Studio Ident Research

For my teaser trailer I will have to create my own studio ident, here are some examples of film ident's that are used for films and my ident will be based on some of these and particular traits that they have. I have researched these particular ident's and have found out that "twisted pictures" produce horror films such as the famous "Saw" films. At this moment Lions Gate Entertainment is the most commercially successful independent film distribution company in North America. Pixar and DreamWorks are both producers of animation and are the most famous and successful animation companies in the world at this moment.

Final Script of Teaser Trailer - Detailed Planning and Dialogue

Detailed Planning

Scene 1

The car is travelling down the road towards the point of impact with the boy, at this moment the boy is unaware of the cars presence. There is a small amount of dialogue in this scene.

This is the road we plan on using in our trailer as it will hopefully be quiet and also there will be little interruptions in terms of people walking up and down getting in the shot of the camera.

The shot size will show the road and the boy, and the car coming towards the boy. The camera movement will show a variety of different shots and views to offer different perspectives. The camera angle will be canted at moments to add effect. The lighting will be from daylight but it will be getting dark, which will bring tension.

The setting will be on a road near the school so it is easy to get to and looks more realistic as to a sixth former walking home. There will be a variety of props, such as the car and a mp3 player/mobile phone in order to set the scene that the boy is not concentrating on crossing the road but instead worrying about his music.




Scene 2

It is set in the evening, the boy has been killed in the car accident, there is limited dialogue in this scene but the boy will make a sound on impact and the driver will be panicking.

The shots are going to be close-ups of the car's point of view and the boys view of the car. The camera will be moving along showing the boys narrative and the drivers narrative in quick cuts of each narrative, the camera will cut out when boy is hit to suggest it was from his perspective and the blacked out screen reflects a negative connotation of the boys death. There will be lighting from daylight but it will be getting dark.

The setting is on a road by the school, props will include the car, and actors will be wearing casual clothes, this scene will take place with quiet mysterious music in the background, and it will climax on the point of impact with the child. The sound effects will be the screeching of the car and the impact on the boy.

Scene 3

Scene 3 is set in the daytime where the driver is walking through a relatively crowded area and is suddenly pushed into a bin by an unknown force, a little dazed and confused he stands up, brushes himself off and accuses one of the crowd of teenagers that are laughing at him. the diagetic sound from this scene comes from the driver falling over a bin and people laughing at him, in which he shares dialogue with them.

The length of the shot will be an mid-longshot, where the camera will be following the driver, assuming that it is from the ghosts perspective, it will go really close to the driver and that is when the driver will fall over the bin. The lighting will be from the sunlight. 

The setting will be in the school playground, and the props will be the bin, costumes required are casual clothes for the driver and school uniforms for the children laughing.




This is the school playgorund that will be used, the bins that will be props are located in the middle of the playground.


 

Scene 4

Scene 4 is where the driver is in his house and things are being moved around when he is not looking which makes him nervous but confused, the dialogue is of the driver panicking, whilst running around the house.



The starting shot will be an establishing shot of the house, then moving on to close-ups in the house. The camera will be following the driver around the house and capturing his reaction to the discovery he makes when he notices things are being shuffled about. There will be a variety of angles tracking the objects that have been moved around the house. The lighting will come from the lights on in the house as the scene will take place at night time.

This is the house I plan on using for all our scenes located in a house environment.

The setting is in the drivers house, the props in use are everything that is moved about the house, the clothing will be casual for the driver and the music will be fast paced and dramatic.

Scene 5

This scene takes place inside the drivers bathroom, where he will be having a shave and he will bend down to wash his face and as he looks up, back into the mirror he will see the boys face that he killed, in seeing this he will jump backwards in fright and realise that it was the ghost that has been tormenting him. The sound in this scene will be of the driver having a wash/shave then when the ghosts face appears a loud shocking non-diagetic sound will ring out followed by a lot of screaming and shouting from the driver.

The length of the shot will be a close-up of the driver in the mirror with the camera being directly over the shoulder of him.

