Location Shots

Here are the location shots for the scenes I plan to film - as you can see they all connotate a house of a wealthy female - suiting my protaganist perfectly. In the shots I have circled the things I will have to consider before I start filming e.g men's clothing and shoes as well as pictures of her as a young girl that wouldn't be there unless she was still living with her family (which she is not). Doing this prepares me for the real shooting of my teaser trailer and ensures I don't send the wrong messages to my audience.

I plan to film on a day that is forecast to have similar weather to that which can be seen in the shots. The fact that each shot is well lit proves that I can rely on ambient lighting to film my teaser trailer.

Casting My Actress

I had to be careful when choosing my actress as this would determine how people receive the products I am trying to create - this is because the actress I choose is featured in each product and therefore the reception of my actress to my audience is crucial. I narrowed it down to three people:

Melissa: I wanted to use Melissa because I felt she had a statement look with her bright red hair that could work perfectly in making my products stand out. However, she hasn't got any acting experience and did not feel comfortable playing the role I was looking for.

Sabrina: I wanted to use Sabrina as she seemed very comfortable in the idea of playing the role I was looking for however her schedule did not fit and she did not have time to be there when I needed to her.

I finally decided on...

Jessica: Jessica was the perfect choice to be in my teaser trailer, poster and magazine cover. I know of other people who have used her for their media products as well as myself and therefore it is a safe bet that she can do the stuff that I need doing. One thing I tried to look for in each girl is prominent eyes which Jessica has - this is because in my teaser my actress is not actually seen speaking and therefore the eyes need to translate alot of the emotion. Jessica has an almost 'deer in the headlights' look about her which is perfect for the shots I plan to do with her catching onto the fact she's being watched. 

In order to go about casting my actress in the most realistic I have ensured that I have her fill out a model
agreement release form. It is an adult release form so it covers my actress and model Jessica White as an over 18 year old in all my media forms [the magazine cover, poster and teaser trailer]. Below is the form filled out by both me and the model/performer.

Experimenting with Debut Professional

   As you can see from my storyboard I want to have some shots in my teaser trailer of the social networking sight Twitter to symbolise the instant fame that comes with being a reality TV star. To do this my initial idea was to record the computer screen using a camcorder however I have recently thought of another way that I could do this... I thought of using a programme called Debut Professional which records the screen of a computer/laptop in a video format.
   I have experimented with this [as seen below], the first is a full screen recording of Twitter whilst I scroll through the messages which in my final show will me messages addressed to the reality star in my teaser whilst the second is a cropped recording of the Twitter stream itself. My next steps now are to take the video files from home into school and upload them into the programme, Final Cut, that I am using to edit my teaser trailer so I can see the quality of the video but also see if the file types are compatible. I will then choose out of the two different styles shown below which looks best.





UPDATE: Unfortunately using Debut professional I can only save in file types that aren't compatible with Final Cut or iMovie so they don't come out in high definition. Instead the recordings from above come out pixilated as can be seen below.

Storyboard Animatic

   These are my initial ideas set out in a storyboard. Like I have already my teaser trailer will begin with a blank screen/studio logos with the first set of speech played over it. I then wanted to have 3 quick shots of a computer mouse moving with the directors hand, then a computer screen with an editing programme in view and then finally the director then typing vigorously on the keyboard.
   I want to use the same pace for the next 3 shots that alternate between different pieces of make up being applied to the young woman's face. I then want their to be a shot in the style of a hidden camera (shot in a fly on the wall documentary style) shown in the examples below which will show two drinks and the hands of two females and then the next set of speech shown in the animatic. Following this will be another hidden camera style from the corner of kitchen showing the young female who is part of the reality show being filmed doing mundane chores. There will then be a shot in the same style of that showing the the two women having a drink but this time it will be a close up of the woman wiping a table.
   I then want to show the woman in a more public space with a hidden camera still watching her which freezes on her face to fully establish this character to the audience. Text will then show over a blank screen as seen in the animatic. A shot of the computer with social networking site, Twitter, on screen will show a series of Tweets aimed at the reality star.
   A black screen will show before cupboard doors are opened again to show the reality star going about her everyday life not knowing their are cameras. The view will then change from the corner of the room where the girl will seem quite paranoid, the shots that follow will be fast paced showing her walking through the house being watched by each camera before she leaves the house panicked. The next piece of text will then show followed by a zooming out shot of the director at his computer slowly revealing a wall covered in photos of the girl and articles about reality TV revealing his character as a manic obsessive.

