Film Trailer Reflection Log - 08/12/2020

This week we worked on creating our film pitch and we continued to develop our film narrative. Our finalised idea is a mystery/comedy movie, called ‘Whatever Happened to Avery’, as it requires a small cast, can be filmed in school and it isn’t too ambitious; we are able to realistically realise our idea. Our initial idea was a fantasy set in school however the editing and filming of it would’ve been difficult, another idea we had was a mystery about something going missing but we failed to find a way to make it interesting, comical and appealing to teenagers, so we changed that idea from something missing, to someone (Avery) and from there we were able to create an intriguing plot where Avery has gone missing to exact revenge on the four main characters because of an event that happened years ago. This week I worked with the group director Amelia to create and develop the characters of ‘Whatever Happened to Avery’ to make sure each character was important in the plot and that they were realistic so that they appealed to the audience. I also helped come up with the title for our movie that reflected the mystery genre and hinted at the plot.

 

Film Trailer Reflection Log - 15/12/2020

This week we worked on our audio/visual plan and shot list and recorded our pitch. We planned each scene, what it would look like, what sounds we could hear and the camera work that would be used. I worked with my group to finalise the final look of each scene and how it would smoothly transition to the next to make sense and communicate the story so it made sense. We have also started on our storyboard, dividing the work by having each member of the group draw some boxes to visualise how our scenes will work.

 

Film Trailer Reflection Log - 12/01/2021

This week we had a meeting and discussed what our next steps would be to continue and improve our trailer despite the current limitations. We continued to develop our characters so that they can fit into certain stereotypes due to the teen audience. The stereotypes we have based our characters around are commonly seen in teen focused movies so we wanted to stay true to that aspect so that the audience felt a familiarity whilst watching. We also discussed how we will subvert those stereotypes and show another side to these characters that contribute to the overall plot to show how not everyone is just one dimensional; how keeping your true self hidden from others can hurt those closest to you.

 

Film Trailer Reflection Log - 19/01/2021

This week our group discussed costumes. Our art director has begun making mood boards for each character to reflect their personalities through their clothes (eg. Wes is a jock so he will be seen wearing a varsity jacket). This means we will be using stereotypes again, this is because most teen dramas rely on these stereotypes so that viewers can instantly identify, label and relate to them. We also started thinking about the limitations of our costume since we must find clothing that is similar to our vision but is also reasonable to find. We also talked about transitions and how I should go from one scene to the next in the trailer when editing to guide me and we also discussed when the screen would go black and when to add text.

My contribution to the pre-production was to make the location recess. I was given the task of completing the location recce; by completing the location recce, I learnt the importance of location scouting and how to find a place to film that had good lighting and enough power sources.

Throughout the process of making our film trailer, I don’t think I had much to contribute since my main contributions would come post-production with editing. Next time I work in a group I will make a bigger effort to contribute during the pre-production.