Elevate - Finished Trailer

After audience feedback I have made a few changes to my trailer. This is the final version of my trailer.

Elevate - Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Pre-Production

BlogSpot (www.blogspot.com) – I’ve used BlogSpot to present my A2 coursework. This has included posting written information, video, scanned image, photographs (location shots, audience profiling, etc.) and screen grabs from websites like Google Maps showing location shots. This website has been regularly updated to keep a detailed blog of my activities involving the projects from this year’s work including the planning of projects, the post production stages and the final products.

YouTube (www.YouTube.com) – This site has been useful especially for finding other real media film trailers. This was extremely helpful when researching film trailers, this link is to my research booklet focusing on horror/thriller trailers from my project, all links taken from YouTube. http://a2mediastudiesblog-keeferbishop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/trailer-research.html. Another use of YouTube is from my post about the film Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011) http://a2mediastudiesblog-keeferbishop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/dont-be-afraid-of-dark.html. I also used YouTube to post my voxpop and anamatic, which will be talked about later.

Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk/) - Google Maps has been used for half of my location shots. The street view function has worked really well in this situation. http://a2mediastudiesblog-keeferbishop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/project-e-trailer-location-shots.html This is the link to my location shots post.

Voxpop – Here is a direct link to my YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BOiv1IC8J7I. This voxpop was a fun task to film and edit, it helped me work out the problems that an audience had with trailers.

iMovie – I used this editing software to quickly cut together my voxpop and anamatic (http://a2mediastudiesblog-keeferbishop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/project-e-trailer-anamatic.html) of my storyboard.

Post Production

iMovie & Garageband – I used two programs to edit my film trailer, the first being iMovie to cut the clips from the film and animations together as well as adding title cards which were created on Photoshop CS5. The second was Garageband I used

Fireworks – This program was used to create the Stitched and Lifting Production logos. This was my first experience creating animations; I think they fit the trailer appropriately.

LiveType – This program was used to create the title cards of my original trailer, after audience feedback I then changed them using the program Photoshop CS5.

Photoshop – I have changed the titles with a font from Photoshop CS5. I think these title cards are much more effective. 

Elevate - Evaluation: What have I learned from audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 3

What have I learned from audience feedback?


I screened my film trailer in an audience of 22 people and constructed a questionnaire for the audience to answer. The results are below:

1.       Do you think this is a successful thriller trailer?

§  Kind of

§  Yeah, but I don’t understand the plot entirely

§  I perhaps wouldn’t identify this as thriller

§  Yes

§  No, isn’t really scary or thrillery

§  Not a thriller

§  No

§  Yes, although it was a bit confusing

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Quite slow pace for thriller

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  No, it didn’t build enough tension

§  Yes

§  Possibly

§  Yes

§  It didn’t look that much like a thriller to me

§  Yeah

§  Yes

§  Indeed!

2.       What do you think worked well?

§  The camera shots

§  Camera shots, diagetic music, music, last line was very effective

§  I feel the last line was very effective

§  Editing, music, camera work

§  The camera shots

§  Camera shots

§  Camera shots

§  The editing

§  Music, acting and camera work

§  Good camera work, macro shots

§  Good camerawork – shots

§  Different stories of the characters

§  Music

§  The lift scene

§  The beginning was good, with the sirens

§  The beginning – when he’s running from the police

§  The camera angles

§  Camera placement, especially the close-ups

§  All the shots were really good

§  Camera shots – toned composition, especially with the character reflecting in elevator

§  Shots in the lift

§  The first shot ruled

3.       How would you improve this trailer?

§  I didn’t understand the beginning

§  The plot was a tiny bit confusing

§  Not have it flash back and forth to the elevator

§  Maybe more into the other two character; different font!

§  Plot

§  More interesting/scary

§  Plot

§  The plot was confusing

§  Show a clearer idea of storyline

§  Explain how characters got into the elevator more

§  Faster edits, less time on production title at beginning

§  More emotion in dialogue

§  Make the narrative a bit clearer

§  Explain story

§  Make it obvious how all the characters are related

§  What happens in the elevator?

§  Give more of an idea of what’s happening

§  Show more narrative and get rid of the white noise. Muffle microphone?

§  Make the speech louder

§  White-noise. Edit it out! (From camera recording)

§  A bit more storyline

§  Watch it in HD

4.       Does it give enough of the story away to the audience or too much, too little?

§  Bit too much, but leaves you wondering what happens next

§   

§  Too little I feel

§  Too little

§  Too little

§  Why is there a guy running at the start?

