Trailer Construction

Above is the fourth cut of my trailer. I corrected the mistake with the "S" in the last sequence. To add something extra and more edgy, I tried increasing the contrasts of the shots, but that didn't really seemed to work and it lost the look that it had before, so I reverted back to the previous settings. I invited people who could be in my target audience to comment it on youtube, to give me some audience feedback. I have gained some feedback that it is still a bit long and that there is a shot near the end (1:47) that features the subject talking, but there is no audible dialogue. I don't think this is a negative point, as there is a dialogue over the top, and it could be read as him not being paid attention to/ being ignored, which would again echo the purpose/ idea behind the film. Below are some comments that I received in response to this cut of the trailer and nobody seemed to have any criticisms of the trailer when I showed it to them.

Below is a short clip of one person in my target audience who I asked their opinion of regarding my trailer. The clip isn't very long, but they didn't have any criticisms and their feedback was very positive. They understood the message and meaning of the trailer straight away - also commenting that it appealed to trendies and indie scenesters and explaining why. I also had other chats like this one with other people who could be in my target audience to find out the strengths and weaknesses of my work, but sadly I didn't film them.

This is the third rough cut of my trailer. I have gotten rid of the soundtrack that I made in Garageband, and imported some sound files that I recorded myself; one on an acoustic guitar and one on an electric using a "FuzzBrite" and "Danelectro" pedal. These pedals gave quite a good 60s/garage sound, which sadly became slightly distorted when I recorded it through an amplifier using a microphone. Below is a picture of the guitar and equipment I used, recording the sound into a laptop.

Despite this fact, I still think it sounds much better than the Garageband soundtracks and I think it fits in with the tone of the trailer much better, giving a more gritty and home-made sound. I used one acoustic and one electric track to reflect the variation of emotions that would be in the film really; low feelings like sadness and despair, and more edgier, hard-hitting feelings like anger or happiness. I also managed to cut down 27 seconds of the trailer, making it more the length of a real trailer. I got rid of a few shots which I thought could be irrelevant and hinder the audience understanding it, such as the shot of the sky turning round and this also helped me to make the trailer more like a real trailer length. I lost the rest of the time by cutting shots down to the bare minimum that they needed to be seen. I think I have improved it a lot from the last rough cut and I'm pleased with the outcome.

However, after asking my peers what they thought of it, a couple of people pointed out that they aren't sure what the story-line actually is. This could be a problem, because the point or the idea of the film was that there was no story-line; it is just about a young boy growing up but not identifying with anything and trying to find a way through that - it's meant to be like real life. So, I think this problem could be solved by creating or inserting some text to create a bit of a narrative thread throughout the trailer. I could possibly add another voiceover, with a different speaker to give the audience an idea of some kind of narrative, but I don't want to over-complicate things, I want to keep a kind of simplicity that mirrors the life of the character in the trailer. Also, I don't want there to be too many sounds; when there was no soundtrack, the trailer seemed dull, but it seemed acceptable and I liked the background noise in everything, but if I add too many sounds, I don't want to lose that feel. I have also noticed that the in the end sequence of letters and short shots, the "S" is too big for the area it is in, so is cut off and then fades out, which I will need to go back to and correct.

This is the second rough cut of my trailer. I corrected the colour issue that was present in the first rough cut, and added a soundtrack. I created the soundtrack using Garageband, but I'm not really very happy with it. Below is a screenshot of me using the software to create a trailer song.

It sounds really dull and I'm not very competent at using the software at all, so I ended up looping the same instrumental sections over and over, which I don't think sounds great. There also weren't any sounds that I could find that sounded especially 60s or nostalgic. I think that to overcome this I will try recording myself playing the songs that I originally wanted to use on the guitar and see what they sound like in the trailer. I also added a shot saying "presents" after someone commented that it would enhance the trailer and make it look more professional. However, after seeing in the trailer after uploading it into my blog, I have to say that I disagree and I don't think it really fits as I had to use the font Arial to have continuation with the text at the end of the trailer, and it just looks dull and unnecessary. In addition to this the trailers that I used in my textual analysis did not contain this feature, so I think I will cut this out of my trailer.

This is the first rough cut of my trailer. Basically, so far I've captured/imported the footage and institutional logos, putting them in order in coordance with my storyboards and uploaded it to see what it looks like so far. I used the "desaturate" tool in Final Cut Express to make the footage greyscale, but as you can see I missed out one shot by mistake. There also isn't any soundtrack, so it looks a bit dull and boring, which I will try to change. It's quite long at the moment, at 2 minutes 32 seconds, so I may have to shorten some shots as trailers aren't really that long normally. I think there are some good shots in my trailer however, and I am pleased with the voice-overs/monologues and how they fit with the footage. I need to alter the sequence of shots towards the end of the trailer, which I can't do until I have a soundtrack, because I intended them to be fast-paced and in time to some 60s sounding music. I like that the look of the trailer is quite rough and plain and I think it fits in well with the narrative.

