Music Inspiration - Ian Brown F. E. A. R.

Ian Brown - Fear 

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Find everybody and rule
For everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason
Forgive everybody and remember

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Face everybody and rule
For everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)

Final eternity arouses reactions
Freeing excellence affects reality
Fallen empires are ruling
Find earth and reef

Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Final execution and resurrection
Free expression as revolution
Finding everything and realizing

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)

(Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Finding everything and realizing
For everything a reason)

F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear


Our TagLine is "Forget Everything And Run", inspired by the lyrics from this song where FEAR is the main focus. Ian Brown cleverly uses the letters in 'fear' as acronyms for each line of the song and we wanted to use this effect as it emphasises our genre, leaving the trailer in suspense and drawing the audience in further. The word play not only highlights the key emotions portrayed in the film but is also a reflection on the film, as the intelligent title foreshadows an intelligent narrative.

Existing Film Websites Slideshow

Poster Image Photoshoot

We decided to have a poster image photo shoot, because originally we were going to just use print screens from the film trailer. However, once doing this, we realised that the print screens were pixilated and blurry. By taking these images with an Iphone 5c we were able to use the high definition camera to create excellent quality images. As the lighting on these images is quite bright, we will edit the images on a photo editing software called Fireworks to make the overall image darker and more suited to our film genre, Thriller. 

These images will also be used for our film website not only the poster. As a group we will go through all the images one by one and pick out the best images and then create a survey on which images are most appealing. We will then edit the images and add them to the poster layout we have already created and the film website.

By Chloe Allchin

Codes and Conventions of Film Websites

Key theorists to consider

Syd Field

According to Field, the typical Hollywood film can be separated into 3 dramatic sections/acts.
-The set-up (Within the first 10 minutes the audience decide their opinion of the film and are unlikely to change their minds. Therefore its important to establish main character, why the audience should like/dislike them and hint at what the film is going to be about)
-The confrontation (Longest act of the film, see main character often and in extreme situations or problems, confronting enemies and normally helpless)
-The resolution (Hero finally takes control of struggle, often by confrontation and on home territory, and achieve a final, desired victory)

'Plot points' are what he describes as important pieces of the plot which transform the lives of the characters, change relationships and the overall tone of the film.


Barthes' Code

Text needs unravelling, so audience can encounter  plurality and potential meaning.
Can start by looking at narrative from one viewpoint, drawing on previous experiences, creating one meaning for the text.
The narrative can be continuously unravelled from various angles and thus creating different meanings.
Texts may be 'open' (available for various interpretations) or 'closed' (only one obvious meaning).
These aspects to unravel are called 'narrative codes' and can be categorised into:
-The enigma code (i.e. answers and questions)
-Symbols and Signs
-Points of cultural references
-Simple description/reproduction


Todorov

He suggested that conventional narratives are structured in 5 stages;
-State of equilibrium
-Disruption of equilibrium at outset
-Recognition of disruption
-Attempt to repair disruption
-Reinstatement of equilibrium


Vladamir Propp

Suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action'
1) The Hero - usually male, restores natural equilibrium, often embarks on a quest, saves princess, centre of villain's attention, protagonist.
2) The Villain - creates narrative disruption.
3) The Donor - gives hero something, helps resolution of narrative.

4) The Princess - the reward/motivation for the hero

5) the Dispatcher - Sets the hero on their way

Laura Mulvey 

States that women are often objectified and seen as sex objects, portrayed through the male gaze. She also suggests that's women are seen in one of two ways; as a virgin or a whore. This is the virgin:whore dichotomy. 

Angela McRobbie

McRobbie says that men and women are often represented through stereotypes in the media. This means that traditional gender roles are used, such as women shown as victims, mothers, carers, weaker, etc. and men as aggressive, strong, leaders, etc. 

