Old film

From editing our old clips together into a outtake-style small film we can use some of the work we produced when filming, whilst also using it as a practice-run for editing the real film trailer on imovie, as we have never used it before. For the soundtrack we used the pigeon detectives, who i emailed requesting to use their track.

Additional Research

After making our final decisions, we researched key aspects of the plot to make sure we get an accurate portral of the issues we have raised in the film.


Grief- a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions. While the terms are often used interchangeably, bereavement refers to the state of loss, and grief is the reaction to loss. 

The Kübler-Ross model- commonly known as the five stage theory descibes the stages in which someone deals with loss. Usually applied to teminally ill people but can also be applied to people coping with catastrophic loss.

Denial- usually only a temporary defense for the individual. This feeling is generally replaced with heightened awareness of possessions and individuals that will be left behind after death. 

Anger- the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue. Because of anger, the person is very difficult to care for due to misplaced feelings of rage and envy.

Bargaining-  the hope that the individual can somehow change what has happened and bring their loved one back.

Depression- state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. The realisation that their loved one cannot be brought back from death and their life will be spent without them.

Acceptance- In this last stage, individuals begin to come to terms with their loss, and realise life will be okay.

In the whole film, we would include the Kübler-Ross model, showing the stages of grief Alice is going through. However, as our time is limited within the trailer, we have picked out the main stages of the theory, depression and acceptance.

Magazine research

This is a very striking magazine cover which reflects the atmosphere that is created throughout the film. There is a strong image of one of the main characters, it is important to note that the actor is in character. The dark background reflects the dark themes of the film and also contrasts with the character's pale skin.

There is a bold heading, which reads 'Empire', the magazine name. The lettering is clear and is coloured red which again contrasts with the background. There is also a subheading at the bottom which says 'Twilight: New Moon'; this is also bold, and coloured bright yellow which contrasts with the background also. There are a number of other sub-headings advertising different segments. All of the headings revolve around the picture of the character, that is the focal point. A number of necessities are also advertised, such as: the price, free things, barcode, but they are much smaller and the focus remains on the 'Twilight' segments. 

Again, this magazine cover, follows the theme of the film which is gothic romance. The background is dark, showing a dark scene from the film. The focal point is the two main characters, everything else, like adverts, revolve around this. The two main characters cover the main heading slightly, showing that they are the most important feature. They are also looking at each other, showing there is a relationship between them. The title is large and bold, it is also white which contrasts with the dark background. There is a colour scheme of blacks, greys, white and yellow; this creates consistency and looks more official.  

This cover of 'Total Film' shows the main character of 'Avatar'. The character is making eye contact with the viewer, making it more intense and appealing to the audience. Again the character fills the cover, with part of him covering the title, showing the character is most important. The background of the cover follows the blue colour scheme and appears to be a scene from the world that the character is from. 

All of the other adverts and features of the magazine cover are situated around the character, stressing the importance of the character.

All of these magazine covers advertise one main film and everything else is smaller and appears to be less important. The main character is the main feature, with everything else such as price, barcode and adverts for other segments are situated around the character.

This is another magazine cover for 'Total Film' for The Adjustment Bureau. This cover incorporates the film's setting  and include elements from the film such as the hatted silhouette on the building behind the characters. This gives the audience a link to the film and to be suspicious of this. The characters aren't looking up towards the reader but are in an action shot which must mean their running is significant to the storyline. 

The font for the title of the film is the font used for the actual film. This would then make advertising through posters more recognisable, this is something that we should definitely make sure we do. Advertisements are fairly minute in comparison to the main picture perhaps apart from the yellow circle which indicates that this is something that the reader would also be interested in. The main picture is barely covered; it overlaps the 'Total Film' title and the adverts and bar-code etc are placed in insignificant places on the characters such as their feet.  

COMPARISON BETWEEN MAGAZINE COVER AND POSTER FOR THE SAME FILM:

I felt it was necessary to compare the same film for the poster and magazine cover as we would need to consider the similarities for our own. 

  

This is the poster for the last magazine cover, The Adjustment Bureau. It is fairly similar to the magazine cover as it uses the same image of the characters and the background/setting. The poster puts more emphasis on the actors as the magazine cover doesn't boldly mention their names. The font is the same however is it put at an interesting angle to perhaps indicate that the plot isn't exactly straight forward. 

