Filming Sessions

Filming Session One:

We planned our filming session in the half term as this would give us a whole day to capture our film. We decided to use a location that had many different locations within it. we decided that we wanted to start with a shot of the standing next to each other looking out at the river as we felt this fitted in with the conventions of the romance genre. We wanted to get some simple shots that would look effective throughout and flow together well. We also tried to make it look as natural as possible, it helped that the two people were already a couple so they had natural chemistry which helped our filming look more realistic. When we were outside we decied to make the most of the different locations that we had for example the use on benches, stairs a bandstand and many more this gave us a variety of shots which we would need for our trailer. We used our storyboard to help us however we also used our intuitive in order to get a variety of shots. We wanted to get a many shots a possible so that we had loads to fit in with the conventions of a trailer. We used a tripod for most of our shots as this would make our filming look professional, this would also prevent shaking.When it came to film the bed scene we wanted to get a over the head shot of them laying in bed this shot was going to be a challenge as we had to make sure the camera was tilted and was straight, we also had to set up a ladder that would allow us to create some really strong shots for our trailer, once we were happy with the shots we decied to film them drinking tea in the kitchen to make sure we had a variety of camera shots and angles we decided to film from many different angles of the same shots that we can edit them all together and we thought this would look really effective. We felt that we had a sufficient amount of filming for us to edit for a few days. 

Filming Session Two:
The next filming session consitied of Molly and I filming the woods scene, we had to wait until the evening for the lighting in this look effective. We wanted it to be dark but, still be able to see the male character when he is beating the person up. When filming we wanted to create a variety of different shots so when we were editing the film would look frantic, to foreshadow the mood of the character. when we were filming we felt it went really well as we thought of a variety of different shots in order for the filming to be successful, for example we thought of different angles like from down below looking up at him then from a high angle looking down, we thought this would create some really professional and strong shots. When we were watching the footage back it look really good and we could'nt wait to edit it into our film trailer. 

Advertising our film

As we had some spare time before we were going to film we had a chance to create some extra ways in which we could advertise our film, when you are trying to advertise a new film coming out you have to make sure that the poster is everywhere so that everybody knows about it. We decided to create a few typical ways that a film is advertised to the world.

We started by adding our film to the top of the YouTube page, we did this using PhotoShop CS3. As you can see from the image, I think we have created an image that will catch peoples attention as soon as they go on to the YouTube homepage.

We then decided to put our film on the side of a bus as we thought that this is also another typical method of advertising a film to our audience we thought this method looked really effective as the poster would really stand out on the side of the bus, we also thought that this would allow us to advertise our film all over the country.

We also decided that it would be a good idea to advertise our magazine and we did this by adding our front cover to the Interview website, so that we can also get our magazine more publicity, and people who visit the site will also be able to find out about our film.

All of these methods will help us advertise our film to our audience which will create an impact before the film would be released.

Costumes

The next thing we need to plan before filming our trailer is the use of costumes within our film. In a romance film there isn’t a specific type of costume as it isn’t a period drama, or a horror film. So when we were researching we found that there wasn’t a specific type of costume however we looked at some trailers to give us an idea of what type of clothing our characters should wear in our trailer.

In both of these images we can very simple outfits which create a really realisitc effect, they both look like normal people which is what we want to create within our trialer.

We feel that our characters should wear simple clothes so they aren’t the main focal point in the shot and people are focusing on the film rather than the costumes the characters are wearing. We feel that this will create a really strong trailer, and also the characters would feel comfortable in front of the camera, we also wanted to hair and makeup to be simple as we felt this fitted with the conventions of a typical romance trailer. I think our costume will look effective and make our trailer look more realistic although we will have to make sure we have a variety of different outfits in order for our trailer to look like we have made a whole film.    

Locations

 For our film to be successful we need to make sure we have the right location in order for each shot to look effective, before we went out filming we decided to research further into the location we were going to use and how we could create a variety of professional shots. We wanted to use St Mary’s Island, as we felt this was a very versatile location as we could think of many different places within the location that would create a variety of different shots.

As you can see here are a variety of the different locations within the area that we want to use during our filming session.  We felt that this would give us the variety of different shots needed in order to create a realistic trailer, I think the image in the top right with the stairs will look really effective it we film the chasing each other down the stairs I think that it would look really effective, also the image in the top left I think will look really good it with them sitting on a bench looking out to the river. We also used a Molly’s house for the bed scene we wanted to create and we filmed some of them doing everyday things as we wanted to create a contrast between all of the different shots used throughout our trailer, we are also going a dark alleyway for the last part of the trailer where the main male character, is made to look like a thug we wanted a dark alleyway so it would change the mood of the trailer but also create a twist to the typical love story. We think the dark alley way will reflect the different persona that character has taken on, this alley way is in Hempstead. We felt this research was vital, as we needed to have a clear plan of what we were going to create, and how we were going to do it.

Our Target Audience

When creating a film or trailer you always need to take into consideration your target audience. This is a vital part of creating the film. For our film to be successful we will have to make sure we aim our film at our target audience.  Our target audience is Females aged (15-22).  I think this I a suitable type of target audience for our film genre, as women are the more emotional part of the relationship therefore would connect with the characters in this film. To find out more about our target audience we decided to create a questionnaire that would give us feedback on our idea and weather our target audience is suitable, we are going to ask 15 people.   

