Rida Akhtar A2 [2001]: March 2018

Monday, 26 March 2018

Saturday, 24 March 2018

TEN TRAILERS ANALYSED

1 - WHIPLASH

2 - 127 HOURS

3 - REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

4 - BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

5 - INTERSTELLAR

6 - BACK TO THE FUTURE

7 - HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

8 - THE DARK KNIGHT

9 - THE EXORCIST

10 - AMY

By looking at websites for existing dystopian films I have gained an understanding of what features our website should have. The homepage of the websites all seem to feature a large image of either the same picture that is on the film poster or a picture from the film itself. The film title is clearly presented either at the top of the page, across the picture or both. All of the websites have a place to watch the trailer. The website for Maze Runner and Mad Max immediately plays the trailer as soon as the website is opened. Almost all the websites have a gallery tab and a 'about' tab.

The colours for all the websites coincide with the film colours and so have cold greys and black.

OUR POSTER ANALYSIS

POSTER CREATION

POSTER DECONSTRUCTION

POSTER GENRE RESEARCH

Dystopian film posters often feature the protagonist(s) in the foreground. Often the camera is angled looking up at the protagonist to give them a heroic look. The background of the poster is sometimes of the Dystopian setting, usually a wide angle shot of the city showing the destruction that has been caused to it.

The colour palette of the posters are usually consisting of cold blues, greys and blacks. However red is also a common colour to be seen in the posters.

The film title is almost always in capital letters with a sharp looking font that spaces out the letters.

Friday, 23 March 2018

SOUNDTRACK ANALYSIS

EDITING

Difficulties encountered when editing:

Glitch / flashback scene - this required looking up tutorials to see how to edit this scene
Park scene - We spent a lot of time re-editing this scene to make sure it looked right. We had to edit the shots and sound in a way that builds tension sufficiently.
News broadcast - The sound in the first dinner scene had to be played around with a lot to get the right result. The news broadcast and dialogue were clashing over eachother so we had to alter the broadcast so it paused when the mother speaks.

TECHNOLOGIES

https://prezi.com/p/bksnfi73w-yr/

FILMING AND EDITING SCHEDULE

MUSIC CHOICE

Choosing the right music is essential to set the mood of the trailer. We looked through many options on the copyright free music sight 'epidemic sound'. We chose a track for our first montage that is emotional and intimate. However picking the track for the rest of the trailer was harder as we needed something that would increase the tension. Eventually we found two songs that successfully build tension.

The first is 'Silent Castle 1' by Niklas Gustavsson

The second is 'The Cold research 2' by Niklas Gustavsson

MODEL RELEASE FORMS

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

CASTING

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS FROM GENRE

Through secondary research I have found some key audience expectations of the Dystopian genre:

Set in the future
A world strictly controlled by the government/an authoritarian figure
Featuring technology that we do not have today
A protagonist fighting against the government/authoritarian figure

I conducted a survey of my own and asked four subjects, ranging in age and gender. (Different participants shown with different colours)

1) What settings would you expect to see in a Dystopian film?

The future. Possibly outer space. Big city maybe. Normally dark and unwelcoming environments rather than sunny welcoming ones.

Set in a city that has gone to ruin and is dark, quiet and grungy.

A setting that involves some level of security and secrecy and government or equivalent control. Either strongly focused on technology/fantasy/nature in terms of environment.

2) What characters would you expect in a Dystopian film / any particular features you would expect characters to have?

Futuristic costumes and haircuts. Do not think there is many commion themes in characters.

Always see male characters and a traditional manly protagonist that is muscular.

Relatively 'normal' characters but usually stereotypes are bravery, violence and a previously undiscovered skill that develops.

3) Any particular plot features you expect of Dystopian genre?

Often time travel. They are normal in action/thriller/sci fi categories rather than comedy.

Always need a big twist near the end that surprises you. Always have big scenes where they show off Dystopian setting.

Romance, violence, struggle against the controlling unit of the Dystopian world. Good vs evil or a play on what is good and what is evil.

MAKING OF PROPS

Our trailer features a scanning device to register pupils into assembly. We had to create this prop ourselves as it is new technology that does not exist today. It was essential to make it look authentic as this could easily ruin the professionalism of the trailer.
We used an ipad as the device and, as a group, bought ipad holders to connect it to the wall. To make the the device scan we made a video that would play on the ipad and told the actors to scan in time with the video. We found a copyright free video of a futuristic looking heartbeat and edited to be slower.
This is a test shot we did for this scene:

Thursday, 22 March 2018

STORYBOARD CHANGES

From our first ideas to our final storyboard we made a lot of alterations as we had to ensure our trailer clearly showed the narrative.

From our first ideas we realised the trailer needed shots to really show the division between teenagers and the rest of the world.

We put in a scene of a mother handing out pieces of cake to young children at cake sale. A teenager comes to take a piece and the mother refuses to give it to her. We quickly realised this scene had many flaws.

We changed it to a scene in a park where a teenager is skating. A mother and her child are playing on a slide and when the mother sees the teenagers tension rises. She hurriedly gets her child and rushes out the park with her. On the way out she tells the teenager they do not belong in the park. This scene will show the audience that teenagers are being completely isolated from the rest of society and there is fear amongst the citizens.