Media Evaluation

For our final practical examination we were given the task of creating a ‘teaser trailer ‘ for a new film that we had developed ourselves. It had to be between 30 seconds and a minute and a half in length. We felt that this would be a challenge however we tried our hardest throughout the task.

After brainstorming many ideas, as a group we decided that our best idea was to create a trailer that would appeal to us. We chose teenage drama as a basis for our thoughts and strengthened this idea throughout the process.

From the first stages of production we selected three initial ideas that we felt could create an interesting, new film. We then chose our final idea, a teen drama involving a group of teenagers whose lives drastically change following the introduction of a murdered drug dealers son.

First Stages And Influences.

Following this decision, we worked through many influential trailers that fitted into our chosen genre. We were highly influenced by the following:

• Kidulthood/Adulthood – These trailers had a strong background of teenage life and terror. It was fast paced and exciting, the teaser captivated us and left us thinking about the storyline.• Juno – This storyline tackled many teenage issues surrounding the society we live in today. Considering we wanted to base our idea on these teenage troubles we felt highly compelled to this trailer. • Skins – Even though this is a long running TV programme we felt that the teaser adverts related well to our ideas and therefore we looked heavily at this as an influence.• Step Up – Although a dance film, the storyline is based on the main character changing his background, similar to our synopsis. The trailer also offered fast paced, exciting imagery that we felt was similar to our own.

First Stages and Influences Continued...

Target Audience.We addressed and attracted our audience by our use of mise-en-scene. We took advantage of being able to use locations that many of the audience members are likely to recognise, making them feel as if they are part of the action too. We used lots of short scenes with quick editing to keep the viewer interested in the story and wondering what is going to happen next.

We tried to use as many conventions of typical teenage lifestyle as possible. These included drink, drugs and friendship. We also included a love interest. Although some of these stereotypes were exaggerated slightly, we feel that most of them are true to a teenagers life, at least in some part.

We understand that our trailer may not appeal to all teenagers and only represents particular social groups within the teen genre. However, we feel that our trailer is sufficient enough to cater for those teens and that it is a high enough quality to appeal to certain if not most teenagers, both female and male.

In our trailer we have aimed to capture many aspects of a teenagers real life. We feel that we have successfully managed to incorporate several different elements of this, therefore completed our aim. We constructed our storyline based around genuine adolescent lifestyles and the concerns that they have to face- we did this as we were inspired by our influential trailers that dealt with social issues such as violence and pregnancy. We tackled subjects such as drink, drugs and conflict. Our storyline was heavily based upon drugs, having the main character’s dad a drug dealer. We decided to show this in our trailer by subtly demonstrating the social lifestyle of our characters with the ‘mask scene’ acting as a representation of drug use. The idea of binge drinking is also displayed in our trailer representing the stereotypical label associated closely with teenagers today. consequently by doing this, we have kept in touch with our audience and society. We illustrated this typecast through our scene with our characters sitting in a large group drinking ‘alcohol’. This was not real alcohol as we would not have been able to show that within a trailer that is supposed to be released into the media and shown to the general public, of all ages. As part of the present stereotypes of teens, we decided to show aggressive behaviour. Our ‘fighting scene’ depicts the common scenes of teenage hostility that is portrayed in the media today. We feel that teenagers today are especially seen as promiscuous and as a result we felt we should include images that suggests this. We highlighted this suggestion with a ‘kissing scene’ which gave a twist to the film, involving a love interest. It was only short, however it illustrated what we needed to show. Contrasting to all these negative views, we decided that friendship was a main part in teenage life. We have shown this using a consistent group, seen in our casting photos.

Example Stills.FOLLOWING DOWN STAIRS

FIGHT SCENE

GROUP SHOT

HIGH ANGLE

TWO SHOT

CLOSE UP AND EYELINE

After looking at our influential trailers, we noticed that they all had a fast pace, short cuts and a busy atmosphere. We liked this and so decided to include this element in our trailer. We felt the fast pace would fit very well with what we were doing. Being teenagers ourselves, the fast paced editing reflects the behaviour of teenagers today.

