Moodboard

This mood board highlights the scenes that our essential to our  trailer. For example our theme of movie will be based around a family and this is represented by the happy family being placed in the center enjoying an evening dinner together. The characters displayed at the top shows our character will consist of a young vulnerable girl, the father and the mother. The piano shows our dietetic sound that is going to be included in our trailer to add tension and build up. The house shows our location that it is going to be set in which links with the dark figure that walks into the house unaware, adding enigmas.

Film Treatment

Our opening shot begins with the father playing the piano, where we pan around the room to see the family. We then have them having a conversation around the table, which creates the atmosphere of a neutral and happy middle class family. However, as we see the mother and father angry at each other, it indicates that their life isn't as perfect as they are portrayed to be.  As the little girl interrupts her mother and gets pushed away we see her run away from all her problems.

This is then represented as we juxtapose to her as a young adult, who is shown to have nobody in her life. The audience are then going to be able to get a feel of this when she is shown to go and use a phone box but has nobody to ring. We know this as she picks up the phone and puts it down again suggesting that she has not even dialed a number yet but gives up anyway.  This allows her to be represented as the stereotypical vulnerable and lonely young adult that she is.

When she finds a scratch card on the floor slightly hidden, she moves into a warming home, cheap off the market. However, she does not realize that the house she gotten so cheap is haunted, in the way of an unknown killer targeting a certain group of people of the same gender.

The tension starts to increase as we are shown missing posters of young adult girls who lived in that house and the audience are aware that  'Elle' our character has moved into a haunted house targeted by a killer.

Sitting by the front door having a cigarette, her lighter flickers out, running into the kitchen to get a new one which is when a black figure walks through the door and up the stairs. Unaware of his presence, Elle begins to go upstairs. As she is about to get into the shower she hears little girls laughing. She looks out the window to find no one is there. Tension is still building up as audience are unaware of what is going to happen next.

After the shower she goes into her wardrobe wearing a robe and picks out clothing, the killer stands behind her and as she feels someones presence she turns around in shock, dropping her clothing. However, nobody is there and her and the audience feel a sigh of relief. She turns back in her wardrobe feeling stupid and paranoid. However, when she feels something brush against her leg she slowly looks down in worry and sees an arm sticking out of the wardrobe. As she screams the killer tries to grab her from behind however she pushes him off her and runs down the road. This is then incorporated with the flashback of her as a little girl running down the road fearfully. Cutting into black to the title 'Elle'. This would leave a cliff hanger to the audience wondering whether she got away and reported the killer who has been around for centuries or whether she got killed.

Film Brainstorm

Day 1 Of Filming

 On October 13th the sixth form all went to a boat party and this being the third one I had been to I was aware of the scenery us as a group could capture in London. Therefore, I took many videos and pictures and came across these two to be my favourite. These shots would be successful in our film due to it being action/thriller based and these establishing shots in London make the movie look high budget. The sound in the videos would not be used and we would add non diegetic sound over to top which will be dramatic, up paced and tense to follow the codes and conventions of an action but also allow the audience to feel unnerving due to achieving a thriller as well.

However, due to having limited resources at this event it was filmed on an IPhone 5s therefore the quality isn't how we expected however, we wish to incorporate this into our trailer and make it look as professional as possible. I screenshotted this image from a panning video as i thought it could be successful to use as a single shot. However, further down in the process I may decide to incorporate the video as well.

Fonts Researched

Here I have researched the font "Lucida Sans". Due to our film being a horror we wanted to make sure we followed the conventions of the titles to allow people to recognise our genre. Our title would be displayed in capital letters like a lot of horrors to allow it to be bold. As well as this in horror films such as Taken 3 the letters are displayed slightly apart which makes the title stand out more. I then incorporated this title choosing a light grey colour and black background. This is successful in following codes and conventions of the genre as the silver/grey colour allows a sharp edge against the black ground and is still very traditional.

This font appealed to me due to the fact our genre being based on a horror. This is due to the thinner writing compared to the title above with thick and bold writing which has created more of an eerie and mysterious atmosphere, as well as being bold which is successful for that dramatic feel. The perfect mixture of these two makes it much more effective if displayed in our trailer.

Finally, this thin writing gives off a more mysterious and sinister look. This still contrasts with our trailer due to it being full of enigmas and cliff hangers therefore a more mysterious and eerie title can be effective.

