Trailer

Final Products - Ancillary Tasks

Poster

Magazine Cover

Evaluation Question 4.

Evaluation Question 3.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I wanted to get a lot of audience feedback from my work, primarily when it came to the initial stages of my construction process.  I mainly wanted to make sure that I was creating what the audience wanted from the outset so that I made a trailer that was going to be popular and liked by target audience.  I also did a lot of audience feedback when it came to planning and researching the type of trailer that I was going to create.  This was to make sure that I was conforming to the type of film that a modern audience would want to see. 

In the initial stages of my research, I conducted a questionnaire to see how often people watch films and to see how long people prefer to watch trailers for.  This would allow me to decide between creating a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer.  This questionnaire helped me come to the conclusion that I was going to put together a theatrical trailer with a cliffhanger at the beginning of the trailer.  I thought that this would be a good idea to keep the audience intrigued into what is happening throughout the trailer, hoping to get some sort of answer.  I realised that this has worked well and also added a sense of confusion to the trailer that was designed to make people want to go and watch the film in the cinemas to see what would happen between the characters.  In the construction stage of my trailer I put together short sequences at a time and posted them to youtube and facebook to ask for feedback as to what I could change to make it look better or how to show the storyline better, which helped me a lot when it came to piecing together the whole thing.  The audience feedback that I got from this process allowed me to produce a much more professional trailer that showed information to the audience in a lot more depth, which is another thing that I wasn’t initial going to do. 

In regards to my poster and magazine cover I conducted a significant amount of audience feedback research, so that I could get the type of poster and magazine cover.  In the initial stages of my research, I asked the audience what film magazine they would be most likely to buy and the results conducted that there was a slight advantage towards Empire over the likes of Total Film and Entertainment Weekly.  This set up the branding for the name of the magazine, which worked will with the colour scheme that I went on to use.  I also tested two different photographs on the front of both the magazine cover and the poster and posted the images to facebook so that I could see what the audience preferred.  This helped me greatly, despite the votes being very close together, making it hard to make a final decision.  I think that it finally came down to the one that I thought was more professional and the one that people had more to say about. 

Overall I think that the audience feedback that I conducted on both the ancillary and main tasks, helped me to further the work that I was producing.  Without the feedback from the audience that I would be showing, I wouldn’t have been sure as to whether I was appealing to them or alienating certain people or simply not conforming to their views on drama films.  This is why audience feedback was a very important part of the production of my media and why it helped me create the best work that I could for the audience.

Evaluation Question 2.

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

Both my main product and ancillary tasks work hand in hand to give the audience the type of drama film that they want to experience.  I think that personally, I managed to get the relationship between the characters across extremely well on the poster and magazine cover, looking happy to entice the audience into wanting to know more.  When looked at against the trailer, it shows that there is only part of the story being shown, which is something that I wanted to show through my products.


The poster for the film has many conventions of professional and existing film posters that are out there, due to the way that I chose to construct the poster itself.  After looking at many posters and how they related to the film, I thought that this would be the best way to make the correspond, as I was inspired by the way that the Intouchables poster was constructed alongside the film.  I decided that I was going to construct my own in a similar fashion, but using some of my own ideas which is why I put it together like this.  Firstly, I think that the image that I chose to use for the poster cover corresponds really well with the relationship that we begin to see throughout the trailer.








This part of the trailer works well with the image on the front of the poster, due to the fact that it has some of the same emotions such as we can see from the screenshot of my trailer. The idea that the characters are always happy is presented in the poster alongside this scene from the trailer, which is something that I wanted to portray in my poster.  I also tried to used the same fonts and a similar colour scheme in the poster and trailer to make sure that you can tell that the two correspond and that the audience would be able to recognise this. My magazine cover was also constructed in a similar way, using conventions of magazine covers to make it work for the audience when they are comparing it alongside the trailer and looking at the vibe that it gives off.

As you can see the poster also has the same sort of emotion that we can see in the poster and also the feel that we get from the trailer.  I think the two ancillary tasks work very well together as the characters are wearing the same clothing, which was something that I thought was very important and it is also effective in the sense that it is in keeping with both the trailer and the poster as this is very important when distributing and promoting a film.

When producing the poster and magazine cover, I made sure that I used the same actors, wearing the same costumes, so that an audience can tell how they link together.  This was important to me, so that I could get across the idea of my trailer and film to the audience.  The two ancillary tasks would have had to of linked together so that it would fit with the trailer.  I did this in a number of ways.

Firstly, I made sure that the emotion in both the poster and the magazine cover images, were replicating the feel of the trailer.  This was important in order for the audience to understand the most prominent emotion that they should feel.  I thought that it would be a good idea to have the two main actors happy and laughing in conversation so that they can see the relationship between the characters from the outset and even before they begin to view the trailer.  I also wanted to keep the clothes and the colour scheme the same so that there is consistency throughout both of the products and also so that they both work with the trailer.

