British Trailers

Doing research on "300 Rise Of An Empire" I wanted to start looking at trailers for British productions. Currently British actors are having a lot of success within America. Game of Thrones has helped showcase the best of British acting and now because of this some of the cast are now moving into other franchises for example Emilia Clarke will be playing "Sarah Connor" in the rebooting of the Terminator franchise. Then there is Andrew Lincon who is currently playing lead character "Rick Grimes" in The Walking Dead.

One of the things that is great about British productions is that they often rely on the acting more then special effects and make-up.  Watching the trailers for British trailers shows that a lot of them showcase different sub cultures within the UK and a lot of the time deal with a lot of social issues. Films such as "The Full Monty" and "Billy Elliot" are two different types of movies but both deal with closure of the mines during  Thatchers rein as PM which led to hundred of workers losing their jobs.

There are certain trailers which are American influenced such as "Dog Soldiers" but it also has elements from British hit "Zulu" and its great watching how success in the industry has helped boost the quality in films that this country is producing.

The trailer for E4 smash hit "Skins" is one of the first drams I really got into. The trailers for it make it seem like it was just going to be about drug, sex the usually youth culture. But the trailer was deceiving as the more i got into the show the more involved you get with the characters. Each work it deals with a range of issues such as eating disorders, religion, sexuality, peer pressure. As a viewer you feel like you are watching these characters develop from where the trailer where they are so care free. So one thing i have learnt from this is that a trailer doesn't have to give to much away without revealing a plot.

Shane Meadows work are a great at showing the kitchen sink drama within a production of a film. "This is England" is a story of about his own youth and growing up as a skinhead. This too deals with problems during Thatchers Britain (she really is a popular women...) the trailer for the film though only mildly hints at the racism during the film and as viewer watching the trailer it makes the film seem more of a comedy drama coming of age tale. Even the location are a lot more realistic compared to American trailers. Another example of British production like this is "In The Flesh" though it is a drama about zombies the location in Lancaster gives it a more British feel to the show.

Watching some of these trailers has helped my understanding a bit when it comes to producing my trailer. I want to make something a lot more subtle. I will be now thinking about what i want to produce for my small trailer.

Below is an article about how creative industry in the UK is growing
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-celebrates-success-of-growing-creative-industries-in-britain

Start Of My Research (American Trailer)

As I had decided on what I would be researching it was time to look into what needed to be done. I had chosen that I wanted to make a trailer of my own so the first part of my would be looking into what we see in movie trailers. This would mean watching a variety of trailers to give me an idea into what would be needed for me to produce a decent enough video.

To start with I watched the trailers for "300 Rise Of An Empire" as this is one of the best films I have seen in 2014. The first trailer was released in July of last year even though it was going to be in cinemas till March. I feel the reason movies do this is because they want to start generating an interest in the film. Having a trailer come out so early will make viewers become more involved with the film. As a viewer if a trailer appeals to you it will make you become interested with what will come next.

Another thing I have found that with American movie trailers they show a lot of footage from the film. As a viewer I like this because personally I feel with trailers they need to showcase why people should watch these films. But in another sense it can sometimes take something away from a film as there is no element of surprise when it comes to actually watching the film at the big screen.

In the trailer as well the opening seconds show gerrad butler who was the star of the first movie. It slowly builds up the tension until it shows the blood thirsty action. Because 300 is a franchise they want to bring back fans of the first film into watching the film. So by having stars from the first one it creates excitement about the next film. Another factor about these films is that the stories are based on true events and one thing I did was look into the history of the battle of marathon which is in opening sequence in the film. And its brilliant watching great victories come to live on the big screen

Idea For My Research Poster

For my assignment for my research report i am required to make a research poster on photoshop. I have made the decision to look into film trailers. I want to see if it is possible to make one of my own. For it i will be looking into what it is about a film trailer that appeals to the audience. This will be researching different production trailers and what you visually see within them.

The reason I will be looking at trailers is because when it comes to promotion within the film industry trailers are one of the first visual things we see from the film. Without them it would be hard to generate a buzz around a film. It gives the audience a understanding about what they are going to see and its a way of pulling in an audience. Different genres will appeal to a variety of people, so i will look into what it is that draws in a crowd. Is it a brand of a film? Actor or Actress in the film? Storyline or special effects?

The research i do will then allow me to start a small trailer of my own. So my question is how to plan a film a trailer.

Three Sources

So for Shaun's session we have been given the task to find three relevant sources that i find useful for my specialist skill which for me at the moment is video production/documentaries. I will be discussing a little bit about three of them.

