Final Edit: 'Raze' Trailer

Here is the final edit of our film trailer for 'Raze', edited with Adobe Premier Pro C4 and uploaded onto YouTube (account: RazeFilm):


Any use of music in this trailer complies with 'Fair Dealing' under the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act (UK), Sections 6(i) and 6(ii); Fair dealing is a term used to describe some limited activities that are allowed without infringing copyright. Briefly these are as follows: Section 6i: Research and private study. Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or of a typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purpose of research or private study is allowed under the following conditions: The copy is made for the purposes of research or private study; The copy is made for non-commercial purposes; The source of the material is acknowledged; The person making the copy does not make copies of the material available for a number of people.

Featuring: 2 minutes 28 seconds of Flux Pavillion - Cracks (Freestylers Remix)

UK Film Council: Lottery Funded logo

13 seconds of Optimum Releasing Ident

Final Evaluation

Now that our film trailer is finish, I will evaluate our media product. I am extremely happy with the final edit of our trailer as i feel that we have had a firm idea and vision from the beginning of the planning process and I feel that our vision has been realised successfully.

Forms & Conventions

Our trailer follows and uses forms and conventions of real media products in the way that it has been produced and edited, along with the music and credits that we have added to give it an authentic and realistic style. we have added in typical credits that we have seen from analysing existing film trailers, including the name of our production company, adding in company logos and an ident, the film title and name of the main actress in our film. In terms of these features, we have analysed typical features of film trailers and adapted and used them in our of media product.

In other ways we have challenged codes and conventions of real media products in terms of the content of our film, film genre and our main protagonist/character. From our analysis of thriller films at the beginning of the planning process, we found that generally protagonists in these films are adult males so we decided to challenge the conventions of this genre and have a young, female main character to act as the lead to our film. We decided to have a social realist twist on our thriller and decided to play upon common ideologies and sterotypes in society about youths in contemporary society being antisocial, disrespectful and violent. We chose to provide an explanation- not an excuse- for the behaviour of some antiscoial youths in today's society. We created a background and life for the character of Erin so that an audience could empathise and relate to her behaviour, therefore challenging people's opinions and views on today's youths as well as relating to our chosen target audience by addressing issues such as abuse, violence and bullying in the trailer.

Ancillary Texts & Brand

I feel that the combination of the ancillary texts with our trailer is very effective as we have kept a continuous visual style through the three products, with the same inner-city, run-down and urban location used specifically towards the end of the trailer where the final scenes are shot in the subway - a significant location that links the poster, magazine cover and trailer together. By using the same 'Distorted & Scratchy' typography for our film title through all three products we have successfully created graphological coherence, reinforcing the brand. The font is also a great visual representation of our film and would act as a logo for an audience to remember, relate to and recognise as part of the 'Raze' brand.

The dress code of our main character Erin is also part of the film brand, as she wears her 'trademark' hooded jacket, white blouse and black trousers throughout the trailer so you become familiar with this dress code. This is also significant when representing the character as a young female, reminding the audience that she is young and still in school. The dress codes of the gang characters, specifically the males is also important when reinforcing the ideologies/stereotypes that we are playing on in our trailer as well as the sound effects of the smashing glass and police siren to really support the urban setting of our trailer.

Audience Feedback

We have recieved very positive feedback from our target audience who have viewed our film trailer. Some comments we have recieved include the use of music in the trailer as its fits well with our social realist/thriller genre. I agree with this comment as we chose a very modern piece of music from the dubstep genre which is extremely popular with young adults and teenagers today. The use of this piece of music would instantly relate to our target audience and get them interested in the film as it is a popular song within the dubstep genre. I also feel that the lyrics of the song are quite haunting and emotional, linking directly to the issues adressed in the content of the trailer and working really effectively with what is going on visually with the character.

Some other feedback we have recieved is that the trailer looks like an authentic media product due to the way we have used common conventions and forms of existing trailers to really give our own a professional and realistic look. The acting of our protagonist has also been positively commented on which I agree with, as I feel that Laura (who played Erin) did fantastic job as our main character, creating a believable performance that engages with the audience as she goes through a visual and emotional transition and change through the trailer that is really believable and strong.

Another comment that we recieved was on the various angles we filmed from, specifically the low view point from the 'victim's point of view and the close ups at the start and end of the trailer. Personally, I am also pleased with the different angles and view points we filmed from as I feel that it adds variety to our trailer as we tried out different things to get the best effect and experimented with angles so we had more options when it came to editing. I feel that by doing this I have also improved my skills greatly when it comes to directing and editing as I have had a much more hands-on and responsible role specifically with editing in comparison to last year. This has allowed me to take an idea that I have in my head for how I want something to look and do it myself, rather than having to explain it to someone else to then edit. Luckily, myself and my working partner Mia had the same vision and idea of how we wanted the trailer to look so it was not too much of a challenge to create the trailer in terms of disagreements and different ideas, although I spent some time on my own editing as she was absent for a short while but this just helped me improve my own skills and learn more about editing on my own.

Overall, all of the feedback we have recieved from our audience has been positive, complimenting the music, acting and direction of the trailer. From this, I can see that our trailer has successfully reached and related to our target audience and I specifically feel that the music choice for our trailer is key when reinforcing the genre and plotline of 'Raze', as it seems to have worked effectively with the audience when supporting the stereotypes we are challenging. I am also extremely happy with the way that we have edited the cuts of the trailer to the beat of the music, with key moments as well as credits really being emphasisied and reinforced with the use of our music.

Media Technologies

When we started planning our trailer, we did a lot of research and analysis on existing trailer to learn common conventions and forms of thriller trailers so that we could use these in our own product. We used YouTube to look at existing trailers to then analyse them on our blogs. This Blogger blog itself has been a vital media technology when documenting the progress throughout the coursework process and writing down any decisions or problems that have occurred.

