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.