Feedback

Both Sophie and I have decided that it would good idea to upload our feedback sheets that we receive and let you know how we improved upon this constructive criticism. As we have both got some feedback I will be the one to upload mine first and comment on how I have changed things in order to get a better grade.

I agree that my presentation on this blog is very clear and well set out. I think if everything is organised and in the right place everything is easy to find. This way we both can check if we have everything that is meant to be outlined on our blog and see if there is anything missing.
As for the improvement, we got this feedback sheet just over a week ago and since then all of our work that we have done has been uploaded to our blog and we have continued with frequent post since receiving this. So I feel that we have done well to progress with this comment and enhance what we have already done.

This piece of feedback was given to me earlier this week, and the comments on what both Sophie and I have done well, I think are appropriate as we have both tried our best to include various key words that relate to the topic. We would not only like to progress without terminology for our exam where it will help but also to enhance our blogs and to show a clear understanding of what we are both learning as we move forward in this course.
Regarding the improvements, Sophie and I went back on all the post that we have both published to proofread them and find any incorrect spelling which we needed to change. Considering the point made on more posts as we are both a joint blog, we have had a look at our peers work to see the diverse pages that they have posted and planned what else we could feature on our blog in order to make it a combined extra effort to get us the grades we are aiming for.

In conclusion to this I think it is a good idea for us to upload our feedback as it will mean that we improve on our work to get the best grade possible. I also found the feedback that I received very helpful and would be happy to receive any opinions either from my peers or from a group discussion.

The Vote

As a team me and Sophie have shortlisted our most favoured names for our film trailer.
We have reduced the list down to three, and I have conducted a survey to ask the public, who would be our potential target audience, what they feel would be the best title for the film. They all are aware of the pitch and have based their opinion on the plot given to them.

The three titles we favoured most are:
Recall
The Recollection
Flashback

From looking at the feedback gained the overall most popular title was 'The Recollection'.

So we have decided to use this title for the film. 

Film Name

As we looked in depth about words relating to memory and revenge. We also discussed successful short and to the point names for example 'The Shining' and 'The Knowing' which were straight to the point and related to the film in some way. As we took everything into account we have decided that our film name is going to be 'The Recollection'. As this highlights the recollecting of memories that the wife has forgotten and the attempt to gain the knowledge of who the perpetrator was who caused the incident.
We will later upload a survey that we did asking people which name they thought would be best for the storyline that we have and we left it ultimately to the audience and what they thought would be a good fit and what would catch their attention if they were in the cinema or watching TV.

Trailer Planning - Structure

We need to look into a production logo. This needs to highlight:

• Who created the film?
• It should be easily recognisable.
• It should be simple, but different to others.
• It needs to contrast with the theme of film noir - therefore highlighting the genre.
• The logo should symbolise the creators ( this being me and Sophie)

Taking this research into account I have come up with an idea

and drawn some sketches as to what I would like the logo to appear.

We also need to collaborate and come up with a film title and the font we are going to use, I feel we will need to use the same font throughout the trailer, if we include captions and credits, this will make the trailer look continuous and have a more professional feel.

Some ideas of a title I have thought of are based on the wife remembering her past:

• Memory
• Retention
• Reminiscence
• Flashback
• Crash
• Recognition
• Recall
• Recollect
  
  

Looking into soundtrack, and researching into similar trailers I have decided that because the trailer we are going to create is only a teaser trailer, it should be relatively short, around 1 to 2 minutes long. Within this time I think we should aim to change the soundtrack around 3 times, to keep the audience interested, also the change in pace within the soundtrack will have a huge impact on how the audience see the film, for example:

• If the car crash is shown with slow music the effect of the crash won't be as dramatic as it would be if a fast paced sound track was used then suddenly cut off at the scene of the accident.
• Then from the silence and fading in and out sound effects which will be added in post-production, a slower harmonized track should play when showing the consequence of the crash, and the wife opening her eyes for the first time, in her own living room. 
• Then the pace and sound track could change again to a faster pace to speed up the trailer again and create suspense as the husband attempts to put the pieces of his wife's life back together for her, avoiding the issue of his own past. 

 Focusing on the direction the trailer will follow, we need to consider whether it will be:

• Character Driven
• Plot Driven
• Trigger Event
• Theme Centred

Personally I think a trigger event plot will attract an audience more, and this is what I have based my idea on. The unforgettable car crash at the beginning will affect the whole plot. The crash has caused the wife to possess amnesia, which the husband is trying to eliminate from her by attempting to help her to remember her past throughout the film.