This is a screengrab of using Final Cut Express, which I am using to create my trailer. I'm suprised at how quick and easy the process of getting used to the software has been and I enjoy using the programme. However, there are still alot of features that I have not used, or featured in my trailer. I plan to do so during the process of making the trailer.

Soundtrack Problem

Today our media class was told that our teachers have been informed by OCR that we aren't allowed to use a copyrighted soundtrack, regardless of whether or not we had been granted permission from the artist to do so. This means that I will have to create a soundtrack myself, which will be a problem as I am not very competent at using Garageband, as I have previously found out. The soundtrack was what I was hoping would thread my trailer together, as the lyrics and nostalgic sound contributed to the narrative. However, I will nevertheless have to spend some time using the music software and getting to grips with how it works. This will probably eat into my production time as it will now be the largest chunk of production taking up the most time.

Shooting

11 September - 12 September

I really like this image as well. Pete isn't positioned the same as in the flatplans, but I think it still looks good for either the film poster or film magazine cover. I took all of the photos on location at the car park, instead of out in the open as I intended to for the magazine cover image. I did this because I thought it was a great atmospheric location, that helped to reflect a lot of the sentiment that I wanted to be in the film trailer.

I would have liked the above image for the film poster, if it wasn't for the fact that you can see myself reflected in Pete's glasses. However, I could use this image for the film magazine cover and collage over this reflection, which I think would look really good, but it may be abit too close to/similar to the image I want to use for the film poster.

I really like the above image and I think it would look great with text over for the film poster. Below is the image in greyscale, not heavilly edited, but just to give a rough idea of what it would look like, which I think looks pretty good. It was a lot harder to take photos from this position, which was the one I had planned to take it from, than I intended. This was partially because I'm not as tall as Pete, and partially because the sun kept reflecting in his glasses, or casting my shadow onto him. So, there is still some light being reflected, which I couldn't really help. I also like the "UP" written on the floor in the background as it matches the film title "Rise.":

These are some photos taken during filming, showing me capturing shots of Carol leaving the house as shown in the storyboard.

Shooting Schedules

This is a scanned in shooting schedule that I used for the stills camera on the days of shooting. I didn't actually stick precisely to it however, and I just took as many shots as I could.

Below are scannings of the photoshoot plans that I used during the course of filming. I used them to record when each shot was taken, and what each shot was of, which will be useful and make the footage easy to navigate my way around when it comes to the editing stage. I wasn't really sure about editing decisions as of yet, so I made some notes about what I think would work with each shot, but they aren't anything definite, as I think it would be very hard to tell how to edit the footage without watching it properly yet.

During the filming, I decided to get rid of the shots where passers-by in the street were shouting "Oi wanker" at the main character. This was partly due to not being able to get all my models together at the same convenient time, and it was also partly due to the fact that I had quite a lot of footage and I thought for the purpose of the trailer that it wasn't needed and it would save time, leaving more chance to get other good shots.

Alterations to Plans

On the Tuesday before shooting, my main actor (John) dropped out of my project because of an important enagement. I asked my friend Pete to step in for me, which he agreed to, and below is the model release form and call sheet for him.

This change also meant changing the main character's name, of which he now has none. I thought that as there are no names mentioned, this wouldn't matter and also adds an absence/sense of removal that could reflect isolation. Also, other films that I like have the feature of nameless characters, such as "Withnail And I" and "Is Anybody There?" - a name adds identity and a past which I don't want my character to have because I want him to be purely relateable.

Risk Assessment and Hazard Evaluation

For every location I want to shoot in, I have filled in risk assessments and hazard evaluations to try and identify and minimise the risks/hazards in each. Below are the sheets for

The sheets below assess the dangers in the South Park.

These are the sheets assessing the risks in the house I want to shoot in.

The sheets below correspond to Feethams disused football ground.

The sheets below are for the Cornmill Shopping Centre car-park.

The sheets below are for the back lane I want to shoot in.

Skills Development

This is the second cut of the promo video. I have inserted the institutional logos that I made into the start of the video, and inserted small pieces of text during the video when people are talking. I also used the transitions options to create fade-ins and fade-outs. I was suprised at how easy this seemed and I learnt a lot of techniques during the production; such as how to move many things along a timeline at once, and how to alter texts and where they sit in a frame.

