Shooting Preperation

I have organized for my group to go to Central London to shoot all the romantic scenes out there and some amazing establishing shots. I created a group on WhatsApp to help my group be more organized. So we have decided that I would meet Satchelle at 11.00am in the college and then we will go to Central London to meet Jermaine. With me I will also take the storyboard so we will know exactly what needs to be filmed.

Trailer Analysis

Another trailer similar to our coursework trailer is Fault In Our Stars. Looking at this and the Focus trailer we have come up with an original idea for our trailer. Personally I like this trailer as it is very simple and tells the story in a way that doesn't give away the answers to the audience. By watching this trailer we can see how the relationship between the girl and the boy develops. We can see that the girl is very ill as she has and oxygen source attached to her and they both attend a support group. There are scenes which introduce the main actors full names, which looks really good and supports the narrative well introducing it to the audience. At the end the girl is being rushed into the hospital which suggests that her condition is getting worse and also that she might die. However in the film itself the director has made a twist and proves the audience's theory about the girl character dying wrong because surprisingly at the end the boy's sickness comes back, his illness gets worse and as a result he passes away leaving the audience in shock.


At the beginning of this trailer there is an establishing shot of the dark sky covered in stars. Then there is a mid shot of Shailene Woodley laying down on the ground staring at the sky with a voice over of her telling a story. I think that the shot on the left is very good because it is very simple and complements the genre of the film which is a romantic comedy-drama. The stars and the sky are one of the iconic conventions of this genre that's why it works really well.

On the right there is a shot of the main actress Shailene Woodley laying on the grass staring at the sky. This is a nice mid shot, it is nicely positioned exactly in the middle of the frame. Also the fact that only top part of her is showing goes nicely with the voice over as it suggests that she is thinking and that many things are going through her mind. This is reflected in the voice over as she is talking about life and goals. Furthermore as this girl is the main character it establishes that because she is the first person (most important) we see on the screen.

Here we have a mid shot of two of the main characters dancing. This is a good shot as everyone is positioned well in the frame and no one goes out of it whilst they're dancing. In our trailer we have chosen to imitate this scene and show our two main characters dancing in Central London. However we did it during the day and we needed to re-shoot the first attempt because of the lighting which was very poor. This shot goes well in the mix of other quick romantic scenes of them two being together.

This shot is very good as it focuses on the girl as she is laughing. This shows that she is having fun and also suggests they are falling in love really quickly as they like each others company. These quick shots show how their relationship grew. In our trailer we have done something very similar only that I didn't use pull focus effect on the girl as they were sitting next to each other not opposite.

This is a shot of their first interaction in the film. It looks really good as we as the audience are told to look at the boy because of the way it is positioned. The girl's face is only partly shown which kind of excludes her from the viewers sight and our eyes end up on the boy's face expression which immediately suggests he liked her from the first moment he saw her.

Here we have short conversation between the girl and the boy where they are fully introduced to the audience. The conversation is nice and simple which doesn't complicate the trailer and leaves it interesting for the audience to watch. We can see that the boy's eye line matches with the girl, however she is not looking back at him. This shows that he is really interested in her. Also the girl is positioned right in the center of the frame which makes her an important subject and suggest she is going to become very meaningful to the boy next to her.

Half way through the trailer we see how things start to fall apart as the girl is being brought to the hospital. We get a nice shot of her in her father's arms in front of the emergency room heading towards it. We also get a voice over saying "One day I'm gonna blow up" which is said right before this shot comes up.

After those few scenes of the girl's condition getting worse there begin to appear happy scenes. Those are nice shots of this couple enjoying their time together. The fact that those scenes are even happier than the ones at the beginning suggest that actually the film is going to end well and that the girl is going to survive. Also this is a nice way to end a trailer as it doesn't leave the audience sad because of some tragedy. I assume that this was done deliberately to leave the audience happy and wishing for more. Furthermore this seems to be a clue to how the film is going to end or just the fact that the girl is going to survive.

Trailer Analysis

Focus is one of the two trailers that has inspired my group with the idea for our trailer. Personally I really like this trailer as it has some amazing shots and is very well put together. The establishing panning shot at the very beginning is really good and it's also the reason I thought that in my trailer there should be an establishing shot of Central London as it is the main location where the events in my trailer occur. The establishing shot works really well at the beginning as it establishes the whole scene and because it looks amazing it attracts the audience immediately with the first image they see on the screen. I think this is quite a clever idea to have that amazing image in the trailer as it gives the audience enough information about the location and helps them decide if they want to watch the whole film as there might be a lot more of those beautiful shots to see in the film.

