contents page

What I aim to do for my media coursework
1) Looking at different trailers -South of the Border, Exit Through the Giftshop, More Than A Game, Micheal Moores Sicko, waiting for superman
2) Audience research - Questionaire for film trailers, posters, film magazine front covers.
                                  - Questionaire for my products, fonts, colours,
3) Institutions research
4) Anaylisis of film trailers, film posters, film magazine front covers.
5) Research into camera angles, how to minimilize motion and shakes of camera.
6) Research into production of films.
7) Look into editing of films and trailers
8) Evaluation questions
9) Interview players from the team

My decision to do a documentary film
When I chose to do a film trailer for my media A2 coursework, I was thinking about what genre my film would come under. My first reaction was to do an action/adventure film about a person on a mission, like the film Rambo. I also thought about doing a horror film in the style of a Paranormal Activity, this is what gave me the idea of documentary style film but faked to look real. My idea was to have a character which is a popular YouTube broadcaster and decided to do a live show, and sets up a competition, in which cuts to the winners webcam, and it is pitch black and then this devil like creature leaps at the camera to enter the main characters life, and cause havoc within it. This would have been typical jumpy horror film, and the problem was that I believed it was too similar to that sort of modern genre of horror films like, Paranormal Activity, One Missed Call and Mirrors, in the sense that its centered around one main character and them living with some demon and spirit, which cause destruction around this persons life. So I decided on the same style but thought I would do an actual documentary but I would need something easy for me to follow and record, so I decided on the Poole High Basketball team. Which I would always have access to as I am part of it. My main inspiration for doing a documentary film about basketball is the film More Than A Game, which is the idea behind my film. Because this film is very similar to what my idea of a film is, it means I can take ideas from it but I want to stay away from doing a direct copy and want to add my own style and ideas into my film.

More than a game trailer analysis

For part of my research I am going to analyze existing movie trailers, I have chosen the film trailer of More Than a Game. This film is good for me as it is a documentary on basketball so I will be able to grasp many ideas from it. The first shot we have is of the basketball player Lebron James who is shown on the front cover of Sports Illustrated the biggest sports magazine in America and the words you are only able to read the word ‘The Chosen One’ as the voice over in sync says “he's been dubbed the chosen one” even though Lebron has not been mentioned yet people who a familiar with basketball and the NBA would recognize the face, but then after this in the next 5seconds of the trailer the name Lebron James is said 3 times by 3 different people, all sports presenters on TV. Just from this we are able to see the greatness of this player and how he was regarded among the nation as the sports presenters are holding ESPN 2 microphones, and ESPN is considered the biggest sports broadcasters.

I then shows another image of Lebron from a low angle shot as he slam dunks the ball, in the highly regarded and recognized stance of Michael Jordan slam dunk, in his branded jumpman Jordan dunk. It then zooms in the his face to show its Lebron. When this image first appears CGI of flashing lights has been imported to make it look like photographers are taking photographs. This photo is staged and would have taken the photographer a while to get it right as when you jump to get a dunk you don't have a lot of control over your body. It then cuts to a shot of Lebron dunking it in an NBA game with footage from the TV cameras and is from court side camera with the camera at the point of view from the audience, and it is specifically following Lebron James even before he scores and then as he dunks and lands showing the emotion on his face and the anger and the confidence on his face and shows power and Dominance. As he lands theres two quick cuts of black and white and shows is a medium shot of him running back down the court in black and white and thats when you see his face, it also shows after putting on a performance and entertaining the crowd he's always ready to get back and put on defense, which shows he's a team player and not just out for the glory. The voice over on this clip is the commentators saying“ are you serious, are you serious” as he dunks the ball, this shows them in shock and the great amazement that Lebron brings to his games.

The next part of the trailer is a transition in which the text reads ‘EVERY DREAM’. The transition is a black background with golden yellow text shining through as if there was a light behind shinning through cut outs on the black, and in the corners it seems to be scuffed and you can see some of the yellow shinning through slightly. This gives a urban feel to it as if its a bit rough and not treated the best it could be. The transition is a moving transition as it starts with a lens flare which makes the background orange and it soon moves around as if the light is moving round from behind and then the text is out of focus but then the camera seems to focus it. This is very realistic to if you had a real camera and had lens flare, as then the camera is overpowered by the light but soon auto focuses and is seen crisp and clear. this is the same for all animates showing the text.

