My first piece of filming

This is my first piece of filming for my trailer. The emphasis on this beginning is speed. I believe that this will grab the audiences attention whilst giving and affective and exciting start to my trailer. As you can see some shots are quite 'wobbly', but this will be sorted and re filmed tomorrow night controlling your hands as a car accelerates is not easy. But there is much more to come !

Editing Techniques.

As editing is an important part of any movie trailer knowing some of the techniques used in the media industry is key. This will help me to gain a more realistic feel to my trailer.

The 180 degree rule: The imaginary line that passes from side to side through the actors. We should not be able to see past that line as it confuses the audiences as they see the characters from different points of the scenic.

Parallel Editing: Cross cutting between two or more lines of action going on in different locations of scenes. This is similar to what a trailer does with montage editing. I believe that this could be a new way of editing my trailer. I will do some more research and experiment with this method.

Matching Eyelines: An edit that follows the 180 degree rule, in which the first shot shows a person looking in one direction and the second shows the space containing what a person sees. This is a good technique for my opening shot where we see the drug dealer looking at a certain point in the car park. I will then switch to see what the drug dealer is looking at.

Match on Action: An edit that puts two different shots of the same action together making it appear to continue uninterrupted. This is a good technique and i believe brings a bit of originality and though to a production.

Shot, Reverse, Shot: Two shots edited back and forward between two characters. This could be used for the face off scene where we see two characters interacting with each other. It might be abit unusual to have this in a trailer but i will have to experiment different ideas.

All of these techniques are use full and will play some role in my trailer. Even if they do not work they will be mentioned in my rejected ideas.

Scriptwriting.

After reading through the 'How to make films' handbook from the Guardian I have discovered some key aspects to scriptwriting. the first is:

Exposition: this is the opening premise and setting of the scene. This would be where we see the drug dealer and the two drug addicts in the car park. The words that the actors say will be key to getting the correct atmosphere in this shot.

Development: The situation is built on and moves forward. This is where the storyline develops and other sub stories may appear into the trailer. This may not apply to much to a trailer but some scenes will need to be developed on and this will be useful for these scenes.

Complication: An event that changes the situation. We will be seeing a jail cell in my trailer, this will represent that there has been a complication in the drug dealers plans. This scene could be the turning point in my trailer and may change the feeling and the locations.

Climax: A decisive point where everything comes together. This is something that should not be done in a trailer. My trailer is showing the audience various aspects of what would become the finished film. Giving away the climax would ruin the film. Although this could be done cleverly to give the audience a false idea of what the climax actually it. What the climax appears to be in the trailer could be the opposite in the final movie.

Resolution: The outcome has been reached. Some aspects of this can be put into my trailer for example the drug dealer could break out of jail, or the drug addicts could overcome their addiction. There are a lot of possibilities to this resolution but i have not decided on mine yet.

This booklet seems to have a large amount of guidance and theory. Reading this may give me some new ideas for my trailer...

Access Granted

After my weekend at the police station, I have got an email back from them. allowing me to film a short clip in one of there cells. I am very excited about this and am glad the film is finally rolling.

The email is as follows:


Hi Greg

In relation to your request to do a short film clip in the police custody cells, I have been given clearance for you to attend and be accompanied to make the film.

Obviously there are a few conditions which i will have to enforce but thats in relation to what can be filmed etc.
I am off duty until 2100 hours on 22nd Oct 2010.
If you are ok with making the film at this time please reply and confirm. Then just attend the station and i will take you to the cells.

Cheers

PC Ryan Smedley, Kettering IRT Team 3
Northamptonshire North | Northamptonshire Police

Call Sheet

Below you will find all of my Actors and Actresses mobile phone numbers these will be used for my call sheet I am aware that in the industry you will have to have many other aspects to this sheet, such as, phone numbers, location, lunch times, camera man, camera grip and microphone. But for what I need the Actors/Actresses only need to know the location and the times of days.

Below you will find the phone numbers of my Actors/Actresses:

Grace:+447917757181

Carly:+447707135721

Simon:+440789154611

Imogen:+44078187633

I will then send a text out out the characters a week before filming so that they are aware of when we are filming and what they need to wear. I believe that this be affective and will allow me to film affectively.

Possible Actors and Actresses

Below you will find all of my possible actors and actresses that would be in my film. These are all media students and are willing to dress up in the suitable costumes. I have also spoken to them about when they will be available and they have all confirmed that they will be here during the October half term. I trust all of these people and am willing to rely on them to make all of the filming times. Some of these people have drama experiences so the acting will not be a problem.

