Trailer

Trailer choices

In my trailer many of the choices made so i have decided to explain and talk about some of the choices I made while shooting shots , costume and location.

• The opening shot is a close up of a window while its raining outside, I picked this as the dark weather and the connotations of rain set the sad feel but also it lacks meaning and understanding which means the clip isn't essential to the story but brings a mood which i thought was a good way to introduce the trailer 
• I have decided a lot of fade to black shots as its dark and in a way could be used to signify meeting a dark end but also the blinking of characters such as Jayne watching Nikita.
• We see Nikitas character at the graveyard but before she zips up a black hoodie. I picked this choice as its meant to symbolise her character that she is usually laid back and dresses to be comfy. However the Dark hoodie in a way is meant to show her feelings and the action of zipping is to show her closing her self off. It signifies her change and shift in personality. The dark colours show that its negative and probably won't benefit her as a character. 
• We see both the friends coping with the death in there own way. The clips are meant to show the difference in them. One of them looks at stuff and is interested in remembering them where as the other silently just thinks. The lack of the morning together is meant to show that there is tension or something keeping them from comforting in each. 
• When we see the funeral program I picked for the image used to be the girl in her uniform to give the image of there age , these are school student and to highlight the character died innocent and young. 
• When we first meet Jayne we don't know her name , we don't even see her face we just hear her voice , it leaves the mystery of who she is and what she looks like. This is done as we don't know who she is and in effect neither does she , she tries to become someone else and is desperate for someones friendship. The fact we don't see her face is so the audience doesn't know who she is like she doesn't know who she actually is. 
• The beginning of the trailer is meant to highlight the strains on Nikita and Marias friendship, thats why we see them argue and we see them not speaking with each other. This isolation and fear of being alone drives nikitas character to look for someone else. Jaynes character wanted this to happen and everything has subtly involved her like there arguing and maria even puts some blame on her over There dead friends death. 
• Later in the trailer I choose to use some fast pace editing with shots which jump between each other included with music which meets a high/ peak at moments we see Jayne. The clips show things that are ordinary, getting rid of medications , alcohol and a funeral program of a girl she's not even friends with. It is to build suspicion  the lack of dialogue around her being invested in there life is so that it doesn't give to much away. 
• We know Jayne isn't as nice as she says she is like some of the character hint however Nikita doesn't which causes suspense to build which helps it fit the convention of a thriller building up for the audience to anticipate the fate of the character for not knowing. Thats why I decided to have a clip which main focus is Nikita as we hear her innocence with little concern in her new friend which we know nothing about and has hardly scene. It cuts to something about Jayne which shows Nikita was wrong and then back to Jayne listing and being suspicious. This editing is meant to reflect the now worsting situation and how soon this may escalate.
• We know the friend died and Maria aka amy went missing and that its important to the plot line so the reference to weird things happening around Nikita means we know she's the main character and that soon violence or a problem could effect her. The shots of Nikita losing trust in the only person she has such as finding evidence of something strange going on, now puts the audience in the same place as her fearing for her safety. Helping the audience worry and sympathies with the character
• The end of the trailer is meant to leave people on edge , caring what happened to the main character to make them want to watch the movie so they can find her fate. we then see A hand grab Nikita. This then blacks out at the end not giving the audience more of a result.