This is a short video that I made using Final Cut Express and footage that I had not captured, but which we were given to make into a promo film for the media department at college. I found the editing of the footage quite a fun process, and I took it as an opporunity to play around with different effects like reversing shots, slowing shots down, changing the opacity of a shot and fade outs. We also had to make our own soundtrack using Garageband, which I wasn't really very good at using, but I think it adds a bit of depth to the video anyway. I didn't manage to make to make the sountrack come in and out smoothly, which I think is something I will need to pay attention to when making my own trailer. However, thankfully, I will be using songs which already exist, so I my lack of Garageband skills won't effect the quality of my trailer, and I will also have a much longer time scale to create my own product, which will hopefully mean that I can pay more attention to details such as music timing and smooth sound editing. Despite the fact that I wasn't massively pleased with the outcome, I really enjoyed the task and I think I learnt a lot during the process of completing it.

Visit to Teesside University - Monday 6th September

During the visit, we had a chance to use professional cameras (above), and were shown all the different features that these had. It was really useful and informative, giving many helpful tips, such as how to use the tripods, the different of microphones. The latter is something that I hadn't really considered, but is something that I am now aware of, as I want to use diegetic sound effects and monologues in my production. I also learned how to achieve focus the picture, change the lighting levels and achieve a smooth shot. It was a good opportunity to practice filming shots that I want to use in my trailer, such as different distance shots and framing.

We spent the other half of the visit working with Final Cut Pro (above) and were shown how to use the editing facilities that the program holds. I had never used this software before, apart from to create the animatic, so this gave me the opportunity to practice and use the different tools in the program. I learnt how to change the volume levels in the soundtrack and how to slice up footage and move different sequences/shots around. I also found out how to change the speed of shots and was told that footage can be transferred into greyscale (which is what I want my trailer to be in).

I began to start taking photos in the style I want my stills to be for the magazine front cover and film poster:
I needed to practice getting the angles and distances right, something which I didn't really achieve in terms of angles in the photo above.
With this shot, I achieved the right angle and distance for the photo for my film magazine cover. I also liked the shadows it created, both on and off the face, and this got me thinking about shadow in the cover I have planned to make - what I have planned is a bit 2 -D in terms of cutting and pasting things on to a photograph. However, if the photo contains shadows, it could give it some depth and improve it.
I initially found it hard to get high enough to take a decent shot and still be able to see what I was actually taking a photo of. It was also hard to do this without obstructing the light source.
After I found out how to do this, I experimented with closer shots, and shots that were further away. I liked this shot, but I thought it was too much of a close up when compared with the plans I made earlier.

I really liked this shot, but I was a bit annoyed that it wasn't in the centre, which I think is something I need to practice before the actual shooting days. However, if it was the real shot, I would probably cut it down a bit once I had found the right angle and height to take the image from.

The Breakfast Club Trailer Analysis on Prezi

As part of my skills development, I analysed a film trailer and tried to recreate it in stills. This helped me improve/discover what I need to improve; such as photography and logo creation. It also helped me to realise the scale of such a project as a film trailer.

Scripts

Here is a screenshot of the script. I found it very difficult to write without sounding pretentious or cringey. I tried to minimise these factors and keep each section in keeping with when it will be in the trailer, so that the footage can be used to unravel subjects like that of fashion and music that I didn't know how to incorporate into the script. I may have to lengthen these monologues however, depending on how long they go on for in the trailer itself.

However, I think that when it actually comes to the filming that I will discuss what I've written so far with my main actor and see what he thinks of it, as he is in my target audience. This way, I will be able to bounce my ideas off someone to get a useful response and hopefully improve it along the way. Also, he might be able to advise me and improve/ add bits to what I have written.

Call Sheets and Model Release Forms

The people that I created call sheets for are John Newton, Carol Sommer, David Stobart, Hannah Robinson and Chris Munden. Here are screen shots of 3 out of 5 call sheets I have constructed for the characters I will need to be played in my film trailer and other productions.
As well as call sheets, I also made model release forms, to ensure that I had the models' permission to use their image and broadcast it on youtube and blogger/ the internet. Below are examples of one of the model release forms:

Photoshoot Plans

I made photoshoot plans for the shots I needed for my film magazine cover and film poster. Below is the plan for the film poster:

This is the photoshoot plan for the film magazine cover:

Both of these shots will be out in the open, so the light source will be the sun (natural light) and this will probably be low key for the majority of the film trailer. For the second shot this should be fine because it is so open, as it's in a field, but for the first shot there may not be enough light and it might be too dark. If this is the case, I may be able to shoot it on the top floor (the roof) of the car park, which will be out in the open and give me enough light. This could also make it look higher up and make the shot look altogether more imposing. As both shots are close-ups, I will have to make sure that I am not blocking the light so that I don't cause a direct shadow on my subject's face.

