The Fear and Desire for the Strange Film 2013 Trailer (HD) Final

The Fear and Desire for the Strange 2013 Film Trailer (HD)

First-Cut

The first-cut is was produced as an alternative in editing our film trailer which did not follow our storyboard and line of narrative. Our group's editor felt that we did not have enough quality footage of both the main characters in our film and focused on the male protagonist and approached it to the style of a film trailer dominated by the music and no voice-overs. The first-cut allows us to work with some potential materials, however, I wanted to give the film trailer a direction so that it makes more sense to the target audience and potential audience.

Initially, the idea was it began slow to medium to fast paced. But I wanted it to become three separate parts to anchor the beginning, middle and the end of the film trailer that will leave the audience wanting to know more about the story. It should follow Todorov's theory of narrative: an equilibrium > disequilibrium > new-equilibrium, which I wanted for both film and trailer. This allows the audience to recognize and construct a brief understanding of what the narrative is about in the film trailer. Additionally, the film trailer should provide information on the main characters and an idea of conflict and story in the film which is lacking in the first cut. Each element in the film trailer should be distinct in a traditional sense which is why I wanted the film trailer constructed in three parts using three different music.

• Beginning - slow paced - introducing main characters and setting. It should also include some titles and credits to grab the audience's interest with the actors' names and film awards.
• Middle - medium paced - revealing the central plot and conflict in the film which is the body/mind switch. The music should create a tense mood and lyrics could be intertwined and timed with the editing of each frames.
• End - fast paced - shouldn't reveal anything about the ending of the film. Briefly covers other subjects in the film such as psychological health and drug abuse. Like in many film trailers it should include end credits like the ones I created below, which is simple and briefly shown.

Implementing new ideas into our film trailer

Second-Cut

After discussing ideas with the group and spending several hours directing and helping Dow with editing we produced the second cut of the film trailer using new ideas and guidance from our audience feedback.

Film Poster

Evaluation

Question one.

Question two.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of the main product and ancillary texts need to be relevant and be significantly linked to one another to create an effective promotion of the film constituting to its success with our contemporary audience. Usually, in film posters and magazines promoting the films, the lead actor/actress is mainly forward to selling the product in order to create hype and acts as the informant to the reader about the film.

The film poster should visually create the tone of the film and establish characters, which anchors the effect of the film trailer as it expands from the poster and heightens the tone, story and visual of the overall promotion. It is also important to maintain the codes and conventions of the genre while promoting the film to develop the effectiveness and synergy between different media texts for one product. The information included in the magazine/film poster must interest the potential viewer which could lead to watching the film trailer, and I believe that overall the combination of my ancillary texts and main product are effective because they maintain the conventions of its genre while being informative, interesting and enticing to its target audience as a whole. The relationship between each media texts is strong as it highlights the distinctiveness of the product within its genre making it unique, such as the title and that it challenges your initial view of what it's about.

Question three.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From our audience feedbacks we were able to learn some things that were lacking in our product. Gaining feedback from our peers gave me confidence that we could produce a professional film trailer that appealed to our specific target audience. It also allowed us to narrow down which elements and areas of our products we should focus on.

For our product to be successful we need it to be appealing, interesting and attention-grabbing to our audience, as much as it is important to do research the feedback is also essential for us to get an idea for improving the product and minimise flaws to possible audiences.

A

Creating My Film Poster

I put together two photographs. The dominant one is of the two actors who play the main leads in the film, this illustrates who the characters will be and whose story will be in the film. I also put in photographs of the characters of Nina and Sasha, who are best friends in the film, to show that it is about friendship but also I chose the style of the layout because it is presented in a way that it switches between Nina and Sasha in the picture on one another - which is related to the body/mind switch in the film.

I added some Channel Mixer over the black and white photographs, creating a filter, which make the images more dramatic. The colour blue is considered calming and in the poster it symbolises the calm state of the mind. I wanted to use red instead to signify danger, blood and chaos but it didn't really have the same impact as the blue and looked like it had a sepia filter.

For the title it needed to be bold, simple and eye-catching. I chose the font 'Helvetica Neue' because it's a simple font to work with that I can alter in a variety of way, but I chose to display the title in simplicity to get the message of the title across. The alignment of the text is distorted which highlights larger words 'THE STRANGE' which should grab the audience's attention and curiosity because of the word choice itself.

I added the title credits for the actors/actresses' names to gain interest from the public to watch the film for who is in the film, as some people do watch films to see their favourite actor or actress. The 5-star ratings and reviews also shows the public that it is critically acclaimed and is worth watching, this also builds up the hype following a film's success with the critics and awards.

Scripts and Video Log Idea

We didn't really want to use voice-over on our film trailer but edit some of the sound when a character speaks in the frame, for example, the soundtrack will fade out or have lowered volume as a character speaks revealing part of the plot. The group also had the idea of using a video log/vlog to help narrate the film trailer which was inspired by the film trailer for 'Easy A' which shows the lead character filming a webcast confessing about what she did and narrates the back flash in the story of the film.

Dow came up with the following script guideline for the actor's improvisation:

I think it's a great idea but will depend on editing the final film trailer, whether it will be effective or not.

Characters' Video Logs

Props

We used a car to film inside to show one of the characters driving before getting into an accident - not featured in the film trailer but the accident is implied.

Some 'work papers' and handouts that we use in the scene where the student meeting takes place. There are also mobile phones to add some detail into the mise-en-scene/frames, and is used when the character Nina makes a phone a call after switching with JD.

As part of the film trailer will feature the subject on drugs we found some pills that will be crushed up for the scene in which Sasha implies her addiction and health problem.