The colour scheme is very modern, with the use of grey tones in the background and the contrasting red of the title and dress. This also creates a dramatic appearance which is linked with the characters running. This is the same position of the characters as the magazine cover however they are zoomed in for the magazine. 

Overall they are mostly similar in appearance, but the poster includes a slogan and the actors names. It also varies with colour scheme and closeness to the characters. I think this will help us further with making our poster and magazine.

Storyboard

Classification

U stands for universal. This film is suitable for all ages and there is nothing unsuitable for children. Examples of U rated films are The jungle book, chicken run and Stuart little. All of these films main demographic is children, with a majority being cartoons. We decided this rating would be unsuitable for our film and trailer, as it has a mature theme, and a plot that young viewers are likely to find upsetting.

PG stands for parental guidance. The film should be suitable for most people, however some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG should not disturb a child aged around 8 or over. However parents are advised to consider whether the film's content may upset their child. Examples of PG rated films are Watership down, back to the future and the goonies. We decided our film would not fit into this rating, as it has too mature themes and scenes. However, we have taken the PG rating into consideration when discussing the film trailer, as the trailer does not show the more unsuitable scenes within the film.

Both these ratings have exactly the same criteria. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. The 12a category only exists in cinemas. No one under the age of 12 may see a 12a film unless accompanied by an adult. It is up to the adult to make the judgement whether the film is suitable for their child to watch. Examples of 12/12a films are (500) days of summer, Avatar and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We decided a 12 rating would be good for our film, as the scenes within the film are most likely to be distressing to any child under the age of 12, unless their parents thinks otherwise.

No one younger than 15 may see a 15 rated film in a cinema, or buy or rent a 15 rated film in shops. Examples of 15 rated films Limitless,  black swan and 127 hours. We felt that a 15 rating for our film would be too high, as although it does have some mature scenes, we feel that a child under 15 would be able to watch this film comfortably.

No one under 18 may see an 18 rated film. Examples of 18 rated films are Silence of the lambs, The texas chainsaw massacre and a clockwork orange. Most 18 rated films are horror and have graphic scenes that many people would find distressing. 18 is an unsuitable certificate for our film because we do not have a gruesome or disturbing theme that many 18 rated films often include.

After much deliberation we concluded that out trailer will be rated PG, however the main production would be rated 12 because of the upsetting scenes, but as will not be including these scenes in the trailer, we decided a 12 rating would be unnecessary. 

Camera Angles

Moving in scene:
     Me and George are carrying boxes into our new house. For this we will use a long shot to capture the whole house and our movement. This will allow the audience to know the setting of the film and an understanding of the plot.

Kitchen scene:
     Couple cooking a meal in their new house, just general chit-chat and romantic gestures whilst cooking. We will film this using a mid-shot as it will only be focused on a certain part of the kitchen and will allow the audience to fully focus on the movement and relationship between the characters.

Sofa/film scene:
     Couple watching a film cuddled on the sofa. We decided to use several shots and angles for this scene to enhance the romantic connection between the couple. Firstly we will use an establishing shot from behind the characters to acknowledge their activity and their surroundings. We will also use mid shots and close-ups to clearly show the audience the expressions and emotions of the characters with each other.

Hand-held, George cam:
     This will use a point-of-view angle and shots from George's perspective. We will film several scenes using this but perhaps won't use all of them. These scenes include filming over my shoulder (over the shoulder shot) of me doing some sketching. This allow the audience to establish my character's hobby and will add understanding of the whole plot. Other scenes we will film will be me getting ready and me waking up in bed. These are typical day to day activities within a relationship which is why we will use them. The point-of-view shots will give the audience a connection with the main character and will make them feel like they were part of the relationship.

Phone call scene:
     This is when my character receives the phone call that her husband is in hospital; we will use a mid-shot for this scene to clearly show the reaction, emotions and movements of my character.

Hospital scene:
     For this we will use a long shot and a mid shot. A long shot will enable the audience to acknowledge that the scene is set in a hospital and a mid shot of my character's reaction when her husband has died as this will encourage the audience to guess correctly what is happening in the trailer.

Sofa scene:
     This will be set at a friend of the character's house. It will be a combination of several short shots which will represent the passing of a lot of time. For this we will use both mid shots and close-ups to highlight the extreme emotions of my character. In this scene we will also being using a close-up on my character's mobile phone to show the missed calls to the audience.