§  Too little

§  Was a good amount

§  Too little

§  Too little

§  Too little – Don’t understand Chris’ part

§  Perfect

§  Too little

§  Too little

§  Too little, it doesn’t make much sense from the beginning to the lift bit

§  Too little

§  Too little

§  Too little

§  It shows the whole storyline well

§  Perfect

§  Too little

§  Too little, if anything

5.       What else would you add to the trailer for the narrative to be clearer?

§  Maybe each of the character have a story before entering the lift

§   

§  I would make it have a voice over

§  More shots of what happens in the lift

§   

§   

§   

§  Not sure

§   

§  How the first character becomes trapped inside lift with others

§  Nothing

§  A reason to be stuck in a lift

§  Extra detail on the character that was running

§  Speech

§  Show the lift stopping/ breaking

§  More shots that hint at what happens in the elevator

§  A voice over?

§  More lift scene, less stealing

§  More ...on Cally’s and Max’s side

§  Any other character relationships?

§  A reasoning behind getting stuck

§  The other peoples stories perhaps

6.       Do you think the sound works well to create atmosphere?

§  Yes

§  Yes, fitted well very effective

§  I was very effective

§  Yes, very much so

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes, very well

§  Yes, it is eerie and slow

§  Yes – combined with voiceover

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes but doesn’t increase tension much

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Sound is good

§  Very

§  Yes

§  Very Well

7.       Does the composition/framing of each shot work well for this genre?

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  It does work very well

§  Yes! It’s great

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Definitely

§  Yes, doesn’t give too much away, variety of shots

§  First shots good with Chris. Good framing

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes very

§  Yes, some shots are really well done

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Very much so!

8.       Do you want to see this film from the trailer and why?

§  No

§  Yes, to understand what is actually happening, however I know parts of it

§  I would

§  Yes, because it looks good and it’s directed by Keefer!

§  No, just looks like 2 hours of people in a lift

§  No

§  No

§  Yes to know what happens

§  Yes, to see what happens next and if they manage to get out

§  Yes, to see what happens

§  Yes, find out more what it’s about

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  No

§  Yes to see what happens

§  Difficult to say

§  Yes, to see what happens

§  Yes, looks good

§  Yes – see what happens!

§  Yes

§  Yes

9.       Do you think the magazine cover links to the trailer appropriately?

§  No, as I don’t understand who is the main character

§  Yes, looks mysterious and really well  thought J

§  It does

§  Yes, love the cover

§  No, just a picture of him

§  No

§  No

§  Yes!

§  Sort of

§  Quite, character could be pictured inside lift

§  Only shows one character – could have seen all 3? Didn’t seem like Max was main

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  Yes but who is the main character – one shown at the beginning of the trailer or one on the magazine cover

§  Yes

§  Yes

§  It works well

§  Not particularly – doesn’t connote much

§  Yes

§  Yes, a very evocative image

Most of the responses seemed mixed half said positive things and the others were negative but I am focusing more on the negative responses for this evaluation. From these I can see where I went wrong and make changes to my trailer. Before making changes to the trailer I viewed the responses from Youtube, after posting it on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. The screen prints below are their responses.

The views and comments are really encouraging from this but didn’t make much difference to how I was going to change it, so I went back to the questionnaire responses when making the changes to my trailer. The two main points I decided to change were the font of the title cards and the narrative. I didn’t really change the narrative but I tried to make it clearing from the start of the trailer, I did this by adding new title cards and adding another scene. This final cut of my trailer is the last post on this blog. 

Elevate - Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 2


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


For this question I demonstrated my skills in creating a commentary.

Here is a transcription of my commentary:

1.       Camera Work

Hi, my name is Keefer Bishop and I am here to talk to you about my A2 film trailer, ‘Elevate’. I used a Canon 7D to film and an Audio Technica ATR55 Telemike to record sound.

First I am going to talk about my camera work. I thought a lot about the framing of each shot and as you can see in this shot of the first character running from the bank, I really wanted to keep the space in the environment open. This is to display the character as free, but the further we get into the trailer the less space is in each shot showing how the characters have become trapped.

When I pan over two more characters in the lift I wanted to keep those shots flowing together well, but in the full film these shots will be used as a montage of when time is passing.

The reflection in this shot of Cally Quigley breaking down crying is a great example of the environment, how things are distorted in the lift… things aren’t as they seem.

Most of my shots are close ups or medium this tries to give a claustrophobic feel to the footage in the lift. I wanted the pace of my trailer to stay slow like the style of old horror genre films. Examples of this would be the trailer of Ridley Scott’s Alien http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi536516633/ or John Carpenter’s The Thing http://www.reelz.com/movie/170098/the-thing/. Both show in links here.

2.        Post Production

In this section of the video I will talk about the editing and post production of my trailer.

In a trailer you have to create a narrative from different sections of a film, storyboarding was the first step. This helps me choose which clips to use. The first few cuts I created for this trailer were okay but the narrative wasn’t a strong part of the trailer. So once a screening had taken place I knew what to change. I added a few extra clips like this one.

*Cut to the new clips*

But the biggest changes for this trailer would be the voiceover’s I added. I think that these have made the trailer feel more professional and helped the overall effect on the audience to make them become interested in the film.

