Evaluation

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

I believe that my trailer uses all the necessary conventions of a Film Trailer, in the terms of the mise-en-scene sound and following of the three act structure. The idea of the trailer is to attract an audience by making the trailer interesting through the plot and selling the story, i believe that the trailer successfully accomplished that
I believe i have challenged the conventions of traditional vampire based media, by taking the perspective of a modern vampire to create an interesting story. Also in my film the vampires are also the heroes, whilst other vampires are the villains in contrast to other films where all vampires are evil.
I believe i have developed on the genre of thriller by making an old genre new by turning it on its head and using it differently to the way that anyone has before, by taking this new approach i believe it makes the film a bit more sellable.

I clearly used rules of continuity throughout my project including the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. I also used tilts, pans and shaky handheld work where appropriate. I used appropriate lighting for each scene.

I have used adobe after effects to create muzzle flashes for the gun fights rather than leaving them blank as others may do. I wanted to make my film look as professional as possible and this is one of my chosen methods for accomplishing this.

My magazine cover also followed the codes and conventions for its medium, such as a masthead, cover story and model.

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

I think that i have created effective cross-media-convergence and synnergy between my products, this is largely created through the use of the film's logo which shares the same font and coloration across the products and is rather recognisable as one product fairly well.

The purpose of the magazine cover was to advertise the film through the medium to tell them that it was a good film as "Film Reel" told them, and were told this through the cover being engaged by the model image.

The website also employs the use of engaging images and the use of attractive imagery. Together i believe that together the products work well and are easily associable with one another as a franchise.

Within the film industry the ability for a film to be easily recognised in other forms of media is key to the advertising campaign for otherwise the film's hype would not spread as quickly and overall income would be minimised over the opening weekend which is the prime oppurtunity to gain profit as it does not entirely rely on how good the film actually is but the advertising campaign and movie hype.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my particular target audience the trailer met expectations, and some commented that they would watch the film as they found the trailer interesting. I have learned perhaps that it may be best to have a second opinion when editing and creating the project so that i can get a better result from the production.
When filming on set outside of controlled conditions, such as in the car park where the majority of my film was shot, i need to keep the quality as high as possible as when i darkened the footage using the full quality camera the footage appeared fuzzy as the set was so dark. I need to keep quality to the maximum.
To use other set pieces, as said before largely the only place i filmed was in a car park, my audience wanted more sets within the trailer as it was slightly repetitive and could become boring.

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


In the planning stages I used iMovie to create my animated storyboard so that i could visually picture the finished product, this helped in editing so that I could create the trailer more efficiently and more quickly.


FInished product and audience testing

After people were shown the product of the target audience the general response was positive with some constructive comments.

Film Trailer

• A bit too long, perhaps cut it down a bit more to grab the audience's attention better
• Some of the sound is a bit clippy, this is a general problem with garageband and not really my fault.
• There was general praise for the effects used and said they looked reallistic enough

Magazine cover

• Do a bit more with the background, it was black and maybe a bit too blank
• Overall it looks like a magazine cover, was the general comment

Website

• There could be a bit more content, I only had so long to film and couldn't produce all of the content that i would have liked

Production of the Trailer

The trailer was the headlining piece of my project and was going to be by far the most difficult to create. For the creation of my trailer I used iMovie 09 to create my trailer as it is a more modern technology than iMovie 08 and has the effects of iMovie HD 6.

I began to upload my clips to iMovie by importing from my camera, a useful feature of this version of iMovie is that your entire clip library is right in front of you, so you can select any clip you need almost immediately.

The basics of creating the film remain the same as using the old iMovie i kept all of the outtakes from the clip as the best bits could be kept for later in the case that the outtake actually appeared better than the real clip.

As this was a trailer and therefore very different to creating a fight scene, i was forced to create a new style of editing, the purpose of a trailer that i had decided very early on was "A collection of clips cut together to attract an audience to see the film without giving away the plot elements of the story". This therefore meant that i had to be more creative on set than i was in the editing room, I would have to come up with an idea for a cool shot at home or even on set and film it. Sometimes i relied on actor input for cool shots.

First I created the storyboard version of my trailer on iMovie, then as I added new clips from filming i would fill in the storyboard with live action. This process worked rather well as it created my trailer in the original format.

As storyboard was filled over the course of five shoots i began to familiarise myself with the new editing software of iMovie.

I most commonly used the inspector tool on the far right. This enabled me to change various things about the clips, it allowed for Clip, Video and Audio to be edited all at once. Clip was most commonly used to change the speed of a clip to speed it up or slow it down. Video allowed me to adjust the Brightness, Saturation, Exposure and light colour of the clip with ease. And audio was mainly used to turn off the clip's volume as I would add it in later in Garageband.