Adobe Premier Pro has been a significant media program that we have used for the editing process. My editing skills have improved a lot throughout this project as I have learnt many things about this particular editing program in comparision to my very limited knowledge of Premier Pro at the start of this project. I am very pleased with my personal improvement in editing which will help me for my future course at university. My editing skills on Adobe Photoshop have also been developed when editing our film poster and magazine cover, with this media program again being extremely significant to our coursework.

Youtube is, again, an online technology that we have used to gain feedback from our audience and get our product into the public domain to see how effective it is. By uploading our trailer onto YouTube it has been possible for us to get it viewed possibly by millions of people over the world, specifically our target audience and this is important to us when evaluating our product.

Overall Evaluation

To conclude, I am extremely proud of our final media products, specifically our film trailer. I am pleased with the way that we have edited the trailer with the use of different shots, angles and view points to add variety to the trailer with an effective use of music to support our genre and theme of our film to effectively target and address our audience. My personal skills have been developed and improved throughout the planning, production and editing of the trailer as we have done everything ouselves with very little help from anyone not involved in our project.

I feel that our trailer is an authentic media product, with an effective use of credits and effects/transitions between shots, including fades in and out to blend between scenes and credits. The acting in our trailer is generally quite strong and believable, specifically from our main character Erin as well as a clear plotline and story that I feel is easy to understand and follow throughout the trailer.

Some minor issues that I have noticed in the trailer is the swearing in the kitchen scene with the mother. This may be an issue as it would not conform to television regulations as swearing cannot be played before the watershed so the trailer would not be suitable for daytime viewing, but we struggled to edit out the swearing ourselves without harming the rest of the audio for the scene. Apart from this issue, I feel that we have created an extremely successful set of media products that all work effectively together to create a visually recognisable brand for 'Raze'. I think that our plotline is strong throughout the trailer, with the storyline clear and understandable for the audience. The research and planning process has been extremely benificial to the outcome of our trailer and I feel that we have effectively followed and used forms and conventions of real media products, as well as challenging the typical elements of our chosen genre to create a very original and exciting film.

Film Poster: Process & Evaluation

For our film poster, we took photographs in the same location as the final scenes of our trailer as well as the setting four the main image of our magazine cover. This sets a specific style and brand for our film, with an urban, inner-city looking location that adds to the mis-en-scene of the film and reinforces the social realist aspect of our thriller film genre.

We took a number of photographs in different parts of the subway, from different angles and points of view as well as against various types of graffiti that are scrawled on the walls of the subway to see which image would work most effectively for our film poster. Some images worked well until we came to place typography on them and the colours clashed or the font did not show up against the graffiti, so this process was more challenging than the previous editing of the magazine cover. Here are three images that were taken on our photo shoot :




Image Layout & Editing

We decided to choose one particular image that did not feature such bold and bright typography, although it added to the social realist and urban city theme of our film, we felt that it drew the attention away from our film title/logo which we wanted ti act as an eye-catching and bold feature of the poster. The layout design of our film poster is strongly based on our design sketch, with a landscape format.

We started by trying out a few of the images on Photoshop, but then made a final decision by choosing this particular image as we felt it was the strongest one. We needed to edit the light at the end of the subway to make it look like the photograph was taken at night to match the scene that this image is based on in our trailer, as well as lower the lighting inside the tunnel to make it look more like artificial lighting that comes on at night time in subways and underground pedestrian walkways.

Typography

The next stage of editing our poster was adding in the film title/logo in the Distorted & Scratchy typography that features in the magazine cover. We followed codes and conventions that are commonly visible in real, existing film posters and we had our film title 'Raze' in a very large, uppercase form to be the main focus of our film poster. We placed this to the left of the image, largely scaled and in black and white so the scratches in the letter forms are highlighted in white to give a really gritty and distorted effect against the grimy and rough texture of the subway walls.

We then added in the names of our actors - Laura Gray and James Mildenstein - sitting underneath our film logo/title in the same typography but in a smaller form. The name of our production company - An Absent Friends Production - was also added to sit on top of the film title to give and introduction to our film as well as follow conventions of some film posters, specifically the 'This is England' poster which we analysed and features a similar element. The name of our production company has been carried on from last year when we added this into our opening film sequence for coursework, and we felt that this year a production company name would add an authentic and professional look to our trailer so we decided to reuse the name again in our trailer and poster.

Other Features: Logos & Symbols

Further following common features and conventions of film posters, they usually feature a release date or 'coming soon' to tell the audience when the film will be available to watch in cinemas. We decided to add a 'Coming soon' to the poster as we did not want to set a specific date, but the use of this adds a mysterious and vague element which would intrigue and attract an audience as it is quite obscure, as well as the poster visually not giving too much away. A review from Empire magazine has also been added which links to our other ancillary text as well as following common conventions of film posters which often feature film reviews, quotes of star ratings to promote the film and attract an audience.

For our trailer, we wanted to choose well established company logos and idents to add in and create an authentic look to our trailer, so we chose Optimum Releasing - which often distributes films with a similar genre to our own - and UK Film Council which commonly funds British films which 'Raze' is, so we felt that these two companies would be well-suited and appropriate to our film. These company logos have been added to the bottom of our film poster, again following common conventions of film posters which typically do have the involving companies logos and names featured at the bottom of film posters, as well as a website address for our film in the Distorted & Scratchy font.

As well as these features that we have added to follow common conventions of film posters, we have added in certification to the poster, with a '15' certificate in the bottom, right-hand corner of the poster. This clearly adresses our audience with this symbol, attracting our target audience of teenagers and young adults. The use of this symbol is often used on posters and DVD cases to give a film an age certificate and this will immediately relate to our audience with this clear symbol.



Final Evaluation

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the final edit of our film poster and it is my favourite of the two ancillary texts. I think the low, artificial lighting adds a moody atmosphere to the image, as well as the grimy, textured and graffitied walls of the subway really reinforcing the run-down, urban setting of the film, all contributing strongly to the mis-en-scene of the image and representing the film effectively. The lone figure of Erin crouched down in the subway is quite a mysterious and vague image, not giving too much away to the audience about the character which makes the image quite intruguing and exciting as you cannot really tell is the character is male, female, young or old.

