A2 Media Film Trailer

After I released the rough cut of my film trailer, I requested those who watched the film to give me some advice on what aspects were lacking and needed to be revisited before the final upload. Some of the main issues included issues within the music track that had sections missing. Since then I have blended the song into sections that flow together to serve the tone of the trailer. Another aspect was colour grade related, in order to express different moments of the film, I needed to experiment with different colour tones, in the end I experimented with black and white tones, shadow and colour graded sections which were previously left untouched in the rough cut. Some personal critiques which I had found were addressed such as pacing which was quite varied within the rough cut were fixed as I removed and added clips in order to fit the pace that I wanted to set. I looked at trailer conventions and sought to enhance other scenes within the trailer by adding sound effects and sound distortion in order to reflect different tones within the trailer.

Audience feedback:

William Conniff: It is evident when you compare the final result of the trailer to the rough cut that there has been vast improvements in terms of pace and quality. The film appears as one cohesive experience that blends naturally with enough use of creative experimentation that it achieves its own identity among the crime genre.

George Snell: The improvements stood out to me as soon as I compared the two. It is clear that the audience feedback has been carefully considered and applied to the trailer. Even subtle improvements such as colour grades and experimentation with the use of film grain really give the film a more improved visual style which is similar to other films.

Differences:

Rough Cut

Final

Rough cut

Final

Shoot List

Interrogation (police)

Close Up-Bruised Hands
Extreme Close up-Bruised Eyes looking to clock
Close Up-Clock Ticking
Extreme Close up-Continued clock ticking
Close up-Recording device
Arial Close up-Recoding device countdown
Medium Shot, dolly right to close up-Will to a close up of Camcorder
Profile close up-A hand comes into frame, sliding one of the polaroids towards Will
High angle Close up-Three polaroids
Extreme Close up-Will scans over the images with his eyes and then looks into the camera
Profile Medium Shot-Will Sitting with his hand on his head
Dolly Left Close up-Moving over the evidence, finishing with Will picking up a polaroid
MCU-Will Examines the polaroid
Close up-The hammer of the gun is pulled back as the person in the doorway turns to face it

House (Robbery)

Medium Low-angle-Cris drinking the last of his water
Close Up (slight dutch angle)- Placing empty bottle down and taking sellotape. Pick up gun and then pick up bottle again.
High Angle Close up- Pulling sellotape apart
Low angle Close up-Taping the bottle to the barrel of the gun
Medium Tracking shot-Cris walking from the bathroom to the bedroom
Medium Close up-Brief case is removed from the lens, revealing the hostage
Medium Shot-The boys leaving the room while cris pauses mid frame
Low angle Medium Close up-Cris raises the gun
Close up-Finger pulling the trigger of the gun
Close up-As blood (right of frame) shoots out of the hostage's (left of frame) head
Low angle Medium shot- Will removes the bloodied bag from the head of the corpse. He turns and winces at the sight
Close up-As Will covers his nose from the stench. He begins to turn back, raising his polaroid
Close up-Will takes a photo, the flash blinds the camera
Close ups-A hand unlocks the briefcase with a combination
Low Angle Medium Three Shot-The boys open the briefcase

Field

Long Shot-George walks in search of the bag of money on the tree (left of the frame)
Medium Close up-George walking towards the camera as he spots the bag
Close up-Of the bag as it is snatched out of frame
Close up Dolly Left-A bag of drugs are stashed at the foot of the tree. Move left into darkness of something blocking the lens
Close up Tracking Shot-Legs running
Dolly Left MCU-The camera circles around Will as he searches the landscape

House (Poker)

Dolly left Medium Three shot-The boys sitting around the table playing poker
Close up-Ben toying with chips
Close up-George Shuffling cards
Profile Medium Close up-A masked figure leans into frame and begins picking the lock of the front door
Close up-Door lock. Hands enter frame and begin picking it
Close up-Poker cards, bended up as they are checked by George
Close Up-Cards are thrown into the camera lens
Low angle Medium two shot-Two masked men push open the door
Low angle Medium Shot-As a baseball bat is lowered into frame, causing the tree boys to look up
MCU two shot-The two masked men walking toward the boys
Low angle Two Shot-One of the masked men throw a bag over the camera
Close up Two Shot-The masked men step into frame
Dutch Angle Close up-Card shuffling


House (Abandoned Interrogation)

Close Up-Of George as the bag is removed from his head
Close Up-Handcuffed, George attempts to escape
Medium Close up-George looks to his right to discover his two friends unconscious
Medium Shot-George looks forward as he begins to process his situation
MCU-Boy being hit by a baseball bat
MCU-Boys being punched
Low Angle close up-A blowtorch is ignited
Dutch Angle MCU Dolly backwards-An injured Cris crawls towards the camera
Profile MCU-A gun is raised to Cris' head
Dutch Angle Medium Shot-Cris is crawling toward a door and a guard steps into the room

House (Preparation)

Long Shot Dolly Forward-Ben is packing guns into a bag to take onto a job
Dolly Right Close up-Ben takes a gun from the pile and places it into the bag
Low angle Medium Close up-As Ben seals up the bag
Close up-Boots in the foreground while two figures are attempting to saw of a leg off a dead body
Medium Tracking shot-Will is being pursued by two guards

Jobs

Close up-Poison being placed into a glass
Close up-Liquid mixing within the glass
Low Angle MCU-Pouring Cleaning Liquid over glass, blocking the lens
MCU-Gun being raised toward the camera
Medium Tracking Shot-A man running with a gun, raising it up
Profile Long Shot-Will collapses to the floor

Title ideas-Magazine

After much debate, I chose to narrow the magazine titles down to three to put in a questionnaire. Out of the list, I chose Rough Cut, The Dailies and Rush. I chose Rough cut because its a common term which most people will associate with the film making process. I chose The Dailies because it is a reference to the term for raw unedited footage shot during the filming of a motion picture. Finally I chose Rush for a similar reason to dailies. 'Rushes' are an alternate term for dailies used to describe raw footage. I also feel that Rush has a very appealing brand name for a magazine that will stick with audiences.

I managed to send out a survey in order to ask which title audiences preferred. In order to generate responses, I shared the survey through friends and social media. In total I received 19 submissions before I had enough to consider a safe title to use. It appears after 57.89% of the vote, Rush was the most popular title. The title appears to have the effect which I had hoped it would have had with audiences. Due to this audience feedback, I will use Rush as my magazine title.

Poster Final

While updating the final outcome of my film poster I began to consider other conventions. As a result I added a company logo, and credits to the cast and director. I also acted upon some constructive criticism that I received for my original draft. I smoothed some of the images within the frame, changed the font in some places and corrected some issues with the colour.