Transcript

This is a brief over view of how we have thought out our teaser trailer to be so far:

• A happy married couple in at beginning- show their life and happy home
• Within first 25 seconds highlight the hit and run car crash to keep audience watching
• Fade to black transitions with sound effect of smashing and road skidding
• Goes black after clip of the accident for a while and then you hear ambulance
• Flashback to when they are happy are in black and white and have a picture real filter over like this
• Memorials of their past are shown to her, eg. photo album, possessions, their home, wedding song. 
• Scene of two others (men walking up a dark street at night suspiciously, in black, holding paper with the husbands name on it, looking for him.
• Don't show audience if they find husband or not or whether she gets her memory back of their past

Understandings of Narrative

The narrative is the structure of a story.

The diegesis is the fictional space and time implied by the narrative - the world in which the story takes place.

Verisimilitude is the realism content of the narrative.

Narrative has different structures:


Multi-strand narrative- the telling of the story from more than one person's point of view or two stories of two characters which intertwine

Restricted Narrative- the story from only one character in the story/narrative. The audience has limited access to narrative events as they only see them as the one character does and not another characters point of view.

Non-Restricted- is the opposite of restricted and the audience may be able to watch the film from more than one view point. E.g. following a couple's life but seeing the female's day to day work and the males when they aren't together.

Linear Narrative- the story is told chronologically, with a beginning, middle and end.

Non-Linear- this is the opposite of linear narrative. The story does not always have a clear beginning, middle and end. And the story could change from reality to flashback for example.

Fragmented Narrative- only parts of the story are shown to the audience causes the feeling of pleasure and suspense.

Our Pitch

A man tries to find the person responsible for his wife's near fatal car crash. She has been left with amnesia and he has to help her remember the time before the accident. Only he has to do it without her remembering HIS past.

Mind map for Film Synopsis - Initial Ideas

From the mind map we have shown that we have both combined our ideas by the use of different colours bringing the ideas together to make an agreed plot. We have shown a strong interest in film noir with the dark hero, mise-en-scene, lighting style and the use of flashbacks.

Sophie Cain

Sophie Kilty

Film Noir Mood Board

Sophie Cain's Mood Board

I have researched film noir, and have found some typical stylistic conventions from films. Whether they be classic film noir, neo-noir or tech-noir.
From saving secondary research, from the internet. I have created a mood board to collect ideas of what I could potentially use within my trailer. There is a dominant contrast of black and white within most of the images.

Sophie Kilty's Mood Board

As well as Sophie's research, I looked into more pictures focusing on the miss-en-scene, the colours, the characters and the modern day outtake on film noir. The characteristics of a film noir really show, for example the shadows/silhouettes, the femme fatale by the damaged hero's side. The chiaroscuro really stands out when looking at a variety of pictures of noir films and is what I think is one of the conventions we should definitely consider when designing/producing our trailer and material to go with it. In conclusion looking at both mine and Sophie's mood board has given me a lot to think about for when I am creating my own film noir material including the conventions which is important as if we want the same audience to take an interest in our film we will need a similar stereotypical story and the surroundings.

Conventions of Film Noir

This is an image of a classic Film Noir.     This is an image of a neo noir/tech noir.

Most film noir's have stereotypical conventions of the following:

• Dark scenes
• Rain/ bad weather/mist
• Femme fatale character- An alluring, mysterious woman.
• Smoke/ smoking
• Shadows
• Urban Surroundings- cityscape's
• Costume- hats (trilby/fedora), trench coats.
• Chiaroscuro (low key lighting)
• Reflective & mysterious first person narrative
• Pathetic fallacy
• Time period of 40's-50's
• Male Protagonist
• Distorted camera angles

I have researched into some actual film noir films, and watched trailers of the following.
Commenting on the conventions I have come across within these:

Memento

• Mystery
• Flashback
• Non-linear plot
• Partly black and white
• Untrusted female
• Powerless hero

Machinist

• Disorientated camera angles
• Monotone voices- expressionless voice
• Black and White - de-saturated colours
• Secrets/suspense
• Flashbacks- de-ja-vu
• Sounds to highlight the flashback

Brick (2005)

• Captions surrounded with smoke/ disappearing into smoke|
• Black and white/ bleached out colours
• Camera angles
• Protagonist voices
• Monotone voices
• Darkness/bad weather
• Femme fatale

In order to find out some more about film noir I decided to convert what I already knew into a Prezi and posed questions for myself. Throughout the Prezi it allows you to see what elements fall into film noir and what the conventions of a stereotypical film noir are, through visuals of images and text.

What is a Teaser Trailer and what are the conventions ?

