TEASER TRAILER QUESTIONNAIRE/EVALUATION
Film Name: For Better For Worse
Date of Release: Autumn 2012
Were there any fast cuts like in the Harry Potter teaser trailer (45 cuts in one minute)?
No, this is because we wanted to create a slow pace in order to suit our drama genre.
Was there an extremely long take like The Omen teaser trailer?
No, because we wanted to represent reality as much as possible, which meant showing more scenes of the mise-en-scene, especially in the bathroom.
Were there expectations for the film to reveal itself slowly?
Yes, we aimed to attract our target audience of adult women by showing that our film was of a dramatic genre. This meant revealing clues of the narrative and storyline slowly and gradually and successfully presenting a trailer that really managed to 'tease'.
Was there material that was filmed especially for the teaser trailer like Toy Story?
There was a great deal of material that was filmed especially for our trailer. When trying to represent the marriage of the husband and wife, we used shots of a bride walking up a church aisle to emphasise this. The bathroom shots revealing marks and bruises were also used specifically to hint at the plot and narrative, elements that are extremely important when it comes to attracting a specific audience.
Is there an introduction to the main characters?
There was no real clear introduction to the main characters apart from the woman that would be at the centre of the story, meaning that out purpose of 'teasing' our target audience was fulfilled. The advantage of also just showing the woman mean that the audience would be able to identitfy themselves with the 'main' character already and because of the character's gender, the audeicne of middle aged women would most likely feel that they would be able to relate to or understand this particualr character, before even viewing the film.
Were there any introductions to clues to the stroyline?
There were many clues to the storyline. The shots of the church as well as the voiceover of the wedding vows represented the marriage, the bond and the promise that was made between a couple, whilst the bathroom shots presented something that was much more sinister, shwoing the domestic violence and much more earnest side to the story. The shots themselves showed the dramatic genre.
Were there conventional transitions?
There were mostly very straight and therefore conventional cuts to seperate the scenes. This made the trailer quite natural and therefore realistic, however the black fades also made the overall trailer rather dramatic, suiting the genre.
Were there elements of intrigue?
The group felt that the shots of the bruises created a great deal of intrigue, mainly because at first the audience do not even see any marks, so the sudden appearance of a mark is one that would successfully shock them. We also felt that the 'dreamy' effect we applied to the church shots effectively showed that the shots were in actual fact flashbacks.
Were there elements of anticipation?
The signs of domestic violence presented in the teaser trailer certainly presented elements of anticipation. I would also say that the slow pace of the bride walking down the aisle towards the alter in each church shot created a great deal of anticipation, mainly because it would leave the audience wondering what would they might see when the bride reached the alter. We also felt that the music which was a classical piano accompaniment successfully slowed parts of the trailer down, creating a lot of tension.
Was there sound or music?
The sound of the voiceover appeared to work extremely well alongside the classical piano music. The voiceover was also extremely slow pace which made it very realistic to a typical wedding ceremony and exchange of vows.
Were there a variety of of camera angles/movements to demonstrate skill?
There were, in my opinion, a nice variety of camera angles and movements that presented a range of effects. We used tracking to follow the bride walking down the aisle, midshots to show that the woman shown was at the centre of the story (whilst also showing the setting that she was in) and also close ups to present the marks and imply that the domestic violence was an issue that the storyline would revolve around.
Final Evaluation
I think it is fair to say that we sucessfully acheived the short timing of the overall trailer however they weren't made up of very quick cuts. We showed that it was a drama genre by the mise-en-scene of common places in society like a house and church. The purpose was to attract an audience to create anticipation, to excite and to reveal the date of our film whilst still maintaining a great deal of mystery.
Friday, 28 January 2011
Friday, 21 January 2011
Our Promotional Package
When producing our overall promotional package, it was important that we kept our audience and genre in mind when creating our teaser trailer, poster and magazine.
Teaser Trailer
What was the purpose?
To attract and intrigue our target audience.
As a group, we decided to attempt to represent the gender in order to appeal to the female audience and to also show the stereotypical view of males being more superior to women and the 'supposed' reality of social issues, crimes and in particular prejudice against women. We used this stereotype to be convential and enable the audience to identity the social realities. In some ways, we could say that our package represented Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory in the way that the woman is seen as the vulnerable, fragile, weak one. On the other hand, we could say that because the female is the centre of events, she has a story to tell and could consequently be the one to overcome struggle and almost be an inspiration. We really attemtped to make our audience recognise the dominant ideology of stereotpying women as weak and inferior to present our socially dramatic genre and in order to achieve this, we tried to make her seem like a typical woman by using props and mise-en-scene, like the make up in the bathroom shots to represent her stereotypical feminity. This also meant that we were attempting hegemony.