1.  Gender?

Male ____         Female___

2.   How old are you?

Younger than 10 ___  10-15 ___  16-18 ___  18-21 ___  21+___

3.What is your preferred genre of movie?

Comedy ___ Horror ___ Fantasy ___  Romance ___  Sci-Fi ___ Musical___  Period drama ___  other please specify ______________  

4.How often do you go to the cinema?

Less than once a month ___1-2 times a month ___3-4 times a month___  More than 4 times a month___

5. What television channels do you tend to watch, if any?

BBC___ ITV___Channel 4/E4___Five___Living TV___ TV___SKY___Other________

6.  Do you enjoy watching romantic comedy’s and romantic films 

  Yes )__  No---

7.  If so do you like sad romantic films?

  Yes --- No---

8.  What types of magazines do you read if any?

Cosmopolitan---FHM---Heat---HELLO!---OK---  Q ---TotalFilm---

9.  Do you enjoy reading film magazines? 

  Yes --- No ---

10.  What do you find the best way of advertising when it comes to films? 

Billboards---Bus advertisements---Freebies---Magazine---Posters---Radio/television interviews with cast---Trailers---None---

After looking through the feedback we found that most of the people we asked were female however this is what we wanted as we wanted to find out what our target audience exactly thought. Most of the people we asked were 18-21 years of age. The most favourite movie genre was romance, followed closely by horror then comedy. When it came to how many times they visited the cinema most 1-2 times in a month. The most popular TV channels where BBC and E4, which is very popular with a young audience. The majority said they do enjoy watching romantic films and rom-coms. They also said they enjoy watching sad romantic stories. For what type of magazines do you read most of the answers were heat magazine or OK!, However most of the feedback for the film magazine question the response was most people said no, they didn’t read film magazines, so this is the reason I think our film magazine will be successful as we have made it a film plus fashion magazine. When it came to the best way of advertising a film it was posters and television that were the most popular.   

Storyboard

To create our storyboard we had to think about shots that we thought would look really effective and fit in well with our storyline. We started with shot where they would be standing next to each other and glance at each other; we thought this would be a really good opening shot that would define the genre of our film.  We then decided we wanted a shot from behind them sitting on a bench together looking out to the river, we thought this would create a really romantic setting.  We then decided on a shot of them having a cup of tea as a romance film does normally consist of them doing normal day-to-day things. The next few shots are going to consist of them doing romantic things in a variety of different locations, as this is a typical convention of trailers, we then moved onto the sad part of our story where she gets left alone and is really upset, this is then going to lead to us seeing the reason why the main male character goes to jail. This scene is going to include a montage of different camera angles of him "beating someone up". we think this will have a really strong impact on the audience, and will make them want to watch our film. Once we had finished our storyboard we had to create an animatic this is where we would make our storyboard into a moving storyboard that would portray our idea for our trailer, we did this using final cut pro. Here is our animatic.

Looking the animatic I think we have some really strong ideas, if we plan our filming well I believe that we will create a really strong trailer with a variety of shots and different camera angles. The music we have chosen is "Metal Detector" and "The Magician" by Jose Vanders. We chose these songs because we felt that it really worked well with the genre of our film and fitted well with the shots that we wanted to use, from the animatic I think we can tell both of these songs are going to be successful, in order to gain permission to use her songs we have emailed her explaining our task here is our proof:

I cannot wait to see our finished trailer and i am really positive that our trailer will be really successful.  

Romance Conventions

There are many typical conventions used within a romance film/trailer. I want to research further into this so I can find out what we need to include within our trailer in order for our trailer to be a successful romance story.

  As you can see we have included many of these in our film trailer already allowing us to portray our idea clearly to the audience. I think we will do this successfully however ours has a twist in it which I think will work really well and will make the audience really interested whilst watching our film. I am now going to look at some different shots we could use within our trailer to make it look as professional as possible:

This shot is really good you can see them for a side angle, which looks really effective the shot also looks really natural, which adds a really romantic and intimate effect; the lighting is also really great in this shot, i think it adds a really dramatic look to the shot which creates a really strong shot when creating our trailer we will have to take our lighting into consideration. 

This is a shot that enforces the genre of the film and creates a really emotional shot. I think when we are creating our trailer we will have to create a scene of them kissing as it will make our trailer really professional and show the chemistry between the two characters.

This is a really beautiful shot I think it looks really effective the way they are looking into each others eyes you can see how much they are in love which looks really cute. The background is also very interesting in this shot as is a blurred lighting effect called bokeh, this looks really effective as it makes them the main focal point in the shot and people are focusing on them and not what is in the background I think this is a really clever shot and works really well. 

I really like this shot as well, as you can see the male character is taking a picture of her, i think this looks good as it doesn't look like they are in a film it looks like them in everyday life, I think that home videos would look really effective in our trailer, and it also gives the audience a different perspective. 

Taking all of these shots into consideration I think we have a good lot of research to start creating our storyboard. I think this will help us when creating our film trailer as it has given us a variety of different shots that we could use and what we will need to portray our narrative to the audience effectively.