A teaser trailer is an altered version of the movies full length trailer to make it smaller, or just a preview of footage that relates to the film. The aim is to tease the audience with footage from the film and to attract attention for when the film is released in the cinema. Teaser trailers are generally shorter that theatrical trailers differing from around 30 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds. They are very capturing in a sense that they have a mysterious element to them and they draw the audience in to make them interested.




The Dark Knight Rises
(Modern Day Noir Film)

• A modern film noir following the sequence of Batman
• Carries on the character of the male lead of Batman but creates it's own individual film dynamic
• Longer than average teaser trailers lasting 1.36 as it's a big film production with a lot of interest
• A lot of camera shots of buildings in the city, relating to the concept of film noir and the fact that the batman logo is shown within the falling buildings it really shows that the film has a connection to noir and also gives a lot of innovation to the trailer
• Includes the approved message at the beginning and also the production labels 'Warner Brothers Pictures' and 'Legendary Pictures' showing that it is a professional film and it follows the characteristics of many successful trailers over the years. It also provides the time of release, type of film format, and other information relating to the film such as the website, director, writer, producer etc.
• Shows quite a bit of film footage compared to other teaser trailers that I have watched as the footage tells the beginning of the story and grasps the audience during the process.
• Uses the narrative of the characters to tell the synopsis of what the film is based upon and the characters who star in it. Also featuring some catch lines emerging from a dark screen with some film info and also the star vehicle.
• Tends to be a great deal of slow jump cuts from one scene to another. As it fades to black as well it gives a sense of mystery and darkness in the film.
• The limited lighting in the trailer and the very vague outline of the silhouettes is film noir type and really builds on the dark element of the story. The low key lighting and the saturation shows that it does have some of the conventions of film noir. Most importantly the way the lighting is used when the dark hero moves further into the light it acts as a metaphor as he is finding the good in himself.
• You can see that the trailer is non-linear because in the two shots the man lying in the hospital bed, you see him up and active this shows that the shots in the trailer are not chronological to what happens in the film.

Oz the Great and Powerful
(Short Super Bowl Teaser Trailer for Disney Movie)

• This was a highly anticipated film from Disney Studios this year as it is a story from a different narrative opposed to the original movies who's character narrative is Dorothy.
• This is a very short teaser trailer being only 11 seconds which just states the film's name and when it comes out.
• The Disney logo shows at the beginning which is the distribution company before anything such as wording or snippets from the film.
• The clips aspect ratio changes from 4:3 (traditional television) to wide screen. The 4:3 aspect ratio would have been widely used in the 30's and 40's when film noir was around.
• Half way through the teaser as well as changing aspect ratio, it also changes from black and white to colour which shows the transition through time from old to new film.
• Shows you the face of the two main characters both, Oscar and Theodora.
• The clip shows you the hot air balloon, tornado and the emerald city that are iconic features of  'The Wizard of Oz'.
• The trailer does include the brilliant use of special effects shown within the film.
• The quick storyline shows the route taken to get to OZ, which most people will remember from the first film.
• Last on the clip is the title of the film, certificate of the film and also the release date written in an innovative typography.

Last Vegas
(Teaser Trailer for a new film with four star vehicles)

