WELCOME MODERATOR

LUCAS KEECH 1636
CLAREMONT FAN COURT SCHOOL 64680

I worked with THOMAS MACLEOD 9134 and ALFRED BEILL 6008 

Our brief was to make the titles and effects of a fictional thriller trailer. The title of our film is EXTINCTION. 

Our film is immediately below and my preliminary exercise is in the pages section above. 



TRAILER

TEASER TRAILER

All my RESEARCH and PLANNING follow below on the main blog roll, in reverse order, starting with the latest first. To present my research and planning, I have used a wide variety of platforms and tools. These include; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Photoshop, Piktochart, Movie Maker, Slideshare and iMovie. 

DIRECTING

When it came to the directing, we split up the role on what we would do regarding our skill set for that specific situation. For example, I had a heavy influence on the directing of the trailer when it came to my part of the acting. When I was acting out my parts of the trailer, I told people which camera angle I wanted the camera to be at, how I wanted to act out the scene and my facial expressions etc. I found this to be more efficient and effective when filming our trailer. 

I really enjoyed directing the scene where I (Larry in the trailer) am in the bomb shelter asking my fellow survivors 'where everyone is'. The was a slight hiccup during filming this scene where the sun was obstructing the shot. I took initiative to change the location of the tripod slightly, and in turn, we ended up getting a well-focused shot. 


EDITING
For the editing section we also used a combination of skills sets to complete this. When it came to my part in the editing section, I was involved in the sound effects and visuals of our trailer. For example, I was involved in the shortening and lengthening of clips to make sure that our production flowed well throughout. I also added some special effects to the inter-titles to make it look dystopian and desolate. 


CAMERAWORK
 For the majority of the shots I was in front of the camera as I played the main role in the film, however I also got behind the camera as I took some of the establishing shots for our production, as well as the shots of my fellow survivors, using a wide range of techniques I had learned over my the course like a pan shot. I also created our films Instagram to post some of our amazing shots, and also because I realised social media is key to a successful promo pack. 

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

PLANNING: TREATMENT

TREATMENT

TITLE: EXTINCTION

LOGLINE 
These trailers are to promote a film in which we follow three boys who are survivors of a unthinkable natural disaster as they battle to run away from the terrors of what is left of the world. 

SYNOPSIS

The first scene depicts the impact of the global disaster where we see buildings on fire and people screaming in fear of their lives etc. Then, the scene changes to what we can assume is the aftermath of the initial wreckage of the disaster, we see a close up of a man standing with his face blocked off by a flickering fire and he mutters, "What is happening?". An intertitle lets us know this is set ten years from now. Shots of isolated and empty harbours and desolate roads make it obvious that the number of survivors are minimal.

The scene then cuts to showing the same man walking into a room where he is met by the question "How many people do you think are still alive?". A shot-reverse-shot allows us to see a very unwell man, who asked the question, and another person in a two-shot. Lucas, the man to walk into the room, replies, "In the world? Not very many." As he sits by the fire and begins to cook some food.

Afterwards, we are taken through the daily tasks of these boys the first one being, WAKE. They wake up slowly, looking ragged and defeated by their poor conditions. Then they start their second objective, SEARCH. They begin their daily search for food, water and good shelter. we see one of the survivors find a can of coke which makes them ecstatic with happiness and we see how truly desperate they are as a close up shows the expression on his face as he drinks it in a matter of seconds. 

The third mission is to KEEP MOVING. a POV of a finger tracing down a map indicates the survivors are heading towards a safe haven of some sort, or maybe running away from a threat. A variety tracking shots show the survivors trekking through fields and forests. and the final objective... HIDE. There's a shot of the survivors hiding in the shrubbery from an unknown attacker on a motorbike. A close-up of the attacker flipping his visor up shows the animalistic, frightening look in his eyes as he prowls looking for his prey. Intertitles then state: "IN A WORLD WHERE RESOURCES ARE SCARCE.... HUMAN IS ON THE MENU."

 The trailer ends with the remaining survivors running off into the distance being chased by the attacker on the motorbike. The screen then fades to black.