The typography, again, is an effective representation of our film with the jagged and sharp cuts giving it an edgy effect as well as creating a recognisable brand and distinguishable logo for the film that people would recognise and relate to. The use of this font for the film website address is also important to stick with the brand effect that the font is vital to, in contrast to the Arial font used for the Empire quote/review and 'coming soon' features of the poster.

The darkness at the mouth of the subway is also an important visual element of the poster as it acts almost as a pathetic fallacy, setting the mood of the film to be quite dark and bleak, with the opposite of the phrase 'light at the end of the tunnel' being show visually in this image. This is an element of the picture that was not created on purpose, apart from to keep continuity in relation to the subway scenes in the trailer which were filmed at night. Instead, this is an accidental feature which works really well when effectively representing the content and plotline based around Erin who is a lonely and troubled character.

Altogether, the final outcome of our film poster is really effective and i feel that there is very little improvement to be made to it, apart from possibly changing the UK Film Council logo to black so it is less noticeable at the bottom of the image. I feel that it is a good representation of our film, portraying a lonely character in a run-down, urban location which hints the type of character and setting that is featured in the film without giving too much information about it, as well as having a running theme through the ancillary texts with the grimy, gloomy subway featuring in both images which creates cohesion and continuity through the images. Here is the final edit of the film poster:

Magazine Cover: Process & Evaulation

We had a photo shoot at the subway location where we filmed for our trailer for 'Raze' to take photographs to be used for our ancillary texts - film poster and magazine cover. The look of the subway really represents our film effectively, visually supporting the gritty and realistic feel of our social realist thriller.

We decided that we would produce a magazine cover for Empire Magazine as the logo is bold and out of all the three magazines we researched and analysed, we preferred the way that the Empire covers looked. We took elements from existing covers, including the layout, logo and types of features that are used to advertised the magazine to create an authentic-looking Empire cover.

Our magazine cover was produced in Adobe Photoshop, firstly inserting our chosen image which was of the character of Erin sat in the subway at night. We wanted her to have a serious expression, with her hood up as to not glamourise the theme of our film and keep the image looking quite edgy and gritty. The scene that this image is chosen from is the last in our trailer, where Erin is crouched against the subway wall and pulls down her hood to reveal her short hair. This, I feel, is a key moment in the trailer and is a strong image to use as a magazine cover which commonly feature only the main character/protagonist of a film to give the audience an idea of who the film is based around, as well as having a key actor/actress or character to sell the film to the audience and get people interested in it. The image we chose is (right) which is quite a confrontational, close-up image of Erin (our actress Laura). Her expression is serious and her eyes look quite sad and lost which will catch the eye of the audience. We also wanted to have a constant theme running through our poster and magazine cover so both images are those taken in the subway, to create a type of brand.

Typography/Font/Logos

Firstly, we cropped the image to an A4 size so it would be easier to print. We then added in the magazine logo by cutting it by colour-selecting the red from an existing Empire cover and inserting it onto the top of our image. The other elements including the price, date of issue, website address, bar code and magazine slogan were also added in to stick to the typical conventions of the magazine and create an authentic-looking outcome.

A logo for our film was necessary when creating a brand for 'Raze' so we chose a gritty typeface that we found on dafont.com. The font was a free download called 'Distorted and Scratchy' which we think visually represents the theme of our film well. This logo was then typed onto the top of our image in uppercase letters, underneath the Empire logo to keep to keep the focus on the film and not let the magazine logo overshadow the film title. The typography we have chosen is a graphological feature of the cover that really visually reinforces the gritty, social realist genre of our thriller film. I really like the logo we have chosen for our film and we have also incorporated this into our trailer and film poster to keep a constant style through our products and create a recognisable brand for our film.

Cover Features

By analysing existing Empire covers, we have seen that they commonly list new film releases on the front cover to tell the audience about what features and reviews are inside that particular issue. We then looked up releases which are coming this summer and used names of highly-anticipated blockbusters such as the new Harry Potter film, The Hangover 2 and Transformers films and listed then under a 'New releases!' heading. As our film is the main features of the magazine, all of the information has been typed in a larger and bolder font than the other features to draw the readers eye and keep the focus on 'Raze'.

A tag line of further information has been added underneath our film logo in the same scratched typography, reading 'The new British thriller' which we have used as a bold statement to create intrigue and excitement among the target audience, clearly stating the type of film that 'Raze' is. This also establishes our film as a thriller and immediately targets a particular audience - fans of thrillers or British films. Further information on the main magazine's feature has also been added to the cover, reading 'Exclusive interview with cast and crew of new British thriller'. This feature would then be designed to give the audience further information on the characters, plot line and narrative of our film, further targeting the more specific audience of young adults and teenagers in terms of the content of 'Raze'. The use of the word 'exclusive' is also commonly used on magazine covers and other editorials as a way of selling a product and making the readership or target audience feel excited, priveleged or special to have access to such a new and unique interview.

Another feature we have added to the cover is '100 Best Movies of All Time!' which is the type of article that would be featured in Empire magazine, as well as other film magazines. We have also added a round, red circle that is designed to look like a label or sticker that is commonly featured on Empire covers. This label has 'Laura Gray - Up and coming star of 2011' written in it, giving our actress (who plays Erin) a sense of status and fame and also introducing her to the audience and using this to build interest/hype around her and the film.

Final Evaluation

Overall, I am really pleased with the final outcome of our magazine cover as I feel that it follows common codes and conventions of existing Empire magazine covers as we have taken elements from covers that we have analysed and used and adapted them to our own cover and film. I think our cover looks authentic and striking, with our image being strong and eye-catching to an audience with the use of a close up and face-on photograph of our film's main character. The overall image represents the gritty, urban, inner-city location that our film is supposed to be set in with the use of a dirty-looking, rough and graffiti-covered wall and a hooded teenager which gives connotations of youth crime and anti socialism - a key theme in our film.

