Production Update

Further research into trailers has shown us that swear words are not often used in trailers because they are shown during the day time and are available on sites which do not need parental guidance. This means that despite the adult themes included, swear words would lessen the amount of adult content, allowing the trailer to be shown on television.

On Friday 6th December, Beth and I filmed the scenes where the speech wasn't as audiable so that this can be improved for our final cut. We hope to add this and make sure all the sound levels are correct including our music during the next production lesson.

Typical Female and Male who would watch our trailer

 

These images show how an audience member of our trailer would look like. The age would be 18-24 as there are some adult themes of in our trailer. Plus, the age is not too dissimilar to Valerie, the protagonist of the trailer, allowing for empathy between characters and audience to be built. Empathy between the characters and audience is important to the trailer because if the audience can connect themselves with the characters, they can follow the themes and the story more easily.

 

 The clothing they wear is popular clothing which is in trend at the time because they have money to keep fashionable perhaps due to parents or a part time job. This means there is disposable income in the househole which would also allow them to attend the screening of the film for the trailer we are creating. The way they look avoids steretypical social groups such as chavs because chavs are often of a lower class. The people of this lower class will not watch the 'Valerie' trailer because they would not have as much money to go and watch the whole film. Furthermore, the social realist genre is inclusive of taboo and lifestyle issues, portraying problems such as drug addiction. As this is done in our trailer, people of a lower social class would not watch the film as they may already be facing similar problems at home, cancelling the want to learn about characters problems. Due to these ideas, I imagine the audience living in households ranging from the C1 and C2 catergories on the demographic scale.

 

The target audience consists of students or apprentices or those who are only just beginning their career. This links with the age group as people who are 18-24 are often in similar employment circumstances.

 

Although there will be a mixed audience of all genders, I imagine that it will be mostly females watching. This is because of the title of 'Valerie' which implies the trailer and film are following the life of a female. Males would perhaps be less likely to enjoy a film that is mostly about a woman.





Filming Day 3

On Monday 14th October, Beth and I took filming roles as we recorded the shots which included both Valerie and Tyler. We used two locations: one in a house and another in the country side river. The countryside is a romantic setting to represent the beginning of Tyler and Valerie's relationship. When filming Valerie dancing, we used different angles to allow us more interesting options when we will edit these shots together. We used a similar approach when filming Valerie and Tyler's conversation.

Production Update: Editing

Today, Beth and I edited the shots from Thursday and began  working on the sound editing.We were happy with the angles of the bridge and the handheld camera moments. We made sure to edit these at a fast pace because the tension will increase at this point. Furthermore, in our research we found that the best trailers had fast paced moments.  During the editing, I used some effects to make the dark character of Holly appear as she is in a haze because of her drug taking. An example of this is ghosting. 

We also tried a style for the titles of the trailer but this may change when we continue editing. I would also like to try and see how a title would look in larger text on a black background for perhaps the important main character and the main title: Valerie. 

We chose to include music in our trailer. The song below, 'Back To Black' by Andre 3000 and Beyonce, has an eery feel to it with it synthesized beats which is perfect for the beginning of our trailer. We began cutting it and editing it in Premiere to match the sequence of our shots. The plan is to begin the trailer with some music to grab the audiences attention, then to have a break from the music to allow for dialogue and then reference the music during the dramatic ending. The music will also not be in the background for the love scenes because the dark music will not match the feel and emotions of love and happiness we want to portray to the audience at that time.

Filming Day 2

On Thursday 3rd October, Beth and I filmed in Dobbs Weir. We filmed some of the shots where the uncle character (me) is alone, for example when he is searching for Valerie.
I worked hard on the mise-en-scene of my character with make-up. I used the internet to learn how to create a black-eye effect around my eyes. I made one eye look just tired and dark whilst the other eye was purple and red, giving the effective of a bruising after a fight. This made the Uncle character look dangerous and rough which is the impression we want to give the audience.
We experimented with camera angles when I was crossing the bridge and hope to edit these in an effective way. We used handheld camera when I was running although we may not include this when we edit the shots. It was a rainy day and the sky was grey which enhanced our shots and the Uncle character, which like the rain, brings a lot of misery.