We sped up some of the clips, for example when some of our characters were walking down the road and two girls hug and nearly fall over. We felt this was effective because the speed caught the attention of our audience.

We used simple, plain shots so that the audience could focus more on the content. Our favourite was the high angle shot following the characters down the staircase which emphasised the lively and busy atmosphere and also gave a documentary feel to the trailer. We chose to do some handheld shots as we felt that the atmosphere we created by doing this helped to make the idea of a documentary more believable. As well as the real lifelike storyline, the documentary feel made the film more convincing. Pans, establishing shots and close ups helped us to encourage this.

Shots And Editing.

We finished our teaser trailer after completing the final preparations which included music, transitions and text. The music we chose, we felt fitted well with the genre and style of the trailer- the feedback from the trailer also supported this. The trailer did not include many transitions however; the ones we did include supported the clip and connected it nicely with the following clip. The transitions we used flashed, faded to black and black out stood out in the trailer and emphasised the fast pace and high momentum of the trailer. We added text at the beginning and end of the trailer to introduce the film and have final credits at the end. The ending credits appeared after the tagline ‘Ready, Steady, Go’ was said by the main character. The effect of this spoken tagline we thought was rather strong and complimented the trailer itself well and was also catchy enough to be remembered by the viewers. As we had so many filming sessions where we were able to film a variety of shots, after discussions we often changed our mind a deviated from the storyboard. This resulted in the trailer having a wider variety of shots- shots that are sometimes repeated. We found that this also emphasised the increased pace of the trailer as well as highlighting the key shots throughout the trailer.

Shots And Editing Continued…

Shots We Used.

HIGH ANGLECLOSE UP

3 SHOT/ MID SHOT

HAND – HELD ALSO A TRACKING SHOT

PAN

Problems During Production.During production we experienced a range of problems that interrupted

our availability to film. These included having to change our main actor half way through filming as he was not often available to film as he had work commitments. We thought that this would be a huge issue as it would be obvious of the change, however, after looking carefully through our film we realised that it was not too obvious and so we managed to change our actor effectively without any disturbance to our trailer. However, we were able to keep the recognition of the main character consistent through the use of his costume- the main character is wearing a grey hoodie throughout the trailer which, we feel, highlights him as the main character.We also had an issue with rain as for one of our filming sessions we went up to Southbank in London. Most of our filming for this session was planned for outside and when it started raining it made it harder to shoot. Therefore, we couldn’t film all scenes and had to change the location for some shots. We also had a problem with light as it started to get darker and it was harder to film, so we had to move some of the shots to lighter locations. We wanted to film in an area that was protected by the government and film our ‘fight’ scene. We therefore asked a policeman if we were able to film and they gave us an official notification under the terrorism act to say that we were able to film.

What We Have Improved On From Last Year.

For our practical coursework this year we have joined together two groups as members from both groups left the course. We feel that this has given us the advantage of having more knowledge available of different genres and techniques to create a trailer that has helped us to improve on our already existing skills and develop new ones. We feel that we have been able to develop our skills in sound as we have been able to better fit the timing of the trailer and the editing. We have learnt a wider range of shots and improved our editing and sound skills enabling us to cut scenes and make the transitions from scene to scene smoother and more professional. We have also learnt how to more efficiently use a camera and a tripod to create different angles and shots in a scene. This has enabled us to use effective shots and to film things in different ways to create different effects, atmospheres and moods.

TRAILER CONCLUSION:Strengths.

Editing and sound – we made the sound fit the timing of the editing well. We edited our trailer well so that meaning was apparent to the viewer. We used shots and cuts that enhanced our film, making it look more professional and smoother. We came up with an idea quickly, that we were able to develop on and come up with our final idea. We worked well as a group and were able to objectively discuss each others ideas. We split work up into sections and everybody would take a different section so that work was even and fair. The sound that we chose to use in our trailer received a lot of positive feedback as it suited the genre of film well. The pace of our trailer was liked by most people as they thought that it fitted well with the genre and the lifestyle of the teenagers. Although we had to change our main actor half way through filming it worked out alright as throughout most of the film you couldn’t see his face, so we simply shot the final scenes with our new actor who was more flexible with time. We put a lot of time and effort into our blogs to make sure they were up to the highest standard.