Poster and Magazine
What was the purpose?
To advertise and therefore attract our potential audience.
In my opinion, the images shown on both our film poster and magazine really showed the dramatic genre of our film. We wanted to make both images extremely dramatic and therefore almost like a statement, presenting issues of domestic violence. Our main purpose was to shock our target audience and we used the computer programme Photoshop to make the poster and magazine much more dramatic. We also tried to make the poster image look like a Police snapshot shwoing the evident bruises and marks to give the audience a hint of the storyline and narrative.
Order of promotion
Conventionally, the teaser trailer would be the first thing to be shown, following the poster and lastly the magazine. However, with the film Cloverfield, the teaser poster was the first thing to be published. The Cloverfield producers also included codes and underlying messages in order to encourage their audience to research their film.
Teaser Trailer
What was the purpose?
To attract and intrigue our target audience.
As a group, we decided to attempt to represent the gender in order to appeal to the female audience and to also show the stereotypical view of males being more superior to women and the 'supposed' reality of social issues, crimes and in particular prejudice against women. We used this stereotype to be convential and enable the audience to identity the social realities. In some ways, we could say that our package represented Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory in the way that the woman is seen as the vulnerable, fragile, weak one. On the other hand, we could say that because the female is the centre of events, she has a story to tell and could consequently be the one to overcome struggle and almost be an inspiration. We really attemtped to make our audience recognise the dominant ideology of stereotpying women as weak and inferior to present our socially dramatic genre and in order to achieve this, we tried to make her seem like a typical woman by using props and mise-en-scene, like the make up in the bathroom shots to represent her stereotypical feminity. This also meant that we were attempting hegemony.
Poster and Magazine
What was the purpose?
To advertise and therefore attract our potential audience.
In my opinion, the images shown on both our film poster and magazine really showed the dramatic genre of our film. We wanted to make both images extremely dramatic and therefore almost like a statement, presenting issues of domestic violence. Our main purpose was to shock our target audience and we used the computer programme Photoshop to make the poster and magazine much more dramatic. We also tried to make the poster image look like a Police snapshot shwoing the evident bruises and marks to give the audience a hint of the storyline and narrative.
Order of promotion
Conventionally, the teaser trailer would be the first thing to be shown, following the poster and lastly the magazine. However, with the film Cloverfield, the teaser poster was the first thing to be published. The Cloverfield producers also included codes and underlying messages in order to encourage their audience to research their film.
Cloverfield: Pre-realease Plot Speculation
"Members of the forums at argn.com and unfiction.com have investigated the background of the film, with the "1-18-08" section at Unfiction generating over 7,700 posts in August 2007."
Our group however, decided not to do this, mainly because our film was a drama rather than that of a 'distaster-monster' genre. We wanted to keep things as real and hard-hitting as possible, which meant that our film would most likely be seen on TV on a drama film channel (like our film distributor FILM4.)Thursday, 20 January 2011
Church Filming
As soon as we arrived at the church we immediately began to set up the wedding decorations. We used the small platform to film the walking up the aisle and made sure that the whole of the church and mise-en-scene was perfect for filming. This included making sure the lighting was suitable and the angles were just right.
We then decided, that rather than just filming the back of the dress being trailed, we would also film it with the camera reamining still and also from the front so that we would have more to experiment with when editing, and produce something out of a variety of shots from many different angles, even if we didn't end up using them.
We decided to show that the bride was alone and isolated by filming a shot of just her hand and the rest of the empty church, which to us, was very symbolic and ultimately perfect for a 'teaser' trailer. We filmed the empty church in case we wanted an establishing shot or a closing shot to again show the isolation that the bride feels during the trailer.
Overall, the entire group beleived that the filming was very successful because we had the time to do more than the minimum and instead experiment with what we had. We uploaded our recording to the Pinnacle programme to edit and experiement with the film.
In the end, we decided not to use the hand or the establishing shot of the church as we just wanted to stick with what we orignally had so that the less there was of the surroundings, the more mysterious the trailer would appear.
We then decided, that rather than just filming the back of the dress being trailed, we would also film it with the camera reamining still and also from the front so that we would have more to experiment with when editing, and produce something out of a variety of shots from many different angles, even if we didn't end up using them.
We decided to show that the bride was alone and isolated by filming a shot of just her hand and the rest of the empty church, which to us, was very symbolic and ultimately perfect for a 'teaser' trailer. We filmed the empty church in case we wanted an establishing shot or a closing shot to again show the isolation that the bride feels during the trailer.