Allan Cameron 

Says that there are different kinds of unusual narratives including the following:

 - Anachronic Narrative includes flashbacks and flash forwards

 - Forking Path Narrative shows two different outcomes that are different only because of a small change or decision

 - Episodic Narrative separate narratives that have a link in some way

 - Split Screen Narrative different stories, linked by the fact that they are shown on screen simultaneously

Twitter Account

 

This mobile screenshot shows our Twitter account and a few of the tweets that have been made since we began creating our film trailer. This account is linked to our website, if we were going to market our film we would use various social networking sites as these would provide us with the source to target our main audience as they are 15-17 year olds. Social networking sites are most popular with this age group and therefore would allow us to create a 'buzz' or 'word of mouth' to promote the film. It would also benefit us as we are an independent production company therefore using social networking sites to promote our film would be cost effective as are a low budget film makers.

 

Below are print screens of some of our tweets:

Tagline Planning

We brainstormed key words to do with Thrillers, our trailer and relevant emotions.

There were many ideas and possibilities we explored and eventually we settled on:

'Forget Everything And Run'

This is because the main aspect of our trailer is the concept of fear and escape, and this tag line emphasises both of these with one sentence and the initials spell out FEAR.

Below is a link to another blog post about a song created by Ian Brown - F.E.A.R., we used this music video/song as inspiration due to the consistent theme of fear throughout our film trailer and as we wanted to relate this and reflect it in our tagline. The song lyrics have been cleverly created to use the first letters of the words to spell out FEAR, this is an idea that we liked very much.  - http://apolloproduction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/music-inspiration.html

Also below is a link to a blog post to how we created are animated credit including the tagline to emphasise that the tagline spells out FEAR using the first letter of each word. 

http://apolloproduction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/credit-transition.html

1st Film Poster Drafts

Instagram Posts

                                      

This mobile screenshot shows the Apollo Productions Instagram page which provides photos of our filming journey. The photos shown in the screenshot show settings images, editing image, potential poster image and other filming setting images. Other images shown such as the map and sunset timings are other screenshots which were used to plan when to film and where to film. Videos have also been uploaded to show our footage captured which will be edited into the film trailer.

This Instagram page will continue to be used throughout the project to upload images and videos of how our journey progresses.

Website Inspiration

Before creating a website of our own for our trailer we researched existing films and their sites in order to establish ideas, presentation and key features.

A sample of the websites we used include;

- Paranormal Activity 

Black background, writing made bold by using white and red colouring, thumbnails of multiple pictures to show a variety of shots and scenarios, options to watch trailer, view poster and see tickets and showtimes written on far right hand side with adjoining photos, tagline written under the title, 'now in cinemas'

-Now You See Me 

Grey background with faded title text, film title contrasted with yellow font at the top of the screen, photos of DVD boxes and packaging in order to promote further purchase of the film, trailer to the right in centre screen, release dates written under trailer, links to pages 'watch trailer', 'special features', 'enter site' and 'buy the movie'.


-Shutter Island

We really liked the dark, eerie nature of this website, with the black base colour and three key images. The face of the main character is illuminated by a flame, with the island image and picture of the DVD placed below it. The photos have blurred edges to highlight the unknown elements within the film, and the colour us is dark and cold, including blues and blacks. The website is easy to navigate with key links and information placed in the centre of the site. 

Interesting Psychological Thriller Film Posters

 With this poster, I really like how it is divided up into 3 images. I also like how the images are blurred as it provide the impression of running or escaping or being chased. We could relate this to our film trailer as the female victim is being captured and escaping throughout the trailer, we could add the blurred element to our poster image through Photoshop.

In this poster I like how the females face is the main image but also the dark image of what is implied the 'baddie'. this suggests that the film trailer may consist of this male character haunting the female. This also is relatable to our film trailer, a good idea could be to use the character positioning in a similar way for our film trailer to imply that the victim is being stalked by the male character.