The crop option went largely unused except for still frames where i may have needed to crop an image to include everything i wanted. This was only really used when flashing images of vampires occurred.

Another tool that was used to a great extent was the image stabilisation option. This enabled any shaky camerawork to appear more stable. This was used in the point of shot where the undead fencer is walking towards James from behind. It was also used where the stalked girl is running from the side.

The transition effects creating the flashing white transitions on their own, these were made more atmospheric in iMovie by adding a boom effect that i created.

The muzzle flashes for the guns were created by using adobe after effects. Originally i experimented with the present effects on the program, this gave me more of a grip with the software and taught me how to cut the effect at the appropriate time and that effect to be matched to the gun. Here is the gun shots with the 'Holy light effect'.

I realised rather quickly that the effect that i was using wasn't going to be quite up to scratch for all of the shots i was going to be using. Some of these shots being created were filmed from the side of the actors and the holy light effect could only really be used from face on.

I then was left with a decision of whether to discard my other shots and leave the film looking bland and unrealistic, or seek outside help. I used losmarkoss's tutorials to create an effective muzzle flash for the guns. It worked surprisingly well with a bit of personal modification to make them look a bit more realistic. Also this allowed me to make gunshots from the side, by using the same effect but with a modified flare. Here is the same shot with and adapted version of losmarkoss's effect.

I exported the final versions of these effects off after effects, and uploaded them to iMovie in the highest quality possible.

I then exported the full trailer to my desktop in full quality before adding it to Garageband to begin the audio editing.

On garageband i created the majority of the audio based clips. This was done by opening the file of the finished film from iMovie exported onto the timeline of Garageband. This enabled me to watch the clips as i made the audio and made it far easier to match audio to the clip, one of the things that the new iMovie is notoriously bad at.

I first created the music by using gargeband's software instruments, i used some synth based instruments to give it a modern and slightly eerie feel. I used the musical typing to create the music i needed by recording.

I could then further edit this by changing the pitch of notes, their length and their timing. This helped to make the video more effective.

I then added Foley effects such as the sword clash, this was done using the iMac's mic. Interestingly enough i used a pair of chairs clashing together to get the right ringing sound.

I then added the guttural breathing and deep voices of the "Feeder" vampires by creating a new track, using real instrument and vocals. I then changed the vocal effects to deep voice and made the sounds myself. At one point i had to add many tracks of this to make it sound like there was lots of them.

I then added the voiceovers that were done by Sam Taylor and me, we had scripted these beforehand and simply read them off into the mic. I then adjusted their timing to fit it in.

Finally i added a snippet of "Rage against the machine"'s "Wake up" to the atmospheric clips.

I then removed the film track and exported the Garageband file as an mp3, i then added this mp3 to the iMovie file. My reason for this being i could not export it at best possible quality through Garageband.

Production of the Website

The website was entirely created through wix.com and my own input from the other parts of my project. Wix provides an easy base to work from to create the website and makes things relatively easy to create websites.







I created my titles and a sense of continuity within the site by adding text using the sidebar, and always using the font Optima Princeps as i believed this to be the most suitable font.







I uploaded photos using the media sidebar, this automatically helps you to upload photos and creates a gallery skin of your choice to put onto the site. I chose game as it looked the most modern to fit in with my movie

I could also add effects to the sites text and pictures, for example when scrolling over photos the pictures blur, and when scrolling over text it enlarges.







The mini pages sheet allows you to create multiple smaller pages to the website. It allowed me to create a page that flashed between other pages via a toolbar

To add the movie i first had to upload the video onto Youtube.com and then add it to the website.

The Production of the Magazine cover

I began my magazine cover from a basic idea used from my analysis of other magazine covers.This was rather basic as can be seen from the picture below.

I had decided early on to call my magazine 'Film Reel' the cover largely took inspiration from the covers of magazines such as 'Empire'. Note the titles indicating the content in bold "impact" font that is all the same to keep the same codes and conventions. The magazine cover is meant to attract an audience using its cover as a hook for the reader, by giving information about certain stories.

After a short amount of tweaking with some of the fonts and the layout. Here in this version 'Not Human', the original name of my film, is in a separate font to the others highlighting the fact that it is the cover story of the magazine. Also the font 'Teaser trailer released' has been changed in colour to yellow as to make it stand out. Also i have added a price tag, date and tag line "The film news magazine' to make the magazine seem a bit more real.

In this update I have added a white block behind 'Not human' by creating a layer lower than that of the text as to make it stand out better, more so at least than the other text. Subtlely I have also increased the size of the text for the 'Not Human' article and decreased the size of the other text. I have also changed the colour of the title text of the other articles to make their respective film stand out. I have also added "Free Eclipse Posters" as another motive to buy the magazine as a motive for twilight fans to broaden the range of the target audience. Also i have given the lower information bar a colour re-do with the white and red theme.