Overall, the entire group beleived that the filming was very successful because we had the time to do more than the minimum and instead experiment with what we had. We uploaded our recording to the Pinnacle programme to edit and experiement with the film.
In the end, we decided not to use the hand or the establishing shot of the church as we just wanted to stick with what we orignally had so that the less there was of the surroundings, the more mysterious the trailer would appear.
Friday, 14 January 2011
The Planning Process
Roles of the group
It was important to organise and plan who would be undertaking particular roles before filming anything at all.
After some group discussion, we decided that I would be the woman acting in the film, mainly because I didn't have the opportunity to appear in our AS piece, which therefore made the roles of the group much fairer.
It was then decided that Mark would be the prime person to edit the film, even though all four of us would still have a reasonable input. Because of his knowledge of computer technology and software, we thought that it would be best if he was put in charge of finding the institiutions, distributors and titles that would appear in our film.
Jen and Lauren on the other hand would be the main two people who would be in charge of filming and organising the make up. This meant that they would have to complete some research into making the bruising and scarring look real, which consequently meant that Youtube videos would have to be studied and used as part of the research. They would also have to undertake the responsibility of taking the photographs for our poster and magazine.
Our filming schedule
Our filming schedule was something that really helped when it came to our organsiation as a group. The columns of our schedule included the dates of when we would film and also when we would spend time working on other parts of our promotional package. We also decided to note down what equipment and props we needed when it came to filming on Thursday 6th, 13th and 19th of January. This meant that we were able to arrange who would take responsibility for certain aspects of our filming and work together as a group.
It was important to organise and plan who would be undertaking particular roles before filming anything at all.
After some group discussion, we decided that I would be the woman acting in the film, mainly because I didn't have the opportunity to appear in our AS piece, which therefore made the roles of the group much fairer.
It was then decided that Mark would be the prime person to edit the film, even though all four of us would still have a reasonable input. Because of his knowledge of computer technology and software, we thought that it would be best if he was put in charge of finding the institiutions, distributors and titles that would appear in our film.
Jen and Lauren on the other hand would be the main two people who would be in charge of filming and organising the make up. This meant that they would have to complete some research into making the bruising and scarring look real, which consequently meant that Youtube videos would have to be studied and used as part of the research. They would also have to undertake the responsibility of taking the photographs for our poster and magazine.
Prop/ Mise-en-scene list
- Dark make up for bruising
- Mascara
- Bathroom
- Church
- (Camera)
- (Edirol)
Planning process
One of the main things we had to produce as a group was a film schedule in order to know what we were doing and when we were filming.
Our filming schedule
Our filming schedule was something that really helped when it came to our organsiation as a group. The columns of our schedule included the dates of when we would film and also when we would spend time working on other parts of our promotional package. We also decided to note down what equipment and props we needed when it came to filming on Thursday 6th, 13th and 19th of January. This meant that we were able to arrange who would take responsibility for certain aspects of our filming and work together as a group.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Organising Our Filming
Looked at our filming schedule and realised that the 13th January was the day we were meant to devote our time to filming at St. Margarets Church in Rainham. We had emailed the vicar of the church before hand explaining that we wished to film a scene of a bride walking up an aisle and luckily, we received confirmation that we would be able to film on the 13th.
Here is the email sent to and from the church
However, after discussing the filming date as a group, we felt that we should really think about how we were going to film the wedding scene, whether St margaret's church would be appropriate and of course, to introduce ourselves and explain to the vicar what we were planning to do in further detail. So, instead, we went to the church and worked out how we would film the scene and how we would acheive something that looked really quite professional.
We managed to find a small platform (that was on wheels) which meant we were able to move across the church floor with ease and after recording an example of walking up the aisle we found that it was perfect for following the bride.
We then thought about placing the 'mysterious husband' at the alter so that when the bride ended her walk, she would be seen standing next to the groom and then instantly, in another shot, her standing in the church, on her own. We soon realised that by simply going to the church to plan and think about our filming, new and fresh ideas were created and therefore felt that the short trip to the church was extremely worthit. In the end, we chose not to use those shots because we thought that isolating the bride would convey a sense of isolation, however, having those shots meant that we were able to decide what we thought was best as a group.
