CONSTRUCTION : Filming 2 - News Reporter

To start our film we decided that it would be best to open with a news report as it would set the narrative and provide enough information to grab the audience's attention without jumping straight into the action immediately.  This will help provide enough information for the film to make sense but isn't as simple as an exposition dump through a textual opening, such as Star Wars. 

We used a greenscreen to allow us to the edit the footage in post production and make it seem that this is an actual news report. Using the ultra key in Adobe Premier Pro we could cut the subject of the frame cleanly, allowing us to edit the background to look more like a newsplace. 

To make sure that the sound was as good as we could make it we utilised the external microphone available in the media room. This allowed us to capture the best sound we could and help the news report look more professional.

Another technique that we used was clapping before starting filming, so that way we could keep the camera on until we finally got the best shot for our film. The clap served as a marker for where each batch of filming started and ended, the clap showed as a very high frequency on the soundwaves, showing precisly where the clip starts and ends which we could then use in post productioon to cut the section we needed and delete the rest.

So we decided that we would do a news report to start the film, this would work as it would provide information to the viewer to help the short time we have to tell our story flow easier. The footage that we captured is shown below.

CONSTRUCTION : Filming 1 - Action Sequences

Members of the production team (and actors) met on 27th of October to start the first filming shoot. Discussions had taken place in class to determine what type of genre of film we wanted to make but no clear decisions had been made on the plot because it wasn't fully developed. The focus was on capturing general footage that suit the tropes of the genre we wanted to portray. 

This filming session was focused around filming the transitions that could be used to show the characters moving around the setting, allowing audiences to gain a glimpse of the characters and making sure that the transitions were clean, as well as work on the actual narrative for the story.  

An idea was to use light from the torches to cause over exposure to the camera and then when the camera's focus shifts it would reveal the characters. It was felt this would make for a more interesting introdcution to the characters rather than just straightforward static introduction. A great idea from the team on the day but unfortunately the light from the torches caused some shots to be dark and blurred and meant that the characters weren't perhaps revealed as well as they could have been. 

Overall the team took a lot of useable footage that can be used and incorportated into our final film.

CONSTRUCTION : Cinematic Storytelling

To make sure that we correctly engage with our target audience for our film we looked at 'Cinematic Storytelling' by Jennifer Van Sijil to study the most powerful and useful film conventions, I list them below as well as a brief description and examples of each one.

Smash Cuts

Some examples of smash cuts, a term referenced by Jennifer in which there is a sudden, seemingly abrupt hard cut to an entirely separate scenery or sound that is different to what the story has been focused on. Examples are listed below:

Psycho : In this film a smash cut is used to jolt the audience by sabotaging the audiences building expectations. Psycho did this whilst also incorporating the use of a high angle shot.

American beauty : the smash cut in this film changes a scenery of a vast city of buildings to a close up of a clock. This also affected the audio as well, turning from a silence to the loud banging of an alarm clock.

If I was going to use the smash cut in our my own production it would be to cut time from unnecessary traveling and allow us to make full usage of our limited time. This would also allow us to maintain the audiences attention by not adding in any un-necessary filler scenes. 

Climate

The natural elements that surround the scenery it enhances the actions of the characters, and when used correctly it enhances the mood of the film in the genre, for example darkness in a horror film, or soft lighting within a romantic film. Examples are listed below.

Sixth Sense : The woman enters the basement and breathes out a cloud of cold air, which leads the viewer to believe that it is initially due to the coolness of the basement, however as the movie develops we notice that the temperature drops whenever any ghosts appear in the film. Which provides an early clue that the protagonist is in fact a ghost.

Directing the eye

By directing the eye to make the viewer fell that something could happen it engages the audiences attention. This can be used to subvert the expectations of the viewers and to make them more engages in the film itself and direct they eye to the screen and the story being told.

Citizen Kane : Some journalists are shown watching a movie about Kane's life then the lighting decreases and only scattered light is shone of the central characters. This centres the attention onto the small variety of characters shown and makes the viewer gain a sort of tunnel vision, as they are told only those that have light shining on them are of importance to the story.