• The idea then to cut to the information on the film works as it gives audience more to the story as We see Nikita wake up. They continue to watch to gain as much information as possible and this is when the key details are put so that the audience now have the important information so they know when they can go see the film. 
• Costume for each character was done specifically  
• Jaynes character wears dark clothing and stuff which may symbolise danger, In one of the shots including her character she wears a red top with Skulls to symbolise death and the red as danger her edgy style is meant to show she may be a bit of an outcast compared to everyone else. 
• Other outfit choices for included a vest top, this was when she pulls at her hair make up smudged clearly having a break down, her clothes are at simple minimum to resemble that she is bare that her personality is being worn down. This is truly is and no clothes or accessories are covering up her true self. 
• Nikita character is laid back and not so emotional, he clothes are for comfort and not for style , hardly any make up and her hair isn't done up. Its meant to show her character and how she is just trying to get by , she's simple and realistic. her clothes aren't meant to show to much other than are meant to show her as the kind of character she is. 
• Maria's characters style is more girly however are bold and highlights her personality also we can see she isn't scared to get her point across when she's blunt about not trusting jayne and her clothes are meant to tell us this about her.
• Settings where picked for Filming purposes because of there easy access but also relevance and importance to the story. 
• the school- this is a social place which brings happy memories to most however as some bad things happen here it takes that away from Nikita as well she no longer has school as a safe place with her friends as they have left her. She is losing everything. The school is used as a time where people have to talk and this sparks plot points such as Nikita finding out about maria being missing and having to talk with her 
• Home- this place has a warm meaning and a feeling of safety. Nikita leaves her home to make a call about Jayne to anyone who will listen. she flees the place she is meant to be happy. Highlighting the fact she isn't safe any where. Jayne has slowly invaded all of her life taking everything away. In a shot we see her looking out her window scared from a rather strange angle this was filmed this way as it is to hint she is being watched from her garden which is part of the safety of her home 
• The shed- a dark small space with nothing to show meaning , it has no significance to a person it is a dark unknown place like the fate which is being shown for Nikita.
• The street- we see jayne and Nikita talk this gives Jayne hope of having a friend that people know about a street is a very public place. The street resembles the connection Jayne has with reality. She is only there for a few seconds we only see them in public once when they first meet. 
• Outside ( when nikita makes a call ) this is to show she isn't safe anywhere so she escapes to an unknown location, its quite and hidden as if she feels like she can't be  found. 
• I also wanted to add some green screen and edit it so maria fades out a shot as this will add to my skill and also will add to the realist feature of a trailer. This will be something which I will have tried and we look into however may not make the final cut if it doesn't look professional. 
• Colour is key in many aspects of development through this and my ancillary tasks it adds to synergy and the general look of the product. The purple colour and the font are a signature to the trailer and link them together however the blue in the magazine is because its a different product meaning it may not follow the same colours however I made sure to have it consistent in the trailer and poster 
• Sound is another key aspect and after a wide range of editing i changed the over all sound of the trailer. it was much lighter to begin with as when i first started editing it I was making it as  A Drama , I have no picked music which peaks with high sound to match high tension/ suspense clip and has a more sister tone however not horror as this is not the genre. Fixating on the fact my trailer is a thriller and not a horror is key. I keep this in mine with many of the choices I make this is why there is a lack of weapons and Blood ect.. as that doesn't add to the myster confusion and suspense that I am trying to create. 