Here in this version i have made the addition of the twilight themed poster images by opening the image in photoshop and copy and pasting it onto the magazine cover. I turned on the scale option whilst transforming them so the images were not distorted. I also changed the text of 'Not Human' to 'Almost Human' so to match that of within the trailer. This also meant recolouring the Almost to white and the Human to red. This creates a synergy with the film product and the magazine. The other text that has been subtlely darkened is so to draw less attention to it rather than that of the main articles.

As can be seen here, I have layered the text and the image so that the image will actually go over the text. This is important as it makes the image the main focus of attention.

I have also done the same with the image below where i have a small bar at the bottom of the page. The text here overlaps the image but the bar fades out.

Also for the poster images i created a small white outline so to make them appear more like photos. I also added a small amount of rotation to the pictures so it appeared less formal.

Here is the finished product of the Film Magazine Front cover:

Here is the magazine cover after the response from the target audience

The Shoot

The film trailer was shot over a three week period in different locations so as to look like a real trailer.

Shooting Day 1: 8th November 2009

4:30pm -6:00pm

Cast to be called:

Edmund - Sam Taylor

Girl - Pretoria Potter

'Feeder Vampire' - Seb Robertson

Summary of the shoot: The shots filmed here were largely for the purpose of creating the short teaser trailer that had been originally planned. Once it had been established that I could create a full length trailer this was moved to be as an intro to the beginning of the film, which on its own is the girl running from the stalker.

Shooting Day 2: 15th November 2009

1:00pm - 3:30pm

Cast to be called:

Joe - John James

Edmund - Sam Taylor

Sophia - Stephanie Egre

Roland - Richard Knibb

'Feeder' Vampire - Seb Robertson

Extras - Rebecca Curtis, Ashley Butel

Summary of the shoot: Unfortunately some of the cast did not arrive to the shoot so it was unfortunately compromised to an extent. This shoot was intended to be that regarding the majority of shots included in act 4 of the trailer. However this was in a sense lucky as some of the shots upon viewing were not to my satisfaction, so a re-shoot was planned on a far larger scale

Shooting Day 3: 22nd November 2009

4:00pm - 8:00pm

Cast to be called:

Joe - John James

Edmund - Sam Taylor

Sophia - Steph Egre

Roland - Richard Knibb

'Feeder' Vampire - Seb Robertson 

Extras called: Rebecca Curtis, Ashley Butel, Edmond Webbe, Guy Walton, Myles Wilson, Anamelia Reagan,  Joanna Starkie, Rekina O' Reagan, Pretoria Potter, Chris Le Cornu, James Robinson 

Pre shoot notes: This is by far the largest shoot that I have ever attempted, and using the largest number of on screen extras that I have ever used. This shoot will probably require the use of a set manager and a couple of other people to help me get everything right. 

I had to arrange this shoot to be out of the way of the public so that we won't be a major disturbance. It involves the use of two floors of a car park so keeping order may be a problem. I am also considering the use of a second camera to speed up the shoot.

I also notified local law enforcement that i would be using BB guns in the process of making the production to clear things for filming and only when i had approval did i begin filming

Magazine Plan

This is my current plan for the magazine and at present it is very basic, I have decided to name to magazine "Film Reel". The cover story text should be larger and be a brighter or different colour to that of the side stories to make it stand out more. 

Website Plan

Film animatic and storyboards

The storyboards have acted as my main draft for my trailer for quite a while, thought it would help more in my trailer's assembly if I kept a short animatic storyboard of the clips in order and how I would have them portrayed in the film. This includes shot length etc. I think that my storyboard number will need to be increased as some shots are not portrayed accurately enough.

Cast and crew

To the great extent of my movie I will need around 10-13 actors and the following roles will need to be filled.

Main - John James
Mentor -Sam Taylor
Love Interest - Steph Egre

Villain - Richard Knibb
Undead fencer - Jonathan Bernstein
Undead Prefects x 3 -
Mugger/ Feeder vampire - Seb Robertson

Other vampires (any number) - Rebecca Curtis, Alice Butel
Fleeing girl - Pretoria Potter
'Wake up' vampires -

Crew:

Cameraman # 1:
Cameraman # 2:
Director 1st Unit: John James
Director 2nd Unit: Sam Taylor

Planning for the Main Task

Trailer
Script

Mentor: "Every person has a secret, it is human to conceal things about ourselves that we believe to be not normal"

Mentor: "But what do you do when you are not normal perhaps not even... human"

Main: "What are you?"