The setting is in the drivers house, the props will be the mirror, shaving equipment and the sink with the water in, the driver will be dressed in pyjamas as he will be getting ready for bed.

Scene 6

This is the final scene where the driver gets dragged along the floor by the ghost, the dialogue used is the driver screaming.

The shot sizes will be average, just big enough to show the driver being dragged at a close angle, the lighting will come from lights switched on in the house.

It is set inside the drivers house on a landing/corridor, with menacing non-diagetic music and the sound effects of the ghost screeching.

Dialogue

Scene 1

Driver: I look good today (looking in mirror). (notices phone ringing) but why does she keep ringing me? I've had enough of this girl!

Scene 2

Driver: (When boy is hit) oh shit, where the hell did he come from! I didn't see him, he came out of nowhere. (Beginning to drive off) Fuck this I'm not getting caught.

Scene 3

(After the driver has been knocked into the bin)

Driver: who did that?

(Notices a group of teenagers laughing at him, he grabs one of them)

Driver: It was you, wasn't it? 

Teenage boy: No!

(A teacher sees this and stops it) 

Teacher: What is going on here!

Driver: He pushed me into the bin

Teacher: I don't care, let him go!

Driver: (gritted teeth) yes miss

Teacher: Now go to my room

Scene 4

(sees objects moving around his house)

Driver: oh my god, what is going on, shit, this is weird!

Scene 5

(Humming to himself until he notices ghost behind him)

Driver: arghh, what! It's you!? But your supposed to be dead, I saw you die, I killed you! So how are you here, just leave me alone you bastard!

Scene 6

(Driver is being dragged down the landing)

Driver: ohh my god! oh my god! Let go, get off me! Why aren't you dead??

Narrative Structure for Teaser Trailer

This post will include details of storyboarding, scripting, the mise-en-scene, the setting and the props. Therefore covering the whole planning phase of the teaser trailer, so that we can begin to film after this.

The images below were taken by me to show that I have done my storyboarding and scripting in great detail.

This is a picture of one of our storyboarding sheets, this particular one was our second draft.

This is additional storyboarding, this was also our second draft.

The image shows our opening scene, where the car is heading towards the child but the child remains unaware of the threat.

This is our second shot where the camera will give point-of-view shots of the perspectives of the driver and the child.

Our third shot shows the child has been killed in the car accident, and the camera will track away from the scene to show the devastation 

Our fourth shot shows the killer being pushed into a bin by an unseen force, which later turns out to be the ghost of the child, who lusts for revenge.

The fifth shot will be of the killer having a wash in the bathroom and when he looks up into the mirror the child's face will appear, the camera angle will be directly over the killers shoulder so it seems from his perspective.

The sixth shot will be of objects being moved around the killers house when he is not looking which will freak him out and make him paranoid, it will be done as when the killer leaves the room something will be moved to a different place.

The closing scene will be left on a suspenseful cliffhanger, where the killer is being dragged across the floor by the ghost , the camera angle will be a close-up of the killer to start and will remain stationary throughout the shot.

This is final planning for the four main scenes, which required extra planning as they were more challenging to do. Things  such as settings, props, costumes, dialogue and sound have been considered and planned in further detail.

Final Case Studies that Relate to our Style of Film & our Synopsis of Teaser Trailer

We have been inspired by two films that are different styles of film but link closely with our ideas, these films are "Shutter Island" and "Tormented".

Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a American psychological thriller that came out in 2010 and was directed by Martin Scorsese. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role as US Marshall Edward Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility on the titled island.

Theatrical release poster

This film was such an inspiration to our plot as it is a period piece that gives nods to film noir and the horror genre which is what many of our concepts will attempt to follow but set in present day. It also pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's directing skills as it holds many traits and Hitchcock produced many successful psychological thrillers throughout his directing career.
We also chose Shutter Island as an example to follow the conventions of as it was generally successful in terms of reviews it received, while one reviewer claimed "After four decades, Martin Scorsese has earned the right to deliver a simple treatment of a simple theme with flair."