PLANNING: INITIAL IDEAS

Here is a brief mind map and brainstorm of our initial ideas we came up with when we first started thinking about the production of our trailer. This was useful because I believe many of these initial ideas were developed on and eventually made it into our final production. However, many of these ideas were just one-off ideas, and were not taken any further than the initial ideas part.

RESEARCH: TRAILER CONVENTIONS

In order to communicate key messages and factors to an audience, the producers of film trailers use a variety of conventions and devices. I have completed a chart on the Teaching Trailers website on different trailer conventions used within film trailers and films themselves.

We utilised this guidance on trailer conventions and codes in our editing, for example:

• We conveyed key points through inter titles
• Conversations between characters consist of one-liners
• The trailer builds to a climax where it ends

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

We created a storyboard whilst planning our film to give us a vivid image of what we intend to film and what props we would need for each shot. For me, being a visual learner, this was extremely useful to me when it came to filming our trailer because I could look at what shot we were filming, and instantly gain an understanding of what needed to be done or, what I was required to do.

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

Shoot date: 1st and 2nd February 2020

Location: Bembridge, The Isle of Wight

Crew: TM, LK and AB (all phone numbers and emails have been exchanged)

Camera Equipment:

- Tri-pod

- Battery

- Camera bag and protective lenses

Props:

- Can of coke

- Fire

- Map

- Mask

- Car

Wardrobe for TM: 

Outdoor, Dark clothing

Wardrobe for LK: 
Dark, weathered clothing

Wardrobe for AB:
Dark clothing that looks old, possibly torn.

Map showing filming location 'Bembridge' in the East of the Isle of Wight

CONSTRUCTION: EDITING THE BACKGROUND

For one of our shots, we realised after looking back at it that the horizon was off-shot. In order to fix this we had to bring the footage of the harbour - which was one of our shots within our trailer - onto keynote and then press the align button on the right-hand side menu to correct this issue. After this you can manually turn the video so that the horizon is completely level, and the shot was no longer at an angle which we did not desire. 

CONSTRUCTION: OUR INSTAGRAM

After I had finished researching films like Captain Marvel and Star Wars: Rogue One, I came to a conclusion that social media was key to a successful promotional package. It can attract larger audiences through viral marketing and is a form of free publicity. It is also a cross promotional technique that attracts a wider range of audiences due to people of all ages being connected to social media. This is why I decided to solely create an Instagram account for our film EXTINCTION which I then showed my team members.

PLANNING: RISK ASSESSMENT

CONSTRUCTION: BBFC CERTIFICATE

The BBFC film certificate is provided at the beginning of a film to help families with young children especially, decide what's appropriate and what's not appropriate for them to go and view. 

The BBFC certificate's views are usually spot on, and therefore people can trust whether to go and watch the film, and who to take to watch, whether it be a toddler or a teenager. 

CONSTRUCTION: FILM COMPANY IDENT

For our trailer, we needed to create a film company production identification. Our company is called ALT Media. We wanted our ident to have a different feel about it, we wanted to create something that we enjoyed making and an ident that looked futuristic, artistic and unique.

To achieve this we used a variety of different coloured inks flowing through water behind our production name.

On top of this we used a bold flashy font named 'Star Galaxy', and to combine these aspects all together we used a combination of iMovie, Photoshop and StopMotion Studio.

PLANNING: LOCATIONS

PLANNING: PROPS LIST

FRANK ASH: TOPLINE AND THE BIG QUESTION

FILM POSTER ANALYSIS

PLANNING: CASTING

Larry (Survivor)

This character is the leader of the group. He is very protective of his friends however he has realised if they are to survive, they will have to leave one of the survivors (Tom) who is fatally ill. He will wear warm clothing that is worse for wear and will look hardened by the environment.

Timothy (Survivor) 

Timothy is approaching the end and this makes him heartbroken because he feels like he didn't even get a chance to see the world. He just hopes he survives to see his friends find refuge.

Clarence (Survivor)

Clarence and Timothy are brothers who found Larry whilst trying to escape from the dangers after the initial outbreak. He is determined to keep his brother alive as long as he can even though he knows he will soon pass away he only wishes his brother goes peacefully in a place he feels safe.

Lesley (Attacker)

The attacker has been driven crazy from hunger and is willing to go to any lengths in order to find his next meal. He encountered the three young survivors on their travels and has been tracking them down, hunting them ever since.