Love Interest: "You're a vampire"

Mentor: "Vampires are not like the stories you have been told, we can walk in the daylight and control our bloodlust... if we wish it"

Mentor: "But there are those who can't"

Villain: "The human race is a primitive form of what it truly can be. We are the next stage in evolution"

Mentor: "We must protect the humans, it is possibly the very meaning of our existence"

Main: "They're all over the school!"

Storyboards

The following storyboards are described by scene

1-3: A young woman is running down a car park in long shot, fade out. The same woman is now in mid shot running from the side, fade out. Close up from the front of her running. A car appears around the corner of the car park, tyre squeal sound effect added as it turns. Match on action of her feet. They turn to face the car. Fade out with a boom. The revs of the car are still heard.

4-6: Two people are walking down the waterfront, one is the mentor the other is the main. The Mentor's dialogue begins dialogue "Every person has a secret ... not normal". During this dialogue we are shown the mentor talking and the Main's reaction. The Main is on the side closer to the sea. The final shot has a quick fade out after "Normal"

7-8: We are shown two flashes after the last piece of dialogue. Each includes a fade in from black and a fade out to black. The first is the main being bitten on the neck in close up to incorporate both characters. The second is a gun being held that comes into shot.

9-12: Fade in from black to see the mentor having a gun raised at him, this is a point of view shot from behind a car. The dialogue interjects from the voiceover "But what ... even". Cut and then there is a nice perceptive shot of the gun and the attacker as the gun is raised. There is a cut and fade to black as we hear a gunshot. We fade in from black to see a hole in the mentor's clothing where the bullethole should be he reaches inside the clothing grabbing the bullet, the camera tilts up as we see him hold up the bullet and smiling "...human". This cuts to the the attacker looking in shock. We cut back to the POV and we see the mentor punch the attacker in the face, dropping him. We see the point where the mentor was standing as he walks away and we see the bullet drop to the floor.

13: We see a single long shot of the Main and mentor walking, the Main stops and the Mentor turns to look at him and we fade to black.

14-17: As we fade in from black we see a hand pulling out a sword from a bag, this moves into a close-up of an angry face. This cuts into a POV of behind the main that moves in closer. We see a mid-shot of this attacker raising the sword. A match on action of the blade coming down. We cut to the main who has blocked this attack fade out

18: Fade in. We see a close up of the Main asking the Love Interest "What are you?". Cut to a mid shot of her smiling. Cut to a mid shot from the side, she leans in, cut to a close up she replies "You're a vampire". Cut to a close up of the main's reaction. Fade out.

19-23: As dialogue kicks in "Vampires are not ... bloodlust". We fade in to see the Main staring out at the sunset in a long shot and we cut to behind. Fade to white, slightly from above we see the main look up, cut away and we see the sun. Cut back and he looks down. Cut and the Main is in mid shot walking toward the camera moving into a close up before fading out.
We see a shot through a window of people walking past and we cut to a mid shot of the main watching them with a slight zoom into a close shot. Fade to black.

24-25: Whilst the screen is still black "But there..." is spoken by the mentor. Fade in to a shot of a drop of blood on the floor and tilt up to an open cubicle door. "...are those of us who can't". Suspense music kicks in. Cut to a shot of the main looking up from the blood. A shot from the toilet cubicle sees the Main open the door and recoil in horror. Cut to white abruptly with an odd sound effect.

26-29: Fade in from white of a black shiny shoe step onto cobbles fade to white with the odd sound effect. Cut to a long shot of pidgeons flying away from the villain as he walks through them. Fade to white with the odd sound effect again as we see him smiling.
He speaks in a close up "The human race..." we cut away to see the Main blocking an attack from a manand punching him in longshot. Raverse shot in mid to see kicking a man across a open field reverse shot as he hits a wall. We fade to white and go enter a close up of the villain bitng a man/woman on the neck "We are the next ..." cut to the villain getting up and walking away in long shot. Go back to the same close up "... stage in evolution. Fade to white.

30-31: Fade out from white to see the mentor, in a zooming mid-shot to close up. He says to the camera "We must protect the humans...". Cut to a gun being cocked, cut to an over-shoulder shot of the mentor and the villain standing at opposite ends of an alleyway with the villain being further away then flash to white with a thunder boom sound and reverse over shoulder of the mentor, cut to black

32: dissolve into a POV shot of the Main waking up to see the other vampires. One of them tells him "Now you are truly living"

33-35: Follwing a set of flashing images of vampires, cut to a long shot of the Main kicking an opponent in the chest from the side. Then over shoulder shot to see the main doing a reverse kick the opponents face, cut to see the Main assuming a fighting stance. "So you're going to save us all?" fade to black

36-37: Fade in to see three prefects ascending the stairs outside the common room, cut to close up of the central one. Fade to black, close up of the main "Yes"

38-39: Cut to a tilting up image of the school. Cut to an image of the love interest in mid shot "This is stupid, a fledgling facing an experienced Vampire" cut to a close shot of the Main "That's why its going to work".