Furthermore, I think that the typography that we have chosen as the logo of our film is highly representative of the film, with a scratched and rough texture that gives visually represents the film's name which itself has connotations of sharpness and destruction. The use of this typography running through all three of our media products - trailer, magazine cover and poster - creates a recognizable logo and brand. The only issues that I have with the cover is that the image is slightly blurred and out of focus, and i think that is this image was a little sharper it would be even more striking and bold. Another problem may be the readability of the small text underneath the magazine logo against the textured wall background, as well as the magazine logo being slightly pixelated which was only discovered after we had finished editing our image. Apart from these minor faults in our cover, I am extremely pleased with the final outcome as I feel that it visually represents our film well without giving too much away and it follows common conventions of existing Empire magazine covers which adds to the authenticity of the image. Here is the final edited magazine cover:

Media Texts: Magazine Cover and Film Poster

Magazine Cover

The film magazine cover is another of the media texts required to submit as coursework along with our trailer. When new films come out, magazines such as Sight & Sound, Empire and Total Film will include features in their publications to promote and review these films and this is a key way of reaching the target audience and advertising a film to the public. By producing a striking and bold image to feature on the front of our magazine, it will act as an extremely important advertising method to draw in an audience and build up a hype about the film.

We have decided, by analysing existing film magaine covers in a previous blog, that we should use a close-up image of Erin's face as the front cover of the magazine. Specifically we want to use the last scene of our trailer where she pulls down her hood when crouched in the subway against the graffitti and chipped paint on the wall. At this point in the trailer she looks directly at the camera to address the audience in a direct and almost confrontational way. Most film magazine covers feature the main character of a new film in either a close-up shot of the face or a full-body shot, so we will stick to this theme.

We will try to use a screen-shot of our trailer but it may come out quite pixelated as it is a paused still of our trailer so we may have to arrange a phot o shoot with our actress (Laura Gray who plays Erin) at the subway near her house where we filmed. The only issue is that she has recently dyed her hair from blonde to purple so this will affect the continuity issue, but if her hood is up in the image we may be able to tuck her hair away so it is not visible. A decision as to which magazine we will choose to create a cover for will need to be made, but I think that the Empire logo is the most bold. The added information to the magazine cover will also need to be planned, so I will produce some drawings and sketches to plan the layout. Here are the 3 magazine logos that we can possibly use with our image and edit using Adobe Photoshop:



Film Poster

We have had some ideas about the film poster and have decided to use another shot in the subway as it is a gritty, bleak and urban image which represents the theme of our film. The landscape-format shot features Erin crouched alone in the subway, hinting the seclusion of the character without giving too much away. We can, again, try to use a screen shot of the trailer but it will probably be too pixelated to a photoshoot will be required.

The film title 'Raze' will featured to the left of the image in bold, large letters with the small, dark figure of Erin crouched down to the right of the photograph. It will be a wide shot of the mouth of the subway, with the edges blacked out so that the light of the subway is brighter, but still with an artificial yellow colour. Sketches will again be drawn for the poster design to plan the layout of the page, as additional information such as actor names, production comapny, director/producer names, website address, release date and possibly film reviews need to be added to conform to the conventions of existing film posters. I will look at appropriate typography for our film as well, probably a bold font with sharp edges to represent the gritty theme of our film and the name of it which has connotations of sharpness and destruction. Here are 3 British landscape film posters which act as examples of the layout of our own poster:


This poster for 'Adulthood', which has the closest-themed genre and plotline to our film, features the characters in fairly dim lighting to represent to bleak theme of the film. The characters poses are very bold and almost intimdating, with a good use of lighting.


This poster for 'This is England' has a raw, gritty look to it with the use of a graffiti typeface and confrontational poses by the actors, with a strong use of colour to emphasise the theme of the film by using the colours of the Union Jack. The character dresscodes are also key when representing the era of the film, with their outfits typical of skinheads in the 1980s.


This poster for 'Control' features the image on the right with the film title to the left, with a bold use of colour to emphasise the layout, with a large use of blank space. This is the strongest example of how we will lay out our own poster.

Here are some sketches that have been produced and scanned of two ideas for each - the film poster and magazine cover: Design Sketches

Further Progress Report

The editing process is nearly finished now as music has been added into the trailer and the audio effects are nearly finished. The only things we have left to do with editing is add in the titles, including production company, director name, release date and cast etc. to add an authentic and professional-looking effect to our coursework.

Soundtrack & Audio Effects

So far, the trailer had a rough cut where all of the scenes were in order. then the edit was tightened to stick to the plan, with each shot around the same number of seconds as written on the storyboards. The next part was to add in a piece of music that I though would be effective when supporting and reinforcing the genre, mis-en-scene and theme of our film 'Raze'. I chose a track called 'Cracks' by dubstep artist Flux Pavillion (listen here) as it has a really gritty feel to the song and the genre of dubstep is very popular among young people in contemporary society which will appeal to our target audience (CD cover is pictured right). The lyrics of the song are also very suitable to the character of Erin and the storyline of our film. These lyrics being 'Leave the past behind, just walk away ....When it's over, and the heart break.... And the cracks begin to show'. I felt that these lyrics were strongly representative of the film's plot and Erin's story, as cracks do begin to show in her life and behaviour. The song has a dramatic 'drop' in it where first there is a build-up beat to it and this has been edited to match the part of the trailer where Erin walks over to the attacked victim on the floor and stands over him and smiles. I feel that this part of the trailer fits perfectly with the music and adds a really dramatic effect, with the music really emphasising the scene and signalling Erin's change and making the trailer more exciting.

The audio of the trailer has also been edited, including turning down the non-diegetic soundtrack when there is diegetic speech in a scene. For the scenes with the teacher in the classroom, corridor, subway and bedroom scenes etc it has been necessary to turn up the voices of the characters and turn down the soundtrack to ensure they are heard by the audience so they can understand the plot line of the film. We have also turned down the audio on scenes where there is no sound as there is some crackling and wind noises that disturb some shots. At this stage there is still a little more editing needed to be done of the audio but I am happy with the progress so far.

