Thursday 27 February 2014

Finding Locations- Fields

Open fields are required to shoot a lot of my shots. Not only do these fields need to be large enough for all users to use them without disturbing each other/ruining my shots but we have the extra requirements such as horses being allowed in there as well as being close enough to where our horses are kept so that they do not get too tired getting there. We have selected Canada Heights as it is located in Swanley, Kent which is not too far (about 10 minute ride) away from Hextable which is where our horses are kept. This means that it will not make the horses too tired for filming on the way there. Horses are allowed into Canada Heights which means we can film there as we needed a location where horses are accepted, also all of our horses have visited there before which makes it easier for use to film- with horses stereotypically being nervous in new places and situations. One problem that we do have is that there is usually motorbike events taking place on Sundays, a Sunday would be a potential day for filming as our actors are likely to only be available on weekends. We would be allowed access to certain parts of the 17.5 acre site, however I wish not to do so as the sounds of the motorbikes might affect our shots, not to mention the horses who may become spooked by them. We also would like to film on a day when we have access to all of the fields so we can find the perfect places for our shots. This is something we must consider when producing our shooting schedule, we can easily look online at the Canada Heights website to find out when the events are on so that we can decide when it is

suitable to film.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Finding locations- Woodland

For my trailer it is important that I find some woodland where I can film. Ideally it shall be a large woods so I can find my own little spot to be filmed without other users ruining my chances of getting the shots that I need. I will also need to find a location that is local or not too far away as I will not only myself need to get there, but expect my actors to be able to get there too.

I think that I have found the perfect location, Sydenham Hill Woods which runs between Sydenham Hill and Dulwich is very close to where I live and is 9 hectares- meaning there is plenty of space for filming and other users. When visiting the area I found lots of different places some more shaded by trees than other so it will be interesting what type of lighting I can get for my trailer and I could perhaps experiment with what looks better. I created this presentation of a few images of our chosen location, as you can see there is an old railway bridge, a pond and of course lots and lots of trees which are essential for our shots.


Locations

Before I start my casting process I have decided to look at the locations where I can film. I will need to refer back to my storyboard where I have stated the type of location that I require when I added detail to my storyboard (see earlier posts). There are multiple locations that I will require which may mean that I will need to spend longer than one day filming my final trailer so that I can get to all of my locations and get all of the shots I need. When deciding on locations I will need to think carefully about other users so that I do not disturb them, but also so that I can still get the shots I need without too much background noise, for example that may affect the mood of my film. Other activities that happen in these locations may also affect my final trailer as if say dog walkers appear in the background of our shots and they are not supposed to be there it could affect the audiences interpretations of the mood/shots.




Monday 24 February 2014

Casting: who do I need to cast?

Tagline

I created this presentation to establish what a tagline is and I thought of ideas for my own trailer's tagline. I have decided that my tagline for my film 'Alice' will be...
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
I have chosen this tagline as it is evidently a tagline for a film with a fantasy theme or of the fantasy genre. This tagline is again catchy and intriguing which are both essential features of a tagline as its main purpose is to attract an audience to advertise.

Finalising my film's title and thinking about styles/fonts

I decided that our film's title shall be Alice. The reasons as to why are detailed on the mindmap I created below. I begun thinking also about how the title may be presented on the film poster, for example including thought about colour choices and fonts.


Other titles found in films

I looked back to my early research where I analysed several trailers in detail. This helped me to establish the other titles present in other film trailers. It showed me that the titles pictured below are common if not always present in the trailers analysed and I must therefore include them in my own trailer. I will be able to produce them using the Photoshop software, for example.


Thursday 6 February 2014

My film titles

I concluded my research into film titles and this has helped me make some decisions into the production of my own titles in my trailer.


Tuesday 4 February 2014

Investigation into film titles

I looked at other film titles for some inspiration and essential guidance when creating titles in my own trailer. I took screenshots of other film trailer's titles and analysed them, this can all be seen in the document below where I have annotated the titles.

Picking a name

We have shortlisted our potential film titles to three different titles which can be seen in the image below...



Away with the fairies
This title has relevance to my plot as it has fairies in it, it also suggests the protagonist is in a dream world, which she may be so could be a good title. It however, could be a bit long to be a film title.

As if by magic
Being a saying it is immediately catchy, it again links well to the 'fantasy drama' genre. 

Alice
One word film titles, I particularly like as they do not say much about the film which leaves the explaining to the images. The name Alice has links to Alice in wonderland which could create an image of a modern fairy tale, which it is.

A name for my film

Currently my film does not have a name, a name for my film is essential as it features in all trailers that I have researched as it forms a tag by which the film can be recognised. This has led me to start thinking about the possible names, this is detailed in the presentation below.


Adding detail to my storyboard

As discussed in an earlier blog post, adding detail to my storyboard is an essential task that will make the production of my film a lot easier. I have decided that each image on my storyboard must detail...
  1. The actors required
  2. The location
  3. The costume
  4. The props required
  5. The sound/dialogue
  6. The type of shot and camera movement
All of these things will make it easier when producing a shooting schedule and organising costume/props. It will also tell me when filming exactly what I should be doing with the camera and in the editing process in terms of sound. By planning all of the shots/camera movement it has allowed me to evaluate if I have a variety of shots and enough camera movement, which is such a big part of my production as detailed in my brief that I created as a result of my research. Find below a few images of the annotations I created around my storyboard.

Although annotating a total of 96 images was very time-consuming it will save a lot of time when it comes to producing my trailer.


My storyboard

Below I have embedded all the sections of my storyboard, as you can see I have tried to use a range of shots. This is because in my research showed me that the best trailers use a variety of shots to keep the audience interested as it doesn't all look the same. Also important is that of camera movement, I will detail camera movement later on when I annotate my storyboard. There is a greater number of shots in my storyboard compared to say my opening title sequence last year, this is because a trailer can jump continuously to different parts of the story as its aim is to show that there is a lot of action occurring to make the film appealing. You may also notice that the beginning part of my trailer follows an almost linear narrative as it introduces the 'equilibrium', this, however is something that I have done purposely after seeing that a lot of trailers do this when conducting my broad research.