It then cuts to a picture of Lebron James from a side angle at talking at a press conference, it is a a medium shot and the look on his face is not good it is like he is disappointed and annoyed, as he has his head slumped down and is holding his chin, this may suggest many things, from he had just had a bad game or I could be the fact that the media attention is too much for him but I believe that the real reason this photo was used because it shows it is Lebron again and gives us a clear view of his face, even though it is from the side, it then seems to zoom out to another picture of Lebron at a press conference with his head up looking like he’s talking, but this is a long shot and shows two of his teammates sitting down next to Lebron while he is the one standing and doing the talking to the press again showing he is the star, and the one in demand. This shows us that he was the media craze and because of this hint that he was the best player, the star of the show but also shows the team as being united and always by each others side, and this highlights the films meaning of the team coming together as brothers. Even though these are just pictures, and there is no moving parts to them, the production team have tried to make them look animated by twisting and turning the camera as it zooms out and adding in superficial flashing lights. As it zooms out from these pictures it leave the background the same on all photos as if it is just the players cut out from the photos, while zooming out it leaves the previous photo of the cut out Lebron James at a press conference in a similar stance to the new one, lurching behind but darkened as if a shadow has been cast over it and that it is no longer in the light. There is a quick shot of paparazzi lifting there cameras set in a stadium scene, it then cuts to a photo of lebron from behind, at a press conference with light shining round him. It zooms out on this photo fairly quickly and the bright light has been animated for it to flicker, seeing this shot puts you into the shoes for a second and we see what he sees, and the fact he is at the centre of attention, this makes us feel for him and we feel empathy for him as this is not good attention. This quick 3 seconds of showing press conferences and news reporters and photographers, show us very quickly the vast media affect of Lebron James. The next two shots are of Lebron James dunking it, the first is a normal dunk and then the second is shown in slow motion as he passes the ball through his legs and then dunks, which is incredibly hard to do and as he does it the rest of his teammates on the bench jump up in excitement. It then show two shots of his posing for photo shoots again with superficial flash added to make it look like photos are being taken, the flash has also been reflected on his face as he poses for the photos the reason I know this is a computer generated flash is because I have done experiments with this and it just lights up the camera and unfocused it and causes rainbow lines on the camera.

Film posters

More than a Game - The colour scheme of the poster is very simplistic and the majority is in black and white with only the name of the film and basketball kit of the main player, LeBron James in a dark gold colour making him stand out and portraying him as the main character and drawing the audiences eye to him. Also gold has connotations of success and power. Which highlights him as the best and successful, moreover even though you cannot see his face, you can recognize him from his number on his jersey, which if you have a basic knowledge of the NBA then you would recognize. The background is an off white colour with stains on it to make it look urban like a dirty wall, which relates to where they have come from, which is portrayed in the film, as the film is about there rise to fame from an unknown little town and there practicing in a small salvation army gym. I believe that this poster has been made by photographing each player then cutting them out and placing them in there positions, which forms the shape and line someone would take if they performed a slam dunk and if you photographed them at 5 stages of this dunk, and looked at there positions. behind the players there is this messy black line scribble curving behind them, it adds the effect of movement to the images and looks very urban again so works well against the background. its starts off thinly near the back and gets a lot thicker as it reaches the right side of the poster behind the main player. there are also tag lines that relate to the film in a light grey which is barley visible, saying ‘MORE THAN A TEAM’ and ‘MORE THAN A COACH’ in the same font as the film title. if someone who has no knowledge of this film or any basketball players was to look at this poster there is not much to let them know what the film is about, all they could conclude is that it is a film about basketball, and maybe that it is about this particular team and that it is focused on there coach.