A 'glass smashing' sound effect has been added to the scene where Erin sweeps her mother's bottles of alcohol off of the kitchen counter top. As we had cushioned the bottles with pillows so they did not smashed, we have needed a sound effect to make the scene look authentic. We sourced this sound effect in the College library and we have found the right sound effect named 'glass breaking' (track 91) on a 'Sound Effects: Volume 04 - 99 Different Sounds' CD. Here is a scan of the CD case:

Visual Effects

Visual effects have also been added to the trailer to give it an authentic look and blend between key scenes. A fade from black has been used at the beginning of the trailer, so there is a black screen that quickly fades to reveal the close-up shot of Erin's eyes opening, acting as an effective and bold opening to the trailer. At the key moment in the trailer where there is a worms-eye shot below Erin as she smiles, we have added in a fade at that point so she smiles and then fades to black as there is a dramatic and loud 'drop' in the soundtrack. This brief black screen in the trailer is a perfect place to add in titles so the next thing to be done is plan what titles will added. A fade-in has been used after this fade-out to softly blend back into the trailer after this brief break to the scenes of Erin in the kitchen with her mother shouting at her. The problem with this scenes is that it features swearing which does not stick to the codes and conventions, as well as the rules of trailers that commonly do not feature overly-violent scenes or swearing as they are played on television and in the cinema all day. It is too late to re-film this scene but perhaps the audio can just be turned down at this point to block the swearing. A fade-to-black has been added to the end of the trailer as well as the music fading out to created a soft and haunting end to the trailer, with the last lyrics:'and the cracks begin to show', playing over the shot where Erin pulls down her hood and stares at the camera. I think that this will be a strong end to the trailer, and perhaps we could add in an echo on the audio to really reinforce this dramatic scene.

Problems

Other parts of the trailer that we have had a few problems with include the scene where Erin attacks one of the female 'bullies' in the corridor after she calls her a freak. The audio is very quiet in this scene so you cannot hear what the female says as the camera is quite far away from the actors and she spoke quite quietly which may be a problem although we will try again to edit the audio of this scene. We wanted to have shouting echoing at the start of the trailer to play over the opening scene of the trailer but we have decided to not do this anymore as we feel that the beginning of the trailer so far is quite strong, with the scenes edited to the beat of the non-diegetic soundtrack. At this stage, the final cut of the trailer will be finished within the next week and we plan to next edit on Wednesday to add in the titles and company idents/logos to the finished edit. As our lecturer is unsure on how to add and edit titles, we will require a quick run-through from another Media lecturer before we can do this. For the time being, I have watched internet tutorials on Premier Pro CS4 such as this one. Once the editing is finished we can focus on creating our other two media texts for coursework, these being the film poster and magazine cover which i look forward to creating. A photo shoot with our actress Laura who played Erin will need to be arranged to take photographs that we can edit and use for our poster and magazine cover. This will be arranged at done, again, within the next week to ensure that all of our media texts for coursework will be finished at a high standard to be handed in in two weeks.

Here is a screen shot of adding the film title to the last shot of our trailer:



Here is another screen shot of adding the UK Film Council logo to the start of the trailer. An ident will also be added at this point to look authentic and stick to the forms and conventions of typical film trailers:

Progress Report

Editing with Adobe Premier

So far I have started editing the film trailer on Adobe Premier. As I have not used an editing programme properly before I have required a little bit of help to briefly tell me about how it works as last year another member of my media group was set the role of editor so I have little experience. As well, we edited on Windows Media Player last year and only used Premier to add titles in. I have enjoyed the editing I have done although I have struggled a little bit as the other member of my group has been away so I have had the full responsibility of editing. At this moment in time, I have put all of the scenes in order and done a rough cut of the trailer although pieces do not appear to fit together properly so I will add in a few more effects, such as fade-ins and outs to make it look more effective.

Music is also an important part of a film trailer to really add to the mis-en-scene of it so I will need to choose a powerful piece of music to represent the genre and theme of our film. I want to have quite a calm and quiet type of music at the start of the trailer, then with a strong piece of music to highlight Erin's change and transition from a quiet and secluded girl at the start of the trailer to an out-of-control, rebellious and violent youth towards the end. I aim to find a good piece of contemporary music, possibly dubstep or drum n bass as they are popular genres among adolescents today, to put as the soundtrack to the trailer to kick in at the point where Erin stands over the male victim on the floor and smiles. I think this would be an effective place to start up a bold and faster-paced piece of music to build up towards the climax of the trailer. Credits will also need to be put into the trailer, but so far in the storyboards we have only drawn in where we will fit in the film's name 'Raze' but other information could possibly be added to give a professional effect. A tag line or slogan for the film could be added in, as well as the names of me and the other member of my group Mia and possibly the names of the actors in our trailer. Therefore I will plan out a few more credits we could add into our media piece, towards the end which is where credits usually appear judging by the research we have done on existing film trailers.

It is important that we still do follow these forms and conventions of real media products that we looked at in the planning stage to give an authentic final piece. When the film trailer is nearly finished, it would also be extremely useful to get more audience feedback on what they they o the trailer. During the planning process we did some feedback within our lesson when we created ideas presentations to show the group which was useful when planning the scripts and storyboards as well as character profiles and complete film storyline. Getting more of the opinions of our intended target audience would be a helpful process as it would highlight and problems we have made or let us know if we could make any improvements to make our trailer more effective and overall successful. I will ask people from our target audience age group what they think of the trailer when it is nearly completely edited, but I am not ready to do this as yet as there is still more editing to be done on the trailer to have it completed by the Easter holidays.

Conforming to Genre & Representations

So far, I feel that our trailer is conforming to our thriller/social realist genre well. We have used realistic locations and dress codes to give the shots a really authentic look. The scenes we have shot in the subway are especially visually representative of our film genre, with the chipped paint, graffiti-ed walls and dirty look really contributing to the gritty and raw effect that we hoped for, adding to the mis-en-scene of our trailer. The way we have represented our characters is important when conforming to a genre and as we are trying to express and explanation as to why Erin turns from being a quiet and shy girl to an 'off-the-rails', antisocial and violent 'hoodie' it is important to do this in a realistic and believable way. It is important not to portray Erin to be an antagonist as well as the protagonist as we aim for the audience to find her story sad and haunting and feel empathy for her character despite the things that she does throughout the trailer.