40 +: Atmospheric music and appealing shots from Act 3

• The mentor appearing from behind a car and shooting
• The main striking a prefect with a snooker cue
• Gear changes and a car chase scene
• The Main disappearing behind a car
• The Mentor hiding behind a wall
• The Love interest holding a gun to a man's head
• The Main swordfighting the undead fencer
• The Main shooting a gun
• The villain beating up the Main
• The mentor kicking an undead in the face

>40+: Cut to black, the mentor says "Thankfully, the best place to hide is right out in public" The main taps a vampire on the back, an over shoulder of the vampire with the main in shadow. And a POV from the opponent of the gun raised to his eyes. Cut to black and show the title.

As is probably necessary instead of having a definitive idea for the film trailer. I will simply film everything I need and then create the teaser trailer. If needed I will either create a short or long teaser.

A short teaser may be better than a long one in some ways, as it can provide a greater impact and mystery. Unfortunately this is only for big budget films, who can afford to create a teaser trailer with no similarity to the next teaser or the Theatrical trailer.

I think that in its present form my trailer can only really be filmed as a long one, as it gives so much content and so much away of the story.

Ideas for a short teaser

• The Woman from the opening is followed to her car by the villain, to a voiceover of the mentor, the two scenes of the mentor and the Main arriving and the Villain following the Woman. The woman is trapped between the car and the Villain. The Main and Mentor get out of the car and walk forward.
• In school teaser, the Main is shown around school before and after becoming a vampire, cut in with at the end bit of atmospheric clips

Poster

For the posters i will create a set of the following. All of the photos will be taken during a photoshoot and a variety of poses will be photographed so that I can be sure to get the best possible.

• The main
• The mentor
• The love interest and the villain
• The main and the mentor together

Magazine Cover

For the Film Magazine cover I will create the following:

Using some unused photos from the photoshoot, I will create the magazine cover, likely to feature a character.

Research into target audience

In order to help me establish what I am going have as the subject matter for my trailer, I will use a questionnaire to help me establish what people want. I will also explore where people more commonly see a teaser trailer or theatrical trailer.

1. How old are you?
5-10
11-14
15-18
19-21
22-35
36-50
50+

2. What attracts you to go and see a film, before it has been released (Tick as many as required)
Trailers in all forms (Teaser, tv spot)
Poster
Magazine publicity
Website
Reviews
Television documentaries


3. What attracts you to see a film, after its release (Same as above)
Trailers (Teaser, tv spot incl.) 
Posters
Magazine publicity
Website
Reviews
Television documentaries

4. What kind of film do you prefer
Action
Epic
Romantic
Comedy
Sci-fi
Disaster

5. Where do you most often see a film trailer
Internet
Cinema
DVD
CD
other

From this research i deduced that a movie poster acts a reminder to a potential audience that  a certain film is being released rather than acting as a main form of marketing campaign.

The trailers and tv spots were the main method of people being attracted to a film before its release with the television documentary a close second, this is likely due to the majority of people being asked are within the 15-18 bandwidth meaning a probable increased exposure to tv.

Following a film's release the trailer and tv spot rank extremely high still so it is extremely important that i get it right. Reviews and other forms of print rank higher now due to word being spread about the film's quality. 

In general the highest proportion of genre selected is of the action genre, again predictable due to the 15-18 range target audience. Although a certain proportion asked for romantic, this is possibly due to the fact that i had not separated boys from girls on this occasion. 

I was again not surprised by the fact that now the most common place for people to see film trailers is on the internet with the cinema coming a close second. This is due to the popularity of video-sharing sites such as youtube and the film industry has had to adapt to this by allowing the film's trailers to be released and effectively it is free publicity. 

Results of findings

Assuming the fact that the majority of my target audience is in the 15-18 and 19-25 region:

• I want the trailer to be full of action and to appear cool so that this age group will watch it. This could be accomplished by the use of music in the trailer.
• I would possibly need to think about releasing the trailer on the internet as well as in cinemas and on the website  
  

Results of research into similar media texts

Trailer
My research shows that the definition of a teaser trailer is not well defined, it can be defined as a trailer released well before a cinematic release or theatrical trailer. The length of a teaser trailer is also not well defined. In many of those i have watched they have been of varying length, anywhere from a minute to 2 minutes 30 seconds. With this lack of definition in the length of a teaser i will choose what i believe to better which is coincedentally the 2 minute 30 trailer as it seems more like a real trailer.