Film magazine analysis

The film magazine I am looking at is empire and is featuring the film ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and has a big picture of Robert Downey Jr dressed as Sherlock Holmes with cuts all on his face and hands which suggests to what sort of film it is, that there is alto of violence and fighting making it an action and modernizing a traditional Sherlock Holmes. The background on the magazine rather than the traditional white is a dark and dingy backdrop of showing the sky and dark stone wall, this makes connotations to it not to look like night time but a really miserable stormy day, as the sky has a hint of blue and to make it look like Robert Downey Jr was photographed in this background the lighting comes from above and the clothes he Is wearing are blue coloured and even his white shirt has blue tints to it, the only part that is fully light is his face and top part of his torso with light coming from a high angle in front of him casting a shadow of his glasses on his face and a dark shadow under his chin. Also the shadow caused under his eyebrows and above his eyes makes him look sinister and very serious, as the eyebrows give away a lot of emotion as well as the eyes and the are half cast with a shadow. The clothes that he is dressing are what is stereotypical of Victorian era, so we accept it to be correct. The pose of Downey Jr is unusual in our society and defiantly something the youth would not do as he has both hands together but only touching at the fingertips with his fingers spread. It is more the pose of an upperclass person and seems to portray him thinking, it also makes him look sinister and reminds me of the James Bond villains, and Dr Evil where they have there hands in a pensive stance when they are thinking. This makes him look intellectual and remind us that he is a detective.
The name of the magazine is empire yet on the cover you are only able to see the E and half the m and then the R and E because of Robert Downey Jr’s head is covering most of it this seems to show that the name is not greatly important and that it is not a magazine that sells because of the name but the items featured or its for monthly subscribers and film enthusiast that know of the magazine and do not need to see the full name to recognize it. It is also something that stands out quite a lot against the dark blue grey background as it is a nice strong red and is a large size. Above the masterhead there is a pug which reads, ‘BEST PREVIEW ISSUE EVER!’ but only the words ‘preview’ and ‘issue’ stand out as they are in white against the dark background, and its really had to notice the word ‘best’ as its against the part of the background that is a wall and is a really light white blue, making the grey text Almost blend. Further down the page the same colour font, but larger reads ‘SHERLOCK HOLMES’ in a serif font, and is printed over the torso of Robert Downey Jr thus showing us that he is playing that character, also the word Holmes is larger than sherlock, indicating that people would relate the surname Holmes more to Sherlock Holmes rather than the other way round. Above and below that text there is some more in a typewriter font mentioning the names Robert Downey Jr and Guy Ritchie as they are well know names in the film industry and the audience will recognize them and would be more likely to buy the magazine as they may be familiar with there pervious work as it has been big Hollywood blockbuster.
Also featured on the magazine is extra stories about other big Hollywood films but that don't have as much audience appeal, and the ones featured on this magazine are ‘Prince of Persia’ and the Tim burton remake of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and again it easy to see what actors people will recognize the most as even though ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is the name of the film and is Based around the character of Alice, on the cover they have an image of the mad Hatter, purely because it is played by Johnny Depp and the actress who plays Alice is not that well known. Also it doesn't mention the director Tim Burton on the cover even though he is a well known name and has produced many big Hollywood films in the last decade. The presentation of these is unusual as it has a bounding box of a dark gradient background, but the top part of the picture of Johnny Depp as the mad hatter comes out the box, I think this is done as it doesn’t look like an ordinary picture but gives it more life and makes it look a bit more real. Also I think they have made the whole hat stand out the box as it emphasize the character of the mad hatter. Whereas the on he other side it features the Prince of Persia film and Jake Gyllenhaal which is more of a location shot as its sandy coloured walls, also Gyllenhaal sticks out from the background shot as well but not as much as there is not much emphasis on any part of him.

Research into Music

To achieve a good trailer the use of music must be done correctly. With my film trailer being about basketball the type of music linked with this is strongly American Hip-Hop, but looking at the basic storyline of my trailer there will need to be the involvement of low tempo, sad music to create emotion as well as music to encourage and hype up the audience as there is a lot of action with the people playing basketball. I have a basic knowledge of what music works well from my tester trailer where I used three different types of music, some calm instrumental, some hip hop and some sad emotional music by snow patrol. The music will vary massively on my storyboard and what I will make happen in the trailer, whether they will be successful or if disaster strikes. To gather further information on music I will compose a questionnaire with all different types and genres of music and gather different audience opinions such as different social groups and ages.

Institution research

I am looking into the institutions that put out films that we all see or hear of, I will do this by looking at all stages of there process from shooting the footage to editing and promotion of that film and how they get people to see there trailers, film posters and how they get the films featured in magazines.
First I will look at Film4 Productions which in class of movie studios is listed in the Lower tier independents. It is a British based company of channel 4, and has worked with many bigger production studios in the past, and created great British films. They are a fairly new company, and there first production was put out in 1982, recently they have worked with Dreamworks studios and 20th Century Fox.
Other independent filmmaking is Guerrilla filmmaking which is characterized by low budgets, basic number of crew and using whatever is available as props. They normally shoot there scenes in real locations without any warning or permission from the owners of said locations, this is because they do not have the budgets to get permits or build sets. there has been a rise in guerrilla filmmaking in recent years as digital movie cameras have become cheaper and smaller with better video quality. also when it came to editing films there are many affordable movie editing computer programs from basics like windows movie maker and imovie, to better software like Adobe After effects, and Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Studio.
Giants in the film production industry are 20th century Fox Film Corporation, which is a Hollywood studio, and considered one of the big six major American film Studios. The studio is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate owed by Rupert Murdoch. When Rupert Murdoch took over it gave the company financial stability and allowed them to expand and cast bigger/better actors and hire better film crews and was able to expand and become extremely profitable for News Corp.
MGM are another of the large corporations providing movie on a international scale with a long list of top rate Hollywood movies under its belt and during world war two was the dominant motion picture studio in Hollywood. Also it and 20th century fox probably have the most recognized logos with them being the roaring lion and the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare with the searchlights. the Bond film are probably the most successful series of films produced by MGM and with the current economical climate they have had to post pone the next film along with many others and some cancelled, due to not having sufficient funds and great profits on films. companies like these face many problems in the modern world with illegally downloaded films which cut there profits massively.

