New Soundtrack

After deciding to improve our teaser trailer we decided that the soundtrack needed to be changed in order to improve our teaser trailer. A problem with the music used on our original trailer was that it was the same consecutive track used throughout the whole trailer, this didn't fit with the codes and conventions we found when researching other trailers. We also found that it didn't have the depth to create emotion in specific parts of the trailer that we wanted.

So we decided that our original music (Clair De Lunes played on the flute) wasnt right and decided on to separate tracks from a copyright free, free play music website: http://freeplaymusic.com/

We chose to use the piano piece called "Pathfinder". This piece had a strong beginning that we liked so we downloaded the MP3 file into iTunes and dragged it into FinalCut. This allowed us to cut the piece of music at certain points and delete certain parts of the music that we didn't need.

So this gave us a powerful begging to our trailer, which we felt was important to add impact. We then wanted to use another piece of music to create a clam feeling in certain parts of the trailer, but build up at certain parts of the trailer to create drama, this we hoped would further signify the genre of romantic period drama, which we felt it did by being a piece of string music.

These two pieces of music helped signify the different feelings of the main female protagonist and in some parts the feelings of the main male protagonist.

Storyboard For Improved Teaser Trailer

Production Schedule for Original Trailer

Media for All I Know Production Schedule
This production schedule was for the original filming we did for our old trailer, when improving our trailer we have made a new production schedule shown here:
http://g324meganridley.blogspot.com/2010/03/production-schedule.html
This helped us plan what shots we needed to film, were we needed to film them, what actors/actress's were needed, what costumes and props we needed and what equipment we needed.

Ancillary texts - New Improved Magazine Cover

Here is our new and improved magazine cover. I used all non copyrighted images for the cover and edited it in Photoshop Elements 8.0.

After looking at magazine covers and researching the codes and conventions I took inspiration from Empire magazine and Total Film magazine. But with our film being a period drama I found it hard to reflect this genre in the style of my magazine front cover so I decided to use similar colours too the main image. Here are the beginning stages of making the magazine cover:

For this part of the editing process I used the magnetic lasso to cut out the woman's head and neck and I then copied and pasted it onto another layer. This allowed me to place the main text behind the image of the woman's head which is a common code and convention of magazine covers.

For this stage I used the text tool to create the magazine title and I then used the rectangle tool to create the bottom banner on a separate layer.I tool inspiration fro this from a copy of Empire magazine shown in my earlier post:

http://g324meganridley.blogspot.com/2009/11/movie-magazine-research.html

I then changed the colour of the banner to same blue on the woman's dress and changed the opacity of the banner to 90%, I did this so that the banner wasn't to harsh for the image.

For this stage I had added white boxes for the banner using the rectangle tool.

I did at first create a magazine cover that included copyrighted images, this is shown here:

But I realized I wasn't allowed to include copyrighted images so i edited it to include non copyright images and used images from my peers production with their permission. I also changed the tagline of the magazine from "The UK's Biggest Movie Magazine" to "Bringing you movie news monthly" because Empire magazine is known as the UK's biggest movie magazine.

The final magazine cover is shown here:

Trailer Reshearch - Time Traveler's Wife

We also looked at the trailer for the film The Time Travellers Wife. This is the full length trailer, un like the trailer we looked at for 500 Days Of Summer which was a teaser trailer. This film was directed by Robert Schwentke and gave us alot of inspiration for our own trailer, even though this is a full length teaser trailer and isn't a period drama like ours.