PLANNING : SCP

How will SCP influence our project? by Keyhole Productions

PLANNING : Props

 

prop list by Keyhole Productions

PLANNING : The Target Audience

For a film to have a successful release the marketing team must identify and reach out to the target audience, we did the same. We identified our target audience as thriller/horror enthusiast that are reasonably young (15-25). This must be done to ensure that the people that would enjoy the film are aware of the films release and would be willing to watch it, to help us find our target audience we created a questionnaire to better understand the audience that we would be marketing our film towards.

In order to make the questionnaire and ensure that it reaches a respectable amount of people I incorporated the use of google forms, an online free software that allows me to make questionnaires and include trailers from YouTube as well as posters found on the internet, this will make it easy and convenient for the people filling in the from to understand what my questions are talking about.

PLANNING : Top Line and The Big Question

In order to undertand the way that storytelling in film is crafted as well as the importance of a good top line I studied Frank Ash's work and his words, and because of his work as the creative consultant at the BBC Academy he was someone qualified to seek advice from. As I am trying to create a trailer that would fall into the horror genre I learned that it is best to hold the audiences attention with a well written story and raise the tension and suspense as the film goes on. I also feel that minimising jump scares would be best as I feel that they often remove the tense atmosphere that the film builds up. To help us achieve this, Frank came up with two questions that film-makers should aim to answer in our final production : The Top Line, and The Big Question. 

Top Line : A creature of unknown origin pulled from the depths of the past. mankind believed that they could control this threat, however they were wrong.Its location is deemed too dangerous to be common knowledge, an organisation that specialises in dealing with these unknown threats sends in two elite operatives to subdue the being. Do they stand a chance against something beyond human understanding? 

The Big Question : Will they survive and defeat the unknown being?

PLANNING : Social Issues And Groups

Our film is focused around military soldiers as they combat an extra-terrestrial threat. Therefore the group and social issues that we will represent will be soldiers and how they are affected by their experiences. We might represent how soldiers are both physically and mentally affected by their experiences, maybe through representing them as crippled, or developing PTSD after the events that they witness. We could potentially show this through a time skip, or maybe they develop issues immediately. 

There is the option to have the monster be a physical representation of  depression, anxiety or other types of mental health illness. By doing this we could be bringing awareness to that disorder similarly to the way that ALTER bring attention to disorders or social issues through visual metaphors or in some cases making it clear as to what they are trying to do. This is seen with some of their work such as Dual in that they bring attention to a mental illness, in this case it is duel personality disorder. We may take inspiration from ALTER's work to make our Thriller/Horror piece be more unsettling and make our work be more unique and memorable. 

Our film will be primarily centred around the problems that veterans and soldiers face during and after experience on the battlefield, however we could try to implement an aspect of mental illnesses or social issues to help raise awareness.

i have done a pinterest on veterans and war to help me study the reality and help to portray realism in the film

PLANNING : Casting

 

Casting from AlexWain1

PLANNING : Thriller Genre Codes and Conventions

Thriller Codes by Keyhole Productions

PLANNING : storyboard

We created a story board to portray the types of shots and the overall story that we wish to make and present, below the shots are roughly drawn out and labelled as to the type of shots and what is going on, for example a POV shot of one of the soldiers looking at a picture of their family to make them more humanised.

PLANNING : Treatment

We studied Frank Ash, who taught creativity and storytelling to production teams within the BBC as well as to production teams outside the BBC using questions such as what will interest the audience? along side how the narrative will evolve within the time that the story is being told. 

Through Frank ash we learned that there are certain tropes for every genre that will satisfy their audience and we learned that a good film balances the story being told with the characters, the tropes of the genre that the story will incorporate, and the time available within the film to tell the story.

Top Line : A creature of unknown origin pulled from the depths of the past. Man thought that they could control it, they were wrong. The location of its whereabouts is deemed too dangerous for the outside world to know, therefore an unknown organisation sends in two elite operatives to neutralize the being. Do they stand a chance against something beyond human comprehension? 

The Big Question : Will they survive and defeat the unknown being?

PLANNING : Call Sheet

The call sheet is important for the production as it allows for anyone to get hold of any other members of the production, regardless of whether its a director or actor. The call sheet will have the names of the people involved in the production then it will have the phone number that each member has next to it, this will make it easier to get hold of whoever they may need. The call sheet is below:

PLANNING : Initial Development

 

In order to make sure that we know a rough outline of what we want to do we made several mind maps showing roughly what we wanted to achieve in our film, it is not specific as this is still the development stage but it contains enough information that we can formulate a rough outline of the story as well as get a better idea of what we want to make

PLANNING : Location Recce

We wanted a location that worked best with the genre of our film, this meant that we needed to study the tropes of the genre we were going for and find a location that reflects the genre as a whole. This lead us to find several building that were suitable to be used for our film. pictures of them can be seen below.