I will be producing a call sheet that will consist of all of the Actors and Actresses phone numbers that I will be contacting via text with the times ad dates of filming.

Weekend at the police station.

After doing my test shots I decided to go to the local police station to try and gain access to one of their cells. This is not as easy as you may think, they have taken all of my details and now they are ringing the police head office and they will get back to me. They said there is a lot of health and safety aspects that they need to carry out on me before they let me into the cell. They will be getting back to me soon. So progress is being made.

Test Shots

Below you can see a test shot that i have taken using a Gorilla Pod. I am going to be using cars for some of my footage so I needed to make sure that these shots would work and below you can see that they do. There was only one problem with the sound, there is a crackling noise when i played the film back but this will be editing and music will be played on top of this clip so that the crackling will not be heard. (no speed limits were broken during the making of this film)



After my first test shot i decided that it would be a good idea to go to the gravel car park and see what types of sound i can get from the gravel to see if it is affective enough to put into my film and this is what I came up with. As you can hear it gives a really clear a crisp crunching sound which is perfect for what I need.

'How are males represented in the trailer for 'BadBoys'

During the BadBoys trailer Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are represented in many ways to please and satisfy different target audiences. Firstly we see the actors on a high building with both of their shirts open, this is portraying them to be sexy and attractive, which must be aimed to a female audience as men are more interested in the action than the looks of the actors. Whereas women will be more interested in how the actors look, this may sway them to watch the film.



We then see Will Smith in an action shot with a gun in his hand. This represents power and shows him as a fearless figure being represented like this is more stereotypical about policemen or 'cops' in America. Again this links back to the first picture as his shirt is still open so whilst trying to create action for the male audiences they are also trying to attract a female audience, by having some flesh on show.



Following this we then see Martian Lawrence shooting a hole in a door, this shows him as being careless and a care free attitude, this is another typical stereotype of males in this thriller genre they are seen as careless and almost 'cocky'. This shot backs up the representation of power in the previous paragraph.



After we see Martian lawrence and Will Smith comparing body counts and how many people they have killed since the job began. This represents both characters to be competitive and also shows that they have big egos. In this shot we see both actors trying to do on better than the other which is typical for these types of films, there is always competition between the actors and a small subplot.



We then see both actors entering a house and Will Smith says ' Don't be alarmed were Negroes' followed by Martian Lawrence saying 'we need to sounds like them, we was wondering if we could borrow a cup of brown sugar' this shows the pair as being jokers and represents there care free attitude as we assume them to be in a dangerous environment as they are both carrying their guns. As we get further into the trailer I think we loose the directors intent on getting the female audience.



After we see Martian Lawrence punching someone who we assume to be a bad guy. This is the first real piece of violence that we see, this shows that even though they seen to be a comical joking pair they have a violent side to them making them almost unpredictable as the audience does not know if they are being serious or joking. This is another typical stereotype for this genre. You cannot have a thriller film without violence.



We then see Will smith diving through the air to save a girl in a gun fight, this represents him as being heroic. Again in these types of films we always have some heroic action and this backs up the careless representation and show that he will do anything for his job. Another representation for this shot is commitment he is committed to his job.

In conclusion I believe that in this trailer the male actors are represented as, attractive, powerful, careless, competitive, comical, violent and finally heroic. I will be using these representations in my trailer and trying to experiment with some other representations.

Script and Description.

After analysing some existing film trailers I have discovered that the types of trailer I want to create all use a balance between serious dialogue and some comical dialogue. This has made me think about what types of dialogue I need in my trailer make it realistic. As my trailer is about drugs I think that having some comical aspects to my script will be affective. After thinking about this I have come up with some dialogue, these are not final they are only ideas that may be used and adapted.

* 'you got the drugs,' - ' no im here for the good of my health'
* 'you've got two options, give me the drugs or ill shoot you and take them, its up to you'
* 'how long have i known you ?, you know i own this shit'
* 'this is the last time i save your ass'
* 'I know this guy, I know how he works, and it aint nice'
* 'we get in we get the drugs we get out' - 'man you know we dont work like that'
* 'well id love to stay and talk but im being shot at'
* 'get my god dam drugs'

As you can see from above i have some serious and some comical dialogue. However bad they may be these are the types of lines that are used in trailers and i believe that I now have a better idea about what my actors will be saying and this now allows me to think about my characterisation. Also I am aware that i have to think about age restrictions if I have any swearing in my trailer this Is some thing I may have to look into further.