Tormented
Tormented is a 2009 British horror-comedy film starring Alex Pettyfer as a schoolboy who is the main bully of the school. The film was directed by Jon Wright.

Original release poster

We drew inspiration from this film as we plan to have a similar narrative in terms of a death occurring then the ghost returning to take his revenge, this film was a close comparison that we were able to make, so we watched it to gain inspiration and took notes in order to be able to make our production unique but also sticking to the conventions of this style of film.
This was a good example of a film to base our production on as it received mainly positive reviews, Total Film described it as "A slasher for the Skins generation". With Empire calling it "cynical, gruesome fun" and rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis of our teaser trailer
A teenager is driving a car, he then hits a child that runs out in front of the car, who is then killed. Then the ghost of the child comes back and haunts the man who hit him, he haunts him because the man drove off after he hit him and he did not own up to his collision with the boy.

The Dark Knight Rises - Case Study

The Dark Knight Rises is a superhero film based on DC Comics super hero Batman. The film will be the third and final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman series.

Filming has taken place in a variety of different locations, including India, London, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York and Glasgow.

Marketing

In May 2011, the films website was launched, it introduced a viral marketing campaign similar to The Dark Knight. A link to Twitter was on it, so that followers of The Dark Knight Rises were given access to the first screenshots of the film.

In July 2011, a teaser trailer was leaked online, it was then officially released 3 days later. Reviews of the trailer were mixed, Stephen Spencer Davies said that it successfully built hype, while other people saying it was more of an announcement trailer than a teaser. Outlaw implied that the scene with Comissioner Gordan in the hospital bed was too dramatic, with "hammy" dialogue due to his laboured breathing. They also said that the final swooping scene of Gotham City had poor CGI and was too reminiscent of the trailer for Inception.

Teaser Poster

Here is the link to the teaser trailer  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Humz3ONgk

The Avengers - Case Study

The Avengers is a superhero film that is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on a group of superheroes that span over many different Marvel films that come together and unite; the superheroes are icons such as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor.

Development of The Avengers began in 2005, with the success of the Iron Man film, The Avengers was scheduled for a July 2011 release but with the signing of Scarlett Johansson the film was pushed back to May 2012.

Here is a link to the teaser trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zatgnqdIefs

Teaser Poster

Premise
When an unexpected enemy emerges who threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, the director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team of superheroes to pull the world back from the brink of disaster.


Marketing
In July 2011 a teaser trailer was leaked on to the internet that was meant to feature post-credits for Captain America: The First Avenger. Entertainment Weekly described the footage as "shaky, fuzzy, flickering and obviously from a cell phone".


The first teaser trailer was released in October 2011, Comic Book Resources stated that "The two-minute teaser handily establishes the movie's premise" and is "heavy on the assembling, but fans are also treated to plenty of action, as well glimpses of Iron Man's new armour and, best of all, the new take on the Incredible Hulk. Naturally, Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark gets the best lines".

Update of Progress - Change to Teaser Trailer

My group have decided that if we were to do a short film it would be too long to fit the whole plot in, so what we decided to do is that we are going to fit some of the main elements of our film into a shortened teaser trailer, that will aim to capture and intrigue the audience.

We have planned the locations of where we are going to film the scenes and will also plan on taking photos of the surrounding area and risk assessments of the potential hazards that are located there or that could take place. These photos will be added in a later post.

We have also planned out a schedule of when we will be filming over the couple of months we have to shoot the trailer, and we have based it on a variety of different types of days, depending on the weather and the time of day, which is important as we also need to determine when an evening shot or a daytime shot can be taken. We have to plan everything around this and if we had other times when we could be doing research or blogging we will have to put it on hold as the film takes top priority.

The trailer will be shot at these times during these days and if we need to get evening shots we will just do it after school, the reason why the times of the schedule are so regimented is because these are when our media lessons take place.