Sketching scene:
     This scene is basically to show my character sketching and moving on from the death of her husband. For this will will use a high angle and a long shot or mid shot to give the audience a clear view of me and to understand what I am doing.

Ending scene:
     This will be a very brief scene as to not give too much away. We will use a long shot of my character walking in business clothes to let the audience acknowledge the hopeful ending of our film.

New Plot

When filming a couple of scenes based on the initial plot, we came across a few problems

• We found the lighting was too dark.
• The shots were too static and simple.
• The acting didn't fit the genre- when watching the clips back we felt we were watching a romantic-comedy rather than a romantic tragedy.
• After discovering these issues the next possible time we could re-film was after christmas- making it inconvenient for the plot to involve christmas- after thinking the plot over, we also felt that the film would work better not being based around christmas.

We solved these problems in a number of ways

• To solve the problem with lighting, we filmed in a different house with more light available.
• We changed the shots to more elaborate angles and movement.
• We found a new actor to play to role of the husband that Alice would feel more comfortable around
• We changed the plot to be based around the couple moving into a new house, rather than at christmas

Original script

This is a rough idea of our script for our trailer. Again we realise when filming things don't always work out, so this is just basic and leaves room for improvisation and alterations.

Scene 1:

(Soft, classical music begins)

Alex: Here she is, my beautiful wife  

(walks in to film Alice putting up decorations)

Alice: laughs Hello you 

Alex: What are you doing?

Alice: Decorating our first Christmas tree! You can help if you like!

Alex: All right then...

(Puts camera down and closely helps Alice)

Black screen reads "The perfect Christmas"
Scene 2:

Alex: There you are, been looking for you

Alice: Here I am 

Alex: You're so talented, you really should show these to someone.

Alice: laughs I'm not that good, it's just a hobby, it'll never take me anywhere

Alex: You can go anywhere you want

Alice: You're too sweet

(phone rings)

Alice: Hello?

Doctor: Hello, Mrs Brookes? 

Alice: Yes?

Black screen reads - "The worst New Year"
Doctor: I'm afraid I have some bad news concerning your husband.



Scene 3:

Alice breaks down at the hospital

Scene 4: 

Katrina: Can I get you anything?

Alice: No

Katrina: You need to eat

Alice: What for?

Katrina: I'll make you some soup. Your answer machine is flashing.

Alice: I know

Scene 4: 

Depression

Scene 5: 

Katrina: Come on you need to get out, this isn't healthy. Have you still not listened to your messages? 

(Presses answer machine)

Answer phone: First new message; "Hi Mr Brookes it's Jodie from Elizabeth Andrews. I've looked at your wife's designs and they are wonderful, I was wondering if yourself or Mrs Brookes could give me a call back."

Second new message: "Hi it's Jasmine, just wondered how you were doing, hope you're ok, bye."

Third new message: "Hello again it's Jodie from Elizabeth Andrews. I haven't received a call back but we really are interested in Mrs Brookes work. We are holding a business lunch on the 12th of January, it's at 2pm at The George, Whittlesey, I do hope you can make it."

(Alice runs upstairs and lays in bed)

Scene 6: 

Alice looks at her sketches and see's a post-it saying "Do it, you deserve it. I'll love you until the end."

Katrina: He's right

(Katrina leaves the room)

Scene 7: 

Voice Over: From the makers of Lola Gray, comes a story...
Alice gets ready for the meeting at last minute

Voice Over: Of love and devotion

Scene 8: 

Voice Over: Of tragedy and survival

Alice smiling, shaking someones hand

Voice Over: Starring Alex Suchoruczka, Alice Cutts and Katraina Esrythee

Clips of actors

Black screen reads - Until the end 
Alex: I'll love you untill the end.

Plot

In Todorov’s terms the narrative is structured as follows:

1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption
4. an attempt to repair the disruption
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

Thesis > Antithesis > Synthesis

Our audience research revealed that our plot needs to be realistic and believable. It also needs to be strong and keep the audience interested.