This meant that we then wanted to reschedule the real filming for the following thursday (the 20th of January) and the vicar was more than happy to agree to this. We had a much clearer vision of what we wanted to achieve which consequently made us much more confident in our film planning.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Questionnaire & Audience Research
We decided to create a questionnaire that we then gave to our target audience ( young/middle aged women) in order to see what appealed to them so that we would be able to focus on making our own teaser trailer, as well as the magazine successfully appeal to them. We included questions that asked them personal questions about films (eg. what is your favourite film and why?) along with more specific questions related to our chosen drama genre. (eg. What is your favourite drama film and why is it so successful?)
What did we find out about our target audience and what appeals to them?
- Most said the storyline and actors are the main elements that make a film successful. Our target audience also said that a 'thought provoking' story is something that would appeal to them.
- Alot of the age group liked drama films (a vast majority voted for a drama genre as one of the top 3 films genres that they would watch) so we knew that our film would successfully appeal to our target audience.
- Nearly all people said that moderate use of strong language would be most suitable, which meant that we knew how far we would be able to go with the violent language if it came to making our film for real.
- All thought that a trailer made a big impact on the viewing of the film.
- Most said they'd pay £2.51 for a film magazine. Our magazine was going to be issued by 'Total Film' and their magazine prices are usually in that price range anyway, which, to us meant that we had the right magazine publisher/distributor in mind.
- Most people said that the actors, director, film review and genre were the biggest things that attracted them to the film.
Our questionnaire helped us immensely when it came to getting in touch with our target audience and understanding exactly what they wanted in a film. There were sections of the questionnaire that had a variety and mixtures of answers when it came to personal prefrences, however, there were also questions that enabled our group to accurately pinpoint the main elements that appealed to the audience. Because of this, I would say that producing and distributing a questionnaire was extremely benefitial.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Using Media Technology - How has technology helped?
Technology played a huge role in the research and planning of our media piece. In almost every lesson we have used the internet in order to aid us with the researching of films, trailers, posters, magazines and extra elements to filming, such as the certificate information etc. It has also, of course, allowed us to track and reflect on our progress through the production of our online blogs and also using the video sharing website, Youtube for finding videos on how to approach make up for the effective use of mise-en-scene, as well as the reseaching of drama trailers for inspiration.
We have also, as expected, had to experiment with the camera so that our filming is of a clear and good quality and also use the editing programme Pinnacle to start to upload and edit our film.
Photoshop and Photoshop Elements has also helped us immensely when it has come to the production of Film Magazine covers and Film Posters, (both teaser and normal.) We all felt as a group that Photoshop was a computer software programme that woud enable us to create extremely professional looking advertising pieces of media, as we were able to add shadows, gradients, specialised fonts and text, which made us feel much more confident in our production and creative skills, a confidence that we have gradually gained after our AS piece.
What other technology do we plan to use?
We plan to be using the Edirol and microphone for the recording of the wedding vows soon after we have gathered and edited all of our fim clips together. By using the Edirol, we will be able to produce a professional recording of clear quality, which will therefore make our trailer extremely successful. We also hope to find a room with an echoing sound so that it appears as if the vows are being spoken by a vicar inside a church in order to make it appear extremely realistic and also create an eerie atmosphere.
Have we improved with our use of technology since AS?
I personally feel that after familiarising myself with various types of technology, I am now able to use Pinnicale much more conifdently, mainly because I have had the opportunity to experiment with our uploaded video clips after filming. I plan to become mre involved when it comes to the production and formation of the film poster and magazine, as I will then be able to use Photoshop too.
We have also, as expected, had to experiment with the camera so that our filming is of a clear and good quality and also use the editing programme Pinnacle to start to upload and edit our film.
Photoshop and Photoshop Elements has also helped us immensely when it has come to the production of Film Magazine covers and Film Posters, (both teaser and normal.) We all felt as a group that Photoshop was a computer software programme that woud enable us to create extremely professional looking advertising pieces of media, as we were able to add shadows, gradients, specialised fonts and text, which made us feel much more confident in our production and creative skills, a confidence that we have gradually gained after our AS piece.
What other technology do we plan to use?
We plan to be using the Edirol and microphone for the recording of the wedding vows soon after we have gathered and edited all of our fim clips together. By using the Edirol, we will be able to produce a professional recording of clear quality, which will therefore make our trailer extremely successful. We also hope to find a room with an echoing sound so that it appears as if the vows are being spoken by a vicar inside a church in order to make it appear extremely realistic and also create an eerie atmosphere.
Have we improved with our use of technology since AS?
I personally feel that after familiarising myself with various types of technology, I am now able to use Pinnicale much more conifdently, mainly because I have had the opportunity to experiment with our uploaded video clips after filming. I plan to become mre involved when it comes to the production and formation of the film poster and magazine, as I will then be able to use Photoshop too.
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