 With this poster I like the element of darkness, the victims expression is highlighted through the use of the match which could be a good idea to relate to our film poster. The flame also is incorporated into the title and is used as the 'I' in Conjuring.

We apply a similar element in our actual film trailer when the victim is on the swing and then the next scene shows an empty swing which suggests that she has been captured and has disappeared. The ghost like element for this film poster could be used for our film trailer by suggesting she has disappeared also like how we have portrayed this with the swing scenes. We could use the two swing scenes in a two part film poster. However, this is just an initial idea for what we could use for our film poster.

Poster Inspiration

Codes and Conventions of Film Posters

Researching Film Tag Lines

A Tag Line = a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand, product or text. 

1. Alien - In space no one can hear you scream.

2. Maniac Cop - You have the right to remain silent. Forever.

3. Psycho - Check in. Unpack. Relax. Take a shower.

4. A Nightmare on Elm Street - If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming. She wont at all.

5. House - Ding Dong. You're Dead. 

6. Final Destination - Death doesn't take no for an answer. 

When researching previous horror/thriller film tag lines, these were most memorable. When relating these to our film trailer I like the idea of two sentences as it is easy to say and can be catchy. I like the length of the tag line for A Nightmare on Elm Street as it think that having longer sentences look appealing underneath the film title on the film poster.

With our film trailer, as the main themes represented are escaping, capturing and stalking, we would like to incorporate these into our tag line. We like the idea of having a question as the first sentence and then a vague answer after. However, we are not set on having a question in the tagline as we like the idea of the tagline below.

For example - "Just when you think you're alone, you're at your weakest"

Actor Profiles

FEMALE ACTRESS

Name: Emily Wardrop

Date of Birth: 05/12/1995

Nationality: British

Height: 5 ft 3

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Light Brown

 

 

MALE ACTOR

 

Name: Gareth Austin

Date of Birth: 18/03/1996

Nationality: British

Height: 6 ft

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Dark Brown

Potential Poster Images

We particularly like these two scenes of the film trailer as they capture the tension and suspense the most. We like the image of the male closing the boot as it captures the narrative of the girl being kidnapped and we also like how its from the victims point of view which would work particularly well as a poster as it is to entice the audience into watching the film. The film trailer also holds many scenes from the victims point of view.

However, we also like the image of the victim hiding behind the tree which also captures the tension well. We feel this image would work well as a poster it provides a basic idea of the narrative in which she is being followed, stalked and has escaped. However, we feel that we would like to adapt this image by making it into a long shot instead of a medium shot and add the male kidnapper in the background to make it clearer that he is trying to capture her. We are planning to capture this image on Sunday 9th March 2014, whilst re-filming a few scenes to add to the film trailer. I will post the image taken from this date and compare it with the image of the male shutting the boot. I will also take another image of the male shutting to boot to get a clearer quality as the one used in this post is a screenshot from the trailer.

Storyboard Version 2

Font Planning to Use for Credits

I have chosen to get the font styles from dafont.com in which I narrowed down the fonts by selecting the horror filter then looked to find which style suited our film trailer the best.

In the image to the left I liked the font 'OCTOBER CROW', however when later researching I came across the 'I STILL KNOW' font which I think works better with our film trailer. I like this font because it represents the thriller genre whilst not being to 'gory' which would suggest that the film trailer is a horror. However as we do not have aspects of blood and slasher. I like the patchy-ness in the writing as it can represent as if it has been scratched which would link together with the female character trying to escape. 

Film Trailer Credits

In our film trailer we have decided to have these credits incorporated into it. We created these credits on powerpoint which were then imported into iMovie as photos but we applied a transition to them to make them zoom in slowly to create an eerie atmosphere, the photos are in the order of which they are on the film trailer. We decided to have a black background with white font as it looks more contrasting whilst representing the type of genre the film trailer is. When creating the final credit image, some of the words were enhanced by making them larger than others to make them stand out more to the audience. We added '#THERUNAROUND' as it allows the target audience to view information about it on twitter and follow any updates if the film was to get produced.

