New Movie Planning Website Celtx

Thanks to a fellow student, a new website has been discovered called Celtx.
This website is known as an 'all-in-one system for video and movie planning', it allows all production members to share work so the entire crew are involved.

Here is the layout of the planning website:

Research and Planning Assessment Criteria

Throughout my research and planning stage, I need to refer to the assessment criteria:

Level 4:

• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props
• There is excellent work on shot-lists, layouts, drafting, scripting or story-boarding
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning
• Time management is excellent

It is crucial, to succeed, to meet all of the criteria with some degree of success.

Text Message Visual Effects

To modernise my production, I am going to try to replicate exterior phone notifications as seen on other productions such as Hollyoaks and Sherlock.

Here is a video tutorial produced by the animator at Hollyoaks on how it is done:



Although it will be a struggle to replicate something like this, it will benefit my production by making it appear to a higher quality and modernised. A teacher has stated that it will only be possible to complete this on the 'After Effects' by Adobe; however, it may be possible to do on iMovie or Final Cut Pro through superimposition. I will definitely need to allow myself time to experiment this.

Teaser Trailers Textual analysis

Fences
In this trailer, which is just under 2 minutes, it begins with all the studio idents lasting for approximately 10 seconds. There is then a 10 second clip from the film then information about the film, the previous clip then continues until 45 seconds in when the top actor (Denzel Washington) is stated. Multiple short clips are played for 10 seconds and then another actor is named. Short, but dramatic segments of the film are played and it ends with the title of the film, the director and then finally the release date.



Voicemail
This is another trailer, produced by an A2 Media Studies student. This is produced to a high quality, clearly with a good quality camera; it is impressive and I probably will not be able to produce something to this level due to the fact that my camera will be borrowed from the school and it is merely a basic handheld one.

It would appear that teaser trailers are shorter in length than these trailers, typically a minute and no longer than 2 minutes.



Unknown
This is a teaser trailer by a former student, it is only 39 seconds in length and really plays on the idea of 'teasing' the film to audiences. In this trailer there are many short takes with the first two scenes lasting 3 seconds together. The trailer reveals a short, brief synopsis for the film but does not go into depth with the characters; this is a mystery thriller film which is presented firstly ten seconds in when the camera pans to a female character in the background who then exits, text on the screen 'secrets can ruin lives' also plays on the idea of enigmas.




Dunkirk
This official teaser trailer, lasting 1 minute and 6 second, has music representing the tone of the film, many shots from multiple scenes. Between each shot, there is text (approximately every 5 seconds) where it uses the director and his other work he has done. There is then a long take, to draw tension and suspense due to a bomb about to be dropped onto them. With 15 seconds left, the title is then displayed and followed by the release date.

In this teaser trailer, only the genre (and sub-genre) are introduced to the audience. There is no character introduction, nor is there a synopsis given. This film contains big names such as Tom Hardy, Harry Styles and Cillian Murphy but it is not given to the audience.

It is therefore clear to discover that 'teaser trailers' conventionally give away little about the film. The trainspotting teaser trailer demonstrates this, as seen below:



The Trainspotting teaser trailer, which I would like to replicate with some aspects, contains one scene from the film and, with the title and release date displayed for the last 15 seconds. The camera shots include a POV shot for approximately 7 seconds, followed by a few seconds of an over the shoulder shot, then a close up. The trailer repeats these shots as the character talks to the audience, breaking the fourth wall.

In my trailer, I want to represent teen life, but to an extreme. Skins is a TV show which I would like to take aspects from in my film, with a small amount of simulacra; alongside this, I enjoy the idea of soap operas and the involvement the characters have in ordinary life and I would like to use aspects from that for a film.

Music Ideas

To help me decide upon the music genre and styles, I need to collect an understanding on what my target audiences enjoy. If they enjoy the soundtrack to the trailer (and film) they are more likely to enjoy the trailer and have an interest in it.

The music which I, and many of my year group, enjoy at the minute includes indie music such as Blossoms, The Last Shadow Puppets, and Catfish & The Bottlemen.

Only Catfish & The Bottlemen are on YouGov, people who enjoy this enjoy the film 'The Inbetweeners Movie', although my film is not a comedy, it relates to my product as it is a low budget British film.

I decided to explore the royalty free music industry and found a website with great songs:

It is hard to clearly see in this image, but the problem with this site is that each song costs $80 to download, which is just too much to pay for a track.

After struggling to find a good site for music, I discovered a forum on Vimeo where other film makers had the same issue I had. It is full of great Royalty Free websites.

Pete Buckingham

This is Pete Buckingham's division of cinema audiences. As displayed above, there are seven different groupings:

• Hero Seeker - Don't go out much, plan well in advance
• Impulsive Materialist - Fashion victim, word of mouth is key
• Film Fanatics - Male, pre-plan their trips, 25-44, go in 2s, review-led
• Impressionable Socialites - Under 25. Like blockbusters, led by ads
• Modern Parents - Kids pressuring the parents
• Fun Lovers - Not film literate. Big film and video consumers
• Youth of Today - See films as soon as they come out.

The Impulsive Materialists would possibly be interested in my film as it is an independent film, they will most likely hear about it from other people over a dinner.

As my film will be featured on a magazine and a poster, Impressionable Socialites may have an interest in my film due to the fact that they are led by ads, however, they like blockbusters and my film will be far from that.

Alongside this, the Youth of Today will have an interest in my film and I will target my product to be relatable to the teens; this is a good idea as they watch films as soon as they come, therefore relating my film to the Youth of Today means that I will have an immediate audience and fan base.

Audience Research

Thanks to David Lewis, I have been able to improve my knowledge on audience demographics and psychographics. This is secondary audience research.

Demographics and psychographics from BigDproductions

My audience, which I am focused on appealing, would have the demographic letter code of 'E'. Their job status would be Students/casual workers as described on slide 3.

Psychographics, which divides people by their lifestyle and characteristics, includes:
Aspirers (seek status and materialistic values), Explorers (seek discovery, individualism, values adventure, traditionally a student), Strugglers (seek escape, few resources beyond physical skill. Buys alcohol, junk food, lottery tickets. Lower demographics), Reformers (seek enlightenment, social awareness and independent judgement. Aware of good taster but anti-materialistic).
I will be focusing my product at explorers (as they will want to explore new and indie films), strugglers (as they have low demographics and do things teenagers do - such as eat junk food and buy alcohol) and aspirers (as they are often students or young people at the start of their career).