First Draft

This is the first draft of our teaser trailer for the film 'Topaz Spectre'. This was constructed on Windows Movie Maker, and the editing was done with After Effects. At this point there isn't any audio in our movie, because we hadn't decided on any soundtrack.

It starts off with a panning shot of the surrounding area, which was taken in a crane.This then fades in to the title sequence for our production company. The filming then begins with a shot which is taken in the canteen, with 'Georgia' sat on her own, eating. The shot is panning, and shows a lot of movement from other people in the canteen, which distracts from the protagonist and makes her a lot less visible. However, we did make sure she stood out a little by making her wear what would be considered as 'her own clothes' which was the outfit that we had planned from the beginning. It then cuts to a shot of the star sat on her own in a classroom, which once again enforces that she isn't very popular at school. In this shot we used a lot of zoom, which afterwards we were advised against, as it doesn't look professional. Also, the next shot, you can see a young boy walk directly at the camera which ruins it slightly, and also we use the zoom again. I really like the scene where the dinner lady cleans up around Georgia as it shows that she isn't really noticed by anyone. However, once again, and as the next few shots also display, we have overused the zoom in this draft of the trailer, which is definatly something we need to improve upon. We both really like the next few sequence of shots, of her coming in to the house, and we have decided that we would like to re film them, without the use of zoom! The invisibility sequence is something that I am quite proud of, as someone who is new to After Effects. We did this by making the layer with Georgia in opaque when we wanted her to become invisible, and doing the opposite when we wanted her to reappear. We also then added a distortion map to the layers, which made them distort as she disappeared. We made this a lot more difficult for ourselves by using a mirror for her to become invisible from, as it meant we had to make her vanish twice. I placed this invisibility sequence online for some feedback, and one of the main things that was commented on is how she was invisible for much too long, so this is something we will change next time round. The next few shots were originally intended to be very fast and snappy, however this is something that we didn't really achieve with Movie Maker. One of the ideas for working on it now is for us to speed up the clips, to make them seem more speedy. We then go to the shots on top of a car park. Once again we use a lot of zoom, but I think we could cut the zoom out rather than refilm. The next shot of 'The Infinitive' walking through a doorway is my favourite shot so far. I really like how the wind is blowing through his cape as it creates quite an eerie effect. The next few shots work quite well, however we may change the order and transitions. I like the rest of the trailer all the way up to the final shot of the explosion, as this was made when I was just playing around with After Effects and it just looks fake. I don't know whether we will improve on the editing of this shot or just remove it completley.

Firestone Shots

The opening shot of this sequence is a suspense building shot because it fades out from|dark into the characters running at each other. This is my favourite shot because I like how it begins quite blurry and dark, so you can't really see what is going on, but then you can see the suspense between the two main characters as the face each other. I also like how they run together, because we could cut it off just as they would hit each other which would leave the audience hanging on how the scene could end. We then took some over the shoulder shots of the characters running at each other, which was using a variety of shots. We had some issues with this shooting because by the time we got round to doing it the clocks had already gone forward, and the earliest we could go was straight after school at half three ish, which meant it was already getting dark. However, I think we managed to survive quite well given the circumstances. The next few shots are a variety of Bella teaching Henry how to do the stage combat, with it looking effective for our trailer. You can hear the dialogue of Bella teaching Henry throughout this shoot, and also Tayler and I giving our feedback on how it looks. I really like the shot where the camera is positioned underneath Bella as she pushes Henry against a wall. I like the light seeping through from the trees as it lights the whole scene up in quite a dramatic manner. The next few is a variety of punching shots, but you can see that the light is fading drastically as they progress. We came up with the idea of shooting Bella punch Henry from behind him, so as to include a bigger variety of shots. Following on from this, we thought about shooting from below, which I think was a brilliant idea, because once again, it lights up the scene differently. The last shot was of Henry pushing Bella to the floor of the forest, but once again, the light was almost completely gone by this point, so we will have to lighten it up in post production.

Problems and solutions:
- The light was very limited, so we will have to sort it out in post production, or film again on a day when we can make it earlier.
- Sometimes you can't really see anything on the costumes, so we painted over them to help with visibility.
- There was a chance that Bella or Henry might get injured by the stage combat going wrong, so we ensured we did practise shots and made sure that both of them were fully trained to help prevent this. We also removed any dangerous items that were lying around to help to further prevent injuries.
- Finally, because we were in a forest, the ground wasn't completley stable to hold uip our tripod. To help make it sturdy we took a platform made of a plank of wood with us, which help to make sure the shots were straight.