my slideshow for my existing trailers questionaire

Chosen Locations

Chosen locations to shoot -
Poole High School Sports Hall - I have chosen to shoot footage here as it is where we practice and play our Home games
Branksome Recreational Ground - I have chosen to shoot footage here as it looks very urban and is derelict with the fencing falling down and the basketball hoops are damaged due to where and tear, this makes it look worn and shows a different side to basketball, that people will play here as it is all that is around
Away teams Basketball Court- Ferndown - shows a change of scenery to play against different teams
Poole High School Outside courts - looks a bit urban, but it has the tennis courts and doesn't have as much effect as Branksome rec. as it looks cleaner and up together, so doesnt put across a rougher street scene.

My First Tester Trailer

I created a tester film trailer using footage i shot quickly, and it was me getting used to the video editing software and seeing which transitions, music, titles, and backgrounds worked best with audiences. I put together a questionnaire together as well which i got many people to answer and displayed the results in my next post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzVx_i_wPek

my tester trailer questionaire

Name .......................................................................
What bit of the trailer stuck out at you the most? .......................................................................................................................................
What parts of the trailer didn't you like?
.......................................................................................................................................
What background do you like the most?
.......................................................................................................................................
What backgrounds do you think looked bad/didn't work?
.......................................................................................................................................
What transitions do you like the most?
.......................................................................................................................................
What transitions do you think looked bad/didn't work?
.......................................................................................................................................
What text effect did you like the most?
.......................................................................................................................................
What text effects did you not like?
.......................................................................................................................................
Do you think the music worked well with the clips?
.......................................................................................................................................
Rate the music in way it suites the clip best? (rate 1 being highest 3 being lowest)

Music A (Bashy- ransom)           -
Music B (Wretch 32 - Be Cool)  -
Music C (Snow Patrol)               -        

I have hidden 3 sound effects in the clip see if you can pick them out?
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
Please rate the use of the picture in picture 1-10 (with 1 being lowest)
.......................................................................................................................................
What transition do you like the best from the picture in picture scene
      Fade in
      Zoom out original
      Zoom in new image
      No transition, just pops up

results from questionnaire first tester trailer

Trailer Questionnaire Responses

I asked 45 people this questionnaire and the results are listed below

Q1. The slow motion part of the tester trailer was the overall favorite with 36 people saying that it was there favorite part of the trailer and with 3 people saying they liked the music the most and with 6 people saying they liked the transitions.

Q2.

Rating of the picture in picture effect- 4.75 
 Q3 50% of people said that they preferred the pinstripe background and 20% said they preferred the gradient and 30% said the preferred the animated nature background
Q4. 

Looking at different types of shots

At the moment when looking back at the footage I have gathered for my basketball trailer, I see all the shots are long shots and there seems to be no close ups of the basket. So I need to shoot some footage close to the hoop and the players, so I can play around and cut them in different places, as when analyzing the more than a game trailer I discovered it was very shot clips with fast cut edits showing them scoring baskets. In order to do this I’m going to need to stand under the hoop and move quickly, or find a way to mount the camera up high and pointing toward the hoop without it being in the way to get damaged. I also need to get some long shots of Poole and of the basketball court with all of its surrounding to put in to the trailer to show where we come from.

Why I Chose to do an Establishing Shot

I needed an opening shot for my trailer something just as an introduction, so I took ideas and from the more than a game trailer I decided to go out to locations in poole and get some establishing shots of around the town, firstly I went to outside the school and shot some footage of the front gate and tried to show the sign that reads ‘Poole High School’, I shot this at different angles and zooms, I also added motion and would pan the camera round and up and down. Because this is a documentary film trailer I didn't want to have a set up shot with actors so I just turned up at I time I knew it was quiet and when the weather was good. I then moved on to shoot towards the Barclays building, seeing as it is one of the largest building in poole and to those that live there, it is easily recognizable. My next location was the train station, this represents a certain destination and as there are signs that read Poole I tried to capture this in the shot either by focusing on mainly on it or having it in the corner or to the side of the shot. I also did shots where I panned across either from the poole sign or onto the poole sign these were the most effective shots also I shot from different angles by putting the camera low down or by climbing some stairs to do a high angle shot, I will probably use one of these look the best and I can cut these to fit into the trailer as I panned at different speed, and the software I’m using has the ability to alter the speed of clips.

my opening sequences ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzhHLCoebyw

I got people to rate this online and the result was that people preferred the first one
First one- IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Second one- IIIIIIIIII
Third one- IIIIIIII