Film Title

'The Retrograde' is the title of our trailer. We wanted to give the impression that the title reflects the actual event in our trailer, hence why we used 'the' at the start. Retrograde seemed to fit perfectly with the contents of our trailer.

Further Progress

Our main actor, Max Boyden, attends Tunbridge Wells Boys Grammar School and therefore we decided that, in order to suit his availability to our needs, we would aim to shoot at his school using drama students from there as well as those who attend Weald. This way we will be able to visit the school rather than removing Max from his school schedule. The school had the appropriate setting and we will bring any other equipment we need and similarly, we feel that it will be more credited to shoot in unfamiliar surroundings.

Here is the progress update video of Jak calling the school to arrange our shooting times.

Cast

These are the potential actors/actresses we have in mind in order to play the roles we need. As our film trailer is a complex situation, we are in need of a large number of available characters.
Cast (order of appearance):

•Boy: Max Boyden 

•Host girl: Hannah Rae 

•Girls friend: Bee Williamson 

•Party goers: Ross, Conor, Jak, Joseph, Sam, Katie, Hannah,Bee, Georgia, Tiffany, Lucie, Alice, Georgia, Tamsin, Beth, Grace, Holly, Sam MS

•Girls other friends: Tamsin, Beth, Grace, Holly 

•Boys friend: Lewie? Jack Cutler? 

•Government 1: Jak's dad? Tiffany's dad? 

•Government 2: Jak's dad? Tiffany's dad? Tom from year12? 

•Chat room people; Boy x3, girl x2 

Location

These are the locations we plan to use within the school. The drama studio can be used to represent the party scene as it offers the correct equipment, similarly, the school scene itself can be done within the school grounds. We did some test shots of the scene where a specific transition will be used, seen by the close up of Jak in front of a white wall.

Locations still to find are:

The Bedroom

The conversation scene

The government scene

Areas to film action shots.

Progress

Here is a quick overview on our progress towards our film trailer so far. 

Voiceover

This is the basic layout of the voiceover we plan to use in order to create tension and reflect the style of an action/thriller genre trailer.

Script

As our trailer includes a lot of dialogue, we felt it would be sensible to create a script to follow so that we keep on the right lines and are focused. The stage directions also act as a guide to our storyline.

Original Storyboard

This is our first storyboard for our film trailer. To suit the genre we decided to throw in moments of action and tension to increase suspense and also to speed up the pace of the trailer to reflect the genre.

Inspirations

 These are the inspirations for our film trailer and we continually reference them in our project for different reasons, whether that is due to a particular shot/transition or the genre itself.

Props

Location:

School Scene:

Scenes within school can be filmed on our actual school grounds as the hallways and lockers already create the appropriate mis en scene  which we need. The canteen is also needed to film but because of the transition we will need to use a basic white wall so we are able to flow onto the next scene of the conversation. 

Party Scene:

This scene can be filmed in the drama studio as it already had the equipment available. The black curtains and available high quality lighting will be easily accessible, therefore, we can use our actors to fill the space giving the impression of the party. 

Government Scenes:

This scene will need to be filmed in a bright, white room so therefore the lighting is key. We hope to be able to cast a silhouette of the characters so the lighting needs to be set up in a way to do this. Similarly, we also need to use green card or green screen so we can edit onto it. 

Props:

·      Folders

·      Phones

·      Alcohol

·      Cups

·      Shot glasses

·      Lights

·      Music

·      Canteen trays/food

·      Green card

·      Guns

·      Cars

Music

We thought that finding appropriate music for our trailer would be a beneficial task. We looked at several trailers in order to find music which inspired us.

A YouTube account called 'The Secession' produces music for real films and trailers, so looking at the music they produce was a good starting point. We are allowed to use the music they make for our own personal videos if we don't monetize it, for free. 'We made this War' was a track of this account that engaged us.

Lucy also included music which we thought would fit well with our trailer. As we aim to make it dramatic and engaging, Lucy was the ideal example for the futuristic yet tense overlaying music.

The end of Transformers was another inspiration regarding music. At the end of the trailer it includes extremely intense, fast paced music in order to build suspense and drama. We aim to have the same impact on the audience as this trailer did.

Green Screen Testing

This is our first test example of a green screen. We felt that this experimentation was necessary because it will be crucial in our trailer. We also needed to try several green screens each playing different clips as this is what will be happening in our trailer and it was successful. 

Website Analysis (Interstellar)

Codes and Conventions of Our Genre

Narrative Ideas

To begin with our trailer opening we thought of three initial ideas  to get started. We chose three fairly similar ideas all intertwining with the same genre as we chose this as our starting point. Our favourite and final idea is narrative idea number two. 

Trailer Analysis (In Time)

'In Time' is a dystopian thriller film created in October 2011. It creates a world in which time from our lives is the equivalent of money. This film is an inspiration for our own film trailer as we aim to base our film around the idea of a realistic dystopia and we feel as though 'In Time' is pivotal for that genre.

Trailer Analysis (Interstellar)

This research into how elements of a trailer can contribute to the overall style, tone and genre of the film will help us, as a group, use this information to apply to our own project. We looked into the upcoming film 'Interstellar'.

Genre Theory

We researched different theories about genre in order to apply them to our project and see how that have an influence over our trailer.

Narrative Theorists

Initial Ideas

These are our original ideas for our film trailer. The blue titles are film and series inspirations which we would like our films to be of a similar theme to and surrounding the titles, are potential topics for our film.

Analysing Film Posters

Thriller Genre Research

This poster is to promote the thriller genre, allowing us to explore the genre further and discovering what the main conventions of thrillers are.

Exploring Genre

Comparison of Theatrical and Teaser Trailer

We decided to compare theatrical trailers and teaser trailers so that we could gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences of them. We decided to focus on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. 

The Brief

The task over the next several months is to create a film trailer (theatrical or teaser) as well as the promotional package alongside it. We are all collectively excited to be working together to create this project as our production company, SkinnyPigProductions. We hope to make a professional promotional package and trailer, staying within the guidelines of the brief so we can achieve our potential and gain new skills.