Film Institution: The Major Movie Studios

Columbia Pictures:

Columbia Pictures was made in 1919 and is under the operation of Sony Pictures. It has a very recognisable label and this represents their success in the movie business. It is one of the leading film studios in the world and has made films such as ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2’, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘22 Jump Street’ which have a varied range of audiences but are all exceptionally popular.

Paramount:

Paramount was founded 1912 as Famous Players Film Company then officially became Paramount pictures in 1914. They are known as one of the big six and are successful because of their high budget films such as ‘India Jones’, ‘Shrek’, ‘Friday 13th and ‘Paranormal Activity’. They have made a wide range of genre and their horror films were hugely successful allowing us to question whether horror or action will be better for our chosen genre

Warner Bros:

Warner Bros studios was found in 1903 by the four Warner brothers. It is American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. As well as this, they also famously started the original ‘Looney Tunes’, as well as many more successful cartoons. Warner bros is extremely successful as it owns half of the CW Television Network and has made some of the most popular films invented such as Harry Potter.

Walt Disney:
Walt Disney Pictures is one of the most well-known film institution out of all the major movie studios. It was found in 1923 and was immediately extremely popular. Disney is constantly apart of life as played a massive part in childhood. We also know the studio because of the famous founder - Walt Disney. Disney traditionally specialises in family movies and animation such as the classics, 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'The Jungle Book' to the more recent 'Cars', 'Wreck-it Ralph' and 'Up'. They also own a wide amount of film institutions such as Touchstone Pictures and Pixar. This all helps them stay successful and constantly make profits.

Universal Pictures:

Universal Pictures was founded in 1912 and It is the world's third oldest major film studio. It had many successes as it made ‘Jaws’, ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘The Extra-Terrestrial’ which each became the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its initial release.

20th Century Fox:

20th Century Fox, founded in 1935, have one of the most recognisable logos and theme tunes in the industry, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is the world's second largest major film studio, after Warner Bros. It has made will never be forgotten such as ‘Avatar’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Night at the Museum’ and many more.

Film Institution: The Mini Major Movie Studios

Dreamworks Animation:
Found in 1994 Dreamworks has always been popular with the younger audiences and family types meaning ratings are mostly ‘PG’ or ‘U’. For example they include ‘How To Train Your Dragon’. They are probably the most famous Mini Major Movie studio with a highly recognisable logo.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

Founded in 1924, it became a success and well-known until an increasingly unprofitable MGM was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, who lowered staff and production costs, forced the studio to produce low-budget fare, and then shut down theatrical distribution in 1973.The studio continued to produce five to six films a year and some popular films were made out of it such as ‘Nanny McPhee’.

Lionsgate Entertainment:

Lionsgate was founded in 1997 and is commercially the most successful Mini Major Film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio. They are well-known for horror movies such as ‘Saw’ and ‘The Hunger Games’.

The Weinstein Company:

The Weinstein Company are a recent company, only formed in 2005. Weinstein films include 'The King's Speech' and 'The Iron Lady' which are already known to be a big successful bringing it profits. As more films are released the more popular it will become.

Relativity Media:

Relativity Media was founded in 2004 and is not quite low-key being one of the least famous Mini Major Film studios but is still growing. They have a lot more growing to do, and they have not made many films that have received great profit of publicity. Their films include: 'Bridesmaids' and 'Limitless'.

Certificate Research 18

18 is the highest classification rating that is placed on films. Reasons for restricting films to the 18 certificate category have included scenes of hard drug use, supernatural horror, explicit sex, sadistic violence and sexual violence. This could cause the certificate not being issued at all, banning the film in the UK. In our group we will not involve all these conventions in such detail as if we aimed to get an 18 certificate it would limit our range of audience and the most popular audience which is 15 and above making our film less popular.

Certificate Research 15

Chosen Certificate 

For our film we wish to make our certificate rating a 15 as it helps maximise our audience and making it more popular to a wider range of audience. We gave it a 15 as it will contain mild violence in scenes such as where the parents argue (have spoken about this in detail n my film pitch) and when the young girl nearly gets run over. However, we are not showing extreme gore or dwelling on the pain and injury so it will fade out in black before there would be any traumatic images. Strong language will be used throughout our film to put emphasis on the man as the antagonist as it shows his dark side. At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sexualised threat which we do not contain. Therefore, we felt we didn't need to rate in an 18 as we aren't containing extremely strong sex scenes or nudity allowing it to be more acceptable for 15's and overs.

