Interview with Declan Heeney who played the role of the father
Interview with Nicola Brady who played the role of the mother
What I have learnt form the actors/actresses that participated in our trailer...
I have learnt that both Nicola Brady and Declan Heeney both enjoyed participating in the filming for our trailer as it was a new and exciting expereience they could get involved. I have learnt that through selecting close friends and colleagues to take part in filming our trailer is far more productive than choosing those who aren’t as comfortable with filming. Nicola and Declan were always reliable and wanted to help out in anyway to enable our trailer to be the best it could. I have learnt that Declan enjoyed his role as the father and although he didn’t know how to portray the character at first through my directing this was achieved. I also learnt that Nicola enjoyed her role as she played the main character and found that it was much easier to produce the trailer exactly how we wanted because this was part of her coursework too. I have realised that the filming for our trailer was a success because both Nicola and Declan had favourite scenes that they enjoyed doing.
What I have learnt from our target audience's feedback...
I have learnt from the feedback of our target audience that overall the trailer was produced to a high standard as it developed an emotional drama which is what Nicola and I were aiming for. It was apparent that the build up to the disappearance of the young child was effective as the audience responded very strongly. The cliff hanger caused a sense of intrigue in the audience as they were curious as to who captured the boy and in suspense about how the film would end. I also learnt that a way to improve the trailer Nicola and I could have developed the relationship between the mother and the child to establish a more emotional attachment and make the audience more empathetic to the mother's feelings when the child disappears.
This clip shows where the mother has been attacked by the father showing a bruise on her face. However, we decided not to include this clip because in another clip we used, it shows the mother has been attacked by the father using a glass bottle therefore this would not result in a bruise it would be a bleeding cut instead. Therefore, it may suggest to the audience that the father has aggressively attacked the mother on more than one occasion for the bruise to appear on her face which is not the case. Using the theme of domestic violence would come away from the theme we planned to stick to which is the quest to find her son not that the father may be a threat to the child. We also decided not to use this clip because in the park scenes the mother didnt have the bruise on her face showing inconsistency, at this point we had already filmed a large amount of the park scene and weren't prepared to re-do our filiming as well as editing.
This was going to be the clip of the son travelling on a bus after being kidnapped however, we decided against this as it gave away the narrative to the audiecne and considering we are producing a trailer we wanted to keep as much as possible of the plot hidden, so viewers are left on a cliffhanger predicting the ending themselves.
We chose not to use this clip as it is simply a close up of what the mother is pouring down the sink, which is already shown from a different angle earliar on in the trailer.
Through using a close up shot of the prop which was used as the child's toy created significance that the child was no longer in the vacinity because he had dropped/left his toy behind. However, Nicola and I were torn between using the teddy bear as a close up or the red balloon the child was holding, in the end we decided on the balloon as it symbolised and loving relationship and danger ahead due to the red balloon.
Developments using Adobe
After recording clips for our trailer we used the software Adobe Premier Elements which allowed Nicola and I to edit out clips by rearranging them in different orders, applying transtions and atributing the use of background music and sound effects, and editing the brightness and colour of our clips.
Within our trailer we have experimented with different sound effects and accompaniment which links with the theme of our trailer which can be recognised as a drama genre.
Music within a trailer is known as a subset of production music, this is the background music also known as non digetic it is used for film previews to create enigma and enlightenment in regard to the plot. However is not always necessarily used in the actual film production. The purpose of using music in a trailer is to highlight and incorporate the specific message that is being sent through the teaser trailer about the actual film itself. Originally, in our trailer we wanted just a piano playing lightly to express sadness and compassion, however now there are various instruments being used such as a piano, brass, strings and flute. A range of synthesizers were used to express an element of atmosphere and mood within the trailer to relate to the genre of drama, this was done using the software logic 8 available on Apple laptops/computers. To compose our background music we organised a professional music composer to create our background music. Through the use of synthesizing the instruments they no longer express just their original sound, they have now been improved through experimenting with the pitch,tempo,dynamic and its duration to coincide with the theme and the scenes within the trailer. For each scene in the trailer the audio had to relate to the visual scenes for example in the park scene where the mother is playing with her son the music that accompanies this scene is soft gentle and playful up beat music however when the father is seen watching the mother and son in the park the music changes and become more sinister through the change in dynamics.