Title Sequence

We decided we wanted to make our own title sequence for our Why Fronts Production company, to make everything our own original material. We did some researching on YouTube and the internet in which we found some templates and tutorials in making one. We did some editing on After Effects and after a while we made a sequence that we were quite proud of.

We showed this to both of our teachers and recieved some feedback which we decided we would work on. The most thought provoking feedback was after we had shown this to one of our teachers, the first thing he replied with was 'So your film is a comedy genre then?'. This worried us quite a lot, as our film was not intended to be funny at all. So we decided to play with the colour schemes a little, and make the background darker to reflect the genre. We changed the background to black, and this was the finishing result:

After Effects

Once we knew that we had to make the geek turn invisible, we began researching how to on the internet. We searched through endless YouTube videos to find something that we might be able to do. There were several little bits of videos that we really liked, for example:


We really liked the explosive return from this guy.



Really liked the transitions from this video.

No matter how many test and diffiernet videos we looked through, one program kept appearing, After Effects. This is a program from the Adobe range, which does of course mean that it would be very expensive to purchase. However, on our laptops, both of us have downloaded the trial version, meaning we can play around with the program at home. Also recently at school, the full Adobe range has been downloaded onto some of the computers that we can use. This is extremely useful for us because our laptops are quite difficult to work with for several reasons, and the school computers are a lot faster. One other problem is how difficult the program is to use and manouvre. Because the software is industry standard, with it being used in films such as Iron Man, The Orphanage and in quite a few video games for example, Tiger Woods games for PSP, PS2, Wii and Xbox, it is quite fiddly to use. However, we are teaching ourselves by playing around with it, and using different tutorials from Youtube and also Andrew Kramer, from Video Copilot.

Fighting scene shooting

One of the major events from our storyboard was the fighting scene between the villain, The Infinitive and the hero, Topaz Spectre. We tried to think of a suitable location and came up with many suggestions including the beach, the forest, a golf course and a field. We wanted an area which would be empty, as [WRITE RESEARCH BACKING UP]. As we live on an Island, we are very lucky to have a wide range of different sceneries which are very close to our base point. For example, the firestone copse, where we decided to film this scene, is here and is only 5 minutes walk from mine, and also the actor who plays The Infinitve's houses. We are also lucky as a pair that I have a car, so nowhere is too far for us and we don't have to plan to public transport which would be getting incresingly difficult, especially as it is starting to get darker earlier.

We went straight to the scene after school to give us optimum filming time before the light vanished. However, you can see from these pictures, one of which is before we shot, and one of which is from after, that the light did get significantly smaller during our filming.

However, I think that we managed to get the majority of our shots done before dark got too bad, and if any of the shoots are a little too dark we can lighten them up in After Effects.

The actress who plays Topaz Spectre/Georgia Murphy spent the summer of 2011 at the NYCDA (The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts?) where one of the courses there was stage combat. This is one of the reasons that we picked her in the audition process that we staged. She taught the actor how to do stage combat, to make it look like there was actually a realistic fight happening. I am quite impressed with our final shoots for this scene, as I think it looks really realistic.

Atherfield Shooting

Below is all of the filming that we did at Atherfield, including all of the dialogue of us directing the actors, and any shots which we feel didn't work out.



This was the first bit of shooting that we did in Atherfield Bay. The idea was that we would be able to see Bella running across the room, in apparent search of Henry. First off you can see her running across the hatch quite a way away from the hatch that we are behind, but you can hear us then direct her closer so that we can only see her torso. Up next is a shot of Henry walking through a door way. Personally this is one of my favourite shots of the whole set, because I think the wind works really well billowing through his cape, making it look even more eerie than the location does. The rest of the shots are shot around some of the abandoned chalets, with Bella on a hunt for Henry. The first of the chalet shots wasn't used because because you could see that Bella started to laugh after she had kicked the door in. The second shot is the one we will probably continue to use for the rest of the trailers. We then tried the same action from different angles, which I personally don't like as much as the previous shot. We were really lucky with the wind this day because in many of the shots we had the capes of the both of the main characters billowing around creating a very dramatic effect. Tayler had the idea of shooting from inside one of the chalets of Bella bursting in, which originally I was a bit scared about doing (hence why I'm outside!). The first attempt of this worked quite well, but unfortunatley you can see me outside. The next shot outside Bella just stays still in the door way which leads to the door coming back and hitting her, so we thought of an alternative which would be to continue walking through the door and into the toilets, creating more of a searching effect. However, this time we followed her with the camera, which didn't work quite as well. A couple of shots down the line Tayler had another idea of Henry being stood in one of the doorways outside so you could just catch a glimpse of him creeping up on Bella. We took this same shot a couple of times because the zoom on my camera kept playing up, and we found it hard to keep it still. We also did some shots without zooming in to see Henry, so it made it even more subtle that he was hiding there. We took some panning shots of the buildings opposite as I am planning to attempt to make the buildings explode on After Effects. Then we took some shots of Bella just kicking in some doors as we are planning on making a montage of all the shots of her kicking them in to create a more searching effect. Our last burst of inspiration was to have Henry already inside the building when Bella kicked down the door and saw him inside. This is an over the shoulder shot so it incudes different angles that we haven't included before in our trailer. Some of the lighting in this scene is a little dark at some points which we may have to edit on After Effects if we want to use these particular shots.

