Our use of film form

Soundtrack analysis in our trailer

For our sound track we wanted to reflect an independent and authentic style. We initially planned to create footage that entailed a news broadcast. However, we decided to create just the audio of this, to accompany different shots, acting as a narration. The news broadcast sets the scene and the non-diegetic background sound of a piano, slowly builds tension and suspense but does not distract from the broadcast. We had to include sound bridges as some footage had its own sound that we needed the audience to concentrate on. An uplifting soundtrack helps contrast the previous times of parties and intimacy. This happy mood is abruptly interrupted as we are brought back to the 'present' with the loud diegetic sound of a skateboard. This is designed to catch the attention of the audience and break the happy mood. A new non-diegetic music piece increases the tempo and accompanied by rattling sounds of handcuffs and the beeping of a heart monitor adds increased tension and rapidly builds an association with fear and eventually death as captured by the final flatlining.
We believe we created a very atmospheric and original sound which compliments our trailer. Through the gradual increase of pace in our non-diegetic music we successfully increase the levels of tension and suspension in our trailer.

Model Release forms

Difficulties encountered when editing

One of the main problems we had was when we were editing the sound. This was a challenge because we had lots of layers of sounds and it meant that some of them were conflicting and some of them didn't flow very well. To overcome this we had to fade in and out the different pieces of sound so that they were able to transition better from one to another. We also had to delete some aspects of the music so that they didn't conflict with people talking. Doing this improved the clarity of the sound and made sure that there wasn't too much going on.

Another problem that we encountered while editing was the continuity of the park scene. Whilst editing this scene we noticed that in one shot the teenager was holding the skateboard in her left hand but in the next shot it was in her right hand. We also realised we had a shot missing which was creating a problem with the continuity as well. We fixed this problem by having to reshoot one of the shots and then deleting one of them, by doing this we made sure that the continuity of our trailer was perfect.

Apart from these two challenges we did not encounter anything else major in terms of editing as we had developed our skills on iMovie at AS and honed them throughout the year.

Theorists ideas in our trailer

Allan Cameron
In our trailer we used Allan Cameron's idea of an anachronic narrative which is a discrepancy between the order of events in a story and the order they are presented. We used this concept in our trailer by including flashbacks and flash forwards, our idea of using these was to show the contrast of what love used to be like and what it is like in the time the film is set, but also what it could turn in to. Also showing the different aspects of love shows how large the contrast is.

Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss is another theorist whose ideas we were able to incorporate into our narrative. He says that binary opposites are an important factor in narratives. We used binary opposites in a number of different ways, to start with we used the juxtaposition of a previous happy life and a now sad and depressing life. We did this to show a large contrast in how life had changed since the disease. Another binary opposite we used is old and young as our trailer clearly shows that teenagers are the only ones who can get the disease and this sets them apart from the rest of the population. Finally we also used the opposites of healthy and unwell to show what the disease does to people and to make it easy to differentiate between the two.

Music Choice

Choosing the right music is essential to set the mood of the trailer and is fundamental in creating an emotional connection with the audience. We were limited by copyright laws and therefore reviewed many options on the copyright free music sight 'epidemic sound'. We chose a track for our first montage that is emotional, intimate and uplifting, creating a feeling of happiness and warmth. This aligned to the montage of flashbacks covering earlier times where contact was accepted and taken for granted. Picking the right music for the rest of the trailer, to reflect the eerie and tense atmosphere associated with the disease was much harder. We needed a combination of soundtracks that would create the desired increase in tension and suspense. Eventually we found two songs that we believe successfully build tension.

The first is 'Silent Castle 1' by Niklas Gustavsson

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

Poster Genre research

Most dystopian genre posters have a very dark colour palette and don't show very much other than maybe one of the main characters. All the posters I looked at seemed to be very similar in the style of them, they all included a white text of the title and some of them had the main actors name also in white. The fact that they are on a black background makes them stand out and appear obvious to the audience. The two posters below are some of the posters that we got inspiration from for our final poster. They all create a mystery and don't portray much about what the film is going to be about or what will happen.

I asked a few people what they would expect of a dystopian poster and what it could include, and this is what they came up with:

• "Would have a dark colour scheme and cold tones to create mystery"
• "A lack of vitality and colour"
• "Showing conflict"
• "Sad facial expressions"
• "Lack of empathy and feeling"
• "Destruction and things falling apart"

This research will help us to come up with a poster that is suitable to our genre and what the audience would expect from it. We will try to incorporate the different aspects of a typical dystopian poster to create a professional and appropriate poster.  

Technologies used

Certificate rating

Under the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), we would rate our film a 15. This means that only people over the ages of 15 are allowed to watch the film. We decided this after reading the guidelines set by the BBFC and found that it didn't quite fit into the 12 category so 15 was the best option. This is justified by the BBFC guidelines that state:

• The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language. 
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.
•  There may be strong threat and horror. 
• Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail.
• There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used
•  Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. 
• Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. 