I also thought that it would be a good idea to look more at the composition of the images so that it appeals more to the audience as a whole.  This is something that I really wanted to take into account as it automatically directs it's appeal at certain types of people through the way that it is positioned.

Evaluation Question 1.

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

I first thought about how I can use, develop and challenge forms and convention in my own work when it came to researching and planning the trailer that I was going to make.  After conducting a lot of research into existing trailers that were similar to my own trailer I was intending to make, I thought that it would be a good idea to both use the conventions that I was seeing, developing the in my own way and also challenging the conventions, especially when it came to changing the relationship between the two characters.  This was important to me so that I could get a strong sense of the fact that they are unlikely friends, which is why this was the title of the film.  I mainly chose to develop the conventions that I was seeing in films such as The Untouchables and The Blind Side, so that I could make my trailer unique, but still conform to existing media that is out there.  It is fair to say that the majority of drama films are mainly based around a realistic scenario, which is why creating a sense of verisimilitude in my own drama trailer was highly important to me, in order to relate to a wide variety of people.

I decided that I was obviously going to use conventions of drama trailers, so that I could appeal to my target audience and appeal to the large majority of people that like watching drama films.  Such conventions involve including realistic relationships, which is very important when trying to engage an audience.  This is something that I both decided to use and develop so that I could appeal to a wider audience.  I used this convention in the sense that I made up a realistic scenario of a young boy who feels isolated both at home and outside of the home.  Alongside the young boy, the old lady is also very isolated and has no-one around her, which creates a connection between the two characters, that the audience can relate to.  This is creating the idea of verisimilitude that a lot of people like to see, especially when they are watching drama trailers and films as it makes them feel more involved in the storyline.  Storyline is something else that I wanted to use in my own trailer, as a convention of drama films is the dramatic course that they take.  This was important to me because without a dramatic storyline that the audience can follow, they wouldn’t be very interested in what is going on.  I developed this idea by positioning the disequilibrium from the film at the beginning of my trailer and also half way through to highlight what is going on and to make sure the audience know that it is important.  In this way, I challenged the stereotypical view that a drama trailer would take, starting off happy and cheery and I thought that the outcome was really unique.  I mainly chose the use the conventions of drama films when it came to the ancillary tasks as I thought that there were a lot more stereotypical conventions that I could use and also develop in my own way.  In the creation of the poster, I did this through using an existing poster that I had been looking at a lot.  I took many conventions from the film poster ‘The Untouchables’ as I thought that it was a very relatable film.  I used conventions such as the composition of the main photograph and the text and positioning of all of the writing.  I chose a different colour scheme to develop to emotion that is felt throughout the trailer.  In regards to the magazine I took conventions from magazines such as Empire and Total Film, as research would suggest that they are the two most popular film magazines.  Much like Empire, I decided to use a red and black colour scheme, with a few of the colours from my own production, which is somewhat of a beige, very natural colour to replicate the characters in the film.  This was important so that people would gain a better understanding of the type of film it would be, rather than having to read up about it.  I developed the stereotypical idea of Empire by adding a simple film strip at the bottom of the page, including shots from the film, rather than other films as I wanted it to be the main focus of the front cover.  This made the magazine cover look unique and a lot more intriguing to look at.

I challenged forms of conventions in many ways.  Firstly, in my trailer, I chose to use very unlikely characters of a young boy and an old lady, which is something that you wouldn’t usually see when watching a film.  You would certainly not see the two as being good friends, which is a relationship convention that I chose to challenge.  I wanted to get the idea across that any two people can be connected by similar lives and that it can happen to anyone, which is something that I believe I got across in a very simple and believable way, still challenging the character conventions of drama films.  This makes my film stand out amongst others as it give it it’s own personality, which it another thing that I wanted to achieve.  Despite challenging this convention I was still conforming in the sense that it draws the audience away from what they think is going to happen, which seemed to be a very stereotypical convention of drama films.  Despite the conforming of areas of my drama trailer, I am still challenging people’s views on the type of relationships that we can have, which is a stereotype that I wanted to break.  In regards to my ancillary tasks, I think I generally conformed with the conventions that I have seen from conducting researching into both film posters and magazine covers as I thought it would be an area that should have some consistency in order to make sure that the audience feels like they know what’s going on.  I challenged the conventions of posters somewhat, by jumbling up the layout slightly, having some of the information at the top of the page to stand out, which is something that I only rarely see in drama posters.  I also used very natural colours which challenges the colour scheme conventions of posters as they are usually designed to stand out.  I decided to create my poster using this colour scheme because I didn’t want to take all of the attention away from the main image and the information such as the title of the film and the info at the top of the poster.  In regards the magazine I decided to keep the majority of it very conventional as I didn’t want people to feel uneasy when they were looking for a magazine to buy.  I challenged some conventions in regards to the amount of coverlines that were on the page.  I limited the amount of information that was actually on the page so that the audience would be more drawn into the main image, rather than wonder what is going on around it.  I did this because I wanted the audience to mainly be captured by the theme behind my film and so that they would be more inclined to wonder about the background of the characters and the storyline of the film itself.