Cartoons

Atherfield Location

Tayler and I were discussing about different locations we would like to film in, and we thought that we would like to film some chasing and fighting of the two main characters in a building that they would be able to run through. We wanted somewhere that would be public, as it meant that it would be likely that the two characters could meet there. However, we didn't want anywhere too civilised if it was inside, as that wouldn't really go with the rest of our locations for the superhero shots. First of all, we thought about doing it in the town, or in a mall on the mainland, and have Bella (Georgia) run through the streets, which would hopefully be busy, searching for Henry (The Infinitive). However, we discarded this idea for a few reasons, one of which would be that it may cause some moral panic for members of the public if they saw two 'superheroes' chasing each other across town. So we tried to think of a more original location for some shooting and did some research across the Island. Because I am able to drive, it means that Tayler and I have a lot more freedom about where we can shoot, as it is easier to get to and from places and we don't have to rely on public transport. We came up with the idea of shooting in an abandoned location as we wouldn't be disturbed by anyone, and it could create a more interesting effect. I remembered when I went on a camping trip to the other side of the Island, right next to a Holiday Park which had been abandoned in 2007, after being on the reality TV programme 'Wakey Wakey Campers' on channel 4. We did some more research in to it and found out it was accessible, so we took the chance and went there. The whole location was very eerie, and it there was a great deal of vandalism around the whole site. Here are some pictures we took of the location:

Atherfield2

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Atherfield

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We decided that the action we wanted to film need to include subtle hints of a chase going on, we didn't want to film the actors actually chasing each other as this wasn't stereotypical of superhero trailers. We wanted to do this in several ways, as the location was already pretty much destroyed, it meant that we could be a little rough with anything on the site and it wouldn't really

matter. When we got there the first thing we did was explore the entire site and decide where our shooting locations on site would be. The places that we decided to film in where: The kitchen, just outside the kitchen, and outside and inside the chalets. 

Costume - The Infinitive

Making of:The same applied to the costume of the villain as the hero. However, we decided that we would make the costume for The Infinitve lesshigh key as he would only be in one or two scenes so it would be a less productive use of our time to spend ages on his costume. However, we still made a cape for him, which we used in the same way as Topaz Spectres'. You can see how we chose the logo in an earlier post [LINK] and we decided that it would be best if, unlike the previous cape, we repeated the logo throughout the cape. The colour scheme of him also identifies with our [RESEARCH] and we decided that the main colours of his costume would be black and green as these are traditional evil colours. However, we painted the infinity signs on in a silver to make them stand out and contrast from the black cape. The rest of his costume was composed of a pair of black jeans, a dark green and black shirt, and some boots. We also had a mask for him but we have chopped it in half to increase his 'evilness'. The finished product is posted below.

  

 However, we decided that his hair did not really stand out enough, as we wanted something quite big, like Topaz Spectre, so we found a wig and tried it on. We both liked the wig more than without the wig, and so we decided to keep it for the final costume.

Invisibility.

One of the main problems we had from the beginning of the trailer was deciding what super power our geek should have. Our survey  showed us that our target audience would prefer the power of invisibility for our hero:

 Because neither of us are very advanced on After Effects we had some trouble finding some simple tutorials that would teach us how to do this. I found many on YouTube that used a feature called 'Rotoscoping', but the version that I had downloaded onto my laptop was before this feature had been developed. However, I found this one tutorial that didn't use this feature, and it is available here:
                           

I watched this tutorial and was able to create an effect where you could still slightly see the body of Georgia but it was invisible, like described and shown above. However, this looked quite weird in the mirror, as Tayler and I have made it quite difficult for ourselves. So I messed around with some of the settings and managed to create this for our first attempt.
                           
