RUN Film Trailer: RISK ASSESSMENT

Below is the risk assessment form completed before we went out to film our trailer production. As you can see, we took into careful consideration any possibility of trouble; either physically or related to the law.

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RUN Film Trailer: PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

Below is the Excel spreadsheet created to schedule the filming of our film trailer during one calender week. Each colour represents a space in time (shown along the y axis) during each day, and the adjoined key explains what exactly each section of production consisted of.

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RUN Film Trailer: ACTORS AND COSTUMES

Main actors:
Phillip Lanyon

Carl Backland

Carl is the protagonist of our film, and so we took careful consideration into what he should wear for filming. Below is a montage of individual photos of clothing that Carl replicated during the process of creating the trailer. Luckily he already owned the clothing and so it wasn't a trouble to get into the character we envisioned.

Andrew Evans (myself)

Sub-actors:
Simon Fillingham
Ben Bowker
Adam Kennedy
Alex Harvey

RUN Film Trailer: PROP LIST

In order to ensure our media trailer was up to the standards and visual expectations of our target audience and related film productions, several props had to be brought into play and below are the descriptions and reasons as to why we used each item:


Cigarette:
One of the most prominent characters featured in the trailer is introduced whilst utilising a real cigarette. We were lucky to have an actor who already smoked who had the time to be filmed for our film trailer, and it was a key factor during the planning process of who we wanted to cast i the trailer. The cigarette symbolises the very basic drug and 'street' undertones that we feel is necessary in order to give our production a realistic and credible feel.


Handgun (plastic):
During the most memorable scene in the trailer a plastic handgun is used. The actual object is a simple toy gun that was originally designed for use with Sony's Playstation 2. Given the lighting and camera angle the prop looked realistic enough to ellude the casual on-looker whilst keeping us out of any trouble with the law. We also made sure not to mindlessly wave it about in public (part of risk assessment) to avoid any unwanted attention.


Deodorant Spray Can/ Actual Paint Can:
In order to create the illusion of genuine graffiti activity and vandalisation we needed to plan our camera angles and prop positioning carefully. A total of two cans were used: a genuine paint spray can and a regular deodorant spray. Any scenes which depict the protagonist literally spraying a wall - the deodorant can was used. Under dim light all that can be seen is the residue coming from the tip, which gives the illusion of the pay spraying on to the wall but no visual mark made whatsoever. In the remaining scenes where the spay cans are not being directly utilised, an actual spray can would be visible to make it seem realistic and enforce the illusion of the previous graffiti scenes.


Camera:
During the drive-by scene we utilised a camera for it's flash function. Properly timed the flash will be made to synchronize with the sound of a gunshot, as well as the physical movement of the toy gun to replicate the actual behaviour of a firearm. The camera would be flashed from within the car with the operator totally invisible to the camera.


Car:
As the trailer keeps the secret of who killed the character, the use of a motor vehicle was clearly necessary to not only enforce even more realism but to make it more mysterious. We were able to utilise car, the driver of whom has a full licence and did so with permission of the Maghull Council to use the car park providing we were not loud and/ or disruptive. We instructed the driver to pull away quickly, and the subsequent wheel spin gives the effect of urgency.


Flour:
One particular drug scene demanded we make some kind of realistic representation of a drug - we chose cocaine and the method was to simply fill a small bag with flour and tie it with sellotape. Although probably not visible in the production, we felt it necessary to be as realistic as possible.

RUN Film Trailer: STORYBOARD

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Questionnaire: New Film Conception Results

The below image displays the results of my target audience questionnaire. It was designed to accumulate an efficiently small amount of data for my group to analyse and base our decisions on in regards to what genre of film we were doing and the features to include in our magazine and posters.

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Questionnaire: New Film Conception Research

Starting the research process of gathering relevant information in order to comprehensively manufacture a piece of media that adheres to my particular target audience, I have created a questionnaire for anyone and everyone to contribute to:

To view and complete my questionnaire, please Click here.

Music for our Film Trailer: RUN

For the backing track to our trailer we are going to use Survival of The Fittest (instrumental) by Mobb Deep (shown below). The reason behind using this is because it fits nicely with the the dark grimy feel of the film, it also matches with the element of Hip Hop in our film trailer. Another key reason behind the choice of this song is because it is relatively quiet, this allows voice overs to be used without there being an annoying interference between the voice over and backing track and will hopefully end with a final product with a professional feel to it.

Synopsis of our Film Trailer: RUN

RUN: There Is Never Enough Time


Genre: Action, Drama

Vincent 'vinnie' Fitzpatrick aka Taze is a graffiti artist in Liverpool, he is a part of a gang of fellow graffiti artists called 'N3T', they become dominant (graffiti kings) in the underground graffiti world within Liverpool. When the intentions of the gang turn away from the art and towards money, drugs and violent crime, Vincent decides that he doesn't want to be part of the gang any more (the determining factor for him wanting to run away is during an incident with a rival gang which leaves him seriously injured and his brother dead), however his fellow gang members aren't as enthusiastic for the idea and go after him to show him leaving the gang isn't as easy as simply running away. He remains in the graffiti culture alone and forever running.

We believe that this is a perfect synopsis for an Action Drama film. It has a consistency of Action: the graffiti, the crime etc. and Drama: The death of Vincents brother and the fall of relationships between the gang/ crew.

A Brief History of Film Trailers

The concept of the film trailer first appeared in November of 1913. Nils Grankund, an American Broadway show producer, created a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers. The National Screen Service was the most prominent trailer producer in the 1950s and the productions of mainly included key scenes from the film accompanied by large font overlaying the visuals as a form of narrative. A typical example of this classic trailer format is the original Cinderella trailer; shown below

It was in the 1960s when film trailers changed significantly. A new style emerged that featured quick cuts, no large text as narration and a new form of montaging the clips within the trailer. Today, companies such as The Cimarron Group lead the trailer industry by producing trailers for films such as The Lord of the Rings saga and The Fourth Kind. The industry itself has become somewhat of a cult hit and has it's own following, disconnected from the actual film fans!

Above is the teaser trailer for the soon to be released film Inception, the idea of a teaser trailer is to create enigmas about the film by using quick cuts and a very vague view into the characters and key events. There generally isn't any dialogue on a teaser, however there is always a prominent backing track to the trailer. The director, release date and main actors are shown in the teaser trailer. In therms of Genre theory the film Inception is shown to have a wide extension about it, where, from the trailer, the film could be labelled with different genres such as Thriller or Action and Adventure.

Research: Film Marketing - Inception

Each of the three posters below were used to market the film Inception; a recent film released in July of 2010. As I'm required to produce my own poster for my A2 project, this analysis will provide useful information.

There are clear similarities between the above three posters: all feature the protagonist of the story - namely Dicaprio - which makes it clear that he is the absolute main focus of the narrative. A blue photo filter has clearly been applied to each one, giving a cold and mysterious appearance, and the red "Inception" heading is used in different styles throughout. Each character is dressed smartly in suits, inferring professionalism and status, and the warped settings in each poster introduces an edge of surrealism regarding where the film is set. Finally there is a central beam of light that is present throughout the three film posters, which is evidence of intertextuality within Warner Brother film posters. Below is evidence of this:

This shows the similarity between the way that posters are made that belong to Warner Brothers' productions. The vertical beam of light is present in all of these photos and so is the central positioning of the characters. This is known as intertextuality and hints to the Auteur Theory; the director of a particular number of films that decides to market and advertise them in very similar ways. This allows popularity and recognition of an already liked production to spread over into another.