Early footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3QIGmYomAk

Location of filming

Location of the Film

To be able to make our horror trailer look as professional as we can, we needed to do some extensive research into the codes and conventions of horror films and where they are usually filmed. 

As a group we realised that deciding the location and time of filming is just as important as choosing the actors. Due to our film being on a microwave budget, we decided that filming in one house is the best way to keep cost down. This meant that we had access to many different scenes for our film so we could still make the trailer aesthetically  pleasing. Filming on location is cheaper, rather than filming on a constructed set or in a studio. However, a downfall of shooting in a real life environment is that the light and camera angles may suffer. The natural lighting on streets and inside buildings will be of a lower quality and standard, however, it is the best way to make the scenes realistic and believable for the audience. to overcome this problem, we can use our own lighting such as studio lights that we may be able to get hold of and by planning to film scenes at certain times of the day when lighting is at it's best for that particular scene. 

It would be more difficult for us to film in an outdoor public environment as it could be unpredictable, noises of traffic or members of the public could alter the scene and how it looks. 

Outdoor scenes

Throughout the trailer, there will be scenes showing an outdoor area. For example, Annabelle will be seen moving into her house to establish the film and give the audience an idea of the background to the film, without giving too much away. It will be difficult to film this as we cannot control factors such as the traffic noise and weather; meaning that we will need to try and film at times when you cannot hear any other noise. 

We will also take advantage of the use of the garden areas where we will film in the night-time to give an eerie feeling to our film as the night and darkness is associated with the fear of the unknown. Many horror films that we have looked at have scenes shot in the dark so this means our film will follow the codes and conventions of a horror trailer.

Indoor Scenes

Depending on the size of the scene, it may be more expensive to shoot a film on location, however in a house where Annabelle will be living, it will be very low budget as props will already be there and available for us to create the scene. There are always great benefits to filming on location; for example, the audience will get to see an inset into the characters lives and how they spend their daily lives in their home environment.

The kitchen is usually the hub of a home and where scenes will be filmed. The character of Annabelle will be spending time in the kitchen and watching outside her windows to the garden.

Character profile

As we have decided to change to horror, we decided to have only 1 main character so its all easy to understand for the audience and they will get to know the victim well.

We have looked into conventions of different characters in order to see what personality traits we can portray onto our victims.
Firstly, our main character is going to be called Annabelle. She will be of the age range of our target audience which is 15-25, this is because we want them to feel engaged throughout and keep the attention of them. 
We also thought that by having a young girl as the main character it will be appealing for both males and females to watch the film in the cinema. Another reason for having a female victim is that it is a convention of a horror film, it is easy for them to be portrayed as vulnerable and always being on edge. This is an important personality trait as it means when she jumps the audience in then will also be scared. This can build on the suspense in the trailer which is important.
As a group we decided that in the trailer we should make Annabelle a protagonist which means she herself will experience the horror of the anonymous figure at first hand. She has been awfully caught up in events that she could not help, which then lead on to show her personality as anxious and scared.
The female character Annabelle is at the heart of the entire plot, we get to see her change from a normal happy young adult and content person to a petrified and unsettled victim of an unknown figure that is stalking her new home. 
Annabelle faces the horror character by herself which isn't usually seen in most horrors. We made it so she is alone in the house where no one is able to come and save her. A typical convention would be a female character being saved, however, we thought it would be better to actually add a different twist and challenge usual conventions of a male hero. Annabelle manages to locate the source of horror that is on her home without the aid of a male, this shows annabelle to be a strong character.

Plot

In this video we explain all about what our new film idea is going to be like and it is clear we are very happy with our decision to change.

Story board

Idea change

Although its very late into the year, as a group we all decided to change our idea of the film. The more we were making the film and going over our ideas we realised that it would be very hard to make and was going to be a disaster. Once we got back our audience feedback and not all people we were happy we finalised our answer and changed the film. The film is still going to be called anonymous as it relates and links in to what the film is going to be about. we have changed the film genre to horror as we think the target audience (which we have also kept the same 15-25) will like this more. I am glad that we decided to get audeince feedback as i think this new film idea that we are doing to going to be very good and very interesting and leave the audience wanting more.
When we started filming for our old film idea we realised we hadnt thought in depth  enough and it was all scruffy, so hopefully we are going to be more prepared for the horror.

Auditions

We want the perfect people to play the role of our characters. We auditioned various different people to see who suited the role the most

Audience feedback

Our film - Anonymous

Sket semiotic analysis

I am choosing to analyse the film trailer of Sket as it is the same genre of the movie we are going to make and is quite similar, so i feel by analysing the trailer i will be able to get ideas for my film and see how the trailer is structured,.

The first thing that is shown quickly and abruptly at the start of the film is distribution company which is revolver entertainment, which is followed by the production company Gunslinger. This shows that is was a fairly low budget film and is an english film.

The next thing that appears in the trailer is some online graphics 'From the producers of shank and anuvahood' which is a similar and popular films which were made from the same producer. This could make the audience want to see the film if they have seen shank or anuvahood and liked them.