The sound effects used in the trailer are also non diegetic as they are used to create a dramatic effect. For our studio ident we have a video recording of an eye blinking and have used a sound effect of blink, because through research we have found that to really draw an audience in, if there is an eye blinking it is more effective to have the sound of the blink to create emphasis on the ident. We also use a heartbeat within our trailer to show tension building and realisation of her missing son. Footsteps are used to highlight the fact someone is following them although this is shown through the camera as if it is hand held it just adds to the effect we are trying to create. The bottle smashing simply expresses the noise after the mother has been hit with the wine bottle.
There is a use of diegetic sound used in our production through the use of dialogue to create a storyline within the trailer.The sound of door slams are also diegetic as there was no need to produce a sound effect for this particular part as the volume was already sufficient and served the correct purpose.
We have chosen this date for the film to be released as it shows significance of new beginnings and changes in relationships and different outlooks of life, due to the start of a New Year. This relates to ‘Tug of Love’ as it shows how a traditional happy family has been broken leading to a change in the pattern of a family’s life.
A Conflict of Custody
Definition of ‘Tug of love’: a conflict over custody of a child between divorced parents or between natural parents and foster or adoptive parents. This shows significance as we have picked out powerful and important words within this definition which is also our title and this is the main theme within our trailer production.
Based on the events of the AMBER alert initiative.
The amber alert is Americas Missing; Emergency Response Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child
POV Productions Presents
The studio ident
More than200,000children were abducted by family members.
The masthead of our film - Tug of Love, was edited to show consistency throughout our production, in regard to colour scheme and images used throughout. In the centre of the title we used a blue lens flare which was similar to the lens flare used in our studio ident. This was done to show a constant significant image that references in the magazine and in the studio ident. We also kept a colour scheme of black, red and white to express a consistent theme that occurs in the poster and the magazine. when considering the use of props the teddy bear used in the trailer, was also used in the poster and magazine to ensure the genre and synopsis was always made clear to the target audience.
OriginalEdited
When taking photographs for our magazine front cover we wanted our image to be simplistic, due to researching professional magazines. After taking our image we edited the background using Photoshop elements we did this by cropping around the female in the main image and created a grey background using paint. We decided upon this because in most film magazines the background is very plain so that the audience i draw towards the main image which is usually of a main character as they are considered the most identifiable in reference to advertising the particular film or in our case the trailer for the film.
For mine and Nicola's ancillary task of a magazine, we wanted to find a font style that would come across as simplistic yet effective. therefore, we found a websites called my fonts that enabled us to search through various types of fonts to choose the exact one we were looking for. We typed in various key words such as bold, title, headline etc to explore various typographys. After a long time of searching we found exactly what we wanted, (the font above). the reason we decided on this particular font was because firstly, it was very simplistic and displayed in bold, and secondly, it gave off a professional feel to it.
However, once showing the masthead to our peers we were informed that it wasn't very eye catching, so we decided to keep the size of the 'X' however, changed the actual font of the 'X' as we noticed it was quite different to the rest of the mast head. Nicola and I also though that by editing the colour of the 'X' to a bright red would link with the rest of the colour scheme on the magazine. Through following codes and conventions of professional magazines, most mastheads were either behind the main image, in front or slightly out of context to create more of an edgy feel therefore, we decided to change the positioning of the 'X' so that it was now displayed on a diagonal slant in order for it to appear more unique and eye catching drawing in a range of audiences.
Developments
Research into Film Magazines
Total Film
Total Film is one of the biggest and most recognised film magazines. It is based in the UK and sells an issue of the magazine monthly for £3.99 or £37.99 for one years subscription. The magazine was launched in 1997 and is published by Future Publishing. It offers cinema, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features. Total Film is available both in print and on IPads. It has been released in other countries such as Turkey, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Indonesia and many others.