my production titles

I have made two company production titles using after effects. One called lime light productions and one called flash studios. It has took me a long time to achieve what I have made. The first title I made was a Flash studios. It comes up on screen and flashes for a few moments before setting down with just the name. This helped me learn the basics.
Here is some details on the the first title I made. I did some testing with colour levels keeping the test simple and the animation. Here are some screenshots of how it changes.

I may make a few minor changes to it as i would like it maybe to be larger or more centred however they shouldn't take me to long. So i will work on them when they are needed for the final draft

The second title I did was more complicated I had to use a range of tools I didnt even know where real. I had to make a camera , light and shapes which some of these aspects I knew where part of the software but I hadn't previously accessed them while doing skill development or my first title. Here are a list of things i had to do to make the title.

• create text 
• Add a 2 light layers
• use solid layers 
• Use the shape tool 
• make a Null object 
• Make an adjustment layer 
• edit curves 
• use radial fast blur 
• Add shadows 
• change colours
• 3D layers 

These where some of the options I used to create it. I messed around with it in-between to get familar with the software and after a couple hours here is a screen shot of what it looks like. 

I am not 100 % happy with it and are going to make some changes and develop it future in my opinion the its a little blurred and there needs to be some action as I all have made it do is make the light start off and then turn. There will be an updated version as a video. I would like to change the colour of the light/ circle in the background to make it look like its making the text that colour.

Will be updated 

Music/ sound

For my trailer i used a range of royalty free music and also tried to create some sounds my self. I may have made them however this doesn't mean that i used them within the trailer however a compilation of the sounds i created will be bellow and if used will be mentioned.

Also here is there I discus my music and sounds choices plus where i got them from and more.

The main websites I used for sound and music was Bensound , freesound , purple planet and No copy right sounds. All sound effects and music came from either of these sights.

I also used free sound for many of the sound effects so all credit goes to those creators and I am thankful for them allowing the use of the sounds.

Heartbeat sound

https://freesound.org/people/thenudo/sounds/146765/


Church bells

I decided to have the sound effect of church bells as the beginning to help high light there has been a death and a tragedy within the community. With each edit there comes a corresponding chimed bell. I got this sound from Klankbeeld on Freesound.org, the link will be bellow.

https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/343419/

Here are the sounds I downloaded although I didn't use all of them. I appreciate the peoples hard work as they have put a lot of effort into creating sounds. Without them the trailer wouldn't have the same atmosphere and sounds

I also used some music from http://www.purple-planet.com/



Here are some sounds I created my self which I considered adding into my trailer. I decided on trying some sound effects like footsteps , breathing , and loud thumps sounds which could be used as hits or even the heart beat sound I used in the trailer

Production log magazine and poster

To make the magazine and poster I used photoshop. I used my sister who is the villain within the project as the photography. However i made them differently. Especially as the film and plot of the trailer changed. I also used this to mark what I have learnt and what skills I have developed while editing and how my photoshop skills have improved.

Magazine

Magazine production from katieniz

poster

Production poster from katieniz

First draft trailer

I have made my first draft for the trailer, as I have noted down editing choices and if extra clips I will need to complete it. As I don't have much previous experience the first draft has very little editing using default transitions. However I am going to do some research and have some ideas.

One idea I have is to use the clip I have of Maria and Nikitas character in bed and then make Marias character disappear/ fades out. As if she has left the characters life.

One of the other main editing choices I have decided to do was have it so that some of the transitions come across as blinking to give it an ere effect as it is meant to be a psychological thriller. The music is meant to all have this effect and has already been effected. Having darker colours and adding that to the trailer will help add that darker feel to the trailer. I still have some editing research to do to get and idea of what editing choice I will make for the final draft.

The music and the majority of the clips are selected so now its more the putting them together and making any  changes or extra filming that I will need all though i don't think there will be much of that needs to be done. 

below is the first draft of the trailer




Here are some things I am going to add to the trailer

• A few short scenes of images like burning ect
• more of an establishing conversation 
• change in music/ sound + more sound effects 
• re film one or two shots 

production title

At the beginning of any trailer a series of things come up which I have previously explored and researched with my convention research. This gives me what I know need to know to make an effective production title. Many big companies will have spent a lot of time and money on making there production title. That is why when we see them we can relate it to good editing and a good film and be more likely to watch it.

However indie companies are a little different and will have a production title as well that will represent them although less money would be put into none the less. However for my trailer i have decided to base the production company as an indie one so it means it gives me a chance to explore and develop my skill using different software such as after effects as this will benefit my product in other areas such as having on screen text through put the trailer. It means i can learn about the software and can effectively incorporate that into my work. I did some skill development before hand with very basics such as making new compositions and ect however I needed to future that to make a production title.

some key thing I learned

• many trailers have audience requirements which tells us what audiences they have been approved for to view.  
• Commonly the music which intorudeces the trailer will begin while the credits role 
• there can be more than one production company involved 
• it can either be at the start of after some par of the trailer goes. 

For my own trailer I may not use All audiences as it may have some mature themes as it is a Psychological thriller.