The trailer that has stuck in my head is that of 'The Wolfman', I was immediately hooked by the trailer and held to the screen with the voiceover and the surrounding clips. I continued to watch the trailer of my own accord. I will try to emulate this in my own trailer.

This trailer will have the typical 4 act structure for a trailer:

• Act 1 - Features an introduction the main characters and the world
• Act 2 - Tells the audience about the current situation of the charactersm, usually all this and the above show clips from act 1
• Act 3 - Introduces the villain or the threat the the main characters and shows the main characters' initial response. These are usually clips from act 2 and the beginning of act three.
• Act 4 - features atmospheric clips from all three acts along with a fitting music track.

Magazine Cover

Must include all the necessary codes and conventions of a film magazine including:

• A masthead
• A main story
• Main model image
• limited side stories
• Possible free offers

It also must appeal to a broad audience and not just focus on the audience attracted by the main image. 

It also must have a strict colour scheme that is maintained across the cover and the model is usually the base for the scheme

Website

Must contain:

•  a basic description of the film
  
• A video section (containing the trailer)
• A gallery featuring images from the film
• Extras such as downloadable content

This must also follow a colour scheme and remain synched to the other products, especially the trailer itself 

Early Drafts of the Project

Trailer

I have currently have two ideas for my film either one of a Lord of the Rings style epic, or a teen vampire still in school.

Upon further revision of this I have decided that it would be far more cost effective to create the teen vampire still in school as the Lord of the Rings style epic would cost too much for me alone to finance. However the teen vampire idea is far cheaper and easier to create the mise en scene as I am still in a school and therefore it is easier to create.

Website

I will create the website using Wix.com and work from a template and build around the other two texts and expand on them. I will use video and picture media to create the subtleties of the website. It will also include content from the other two projects

Magazine cover

For the Magazine cover I will use the photos obtained during the photoshoot and select the image with the greatest amount of impact for the magazine cover. The image will most probably be of a main character, or perhaps more.

Research into similar media text

Trailer

Trailer 1 - The Matrix Reloaded TeaserThe trailer begins with the matrix code scrolling down the screen which immediately tells the audience the film series as it is so recognisable. This trailer uses a voiceover from Laurence Fishbourne (Morpheus) to describe the situation. They use many flashing images that are difficult for the brain to process accompanied by a flashy sound effect with every changing image.We are then given the studio names, followed by slightly longer clips of dramatic pieces in the film, and then cutting down these clips to be intermittent with the matrix code. 

The dramatic slides stop as an old fashioned television would possibly representing the matrix.

We are now treated to a very modern "Wake up" by rage against the machine, displaying a few short clips that portray some of the film's action.
The focus of the trailer is to tell the audience that the end of the war is nearing and the events of the film will decide who wins.

Camera shot

1. The camera shots are used as a set up for the story similar to the opening of a film, various loacations are used. They use close ups and mid shots almost entirely for characters

2. For actions, only the cool looking shots are used. Such as Neo leaping up to a balcony in a long shot.

3. The Villains are usually empowered in these shots, using a low-angle

Editing

1. The editing cuts use the fade outs, such as fade to black and fade to white

2. Only shots that look appealing are chosen and atmospheric, they are usually cut together quite fast

Sound

1. The sound effects for the trailer include a futuristic sound used for the matrix crawl

2. The music used during act 3 is "Wake up" by Rage against the Machine

Mise-en-scene

1. Eveything within the film is within 'the Matrix world' so everything has to fit from costume to decor

2.In terms of costume, the good guys wear black and the bad guys wear anything including white

3. Everything within the matrix has a slight green tinge in the lighting

4. Actors from the last film return

5. Weapons, glasses, spaceships are all staples of the matrix world

Trailer 2 - New Moon teaser

This was another early teaser put out to combat Harry Potter 6 close to opening week, by distracting some of the more hardcore twilight fans.
We are given clips of the pivotal scene within this sequel, Bella's birthday, even a using slo-mo to distinguish how fast the vampires move. Similar to the matrix it cuts from scene to scene using screen to black, then a black to screen. The trailer clearly displays the problems of being with a vampire to the audience as Bella gets hurt regardless of Edward protecting her from his brother.
The new film heartthrob :@ Jacob is introduced as being 'buff' by having a scene completely out of continuity with the rest of the trailer appear with his shirt off (1:26). This clearly attracts a female audience. The trailer also introduces him as Bella's new protector as he dramatically transforms into a wolf in a mid-air jump to protect Bella, not only does it look cool but makes you want to see more


This follows a three act structure fairly well. Act 1 is Bella's birthday before the party, where everything is as fine and normal as can be. Act 2 is the party where Edward is forced to protect Bella from another vampire, she loses edward, just like a typical act 2 everything goes badly. Act 3 Bella is being threatened again by another vampire, this time she is protected by Jacob who transforms into a wolf, the problem is solved she has a new protector from the vampires