TRAILER CONCLUSION:Weaknesses.

× The storyline was not too clear in our trailer and some people said that they didn’t like the fight scene.× We didn’t agree on all ideas and having to say ‘no’ to others in the group could sometimes be hard and therefore not all thoughts were voiced.× Some people felt that our trailer didn’t have a clear storyline that was visible for the audience. However, our brief was to design and create a ‘Teaser Trailer’ the definition of which states that the story does not need to be visible to the audience as it is released before the main theatrical trailer and is only supposed to give a vague idea of the concepts within the film.

Overall Trailer Conclusion.Overall, we feel that as a group we worked well and were able to objectively discuss each others ideas to better our production. Splitting sections up so that each member of the group had set tasks to complete and contribute to the main section was a good idea as it meant that work was split between the four of us evenly and work was completed quicker. Collectively we were able to create our trailer with a high standard of camera angles, camera shots, use of locations and costume, actors and actresses, editing, sound and promotion. We all enjoyed creating the trailer and appreciate that ‘Fullstop’ has a more specific audience but our aim in conveying the teenage lifestyle of today in a more directed manner has been accomplished. If we were to do this task again, we would discuss a broader range of possibilities for our trailer and all have a better input on the final production.

EMPIRE Magazine Cover.As part of our secondary tasks, we were to create a magazine

cover to promote our upcoming film ‘Fullstop’. As a group, we decided to use EMPIRE Magazine as our basis. We were given a deadline to have our cover completed by which we organised a photo shoot and lesson times to ensure our editing was completed on time. Fortunately, we had two members in the group who are photography students and had no trouble using Photoshop and helping the rest of the group to learn how to edit the magazine cover. The photo shoot was arranged with the main actor, making sure that he was also wearing a grey hoodie, continuing the costume from the trailer. After deciding upon the final cover photo, we discussed the background and layout of the magazine itself. We liked the idea of having the consistency of the costume and location. The idea of having a graffiti background or a brick wall for the magazine cover was discussed, we finalised the idea by using a brick wall for the background as it was simple and complimented the main photo well.

We also edited the photo and background to black and white colouring. This gave the magazine cover more edge and a more professional feel. We also experimented a lot with the positioning of the titles and subtitles around the magazine cover in order to get the maximum effect. The EMPIRE title being behind the overlapping main photo was something we all agreed on as highlighted that the actor was the most important thing on the cover. We first thought of this idea when looking through previous EMPIRE magazine covers both online and in class.

Overall, we were very pleased with the way that the magazine cover came out. The editing was very specific and there was a lot of discussion as to what we wanted the magazine cover to look like in order to compliment the trailer. We appreciated the fact that we could not have a magazine cover that did not compliment our trailer.

EMPIRE Magazine CoverContinued…

MAGAZINE

COVER

Fullstop. Film Poster.The secondary work was continued in the task of creating a film poster for our upcoming film, also as part of promoting it. Working around the given brief we worked together in order to complete the planning of our poster and also organise photo shoots. We decided to get together as many people as possible who were featured in the trailer and take their photo which would then appear on the film poster. The main inspiration for this was the Skins poster, where all the characters are in perspective in one poster. We took photos of the nine main characters in our trailer and also re-visited Southbank to take photos of the ever-changing graffiti walls to use as a background for our poster. We continued this graffiti theme from the trailer and also used this for the film title on the poster. The production company and logo we created was ‘DEVL’- using the initials of each of our names.

We finally created a bright and eye catching poster that we could all relate to, was easy to read and promoted our film well.

POSTER.

FullStop.

Vicky MartinEmily Martin

Laura NichollsDemi Curran