The editing is also quite good, I like it how the transitioning is used to put the scenes together. The editing is matched to the tempo of the trailer and sound. At the beginning the tempo is quite slow as is the music and therefore the slow dissolve transitions between the scenes complements the pace of the trailer. 40 seconds into the trailer the tempo starts increasing gradually and so the transitions change into fades to match the pace. The fade effects create a tense emotion as they occur quite sharp and cut between the scenes which creates enigma which is why it doesn't give away that match to the audience about the film. Near to the end of the trailer the tempo decreases again however the fades are kept, but the speed of them is decreased to complement the content on the screen.

The voice over in this trailer is excellent in my opinion. The dialogue in the trailer is mostly a voice over with just a couple quick shots of the character speaking. This means that the order of the shots doesn't have to be the same as it is in the whole film and this way they can show more, but at the same time they won't reveal too much information about the film. This creates mystery as the audience don't actually know what is going to happen and the order in which it will happen in therefore they will want to go and see the film because the scenes they can see are so amazingly put together.

The soundtrack in the trailer complements the content of it really well. There are four different soundtracks used in the trailer in they are all matched to the specific sequence. At the beginning there is this calm non- diegetic, however it kind of seems like its diegetic music from the radio which also fits well with the scene of a man driving a car. Its quite comic as the guy behind the wheel has a helmet on and would best suit if he was riding a motorcycle.


The second soundtrack is quite simple with just one chord, the sound is taken from the song called Gun by Emiliana Torini. It is the beginning of the song and because of the one chord start it is building up tension for the audience to look forward to what is waiting for them next. It also complements the content quite well as we can see the characters walking, just like if they were heading towards a certain place/aim. The track is really simple but it still creates a huge impact on the sequence and helps the trailer as it develops scene by scene.



The next soundtrack is quite happy, a bit romantic and even creates confidence as if they wanted to show the emotions of the characters in just couple of seconds. In the sequence we can see that the characters are very happy and feel good about themselves. The costumes make them seem quite important and the way Will Smith and Margot Robbie walk signifies their confidence and status.The sound reflects those feelings and also makes it really pleasant to watch as it is quite catchy and relates to the events on the screen.

The last soundtrack is very slow and sounds quite sad and a bit depressing. It relates to the end sequence of the trailer as we can see that everything starts to fall apart in that moment when the music changes and therefore the sound reflects those emotions that are invested in the sequence. I really like the soundtracks in this trailer as they are parallel to the events in the trailer and even make it more clear as to what are the main parts of the whole film. The sound makes it even more appealing to watch the trailer and brings out a range of emotions in the audience therefore helps them make a decision on whether to go and watch the film.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and contrast 2 out of 3 films watched, analysing the similarities between them with specific details on; mise-en-scene, location and script.

    In this essay I am going to compare and contrast Tyrannosaur by Paddy Considine and Harry Brown Daniel Baber. In both films I have come across some similar issues that have been presented in a specific way in each one of those two films. Some of these issues include: revenge, domestic as well as sexual abuse and lastly rage. To show this the directors of these films have chosen specific locations, costumes, scripts etc. and that is what I am going to focus on.

    The language used at the beginning of Tyrannosaur by the main character Joseph is vulgar and violent, he says things like “f***ing c**t” and “f***ing money”. We can see clearly that he is very angry, but the language he uses shows how Joseph deals with his rage. In this scene we also see him killing his dog which signifies he is not in the right state of mind. He must be going through something much worse than just losing money because I don’t think anyone would be capable of killing their own dog if there wasn’t something very serious and unbearable happening in their lives. Also Joseph killing his dog could mean he is trying to transfer his pain so that he doesn’t feel upset anymore or think about something else that’s happened. As a result of this the audience would feel sympathetic towards Joseph as they are able to see that he is going through something very painful and maybe blames himself for that.

   In Harry Brown there isn’t as much swearing, but it is mainly used by the members of the local gang and drug dealers. For example Noel, the main antagonist when he’s arrested he says “you f***ing c**t” to a police officer, this is the same kind of language that Joseph uses at the beginning of Tyrannosaur. In this case it shows how a stereotypical male teenager behaves. We can see in the scene Noel being very confident, even though he is being arrested he acts like he is going to get away with anything and that in his mind he is the more powerful and that the police cannot do anything. This makes the film seem very troubling and dramatic as we can see that even though the police do everything they can, they have little power over what the gang is going to do next and as a result of this it makes the audience feel tense about the fate of the protagonists.