Erin's dress code is important when portraying this change as visually she looks different when she changes, with her hood up for the rest of the trailer and her short hair being revealed during the final shot of the trailer. The dress codes of the gang of youths is a mixture of school uniform and their own clothes - these being hoodies, caps and trainers. These dress codes are key when visually representing the stereotype of 'hoodies and chavs' as they typically wear these types of clothing. The representations of youths in the whole trailer is fairly negative, but the general storyline is acting as an explanation for why some youths are antisocial and violent, but not an excuse for the disrespectful and aggressive behaviour of some youths today. It is a sensitive matter that we want to address as we feel that a realistic representation has not yet been featured in films before, as thrillers like 'Eden Lake' and 'Harry Brown' are more extreme and dramatized versions of reality, representing youths extremely negatively. The use of fairly dim lighting towards the end of the trailer, as the last scenes are shot at night or in artificial subway lighting, boldly strengthens the theme of our film, representing it to be a fairly dark and haunting thriller with a difference - telling the realistic story of an emotionally-lost teenage girl. The lighting acts as a type of pathetic fallacy, representing the emotions and feelings that are being portrayed in the shot. By creating this storyline for the film, we have already challenged the genre - as thrillers commonly use male, adult protagonists - rather than conform to it. In that way i think we have created something quite different and original with a unique story. In other ways we have still followed the codes and conventions of the thriller genre as we want our trailer to be very authentic and for our final piece to conform appropriately and effectively to the genre.

Film Poster & Magazine Cover

As well as completing the editing process, which will still take a little more time as we are having a some trouble getting frequent use of the editing suites as they're access is limited, the other ancillary texts need to be planned and produced. In order to create the film poster and magazine cover to go along with our trailer, I will need to start sketching ideas and taking photographs or screen-shots from our trailer to use as the main image of these media products. In my blog I have previously research and analysed existing film magazine covers and posters to highlight effective techniques and common conventions of these texts. This will be useful when planning and creating our own and i will be careful to follow and develop the codes and conventions of these products. I would perhaps like to use a screen-shot from our trailer of Erin crouched in the subway at night as the main image for the poster and magazine cover as I think it is a really strong shot according to composition, mood and effect as it really represents the isolation, loneliness and anger that Erin feels as she is pictured sat alone at night, highlighting her vulnerability. There is also a large space to the left of the shot where text could be written, including the film name and the names of the actors and Director/Producer and possibly a slogan or tag line and reviews. Luckily, at the beginning of the year I did a full project on film posters in my Graphic Design class which lead to use creating our own film poster for an existing film as a final piece. I really enjoyed this project and I was very pleased with my final product which was a film poster for 'This is England' so this will be extremely useful when designing and producing an original film poster.

Producing a film magazine cover may be a little more challenging that creating a poster as I have less experience creating such a product. However, from studying Graphic Design for A Levels I am quite confident using Adobe Photo shop which will be a key programme to use when creating both of these texts. Furthermore, my working partner Mia studies Photography and can probably use picture editing programmes better than me so I'm sure she will feel confident when producing these two alternative products.

Overall Progress

To conclude, I am pleased with the progress that has been made so far and there is still quite a lot of time left before the film trailer need to be completed. I will complete more editing sessions and choose music and possibly sound effects to use in the trailer (e.g. smashing of bottles and police car sirens). I will now start planning out ideas and producing sketches for the film poster and magazine cover and choose which particular film magazine I want to create a cover for. All together, everything has gone well so far and I am really enjoying the editing process as it is really helping me develop my own editing skills which will be helpful for the future. However, I have full responsibility of the coursework at this moment in time as the other group member is absent at the moment. I will try and contact her to make some more decisions on the coursework as i do not want to make any big decisions without discussing them with her as it is her work too.

Day 3 Filming - Monday 7th February

Today was our last day of filming the scenes for our film trailer and this was our longest shoot yet over the three days. We filmed scenes 2, 3, 11, 12 ,13 14, 15, 18, 19, 24, 25 & 26 in the separate locations of the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom (house) and subway and road. We filmed the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom scenes at my house which we travelled to from college by car and we walked to the nearby locations that were the subway and road that are in walking distance of my house.

We firstly went to the house location to set up the camera and then met our actress - Laura - who plays the character of Erin. We filmed the scene of Erin walking on her own along a road in her uniform which features at the start of the trailer (3). We tried various pans on this shot as we followed her movement down the road. It is a shame we had no device to create a dolly or tracking shot for this scene as I think that it would have been more effective, as well as other points within the trailer. After we finished this scene we wanted to film at the subway but we wanted to wait until it was dark to do this so we went back to my house to commence filming at the indoor locations.

We then filmed the scenes in Erin's bedroom ( 19 & 2) which we wanted to look quite plain and bare so I took down some posters and decorations from the walls of the bedroom to make it look more plain. We set up the camera outside of the bedroom door as we had some trouble setting it up to create some sort of distance from Erin so we filmed from outside the room looking in to get a wider shot of the whole room. We took 3 takes of Erin throwing her things around the room (19) in an angry and upset rage and I think all of the shots have come out really effectively, although it was quite humorous watching her throw things around the room. We have three choices of shots for this scene which I am pleased about so we will choose which one is best when editing, although I already know one will not be used as Erin trips slightly and the door of the bedroom is pushed closed by something that falls over.

The next shot that we filmed inside the bedroom location was the establishing shot of our trailer of Erin's eyes closed, flicking open and zooming out to reveal her sat on her bed in her room (2). We had some trouble setting the camera up far enough from her bed to create a shot of her eyes that would zoom out to reveal her sat on the bed from a far enough distance so instead we will have to create a cut shot from an extreme close up her opening her eyes to a mid shot of her sat on the end of her bed. This was due to the room not being wide enough to place the camera far enough from the bed on the tripod but I still think that the scene will work just as well.