Filming Schedule

As the October half term is coming up soon I think that this is a prime time to be focusing on my media trailer. During this time I l plan to film:

Opening scenes- Car speeding into the car park, foot crunching onto the gravel and the two drug addicts sitting in the car. this shall be shot at night using car head lights for additional light when it is needed.

The airport scene- Shooting a plane taking off and landing in the day time i would love to have this shot at night time but the light would not be good so I adapt this part of the film to daytime.

The prison scene- I hope once i get permission to be able to do the shot of an empty jail cell. I have been badgering the jail for a while now and no response so far, I shall be ringing them this weekend to try and finally confirm.

The face off scene- Shooting the scene where character one and character two face off to each other would be great. I plan to let the actors know in advance when I need then to be available and we can then work to a date.

Trailer Conventions.

This is the trailer for once of the my favourite thriller movie 'BadBoys 2'. This trailer has similar themes to what I am going to produce in my film trailer. It has cars in and different ways of conveying speed and adrenaline which i believe I can use in my trailer. I do realise that this film was produced on a massive multi million pound budget and obviously I do not have that but i do plan to take some of the conventional ideas and adapt them into my trailer.

Firstly the trailer starts with a setting shot showing the 'Miami' billboard this tells the audience straight away that this is set in a large scale city. This gives the audience and idea of what surrounding and locations to expect. Then we see a lot of jump and flash cuts in the trailer which is typical as it is a montage of different scenes from the movie. The dialogue used in the trailer is kept to short sentences and are usually serious of comical. These are edited to that they can be out of context and give the trailer a completely different feel to the movie. As this is a Thriller genre trailer you would expect there to be lots of action shots this is another aspect i want to be able to bring into my trailer. Also the music tend to contain drum beats and guitars and tends to build suspense and maximise the action with thrilling music.

During the Trailer you will also see the actors that are starring in the movie and there names will normally be presented onto a black background. You will also see the major companies that have been involved in the production of the movie this allows the audience to see which companies have created and also creates awareness about these companies. You will also see the directors name in a similar way to the actors.

Finally the main aim of this trailer is to give the audience a rough idea of the storyline and some of the sub stories in the trailer, I believe that this trailer does this very well and also has given me many ideas that i can take forward and adapt to the themes of my trailer.





Above is the 'Transporter 3' trailer this is another favourite trailer of mine as again it has similar aspects and conventions to the 'Badboys 2' trailer. In the opening shot we see the shot of the main actor this directly shows the audience who is in the movie. Again we see lots of text in the trailer with dialogue this is done as the movie is a sequel and the text links in with that. Again typical to a Thriller trailer we see lots of action and glass smashing which ties in with the films massive budget. Following on from 'BadBoys 2' we see lots of jump cuts and montage editing.

This trailer gives the audience some background story about the characters and again uses the mixture of comical and serious dialogue. We also see different types of fast car shots that creates adrenaline and i believe that this can be used in my trailer. I also like the use of different camera angles used in the trailer to manipulate speed.

Equiptment and Resources.

Below you will find all ofthe equiptment and resources such as cars that will be ussed in my trailer.I will then explain next to each picture why i have chosen to use them and what they will be used for.



This is the main piece of equipment that I will be using in my media trailer, this is the Panasonic full HD video camera. I have chosen to use this as you get a clearer image and it gives film a more realistic quality about it. Clips may take longer to upload to blogger and to itunes but it is all worth it when you see the quality at the end.



This is another resource that I have this is my car which I plan to use for the drug dealing scenes. This car will be used for the drug addicts to be in in the opening scene. As it is my car there will be no problems with not being able to access it.



This is the main car that the audience will be seeing in the trailer. This is my dads car and it will be used for the drug dealers car. I have chosen this as it is a performance car and as I want high speed scenes in the trailer it is the perfect car for the job. again there will be no problems in accessing this car as it is always available for me to use.


(more to come)

tripod in school
Gorilla grip (when it arrives)

Location Photos.

Above you will find the starting locations for my trailer. These photos were taken in a car park near my school. As you can see from some of the images there is some gravel in the car park which will be used for the scenes where we see the drug dealers foot crunching on the gravel. Also you can see the concrete where the drug dealer will be speeding into the car park.

This location will be easy to use as it is free after school times at about 4 or 5 o'clock having this as an opening shot will set the scene for the rest of the film.