 We were quite pleased with this as a first attempt however there are a few problems with it. First of all the time when she is invisible is far too long. Also, when she comes back, the video of her is very dark, which makes the whole invisibility stunt seem less real and believable. I am not to keen on the distortion of the images during the disappearing and reappearing, but I was just messing around with this and it was only a first draft so I kept it. After Tayler and I had discussed this, and shown it to our focus group, as well as our teacher we decided to make a few changes to it.
[INSERT VID OF SECOND ATTEMPT]

I am even more pleased with this video than the first one. I have cut down the time that she is invisible for, which creates more tension and surprise when she reappears. I also added an effects to the second video of her reappearing which makes it more brighter, making it look more realistic. We both also had a look at all of the distortatio effects which are available n After Effects  and found this one that we really liked. It is called CC Flo Motion, and we both really like the way that it looks like she is being sucked into the mirror. [INSERT MORE COMMENTS ABOUT FOCUS GROUP AND TEACHERS]

School shots

Costume - Geek

After we attended the Media Magazine conference me and Tayler decided that we should put extra effort into our costumes so that we won't lose any marks from them. We made three main costumes for the three main characters and then for any extras we paid less attention but still made sure that they were wearing costumes which fitted in with our movie.

Georgia Nicholson - The Geek.

Making the costume:

We didn't make the costume for Georgia, we just constructed it out of items of clothing that we all had. However, we wanted something that would make it obvious that she is a geek, and not a very popular girl. We paid particular attention to her hair though, as we have seen in Princess Diaries that Anne Hathaway portrayed a geeky school girl and looked like the picture on the right. So we took inspiration from this and we crimped her hair,and also made it look very frizzy, which is shown above. Bella, who is playing Georgia also bought in some of her Dads milkbottle glasses which we thought completed the look. The final costume is posted below.

Process of making the costume and the final product:

Coop Shots from below

Another idea that we had had was to shoot to Bella from below the building, to show the disruption that she may of caused to other passers by. We learnt easy on that the camera and tripod was quite difficult to control, as it was a bit shaky, and we were quite trigger happy! It took quite a lot of takes for us to make a smooth zoom all the way from the ground up to focusing on Bella. We then zoomed in and simply got some shots of Bella swishing her hair, as is stereotypical of many feminine superheroes, for example Wonderwoman. This worked quite well, although you can't really tell that Bella is high up on top of a building. Our last idea for this shot was to have someone standing below and pointing up to Bella, to show that she caused a bit of disruption and confusion to members of the public. We decided to follow Eloise's arm point up towards Bella, and zoom in slightly as we went towards her. This worked quite well I think as it followed through very smoothly. This scene is stereotypically British, which enforces the fact that this is a British made film, as it includes a cobbled street, a war memorial, a typically British pub and some British flags flying off of the building that Bella is stood on.

Problems and solutions:

- We had the problems of the tripod balancing on the cobbled streets was quite difficult and could of created some wonky shots, so we took a platform with us to help even this out.
- Bella wasn't incredibly visible on the shoots where it isn't zoomed in, so we pulled in an extra to help draw attention to her.
- Asking Bella to do what we wanted during film was quite difficult because of the distance between us, and we didn't really want to shout unless necessary as it may of caused alarm to any passers by, so we had a spare person who we bought along with us to stay with her on the phone so we could keep in contact.
- We also had the age old problem of people interfering with the camera and walking in front of it or ruining our recordings. To combat this we placed a sign around us which informed the public that we were recording for our coursework and we would really appreciate it if they could not interfere.

Coop Shots from above

This was one of the first shots that we did with Bella, and it was one of the first ideas that we had altogether. The first few shots are of us zooming in to Bella and asking her to whip her hair and head around to look straight down the camera. We also had the idea of following down the church to give an idea of height from the top of the building. This is one of my favourite shots from this location, as I think it establishes the shot very well. I also thinks it shows how high up we are on top of the building, which makes it look even more impressive. We took a couple of takes for this to ensure that it was succesful and we wouldn't have to redo it. We also then zoom into Bella and ask her to spin her head around to do the same effect as before.

