovered that these films appeal to a much higher percentage of men than women. We decided to follow and challenge these ideas. We wanted to follow the stereotypical themes of violence and action to maintain the high percentage of the male audience. We also wanted to capture the attention of the female audience by having the leading protagonist a female who out-smarts, out-thinks and out-moves the males which unbalances this male dominated world. We also included some romance too to appeal to a feminine audience. Gangster films are also most often based in America or Italy we wanted ours to stand out as one of the minority gangster British films. This is illustrated by the red London skyline we have on our film poster.

This film would also appeal greatly to feminists who fight for equality between the sexes, they would love how the young girl seeks to get even with her father and does not conform to the expectations that are pro-male.

We also followed the conventions of this genre. We filmed in urban settings, which is typical and stereotypical this is illustrated on our film poster with the London skyline. We also filmed in rural settings for a contrast and to give the feeling of isolation. We used quick action shots depicting violence and showed images of a gun which is a very powerful enigma code for this type of film. We also used Pier's father to play the 'Don' this is a well known character and is common in these films one of the most famous examples is Marlon Brando's role as Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather'.

We also used conventional costumes such as a trilby hat, and a suit is worn by the 'Don'.

We would have liked to have made our media product even more authentic, but unfortunately we were limited to the props, and equipment available to us. The genre lends itself to special effects but we improvised quite successfully.

To conclude we have both adhered to the traditional genre, and also diverted from it to extend our audience.

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

1. Would you say the film trailer was exciting?


2. Did it entice/ make you want to watch the film?


3. Was the genre clear?


4. Was the props/ mise-en-scene relevant?


5. Was there anything unclear?


6. Was the poster effective?


7. Was the magazine front cover eye catching?

Evaluation Preparation

Final Film Poster

1.

2.

Number two is our finished and final film poster, we choose number two because we thought the composition was better, and preffered to use a different image to our movie magazine front cover.

Final Magzine Front Cover

As you can see from my magazine devleopment I have used the photo of Sarah against a wall as my background.

Filming And Editing Completion

We have now completed our filming and editing. We have finished filming with Sarah as our new leading female, we are very grateful to her because we had to change quickly under difficult circumstances and she was very easy going and prepared to give her best in every scene. I think she was a successful and believable casting. Our editing proved challenging but enjoyable. As a group we managed to each individually have a go at editing but Piers and Calum did the majority. Our most difficult task was putting in the gun shots to time with the film, after many attempts we were pleased with the result.

Final Shot List (With Changes)

1. Shot of text with the words "A story of forbidden love" which coincides with a voice over reading the text.
2. Shot of lovers hand in hand.
3. Stargaze Company logo.
4. Father discussing his daughter's forbidden relationship with assassin.
5. Shot of text with the words "A story of revenge" coinciding with a voice over reading the text.
6. Lovers holding hands at a table.
7. Wolfgang Studios sounds logo.
8. Lovers holding hands and walking.
9. Sound effects company logo.
10. Close up of Father ordering hit.
11. Long shot of and zoom shot of lovers walking and stopping suddenly by seeing someone in the distance.
12. Over shoulder shot of daughter.
13. Shot behind assassin showing holding a gun.
14. close up shot of assassin's face staring towards the couple.
15. Shot behind the assassin running towards them.
16. Shot behind lovers running away from him.
17. Close up of Father continuing to order hit and to make it "fast".
18. Shot of assassin running and stopping.
19. Shot of assassin stopping behind lovers and raising gun.
20. Close up of assassin's face holding gun.
21. Shot behind assassin shooting them both.
22. Close up father ordering to make it "painless".
23. Shot of assassin going walking up to bodies and shooting boy in the head.
24. Long shot of body of boy being carried.
25. long shot of body being thrown in a pond.
26. Shot of text saying "coming soon to theatres October 2011" with voice over saying "Coming soon to a theatre near you".
27. Girl coming back to life
28. Car arriving to a stop
29. Shot behind car with girl getting out holding a gun and zooming as she walks away with voice over saying "The most anticipated gangster film since the Godfather".
30. Assassin vaulting wall, camera shot is below looking up.
31. fight scene.
32. Girl drawing gun.
33. Fight scene.
34. Running shot, assassin.
35. Chase, girl assassin.
36. Running assassin bumping into pedestrians.
37. Assassin continuing to run.
38. fight scene
39. CCTV inside lift looking down with voice over continuing into next shot saying "This is Betrayal".
40. Coming out of lift not CCTV voice over finishing from the last shot "This is betrayal".
41. Father cross at failed hit.
42. Fight scene
43. Girls aims gun around a corner.
44. Fight at night by bins.
45. Girl stands up and twirls with gun in her hand.
46. Black and gun shot is heard.
47. Text Betrayal with voice over sating "Betrayal"
48. Same text shot but with date releases and credits appearing below.

Character Change

We had to have some changes with the cast, because our main leading female protagonist is going on holiday and will not be able to film before our deadline. This has been unfortunate and meant we had to recast but fortunately for us Sarah in our media class has kindly offered to help us. It means that we have to re film a lot of our trailer, and re do the photos for our film poster and magazine. Picture: Sarah Mayes as our new female leading protagonist.

Setting Change

We have had to make some readjustments to our trailer we were not able to use the boat in our trailer due to poor weather conditions which included heavy snow, and availability. This has been frustrating but has allowed us to be creative with coming up with new ideas. We have also had to change our shot list in the process.

Voiceover

Piers and I managed to record our own voiceover using a microphone. We both had a go at trying different accents, as a group we decided to go with Piers' American accent we also lowered his voice. I think this was a good choice, because the American accent even for British film trailers are stereotypically American.

Magazine Cover Progress

These are screenshots of the cover I have developed at various stages.

1.

2. 3.
As you can see below I decided to get rid of the four boxes I decided that it would be better with a background picture, rather than four small pictures.

Sound And Effects Company

This is the logo for 'Signature' the sound and effects 'company' that would contribute to the film. We are hoping to use an animated version in our trailer where the logo is 'written'.

Production Company

We decided on 'Stargaze Productions' as our production name and Calum made a logo for use at the beginning of the trailer. Calum decided to go for a futuristic or 'space like', design. He came across a font similar to the font used in the film 'Star Wars' I think it works really well, and looks quite professional.

Basic Plot

• Two lovers, children of rival gang leaders, have a relationship in secret. Despite their efforts, their Fathers (or one of them) discovers this and orders the assassination of them both.


• The couple are interrupted while together by a 'hitman' and are seemingly both killed. Their bodies are thrown into a harbour.


• The girl survives, though injured. Her lover is dead. She is bent on revenge against her Father.


• She kills her assassin. She also kills many more people on her journey to her Father. She does this seemingly without hesitation.


• Her Father dicovers that it is his daughter killing his men. Rather than feeling remorse or paternal compassion he steps up his game and orders her immediate death.


• She eventually finds him but leaves him to live, though a broken and helpless man.

The following diagram shows the flow of events as seen in both the feature film and the trailer.

The final scene is not focused at all in the trailer as we do not want to reveal the ending of the story.