Construction
Final Trailer Product:
Task 18-
Filming Problems and Highlights
From my perspective as an editor and director the main problems for me were when it came to making sure continuity was correct to make sure that the footage would look satisfying when editing the clips together. This is very important because even though it may be non-linear and shorter clips are used it is very important that it flows and that it looks pleasing as we want the audience to be intrigued by it. Therefore it took a while as we shot multiple takes in order to get the continuity correct and also to have back ups in case when it came down to actually developing the trailer we needed more footage. Furthermore as a director sometimes on my own as the 'leader' of the group I struggled to come up with new ideas at the time when some ideas that we planned didn't work out or perhaps when we felt we needed to use more experimental and interesting shots. However my partner and even our cast were able to contribute to the ideas and help out.
From my perspective as a director and editor my main highlights were being able to think of different transitions that would work with the shots we were doing as this would help us and give us more of an idea; this actually helped us come up with more ideas together at the time such as the graphic match shot of the bell and red ball due to suggesting a fade transitions to be used in the trailer. Furthermore as a director my main highlights were being able to be a very efficient and open minded 'leader'; as I was very committed and focused on the tasks at hand. I also was very open to new ideas that may have been better than our planned ones, I was quite flexible with new ideas however still obviously made a lot of contributions to the filming. I would help the actors develop on their characters more so it came across as more naturalistic and I also made sure we still stuck by our storyboard structure in order to keep the narrative clear; but kept an open mind to help the trailer be developed better.
Problems during filming:
|
Highlights during filming:
|
Task 19-
Choice of Music and Sound Effects
Our initial ideas...
|
|
We originally were going to use this sound in the background of the trailer, we thought that both the pieces of instrumental music fit perfectly together and that they created suspense throughout. Furthermore it also created sympathy towards the bullied character, Millie because using the 'suspenseful music' at the beginning (as it is softer than the rest); could be used to relate to the sadder subject. Then later on using the 'Anticipation music' to buildup the tension especially at the end to create an overwhelming feeling. However looking at other trailers and ones that we researched we realised that this was crossing the line of thriller conventions a bit too much and seemed out of place; we then realised we should probably use actual music in order to create a more intriguing and conventional trailer that makes our audience more interested in it.
Inspiration:
'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' trailer-
This trailer inspired us and we were really taken back by it, the use of the sound is quite simple but so effective; the use of the young girl singing throughout gives a rather chilling atmosphere. The lack of sound allows the audience to really emphasise on the young girl's voice- and the popular use of song gives the audience a false sense of security as the song is quite cheerful in the popular known version by Ellie Goulding. The song gives a sense of hope and joy where as 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' trailer gives off a completely different tone with its action on screen. The trailer although not giving too much away about the narrative clearly highlights a negative subject; this gives the audience the perception of the main subject being an 'illness' which has spread amongst the family or so far the siblings- perhaps something supernatural. The contrapuntal sound really makes the audience feel uneasy due to the mixture of emotions, i.e. a cheerful song with negative action, this really made the atmosphere unnerving and shocked us quite a bit. We were both so inspired by the use of sound in this trailer and thought that using a similar technique in our trailer would create a powerful impact on the audience which is what we want for a thriller trailer.
This here is the original and more popular known version of the song which is covered and used in the trailer of 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' film. As shown through this music video it is clearly conveyed that the song is quite powerful but with a joyful and positive intention; where as in the trailer it is used for the opposite intention with the aim to create a 'creepy' tone to it. This works very well due to the fact myself and my partner reacted exactly as we believed was intended by the director; leaving us feeling slightly 'spooked'.
|
|
Songs that we focused on:
|
|
|
'Happy Little Pill'- We both thought that this song gave a 'creepy' mood to the atmosphere and thought the pace was quite suitable for a trailer that could be easily and cleverly distorted in order to fit our thriller trailer correctly. We particularly liked the lyrics because we thought they suited the subject well as the lyrics, "My happy little pill, Take me away, Dry my eyes, Bring colour to my skies, My sweet little pill, Tame my hunger, Lie within, Numb my skin" really relate to our characters, for example Ella suffers from severe anxiety and in particular the lyrics 'tame my hunger, lie within, numb my skin' could be used to portray Ella's suffering and perhaps actions as her mental health has caused her to become 'numb' and her mental health has become too overwhelming and within a period of time she wasn't able to 'tame' her actions caused by her health problems. However the song wasn't quite what we were looking for overall as we thought it would be a good idea to use contrapuntal sound to create an uneasy feeling for the audience and a song that would give a false sense of security; where as using this would be using parallel sound as the slightly sad music would fit the sad actions on screen but we wanted to push the boundaries more for our thriller trailer to intrigue our audience even more.