Make Up Tutorial

This video shows how we applied the female characters make up before filming her 'escaping' scenes. We applied mascara below her eyes to make it look like she had been crying or her eyes had been rubbed in distress. After this video we also applied red blush powder to her nose, under eyes and her face to also enhance that she is distressed. We wanted to make her appear to look distressed in order to create tension as well as match the atmosphere of the film trailer.

First Draft Screening Feedback Questionnaires

 

In terms of gaining feedback, we had very positive feedback. As our target audience is teenagers aged 15-17, the question asking who they think the target audience is, gained multiple responses of 'teens' which suggests that we have included correct themes and representations to attract our target audience. Also, the first question was mainly answered thriller, which also suggests that we have included the appropriate mise-en-scene and themes to show this. The rest of the questions were just to get a general idea of what teenagers though of our film trailer so far. As the trailer was shown to year 12 and year 13 students we were able to use the correct target audience age to respond.

A key change to be made was to adjust the beginning footage of the female shopping as many responses suggested that it was too long. Also many people liked the running scene so we could also try to emphasise the footage a bit more.

Transition Editing

Within the trailer we have decided to use the Fade to Black, Fade to White, Cross Dissolve and Cross Blur. We have used the fade to black at the beginning of the trailer as the pace is slow and the fade to black enhancing to slow pace as well as the switching between scenes. When the pace begins to increase we have used fade to white transitions as it creates immediate tension whilst providing the element of thriller and would make the audience engage more with the trailer due to the short scenes and jump cuts, the fade to white enhances this.

We have also added a dissolve cut with the shots of the girl on the swing and the award nomination credit. It creates an eerie atmosphere as we have edited the sound of the screetching swing to carry on during the footage of the award nomination credit. The dissolve transition also blends the nomination credit with the empty swing scene as well.

Black and White VS Colour Frames

Within the editing process, we have decided to use the scenes of the female character in black and white to enhance the idea that these scenes are in the past, whereas the present scenes are in colour. We have decided to do this as we feel that is has more of an effect on the audience by enhancing the female characters emotions by setting the theme. The colour scenes of the male kidnapper also enhance his costume as he is wearing all black in order to connote that he is a 'baddie' and to keep his identity hidden.

THE RUNAROUND - Our First Cut

The video above shows our first edit of the film trailer. This trailer edit was used in our Media Screening on the 7th February 2014, which was then evaluated by the other Year 12 and 13 Media Studies group. The Evaluation has been incorporated and analysed in another post.

Once the final film trailer has been produced we would like to compare the first edit to the final edit to see how much we have improved and progressed during the project. This first edit has been completed through the use of free periods and media lessons.

My Own Evaluation of the First Edit:

So far my favourite shot within the trailer is the first scene of the film trailer of the actress in a dark boot with the enhanced sound of her panicking in distress. This is my favourite scene because it quickly sets tension and forces the audience to engage immediately with the trailer.

I also like once the climax has happened, the slow motion shot of the actress's perspective as I feel it works well with the music as the music has an eerie high pitched sound which also causes the audience to experience the tension and also puts the audience in  the actress's point of view.

Evaluation of the first edit: Ellie

I am extremely happy with the progress we have made so far, despite the obstacles we have faced. A lot of our original ideas have been changed, adapted or left out due to either not working as effectively as we would have liked or through us coming up with a better idea or method. 

I'm happy with the way we build up towards the climax at the end, as this is my favourite aspect of the trailer. The fast paced quick cuts really build up tension and excitement, as well as adding confusion for the audience. This reflects the confusion of our main character who has been kidnapped yet doesn't know why by, where she is or why. 

We will add more shots of her trying to escape, long and short, in order to improve the build up at the begin and add more dynamic to the climax sequence. 

Research into Film Trailer Credits - The Dark Knight Rises