We then filmed the scenes inside the bathroom (13, 14 & 15). The first one we filmed was a shot over Erin's shoulder where she is looking in the mirror and then reaches for the scissors next to her (13). At this point my Mum - who was to play Erin's mother - was not home yet so she was not there to bang on the door and shout from outside the door so instead I had to create these sound effects. We filmed from the corner of the bathroom as again we found that it was too cramped to film directly behind Erin without our reflection being in the mirror.

The next shot we filmed was an extreme close up of scissors cutting frantically at Erin's hair (14) and we created this by having our actress put in some old hair extensions into her hair and hack at them with the scissors to give a realistic look. As the camera was close to the scissors it has picked up the sound of the scissors cutting so this means that hopefully we will not need to add in any sound effects at this point when editing. We then filmed the last shot in the bathroom (15) of a close up of Erin's feet on the bathroom floor with hair falling from the top of the frame and landing beside her feet. We took three takes of this shot to make sure that the falling hair was completely visible in the shot and fell right beside her feet at the centre of the frame. We also held the scissors above the camera to create louder cutting noises to ensure that it was obvious what is happening in this shot.

After completing the filming of these shots, filming carried on in the kitchen to film scenes 11 &12. We firstly filmed the shot of Erin walking into the kitchen with her hood up where her mother is waiting for her and shouts at her aggressively (11). We took a few takes of this scene and I think that it has worked really well. We set the camera up so that Erin would walk past it from the left with my Mum leaning on the counter top to the right of the scene where bottles and cans of alcohol were placed. We then filmed the next shot in the trailer as Erin sweeps all of her mother's alcohol onto the floor of the kitchen (12). We had trouble creating this shot in an effective way without creating too much mess so we cushioned the floor with pillows so the bottles would land onto the pillows without smashing. The only problem there is that we are lacking a sound effect so we will need to add one in during the editing process.

After finishing filming at the house we walked to the nearby subway which is close to my house (18, 24, 25 & 26). It was dark by this time which we were happy about as we wanted these shots to be filmed at night to make them look a little more dark and lonely as Erin is sat alone in the subway. We firstly filmed the shot of Erin crouched on the floor of the subway holding a bottle in her hand (25). We took this from different angles including the corner of the entrance of the subway and again a wider shot of the whole subway including the entrance. I think these are really effective and well-shot short scenes as the subway really adds to the mis-en-scene of the film trailer as the walls are dirty and covered in graffiti with artificial yellow lighting. We then filmed frame 26 which is the last shot of our trailer which is of Erin crouched against the wall of the subway and then looks directly at the camera as she takes her hood down. We filmed a few shots of this scene, zoomed in a little and looking down at Erin to create a really strong and effective shot.

We then experimented with a few shots as we didn't want to have our actress throw the bottle against the wall of the subway (18) as it is a very open and public place and I did not want any injury so instead we had her roll the bottle along the floor and also filmed a shot of her walking away from the camera with her hood up, dragging the bottle along the wall of the subway which created a good sound effect. We also tried out another experimenting shot of her walking down the dimly-lit walkway next to the subway that leads to the station. we will not necessarily use this shot in the trailer but we thought it was a good idea to try out a few more shots as we were there and the weather was suitable for filming.

The last shot we filmed was of Erin walking towards and then past the camera along the road at night (24). The lighting was quite dim but the streetlights light it up slightly but this darkness may add to the mis-en-scene of the film trailer, although we should have used the night vision setting on our camera to make the shot more visible. We took two takes of this scene, one with a slow zoom out as Erin walks towards the camera which i think worked well.

Overall, the last day of filming went really well and although it took a little more time than we planned, I think that we have filmed some really strong shots that will work very well together when the trailer is finally finished. The only issue I have with the filming was the loaction used. I feel that the locations in the house may hinder the visual aspect of our trailer as we wanted the house to look quite run-down and plain to represent the character's class and lifestyle. The locatiosn we used looked a bit too clean and colourful but we couldn't locate a house of someone we knew that we could use that would have worked better. The whole filming process has had its problems, involving the main actress we chose to play Erin who did not turn up twice when we arranged filming. We fixed this by casting one of our female friend's as the role which has been much more reliable as well as comfortable, making the filming process very fun, relaxed and fairly quick. I am extremely happy with how the group has worked together and I am now really looking forward to editing and creating the final cut of our trailer.

Here is the last Risk Assessment for Day 3 of filming with the hazards or problems highlighted from filming outdoors and indoors in separate locations:
Risk Assessment - Day 3

This is the Day 3 Call sheet for the actors and crew, explaining the locations and times we will be going to these separate locations:
Call Sheet - Day 3

Day 2 Filming - Thursday 3rd Feruary

Today we filmed shots 7, 8, 9, 10 & 17 all in a small park opposite college on Carlton Road, Weymouth. The scenes being filmed in the park are when Erin is sat on the bench watching the gang of boys from her school attack someone and then stands above the victim and smiles. The other scene that will be filmed is the short scene of Erin and one of the female school bullies fighting each other. These are important scenes in our film trailer as they are primarily the only 'action scenes' we have planned so it is important to make them look realistic to highlight the element of violence in our film and reinforce the thriller genre.

We called the local police station before we filmed to inform them that we were filming fight scenes for our coursework in the park near college. The weather was good for filming although it was a little windy so hopefully this hasn't affected the sound. The first scene we filmed was the shot where Erin is sat in the background on a bench watching as the gang attack the male victim in the park (7). We took various shots of this scene and had the actors try different things to make the scene look as realistic is possible. The only problem was that one of our male actors couldn't make it to filming so we were one short of the male gang so we had the female actors who played the bullies to also partake in this scene.