'Ho Hey'- We both knew this song already and both are a fan of the song believing that it might fit our trailer due to the upbeat rhythm and also lyrics that would be able to reflect the story slightly; this being a perfect mixture of an upbeat rhythm and perhaps seen as slightly sinister lyrics when applied to a darker narrative of the actions shown in our trailer. "(Ho!) So show me family, (Hey!) All the blood that I would bleed, (Ho!) I don't know where I belong, (Hey!) I don't know where I went wrong" these lyrics we found to mirror Millie's character quite well, these lyrics can be used to convey Millie's isolation and exclusion from the rest of her school environment ( as she doesn't 'know where' she belongs) ; perhaps being able to foreshadow that she is in fact innocent and doesn't 'know where' she 'went wrong' to end up in this situation. However although the upbeat tune and mirroring lyrics seemed to fit perfectly the song just didn't sound as good when put together with the trailer and it didn't give us the effect we wanted; as we thought that we could find a song that would fit better that would create a more chilling atmosphere and feeling as this one didn't seem to give that atmosphere and just seemed out of place.
'Over the Rainbow'- We both knew this song as it is quite famous and well known from the film 'The Wizard of Oz' and knew because of this quite a few of our viewers/audience would know it also and using it in a different context would intrigue our audience. We thought that the song would be good to use by its self as well as using it with other music to help the pace move a bit faster to create a more intense trailer and to build the tension; the song not only would create a more 'creepy' and 'chilling' atmosphere due to the contrapuntal sound creating a false sense of security but also it would be flexible to use with other sound to enhance the impact of the narrative. We also really liked the lyrics and thought they fit well for our trailer, such as the lyrics: "Someday I'll wish upon a star, Wake up where the clouds are far behind me, Where trouble melts like lemon drops, High above the chimney top, That's where you'll find me, Oh, somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly, And the dream that you dare to, Oh why, oh why can't I?." The lyrics can be used to portray the character's feelings well as the whole idea of the song is wishing for your 'dreams to come true', we thought this would especially work with Millie's character as the trailer gives the perception that her school environment is unpleasant and her way of it being better is too in fact get 'revenge.' However we also thought it would be a clever idea to use in order to foreshadow the character, Ella's mental health as we thought it could cleverly portray that Ella's world is also not as perfect as everyone thinks and she like Millie wishes for something better in her life.
After analysing all three music choices and using them with our footage we found the one we thought fit best and gave across the correct vibe and impact we wanted in order to make our audience feel 'spooked' and make them intrigued and wanting to find out more about our narrative.
'Ho Hey'- We both knew this song already and both are a fan of the song believing that it might fit our trailer due to the upbeat rhythm and also lyrics that would be able to reflect the story slightly; this being a perfect mixture of an upbeat rhythm and perhaps seen as slightly sinister lyrics when applied to a darker narrative of the actions shown in our trailer. "(Ho!) So show me family, (Hey!) All the blood that I would bleed, (Ho!) I don't know where I belong, (Hey!) I don't know where I went wrong" these lyrics we found to mirror Millie's character quite well, these lyrics can be used to convey Millie's isolation and exclusion from the rest of her school environment ( as she doesn't 'know where' she belongs) ; perhaps being able to foreshadow that she is in fact innocent and doesn't 'know where' she 'went wrong' to end up in this situation. However although the upbeat tune and mirroring lyrics seemed to fit perfectly the song just didn't sound as good when put together with the trailer and it didn't give us the effect we wanted; as we thought that we could find a song that would fit better that would create a more chilling atmosphere and feeling as this one didn't seem to give that atmosphere and just seemed out of place.
