The Retrograde.

Of course, every film has a title. The title of the film could be the name of the main character, the event, or something completely different.

We wanted our film title to be the name of the event that the government perform. To achieve this we thought of ideas such as wipe, restart and amnesia. We thought these were too predictable so we typed these into the thesaurus and went through a lot of words to see which fitted the most.

We stumbled upon "The Retrograde" and to cut a long story short, this is now our film title. 

The Tense Call.

Costumes, Props and Make-up

Costumes, Props and Make-up

We chose to have our main character, Lewie, wearing jeans and a top/coat for most of our filming. This is because we want him to look like any normal teenage boy. Also we thought that it would be much easier for him to wear something like this, that he always wears anyway as it would help continuity. If his outfit was very complicated and he needed vast amounts of make-up and props, each time we filmed, it would not look exactly the same and then there would be major continuity errors.

Planning our cast and location.

Cast (order of appearance):
•Boy: Max Boyden 
•Host girl: Hannah Rae 
•Girls friend: Bee Williamson 
•Party goers: Ross, Conor, Jak, Joseph, Sam, Katie, Hannah,Bee, Georgia, Tiffany, Lucie, Alice, Georgia, Tamsin, Beth, Grace, Holly, Sam MS
•Girls other friends: Tamsin, Beth, Grace, Holly 
•Boys friend: Lewie? Jack Cutler? 
•Government 1: Jak's dad? Tiffany's dad? 
•Government 2: Jak's dad? Tiffany's dad? Tom from year12? 
•Chat room people; Boy x3, girl x2 

Location Bookings:
•School corridor 
•Drama studio 
•Bedroom 
•Canteen 
•Area for boy talking to friend 
•Government screen scene 
•Bedroom again with computer

Progress.

Our progress and our next three steps... 

Script.

As our trailer includes a lot of dialogue, we felt it would be sensible to create a script to follow so that we keep on the right lines and are focused. The stage directions also act as a guide to our storyline.

Storyboard.

This is our first storyboard for our film trailer. To suit the genre we decided to throw in moments of action and tension to increase suspense and also to speed up the pace of the trailer to reflect the genre.

Inspirations.

These are our inspirations for our film trailer. 

Location and Props.

Location (School Scene)

- This scene will be done at the Weald of Kent School. The reason we chose this is because it is our school and will be easy to film there once quiet.

- The corridor and walk ways at the school are perfect for the trailer as they seem clean and when we see the students walk out of there lesson it will be easy to fill up the corridor

- When the boy gets embarrassed in front of everyone we will film this in the school canteen as this is a very stereotypical place to have this humiliation

Location (Party Scene)

- The party scene could also be filmed at Weald in the drama studio as we could flash lights of different colours and get a group of people to fill up the room and dance so it looks like a house party

·   - If we decide we don’t want to film this at school we can use an actual house and with clever camera angles and shots we could make it look like there are more people at the house then there actually is

Location (Friends talking scene)

- Because we are linking this scene to the school canteen scene, we have to ensure that the backgrounds of both these scenes are the same colour.

·   - A white wall will work the best as you wont notice the cut in the scene

·   - For this we will have to find a white wall or something similar to the colour of the school canteen

Location (Government Scene)

- We need to film this scene in a room without windows

·   -  We will need a big enough wall in which we will stick green card on the walls for the green screen effect

·  - The lighting needs to be perfect as the men need to be blacked out and the green screen needs to have enough lighting, this will be hard to film

Props:

·      Folders

·      Phones

·      Alcohol

·      Cups

·      Shot glasses

·      Lights

·      Music

·      Canteen trays/food

·      Green card

·      Guns

·      Cars

The Next 5 Steps.

To keep things running smoothly we need to plan our next 5 steps and make sure we are on track to meeting deadlines. After a discussion with the team we have now decided that this is what we will do next:

1. Complete Storyboard + Script
2. Find Location
3. Find Cast
4. Find a good camera
5. Figure out filming date

Completing these 5 steps with accuracy and precision will ensure that our group stay confident with such an ambitious project.

Music for trailer.

As we are progressing through our narrative idea, I decided it would be a good idea to look into what music we will have playing through the trailer. 