The next part we filmed was the shot where Erin's feet are stood next to the victim's head as she stands over him cowering on the floor (9). We wanted this to be a strong shot as she slowly walks over to the victim and stares at him rather than help him. We then filmed the shot from the victim's point of view, looking up from the ground to Erin who stands over him and then smiles in a sinister way (10). This is a key shot in our trailer and I hope that it has come out okay as it was quite sunny when we filmed and her face may possibly block the light so the shot may be quite dark. I think that common ideologies in society have also been picked up on in these scenes as our 'victim' was dressed in a goth/metal fashion. There has been much coverage in the press over the years about how 'hoodies' mainly target those who look and dress 'differently', quite often being teenagers who dress in this particular fashion. I feel that by featuring the victim to look and dress like that makes quite a bold and realistic statement.

We then filmed the fight scenes between Erin and one of the bullies (17) that we wanted to look as realistic as possible. We had the two actresses 'pretend fight' together but as they were already good friends they felt comfortable enough to 'attack' each other so we filmed that short scene a few times from different distances to have some variety when we are editing the film trailer. I think that this shot may be one of the strongest shots in our coursework as I think it looked very realistic and believable without being too graphic or violent.

The last scene we needed to film in the park was where Erin is sat on the bench on her own, puts her hood up and walks past the camera (8) which leads on to the shot of her stood above the victim. We filmed this three times from different angles/distances to again have more choice when editing to choose the most effective shot as Erin putting her hood up is a key point that highlights her transition from lonely young girl to being cold, violent and aggressive. I thought it was very important to have a good actress to play Erin to take the role seriously and I feel that the girl we chose - Laura - was a good person to portray the feelings and emotions that we are trying to express through Erin in an effective and strong way as she does not have any spoken lines throughout the trailer.

Overall, I feel that our Day 2 of filming went really well and I feel we have filmed some strong and effective scenes to make our film trailer more action-packed and exciting. I think that the scenes we filmed in the park were well-shot and acted by our actors very well which will give it a more realistic and authentic effect. The only problem that occurred was that one of our actors couldn't come so the scene where the victim is being attacked was slightly compromised but we involved the female actors in this scene to make up for this problem. The only scene we didn't film was where a bottle is being smashed against a wall as we did not have a bottle with us and we felt it was unsafe to do this in such a public place so we decided to film this in a safer environment on the last day of filming.

Here is the Risk Assessment for Day 2 Filming, highlighting problems that we may encounter when filming outdoors, suggesting some safety precautions we may need to take:
Risk Assessment - Day 2

Here is the Call Sheet for the actors and crew, with times, locations and other instructions shown:
Call Sheet - Day 2

Day 1 Filming - Thursday 27th January

We filmed the classroom and corridor scenes on Thursday which was our first day of filming. These shots, according to the storyboards are shots: 4, 5a, 5b, 6, 16, 20, 21, 22 & 23. Our equipment was already booked so we hired it easily and all of our actors showed up on time so the filming process went a lot more smoothly than the last two times we had arranged to film. We filmed all of these scenes at Weymouth College which made it easier for all the actors to be there on times as they are all college students and the three male we had acting are all Drama students. All of the actors are my friends which made them more reliable and also made the filming process a lot more comfortable and enjoyable.

The first scenes we had to film was those with Erin and the teacher in the classroom (4 & 22). We firstly had a slight problem that was encountered about which room we would use for filming as the day we had booked the room out had already passed as we had some problems with filming. The teacher we had acting - Sue Dafter - found a suitable classroom for us to film in and we took various shots from different angles of the two classroom scenes. These scenes have worked well as we took them from different distances and angles to get the best effect as Erin lunges towards the teacher with a knife. The only problem was that I realise now I did not take any production photographs when we were filming so I will ensure that I take some next time.

We then filmed the different shots in the school corridor with Erin and the gang of school kids/bullies who we had dressed in white shirts and black trousers to highlight their age and reinforce the setting of the scenes - in a school. We had these actors try various different things in the scenes where they are supposed to push Erin and make fun of her (5a & b) so we have a few different takes that we can choose from in the editing process. In one of the shots, one of the female actresses Voni trips up Laura who plays Erin which works well, and Megan trows some screwed up paper at Erin's head as the gang of boys jeer and laugh. After these shots we filmed the scenes where Erin returns to school with her hood up - symbolising a change in herself - and the gang of youths go quiet as she walks past them rather than pick on her (20). again we took various takes of this scene so we can choose what is best when editing.

The last scenes we filmed were where Erin runs from the top of the corridor towards the camera (23) after threatening her teacher with a knife which was filmed a few times as she runs towards the camera. The scene where Erin is called a freak by one of the female 'bullies' was filmed a few times as Erin turns and lunges towards the girl aggressively (16) as we wanted to capture this scene as the two bullies are in mid-conversation as Erin walks past to make it look more authentic, rather than the girls just standing in silence. The last shots we filmed were those of Erin's fist clenching which we took from different angles and distances (6). One problem that occurred was how we would dolly/track Erin as she walked down the corridor where she is holding the knife in her hand (21). After trying ways of holding the camera steadily we decided to just use a pan from left to right as Erin slowly walks past which i thought worked just as effectively.

Overall, the first day of filming was successful and it took a lot less time than we thought so the actors were not held up for too long. I think we filmed all the different scenes in various ways so we will have a variety of options for most scenes which we can choose from when editing which will ensure we get the best effect and we will have a little more freedom when putting together our trailer, rather than being restricted to the precise frames and shot types we originally planned in our storyboards. Now we need to film the scenes in Erin's house (bedroom and kitchen) with her 'mother' and the outdoor scenes in the park, subway and by the road. The scenes in the subway and the road will need to be shot when it is dark so we will need to film with our main actress in the evening which I'm sure will not be a problem as she lives very near the subway that we are filming at. Hopefully the rest of the filming will go as smoothly as the first day.

Here is the Risk Assessment that has been done for Day 1 filming, highlighting any problems or dangers when we are filming:
Risk Assessment - Day 1

Here is the Call Sheet for the actors and crew, featuring times, places and other instructions about filming:
Call Sheet - Day 1