'Over the Rainbow'- We both knew this song as it is quite famous and well known from the film 'The Wizard of Oz' and knew because of this quite a few of our viewers/audience would know it also and using it in a different context would intrigue our audience. We thought that the song would be good to use by its self as well as using it with other music to help the pace move a bit faster to create a more intense trailer and to build the tension; the song not only would create a more 'creepy' and 'chilling' atmosphere due to the contrapuntal sound creating a false sense of security but also it would be flexible to use with other sound to enhance the impact of the narrative. We also really liked the lyrics and thought they fit well for our trailer, such as the lyrics: "Someday I'll wish upon a star, Wake up where the clouds are far behind me, Where trouble melts like lemon drops, High above the chimney top, That's where you'll find me, Oh, somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly, And the dream that you dare to, Oh why, oh why can't I?." The lyrics can be used to portray the character's feelings well as the whole idea of the song is wishing for your 'dreams to come true', we thought this would especially work with Millie's character as the trailer gives the perception that her school environment is unpleasant and her way of it being better is too in fact get 'revenge.' However we also thought it would be a clever idea to use in order to foreshadow the character, Ella's mental health as we thought it could cleverly portray that Ella's world is also not as perfect as everyone thinks and she like Millie wishes for something better in her life.
After analysing all three music choices and using them with our footage we found the one we thought fit best and gave across the correct vibe and impact we wanted in order to make our audience feel 'spooked' and make them intrigued and wanting to find out more about our narrative.
Luka Shaxson's Audio ('Ho Hey' cover)- although this wasn't our final choice we decided to before choosing to record audio for both 'Over the Rainbow' and 'Ho Hey' to look over both songs as we at first were slightly torn between the two, however we realised that one had more advantages and fit better than the other...
|
|
Our final decision:
Luka Shaxson's 'Over the Rainbow' Audio
We decided to focus on the song 'Over the Rainbow' we thought that it would be really good to use in our trailer and after using it with our footage we wanted to enhance the speed half way through in order to build the tension of it otherwise it felt too slow and could feel boring. So after deciding that this song fitted well and created the correct atmosphere we wanted which was slightly 'creepy' we added it in with other pieces of music and sound effects to make the trailer better. We decided to go back to some of our initial ideas as we thought that the 'Anticipation music' worked well with our music choice especially towards the end in order to make the trailer faster in order to convey the codes and conventions of a thriller film to achieve our audience's expectation and please them. The 'Anticipation music' is quite fast and uses low pitches which gives quite a tense feeling which is why we thought it would be good to use in our trailer when it is suggested that Alice has gone missing.
Furthermore we wanted to highlight and symbolise certain aspects of the narrative such as the characters; so we decided to use the sound effects, which were: 'Impact hit', 'Wind haunted', bell interior'. Firstly the sound effect 'Impact hit' is what the name of it describes, it is simply a sound of an impact being made against something, that we thought could be used for quite sudden moments to create a more 'snappy' and intense trailer even from the beginning where it is slower. We used the sound in order to almost announce the shots at the beginning which it is used on; the shots we used it on was the first shots the main characters are shown. This giving a sense of eeriness and in a subtle way gives the audience the perception that they are all important to the narrative and gives them the perception that there is a link between the friendship group and Millie. This is our audience intention as we want them to believe that Millie is the one to blame for Alice going missing.
Furthermore the sound effect 'Wind haunted' is the sound of wind blowing however we believed by using it in a different context it would create a different effect, we used it when the character Millie appeared on screen at the beginning, we did this as we thought it fit perfectly giving an unnerving feeling about the character leading the audience to believe she is the perpetrator. This is because the sound makes her seem suspicious and almost makes you feel uncomfortable making the audience think more deeply into her character.
Lastly we used the sound effect 'bell interior' which we simply used for the footage of our bell to give the overall feel of the school environment and atmosphere; there were two options for this, 'bell interior' and 'bell exterior' we made the decision to use the 'bell interior' sound effect as we believed that it sounded more like a school bell creating a more realistic feel to the trailer and narrative.
Furthermore we wanted to highlight and symbolise certain aspects of the narrative such as the characters; so we decided to use the sound effects, which were: 'Impact hit', 'Wind haunted', bell interior'. Firstly the sound effect 'Impact hit' is what the name of it describes, it is simply a sound of an impact being made against something, that we thought could be used for quite sudden moments to create a more 'snappy' and intense trailer even from the beginning where it is slower. We used the sound in order to almost announce the shots at the beginning which it is used on; the shots we used it on was the first shots the main characters are shown. This giving a sense of eeriness and in a subtle way gives the audience the perception that they are all important to the narrative and gives them the perception that there is a link between the friendship group and Millie. This is our audience intention as we want them to believe that Millie is the one to blame for Alice going missing.