• It’s Christmas time, and newly weds Alice and Alex are celebrating their first Christmas together in their new home.
• Alice enjoys designing dresses and Alex wants to send them away for professional dress designs, but Alice stops him, saying she’s not good enough.
• On the 28th December, Alex is killed in a car crash.
• After Alex's funeral Alice receives an answer phone message for Alex and she can't bring herself to listen.
• Alice spends a lot of time unhappy, her friends try to help but she just wants Alex. She still won't listen to the answerphone messages which keep coming.
• One day Katrina comes round and notices the answer machine is still flashing and so presses play. Alice rushes to stop her, but it's too late and she hears. Alex sent off her sketches and a dress making company want to offer her a job.
• Alice is adamant that she won't go to the interview and stays depressed but one day when looking through her old sketches, she finds the design of her wedding dress, with a post-it saying 'I'll love you until the end x' from Alex, this inspires her to go to the interview.
• Alice picks herself up and goes to the interview, she is offered a position which she takes.
• Alice becomes famous and has her own clothing line, she calls her collect 'Until the end', in memory of Alex, which she reveals in an interview.

Inital Ideas

For our romance trailer we had a few ideas:

• Husband dies of leukemia-ill in bed scene, scenes of medication taking- we decided it would be too similar to 'P.S I love you' and we wanted a more sudden event to shock the audience.

• After the death of the husband, the wife has his baby, giving her hope- we found this was too predictable and would leave a stunted ending

• For the sudden death of the husband to occur around christmas time- we decided this was quite predictable and a stereotypical plot for a romance tragedy.

Questionnaire/Audience Reasearch

We asked 20 people the following set of questions. We asked 10 males and 10 females, though our target audience are females. Usually it is best to avoid open-ended questions, however in order to gain real, honest, clear feedback we decided to use a few open-ended questions. We wanted clearcut opinions which we can use to tailor our trailer our focus audience.


Question 1.

Are you:

Male         Female

Question 2.

What age range do you fit into?


13 and under      14-18      19-24      25-30      31+

















Question 3.

What do you think makes a good film?

Peoples opinions: 

Strong story
Romance

Good actors

Believable

Good directing

Must look high-quality even if it’s low budget

Action

Element of humour

Violence

Good vs. bad

Epic parts

Horror

Unpredictability

Good acting

Realism

Imaginative

Interesting

Engaging

Follows conventions of the genre

Something which captivates the audience

Suspense

Questions to be answered

This gives us a lot of elements to consider with regards to the plot of our film.  We have to plan the idea for a whole film in order to produce a trailer for it but as we aren't making a feature length film our ideas can be more vague in places.

Question 4.

What do you expect from a film trailer?

Clips from the film
Clips of good scenes
Background information
The plot to not be given away
Memorable lines

These are things we will need to consider in order to make our trailer fit our target audience. 


Question 5. 

On a scale of 1 - 5, 1 being has little importance, 5 meaning is very important, how important is a film trailer to you in the process of deciding to watch a film? 

This clearly shows that the trailer plays a big part in the advertisement of a film. This means our trailer has to have a big impact.




Question 6.

What is your favourite romance film?

P.S I Love You
The Titanic
The Notebook
Casablanca
Gone With The Wind
Mamma Mia
Romeo and Juliet
(500) Days of Summer
Remember Me
Moulin Rouge
Love Actually
The Time Traveller's Wife

By asking this we can look at the features and conventions of these films, and look at what makes them special.




Question 7.

Why is this your favourite romance film?

Liked the actors
Can relate to issues
Good story line
Had action as well as romance - not confined to one genre
Original
Happy Ending
Believable
Unpredictable
Unpretentious

Again, this tells us what makes the films special so we can use similar conventions.



Question 8.

What do you think is needed to fulfil the criteria of the romance genre?

Focus is on love story
Happy ending
Positivity
Emotion
Soft, calm atmosphere
Lyrical, spiritual theme



Question 9.

Do you prefer a realistic plot or a more imaginative plot?

Question 10.



What is your preferred sub-genre of the romance genre?

Tragic Romance      Historical Romance      Time-Travel Romance 

   Romantic Comedy       No sub-genre

Question 11.

How long do you expect a trailer for a romance film to be?

40 seconds - 1 minute        1-3 Minutes           3 - 5 Minutes      5 Minutes +

Question 12.

Do you prefer narrative or words to describe the film?

Narrative       Words        Both   

Question 13.

What do you think would be a good location for a romance film?

City      Country      Exotic Country      Forest        It doesn't matter