Recce

Streets.

This is the road perpendicular to the one that the sixth form college is situated on. I want to use streets in the shot where my main subject will be shouted at by other teenagers. I think this street gives a good perspective and will allow me to include the main character walking past and the other people in the background. Also, because it is so close to college it will create a physical barrier between people of the same ages and my character, showing that even in a place where other people are the same age, he still feels isolated.

These images (above and below) are of some streets in the surrounding area. They are quite "safe" and the people who live there are most likely middle class - which will connect with my target audience. Again, these streets could create a seperation, as the character is in a safe area, but still feels lonely and is verbally attacked by other teenagers. I am allowed to film on these streets, as they are out in the public and I don't think there will be much traffic here as it's quite a residential area.

House interior.

This is the front room of the house I am going to film in. You can see from this photo, and the following ones, that it already has most of the props I will need, in terms of books, CDs and records, so there will hopefully be no major expense there. It has quite a modern design, but most of the indoor shots are close up, so this shouldn't matter too much.

This could be where the main chracter sits to read.

This room also contains a record player, which will be useful for the shots I need to take of the main character putting on records.

This is the bedroom that I am going to use for filming in, I think it will look quite good in grey scale, and this will be used as the setting for when the main chracter dresses and dances. On the wall next to the bed is a collage of posters, pictures and odd things that I found to do with music and with a special reference to music of past decades. This could help to portray the obsession with nostalgia, as well as the costume and look that my character will have.

However, the wall paper at the end of the bed doesn't really fit in, and I would have preferred something plain, so maybe I could tack up a roll of plain paper to make it look more dull and harsh. If I did this, it would also give me a good background to film the dancing against.

This will be the view from the top of the stairs that I need where the main character's mother shouts up the stairs. There seems to be enough light, but I like the way the light decreases towards the top of the stairs, which I think will look quite good in grey scale. There are some photos hanging on the wall on the way up the stairs, but I can take these down when it comes to filming.This is the hall of the house, where there will be a shot of the door closing behind the mother after she has left. Again, I think there is good light, and I do have permission to film here.

Car Park.

This is the car park which I have requested permission to film in, which I need to use for the opening of my trailer. I am currently waiting for a reply to this request and so will wait to see if I can take photos of the interior. Although, it hasn't got the wide and vast windows I was hoping to get, I think there is a third floor on the roof which I could film on instead and it would give me the high angle view that I am hoping for, to get a view of some other buildings.
It is situated just on the outside of the town centre, so there should be some good views from there, however, it is still not as high as I would have hoped. I will wait to see if I get a reply though before looking elsewhere. Because it is situated on the outskirts of town, it is the furthest away location that I have chosen so far, but even then, it is about a 5 minute walk away from the rest of the locations I want to use, meaning I will hopefully have more time to film in each place.

Field.
This is a disused football pitch, which has become overgrown and rough looking. I think it has the perfect gritty image for my film, and again, there are no permission or access problems. I think it will look good for the shots of the main character spinning amongst high grass, and there is a platform to the side of it, so I could take some long distance, high-angle shots, which I think would look great. It's also very close to the South Park, as is the house I am using. This will save time and costs for travelling and will hopefully mean I have more time to shoot at each place.
Back Alleys.

Round the back of and near to the house that I am going to film in, there are a lot of back alleys which will be perfect to film in as they stretch on for a long way and look worn down. There are also blocked up/bricked up windows and doors around the edge of the actual alley, which could represent the past being covered up or not noticed by most people, which would work well for my film trailer. The whole look is gritty and run down, which I really like.

Next to the field I want to use is a back lane called Polam Lane (below), which used to be a cobbled alley and I really wanted to use. However, when I went to take these photos for my recce, I discovered that it had been tarmacked over and made into a proper road. At first I really didn't like this and I thought that the look I wanted had been ruined, but it still has the same kind of metaphor of the blocked up doorways in the back alleys, where the past and memories are covered up, which made me quite like it. I also thought that the newly painted yellow lines on the tarmack would really stand out when I was filming in greyscale, making it seem like the character is walking down a pre-determined track that he cannot escape.
It also contains the gradual slope that I wanted to film the character going up and then down, so's to make his situation look a bit futile, pointless and mundane. So, I think I will film here after all.

Park.This is a view from the inside of the South Park. It's open to the public and there should be no problems with access and filming. To the left of the picture you can more or less see a string of benches with their back to the river, but facing the field. (One bench pictured below). I think that these benches, in quite a picturesque surrounding will look good for the shots I need in the trailer, in which my character is sat on a bench writing.
Also, because of all the trees and nature around, it will be the perfect place to get the shots of trees and leaves rustling (as pictured below).