Editing Process

We have been editing our trailer over the past couple of weeks and I have found that I have seriously improved my skills since last year and become increasingly quick with the software- Adobe Premiere, things such as using a range of library sound effects, understanding of use of non diegetic sound, shot selection and a range of transitions including dissolves and fades to black, which are all included in our A2 product. 

Sound wise we have removed most of the background sound and added our own track with a spooky feel, the use of additional non diegetic bang sounds added during post production to create dramatic impact and again reinforce genre conventions. We have also recorded and added a narrative voice over this allows for a first person exploration of narrative and allows the audience an understanding of the preferred reading which is a convention of mainstream genre films like Thrillers. We had our lead character read out the lines 'It came in the post this morning' and 'I think it's trying to tell me something', these give the audience a brief understanding of the plot as well as adding mystery and excitement.

We have also used the pace tool to add a slow motion sequence to create dramatic tension and ensure the audiences attention is focused on the central protagonist entering into the chamber for the first time – this encodes narrative enigma for audiences and reinforces genre conventions.

I have found my skills had developed to the point where editing was far more time efficient in A2 than in AS. I learnt to avoid jump cuts, which confuses the audience. I have also learnt to add multiple audio face transitions (difficult process but necessary to ensure audio sounded smooth) We have also played around with the manipulation of colour to change some of the footage into black and white to give a gritty, shocking representation (we wanted the image to look old, blurry and mysterious). 

We have also been focusing on transitions including a significant use of dissolves and fade to black to build tension and allowing for backdrop for  titles which is a convention of film trailers. The remaining footage mainly used straight cut for purposes of continuity. 

The structure of our trailer actually challenges typical conventions by beginning at the end of the film-Tom Banks in the torture chamber. It also challenges conventions by introducing the conflict at the  beginning of the film- followed by the normal world (Banks in his office). However we attempted to create a 'trailer rush' in the middle by using fast paced music. We also followed the idea of introducing the lead first, followed by the villain. 

The next thing we will do is put our final trailer on YouTube as an example of Web 2.0 to get interactive feedback on my production at A2–  it is also helpful as users can easily upload short films for audience feedback and for marketing purposes.

Poster Development

Poster Development Presentation by kerim5

Poster Mock Up

This was made so we had an original idea of what we wanted our final poster to look like:

Prop List for Poster: 2

Props: Old rusty chair, Chains. Scene: Dark background, dripping from ceiling, volumetric lightying. Actors: One or two dark silouettes of men in the background.

Mood board: Magazine Cover

Mood Board for Magazine Covers

The Pitch Prezi

Pie Charts: Target Audience Survey results

The results here show that the majority of the people we asked in our questionnaire were 20-30, followed closely by 10-20 year olds.

This result indicated that most of the people we asked were males, which will understandably sway the answers we get from them, but works to our advantage because our film is aimed at a predominantly male audience.

The results here show that the majority of our audience are white Caucasians. With a larger amount of Asians and Middle Easterns than Africans.

The results here show that the majority of people we asked about films were either students at public school, university or working parents.

The resluts of this pie chart show that when we asked people about their favourite film genre the majority said that they enjoyed horror/thriller films, with drama following closely behind. This was a great result for us as our film is a crime thriller.

When we asked people how they normally watch a film, most answered saying they commonly watched films online, which was of no surprise. As a large number of the people we asked were working parents it was also of no surprise that they watched films on DVDs at home. Very few used LoveFilm, a popular film renting site and portable devices such as ipods.

Results from this pie chart indicate that most people learn about new and upcoming films from trailers, and on the Internet. Very few said they found them through newspaper's and magazine articles, implying that the Internet is becoming increasingly favoured over reading newspaper's and magazines, a lot of people now check the news and read articles online.

When we asked people what their favourite way of watching a trailer was we found the result was predominantly people watching them on you tube which again was of no surprise considering most of popular answers so far have been Internet based. No body said they saw trailers on DVDs, which was surprising considering a number of them were working parents who watched films on DVDs.

Half of the people we asked suggested that the main aspect they look for in a film was the entertainment factor. Next down from that was comedy, and then drama and intellectual stimulation, with originality holding the lowest amount of votes.

Results from this line chart show how half of the people we asked about the element most likely to attract and grab their attention towards a film was if there were big stars involved. As our film is very small budget this will not be an option for us. Reviews were also a key element of what attracts people to films.

Results from this bar graph imply that the majority of our audience say that the most annoying thing about a movie trailer is if it is unclear in regards to what the film is about and does not show the type of clips that will demonstrate the genre of the film.

The results of our questionnaire help us with the making of our film because they suggest to us what these age groups particularly like and want to see in a film and what aspects most attract them. When asking about trailers we noticed that a large amount of people said that a trailer being unclear is especially irritating. Giving too much away was also a problem, therefore we will aim to make a trailer very simple to understand without giving too much of the story away to please our target audience which is 10-30 in a broad spectrum but focusing more closely on the 18-25 year olds.