Camera shot

1. The focus of this trailer is on the change of Bella's situation, most of the camera shots include her unless it is used for the dialogue of another character

2. The camera shots used here are also mostly mid shots and close ups

3. There is only one cool shot used, to highlight it's importance, using special effects in one leap Jacob jumps over bella and transforms into a wolf#

Editing

1. Fade to black is also used often here

Sound

1. Music is sombre, mirroring the loss of Edward

2. Sound effects include the wolf growling

Mise-en-scene

1. Vampires all wear dark suits or slightly more seductive clothing, Bella wears a coat

2. Lighting adjusts depending on the place

3. Actors are all returning from the last film

4. The vampire actors are all covered in pale make-up

Trailer 3 - The Last Airbender teaser


This was a very early to be released trailer, about a year and 3 months before expected release, the idea of this trailer due to it's large budget is to encourage a hype over the release, as the film itself has already received criticism over its casting and has lost a few die hard fans in the process.


The trailer begins with a chinese accented flute stereotypical of the genre. We see a room filled with candles arranged in a circle, a child practices martial arts and magic around the room to a newly introduced chinese drums. The voiceover's purpose here is to describe the character and his origins and the surrounding world. Words such as "chosen one" and "bring balance to a world at war" are used allowing the audience to picture it.
As the voiceover ends dramatic brass instruments are introduced as we zoom out of the 'temple' we were inside before, we tilt down to see a large cliff face with people apparently scaling it. As we pan across and tilt slightly upwards we can see ships in the ocean, as we tilt further up, in a Star Wars 'Star Destroyer-esque' moment, a fleet of massive destroyer ships fire huge balls of fire at the temple before we are blocked out by the oncoming ammunition.

Camera Shot
1. The mid shot for the opening scene is maintained during the voiceover, occasionally shifting to long shot and moving around the actor, but never showing his face

2. The camera shots tend to hide everything in this trailer to give a bigger reveal, such as the massive ships and the kids face

3. This trailer doesn't use the rapid cuts, this in a way operates like a scene from the film

Editin

1. There are very few cuts until after the appearance of the main title

2. The trailer has been cleverly edited using masked cuts

Sound

1. Chinese drums and pipes have been used at the start of the scene, and later utilises heavier drums with western orchestra

2. Sound effects such as the wind moving are used, and the fire ball crackling

Trailer 4 - Enter the matrix (Theatrical trailer)

This trailer is quite powerful and attractive. It uses the concept of breaking free as a means to attract its audience rather than the action sequences that it used in later films and were only considered a plus here.

The trailer also uses the concept of the possible and impossible and as such the matrix as being 'the veil pulled over your eyes'. This is displayed by Trinity's jump at the beginning of the trailer.

The trailer also uses the atmospheric shots from the film such as the bulletime sequence and Neo leaping backwards off the traintracks.

The Agents are already introduced as the icons of fear by being virtually undefeatable and having a strong negative perception of the human race 'Human beings are like a cancer of this planet, and we are the cure'

Trailer 5 - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The trailer features the introduction of the dagger of time and Dastan immediately, it also reveals that it has time control effects. It also tells us how others would use the dagger for evil, it also reveals the films purpose 'to take the dagger to the secret guardian temple'.

It then introduces assassins, the evil enemies in act 3 of the trailer and also introduces the Princess as the love interest. 

The 4th act begins relatively early in this trailer around 2/3 of the way through and features many dramatic shots.

Camera shots

Trailer 6- The Wolfman

This trailer is rather long for a teaser trailer at 2:30 in length there is no other way to describe it than meaty. This was released a full six months before the theatrical release.

This trailer also follows clearly the trailer three act structure, this includes something that grabs attention at the beginning. 

The trailer begins with a man being killed quickly in an unseen way once he turns around with his lantern. The voiceover begins "It was 25 years ago that me father found him, he was torn to pieces and half eaten. Whatever did it was big, and potshot couldn't kill it. After that me father went home and cast silver bullets and wouldn't leave the house on a full moon from then on" The Universal credits then fade to a full moon with the logo fading to cloud.

We are then introduced to the story, a son returns home to his father. His brother has been killed, and there is an investigation occurring from London. They are told they are in mortal peril. And the hero gets bitten by the monster.

There is a lot of dialogue thrown in such as "peril" and "curses". We are shown that the hero has become a monster too. It is known by the villagers that the monster is a human that changes into a beast. The hero is shown to have been found out as the monster.