Cetficate Research 12 and 12A

The 12A requires an adult to accompany any child under 12 seeing a 12A film at the cinema but when you are 12 you do not need to be accompanied and can go with friends, making the film more popular with a bigger audience. Strong language such as the f*** may be passed or changed to a 15 certificate but more moderate language such as b*** are more likely to be passed for 12 and 12A

At 12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not contain a lot of detail meaning there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. In 12A and 12 there may be sight of drugs but the scene or film should not concentrate around this area.

Certificate Research PG

PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing. PG films are mostly appropriate for a child aged around eight or older without causing any problems. A PG film will not contain any theme which is inappropriate for a child and can even explore issues such as bullying or racism, advertising it in a more discreet way.

Certificate Research U

The U stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. A U film can explore a wide rang of themes, as long as it is appropriate for a young audience. This doesn't mean that all films rated U are aimed at children.It just means they are suitable for any age and can be anybody's type. The genre would be positive giving off positive vibes for the audience.

Shot Lists

For our trailer we will be using a variety of shots; this will help enable the audience to get a clearer understanding for our film.The main shots are long shot, medium shot and close up. This is because long shots will help in our film as we cut from long shots of the young girl running down the road oa sudden close up of her facial expressions, showing fear and worry. Therefore this will be much more effective and clearer to the audience what is going on. It will also help create suspense with the low key lighting outside as setting it in evening around pm. Medium shots are effective as it shows the characters body language as well as their facial expressions which medium shots are not meant to focus on, this is used when the parents are arguing as the 'mother' has her arms crossed to show she is angry.. Close ups create the biggest effect on the audience. This is because from a close up you can see the characters facial expressions and reactions to what is going on. This can create tension for the audience. n our film the close ups will be used to express the girls vulnerability.

Long shot:

 




Medium shot:

Close up shot:



We will then be using more subtle shots that have a big impact on the audience such as extreme close up, over the shoulder shot and two shot. Extreme close up is used so the audience can focus on the character alone and not get distracted by any action in the background. Over the shoulder shot allows an insight of what the main character can see from her view adding realism to shot. Two shot is a medium shot where 2 characters are put in a frame. This is important in our film as we want to use this when the 'mother' and 'father' are arguing which will have a larger impact on the audience.

Extreme close up:

Over the shoulder shot:





 Two shot:

Shane Meadows Analysis

In the opening trailer of this film we are hovered over an establishing shot where the camera pans across the forest in fast motion. Non diegetic music is added on top of this which is quite gentle and slow, this allows the audience to be drawn into the trailer and immediately feel sympathy. We cut to a medium shot behind 2 characters walking through the forest. Due to them holding bags and wearing tracksuits and baggy clothing we can connote that these characters are poor and maybe homeless therefore this is why the non-diegetic sound is used, to help create that emotion and awareness before the audience are even shown the story. We continue to cut from and to different angle shots of them walking, as it fades into black it infers that these 2 characters have been walking for a while. In the last shot of them walking through the forest we have the man in the green jacket walking ahead while the boy in the blue tracksuit is behind. This can suggest that the man in front is a more important character die to him having more prevalence.

As we fade into a black title with hit writing saying “brothers love” we begin to understand the characters. The white writing stands out against the black background making the trailer look effective. The medium shot of the 2 brother’s s baby’s shows their love for each other. We hen cut to a close up of both the characters faces, allowing us to recognise them I more detail. After their conversation about going back to town to sort out business we can understand the one in the blue tracksuit who didn’t want to go is afraid of something which adds enigmas for the audience. What’s so bad back in town? What business does he have to sort out?

As we cut to a title, the background is black and in large, bold letter we have “VENGANCE” in orange connoting fire and anger. This is effective as the title we have seen before says “brothers love” therefore when it juxtapose to a brother vengeance the audience start to find in captivating. The music then juxtapose to become much more anticipated getting the audience in the mood. We hear whispers “what did you do to him? What did you do?” this is effective as the audience are now completely hooked into the story line needing to know what happens next!

