The production of the film trailer faced several challenges:
1) Following the storyboard strictly was difficult due to unforeseen circumstances with locations, props, and equipment issues like battery life.
2) Filming had to be rescheduled and locations changed due to weather and actor availability.
3) During the editing process, the director developed a new plotline that differed from the original storyboard, requiring adjustments.
2. • The filming process has been a bit difficult at the
moment; even though we have a storyboard it is a
bit difficult to follow it step by step due to
unforeseen circumstances such as the availability
of locations and props. Shooting the first couple
scenes on the first day was quite an easy job
however close to the end, my filming got cut short
because the battery for the camera I was using
had run out and had no back up so we had to take
a trip from the location back to college to charge it
up again so next time we will be more prepared
which is a big skill in production especially as a
director: preparation.
• Filming scenes according to the storyboard
doesn’t always go to plan because as we got to
our later scenes filming it was a thing where
different ideas were popping into our heads
causing us to change the original plan. We also
had to change different shots and camera angles
as viewing the actual scenes we were able to
compare them against each other and see which
one would be more effective and this led to
following scenes being changed.
3. • The weather was another aspect that affected us throughout the filming
process as we had to change dates of filming which slowed down the
completion of the final product. Some of the actors which we had auditioned
for and were going to use had not been available at all times so our schedule
had to be suitable for the every role in our film. The locations we had used had
been related to our primary and secondary genre of horror lovers and the urban
teen audience but travelling in London we began to see more effective locations
which were gritty.
4. • The weather was another aspect that affected us throughout
the filming process as we had to change dates of filming which
slowed down the completion of the final product. Some of the
actors which we had auditioned for and were going to use had
not been available at all times so our schedule had to be suitable
for the every role in our film. The locations we had used had
been related to our primary and secondary genre of horror lovers
and the urban teen audience but travelling in London we began
to see more effective locations which were gritty.
• The research I did at the pre production stage of my trailer was
also an influence in changes to my storyboard as I began to grasp
on opportunities which will make my trailer more horrific and
attractive. Also because we had restrictions to what we could do
in our film, we had to erase a couple films from our footage and
this caused a setback in our filming. Each time we borrowed the
camera it was slightly different to the one we began with so at
the beginning of each filming session we had to adjust to the
different camera which took a bit of our filming time away as we
didn’t know whether it was broken or it just was different to set
up which was eventually the case.
5. • Halfway though our production we had developed on the storyboard as I had
come up with a whole new plot but with the same background storyline, this
had been created briefly in a different way to our original storyboard, however
by the end of our production process we only used around 60-65% of shots on
our developed storyboard and around 40% from our original one which I feel
was quite unprofessional and disruptive.
6. • Every shot we filmed, we filmed the original shot first then followed by a
variety of shots just in case and for a wider option when in the post production
stage. So this meant that a 5second shot will be around 3 - 5minutes worth of
camera footage including all the takes and variety of shots.
• As a director and actor; due to limited resources, editor, and part time
cameraman I tried to be in two places at once on occasions which was hard to
do which left me to delegate some of my directing responsibilities to the
producer and external stakeholders.
7. • The cannon camera we used to film our trailer had many different functions to
it and even though we were given a tutorial on them it still confused me using
them but after the first session of using it I adapted to the functions and was
able to apply them to the filming. Also we used DV tape to record the footage
and this is the less technological method of recording so it was a bit long to use
as I had to keep rewinding and fast forwarding to get the filming to the right
place.
• We decided to challenge the common conventions of a horror film by filming
our film in daytime which we thought would be good because it creates a USP
for our film as horror usually happens at night time but in some cases it might
happen in front of our faces but we just don’t see it. We also done it because
quality at night time is deteriorated whereas daytime is better and we thought
to be able to get our genre across to our audience we would be able to use a
colour corrector plug in to edit it and make that effect on it
8. • When we finally finished the production stage it was a relief to be able to just
sit down and think about how the trailer would be put together. A problem we
had from the start was sharing our desktop area with other students which
meant there would be certain times we could actually work on our product.
When editing the trailer something I had to think about was the speed of the
trailer which would relate to the native structure. I tried to use Todorov’s
structure and incorporate it into my trailer but for some reason I was finding it
difficult bring the plot of my storyline together with the structure. Adobe
Premiere being new software to my knowledge meant that I wasn’t able to
grasp using it straight away which caused me to look up on a tutorial on
YouTube.
9. • My trailer being a horror trailer with an urban aspect in it caused me to be
continuously thinking about what would shock the audience so out of our
footage we brought out the most effective split second shots to put in our
trailer. Also we had to make sure that a song which we gained from research
was able to correspond to the rest of the trailer.
10. • To edit our footage we used adobe premiere to bring the footage together,
however other aspects of the final product I used other software such as
Photoimpact to create; the first still image and After Effects to create the title
sequences. The producer had also used different software to create the
institutions logo.
11. • Every software or different technology I used at this stage except premiere; I
had already had previous years of experience in the software’s which sped up
the process to reach the final product. However having a partner meant that
decisions were coming from two different perspectives which caused both of us
to do separate final products and then bring the best ideas together to create a
better product. This decision was based on audience feedback who had
watched both products. We thought this idea would be good as it would solve
all problems and also benefit the final product at the same time. However this
process was long and decided that maybe the best idea would have been for
both of us to sit down together and edit it deciding on the right option on the
spot.
12. • As a horror trailer the best option would be to use quick cuts as a main
transition between shots to be able to have a deeper effect on the audience
which we didn’t do to the best that we could have
• Most of the shots we had that were in broad daylight with sun in the
background had been tinted to create a darker mood with the audience which
was our intention.
13. • Also things such as the title sequence I designed in red background (After
Effects). The background we used was a moving image of clouds and I edited it
to make it red. Clouds on its own have a sort of gloomy effect so it being able to
manoeuvre and changing the colour to red would make it very effective. On top
of this we would use a text going by the name of ‘Coalition’ (coalition image)
which I used as a main text for our product as it has a sort of gritty effect on it
so I decided to use my text on top of the background in white which connotes a
ghostly effect along with the red background which connotes blood and danger
creating a mood within the audience.
14. • The usual green screen rating intro at the beginning of a trailer was also used
in mine, however I adapted it to represent my trailer and I designed it myself in
Photoshop and made it red to influence the genre of my trailer so that from the
beginning my audience is already drawn into the dangers. An important aspect
of a trailer is sound and I had a variety of sound effects available to me which I
used a lot of them in my trailer such as bangs, hits, swooshes’ heartbeats etc. I
used these sounds to be able to engage the audience into the trailer.
15. •My trailer consisted of mainly cuts however I had a few fades in the trailer to
slow down the effect of the trailer and the mood of the audience. I did this on
premiere by using the transition dip to black which will allow the fade which
you can adjust to the positions you require.