Filming Day 1 and Production Update

Beth and I editing

On Tuesday 23rd September, Beth and I filmed with our actress Holly. We filmed the opening shots of the trailer where Valerie is taking drugs. We had difficulty getting the correct light however we overcame this using a sheet over one window which did not have curtains. The dark lighting is important to us because we want show the audience that Valerie is living a very dark lifestyle surrounded by alcohol and drugs at this point of her story. We edited these shots on Thursday 25th September and where happy with the outcome. The shots that imply that Valerie has been taking illegal substances look very good with an effect we added to make it appear as though she was drugged or drunk. We may film the shots with the Uncle character again as the costume could be a lot better.

Locations

The inside location that is in the beginning of the trailer where Valerie is alone will be filmed at my house. The walls are plain so they give a simple background that doesn't imply wealth which is important to make the characters and the setting believable to the audience. During filming, we will shut the curtains and cover light so that the shots are dark. This will contrast with the love scenes which will be filmed outside, near a lake, in a brighter light. The different lighting will represent the stages in Valerie's life. We will use a house setting when Valerie is in love too but will make sure the lighting is bright to imply this love.
The trailer of Safe Haven is an example of this idea, starting with night time setting where the female is in a darker place, running away. This then changes in the bright seaside area that her boyfriend is living in.

The outside settings are also used in the scenes where some characters are searching for Valerie. This will give the effect of the great wide outdoors which will cause more tension because the possibility of finding Valerie becomes smaller in a bigger space.
We will also use a brick wall in my garage where we will film Valerie looking lost and isolated.
Some images of the locations can be seen below:

 

 

Characters

The main female role, Valerie will be played by Holly Scott. She will be wearing different costumes throughout the trailer but will mostly be wearing dark clothing to reflect the dark past she has and her dark mental state.

As well as filming many of the shots, I am also acting the role of the Uncle who Valerie lives with. The Uncle is a drunk and will be wearing simple dark clothing. He is a dark character of Valerie's past and will therefore only be in few shots. This allows Beth and I to rotate the filming roles more because in some of the shots where I am acting, she will take charge of filming.

Costume

Valerie's costume will be the main focus. Her clothes will be dirty and provocative but cheap. Her make-up will match this with smudged mascara and lipstick. Her costume will change in the scenes where she is in love, she will look less provocative, clean and look naturally pretty with natural make-up. This will help to show the contrasting stages in her life, the sad past and happy future in love. Below are some pictures of characters from other media texts which have similarities to the idea of Valerie's costume.

The Uncle will be in simple, plain and dark clothing to signal that he is a dark character who has little money. The boys in a group will wear tracksuit tops and trousers, like a hoddie, to conform to the social stereotypes of 'chavs'. 'Chavs' are often looked down upon and are believed to exist in poorer areas so this stereotype will really help get across the environment Valerie lives in and the people she is surrounded by in her day to day life.

Stereotypical Chavs

Tyler, the boyfriend, will wear clothes that are fashionable for boys so that it is believable that he looks attractive to Valerie but also so that he looks appealing to the audience. By wearing fashionable clothes such as skinny jeans and a smart t-shirt, it will look as though he cares about how presents himself, making him seem more clean than Valerie and a good influence to her.

Fashionable Male

The costumes will be provided by our actors wardrobes as well as extra props and costumes provided be me and Beth.

Production Schedule

In order to make sure Beth and I complete tasks and keep on track, we have organised a production schedule. As you can see there is filming time in green and editing time in blue. Spear filming time is in yellow and this could be used to reshoot any shots we are not happy with in order to get the best outcome. The schedule has been composed in an excel spreadsheet so it can be updated whenever we wish to but we hope to stick to it throughout so we meet the deadlines (shown in red).

