Institutional Constraints/Filming Process

We had originally planned to film some 'sensitive' scenes for our film trailer, including a scene which would portray the ideology that sexual intercourse is about take place and a scene filmed in a bath tub. In both scenes there would be no nudity however we would cleverly use a range of camera shots and angles in order to make it appear as though no clothes were being worn. Due to being at sixth form we have to follow the schools code of practice and therefore we needed to gain appropriate acceptance to film this and so we firstly took our situation to our media teacher. 


After discussing our plans for our film trailer with our media teacher, clearly outlining that these scenes would be filmed with maturity, and explaining our reasons for wanting to include these shots in our film trailer, our teacher decided it was best to contact the examination board to hear there opinion on the matter. The examination boards reply is shown below:


We had changed our mind about the scene portraying the ideology that sexual intercourse was about to take place. We decided to cut this scene from our film trailer because we wanted minimise the problems that may arise from filming this scene, and felt that it wasn't needed.

After receiving this reply we new that we had to take this matter further, and so we contacted Mr Potter who deals situations involving child protection in our our school, to see if we would gain acceptance to film these scenes. Below is both the email we sent to Mr Potter and his reply to us:


We was unsuccessful in gaining this permission as it is a sensitive area, and being in secondary school, it was an area that cannot be allowed to be covered. We only wanted to include these scenes to create a sense of realism for our film trailer, increasing its believability and success, however we have thought about different ways in which we could approach the same situation without compromising child protection laws, and believe we can still produce something very effective without the use of these scenes

Time Management/Plan:

We have came to the point in the development of producing our own media product where we need to start the filming for our opening scene sequence.
The first problem we needed to overcome was 'time management.' In order for our group to film we had to create a time plan that we could use, which would inform us when we were both free to film as well as the actress that we are using. Each of us have different plans on different days of the week making it hard to distinguish when all of us would be free together, so that we could film. therefore we created a time plan on excel where we could visually see when all of us are free and that time plan is shown below:

After creating our time plan and looking at the days we are all free to film, we decided that we wanted to film on the days were all of us could be present, these days are either a:
  • Tuesday,
  • Thursday,
  • Friday,
  • Saturday.
We chose to do this because both us wanted to have the same amount of inclusion and input for the production of our media product, in hope to create a film trailer with the best possible outcome.
Semiotic Elements:
There are many different factors that we needed to consider before we started filming, some of these factors are; What props do we need? Lighting? Costume?  Equipment? Set? All these questions needed to be planned out so that we are ready for filming.
Here is a list of equipment we shall be needing in order to film:
  • Digital Camcorder,
  • And a tripod.
Looking back through our plot and at our storyboard that we previously created for the film trailer that we are going to produce, we created a list of all the props we felt that we needed in order to film; this list is shown below:
  • Placebo Tablets,
  • Picture frame ,
  • Laptop,
  • Razor,
  • Bandages,
  • Fake Blood,
  • Water bottle,
  • Flowers,
  • And Empty Pill Bottles,
Most of these props which we are going to use are found round our houses as normal day to day supplies. However we had to go out and buy fake the blood from a shop called; 'Harlequins,' and purchase a few bits from our local chemist, florist, in order to make our film trailer more visually believable.
Due to our film being set in present tense our actress and actor are able to wear there own clothes, due to our films nature no clothes would be damaged during any of our filming and therefore we didn't need to purchase anything in particular for our costume.
We wanted the setting for our film to be naturalistic, again, due to the nature of our film and our filming locations, we didn't need to change anything in particular, accept for my bedroom. We wanted to change the look of my bedroom because we felt the interior didn't suit a female character, therefore we changed the bed sheets and added a few accessories in order for my room to look as though it belonged to a female, seen below:

Because all of shots will be filmed during the day, we needed to manipulate our lighting so that it appeared as though it was in fact filmed at night. To do this we used blackout material over any windows in the locations we were filming, and then changed the camcorder mode to 'night.' This made our footage appear as thought it was filmed whilst it was dark, seen below:


Health And Safety:

One of the scenes for our film trailer was to be shot on a railway track. Of course this has health and safety concerns as we could not film on a working train line due to running trains. The first thing we did to overcome this problem was to research into any abandoned tracks in our area, which we would then go visit to see if the track looked as if it was still being used used so that our film trailer looked more realistic, making it more successful. Below is a picture of the only abandoned railway track in our area:


As you can see from the above photo, this train track does not look as though it is still in use and so we felt that we couldn't use it for our film trailer. We did a little more research into train tracks around our area and came across a railway known as 'Nene Valley Railway.' Nene Valley Railway uses its train tracks for old steam trains during the summer, or for private events such as weddings. Because of this we felt that there train tracks were possibly not in use during the month that we wanted to film. We got in contact with Nene Valley Railway from their website and asked them if it was okay to use there train tracks for the production of our film trailer, explaining it was for educational purposes only. They granted us permissions to use there tracks as long as we notified them when we were on them, and again when we had finished. Below is a link to there website and a picture of the Nene Valley Railway tracks which we filmed on:

Nene Valley Railway


Camera/Tripod:
Due to both the digital camcorder and tripod being our own equipment, we didn't need to book any equipment from our school and therefore no issues with lack of equipment due to having complete access to both when ever we needed them.