Empire
Empire is a film magazine which advertises, and gives reviews of the latest movies which are out in cinemas, it also can include interviews with directors of specific film and the actors/actresses in the movies. It is published monthly by Bauer Media. The first issue was released in July 1989 and is now recognised to be the biggest selling film magazine is Britain and has been published in America, Australia, Turkey, Russia and Portugal. This magazine is a helpful guide to target audiences whom would be intrigued by various genres of films form comedy/romance to action/thriller, it is found that the range of ages to purchase and read this magazine are between 15-44. Through reading this magazine would help decide a persons decision on whether a film they would like to watch would interest them and meet their standards. The magazine costs £3.99 unless you would prefer to pay yearly which would work out at a better price for only £2.50 per month.
Our completed ancillary task - Poster
We edited the typograghy of our title 'Tug of Love' so it no longer was displayed in bold, this improved the poster as it made the typograghy appear handwritten relating to the genre of our production.
Developing our Poster
through feedback from our target audiences an issue that arose was the uncertainty of whether the title was 'A Conflict of Custody' or 'Tug of Love', due to the size and style of the typography used. Furthermore we altered the positioning and size of the piece of text so it was clear which was the masthead and which was the tagline. through research we realised usually a colour scheme is used throughout the magazine, therefore we changed the colour scheme so the poster would fit the style of our film - a drama. After researching professional posters we decided to remove the logo's of facebook and twitter as only very few published film posters advertise through social networking sites.
Editing the image:
We used pic monkey to adjust the lighting of the balloon making it a more vibrant red
We adjusted the brightness using pic monkey
Our Original image for our poster
In preparation for our film night, we placed our completed posters around school.
Through recently analysing our original storyboard some of our ideas regarding what shots would be most effective we decided to add some scenes that would explain the plot more and would create more of a cliff hanger in our trailer.Nicola and I noticed trailers briefly explain parts of the storyline and only present the most interesting and best parts of the trailer. Therefore, before re-doing a few of our scenes Nicola and I have improved on our storyboard so we will know exactly what angles and shot we will be doing because without planning a newer storyboard on the day of filming we will be experimenting will different positions and scenes which will waste time. therefore we have composed a completed storyboard that displays similar scenes from our original storyboards and also include to developments.
Beginning
Middle
End
Comparisons
OUR TRAILER SHOTS STORY BOARD SHOTS
Codes and Conventions of a teaser trailer
The typical codes and convetions of a teaser trailer are that they usually last up to 1 and a half to 2 minutes, within this time frame they introduce the beginning which explains in breif the synopsis of the trailer, the middle which elaborates on the narrative then reaches the climax with the help of accompaniment for the build up along side fast cuts and lastly an advertisment of the title of the film and its realese dates. Usually these short clips are not shown in chronological order as they would be in the film this is because the best parts of the film have to be shown in a short amount of time therefore have to be condensed which may cause uncertainty about the film as a whole. This is the aim when producing trailer as leaving the audience on a cliffhanger encourages them to want to watch it in a cinema. Through research I have noticed that captions are essential as they may include factual information suggesting the film is based on true events, A list actors/actresses will also promote the film due to their previous famous film and captions can also be awarded and rated by various newpapers etc expressing the importance of captions. Within our trailer myself and Nicola are going to follow these codes and conventions to create a realistic and professional trailer. Our trailer will aim have a duration of 2 mins or slightly under, within the beginning we will establish the argument between the parents and the mother and son relationship. We will always strive to mix up the order of clips to intrigued the audience so they have to have full focus on every second of it. During the build up many captions will be displayed alongside accompaniment that coincides with our clips complimenting our genre (drama/thriller). Lastly we will end on a cliffhanger in order to intise the audience making them want to see the film.