• The trailer has a very high quality to it with very well lit scenes, showing that it must be a big production film as they have a lot of good and expensive equipment to make the film as vibrant as it is.
• Split screen showing three of the main characters on the phone to the other, so it introduces the star vehicles first to grasp people's attention as a lot of people go see films because of the actors that are in the film.
• The plot line/trigger event is told to the audience within the first 10 seconds telling people exactly what this film is going to be centred around.
• Punch line said before any other scenes of the film are shown to draw the target audience in. In this case it would be people who enjoy comedy movies.
• States around the time it's coming out but not the exact date which makes research into the film which creates a larger interest in the film, when it comes people will be waiting for it. Also when the quote 'This Year' is cut to the screen is done while there is a jolt in the music which is a good idea and makes people look at the screen, as it is a loud noise and will be attracted to look at the screen.
• City scape of Vegas is shown of where the film is set to entice the audience and give them a sense of where the characters are at in the film because it sets the scene for people.
• One of the camera faces the camera and reads 'Welcome to Las Vegas' almost as if he is speaking directly to the audience of the film which makes people believe they are part of the film.
• Quick jokes are told throughout the whole trailer to keep the audience interested and focused on the movie.
• 'Grab Lines' are zoomed out on a black screen and the font is a bright yellow/orange which stands out.
• The cuts are made in the trailer as there is drum beats occurring on the music track which keeps the timing of the trailer organised.
• Slip screen showing the characters when they were young and what they look like now, which suggests that their past must relate to the film in some way.
• They don't waste time using fade to black to change the scene, they just cut straight to it so that they can get as much in and grip the audience.
• Lots of quick shots from the film just showing little snippets of what happens.
• The punch line that reads 'Academy Award Winners' make the audience stand up and take notice of who the actors are and the film must be good if it has more than just one. The audience feel impressed that there is four star vehicles and that they all work together the film must be a success.
• As the actors are so well known in the film industry and Hollywood for that matter the movie must think that it's faster for people to read the last names and people will still know who the actors are in the film. Again with the time they want to fit as much in the trailer as possible.
• The line that reads 'Like you've never seen them before' suggests that the film is unique and different to all the films that the actors have ever been in and that it is something new for people to see, opposed to a storyline such as boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy, they live happily ever after. Everyone has seen this storyline over and over again just with different actors and a slightly different disequilibrium.
• 15 second clip of some funny scene in the movie is shown which may make people think that if there are more jokes/funny scenes like this in the film they want to go and see it.
• The title of the film is something to talk about as it is called 'Last Vegas' which is a take on where the movie is shot 'Las Vegas' denotes that this may be the last time these characters in the film ever get do to anything like this again or go back to Vegas in the future. Also the font of the title, with the 'A' there is a diamond and a spade within the letter relating to Las Vegas and gambling.
• All four characters are all shown towards the end of the trailer together, and after the quote shown read 'It's going to be legendary' is left on the screen making people think that this film is totally different to anything that has ever been on the big screen and it is a must see the year that it comes out.
• At the end of the trailer all of the information is shown including the actors names, the title of the film, all the crews names and the companies involved with the production logo.

Iron Man 3
(Highly anticipated squeal to a successful film sequence)

• Shot of snow falling, which is of the characters point of view when he is lying down on the ground looking up.
• Screen fades to black to transition from one scene to another, which causes a dramatic build up to what is going to happen in the trailer.
• The hero of the film falls to the ground in slow motion, which is showing the reverse stereotype of the strong hero who wins battles opposed to one who falls flat in defeat.
• As the camera looks down at the hero, this suggests that the hero is powerless and broken which again is going against the stereotype.
• The Marvel logo connects the film to the successful comic books as they are well known and attract a wide audience who like the comic to go see the film adaptation.
• Low pitched music connotes to sad or dramatic scenes in a movie, thus making the audience think that this film is going to have a sad/dramatic element to it.
• Paramount is the distribution company for the film, this also shows that a successful film company is supporting the film and means the film will be large budget and well made because companies like paramount only support the best films in the industry.
• Quick shots of scenes from the movie giving the audience a small idea of what is going to happen in the film.
• The iconography of the previous films like the iron man suite are in this movie as people will familiarise this will the old films and know that this is a new film that continues on from the last.
• Main character is narrating his own story of what happens during the film.
• The femme fatale character is revealed as the hero's love in the plot synopsis.
• As the attack/dis-equilibrium is brought the screen, the music which is played throughout the trailer stops, showing the interruption in the story.
• The music dies and the release date for the film appears this attracts the audience and the music is gone for people to look up as it is important information.
• The explosions show the trigger event of the movie which is the big interruption during this film however the plot line is character driven, so they draw you in with various different scenes.
• The big scenes with explosions etc., show that this film is clearly a big production and a Hollywood movie.
• The fades to black in fast pace shows the suspense of the film and what it is building up to.
• The femme fatale is in danger and everything that the main character (Iron Man) is doing leads to him saving her.
• The statement that the villain says in the film intrigues the audience and makes them wants to know more about the film and what it is going to entail.
• The logo at the end that flashes off and the main character appears fallen, makes the audience wonder what has happened, however when the light turns back on and we see the character standing again we begin to think his fall in the film is part of storyline.
• At the very end of the trailer all of the information is shown including the fact that it is a marvel film, the website, production and distribution label.

Some Girl(s)
(Small independent festival film)



 

• Small independent film/small budget film festival which relates to the kind of film that we are doing.
• Main character outlines plot synopsis of the film by stating what he is going to do on his journey throughout the film.
• As he mentions travel it cuts to a scene of him on an aeroplane and in the airport which relates to the story he is telling.
• Again he states that he is going to visit a few old girlfriends as they are all shown.
• This film clearly shows that it is about complications as he goes around and buries the hatchet with the chosen girlfriends.
• As the characters that are all shown in the trailer they are introduced with name captions.
• Variety of characters with unusual personalities making the unique and different for people to watch.
• Music fades in as the title of the film appears towards the end of the trailer.
• Slow cuts from scene to scene to show the emotion in every clip of the trailer.
• Shot of all the cast and crew of the film including the website, as well as the production company and their logo.
• The exact date of release is shown to let the audience know when the film will be coming out.
• As the film is a small budget film, it is only shown in few cinemas and Vimeo online to get a profit.
• The website is shown at the end of the trailer to strike an interest and so that people will visit the site for more information.