Budgeting:

Our budget is obviously very low, as we are students creating a film trailer for educational not professional, commercial purposes. All together it has cost us around £10 for any of the equipment and props that we needed.

Scripting

Below is the script that we created for our film trailer, indicating when and where, either dialogue or internal monologues will appear: below is also a link to the main source of our script incase you are unable to see the script below.







Script

Filming Locations

Below are some still images of the locations in which we plan to film scenes for our film trailer:

Whittlesey Cemetery:





Ferry Meadows Park:


Nene Valey Railway


Hayden Simmons house:


Bathroom


Living Room 

Hayden's Bedroom




Dining Room




Camera Angles, Techniques and Movement

Below is a list of all the camera angles and camera techniques we have planned to use in our opening scene; explaining what each of the camera angles are and why we want to use them in our media product.

Camera Angles: The camera angle marks the specific location at which a camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles.This will give different experience and sometimes emotion.Camera Angles:
 

The camera angle marks the specific location at where a camera is placed to record a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles and produces different shots which in effect leaves us with a different feel of the overall film, characters and elements of the filming.


Close Up Shot:


In film, a close up shot tightly frames a person or an object. Close up shots are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots. Close up shots display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene. Moving in to a close up shot or away from a close up shot is a common type of zooming.


We are planning to use a close up shot in our film trailer in order to distinguish our main character as well as to show detail; such as the characters emotion. This shot should help to create atmosphere and tension for our trailer causing it to be more dramatic and successful.Medium Shot:


In film, a medium shot is a camera shot from a medium distance. A medium shot is usually a shot of a person from the knees up/waist up, however in some standard texts and professional references, a full length view of a human subject is called a medium shot.


We are planning to use a medium shot in our film trailer as they are relatively good at showing a characters facial expression and body language, depending on where the character is placed in the shot. This again will create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful. We are also going to use a medium shot to represent the importance of the character in our opening scene to an audience.


Long Shot:


In film a long shot typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings. It has been suggested that long shot ranges usually correspond to approximately what would be the distance between the front row of the audience and the stage in live theatre. It is now common to refer to a long shot as a "wide shot" because it often requires the use of a wide angle lens. When a long shot is used to set up a location and its participants in film, it is called an establishing shot.


We may use a long shot in our film trailer to show shots of thrilling action in order to create atmosphere and tension for our trailer causing it to be more dramatic and successful.


Two Shot:


A Two shot is a type of shot employed in the film industry in which the frame encompasses a view of two people (the subjects). The subjects do not have to be next to each other, and there are many common two-shots which have one subject in the foreground and the other subject in the background.


We may possibly use a two shot in our film trailer to introduce an anomalous character to our trailer and showing the emotional reactions between the two subjects. Again this will create atmosphere and tension for our trailer causing it to be more dramatic and successful and create un answered questions and confusion among an audience, captivating them from the very start of our trailer.


High Angle Shot:


In film, a high angle shot is usually when the camera is located above the eye line. With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject.


We may use a high angle shot in our trailer in order portray our main character to an audience as vulnerable or powerless. This should help us mislead an audience by conveying a false message on screen, making them believe our main character is powerless.

Dutch Angle:


Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle, or Batman Angle are terms used for a tactic often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed. A Dutch angle is achieved by tilting the camera off to the side. Many Dutch angles are static shots at an obscure angle


Camera Techniques:


Tilting:


Tilting is a technique in which the camera is stationary and rotates in a vertical plane. Tilting the camera results in a motion similar to someone nodding their head.




Panning:


Panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or moving video camera. Panning may also be referred to as the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone shaking their head.


180 Degree Rule

The 180° rule is a guideline in film making that says that two characters (or other subjects) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other





Storyboard

Our storyboard shows our filming locations, an indication of where our titles are going to be, and where our footage is going to be set and placed in our film trailer. Below is a storyboard for the opening scene that we are going to produce:

 
(Click to enlarge)
 
Question 11 from my audience research questionnaire asked if an audience likes to see action interspersed with actor/director credits throughout the film trailer. 65% of the people in my sample answered 'yes.' Furthermore all three film trailer deconstructions I previously did interspersed action with actor/director credits, suggesting that this was a common film trailer convention. Due to the results from this question and my three film trailer deconstructions we decided to intersperse our film trailer with action/director credits which has been indicated above in our storyboard.

Conclusion:
Our audience research questionnaire and our film trailer deconstructions enabled us to gain a greater depth of understanding about what an audience wants to see in a film trailer and what is already existing in the industry. We created our storyboard for our film trailer based on this knowledge we have gained in hope to both please our audience and create a film trailer that can be compared to existing products, ensuring that our film trailer is going to be a success.