   The costumes of Harry in Harry Brown and Joseph in Tyrannosaur are very similar. Harry is wearing a black suit with a big beige/brown coat over it and similarly Joseph is wearing a black coat over his brown trousers and a shirt. This shows that they are the main subjects in their films as they both stand out from everyone else. It suggests their importance as they both are dressed very smart. The audience can relate to the characters as the costumes relate to their ages because this a typical costume an older man would wear. It is easier for the audience to follow the characters because they would know what to expect from them in terms of behaviour and their actions.

   Loneliness is also one of the themes demonstrated in those two films. Tyrannosaur shows this through the whole presentation of the main character, Joseph. We always see Joseph wondering by himself, he lives alone and when he is in his house by himself the lighting is really dark, low key intensity and hard quality. This suggests that he has no one to talk and that there is no light in his life anymore so he is very lonely and miserable. We can see Joseph talking a lot with a young boy called Sam. They connect quite closely and so we can tell that he is the only person who Joseph has any interaction with. Whenever they talk to each other Joseph seems a bit happier which shows how much their relationship means to him because he has no one else he could talk to who would understand him.

When Joseph lets Hanna stay at his house after she gets abused by her husband, there is an extreme close up from Hanna’s point of view of a picture of Joseph’s wife. This is where we officially find out who he is missing and also who might be the reason for his constant anger at everything around. Joseph insults her honour a bit when he compares her to a ‘Tyrannosaur’, but then he also says that she was “beautiful but full of forgiveness”. This shows how much he misses her and that is why he feels very lonely as he used to have her to talk to until she died. When Joseph describes his wife the description also matches Hanna. This suggests that he got very attached to Hannah because of the similar features she shares with his wife. As a result of this the audience feel emotional because they can tell how much Hanna reminds him of his wife and how hard that must be for him to feel that way again.

   Similarly Harry Brown shows Harry in an empty house with no one around him. The first shot in the film is when Harry wakes up alone in a double sized bed. Then we can see from Harry’s point of view two black and white pictures of two women which suggest he has lost someone very close to him. The beginning scene when Harry is getting ready to go out is in silent without any sound effects or music, so we can hear everything else in the background. The audience are able to hear every single natural sound of him walking, the water drops or even just the quiet windy sound in the room. This signifies how empty his life is, suggests he has no one around to talk to and is very lonely. Harry goes to visit his wife in a hospital who is very sick and afterwards he mentions to Leonard “I don’t think she knows I’m there anymore”, this suggests that Harry believes that there is not much time left for his wife as she doesn’t communicate with him therefore it feels like she is already gone.

   After Leonard is killed Harry is very upset and when police leave he cries. This suggests Harry has lost the last, closest person he had left in his life and because of that he has lost hope and purpose of life as he has no one to turn to anymore. At Leonard’s funeral there is no one there apart from Harry which signifies that they both were with no one close beside them. This can also suggest something about the location they are in; the area Harry lives in is very isolated and surrounded by local youth, gangs and drug dealers. This could mean that not many people want to move there as they know it isn’t a safe place to live in. It also suggests that maybe the things that are happening there because of the gang has driven away some people making the area isolated from everything else, but because Harry is old he cannot just run away from the gang.

   Both films present the theme of domestic and sexual abuse by the way male characters treat woman. Tyrannosaur portrays this theme by showing James abusing his wife, Hanna. When James gets home, he calls Hanna’s name 4 times “Ha-nna” and urinated on her while she pretended she is asleep. This shows that Hanna is bullied and abused by her husband to the extent that she is too scared to say anything. This shows how much power James has over Hanna and thinks that he is stronger and more empowered just because he is a man. Another scene is shown when James corners Hanna to the kitchen the next morning and says things such as “you were spotted with another man” and “do I smell like a dead animal” this shows he treats Hanna and makes it sound like he watches her every move and is obsessed with her.