Examples:

NOTE: This animatic aims to materialise my initial ideas, however, as I move on in the production of my teaser trailers I might feel that crucial changes need to be made or things need to be altered to suit the aims of the teaser and my target audiences.

Script Ideas

Here I want to make note of the intial ideas I had over what speech I want to have during my teaser trailer.

My first idea was to start my teaser trailer with a either my studio logo or a black screen accompanied by the speech between the producer of the Reality TV show and the woman he asking to be a part of it...

Producer: ''I'm creating a new reality show.''
Woman: ''OK?''
Producer: ''I want you to be a part of it..''

I feel that this sums up the key theme of what the film is about at the same time as creating alot of intrigue because it is only speech over a black screen meaning the focus is entirely on what they are saying. This is a similar technique to that used at the beginning of I Am Legend where you can hear the speech of the characters but on screen is the studio logos.

Initially I wanted the majority of the teaser (i.e the middle section) to be based on visuals so certain shots that give hints to the storyline whilst being accompanied by the increasing speed of sound from either computer clicks, keyboard noise or the sound of electronical computers to represent the technological side behind the reality show for example the huge amount of editing that goes into it.

My next idea for speech was towards the end of the teaser...

Woman: (screaming) ''This is not what i signed up for!''
Producer: (shouting) ''This is exactly what you signed up for, it's a reality show on you, all of you!''

I want to now make a storyboard and then a animatic to have the ability to visualise my ideas. During this I might change what I hve expressed in this post but I now have ideas to work on.

SCRIPT UPDATE:

After recording the script as a dummy run and playing it to a sample of my target group I got feedback that the speech as a sound was too complicated - at first I didn't entirely understand what they meant but researching further into teaser trailers I realised that alot of them take speech from the original movie and cut it to make the information shorter and easier to digest by the audience. So in theory the full feature film would still include my original script but for the purposes of the teaser trailer the speech is shortened.

I have changed:
Producer: ''I'm making a new reality show.''
Woman: ''OK?''
Producer: ''I want you in it..''

to:
Producer: ''I'm creating a new reality show.''
Woman: ''OK?''
Producer: ''I want you to be a part of it..''

AND

Woman: (screaming) ''This is not what i signed up for!''
Producer: (shouting) ''This is exactly what you signed up for, it's a reality show on you, all of you!''

to:
Woman: (screaming) ''I didn't sign up for this!''
Producer: (shouting) ''It's a show on you, all of you!''

Film Classifications

The themes concerning my trailer has given me the initial idea that it would either be classed as a 15 or an 18 so in this post I am going to research into the two classifications to see which one suits my teaser the best. The first is a table that I made showing what is permitted and what is unacceptable in terms of the 15 classification certificate.

Next is brief information including a bullet point list on the 18 classification certificate I have put together.

Most 18's are allowed to include strong references to the themes discussed in the 15 certificate. The following areas, however, are completely unacceptable:

• Where material is in breach of criminal law or created through criminal offence.
• When material appears to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour to society e.g. detail portrayal that may harm morals such as eroticising sexual assault.

18's are permitted to include sexual material as long as it seeks to inform/educate in matters such as seuxality, safer sex, health etc. 

Taking into account these two certificates I have decided that my teaser will advertise a feature film that would theoretically be an 15. Obviously my teaser will not portray this certificate explicitly in hope that this would stop any restrictions in terms of exhibition. Whilst my research shows that an 18-29 year old market suits the audience for my teaser, holding a 15 certificate stops it from isolating any other audience ages above 15. 

The Thriller Genre

Thrillers must...

• Stimulate the viewer's mind using techniques such as anticipation, heightened expectation, tension, suspense etc.
• Keep the audience at the ''edge of their seats'' as the plot builds towards a climax.

Whilst researching into other conventions of a thriller I found out that they often portray the world very negatively making it seem dark and corrupt. My particular sub-genre of thriller; Psychological Thriller, is based on mental and emotional conflict rather than physical.

Themes in a Psychological Thriller...

• Mind – Human consciousness; the location for thought, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
• Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
• Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative.

These themes relate closely to the storyline I am trying to portay in my teaser. Portraying these with the series of shots/signifiers during my teaser will allow the audience interested in this particular genre to know that this film is right for them. As my market research has shown, storyline is key to attract the interest of my audience and therefore exploring into how I can show Perception, Reality and Mind whilst also sticking to the themes of a thriller is vital to the success of my teaser.