In each of the shots I have increased the contrast and the black’s in each of the shots making each shot look similar, give a distinct style throughout. Most of the transitions used are fading in/out leading each clip into the next; I found this to be the most effective way to link the different sections of the film together.

The music I used really helps to capture the style of the trailer, giving it a dark and ominous vibe to the audience. The music builds up throughout the trailer but then during certain clips there are sound clips that don’t fit with the rest of the score. This gave a edgier dark theme throughout.

3.       Talk about the poster

With the poster I wanted to keep it simple and use one photograph, to further the independent style. I decided to create two separate posters focus on the characters played by Max Hill and Cally Quigley. To edit these I used the program Adobe Photoshop CS5.

*SHOW ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS*

These are the original photographs. To start my poster I edited the photograph in a similar way to the trailer, increasing the blacks and giving a higher contrast, creating a connection which hopefully makes people think about the film more when they see the certain style of image. I didn’t like the image as a whole so I decided to crop them down, I decided to use two different sizes.

*SHOW CROPPED*

I decided the photograph which cropped in closer on the characters worked better for how I wanted to portray my film, which is very character based. After these changes I felt my photograph linked well to my trailer. I finally added the text and I used the same font and style as the text in my trailer. This gives all the products a universal style.

These are my final posters.

*SHOW FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS*

4.        Talk about the magazine cover

When creating my magazine cover, I thought a lot about the type of film I was making and which magazine would work well with this film. I decided a magazine style similar to sight and sound would be suitable. Here is a cover of Sight and Sound magazine

*I would show ‘Sight and Sound’ cover*

In this covers they try and keep it simple using just one photo of the director or actor. When making the cover I decided to focus on an actor for my cover. If you enter this link http://a2mediastudiesblog-keeferbishop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/elevate-magazine-computer-logo-designs.html

It will take you to planning of my font styles and reasons behind it. Here are the covers of my magazine.

*Show the covers of my magazine*

The design is simple I have used a high quality image of my cast member. The white boarder adds to the style of the magazine in the future issues It will be white unless there is a special issue. The link between my magazine cover and my trailer is the use of the actor Max Hill. I think all my media products for this project have worked well together.

Elevate - Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Media Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

1.  These two shots taken from my trailer and the trailer for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2011) are showing camera work. The real media product is from the genre thriller/horror and this uses a camera technique of zooming into the two characters making them feel small and weak till you're closer and can see the emotion in their faces. I've tried to replicate this with my product, to show the weakness of the character adding more character development into the trailer. When I shot this I was focusing on the narrative within the trailer, giving them a longer screen time with this character than the others.

2. This close up shot from my trailer is linked into the previous shot having this as the emotion in the characters face, when he looks in his bag of money. In the real media product I am showing the reaction shot to compare, how most thriller films try to focus on characters reactions, to make you really feel like you care about them.

3. These shots contrast each other. In my trailer I am really trying to just welcome the audience to these characters, making them know (or not know as the case may be) who they are. In the real media product they have introduced the characters and are focusing on the chilling shot of Jodie Foster lying down while the mysterious shadow approaches, trying to get the audience scared, on the edge of their seat, etc. 

My film is a strongly independent film, I have spent a lot of time working on the composition of the shots and camera work and I feel as if my finished product has lacked on the narrative. The idea of the full film is to have them each tell a dark story from their past and this needs a strong cast to make this work in the right way, making the audience feel for the characters. In this trailer I am trying to get people to know about this film, giving them a little bit of the story to tease the audience. 

I feel like companies are making trailers that contain as much of the story  as possible to get the audiences interested but I think what's happened to mystery, not giving much away. A few advertising campaigns from more creative directors have teased the film as much as possible because they know the audience's for their films will research these films, look for interviews, read articles, search the internet to get a bigger picture of what they are going to watch. Examples of this would be Super 8 and Prometheus, links to their trailers are below this section. Some film trailers can give the idea of the story away and still hide most of the events in the film, like Hunger Games (link below) which is an already established book series so most people know about the story anyway so why hide it, just keep the major events for the film.

Super 8 (2011) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY 

Prometheus (2012) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHcHYisZFLU  

Hunger Games (2012) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgssLmsOa2s 

4. In this shot I was comparing it to Panic Room (2002). In the shot you can see two of the main characters judging their options, in my shot I have tried to show my characters taking action rather than judging the situation. The characters are aged around twenty so this fits them quite well. 

5. These shots show the characters seeming weak and scared. This was something I wanted to include in my trailer to add heart to it. They're normal humans they would be scared if trapped in a small space so this was a major part of my character development.

6. Instead of using a strong block lettered font, as done in Panic Room I decided to go for something more artistic, to add to the feel of the trailer. The font style hasn't changed for any of the title cards and I think this gives a real structure to the trailer.

Elevate - Evaluation Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?