Key Elements For Planning

Elliot Grater

AUDIO

Dialogue

• Considering our trailer has to give hints to the story as well as revealing some plot ideas dialogue is a key factor.

• There are two mains areas of dialogue for us: voice-overs and diegetic, both of which we want to incorporate into our project.

Voice-Overs

• Voice-overs will play a key part in our project, as we hope to layer them over clips, a feature often seen in trailers.

• None of us are proficient voice-actors, so we are trying to enlist several friends to help, along with adult teaching staff who are proficient in acting. This will give us a wider range of possible dialogue and characters, much more so than in our first project.

• Our camera has no great sound recording, so I suggested we record the voice overs by microphone instead. This would give us a more professional recording and also allow us to manipulate the audio easier. I suggested using the schools music recording studio, because Matt knows how to operate the sound mixer, and it would be free unlike an out-of-school recording.

Diegetic Dialogue

• It will be important for us to carefully plan where and when we film speaking scenes, because we will need to have no background sound so it doesn’t sound tacky and amateurish.

• Using actors will be more difficult at this stage, as it has to be one of us, because there is a much large time commitment to film outside of school, much more so than a voice-over.

• The best way to do this (with our limited acting talent), would be to rehearse lines before hand, to prevent time being wasted on excess takes.

Music

• Music is a key part of the trailer, and will feature throughout the piece. Currently we feel we will have a consistent soundtrack throughout the piece to help with the general flow of the trailer, and also to reflect the pace of the action.

• There will possibly be Incidental music as well in key parts of the trailer.

Soundtrack

• The music we use will definitely be serious, and most likely instrumental. I have been looking at film score composers such as Hans Zimmer, who use simple repeating ideas, generally on strings, to build up the action, and to reflect the mood of the piece.

• We will be looking for original pieces like last year, but will also study more well known pieces if we feel they are appropriate.

• Alternatively to a more orchestral vibe, we could use a piece of more modern music which is familiar to the audience to give them an understanding about what the film is about.

Incidental Music

• We used incidental music frequently on our first project, where it worked effectively to emphasis important moments in the piece, specifically parts to make the audience jump.

• I want to use incidental music again, because it can play a key role in identifying the protagonist, antagonist, and also what is happening in a scene, which is important in a trailer where very little information is simply given to the viewer.

EDITING

Responsibilities

• This year, we decided we need to all get involved in editing the film together so as we don’t leave it all up to one person before deadlines.

• It has been decided that we would all do rough edits of each scene, then compare them before deciding on who will complete that section. This will allow us to critically evaluate our own work to achieve a higher standard of editing.

Programs

• We have decided to use programs which suit us best, iMovie for me and Dylan, and Windows Movie Maker for Matt. The decision for using these programs is simple; they are easy to use, familiar, and have enough content for the limited editing we need to use.

• We have decided to use these over technically superior software such as Final Cut, because we do not need the advanced editing for a small project such as ours.

Effects and Transitions

• We plan to use more professional editing techniques in this project, and refine what we have always used.

• We will have to experiment on the different software we want to use for this, and already we have looked into voice editing programs, and also effects we can create on our own computers.

Editing Clips

• As we are doing a trailer, we plan to use more transitional effects between shots, to show progression and a time-lapse. We also plan to have text woven throughout the trailer, to slowly reveal actors names and the movie name.

• As we are not filming just one scene, we have a broader scope in the editing of clips we can do. Last year I used a filter on the clips to make them seem darker, and I would like to re-use something similar, especially in out-door scenes, to make sure the trailer keeps the more serious mood.

Other Editing

• I have previously mentioned voice editing, which we want to use to change voices to either make them seem deliberately distorted, to disguise their identity, or simply deeper to make it seem less like teenagers and more like adults.

CAMERA

Shots

• This year we want to explore new shots to use, such as tracking shots, long distance shots etc. whilst still thinking about using the more intimate close up shots we used on our first project.

• We want to avoid shaky-cam and POV shots this year, because we feel they are over-used in amateur film and without a very good camera seem confusing.

Scenes in the trailer

• So far we have decided on several scenes in the trailer, the main two being the discovery of a body by the protagonist, filmed close up, possibly with an establishing shot at the start, and a scene where the protagonist examines evidence pasted all over a wall, which could feature panning shots and close up shots.

Other Camera Shots

• We want to add other shots to the trailer, not just vital scenes, such as long distance shots of people walking etc. to go alongside voice-overs, allowing for people to absorb the dialogue without focusing on the shot.

• Another idea I had was for several shots of our protagonist filmed and edited to make it seem like it was being recorded on CCTV, though the shots would be form hidden locations, to make it seem like the person is being watched.

Camera Equipment

• As with last year, we will be using a FlipCam to film our shots, because whilst it doesn’t have much in the way of zoom, the quality of the shots is good for its price.

• We want to utilize a tri-pod this time as well, and whilst I have one, it will need fixing to allow for smooth movement of shots. A tri-pod will allow us to perform more professional static shots throughout the piece.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Costumes and Props

• We will need a more detailed look at costumes once all characters are decided, but it is likely that there will be only a few variations of clothing.

• This is the same with props, because most of our scenes will either involve static shots or dialogue, and there will be little action

Costume

• There are several groups in our piece who have to be dressed in a certain way:

• Protagonist & Friend – Their costumes will consist of ordinary teenage clothing, which will gradually get more ragged throughout the piece.

• The Organisation – Whilst this group will most not likely be fully on screen at any one time, they will need to be dressed in full suits with dark glasses, gloves etc. to make them seem mysterious.

• Dead man – Ordinary clothing, a white shirt/t-shirt stained with blood.

• Informant – Ragged and unkempt clothing, stained and wrinkled.

Props

• There will only be a few props featured in our piece, not including incidental objects such as cups and items of clothing. These include:

• Symbol – We have decided that the dead man at the beginning would have a symbol either embedded in him or attached onto him. A suggestion for this was the Impossible Triangle. We also thought that we could use the tea staining technique to make paper look old.

• Weapons? – Whilst there won’t be any violent scenes in our piece there is a possibility that we will have to hint at violence and so knives, guns etc. will be useful in this case. However, we will have to be careful with guns, as none of us have access to realistic looking fire-arms, so any shots of them will have to be very brief.

Sets & Locations

• We will be using a large amount of sets for our piece, most of them being public. These will be filmed locally, and we will use times when people are less likely to be out in great numbers, such as during school hours and Sundays. A lot of our shots will be weather dependent, so we will need to set up several film schedules to use as back-up.

Sets

• We have one primary set in mind; either a bedroom or living room of our main protagonist. One wall will be covered in newspaper cuttings linked with string. This will form a large part of the trailer. We also will use other rooms in the house to film small scenes.

• Because this set will be specifically designed, we will have to keep it assembled until our final draft is finished just in case we have to re-shoot anything. This means that it will have to be built in someone’s private room, to not disrupt anyone.

Locations

• Our outdoor locations will often be featured only for a few seconds, so should be easily filmed each in one day. However, for the more important outdoor locations we will need to plan ahead much more, finding quiet areas to film in, especially for the dead body scene, which can’t be filmed around the public.

• There is a possibility of us using night-scenes outside, but to do that we will have to test the camera first to make sure it can film at night and still produce visible footage.