We see the music is slow and has loud blackouts as there is a montage of videos at the start of the trailer. We start to see what the location of the film is with different shots of some flats and the london location. Anyone who would watch the trailer will soon realise by the way the people talk and the location, that it is London.
We are introduced to some violence in the trailer when the music almost goes to a holt and the characters are getting pulled and punched.

In the trailer we see some more graphics come up saying 'Girls fight back' after a girl says 'he killed my sister, im gonna kill you'. This shows that this film isnt following the usual stereotypes of a girl, and the girls in this film have a quite masculine roll. The music becomes much louder and fast, like a grim type of song, and a film starts kicking and punch a strong male. More graphics flash up saying 'sisterhood' and we see scenes of a girl gang who look tough, and carry weapons on them. We are shown critics from sky movies, there comments on the film.

Towards the end of the film we see lots of shots of violence which really shows what the movie is about and we can hear the backtrack music of the film as famous and well known artists, Watching this trailer really helped me to see how i would like to set my own trailer out and how to do the editing.

Semiotic analysis of film trailers - theory

In the lesson today we are learning how we will do a semiotic analysis of a film trailer ourselves. We have never done it on a film trailer before so it will be interesting how different it is. To analyse the trailer we will need to look at the media language in the trailer, the institutions, and the genre.

As an example we are watching the divinchi code trailer, and i was looking out for all these factors in it. The institutions were Columbus, imagine entertainment, which are hollywood companies. This will mean it has a big budget to film and should be good. The target audience i thought was males, as most the people were men in the trailer and its also viewed to be watched by an older group of people. I feel like the main audience would be mature and high class people as the film looks intellectual and will require you to think.

The bad guy in the film is a killer monk. He is an albino which mean he looks slightly strange, which fits in with the stereotypical bad guy having something about him. The film starts with being set in a art gallery in france, which also goes along with the high class audience.

The genre for this isnt just one its a hybrid, its a romance, action and thriller. It shown in lots of clips in various parts of the trailer which gives the audience a taste of what the film is like. the music starts slow then higher pitch with people whispering, which gives the effect theres secrets. The trailer then picks up then turns exiting and thrilling, with a well spoken voice as the voice over. It ends with a saying 'Seek the truth' which leaves the audience wanting more.

In the trailer, the man is shown as a stereotypical butch man who wants to be the protector and save the girl. The idiology in this film is that God actually does not exist and if he does, hes not good and not the person he thinks he is.


I found looking at this trailer very useful as it gave me a chance to see what to look for when analysing a trailer, so i know how to do it by myself, not just with the class.

Why was brotherhood made?

brotherhood is the newest film of 3 films which has made an unintended trilogy. It started with the film kidulthood which was directed by  Menhaj Huda and starred noel clarke. It’s a film that would pretty much single-handedly create and define the whole sub-genre and cottage industry of British ‘hood’ movies. It captured what kids are actually like in a way no British film has since. After Kidulthood, Adulthood was made which noel clarke took on to be the directer and star of.  Noel clarke wanted to base the films on the streets of Ladbroke Grove, the the multicultural area of West London where he grew up, and its part of the main route of the Notting Hill Carnival. Noel wrote the films based in these areas as its where he grew up. He based the films on his past experiences of the posh mixing with the rough. Noel wrote Kidulthood as a hobby while he went to the gym and he never thought it would get produced.
When the films were released there was some controversial comments about how its condoning kids to act this way. Noel replied with nothing in that film wasnt happening already, all it did was outline the issues. One of the reasons he wrote the film was to represent a group of people who were under represented. He said that the film would not influence the innocent society but shows how life is like for some people that get involved in gangs. He was happy to make a British film that wasnt all about kings and queens and shows a different side.

BrotherHood Promotion campaign - britsh realism

Blair witch trailer

At the start of this trailer, before it even says anything it jumps into tense music, which imediately puts us on our toes and gives us an impression that the movie is going to be tense. The music goes really loud which makes it sound scary and make the audience jump. It makes it effective and makes the consumer want to know what happened.

Why was the blair witch project made?

When they were creating the second film of the Blair witch, they thought it would be risky to announce they were actually making a sequel to the film. This is because there could of been bad backlash on them and questions on why they re created a film that the audience already thought was good. They originally planned to release the film names as 'the woods' and then just hope that people decided to watch it. There was a change of plan and they then decided to reveal it as comic-con which had a positive reaction.


By making the film they wanted to make the idea clear that the sequal will never be as good as the original film. So they updated the way in how the film was made and completely modernised different aspects of the film, but still making it relevant to the original storyline.


The director says in an interview that hes glad he made a modern version of the movie as he can see the differences abit of technology can make in a film. He says he wanted to try out the film in a modernised way to see how it changed himself as a director. He got some bad reviews about how hes cliché but he ignored them and is proud of the film that he has made.