PLANNING : Background Research Into Similar Films

One of my teams primary inspirations to create a thriller/horror trailer cam from a YT video uploaded by Even Royalty, called SCP : overlord.  The darker tone, in which it causes the viewer to tense up due to the intensity and the uncertainty is something that I would very much like to achieve in my trailer. 

Our team agreed that we liked the look of this trailer and desired to create a trailer inspired by this. using tropes from the same genre and attempt to create a similar feel. we would use a dark colour grading to achieve the dark, gritty tone we are going for as it works effectively in the trailer. this will give us guidance for our trailer to make ours work as best as possible.

SCP: dollhouse is our initial inspiration from. it has a Horror, Military and Thriller genre, which we are looking for, it leans on similar tropes that we are looking for, including rising tension through music, as well as never fully showing the monster, only teasing it.

RESEARCH : Trailer Analysis , Gravity

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RESEARCH : Trailer Analysis, American Sniper

 

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RESEARCH : Trailer Analysis, TENET

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RESEARCH : Different Kinds Of Trailers

Teaser – The teaser is usually shorter, with the Mr Holmes teaser lasting only fifty one seconds, it is usually only contains the most impactful, memorable lines and only showcases one or two major characters. The short runtime means that it is common for it to be designed for and to be posted on social media. It’s main purpose is to grab the audience’s attention and raise awareness of the film. The teaser informs the viewers of the man behind the myth and what the film will be exploring

Main trailer – this kind of trailer showcases more elements of the story and cast, the main trailer is usually longer with the sherlock trailer lasting one minute fifty four seconds. It contains more information about the story and the characters. It is common for the main trailer to feature more scenes and to hold more information regarding the story. it reaches out to typical audiences and incorporated additional trailers by exploring them more and get people to want to see the film more.

TV spot – the tv spot is made to build awareness it promotes the good parts of the film/show that it is promoting, the spot is commonly just a single scene that gives the viewer a taste of the film and informs the viewer of the chemistry between the cast and the type of story it will be telling, it usually holds a few lines to get the viewers attention for example in the Mr Holmes spot, one of the characters says “a few drops will more than suffice” this grabs the audience’s attention as they want to know what it is more than sufficient for”.

RESEARCH : Trailer Analysis, Attack on Titan Season 4 (Final Season)

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RESEARCH : Why Is A Trailer Made?

A Trailer is commonly made to inform a public audience of the existence, premise and USP's of your film or show. It is commonly stylised to appeal to the audience that the film would be trying to reach, for example a trailer for a horror film would likely follow conventions of dark shadows looming over the monster.

A trailer must :
- inform the viewers of your premise
- show enough information to get your viewers invested in the film or show.
- withhold enough information to make your viewers want to watch the film/show ( it is common for it to be a question that will be answered in the film for example, who is the murderer, will the hero accomplish his/her goal, etc).

alongside the above trailers are often used to inform people of three main things :
-The genre of the story
-The hooks of the story
-The characters in the story.

RESEARCH : Where Would A Film Be Released?

When releasing their films into cinemas a distributor must consider multiple things, firstly they must consider if they want their film to get a saturated or a selected release.

A saturated release would mean that their film would be released in multiple cinemas, and multiple screenings a day. It is common for big films distributed by big companies such as Disney, paramount, etc to receive this kind of release, with examples being the harry potter films, the live action classics owned by Disney (e.g. Aladdin, the lion king, etc). This is because Disney and paramount have the money to give their films such wide and long cinematic releases, therefore they would keep their  films in cinema for a long time to help maximise profits, and sales.

A selected release is more common for films produced by smaller companies and smaller directors. These kind of releases are often short and limited to a few cinemas, often only screening in places their film would be most likely to be successful. For example I, Daniel Blake received very limited screenings 

RESEARCH : When Do Trailers Appear?

Trailers are commonly released during a window that would best maximise sales for that film, for example a seasonal film such as a Christmas film would be released during the Christmas season, leading to more sales as people are looking for that kind of film during that period.