Back To The Future
(Teaser Trailers go back 30 years)

• The fact that this teaser trailer was released in the 1980's shows how far this form of advertising goes back.
• The pre-approved message is shown before anything else showing that they have the right to screen it to the public.
• The big names 'Steven Spielberg' and 'Robert Zamecks' are both big names in the past and present film industry.
• Shows the Nike airs which are classic iconography of this film and main character.
• The close up of just the shoes means that the suspense of knowing the character is a building up.
• The rhythmic steps of when the character is walking on the ground synchronises with the sci-fi music playing in the background.
• The cuts from one angle to another of the same prop show the suspense of the character building.
• The character walks towards the car another well know icon of the film.
• All of the shots from different points gives the audience an introduction to what the film will be all about.
• The flashing lights from all different places attract the attention of the audience and diverts them to the clip just as they show the main character and the film that he announces also.
• This clip is not part of the film which means it doesn't really give that much away other than teases the audience with who and what the film will focus on.

Genre Conventions

Genre is a way of categorising films into sections, which will appeal to different audiences. It is a French term meaning 'type' or 'kind'.

Some examples of genre are:

• Film Noir
• Action
• Adventure
• Horror
• Thriller
• Family
• Comedy
• Romance
• Western
• War
• Science Fiction
• Documentary
• Crime
• Gangster
• History

Some films are hybrids this is when a film has more than one stated genre for example:

• Romantic/Comedy
• Action/Adventure
• Horror/Thriller
• Gangster/Crime

A way in which you can establish what genre a film is, is through the iconography.

The iconography is the way we describe the particular signs that identify a particular genre for example the props on set, the mise-en-scene, what you can see when you watch the film that links to a certain genre, an example would be :

A western film would have iconography such as; Cowboy hats, horses, deserted places, tumbleweeds.

Sophie Cain



Some other conventions will include things like;-

• Narrative
• Theme
• Ideology
• Mise en scene

These things are what really set the scene and define what genre they belong in. The narrative of a film is one of the most important as a story about an axe murder is not going to be a romantic film. Films with a boy and a girl and a love story are commonly a romantic film and the story line might be how they met. The theme of the film for example when discussing a film noir it will be the doomed relationship between the femme fatale and the damaged hero, it's something that is recurring in every film of it's genre. The ideology is the ideas behind the film and what the audience is expecting from the film, which is mainly the little things in the movie the way a character acts can easily define a movie in some ways. For example Jason in Friday the 13th, can easily be seen as something to scare a person which would relate to a thriller or a horror. Lastly the mise-en-scene of the film sets the scene, this includes the surrounding area, the lighting and the people/props in the shot. All of these parts of the mise-en-scene really highlight what the movie is going to be like for instants it is commonly known now-a-day that a haunted house connotes to something scary therefore meaning that it will be a horror or a thriller. Same goes for something like a car chase shot, it's profoundly known for the film to be action adventure.

In conclusion I think that there is various elements of a film, mainly the conventions that highlight the genre of the movie that someone is watching. This means it is very important for our trailer to have some of the stereotypical conventions of a film noir so that we appeal to the target audience and so that we achieve the kind of movie we set out to promote.
Sophie Kilty

Setting up my blog...

Both of us decided before doing any research into this project that we would collaborate as a pair to create an advanced promotion package for a new film, including a trailer, a magazine cover and a poster for the film.

We thought that it would be a good idea to customise the colours and the background of our blogs so it would relate to the topic of research, which is 'Film Noir'. So when we first had a look for some pictures for the background of the blogs, we came across an image of a camera in which relates to the traditional colour scheme of film noir that being black, white and red. The colours on the image related a lot to the subject of 'film noir' which is why we felt it would be a good idea to make some of the font black, white and red too. When we did our research on 'film noir' both past and present, many of the DVD cases that came up were mainly black, white and red. As this was recurring through our research, we thought that this was a dominant characteristic of old and modern noir, which is useful information during this process.

Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:

· A website homepage for the film;

· A film magazine front cover, featuring the film;

· A poster for the film.