The director made a remake of a successful film as the film already had a built up fan base who loved the original, so when this version was released in cinema and box office there was a lot of people going to watch it and it made a lot of money.

The Blair Witch project promotional campaign - horror

The Blair witch project is 3 films that have been released. The original budget of the film was around £20,000 and £25000  The Blair Witch Project is the story of three student filmmakers, who are investigating the supernatural legend known as the Blair Witch in a town. After interviewing the locals, they disappear into the Black Hills with their recording equipment, and are never seen again. A year later, their footage is found and pieced together to make the movie.
The Blair Witch Project is thought to be the first widely released movie marketed primarily by internet. The movie's official website featured fake police reports and "newsreel-style" interviews. They used a campaign tactic was  that the viewers were being told, through missing persons posters, that the filmmakers were missing while researching in the woods for the mythical Blair Witch. They also have a blair witch website where there’s a detailed section on the filmmakers, with photos of them preparing for their filming expedition, and individual biographies with photos dating back to their childhood. There are also pictures of the aftermath including their abandoned car and tapes, photos of the police search, a number of interviews with family members and people who worked on the case, and footage from the news coverage from the time.
For the viral marketing campaign, they shot low budget film trailer for the audience. These were only shown to places like college campuses and featured on a sci fi show. They saved money by doing this, and it made the audience feel like they had stumbled across something quite special and found it for themselves. The little details added to the viral campaign with constantly making the film look real with 'missing persons' on places like imdb before the film was released. they limited the release of the film to only 27 screens, which then created the impression that this was a difficult ticket to get hold of, drumming in the idea that they cant afford to miss out on seeing it.

Trainwreck trailer

The starts out with quiet music with the dad speaking to his daughters. The music slowly gets much louder. You see comedy throughout the whole trailer, which makes it clear what genre the film is. Whenever there is a humorous comment in the film, the music stops playing and it goes silent to make an effect that the funny comment is clear. At the beginning of the trailer the music is very upbeat and load which makes the movie look funny and very funny. There is a montage of amy with lots of different men which gives us the impression of how she behaves. There is lots of on screen graphics giving us an idea of whats happening in the film.


Half way through the trailer the music changes when there is a sign or romance between two people in the film and we see more montages of what they are doing together in the film. The comedy comes back into the trailer however when the music goes abit quieter and you see different peoples reactions at the same time from different places.


By having the onscreen graphics its giving the audience an idea of when the film is set and whos starring,  critics views, and when the film is being released, all of these are important for the consumer to know. At the end of the film the graphics are showing the producer which is judd apatow, who is well known.

why trainwreck was made

TrainWreck Promotinal campaign - comedy

Train Wreck is a comedy film that was released in July 2016. With Amy Schumer as the main character, the movie engaged her existing fanbase for great promotion. The films campaign asked engaging questions that were relating to some of the main character’s lifestyle in the film over social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The production budget for this film was 35 million and it did un expectedly well when it was released. Trainwreck did a fantastic job that seemed to work, as they marketed to male and female audiences, which some films do not do. On the opening weekend that the film was released to box office, the film made $30,097,040. overall in the box office for US, it made 108 million.

Trainwreck was mostly advirtised in america, so did much better in america than in england. There was huge billboards in and around the states with trainwreck posters being advirtised to the public. They also had a different selection of film trailers to appeal to different audiences, for example a different trailer for the UK and USA.

Universal studios optioned an untitled script written by Amy Schumer that she would also star in. A lot was said about this film, saying the only reason it did so well was because of the writer and main star Amy Schumer. It was directed by  Judd Apatow who does all the great comedy films, so mixed together this was the perfect film. This film starred comedian actors and was produced by universal studios.

The reason this film was made was because Amy Schumer wanted to write it about her life. There is some made up elements to the rom com but she decided to base the film on her life. This made it easier for her to write as she was plucking things from her life and placing them into place. She put personal things into the film like her dad suffered from MS.

Trailers

In lesson today we were going through what a trailer is and what is included in one. This is going to help us when we go to make our own trailer for a film
A trailer is generally structured in 3 'acts', which is beginning middle and end. It will be a good structure to follow as it gives you an idea of where the trailer is going to go.
Act 1 is done so it lays out story
Act 2 drives the story, usually ending in dramatic climax
Act 3 is generally a montage of key moments from the film that grip the audiences attention
in a film trailer, shots from at least 10 different parts of the film should be shown to give the audience a view of what different scenes there is.
Dramatic music makes the trailer more exciting and can grab the audience to go watch the film, try use more than one song for effect.

A2 Media blog

Last year for Media we deigned a magazine and did all the different steps to create an original. I enjoyed this alot as it gave me a chance to be creative and able to put all my ideas into a piece of work. I liked doing a magazine but im excited more to work with film for A2 media. This year for media is all about film, and film trailers. We are going to look at different films, pick a genre and actually make a movie trailer ourselves, and directing it ourselves. Im excited as ive never done anything like this before and am glad to have a new experience on it.