Problems and solutions:
- The floor was uneven so we needed to create a platform to combat this.
- The time when we decided to film this the weather was quite windy, which often blew Bellas hair out of her cape, which then ruined the shot, so we tucked it inside her cape to avoid this.
- Also, we didn't think about how the time when we filmed would effect how many people below there were, so it didn't look very busy which ruined the dramatic effect. We could try reshooting this scene at rush hour so as to create more drama.

Co-op film shooting

One of the first shots that we had planned to shoot was one which Topaz Spectre was on the top of a high building, and we were looking over her shoulder and one from the ground. We tried to think of places where it was possible to stand on top of tall buildings, and the idea of a multi storey car park in Newport Town Centre which is situated here. We checked that it would be possible for us to go up there and take some shots before we did. We also made sure that Bella would be completley safe by positioning her behind the wall on the car park, which is why in the shooting you can't see her whole body. We also ensured that she remained at least 2 metres away from the edge at all times.

Costumes - Topaz Spectre

Making of the costume:

The costume of Topaz Spectre we made mainly by hand, because we didn't really have anything already done that would suit our style. So, we found some fabric which I had down my garage, which was in both white and black, and we decided that this would be perfect for the contrasting personalities of the villian and hero. We also saw from our research that the villains were stereotypically dressed in darker colours, and the heroes were in brighter colours. So we took the white coloured material up to our art department at school, which you can see above, and folded it in half and painted a border around. We had decided that due to the superheroes name being Topaz, one of the main colours would be blue, and from our research, a lot of superheroes such as superman and [ENTER MORE] that one of the main colours of their costume was yellow. So we painted the border and also the main logo which we decided in an earlier post. [LINK] The rest of the costume was clothes which we had bought in from home, which also continued on with our colour theme, with electric blue leggings and a bright yellow top. She also had a pair of blue boxers on over the leggings, and bright stripy socks on, also continuing with the colour. The final piece of the costume was a mask, which we bought from a costume shop on the Island, and then painted on the make it stand out more. She also wore bright red lipstick and blue eyeshadow, to carry on with our feminist theme of making her even more womanly. Below is the final product of our costume.

Superhero logo

Crane shots

Before we took any shots in the crane, we had a risk assessment made especially for when we went up to ensure that whoever went up in the crane would be completely safe. 

Crane

.

 Once we had had that done me and Tayler had to decide when the best time to do the crane shooting would be. Since we are now getting into the winter season by the time this planning had taken place, we decided that it would be best for us to take the shots very early in the morning, when the light would be best. We checked the weather on metcheck to make the chances of rain slimmer. We settled on an early Saturday morning before we both had work. It was decided that I would be going up in the crane and be taking shoots, and Tayler would be remaining on the ground. We arrived at the crane site, which was here at 7:30, ready for imminant shooting. This is what the crane looked like before I went up in it:

In total the crane height was 120 feet into the sky. I was wearing a harness the whole time that I was in the air for extra protection. I had a neck strap round my camera which was on my neck at all times, and I also had a walkie talkie to communicate with Andy, who was driving the crane, so I could tell him when I wanted to come down or if I needed any help. This was what I went up in:

Time Schedule

Panning shots

This is the filming of me in the crane. The opening shots are of me moving upwards in the crane, and the closing shots are of me going down. The shooting is a little wobbly due to a lack of tripod, and of course because I was haning in a cage. I think that this shooting location worked really well, as you can see for miles and miles, giving the illusion that this is all where the film will be set. I also think that due to the circumstances the movement is quite smooth, and it does look like we used a tripod. I like how you can see the cars moving along the roads in the distance, as it makes the whole shot look a lot more real.

Auditioning the actresses.

We decided from the beginning that we needed a good team of actors on board to make our film the best it could possibly could. After thinking about all of the people we could possibly get to act in our teaser trailer we came down to two actresses. We decided that we would create a little audition for them both to ensure we made the right decision. Here is a list of the pros and cons for both of the actresses we had in mind to choose the actress for Georgia Murphy/Topaz Spectre.

Bella:
Pros                                                                                           Cons
Attended the New York Conservatory for                                Holidaying at time of shooting
Dramatic Arts (NYCDA)
More available for shooting

Eloise:
Pros                                                                                             Cons
On the Island throughout shooting process                                 More outside commitments

We then made this decision to roll with Bella because although she was away at times we thought that her previous experience made her more suitable for the part.

Inspiration for panning shot.