   When another night James sees Hanna in her shop with Joseph, he hits her and rapes her. This shows how weak Hannah is in comparison to her husband and because of that she was unable to stop any of it. As a result of this the audience sympathise with Hanna as she is a victim of both sexual and domestic abuse. However when we find out that Hanna has actually killed James that night after he sexually abused her, the audience feelings are mixed as on one hand we think it’s good that she did that because it was her revenge for all of the things James has done to her. On the other hand from the first scene when we meet Hanna we get the impression that she is just an innocent and a very religious woman and then the whole image of her is turned upside down.

    Harry Brown shows sexual abuse when we see Sharon in the drugs den. She is unconscious and probably has taken too much drugs, but the drug dealer only seats next to her stroking her thigh. We also have Harry’s point of view shot on the television which plays a sex tape of Sharon and two guys. The drug dealer says to Harry “50 quid and you can do whatever you want with her” this shows how he uses her sexually obviously without her permission as she is unconscious. Domestic abuse is shown when Noel grabs his “girlfriend” by her neck when they kiss and is very brutal. It shows how Noel thinks that he is more powerful and can do whatever he wants just like James in Tyrannosaur.

   During Harry Brown the audience get mixed feelings about Harry. This is because we first get to know him as an innocent, lonely person who has lost so many people in his life recently and then there is that revenge twist where Harry takes the matter into his own hands trying to get justice for his dear friend, Leonard. Harry and Hanna are shown as anti-heroes, because in the eyes of the audience they are the victims in this whole thing, but then there is this twist in both films where we find out that the whole time we were cheering on for the wrong characters.

   In conclusion, both Tyrannosaur and Harry Brown have demonstrated their themes in a similar way; however it had a slightly different effect in each film. In Harry Brown the violence was caused by the local gang of teenagers who harassed the lives of older generation, however in Tyrannosaur it was about a man treating his wife abusively which led to her exploding and taking revenge upon him by killing him. Also some of the locations and dialogue where quite similar, but the purpose of that was different in each film. Both films presented main characters grieving and living in an isolated environment complementing their loneliness. The directors have worked along the same kind of pattern and because of this it resulted in a couple of twists to the story such as introducing anti-heroes making it effective for the audience to watch as when they find out at the end what each of them has done their feelings get mixed up.

Storyboard

To help us organize the filming and the whole story of our trailer, I drew a storyboard which shows the whole trailer shot by shot. In the story board I also explained what each shot is about and what sizes they are so that we don't get mixed up when we will start filming.

Filming Update

To keep on track with the filming we have decided to go to a park to shoot some random scenes of illegal activities. We have asked a couple of friends to help us with these scenes and they have agreed to act in our trailer. Jermaine took some shots mid shots and close ups of the guys exchanging a phone which we had some struggle with because the first few times the actors weren't in the middle of the frame which didn't look right, however after a few tries we got there. I had an idea to go deeper into the park and film them from behind a tree so it looks like someone is watching them and therefore it suits our plot very well as it's all about mystery, thrill and struggles along the way of a great relationship. I set up the camera on a tripod behind a big tree and set the angle so that i could see the tree branches but at the same time I could see the actors.

On the above picture on the left you can see how the camera is deliberately placed behind a tree so that the right effect is achieved. On the right there is a picture of our two actors, so you can see how the shoot turned out. It looks like they are being observed from the corner and so I can say that I am very happy with this scene and I think that it will have a great impact on our trailer.

Wednesday 19th November - Restaurant Scene

Today together with my coursework group we have shot our restaurant scene in the college restaurant for our trailer. Satchelle and Jermaine were starring in the trailer therefore I was filming the whole scene. I managed to take some great shots of them having a conversation and because of the hand gestures and their acting the conversation looked very realistic. I had some issues with setting up the camera to create an eye line match between Satchelle and Jermaine because there were some things in the way. So after seeing the whole footage on the big screen I decided that it's quite a big problem and therefore we will need to re-film the scene of Jermaine's response to Satchelle's question. We also took some behind the scene photos:

Social Network

These are the fan pages on Twitter and Facebook which Satchelle has created to promote our trailer.

Script

-       The soundtrack begins to play. Establishing shot of the River Thames in the afternoon. It will be showing the London Eye and Big Ben to establish that this is a London scenery

-       Quick dissolve to a medium close up of John and Zoey holding hands in the middle of Regent Street walking around. There will be a quick dissolve to a close up of Zoey and John staring at each other, playing a staring game and socialising on the bus. The soundtrack lowers in volume. Whilst this is happening there will be a voiceover of John saying “For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish.”