Our Script
For our Trailer, through the use of research myself and Nicola have noticed in many teaser trailers dialogue is limited so that the storyline isn't given away, it allows the audience to be active in commenting on what they believe the film is about, which makes them more likely want to go and watch the film in cinemas. to make up for the lack of dialogue we have included background mood music and different sound effects. the background music will create feeling and enigma towards the mother losing her son and the mysterious character who has taken him. the non diegetic sound effects will emphasis the parts in the scene such as the doors slamming shut and the smashing of the glass. this sound effects will seem more apparent signifying their relevance.
The Dialogue
(Beginning)
Mother: Look at the state of you, were leaving.
(Middle)
Mother: Tom (shouts)
(End)
Mother: Have you seen my son.
Lady at the door: No sorry.
Binary Opposition
Within our trailer, Nicola and I have used Claude Levi-Stauss' narrative theory in terms of the binary opposition. Our trailer expresses this through the Father being the villain and the Mother and son being the victim. The father is recognised as bad for taking the child, the mother is considered good as she cares for 'Tom' the son, and the son is completely innocent with regard to the conflict between the parents. There is also binary opposition through different genders and ages, it also is shown as the trailer shows the majority of clips in the daytime however, once the child has been taken the weather changes to night time express the fathers evil character through the weather.
I decided to research into the trailer of The Tall Man as it relates to the key theme within my trailer which is the idea of a child been taken from their mother and the emotions and stress of the situation felt my family members.
Plot
The film is set in a small mining town where children are disappearing on a regular basis, and the abductions are blamed on a local legend called "the Tall Man." a nurse whose own son disappears, leading her to seek out the mystery of the Tall Man.
Sound
During the beginning of the trailer is a sound of a young child's voice humming a gentle nursery rhyme, however using this alongside the idea of a sinister phenomenon; for example a large empty house situated in a rural setting away from any busy towns suggests that this film isn't going to be a pleasant, straight forward 'happy families' kind of film, it recognises there is more to than what meets the eye. Through linking eerie nursery rhymes with a large empty house in a deserted destination creates a feeling of enigma suggesting the link between something to do with children however is unpleasant. Contrasting diegetic sound (children laughing and playing with parent) juxtapositions non diegetic sounds of dark and sinister heightens the feeling of the unknowing of the relationship between what is soon to happen to the characters. Thunder and lightening is associated with fear which introduces the start of where the film begins to draw in the audience. a fast heartbeat increases the intensity of the reoccurring situations of missing children and the plot thickens as to where and why all these children are being taken over a short period of time and disappearing without any traces of them. "The last kid disappeared two months ago wont be long before the next one goes" this piece of dialogue is spoken by a police officer in a very certain tone which signifies being a authoritative figure of the community he is very knowledgeable of the situation and says it as it is a regular occurrence showing that where ever the children are going the police have no leads as to where or if anyone is taking them. a loud bang from an area of the house is heard by the mother who lives there her immediate response is to run into her child's bedroom which the expresses tension rising as her son is nowhere to be seen. To compliment the feeling of panic is fast, rapid accompaniment followed by the diegetic sound of sirens of police ares rushing we presume to the panicking mother(nurse) however that is unknown as she hasn't called the authorities therefore could suggest a different child is taken as well as the nurses.
she screams his name "DAVID" suggesting desperation in her voice as she gets no response. this then leads to grunts when attacking the "tall man", suddenly all background music ends and there is silence apart from a diegetic sound of a truck violently crashing once the truck is still a fast heartbeat is heard suggesting to the audience if whoever is in the truck is alive or not.
Camera shots/angles
At the start of the trailer is a conventional green screen used to inform the audience about the content used in the film and that has been approved by film rating companies that it is suitable and appropriate for viewers. in most trailers the content isn't as extreme in comparison to the actual film itself, however this just informs audiences what the film will entail and that the trailer will have short clips of certain themes.
The opening scene is of a birds eye view shot of a car travelling woodland location which is very desolate as there are no other cars travelling. It uses a tracking in shot to show the idea of the car being followed to its prime location this leads the audience to the establishing long shot of a house situated around a forest, this suggests that this location is where will the story will progress due to the use of angles.
