Research: Presentation showing understanding of Genre as applied to my three artefacts

As action/crime is quite a vague genre to cover, I felt my teaser trailer fell into the thriller genre. I have looked up some of the top thriller films in the world:

• Divergent
• Lucy 
• The Expendables
• The Dark Knight
• Pulp Fiction

From researching, the main feature to include in thrillers is suspension, I will need to make sure my teaser trailer keeps my audience on the edge of their seats, therefore I'll need to try and include some anticipation in the teaser trailer.

In a previous post on my blog I made a Prezi about the typical rules on how to make a teaser trailer, and in this Prezi post I have also included a YouTube video on how to make teaser trailers.

Next, I wanted to research the generic conventions of a film magazine cover:

Film magazine front covers from sophieyates

I also found this YouTube video, explaining what is usually included on the front of a film magazine and why it is included, this video and the slideshare above will help me when it comes to making my own magazine cover for my thriller film:

And finally, I done some research into the typical conventions of a film poster:

This first image points out the typical and obvious conventions to include on a film poster, and what sort of effect or mood that these features create when the audience look at it.

Planning: Storyboard for my teaser trailer with further annotations

Storyboard from Emily Smith on Vimeo.

Slide 1: the close up of the father and mothers feet walking up the drive towards the front door in slow motion, in this shot the audience will hear the mother call out "Boys, we're home." There will be no reply to this, throughout this shot there will be no music nor sound which will help to build the suspense, I would like this shot to be filmed at night time.

Slide 2: a close up of the fathers finger switching on the light when they get in the house, it will be dark as it is nighttime and all the lights are off, however you will be able to see the fathers finger and the switch. It ill still be silent until you hear the flick of the switch and the explosion straight afterwards, after you hear the flick of the switch the screen will fade to white as the explosion noise goes off, this will represent the lights being switched on and also the disorientation/blindness from the gas explosion and blinding white light of death which will be the last thing the father and mother see.

Slide 3: now the white screen will fade into a shot of the two brothers faces (close-up) and they are at the cemetery where there parents have been buried, preferably I'd like this to be filmed in the morning and I'd like the sky to be dull grey but you can't predict what the weather will be like on the day of filming, this shot should only last two seconds and I want there to be a church bell chime on the 2nd second, this will amplify the emptiness that the brother's feel and their grief.
Slide 4: now we will go back to a long shot of the brothers still grieving at the cemetery, however in the background over their shoulders there is a mysterious woman standing under the trees watching them, as the camera cross zooms from the boys to the woman and focuses on her she turns away, and finally the last church bell chime is heard.
Slide 7: fast-paced, tense music kicks in now as the statement "SECRETS CAN RUIN LIVES" appears on the screen in bold, capital, white letters on a black background.
Slide 8: running and fighting scenes of the two brothers.
Slide 9: finally, the music now cuts off and it is back to being silent, there is one shot of the name of the film in white, bold, capital letters on a black background (I haven't decided on a name for the film yet but I will do later on and I will upload a post on choosing the name when I have done) and the next shot will be of the words "COMING SOON" in white, bold, capital letters on a black background.

Update
I have added some new shots and changed some of the shots to create more of an engima, and a variety of different shots, as well as explaining my story more; because originally I was struggling for audiences to have any assumption of what was going on which may have been slightly off-putting as they may think it would be too complicated to follow, (also because it had no sound this also didn't help to reveal the story) therefore these new ideas for shots should help fix this. Also I will not be having the church chimes in my teaser trailer anymore.
I have kept the shot of the brothers running but will be getting rid of the one of them fighting as when I tried filming it it looked too staged.
When I showed the filming of the teaser trailer I was told that it was unclear sometimes as to what was going on and who it was that had died. Therefore, I have added a shots of one of the brothers looking at photos of a baby that he does not know about and another shot of one of the brothers pointing a gun at the other saying that he "doesn't know who to trust anymore" and this helps relate the teaser trailer to the title of the film as well.

Update 2
Another comment I have been given is that it is unsure of who is walking towards the house and have died, therefore I have filmed another shot of the mother arguing with one of her sons, this also adds suspicion that it may be one of the boys who killed the parents, but just as the shot of the other brother who is pointing the gun also then adds suspicion that it may be him.

Planning: Character's

Planning: Survey and people deciding on a name for my teaser trailer

To come up with different choices of a name for my action/crime/drama teaser trailer I typed in two of the main words that revolve around the story of my teaser trailer into an online thesaurus, these words were "secrets" and "death".

These are the thesaurus words I chose from both of my two words, and here I have matched two words from each side up to come up with several different names:

As I was unable to choose a name for my teaser trailer from the four choices that I have, I decided to make a survey monkey which I could get other people to answer, supposedly some people from my target audience, and therefore I would feel the name chosen will fit my teaser trailer most and one that everyone will like and agree with. Here is the link to my survey monkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TZ5CLBC

Create your free online 

I have posted the link to my survey monkey on network sites such as Twitter and Tumblr.

Here is the response table on my survey and the most popular name is Unknown Oblivion.