The hero has a descent into darkness once he is tortured. He is shown to be transforming in front of them. Now the atmospheric music kicks in and we are shown many different atmospheric shots of the beast's rampage. Finally after the title "The Wolfman" is shown we are shown an extra scene of a woman fleeing from the beast.

Website

http://www.whatisthematrix.com

This website uses a lot of cross-media convergence, the colors in the website match the colour scheme of the movie, being the green and blue. The website also features pictures of the characters, increasing the connection to the actual film. The website also uses other media such as desktops and screen savers.

The website also advertises its own products for example the Blu-ray edition of "The Matrix".

It includes a video section including trailers, a gallery of images and downloads

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/sorcerersapprentice/

This website is probably far more appropriate to use as a base than my own. This film has not identified its own brand yet, or been released in cinemas. At present the website itself is very basic and doesn't seem to provide the audience with a greater sense of allure to the film. 

It contains a basic outline to the plot, a small gallery of three images and the recently released teaser trailer. The only consistent thing here is the coloration, this being black and blue.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/princeofpersia/index2.html

The website is very modern, this is possibly due to it being closer to its release date than the above film. It features mostly white and red for the website colour, contrasting the usual vibrant colours associated with the middle east. 

It also contains an about section, a video section and a gallery. Similar to the above albeit at a later stage in production. I should really try and aim for something like this in my project

Magazine Cover

Empire 1 "The Joker"

This magazine follows specific codes and conventions designed to make the magazine appeal to an audience and sell. This is done by creating interest through the content. The main way to do this is through the model and main feature text, usually current and in the interests of the target audience, in this case a big budget movie of a well known franchise. Other cover stories are kept to the side.

This magazine cover may not feature 'The Dark Knight" logo itself but the Joker is an easily recognisable character along with "the bat" image. This creates a Batman connotation. The colour scheme is also very bright, consisting of purples and green to match with the character model himself using green and purple creating a synergy between the image and the magazine. The word "Joker" looks as though it is taken from a newspaper clipping message indicating to us that he is a criminal.

This is our first look at the character so it  quotes "Meet the Joker... Batman's new nemesis". Heath Ledger upon posing for this image obviously was told to pose in a certain way to make the character look interesting. The reason that this cover is so engaging is because of the eye contact made between the model and the reader.

Note that the Masthead stays the same red that it always has been and is recognised as Empire magazine.

Empire 2

Undoubtably the main feature of this cover is bond looking roughed up to go with the tagline under the cover story "Quantum of Solace", "...The bloodiest Bond ever". The cover image is taken in the middle of the desert and some of the colour scheme has changed to match this. The side stories have backdrops with white text to stand out. The other colours featured are red and black, with the exception of the blue top line and horizon.

The theme of this cover seems to be England, which is of course what James Bond stands for and in the desert scene works well. Again the red masthead is present to be recognised as Empire magazine.

Empire 3

Here the colour scheme focuses mainly on light blue. This cover also complies well with the rule of thirds with Optimus Prime standing dead on the line of the third.

Prime is the main feature as it is stated on the topline "World's first look" this meaning that he is the centre of attention and capitalising on the fact that his image will draw an audience.

The side stories comply with the main story feature"2009's must see movies" being Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter 6 and Inglorious Basterds respectively. This is very likely to draw a large audience.

The masthead once again remains the same. 

Main Coursework

1. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website for the film
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• a poster for the film

For this I have chosen to create the film magazine front cover and the poster along with the trailer. My reasons for this being that I am far more competent in my ability to use photoshop than those in website production.

Teaser Trailer

A teaser trailer in comparison to a theatrical trailer is surprisingly short however it is still longer than a Tv spot. A teaser trailer in this regard is around 50 seconds - 1 minute 30 seconds shorter than the theatrical trailer's 2:30 - 3:00 minutes and a tv spots 20 - 30 second.

A teaser trailer is released long in advance of the film released, however is only really used in big budget movies as an attempt to increase the hype for the movie.

Their purpose is not to tell the audience information about the movie but to tell them the movie is coming up in the near future.

Plot summary of a trailer

• Act 1- Lays out the premise to the story, possibly using a voice over to better understand the story
• Act 2- Drives the story further and usually ends in a dramatic climax
• Act 3- Features a strong piece of 'signature music'. Usually includes a montage of powerful and emotional moments from the film, possibly with a cast run if there are noteworthy stars that could help sell the movie

Poster

Type 1 - Teaser Poster

A basic image or design is used without featuring too much of the film's plot. The purpose is to incite awareness and generate hype. A tagline may be included.

Type 2 - Character Poster

For a film with an ensemble cast there may be a set of character posters, each featuring an individual character from the film. Usually it contains the name of the actor/actress with or without the name of the character played. It may include a tagline that reflects a quality of the character.