One of the aspects of the trailer that we particularly liked was how the titles/text in the film were shown. In most cases, apart from the main actor and actress's names, the titles/ text were shown on a separate clip/shot. This background image could represent sequins, lights or stars which will signify to the audience that this film has a supernatural twist and that it could involve magic. An example of these titles is shown here:

The film is based on a best selling novel

We liked this idea of having a separate clip/shot for the titles of the film to be shown, which we Incorporated into our own trailer. This was decided later on and the footage we used was footage we accidentally shot. This is shown here:

Another code and convention of film trailers is incorporating the main actors and actress's names into the trailer. With this being a common code and convention of film trailers we liked how the actors and actress's names are shown in this trailer, an example is shown here:

Eric Bana in The Time travellers as Henry DeTamble

We Incorporated a similar trailer by selecting a clip and using Live Type to create text and place it over a medium shot the main male protagonist and over an over the shoulder shot of the main female protagonist laughing. This signifies that that is the actor/actress, and if the actor/actress is famous this will help promote the film. An example of how we used the titles is shown here:

Another aspect that we liked about the trailer was the the extreme long shots of the main female protagonist running through the woods, this signifies urgency and connotes drama which helps to build up tension towards the end of the trailer so that the audience feel the sense of urgency and want to know what happens.

Racheal McAdams plays Clare Abshire running through the woods

This is helped by the fast paced editing that builds up to the end of the trailer. This is a common code and convention of film trailer and we have used this in our own trailer, but we had already used an extreme long shot of our main female protagonist running through the woods from our original trailer before we had seen this trailer, but found that it is a common scene to include in romantic dramas, it is also used the the Pride and Prejudice trailer.

Our main female protagonist running through the woods

Another aspect that really stood out to us from watching The Time Travelers Wife trailer was the music used. It starts off with a short tune and then sets into another song, this is the main song throughout the trailer, it begins with no lyrics and then towards the end of the trailer, when the shots are shorter and the trailer is building up towards the climax the lyrics are introduced to the background music, we found this very effective and liked the use of two separate pieces of music and fading them into each other at certain parts of the trailer, this we decided to incorporate in our own trailer.

Trailer Reshearch - 500 days Of Summer Teaser Trailer

We looked at the teaser trailer for the recent film, 500 Days Of Summer which was directed by Marc Webb. This trailer gave us inspiration for our improved teaser trailer trailer even though this teaser trailer is a different genre to our teaser trailer.

One aspect we liked about this trailer was some of the first shots which showed the two main protagonists sat on a bench, this then cut to a medium close up of the main male protagonist looking the right at the female protagonist which then cuts to the main female protagonist looking left at the main male protagonist. these shots are shown here:

These these three shots signify that these two characters are the main characters in the story and that they might be together in the story. We liked this idea of having two shots that show both angles of a situation between the two main protagonists which we decided to incorporate into our teaser trailer, shown here:

Another aspect we liked about the trailer was the use of a split screen, which showed two separate shots at the same time, one on either side of the screen. This helped the viewer see what the main male protagonist had seen and his reaction.

The split screen used in the 500 Days Of Summer Teaser Trailer

We incorporated a similar idea into our own trailer, we used a medium shot of the main female protagonist looking upset and troubled and then next to this shot a shot of the main male protagonist with the 'other women', both looking happy, laughing and walking arm in arm. This is similar to the split screen in the 500 days of summer teaser trailer, but we have put our own twist on it and incorporated it into the genre of our trailer, which is period drama.

Another shot used in the trailer which we liked was a medium, wide angled shot focused on the main female protagonist sat at a desk, not looking at the camera. This then un focuses to show two hanging ornaments, leaving the ornaments in focus and the main female protagonist out of focus. We wanted to incorporate this with our first clip on our trailer, shown here:

The shot fades out to show two hanging ornaments

The first shot of the main male protagonist and the 'other woman' which has a 'gaussian blur' filter which then fades into the next shot slowly making the next shot look as if it is coming into focus.

But we were unable to achieve this on the camera that was available too us so instead just used a medium, long shot behind some tree branches, but the viewer was still able to see the main male protagonist and the 'other woman. But we found that we could still achieve the same desired effect by splitting the clip into two and using a transition to bring the clip into focus. This shot/clip, we felt signified the same as the shot/clip used in the 5oo days of summer teaser trailer, which was that the main female protagonist was being watched but in a subtle way, which is similar to the clip/shot we used in our trailer, which we also hope signified the same as the 5oo days of summer clip.

Updated Transcript

27682472 for All I Know Transcript Updated Version

Production Schedule

27682756 Media for All I Know Production Schedule

Final Teaser Trailer