Feedback from Polls

My poll: What attracts you the most during a film trailer?

Music and sound effects were the most appealing function to our target audience, as shown from the poll above, which means that have to make sure our music is exciting, interesting, upbeat, aswell as make sure it fits our thriller genre. Music is a significant part of the trailer as it helps set the mood, and anchors what is happening.

Shanyses poll: What type of promotional poster layout catches your attention?

Hollys poll: Which slogan do you prefer?


Nicks poll: Which film name do you prefer?

19th November-Filming

Our main characters were all free during period 5 so we decided to use this valuable time to record our torture scene, however due to the fact that our other group members Shanyse, Hollie and Nick had a lesson, which meant that they were unable to participate or be present for the filming. We filmed in our editing room, it was small yet it was the perfect place to shoot. Naomi is the character of Deans (Nick Jackman) ‘right-hand man’ well in this case a women. This adds flavour and a twist to the story that Brett (Eugene Mcintyre) is being brutally strangled and beaten up by a woman and her henchmen. We decided to try filming in night vision, so we turned off the lights and filmed in this technique, which was very effective. Eugene was unaware of what was going on considering that it was dark, this conveyed a pragmatic effect because Eugene portrayed his role of being tortured realistically as he was surprised and unaware of how Nomi and her henchman were going to torture him. We then recorded various versions of similar shots, then we tried filming with the lights on which still gave a pretty good outcome, when we presented our shots to the rest of the group they all seemed pretty please and we all agreed that we though it was successful as it was very enthralling and gripping.

Filming Decisions

Considering that our filming did not go the way we expected it to, we had to think of either how we were going to improve filming the same scene again and be more organised or think of how we could portray the same concept but in another location. Thus leading us to the conclusion that the party scene was not working, however I really liked the idea that Alex had suggested before of filming at a pub. I emphasized on this idea and tried to convince my goup that this would be suitable, as a group we agreed to this idea, so we suggested it to Mrs Austin, conversely she put forward the idea that the diegetic sound in the background would interfer. Which led us back to stage 1. Me, Holly and Alex did a bit of experimental work, we decided to visit the pub were Alex works and see if the location and atmosphere was suitable. We immediately connected with the set and came up with various ways to film and various areas we could film the shots. Also the idea of it being at a pub gives off a mature atmosphere within the film and seems like the concept of their love and the idea of marriage is serious and romantic. Considering tha Alex works in the pub we were able to get permission to film, we decided it would be best to film during the morning as it would be less busy allowing us to film the way we want to. As we walked out of the pub i suggested that we use the pubs car park as the scene were Brett gets captured. It made more sense to do so.

11th November Filming

On this day we had decided to film our Party scene and Petrol station scene as well as the torture scene at Cold Christmas, however nothing went according to plan. This was due to most of the group being unable to attend to the filming, and also because, although some of our main characters were present, we had not organised our extras properly, thus leading us to have to pick at random some of our extras, which did not work very well. Mrs Austin had told us from before that to film a party scene was very complicated due to the fact that it is very complicated to convey a realistic party atmosphere, and i think we had witnessed this when we attempted to do it. We decided to film during period three, however we had starting setting our set in the drama studio during period one and two, this also meant that we was able to experiment around with the lighting and sound. Considering that i was apart of this scene me and Stephanie (Mia) had decided to try a mock act of the scene that we would be perfoming during the actual shoot at period 3, this went well and looked very professional. Unfortunately this meant that i was unable to help with the actual shooting or lighting, although i did try and help with the compostion of were all the characters should be. Unfortunately 2 of our group memebers had to leave before period 3, which meant that only me Alex and nick would be present to film this scene. Bad luck kept haunting us, as we had found out at the begining of period 3 that our main male lead had a lesson therefore was unable to perform. Consequently we were unable to produce any decent footage hence all the misfortunate events that took place.

Alex was our only group member that was able to attempt to film the Cold Christmas scene, due to the fact that all the group including me was unable to attend, therefore this meant that he had to do it alone. Him and the two actors Eugene and Naomi headed to Cold Christmas, but unfortunately Holly was our only member that knew how to get there, which evidently meant that Alex was unable to find Cold Christmas. Alex had experienced alot of complications which meant that he was unable to film, however me and the rest of the group appericate his attempt. As a group we concluded that we would not use Cold Chrismas to film our establishing shot as well as our torture scene inside the abandoned Chruch. Nick proposed that we film the outside of his Church. I wasnt too sure about this idea, and i suggested that we take an establishing shot of a isolated, mysterious looking house, that we had all noticed on the way to the petrol station a while back.

10th November Filming-London

These are some of the areas of London we covered whilst filming today:

Today was an experimental and extremely tiring day. We (the group) as well as our main female protagonist, met up at Cuffley train station at 9am to take a train to London. We arrived at our destination and decided to film in the streets of London as well as take establishing shots of famous landmarks. As we were filming we came up with different methods of shots, different shot angles and different ideas of acting, which when combined during the filming produced something we were all satisfied with. In various back roads of industrial areas in London we filmed Stephanie (female actor) running through streets, which is meant to convey the fact that she is in search of her fiancé. The fact that it is set in the back streets of a busy location compliments the conventions in thriller movies, considering the fact that they are mostly set in famous and busy locations. We also filmed a scene underneath a bridge which looked very mysterious and intense, in which, the scene is of Mia’s best friend Elena, who is caught handing over a book to a shady, outlined character, we decided to create this scene because we thought it would be an interesting twist to the story, although it is still undecided whether we want to use this in our final outcome.

Dates of Filming

These are the days we plan to film our shots: 

Tuesday 10th of october

Establishing shot of london- Tower Bridge area

                                                 - London Eye

                                                 - Big Ben

                                                 - Millennium Bridge

                                                 - St Paul

                                                 - Tate

                                                 - Any others   

Scenes of chase/dead ends

Wednesday 11th of october

Shots at the party scene

Shots at petrol station

Shots at cold christmas

6th Of November-Media Lesson

Publicity is a key element in selling a film in the media industry, they use clever techniques to do this. The Distributor will find a USP for the film, from here on a release date is set, and the target audience will be decided. Thus leading the next step to creating a marketing campaign, which will emphasize the USP and make the film noticable. However word of mouth is the most effective device to advertising a film and lurring audiences to take up an interest in the film. The theatrical trailer is also a signifcant part of the media campaign as it is advertised in various places and forms such as TV spots, cinema adverts, billboards.

A film trailer usually contains: Name, Actors name and the release date.

Teaser trailer - Early stage of production...way before the film is made.

Theatrical trailer - Shown in cinemas before the film is released.

Shortened version of trailer - Shown in cinema after film is released.

A film poster is the next most important part of a marketing campaign. A film company will spend on average £12000 on film posters, they are essential in conveying genre and vita information such as release dates etc.

Whilst distributing film a USP is created to stand out, so the audience want to see their film rather than any other. The trailer is the most important element of selling the film. Other elements include posters, magazines and websites. During my coursework our group get to create a film trailer along with a promotional poster and magazine cover. These are all part of a synergistic campaign, if done effectively it creates word-of-mouth. A theme must be added to link all of the elements together (usually a font), so the audience recognise it. The start of the campaign is a poster; this is used to illustrate the genre and to make awareness of the film. The font used can be an icon of the film and used in other aspects of the campaign such as the website, trailer and the film itself. Add shells can be used along with the other elements to broad the audience. However the campaign differs depending on whether it is being internationally or not. The film trailer my group is producing has a large audience and will be distributed internationally as it follows conventions of Hollywood blockbuster such as taken.