A medium shot of gang of boys grabbing a boy and laughing at him as they have something tied around his neck. He screams “no”, here we can understand the man who wants vengeance is his older brother and as we were shown at the beginning how close they were the audience are aware he will do anything to get revenge making the story line much more dramatic. This is successful as the genre is a thriller and this follows the codes and conventions.

The next shot is my favourite as it is such a clever shot. When one of the bad boys leave their friends we have him coming round from a corner. However, in just a split second we have shown this figure in a mask in the reflection of the window. The reason why this shot is so successful Is because it allows the audience to realise he is there before the character does, however it all happens so fast that that up paced and dramatic atmosphere doesn’t disappear. After that split t second of him disappears we then cut to another angle shot of him where it is an over the shoulder shot of the bad boy, getting to see the man in the mask in more detail and for a longer period of time.

The shots start to speed up, we cut from a medium shot of a man running up the stirs in fear to another medium shot of 2 of them shouting out the window “we will find you”

We are shown a medium shot of the two brother together again, the brother who wears the mask I jumping up and down and his facial expression shows anger and determination. However, the jumping subverts this as it can show he is afraid but he knows he has to do this for his brother who was bullied. In this shot Richard the younger brother is just looking to the floor confused, this can show he is dependent on his older brother who is represented as stronger. This is then proven as we cut to a shot in the same area of Richards’s older brother talking to somebody. This guy is in all black connoting mystery and can also represent him as a dangerous man. Due to what he is wearing can show he is higher up than the brothers therefore we understand that this is serious business. This two shot is effective as in the centre of these 2 men we have Richard in the background again showing him to be dependent on his brother to sort out his problems and afraid in getting involved. We are shown the surroundings of council estates and in the houses they are very small and camped suggesting that all these people are poor which could infer they had rough up bringing’s.

Richards brothers just confessed he is the guy in the mask and a soon as w=he says that we get a sharp screeching sound and cut to a close up of the mask then long shot of him holding a hammer looking down at 2 of the bad men asleep. A close up of an over the shoulder shot shows the man in all black saying “your making me very nervous Richard” this shot so effective as we can see how close the characters faces are together compared to in the two shot were their bodies were far apart. This adds tension and suspense which is what a thriller should do. When we were cutting from these shots a flash of red took up the whole screen. This is successful as the deep red could connote blood and the death of the gang. The music is very tedious with a repetitive piano note playing constantly in the background. We get flashing shots of Richard with an axe as we hear screams. The flashing shots are effective as it adds that ominous atmosphere to that scene and makes it frightening for the audience to watch as they sit there wondering what is going on.

A medium shot of part of the gang holding a snipe up aimed at Richard. However, when we cut to a long shot of Richard we see him standing there in his own clothes and an axe in his hand, lifting up his arms and smiling inferring he doesn’t care. A close up of the man lifting the sniper closer to his eye and hearing a click from the bullet we fade into back which make the trailer look much more professional using transitions.

The last shot we see before the titles is a close up of Richard looking down to the floor then shutting his eye as we have a voiceover saying “ I can’t live with that”, implying he can’t live with the way they tormented his brother. We cut to the traditional black title and the music is high pitched, it is in the orange writing again standing out from the black background. The 4 stars may make the audience want to watch the movie as we know that is must be good to be rated this. As the lexis such as “disturbing” and “utterly gripping” will catch the target audience’s attention.

At the very end we cut through traumatic shots of violence, where we see blood written on walls, and someone pointing a gun to a man’s head tied in a plastic bag. This shows the thriller and horror side which will again intrigue the target audience.

Finally, we are shown the title at the very end. “Dead Man’s Shoes” are displayed in large bold letters. The words ‘dead’ and ‘man’ are displayed in red which adds colour to the title and also connotes the blood and death pf this movie and the word ‘man’ is displayed in white as it is traditional and also allows each word to stand out.

Research and Planning Initial Feedback

Carly - you are capable of a higher level of detail and analysis than you've evidence this year so far and you should be aiming to build on your outstanding progress and attainment last year, receiving top band marks for G321 tasks.  Push yourself further and if you need extra support book in a chance to see me to schedule an extra session.


Analyse the following focuses:  Mise en scene, Sound, Camera, Editing, Genre Indictors, Enigmas, Narrative and Characters, Unique Selling Points, Representation, Trailer Conventions and how the  target Audience is Addressed, Comparison to Other Trailers of the same Genre.