I think that it is fair to say that I used, developed and challenged various forms of convention to a significant extent in order to create a suitably professional media product, that appeals to the majority of drama film watchers and hits my target audience of 16 – 24 year old females.

Production Schedule

An Unlikely Friend Trailer Intro - Feedback

More of An Unlikely Friend Trailer

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An Unlikely Friend Trailer Intro

Quick Edit

Audio Permission

Crediting

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Edit Decision List

Filming Call Sheet

Location Release Forms

Release for the use of Grundy Park - E Mail Confirmation

Conversation with Nichola Needs about the use of Grundy Park, gaining the confirmation and release to film within Grundy Park as long as I get the permission of all individuals that will be filmed.

Talent Release Forms

Shoot List

Storyboard

Photo Shoot Plan

A lof of planning went into how I was going to represent my characters and how I was going to get their individual personalities across to the audience.

In regards to make-up, I decided to keep everything natural, with next to no make-up actually being used.  I wanted to make the shots that I got in both the poster, magazine and overall trailer, as realistic as possible.  This in mind, I kept Anthony's make-up non existent as I didn't think that it was necessary.  As for Marie I just decided to put some lipstick on her to brighten up the face as I thought it would make it look a little lighter when she was filming scenes of herself looking sad. Other that this small aspect of the shots and scenes, I didn't think that any other form of make-up would be necessary.  This was to enhance the idea of verisimilitude and to make it more realistic overall.

The lighting for the majority of the filming and all of the photographs that I am going to be taking for both of my ancillary tasks are going to be done using natural lighting.  As I am going to be doing this in a park and am shooting on days that are hopefully going to be very sunny, the lighting should work out really well.  If I have any lighting issues and to to source light from somewhere else, I am going to continue shooting with the light that I have and then edit my photographs in photoshop to make them a lot brighter, increasing aspects such as the exposure and brightness.  In regards to filming and the lighting, if natural lighting isn't in abundance then I am going to cancel shooting and continue another day as I don't want to sacrifice lighting, simply because I want to get it done.  For all of the other scenes that are inside, I am going to try and use as much natural lighting, through aspects such as windows, in order to match the lighting as best as possible.  If this doesn't work then I am going to have to use artificial light, simply from a lightbulb as I don't have any professional lighting available.  This however, will still work as I can change the exposure and various lighting aspects within the camera to make it look like natural lighting.  This is something that I think will actually work out a lot better than I am expecting.

The costume for both the photographing and the filming is going to be the same, except when filming inside, when coats will not be worn.  I decided to let the actors choose clothing that they would normally wear so that I could capture a realistic idea of the two different people.  I thought that this would work a lot better than if I were to decide what they were to wear.  It should hopefully make them feel a lot more comfortable as well and therefore, I will get better shots.  Hopefully the outfits that they are both wearing will work well together, if not, I will make one of the actors change so that there is some form of linking colour scheme between them.  I think this is important if I want to get the audience to see the connection between the two characters.

I am going to use a number of different shot types mainly focusing on long shots and medium shots.  I am also going to experiment with some close-up shots to highlight the sadness and loneliness of the characters.  I may also include some form of establishing shot, so the audience can get a feel for where the entire trailer is set.  I'm not sure whether this is going to be an important factor when it comes to creating my trailer as it is not 100% necessary.  However, i will get an establishing shot for experimentations when it comes to the editing process. I am also going to do over the shoulder shots to show a conversation.  I am going to do this because I think that it is one of the best ways to show a conversation between two people.  It also shows a close connection as the characters tend to look very close together in the shots.

I have looked a lot at influential imagery, especially for the poster aspect of shooting.  I wanted to make sure that I could highlight the relationship between the two characters in a unique and efficient way.  I did this through researching films that include an 'unlikely frienship' and then continued to look at the posters for these films to see how other people showed the relationship effectively.  The main poster that highly influenced me is the film poster for 'The Intouchables'.  I really like the way that it has been put together with the character positioned very close together, filling up the majority of the page.  This is the main influence that I got for shooting my own poster images.

In regards to what influenced me when filming, I thought a lot about the film The Blind Side, because I liked the way that they were able to get the two characters overcoming their differences in order to form a friendship.  This is the same in the intouchables, which is also why I decided to look further into the poster for the film.  Both films are incredibly heartwarming which is something that I would like to replicate in my own work.  Both of these films have had a lot of influence over how I am going to do certain aspects of both my ancillary tasks and main tasks. 