Under the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), our film would be rated R which means Restricted. This requires that anyone under 17 needs an accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them. This is Justified by the MPAA guidelines that state:

• Violence can be both intense and persistent.
• Multiple occurrences of bad language may be used.
• Drug use content is restricted to PG-13 and above.
• Nudity is restricted to PG and above, and anything that constitutes more than brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating. Nudity that is sexually oriented will generally require an R rating.
• Not have any explicit criteria for sexual content other than excluding sex scenes from G rated films.

Filming day 3 and 4

Day 3
For filming on day 3 we filmed the first montage scene which is showing what life used to be like before the disease struck. All the shots are either filmed outside or in a house, which were for the intimate shots of the 2 protagonists. The shots we filmed were all less than 5 seconds long so we had to make sure that they captured everything we wanted them to. Because they were all relatively short shots it meant that they were quick to film, so we were able to get everything shot in a reasonably short timeframe. Some of the shots we first filmed however didn't look right and they were overexposed, this meant that we had to re-film some of them. Luckily we allowed and planned for extra time to re-shoot things incase we didn't like any of them or wanted to change  them.

Day 4

On the 4th day we didn't have much left to film, on this day we were just filming the shots that we were still missing. There were a few shots in a park from the second montage and the shots of people looking scared and frightened. We started off at a house which was the location for the shots of people and as these were relatively quick shots to film it didn't take very long. Once we were happy with these shots we drove to a park that was near the house. We knew where in the park we wanted to film as we had already checked it out on previous occasions. This meant that we didn't waste any time and got on with filming straight away. For the shots in the park we had to make sure that there were no people in the backs of the shots as we wouldn't have permission to film them.

Production Company

As a group we decided to call our production company "RACA PRODUCTIONS'. We decided on this name as we wanted a relatively short name and we were able to incorporate all the first letters of the groups name to come up with a suitable name that sounded plausible.

We created a production video that was our logo with an altered background. We wanted to keep it simple as it created a better effect and and didn't take too much away from the actual trailer.

For our logo we decided that we were going to use a simple design of our house for the basic structure of it, we did this as we thought that a house is an item that most people can relate to. Then to suit it more to our dystopian genre we added emergency tape to try and portray the genre of our trailer more. This tape represents danger and possibly medical problems. The  dull yellow colour can be associated with caution, decay and sickness, also the colour black is associated with fear and the unknown. Finally we decided to use red writing over the top so that it would stand out and to signify death, blood and danger. We created out logo to signify all the feelings and mood of out trailer such as sickness and death.

CONTACT- Draft 2

For our second draft, after receiving and reviewing feedback on our first, we decided to make a few changes. Firstly we decided to use a more suitable production company name that fitted to our film better. Also in our first draft we had a few shots missing and some of them were not filmed from the right angle. We corrected these in our second draft. We also cut down a few of the shots like the one where the boy is putting gloves on as they went on for too long. For our second draft, we also edited the shots more in post production as quite a few of the shots were too light and we wanted them to give off a darker, eerie feel. We also edited the sound so it wasn't the same the whole way through and we did this to create more of a tense atmosphere. Adding in a black screen with headline-like information about the film also makes it clearer to the audience what is happening. We also made it clear that there were two separate, contrasting montage scenes one to show what life was like before (with brighter lighting) and one to show what it is like at the time our film is set (dimmer lighting), the sounds also helps this. Finally at the end of the trailer we added in the title screen and the screen with all the production information on. 

Filming day 2

On our second day of filming we filmed all the shots that included the family. These shots covered the scene where the family are sat at the table in a house and the shot of the children in the park. 

We started off by arranging a meeting point in the park to meet the family so we knew where they were going to be and didn't have to waste time trying to find each other. Once we had met the family we set up the camera by the slide that we had previously checked out and decided was suitable for our trailer. As it started raining on our filming day, which it wasn't supposed to, we had to try and get all the shots filmed as quickly as we could. The bonus was that it kept away others from visiting the park so we did not have to worry about strangers appearing accidentally in the scene. It also provided us with our desired lower lighting. Because on the day it was also colder than forecast we made sure that we kept our actors warm by buying them a coffee. I had the additional challenge of learning how to ride and handle a skateboard.

After finishing filming at the park we moved on to filming the house scene. We drove from the park to the house we were shooting at as it was only a 10 minute drive. Once we got to the house we went to the room where we already knew we were filming the shot, so we didn't waste any time. We made sure only the appropriate props were visible in the camera and there was no additional activity going on outside behind the actors. As we were in someone else's house we had to make sure that we were respectful and grateful that they were letting us use their house. Once we had filmed everything we needed to we made sure that we tidied everything away and left the house as it was when we arrived.