A YouTube account called 'The Secession' produces music for real films and trailers, so looking at the music they produce was a good starting point. We are allowed to use the music they make for our own personal videos if we don't monetize it, for free. 

I analysed a few trailers which had music suited for our genre in and then found music by the Secession which sounded similar and may use. 

50 Shades of Grey had very tense music which engaged me as a viewer. I liked how they timed some of the important shots according to the beats of the music. 

LUCY also had epic cinematic music which we may use during the end of our trailer.

At the end of the transformers trailer it has an epic sound effect

in which the footage flashed on screen, we liked this. 

Green Screen Testing.

Green Screen Test 

Narrative Ideas.

To begin with our trailer opening we thought of three initial ideas  to get started. We chose three fairly similar ideas and tried to combine all of them to create a unique idea with the same genre as we had in our starting point. Our favourite and final idea is Idea Number 2. 

"Intersteller" Trailer Analysis

We analysed the trailer for "Interstellar" to further observe the typical features of a trailer and the importance of its components. "Interstellar" puts us in USA in a world where Earth is on its last legs and our only option to survive is to leave the planet. This genre of sci-fi will help us get ideas for our own sci-fi/thriller trailer.

"In Time" Trailer Analysis.

'In Time' is a dystopian thriller film created in October 2011. It creates a world in which time from our lives is the equivalent of money. This film is an inspiration for our own film trailer as we aim to base our film around the idea of a realistic dystopia and we feel as though 'In Time' is pivotal for that genre. This film has a 'what if' scenario which engages the audience so exactly what our aim is. 

Narrative Theorists.

Initial Ideas.

These are our original ideas for our film trailer. The blue titles are film and series inspirations which we would like our films to be of a similar theme to and surrounding the titles, are potential topics for our film.

Genre Theory.

We researched different theories about genre in order to apply them to our project and see how that have an influence over our trailer.

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir suggested that characters take on the role of narrative "spheres of actions" 

Our group decided to compare this theory to Harry Potter to see which characters corresponds to which role.

These characters are:

1. The Hero, usually male, restores equilibrium by embarking on a quest. In our case, Harry Potter is the Hero which is clearly told through his name being the title, and him featuring in the majority of the film.

2. There is a Villain which creates disruptions, ruining the equilibrium. This is what the hero has to fix. In Harry Potter the villain throughout the whole series is Voldemort, but in each separate film there is also another minor villain.

3. There is a Donor who prepares the Hero by giving him/her an object or magical powers. In Spiderman the donor would be the spider that bit Peter Parker to give him the powers.

4. There is a Dispatcher notifies the Hero of the disturbance I equilibrium and sends him on his way. In Harry Potter, Hagrid would be the dispatcher.

5. There is a Helper who aids the hero on his/her quest. In Shrek, Donkey would be the helper.

6. There is a Princess or Prize which the Hero deservers throughout the story but cannot have due to evil, usually from the villain. The hero then obtains this at the end of his journey through defeating the villain. In Shrek the Princess would be Fiona.

7. There is a False Hero who takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the Princess. In Frozen, Prince Hans would be the anti-hero.

Genre : Social Realism

Jak and I were given the task to complete a presentation on social realism. This would introduce this genre to us and the rest of the class. 


Here is the Prezi:

Teaser VS Theatrical.

Teaser VS Theatrical:

As we all know, our brief is to make a promotional film package, which includes a trailer. The first thing we all need to fully understand is, what is the difference between a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer?

We studied the two "Dawn of the planet of the apes" trailers to see the true difference between the two types of trailers:



In writing, what we found?

Teaser:

- Much shorter

- Faster paced

- Shorter Cuts

- Not a lot of content which makes you want to watch the longer trailer or watch the full film

Theatrical:

- Slow Paced

- Longer cuts

- More connection between the characters 

- More content which gives away more of the film

The Brief.

TheBeefyBrief. 

As a hard worker and motivated student, I am extremely excited about this project. Collectively as a team, we can put forward ideas and develop our promotional package to get the best grade. I am looking forward to collaborating with the other group and helping each other out throughout this year.

- James from SkinnyPigProductions