Facebook Comparison Findings

It is clear that the majority of my audience preferred option 1 over option 2, despite it being a very close vote.  9 people preferred option 1, with a close 8 preferring option 2.

Sample Script

Treatment

• The treatment of a film is generally the stage before the creation of the scene cards and the actual filming of the motion picture.  
• It has features of a plot, but in more detail giving a broader outline. 
• Treatments read like a short story, except they are told in the present tense and describe events as they happen.
• Simply put, it is the summary of a screenplay. 

My Treatment - An Unlikely Friend

Logline: An Unlikely Friend, is about the friendship between a young boy named Anthony and an old lady named Marie.  The story embarks on how they develop as individuals coming out of their reserved selves, to form a friendship that is beyond anything they could have ever imagined. 

Synopsis:

First Section - The first part of the trailer will focus on the disequilibrium that would have been shown around half way through the actual movie. 

Second Section - We get a feel for each character's individual lives and are taken into how they meet for the first time.

Third Section - Taken straight to their friendship, having a good time in the park and at Marie's house.

Fourth Section - Re - visit the first part, with the dropping of the note that is initially shown.

Fifth Section - Anthony's life begins to wither away again, going back into his shell.

Sixth Section - Anthony realises that he has to continue being strong and plucks up the courage to say what he feels.

Actual Treatment

The trailer will start of with a screen showing my logo for my production company, followed by a green screen indicating the age rating and causes for concern that are important for the audiences to know about.  This will fade to black and the first scene will begin. 

The trailer starts of with a shot of a letter.  It will be handwritten with the handwriting shaky, meaning the audience will be unable to read what is happening.  Music will create tension, making the audience think that something is wrong.  This cuts to a scene of a young boy, clearly looking distraught and upset.  His head looks left then right, then back to the note.  We are taken to a close up of the note in the boys hand, which gets screwed up into a ball and dropped on the ground in a slow motion effect.  We then cut to a scene of the boy walking away from the camera with his hands in his pockets, walking hastily away from the camera.  The music in the background of this entire aspect, is designed to replicate the emotion, which is sad, meaning the music will be sad and slow. 

It will then branch off into the lonely life of the main character (Anthony), which is essentially how the actual film would start.  We are shown his family life and the fact that his parents act like he doesn't exist and essentially don't really care what he does.  He has to take care of himself, making his own dinner, cleaning his own clothes, keeping himself to himself.  The audience should start to feel sorry for Anthony as he has no one who cares for him. 

We are then shown the lonely life of Marie, flashing in between the shots of Anthony's life, to create a contrast and to make the audience realise that they are linked in the film.  The activities that both of the characters are doing, are going to be the same sort of things such as making dinner and doing laundry.  I think that this would be a good idea as it will signify to the audience how the two characters in the sense that they have no one to help them.  

After this scene, we are taken to the meeting point of the two characters, which is set in the park near to Marie's house.  It is going to be a very stereotypical meeting with Anthony helping Marie, after she has dropped something on a path in the park.  We are taken through multiple scenes where they see each other in passing until one scene where they are both sitting on the bench and get chatting about themselves. 

We can begin to see a friendship form between the two as Marie invites Anthony round for a cup of tea.  There is a cut to the two drinking tea in her house having a good time and laughing.  We are then taken through multiple different scenes of them meeting in the park and Anthony going round Marie's house for tea.  

The music that has been building throughout to set the scene, suddenly fades out and the screen cuts to black.  We are then taken back to the very first part of the trailer of Anthony holding the note.  The audience will still not be able to see what it says, to keep the idea of a cliffhanger in the trailer and to make the audience want to actually go and see the film itself.  There will be a more information on the note now as we are taken around Marie's house that seems to be deserted.  Considering she is most of the time always home, the idea that the house has no-one in it, simply sitting or walking around, is designed to make the audience realise that the character has left, hopefully signifying that this was the note had explained.  This part of the trailer is going to be a journey throughout the ground floor of the house, in a sort of slow motion effect to add a sort of spaced out and unclear effect. 

We are then taken to a shot of Anthony, sitting eating dinner at home, with his parents making a toast to something oblivious to the character.  It is clear that he has gone back to his old lifestyle after losing his friend Marie and we are taken through his journey, spiralling back into his individuality. 

The music begins to slow down and reflex the emotion, replicating the way that Anthony was in the beginning of the trailer.  As we begin to think that everything has gone back to the way it was, Anthony has an epiphany and realises that he needs to stay strong.  The music picks up and we begin to feel more happy as Anthony continues on behaving and acting strongly and is a lot more happier within himself. 

We see a similar shot at the end of the trailer, a lot like the walking away shot at the beginning, but with a much more upbeat feel to it.  Instead, Anthony will be walking towards the camera looking happy and smiling, showing that he has clearly turned over a new leaf.