Furthermore the sound effect 'Wind haunted' is the sound of wind blowing however we believed by using it in a different context it would create a different effect, we used it when the character Millie appeared on screen at the beginning, we did this as we thought it fit perfectly giving an unnerving feeling about the character leading the audience to believe she is the perpetrator. This is because the sound makes her seem suspicious and almost makes you feel uncomfortable making the audience think more deeply into her character.
Lastly we used the sound effect 'bell interior' which we simply used for the footage of our bell to give the overall feel of the school environment and atmosphere; there were two options for this, 'bell interior' and 'bell exterior' we made the decision to use the 'bell interior' sound effect as we believed that it sounded more like a school bell creating a more realistic feel to the trailer and narrative.
Sound effects:
|
Music:
|
Task 20-
Use of Trailer Conventions
|
|
I believe our trailer followed trailer conventions quite well, we found inspiration through researching thriller trailers and finding out what they use and how they use conventions in order to please their audience and get people to want to watch their film from their trailer. From this we found inspiration and used certain micro-features which we saw a lot through the trailers we watched and used it in our own individual way to create a certain atmosphere in our trailer. We believe with a mixture of popular and interesting shots that are known to be used in trailers will help increase the success of the trailer as it is more professional and intriguing.
Task 21-
Production Company Logo
Looking at examples of Production Company Logos...
Mood Board
I made a mood board in order to try and gain inspiration for creating our production company logo, in my mood board I saw that most of the Production Company Logos were quite simple in order to not distract the audience from the main film trailer. Most of them also use darker colours and are shown to lack in having actual pictures and images just showing the name of the production company which seems to be the main thing for the production company logo. I believe this is a good idea because the company wants their name to be remembered more than anything and having that as the main thing in bold will attract the audience and is more likely to be remembered then; however the logo should still be unique so it is remembered but doesn't need to be complicated.
After looking at some logos in the context of the trailers I realised that the production company logos are usually and mostly likely to be edited in right at the beginning. I believe this is done so that the audience are able to link the logo to the trailer straight away; for example because our logo won't be well known if we put it at the beginning of the trailer people will then associate the film as independent perhaps grabbing their attention as it is something new and different they won't have seen before.
|
|
Drafts of Production Company Logo
Here are some of the initial ideas for names we came up with for our Production Company Logo:
-Primal Fears
-ProductionsNightfall
-McLh
-Haunted House Productions
-MCLH Production
-Flickering Lights
-Primal Fears
-ProductionsNightfall
-McLh
-Haunted House Productions
-MCLH Production
-Flickering Lights
We had this Production Company Logo as an initial idea as the animation is quite effective in presenting our genre for our trailer as the colour and motion conveys the feelings of fear and danger. However the software we used had been quite difficult to use and seemed to be very temperamental so we had to use a phone in order to shoot the footage and due to the quality of the camera and the difficulty of transferring the footage it effected the overall video in a negative way.
|
We had this Production Company Logo as an initial idea as the 'bloody' effect grabs the attention of the audience and is a convention of the thriller genre meaning the audience will know what genre our trailer is. Also the font can be seen as quite chaotic and therefore conveys a sense of doom, this also linking to our genre. However the font isn't very easy to read and with the logo it was quite hard to change therefore we thought our audience wouldn't remember our production company name and therefore our trailer might not be memorable.
|
Our Final Production Company Logo...
This is our Production Company Logo for our trailer, the reasoning for the name is the mixture of mine and my partner's initials as we together were the ones who created the trailer. We thought that the effect and colour was quite simple however the simplicity makes it look smarter and more professional; the reason we wanted the logo to move and appear on screen rather than be still is because we thought that without the movement that it was missing something and would be too simple without it (i.e. wouldn't necessarily catch the audience's eye.)
|
|
How did we make it?...
We created our logo on Final Cut Pro with use of the texts, effects and other clever techniques that can be used on there to create an overall professional logo, we created a animation logo choosing the correct style and colouring we thought fit a thriller trailer best. We were happy with our end product as we thought it looked smart and was easy to read in order to make the audience to be more likely to remember our name and for our production company to be remembered and to be easily recognised for our trailer.