After analysing the Avengers trailer, we decided that we really liked the look of the establishing shot, which started the beginning of the trailer off. I personally liked the way that it established the location of the movie, and also helped the audience to see which genre the film is. The shot on the avengers was of mainly a city scape which shows that the movie will be quite fast paced. However, we are limited by being on the Island that there are no large cityscapes in our vicinity. So we decided we would do a landscape shot, and we could also draw inspiration from the opening shot of the Spiderman trailer. This is taken from high up, and is of a naturalistic landscape in the night time. However, we decided to put our own spin on this, and shoot in the day time, as our film is not as dark and sinister as Spiderman.

Storyboard Draft

This is our first draft of our trailer for Topaz Spectre. We will work on it and progress to make a second storyboard when we have more ideas.

Names

For the geeky schoolgirl we both decided that we wanted to have a pretty plain, simple and quite a popular, common name. We Google searched the most popular girls names that were around in 2000 in the UK and we looked down the list to find a name that we both liked, and we both thought suited the purpose quite well. We found that we both quite liked 'Georgia' which was number 12 on the list. Then, for the surname, we simply Google searched the most popular British surnames, and found this list, which we looked through. We both knew that we didn't want a surname which was 'too popular' as this might just seem as though we couldn't be bothered to think of a different surname than, as for example, Smith or Jones. So we decided we'd start reading through the list about halfway down, and then decided. One name that sprung up to both of us straight away was 'Murphy'. It may of been number 55 on the list, but we chose this as the final name for 'Georgia Murphy'.

We then had to decide on a name for the Superhero. We had decided before, here [LINK], that to help to make our movie have a feministic twist we would make our superhero feminine. We researched some names for our protagonist, and after googling feminine superheroes we found some of these names:

· Andromeda

· The Bionic Woman

· Blossom

· Elasti-Girl

· Halo

· Madame Xanadu

· Kim Possible

However we weren't really too keen on any of these names, as we felt they made the characters look like quite weak and non specialist. We decided that we liked the idea of naming the character with two words, and one of the first words being to describe a colour which could be linked to them. After some research we found this super heroine who is called 'Topaz'. She looks like quite a strong feminist character, and we could base the costume around the colour topaz. The definition of the word 'Topaz' on Wikipedia is as follows: Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al₂SiO₄(F,OH)₂. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces. Pure Topaz is mainly colourless, which works well for our character as her superpower is invisibility. There are two main other types of Topaz, which are both coloured yellow and blue. We thought that we could create a costume which has both of these colours in.

We also noted that from the names above, a few of them, such as Elasti-Girl had their superpowers written in to their names. We looked in a thesaurus for different words which could describe invisibility. This linked us to ghosts, as they are invisible, which then in turn lead us to Spectre.

This is the dictionary definition of Spectre: Spectre or spectre usually refers to a ghost or other apparition.

The route to choosing the name of the name for the Villain was quite long and winding. Because we had chosen the superpower of Mind Reading for them, our first thought was of a Magic 8 Ball. The dictionary definitions of these are: The Magic 8 Ball is a toy used for fortune-telling or seeking advice, manufactured by Mattel. The Magic 8 Ball merchandise is often linked with mind reading, because the user asks the ball a question to which they then receive an answer. We liked this original twist on the power, and started to make the costume by painting the eight on the stereotypically black cape of the villain. However this didn't look as great visually as we had expected, but we had a flash of inspiration; that the eight reminded us both of the sign for Infinity. We then changed this word slightly, which led us to create the name that is, 'The Infinitive'.

Characters

We decided to keep the plot of our trailer very simple by only including only three characters in our teaser trailer, but also with a possible couple of extras if they are needed.

Main Character: A 17 year old girl who attends high school. She is a bit of a loner and geek and doesn't really have any friends. She is 'invisible' to the world, and doesn't feel like anybody cares for her. This can be depicted in the costume that she will be wearing, which will probably be very frumpy clothes, which don't show off her figure at all, and are not in fashion. She will not be wearing much make up, if any, and she will have very unfashionable hair style.

Superhero: Will be the main character but transformed into a superhero. She will have all of the typical features of a superhero, with a cape, mask and funny costume. Her personality will be quite strong hearted; however she will be forced to use her superpowers as she won't be confident enough to stand up for herself and save the world.

Villain: This will be the normal stereotypical villain, dressed in dark colours and also with a cape and mask. We will exaggerate these elements to make him look even more 'baddy'-like which will hopefully turn the audience against him, and make them empathise with the protagonist.