Distributors would keep track of their competitors film's release scheduled to make sure that they don't release films during the same window as them, this is done to maximise sales and make profits as large as they possibly can. Therefore that would mean that their trailers would be posted during a time where there is limited competition to gain public knowledge and interest before their competitors have a chance to do the same.

                           

They look for when the best weekend would be to start screening, this is because films earn most of their money throughout their theatrical run during their opening weekend, so if it failed then they would have to withdraw the film.

Distributors must also consider holding the film back and not have multiple screenings in one day this is primarily done to sell out their screenings and will allow the distributor to argue that the film deserves more screenings as the demand for the film has increased and be able to convince cinemas to keep it playing as long as possible.

RESEARCH : What Is A Film's Selling Points?

A film distributor would need to look at the film and decide what aspects of the film place it apart from the rest. The hooks of a film are what is generally used to grab potential audiences attention. It is common for a distributor to try to capitalise on big name stars that worked on the film or they will talk about previous films that stars have worked on; this gets potential audiences attention.

Chris Besseling stated that a when you put any product into a marketplace, including films, you have to immediately identify two things: the target audience and the unique selling points that sets it apart from other films. This helps the marketers to find a set of people to market their film towards and will help them realise what their film needs to be marketed as to best grab the attention of their target audience.

He tells us to identify the key strengths that you can exploit and use over the course of the film's campaign to help increase the revenue the film will get. It is common that the strengths are a well known actor or a well known director. He then tells us to put them at the forefront of the campaign. Another key strength would be to identify if it's already able to cash in on a pre-existing audience as they could get more revenue if the audience is already aware of the story, for example successive films such as the Star Wars films.

Kezia Williams stated that at any moment during the film campaign distributors will look for key themes, unique selling points and hooks. She also said that emotional aspects of the film can be used to grab the audiences attention and be used as the USP for the film. This means that it is the distributors job to identify these grips and use them to promote and advertise the film/show.

RESEARCH : How The Campaign Works?

There are two primary types of costs : above the line and below the line. Above the line costs are the necessary costs to create an online presence for the film, primarily through posters, social media, trailers, etc. Below the line costs is more engaged in that the actors will do interviews, there will be a premiere, etc. It is common for these events to be opened to the press and to the audience to attend and interact with the actors, directors and all the other people that are involved with the film.

The amount spent on promotion is usually calculated by how much they assume they will earn throughout the film's run and then they will calculate how much they have to spend based on how much profit they predict to earn. They are able to do this as the distributors will look within the same genre's at similar film's earnings and see how profitable they were. Then they will calculate how well they think the film will do and use that value to calculate how much they have to spend on promotion.

The campaign works because the distributor will identify the target market and find a way to advertise and promote their film to best appeal to the audience they are trying to target.

Distributors spent around £350 million in advertisement for their films in 2014, with £160 million of that being spent on trailers, publicity events such as premieres and interviews, and production and the actual delivery to the cinemas and home screens.

One of the most influential parts of advertisement is the poster. It needs to show what the film is about, who is involved with the production of the film, and need to be engaging and catch the eye of the by-passers. Also if the poster is a sequel to another film it has to show that somewhere, usually with colouring, style and actors, and example of a series of posters that exist within a franchise is shown below with the Star Wars posters.

  

Trailers can be classified in four main ways:

Teaser – The teaser is usually shorter, with the Mr Holmes teaser lasting only fifty one seconds, it is usually only contains the most impactful, memorable lines and only showcases one or two major characters. The short runtime means that it is common for it to be designed for and to be posted on social media. It’s main purpose is to grab the audience’s attention and to

Main trailer – this kind of trailer showcases more elements of the story and cast, the main trailer is usually longer with the sherlock trailer lasting one minute fifty four seconds. It contains more information about the story and the characters. It is common for the main trailer to feature more scenes and to hold more information regarding the story.

TV spot – an advert which contains the actors, messages and aims to promote the film/show by showing a scene or a quick montage to promote the film and get people to watch it.

RESEARCH : Who Is A Film Marketed Towards?

On the FDA website, Kezia Williams (Entertainment One Uk) explains the importance of targeting the correct audience and ensuring that you are aware of their likes and dislikes as well as what, in turn, will ensure that they will view your film and leave positive reviews.