Task 22-
Challenges we faced during the Editing Process
These pictures below show some of the footage we took and that we used during the editing process...
From my perspective as a director and editor the main challenges we faced during the editing process was piecing it together as, as a director I wanted our message of the narrative to get through to the audience which was Alice going missing and the audience to believe the perpetrator is Millie. However we didn't want to reveal the twist as it would ruin it so editing it in a way were it was left to the audience as slightly mysterious but also for the narrative to be clear was a challenge. However, to overcome this we added in bits that showed writing over a black screen and used a close up of the missing poster so that the victim was clear to the audience. Furthermore as an editor the main challenge I faced during the editing process was editing the footage together with the sound as we needed it to have the conventions of a trailer so it needed to be quite snappy and quick in pace. However matching fast pace music with slower footage was challenging and looked odd, to overcome this I suggested creating our own cover of a piece of music and matching it that way as not only would we be able to direct how someone sang to fit our trailer but also it would be unique as it would be our own individual cover of a song.
Task 23-
Analysing Target Audience Feedback on the First Draft of our Trailer
'Incrimination' First Draft:
This is our first draft of our thriller trailer 'Incrimination', in order to develop our trailer and make it appeal to more of our target audience we used different techniques to get feedback from our audience. We released our first draft on our YouTube channels for our viewers to see and give their opinion on what could be made better and what would appeal to them more. We started off with asking to film some people (who fit into our target market) if we could film their reactions and also if they could give their honest opinions through a questionnaire we produced.
|
|
Response to the first draft of 'Incrimination'
Questionnaire
We created a questionnaire and handed it out to people we showed the trailer to in order to gain more information about their opinions so we could try and improve it for the better. We showed the trailer to male and female viewers from the age of 15 and above but aimed to show the trailer to our target audience which is 15 years of age to 25 years of age (teenagers and young adults.)
Questionnaire results
From the responses we discovered that we needed to particularly work on sound in our trailer- our audience found that sound was an issue and it needed to be built up more and used in a better way, for example using more sound throughout rather than just the singing as the music added in is too abrupt and we also found out that we needed to have a better use for the sound effects; using them in a better and more effective way.
Analysis of Response
Through our target audience research we discovered that teenagers and young adults respond better to thriller films as they seem to enjoy them more this is why it was important that we recorded the information from the right audience otherwise we wouldn't be appealing to our target audience. Our target audience research also developed our understanding of what our sort of audience we are targeting enjoy seeing in a trailer, we found out that plot was an essential subject when it came to engaging our audience in our trailer; so we had make sure our plot was intriguing and met the audience's expectation for a thriller trailer. Furthermore we also discovered that our audience preferred a 'niche' story line and enjoyed there being a plot twist in their film. This is why as well as using thriller trailer conventions such as a dolly zoom and tension building music, we also created a more unique plot and also included a plot twist through the character Ella focusing on her mental health; this is where in the trailer we have a shot of Ella taking her medication to foreshadow her actions without actually revealing the twist.
Furthermore due to the fact that our audience said they preferred to have a cast a similar age to themselves we cast teenagers who were aged about 17 years, also due to the fact of the casting and environment of a middle class suburban location we recorded reactions from people who lived in a similar environment and people who may be able to relate to the characters (our target audience members); and although we are targeting our trailer to both female and male viewers, through our target audience research more females responded positively as it has mainly a female cast this is why we interviewed more females than males.
Furthermore due to the fact that our audience said they preferred to have a cast a similar age to themselves we cast teenagers who were aged about 17 years, also due to the fact of the casting and environment of a middle class suburban location we recorded reactions from people who lived in a similar environment and people who may be able to relate to the characters (our target audience members); and although we are targeting our trailer to both female and male viewers, through our target audience research more females responded positively as it has mainly a female cast this is why we interviewed more females than males.
How we will improve our trailer:
After all our research through interacting with our target audience and getting an understanding of how they felt about the trailer we discovered how we needed to improve our trailer- we needed to mainly focus on sound and perhaps experiment more with sound effects to create a more tension building trailer. To improve on this we should do more research to develop on our use on thriller trailer conventions in order to reach our audience's expectations and engage them even more in our trailer.
|
|