Theorists.

In our coursework we will be using the theory of Vladamir Propp which would continue into the whole film, if we were to make it. His theory is that in each story, there are eight main characters, these include:

· The Hero

· The Villain

· The Donor

· The Dispatcher

· The False Hero

· The Helper

· The Princess

· The Princess' Father

His theory does not state that these all have to be separate people, for example the Helper could also be the Princess. It is quite easy to guess what all of the roles of these characters are, as it is mainly stated in the names (the hero has to save the day, the princess is what the hero has to save, the helper helps make it all possible). It is quite obvious that the two main characters in our trailer will be the Hero (the superhero) and the Villain (evil nemesis). However, further on in the story, or maybe shown in the trailer, the Hero could have someone who is there to support them on the whole journey of becoming a superhero, someone who knows what she has been through. There could also be a love interest for the superhero, who could get caught in a trap from the Villain, and they could become the Princess. The possibilities are endless for what we could create under this theory.

Gustav Freytag analysed Greek and Shakespearean plays to create a dramatic structure. His theory was that to create a successful narrative, they must contain the following in this order:

1.      Exposition or Introduction  This introduces any background information which is needed to understand what the story is, and also the problem which will need to be solved.

2.      Rising Action During this stage the original basic conflict is complicated by the integration of secondary related conflicts, which make it harder for the protagonist to reach his goal. The secondary conflict could include adversaries of a lesser impact than the original antagonist.

3.      Climax During the third act, also known as the turning point, a significant change occurs in the narrative for better or worse. Whether the story goes better or worse for the protagonist depends on which genre the narrative fits in to. For example, if the story is any kind of comedy, or maybe a romance film, the story so far would have been negative for the protagonist, and this act could show a change for them.

4.      Falling Action At this point the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist is unravels, and it is revealed who is the 'winner' out of the pair. The ending of the Falling Action is when the viewer realises that the narrative is now moving on towards the resolution or ending of the narrative.

5.      Denouement, resolution or catastrophe This is where any conflicts that have been apparent during the narrative are sorted. The main characters can then return to some sense of normality, and simply it is the unravelling of any complexities in the plot. Once again, the genre of the movie decides what the ending of the movie will mean for the protagonist. If the film is a tragedy, then the protagonist will probably end up in a worse position than at the beginning of the narrative.

Theory on superhero movies.

Why are superhero movies so popular? Well some experts think it's because they offer some sort of escapism from the 'real' world. Also because they contain "serve as a hope-inspiring figure, an image of someone who can save us all from dark and difficult times. Superhero movies promote the ideas of peace, safety and freedom. Some experts consider this message a necessary reassurance in difficult times. "serve as a hope-inspiring figure, an image of someone who can save us all from dark and difficult times. Superhero movies promote the ideas of peace, safety and freedom. Some experts consider this message a necessary reassurance in difficult times." [From this website] This makes a lot of sense to me, as I can see that people would enjoy watching superhero movies for the idea that there is something magical out there in the world, that there is hope for them to be something else from normal and boring! I think people also enjoy them because they're funny, they show a funny side to the normal action adventure films which feature people running from aliens or being chased by the police. They are also much more light hearted and easy to follow.

Analyzing Student Film (Mel)

Part of our research and planning was to deconstruct 4 different trailers from the last 40 years, and to also analyse a student film which we could relate to our own work. We searched through YouTube thoroughly trying to find a superhero trailer which was done by Media A2 Students, or at least a related Action/Adventure trailer. However, we were very unsuccessful in this. We also thought that it would not be an extremely useful way to spend our valued time, as we wouldn't be able to take much from it.

Phantom (Mel)