Inside the house is a little boy and a young woman who appears to be his mother. there is a close shot of the little boys face as he hugs his mother which then changes to a close up of the mothers face this signifies a strong bond and relationship between the two characters. After the introduction of the location and presumably main characters comes the studio ident to further advertise the film.
There is a two shot of the main characters who appear to be showing childlike behaviour due to the props captured within this clip and facial expressions. To develop the narrative the is a tracking out shot of a news report from various characters talking about the same subject of children going missing. while focusing on the television screen it flickers to express different time periods where children have gone missing and witnesses either saw or know of the kidnappings suggesting it is a regular occurrence. Through the use recording clips through watching a television screen creates an element of reality especially when many people are commenting and fully aware of the events taking place.
When becoming aware of the situation the main character who was introduced at the start is is situated with a young girl where a worms eye is used not to express its usual use of superiority but to express the idea of watching and analysing what they are looking a in this case is a drawing of the 'tall man'.
A low angle shot of a police car connotates that the audience will see more cars racing past the camera create a element of suspense and concern, the camera then slowly rises changing into a long shot expressing distance and destination of where the car is travel.
A complete birds eye view of the mother struggling to hang on to the back of a speeding van emphasises her desperation to save her son. Also creating the theme of hardship is a extreme close up the mothers hand lynching and grabbing onto anything to pull herself out of the situation she's in which is a struggle for her life as she faces 'the tall man'.
Lastly is a long shot of the advertisement of the film where the tall man stand amongst mist creating a sense of enigma illustrating his mysterious ways of being unidentified and no trace of him.
The mise en scene
The woodland surrounds the area the family live in which appears to be a small town, stereotypically in most thriller films if something is situated in in a deserted environment where there is no other people, this is usually the most targeted area in regard to something out of the ordinary or bad happening. by the style of the house, it can be suggested it was built around the 1930s/40s implying the building is old fashioned and lacks stability when keeping things out, ie the tall man. it can also create the idea that it will have the typical dark feel to it; like creeks in the floorboards, squeaky doors, maybe power cuts. A low angle shot of the house magnifies its size however due to the lighting the of darkness portrays it is late at night so the size of the house it shown by lightening flash over above which is another stereotypical frightful experience again relating to the genre of being a thriller. Displaying posters of missing children displays a time period that the kidnappings are regular, the news reports also suggest this as it shows different people who know of the myth the man who is behind it all however because of the evidence that so many people know of it and it happens in the same area of Washington makes the audience question whether it is a myth. the scene of the restaurant or diner is very minimalistic portraying it is a small town which hasn't changed in regard to modernising shops etc. during the build up of the trailer it seems to be more of a drama about the legend of a kidnapper, the small town community and the mother and sons loving relationship. At first the most of the scenes are all in day light or use some form of high key lighting however once the son is taken the scenes are almost all low key lighting so it is just about visual. this creates more tension to the whereabouts of the tall man, the first time the tall man is saw by the audience is when he is inside the families house lurking in the shadows dressed in complete black to disguise his identity and not to be traced whilst making the get away.
Edits
During the beginning of the trailer are slow cuts from clip to clip often either fades or fade to blacks however as the narrative develops and the trailer becomes more intriguing the cuts appear alot fast creating a journey to get to the hidden meaning of who is this so called 'tall man'? why is he doing this? why are there no traces of his whereabouts? blackouts occur more regular to make each clip seem more interesting than the last, however it comes to a point where one the of clips at the end seem much more longer and clear creating a build up of tension making you feel on the edge of your seat then changes into a fast cut of a very dramatic clip leaving the audiences left on a cliffhanger. This a usual convention displayed in most trailers which sometimes can be predictably but the storyline can change an individuals view depending on how well it has been produced and fits together.
Titanic
The 1997 film titanic is based on real events that occured in 1912. The genre of the film is a hybrid- drama and romance. The narrative is about a young man and woman are from different socials classes and fall in love while aboard the ship Titanic travelling to America during its ill-fated maiden voyage. I have decided to analyse the 2012 version rather than the 1997 version because due to advancements in technology the camera angles, sound and ordering of the clips were superb and seemed much more intriguing, eye catching and heartfelt in comparison to the 1997 trailer.