Shot List

1. A fade from black. Camera focuses on the action of Valerie, taking drugs.

2. Extreme close up of Valerie's face.

3. Valerie walks past the house setting, dressed in rough clothing.

4. Jump shot. Scene changing to inside the house, allowing for Uncle's dialogue in a medium shot.

5. Over the shoulder of Valerie, allowing the camera to focus on her face as she take off her make up.

6. Medium long shot of the boys as they tourment Valerie.

7. Pans to follow the boy who spits on Valerie.

8. Back in the house, medium long shot of Uncle pushing Valerie.

9. The camera sees Valerie on outside bench.

10. Tyler comes into the camera view and bends down to touch Valerie to see if she is okay.

11. Valerie jumps and is seen moving along the bench.

12. Coffee shop setting, couple chatting.

13. Tyler's house. Some dialogue from him as hope gives towels to Valerie.

14. Shot of Valerie and Tyler laughing/play fighting on sofa.

15. Shot of the couple bike riding, they leave the distance of the shot.

16. Holding hands.

17. Point of view shot of phone.

18. Extreme close up of Valerie's worried face.

19. Seeing Tyler pacing across shot of camera, ringing Valerie's phone.

20. Close up of Tyler spottig Valerie, shouting.

21. Medium close up of Valerie's reply (shot reverse shot)

22. Valerie running.

23. Over the shoulder shot to Valerie, "let me tell you about my past".

24. Tyler shouting Valerie.

25. Uncle shouting Valerie.

26. The boys who spat on her shouting Valeire.

27. Valerie's dialogue in bath.

28. Close up of Valerie. Fade to black.

Analysis of Social Realist Trailers

Fish Tank

Starring: Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael  Fassbender

Director: Andrea Arnold

Producer(s): Nick Laws, Kees Kasander

Production Company: BBC Films

Date of Release: 14 May 2009

The characters and setting in this film particularly had a big influence to Beth and I’s production. The female character appears to be living in difficult circumstances, just like the female role in our idea. Although her costume will be no way similar to the costume worn by the female character in our production, the idea of using a stereotypical costume to portray ideas about the character to the audience works really well and we feel it will be important to do the same in our production. Fish Tank uses the setting of a town with flat blocks often linked to the idea of council housing shows the difficult lifestyle (as seen above). The main female character in our production will live in difficult circumstances too so the setting would be similar in our production. The town setting also contrasts with the love scenes that are set in lakes or surrounded by lots of green. We would like to use this idea in our production as the character begins to fall in love as it is an interesting juxtaposition to show how love can change the life of the character.

The trailer uses titles that match in colour and font and lists award nominations which is a common device of trailers which I may use in our production.

 

Morvern Cellar

 

Starring: Samantha Morton, Katleen McDermott, Doll Wells

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Producer(s): Robyn Slovo, Charles Pattinson, George Faber

Production Company: BBC Films

Date of Release: 1 November 2002

The titles of many British social-realist films I have researched, including Fish Tank and Morvern Cellar, use simple font and text for their trailer’s titles. However, This Is England’s trailer differed in that it had a more creative font style. I have not yet decided whether to conform to the more popular style of simple font or whether to try being more creative with an interesting font style.

Approximately halfway through the trailer of the film, faster-pace shot changes begin to create excitement and suspense. I like this idea and will try to do something similar during the editing process. The trailer includes repition of the main character's name. I like this idea because it makes the name become memerable by the audience which is what a trailer is meant to do. Perhaps this could be done in our film trailer.

 

Skins - Effy

 This character is very similar to the female character in Beth and I's production idea. As seen in the pictures above, you can see the dark Effy and the more prevogative Effy. These two sides to a character will exist in my production. This can be shown through mise-en-scene, with the smudged make up when being darker, and also through the actresses acting ability.