VIDEO: This is a trailer for the film 'The Phantom' which is released in 1996. Because it's quite dated the special effects are quite unrealistic. It opens, as most trailers do, with a green screen stating that it is allowed to be publicly viewed and released, which is followed by the company logo. This establishes who it is made by, and lets the viewer see where they can find out more about the company behind the video, which they are hopefully interested in. The opening shot is quite dark which could be misleading about the genre of the film. It is set in a jungle type area, which immediately establishes where the main parts of the movie will be set. It looks like a group of explorers which are looking for something in particular which could be the main storyline. However, the next shot then moves on to two people on motorbikes jumping over a hedge. To me, the style of the hedge and what you can of the building suggests that it is in quite a posh, or royal, area. The next few shots then include a man, who I assume to be inside the building, pacing with some old fashioned equipment, an explosion which is outside, and some stained glass windows being broken from what looks like an explosion outside. Then there are a few fast snappy shots with large fades which link together the story. There are lots of skulls prominent in the next 20 seconds of the trailer, which, for me, misrepresents the genre of the trailer. Because I did a YouTube search to find superhero movies from the 90's, I at first doubted my search. Up until 00:35 there are no shots of the 'superhero' which makes the film look more like a Science Fiction or Action Adventure genre film rather than a Superhero Adventure film. Also, for the whole of the trailer the lighting is very dark, which suggests that it is a lot more sinister than most superhero films. Once the superhero is introduced, there is a temporal text which shows when the viewer can expect to see the movie in cinemas. Also from then onwards the lighting gets a brighter, and the shots become faster paced. There is also lots of fire and flashes involved, which brightens up the screen a lot more as well. The skull is also still prominent, and there are many adjectives which flash across the screen to help explain the trailer and make it more appealing to viewers. There also appears to many stunts going on, probably to make the film see more high class and Hollywood style, such as a truck falling off a bridge, several explosions, a car chase and abseiling down a lift. In addition to this there are several shots of the protagonist avoiding any immediate danger, which could endanger his life. At 1:14 the main antagonist is introduced, wearing a black eye mask which immediately makes him look like the 'baddy' of the movie. The trailer ends with some fonts being stretched across the screen showing the date of release and the title against a black screen. I'm not a big fan of this trailer, as I don't think that it shows a story particularly well. I think that it is very misleading, as the main character of the film is not introduced until about one third of the way through the trailer. I don't think that we will take much from this trailer into our own, apart from including a wide range of special effects in our trailer to help draw in our audience.

Avengers (Mel)

The trailer starts with an opening panning shot of where the movie will be taking place. This is an establishing shot and it helps for the audience to judge what the genre or pace of the movie will most likely be. Because the setting seems to be in a urban landscape you can tell that the genre of the movie will probably be some kind of action, which is very fast paced and exciting. It then cuts to a shot of a woman look out of a window, appearing quite scared looking at some kind of disturbance, which then cuts to a large explosion in a street. You would guess from the low angle of the shot of the woman that she may be one of the protagonists of the movie, although this is not certain, but the way the camera focuses on her does portray that. You then see two forces which are recognisable by the uniforms they are wearing: the army and police. They both appear to be shooting towards something which is a little higher than all of them, which shows that the opposing force is stronger than them, and they are possible scared by it. The next few frames of what appears to be the opposition have very dark and blue tinted lighting, which suggests a sinister feel to the group. There is then more explosions shown which coupled to the audio soundtrack suggest a turn for the worst. There is then again more evidence of the authorities with helicopters and official looking buildings. This then suddenly cuts to comic strips and the production company name. The music changes which sounds a little more 'sassy' which could denote some kind of romance, but in this genre probably just means the introduction of a main female character. This is then again confirmed with the entrance of a woman with bright red hair, who appears to be followed by two men. There is then a montage which shows all of the possible superheroes and them exploring their powers. This is another establishing shot but this time instead of it being for the landscape it is for the characters. This goes on for about 30 seconds, and is then followed by a group meeting of the characters who are figuring out 'what are we going to do?'. Proceeding this there are many more explosions and special effects used to portray disturbances to everyday life. There then appears to be many fight scenes between two different groups, with text appearing on screen sporadically reading such things as 'This May' and trying to hook the audience in to see the film even more. There is also then a small dialogue which says 'if you can't protect the area.... we'll avenge it'. This helps the viewers to see where a bouts the name of the film has come from, and once agin gives evidence that the movie will be filled with action. There is then the name of the film flashed across the screens in a relevant font, which leads to the last scene of the trailer, with some diegetic dialogue between two characters and some very fast shots of some more fighting scenes.

Kick Ass (Tayler)

Kick-Ass | Aaron Johnson | Matthew Vaughn | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Movie Trailer | Review


This is the trailer for Kick Ass 2010. 

0.00-0.06- Like the other this trailer includes a green screen for vital film information and also the production company’s logo, differing from 'The Amazing Superman' these are included at the very beginning rather than after some trailer action has taken place and this does work quite well to put the company recognition in the audiences mind as soon an possible.

0.07-0.19- This is a complex establishing shot taken from great heights. It doesn't establish the setting straight away but as the camera moves closer to the character (not a zoom) it then angles down over the city crating the establishing shot and also