Sound
During the first few seconds of the trailer a loud bell is heard ringing, this is very significant as usually once a ship is setting sail bells are rang for its send off. Leonardo DiCaprio who plays the lower/working class character jack says to Kate Winslet (rose) to open her eyes whilst situated alone at the front of the ship as he says this accompaniment is soon introduced with an upbeat feel to it creating the idea of an adventure and new beginnings. Once an imitate moment of the two characters are shown the music changes to being much more slower and passionate connotating the character's relationship (it is the instrumental part from the song 'My heart will go on'). as this continues a sound effect of an ice berg breaking towers of this light and comforting music creating more of an edge to the narrative the sound effect it presented at diegetic as it denotates what the sound of a iceberg breaking would sound like. soon after the sound of bells which is no diegetic are heard suggesting they are signalling to the passengers on board a warning. Just before the climax of the trailer is the diegetic sound of the ship rising parallel into the air without any background music allowing audiences to focus of this specific clip highlighting its significance. After this scene, there is sounds of smashing from the glass ceiling as the water impales in, the soundtrack 'My heart will go on' is no longer instrumental it is at the complete climax of the song which is complimented as it is played at the same time as when the trailer reaches its climax. this portrays the struggle and emotion the passengers are feeling allowing the audience to develop feeling themselves such as a very chilling and emotionally devastating. The dialogue ordered from Jack - " do not let go of my hand" symbolises his love and devotion towards rose, she replies "I'll never let go". This is a famous quote within the film outlining its importance that as hes referring to survival it can be suggested that regardless if she survives with him or not she will never love anyone as much as she loved him as he will always be apart of her and in her heart.
Camera Shots and Angles
This is a medium two shot of the main charcters while standing at the front of the ship this is a significant and famous scene within the film as it is where the two characters make a compasionate connection abard the titanic expressing romance as a theme within the film straight away.
This close up introduces the main female character Rose and the medium shpots inctroduces the main male charcters Jack. although the two charcters are very important within the film they are both introduced very differently hightlighting different aspects of their social class, background and nationality.
A panning shot is used to emphasis fun and excitement on the ship though the use of having others in the background to suggest a memorable time.
This extreme long shot is used to captured the beautiful of the ship sailing across the dark ocean showing an element of time that the ship is well into its journey to America.
The birds eye view suggests that this character who once was an important member of the ship is no inferior to it as he has no control over the foreseably events. This can also be acknowldged the way in which his palms are faced done on a table trying to stabalise what is happening.
This is a canted shot of the ship on an angle, it outlines how much of it has already gone under water. it also shows the ship at a earliar time as it hasnt elavated of the surface this is the close up shot. Incomparison to a later long shot clip of the ship empahasising how much more closer it is to parralell than before.
By using a worms eye views of jack looking down to Rose as they are separated, highlights what he may be losing - which is the love of his life expressing that regardless of the surroundings and the disasterious situation his only concern is her.
The audience are then shown Rose's responce towards Jack looking down to her showing she has the same concerns of loosing him.
The use of this over the shoulder/point of view shot is effective it is from Rose's persepective and how she sees Jack. which is clearly in a loving and adored way. There is also another point of view shot from Jack's persepctive connotating they have the same feelings for one another and the clips are shown one after the other.
Mise en scene
When introducing the two main characters, it is very clear to distinguish who is upper middle class and who is working class. Rose is dressed in smart, well designed and stichted clothing - a white buttoned up bloase with an extravagant hat covering of half her face suggesting she is well manner and timid with a high standard of dignity. On the other is Jack who is in very dull unironed shirt and trousers carrying a fabric sack. his hair is not slicked back which in those days respected people wore their hair this way.
It is obvious the era is old fashioned due to the interior design of the ship and fashion of the characters in the film such as long tailored coats, gatsby flat caps and braces. There is a antiques used as props who express there was no expense spared in first class.