I shall be using this name as the title of my teaser trailer, I am happy with this primary research method because I feel it has gotten some of my target audience involved and therefore it should make my teaser trailer more popular with my target audience.

After much reflection and a discussion with Ms Humpleby, I have come to the conclusion that the name of my 'Unknown Oblivion' was not very convenient because the two names generally mean the same thing, therefore I have come to the decision to change the name of my teaser trailer to 'The Unknown' which suits my plot and also creates suspense which reflects my genre.

Planning: Focus group of me explaining my idea and how I will make it all come together

Here, is me presenting my idea to the class about my idea for my teaser trailer and my ancillary products, including how I want to film them, make them work and edit them. I used many different presentations that I had made to explain this, for example; I presented my initial pitch again, my drawn storyboard, the plot and location shots etc.
Majority of the feedback was positive, they especially liked the mystery that I have involved in my teaser trailer which helps with the conventions of  a Thriller, and the locations made it a more tense and gritty setting.
However, they were concerned about the choice of character's to play as they need to be convincing. But when I told them that I would be asking for my two older brothers to play then they were pleased because the relationship would be real between them plus they would both look alike which is needed when they are playing each other's brothers as well in character mode. Also, the brother connection and relationship will appear in the photos taken for the ancillary products which links all the products together really nicely.

Research: Storyboards

I'm not a very good drawer so drawing a storyboard for my teaser trailer isn't my strong point, however in my AS project me and my partner chose to take photos for our storyboard so I decided I would like to create my storyboard in a different way, I did get a peer to read it and look at it and they confirmed that it was clear and easy to understand the idea I was putting across for my teaser trailer.



Here, is my initial storyboard that I have drawn, this is just where I have put down my original idea and have set out a rough plan for it, although this may not be how the final production turns out, I will most likely also take pictures for an animatic storyboard as I found this an interesting and better way of producing my final storyboard which I could follow while filming my production.

Planning: Plot for my Action/Crime/Drama teaser trailer

1. Filming the father and mother's feet walking up the driveway - slowed down.
2. Shot of finger flicking on the light - fades to white as explosion noise goes off in the background.
3. Close up of two older brother's looking down at the mother and father's grave.
4. Shot of the mother and father's headstone.
5. Back to close up of the brother's faces and then a cross zoom to the woman standing under the tree in the background.
6 Screen fades to black and writing appears on the screen saying "Secrets can ruin people's lives."
7. Quick-paced shots of the two brother's running (filmed from behind) and of them fighting each other.
8. Shot of black background with the name of film on screen, the "coming soon" will be the last thing to appear on screen in the trailer.

Overall story: The parents are mysteriously murdered by a gas explosion in their home, the two brothers take it upon themselves to find out who done it, as they get deeper involved in the mystery they become suspicious of each other and turn against one another, until one of the brothers is kidnapped and the other goes looking for him, when he finds him he finds out he's been kidnapped by the same person who killed their parents which is their long lost sister, she was always upset that her parents gave her away when she was born because they were ashamed that they'd had her at such a young age out of wedlock, however they had written her down in their will to inherit some of their money, because of her anger she wanted revenge so she had decided to kill her parents but so it looked accidental and then she would get rid of the two brothers so that she was able to inherit everything, in the fight between the long lost sister and the two brothers one of the brother is killed, the other is forced to leave his dead brother behind to run to safety and call the police, the sister is arrested and given a life sentence in prison back to back for each one of her victims.

I learnt in the introduction task when I researched teaser trailers that they usually only last about 30 seconds maximum, therefore I have chosen some of the most significant scenes from the the overall story to include in the teaser trailer and the way I've planned for the plot of the teaser trailer is to entice the audience into the mystery leaving them with questions which they'll want answered, questions like; who's the girl under the tree? did she kill their parents? did one of the boys kill their parents? what's the secret? And the only way these questions can be answered is if they go to the cinema to watch the film.

Update
The parents are still mysteriously murdered, but it is a gun that has murdered them now in their home as this was easier to create, the two brothers still take it upon themselves to find out who has done it, and as they get into it deeper they do still become suspicious of one another. However, the brother is no longer kidnapped, but they do still find out they have a long lost sister and one of the brothers is murdered by her as well, and the ending will still be the same.

There is a change in shots that appear in the teaser trailer:
1. Is still the same as before.
2. Is also still the same.
3. Again, is the same.
4. This one did not happen, instead it went straight to the long shot of them panning of the two brothers looking down at the grave and follows the sister in the background.
5. Now, an over the shoulder shot of Carl looking at baby pictures.
6. Close up of one of the baby pictures.
7. Screen fades to black with the quote 'Secrets can ruin lives'.
8. Flashback of mother and father arguing - creates more suspense and suspicion.
9. Mystery long lost sister getting out of a car.
10. Tracking shot of the two brothers running down the road.
11. Over the shoulder shot of one brother pointing a gun at the other brother saying he doesn't know who to trust anymore.
12 & 13. Black screens of the name of film and coming soon.