Marketability - This is the ability for a film to be sold or marketed. To be able to convince a stranger to watch a film after hearing about it or seeing snippets of the film via a trailer is vital for it to be a success and in turn for it to make a profit and hit targets.

Playablitity - This is about the quality of the film. How well the target audience will respond to the film once they start their viewing. Will they buy the DVD or stream it when it's released? Will they talk about it and spread awareness? A positive reaction is vital for the success of the film. If a film is marketed correctly and is of high quality it should be replayed more and will have a longer life span than of something of a lesser quality.

Above I have completed a selection of tasks to help me in my understanding of who a film can be marketed towards by looking at the interests of people and how to possibly market a film towards a specific audience. I looked at how professionals completed this task and will use what I have learnt to help me with my future project. In doing this I have gained a better understanding of how to correctly market a film to get the highest number of views and sales.

RESEARCH : The Role Of The Distributor

I used the FDA site 'the film space' to research the role of the distributor. Mark Batey explains that it's the distributor's role to consider how they will distribute the film.

The Distributor analyses what the film is about and who the target audience would be, then adjust the marketing and distribution to suite the target audience. For example a film marketed towards teenagers would most likely be distributed online, however a film marketed towards toddlers or smaller children would be distributed on TV channels that target children, like CBBC. It is the role of the distributor to identify every possible audience and find a way to market the film towards that audience to best maximise revenue and profit from that film.

When they distribute the film it must be considered if it is seasonal and would be more successful if released at a certain time, e.g. horror films will be more successful if released near Halloween. Therefore they will consider the time that a film would be released to best maximise revenue and sales.

They may need to distribute their film on streaming services if the film is marketed towards teenagers or young adults, or they may give it a theatrical run if they deem it profitable to do so. This is because most young adults and teenagers use streaming services more frequently than other forms of media. This would be one of the most important parts of distribution as they would need to make sure that there is an established audience and that the audience chosen is marketed towards them as best as possible.

Distributors may market their film through advertisement through usage of posters (both cast posters and solo posters), trailers, events, premiers. Because the UK market is very crowded, it means that it can be difficult to market their film and get it in the public eye, which is why many distributors will try to promote their film by employing big name stars like Robert Downey Jr for Avengers or John Krasinski for A Quiet Place. Promotion is crucial within a crowded market.

What?

A film distributor would need to look at the film and decide what aspects of the film place it apart from the rest. The hooks of a film are what is generally used to grab potential audiences attention. It is common for a distributor to try to capitalise on big name stars that worked on the film or they will talk about previous films that stars have worked on; this gets potential audiences attention.

Who?
A distributor must consider who they would be marketing their film towards as to best maximise profits, this is crucial to the success of a film as if the distributor markets their film  towards the wrong group of people that will show no interest in the film then the film will be unsuccessful. They also need to consider how marketable the film is, and how playable the film is.

Marketability - be able to convince a stranger to watch a film after hearing about it or seeing snippets of the film.

Playablitity - how well the target audience will respond to the film once they start their viewing.

How?

There are two primary types of costs : above the line and below the line. Above the line costs are the necessary costs to create an online presence for the film, primarily through posters, social media, trailers, etc. Below the line costs is more engaged in that the actors will do interviews, there will be a premiere, etc. It is common for these events to be opened to the press and to the audience to attend and interact with the actors, directors and all the other people that are involved with the film.

The amount spent on promotion is usually calculated by how much they assume they will earn throughout the film's run and then they will calculate how much they have to spend based on how much profit they predict to earn. They are able to do this as the distributors will look within the same genre's at similar film's earnings and see how profitable they were. Then they will calculate how well they think the film will do and use that value to calculate how much they have to spend on promotion. The campaign works because the distributor will identify the target market and find a way to advertise and promote their film to best appeal to the audience they are trying to target.

When?
A distributor must consider when the best time to release a film would be, they would have to consider seasonality, for example horror films would be more successful if released in the Halloween period, however a romantic comedy would be more successful if released around valentines day, etc.

For non seasonal films (such as the marvel films, or the star wars films) they may have to consider other things than seasonality, for example they may consider other films similar to their films, or maybe they may consider what the trends are, these would all affect the overall success of a film and would mean that they could earn more or less profits depending on when they choose to distribute their film and allow for screenings.