The first one i will be talking about is the Creative Skills Set website. This is organisation which is used by people in the creative industry. On the site you can find information about film making,animation,tv,radio etc. What i like about this site is that it tells about different careers you can get. It explains a lot to the users and i find it is quite helpful in getting information if it is required. On the site you can access things such as courses you can get involved in, events coming up, funds for training. Overall i think for students or graduates it is a great site to try and go forward with enhancing your career.

Below is a screen shot of the site

http://filmmaking.net/

The next site i will be talking about is a site which has various articles on it with various information about a range of video stuff, editing, equipment and books. This is a cracker for anyone who has a love for making films, watching and are looking to get into the industry. It has various write ups on new equipment and it is a great way as a reader to make sure that you are up to date with what is relevant in the market. As well as this it shows future events and festivals which is similar to what the skills net shows too. Finally it has a message board where you can interact with fellow practitioners.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shut-Shoot-Documentary-Guide-Production/dp/0240809351/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392345473&sr=1-12&keywords=documentary This is a book i have ordered from Amazon to get some tips from

Other Cool Stuff:

If you are interested in all things Nottingham then you will like Left Lion which reviews films,music and shows upcoming events in the Nottingham area.

http://www.leftlion.co.uk/ 

The BBC now has make a virtual documentary section where you can download unedited footage and then create your own documentary http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/makeyourown.shtml

Test Shots

So today me and James did a few test shots at the location in Newton Building for where we will hopefully get some filming done. The shots will be uploaded next week when james gets his laptop fixed. We also inquired about the permission to film in the building and we have been pushed in the direction of a Dave Hughes to see if we can get permission as we feel that for location would be ideal due to the lighting and the fact that it would give us room to get all our shots done such as high and low angle shots.

The shots we did where to see if it would look good if we push the crash dummy from a height and we are also planning to use a go pro to show the fall and have someone underneath it while it happens. All that needs to be done before we shoot is make sure all the permission is done and that we have got some actors ready for the shoot. Max is currently doing a location recce of the building for us then all i will have to do is a health and safety form.

Filming JaffnaSpeaks (Pre Production)

So this week during a meeting at The Hive we finally managed to get hold of our injured boss Sean Macaskill and he informed us that the owners at Jaffna Speaks would be in Nottingham for a few days so it would of been our only chances to get filming done with them as they both live in Germany and London. This was a great chance for the team to prove ourselves. It will prepare us for any future roles where time management will be a major factor and sometimes working in a team it is important that you prepare for things such as this. Especially when we know we only have a week to prepare

Most of the meetings we have had up to this point had been mainly based around the Health And Safety videos as we felt this was the most important to get done first. But the planning for the Jaffna took over. The first part was looking at research and we looked back over the work we had done the year before for Boo Boo Kitty. Working on a documentary style project really helped me last year as it felt good working on a project though all the different stages. Pre-production was most important for me personally as it allowed us to work as a team and get to know each others strength.

Then it was all about making sure we had done our research on Jaffna Speaks as this would allow us to make sure that we would ask the right questions. Once we had done that it was about establishing the right questions. With videos like this it is important that we engage with the audience and make them feel some form of empathy for the cause. The video that we make will be going on the kick starter website which is a website used to raise funds so we wanted to make sure that we engage with the owners and let them explain why people should donate. As well as this it is important that we get to know the owners.

With this done it is now about making sure that all equipment is booked ready for the day of filming.

Trent Tv( Second Project)

So today i got the fantastic chance to film the musician beans on toast today at the Capital FM arena. This was my second time working for Trent TV and i thought it would be a great thing to add on to my CV. For anyone who isn't aware of his music i will add a link to his site and a link to one of his tracks. I actually got the  to the arena a bit early and i had to wait till the two of the girls from trent tv. Lucky i have done stuff with the cameras so setting up was pretty easy and Beans asked to film in the laundry room and it made for a very different interviews background. I was on still camera and Anna was on the cut away cameras. Then Kat was interviewing.

Beans was a great guy to interview it was kind of surreal meeting him because as soon as he started talking his voice sounded just like his singing voice. He was so laid back and what was obvious to me he is doing the music for his own enjoyment and not for the need of money. This made the filming a lot more easy because we didn't have to fuss about with him. It was great hearing about his stories and it was nice to see that he is cracking america.

Got to say was a lot of fun filming it and once the edit is done i will link it up. Hopefully i will get chance to get involved with a few more projects at Trent Tv.

https://www.youtube.com/user/beansontoasttube that is a link to his website
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheTRENTTV if you are curious about Trent Tv is here a link to some more of the videos