-       The soundtrack gets louder in volume. Fade to the camera tilting up from the ground to the sky. There will then be a quote from “The Guardian” that will swoop in, in a bold font. This quote will say “Tear-jerking and absolutely brilliant.” This quote will fade away and another quote from “Empire” will swipe up saying “5 stars, amazing!”

-       A slow fade to black. The soundtrack quietens down. John and Zoey are eating in a restaurant. There will be a medium close up shot of John and Zoey at the table. The camera will dissolve and get a close up shot of Zoey.

Zoey - “So, what did you get up to yesterday?”

-       Fast fade to black with a tense sound effect. The soundtrack loudens in volume. There is a Batman shot of London. Fast fade to black. There is a close up of a briefcase being exchanged by John with Karolina. Whilst this is happening there is a voiceover of John speaking to Karolina in Polish.

      John - “The job’s done.”

-       Quick fade to black and credits appear saying “Award winning producer “Beata Mielko.”

-       The soundtrack stops and is replaced by a sound effect of a slow, dramatic heartbeat.

-       An establishing shot of the hospital room is shown. The camera zooms forward in slow motion towards Zoey in a hospital bed from the door. As the camera zooms towards Zoey, the camera cuts to Karolina on the phone saying she wants John dead in polish. Subtitles will appear on the screen. The camera then cuts back to Zoey lying in the hospital bed and it zooms in a bit more. The camera cuts again to a medium wide shot of John getting arrested.

-       The heartbeat stops and is replaced by the soundtrack playing at a loud volume. There is a dissolve to a high angle shot and the camera pans around the doctor’s faces from Zoey’s point of view. The heartbeat sound effect begins to play with the soundtrack. There is a blurry effect from the camera from Zoey’s point of view. The screen goes white and the soundtrack stops but the heartbeat sound effect continues.

-       Credits appear saying “Starring Jermaine Scott, Satchelle Sergeant and Beata Mielko.” The heartbeat sound effect stops. These names swipe away with a tense sound effect and the title of the film appears in capital letters “SECRECY. The title of the film swipes away and a quote swipes in saying “5^th January 2015”

Soundtrack Analysis

Jermaine has analysed the soundtrack that we all thought was really good and would relate really well to the story in our trailer. We have agreed on this soundtrack as it will build up tension and we want to manipulate the audience's emotions, so that when they watch the trailer they will be willing to watch the whole film.

Soundtrack Analysis:

When we decided to start looking for a soundtrack for our own trailer I first wanted to look at my previous trailer music so I could improve from there. When listening to the music from my AS trailer I realised that it was a draft music so we just picked it from Soundtrack. This means that it wasn't specific to our trailer and didn't really fit the mood. So this time I decided to look on a range of different popular websites like YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud. After searching on all three websites in detail I believed the one that suited us best was 'Epic and dramatic trailer music' this was good for us in many ways. Firstly this YouTube channel makes trailer music so it is specific to our task unlike last time. It also fits our trailer because it has a dramatic tone and mood. Throughout this music we hope to have voice overs from the main characters. Even though this beat is good for us I believe further editing of the instrumental is needed to fit our trailer even better. For example making the beat slightly faster and louder at the more dramatic scenes. I hope to start the music at the beginning of the trailer at around 47 seconds. At around 1:10 the track becomes more upbeat so this is the climax at this stage I hope for quick cross cutting to go in with the more dramatic scenes. I realise I may have to start the music earlier then 47 seconds so the climax is in the middle. Also I noticed that this soundtrack gets more dramatic as it goes on but in the last 10 seconds or so it ends quietly which is perfect for our trailer.

Timetable

This is the time table for the hospital room in the college which we will be using to shoot the hospital scenes for our trailer. This time table tells us that the room is free on Monday from 13:00pm until 16:00pm and on Wednesday from 15:00pm on wards. This will help us organize our timing and it means we can work out if the whole of my group is free on any of the days the room is available. On Monday we have a lesson at 13:30pm therefore we will try and go film on a Monday so that we can get some of the footage out of the way and focus on the rest which doesn't require that much planning.

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

I made a health and safety risk assessment sheet and included some of the problems that could get in the way of our filming. Hopefully this will help us avoid those problems and make sure there aren't any delays with the filming by following my proposed solutions for those issues. On the above table I also included something that could cause a problem for us and delay our filming so that we could make sure that we organize ourselves well to meet the deadline.

Mood Board

Jermaine has created a mood board to roughly show what we want to achieve in the completion of our trailer.