FILM TRAILER

ELLIE SMART 1859

I worked with Millie Wyatt 1874, Charlotte Coppellotti 1812 and Jess Foster 1820. 

We produced a film promotion package for a comedy/crime film entitled 'Dodging a Bullet', including two trailers together with an official social media page and poster for the film.  

Please find my minor work pieces, and dedicated page for my Creative Critical Reflection, under the appropriate convergent link tabs on the header of my blog.

Camera-Work

I took responsibility for lots of the camera work, when not in scenes myself, in particular in the briefing scene. In filming, we utilised canon 650 D cameras and manfrotto tripods that we have at school to film our footage. The tripods came in very useful as they gave us a balanced, stable shot, even when panning, and also allowed us to film ourselves without the help of others. I enjoyed working behind the camera as it allowed me to make small adaptions and guide actors according to angles and lighting, teaching me how theoretical plans and shot lists need to be flexible. We made sure everyone had an opportunity to assume the role of videographer, for example as there are lots of shots showing us moving around the mansion in the heist, Millie took on the role for these scenes.

Lighting

For the briefing scene, myself and Charlotte designed the lighting, experimenting with the different colours and brightness to create our desired ambience. I enjoyed playing around with the spotlights we had access to, working to create interesting shadows and rim lighting. Jess assisted this process, by ensuring the black drama curtains blocked out any natural light and posters on the wall were removed. For our ending phone call scene, we envisioned the actors faced being concealed, keeping her identity unknown. For this we utilised lighting to put a rim light around the Boss's head, creating a silhouette, this was achieved through facing her towards the spotlight and filming from behind. I thought this was effective in concealing her identity, creating enigma over the mysterious figure.

Editing

Millie was our primary editor, but I also made suggestions which were then implemented as we found it worked best to have two sets of eyes and opinions. In particular the embedding of intertitles edited between comedic shots, creating a witty tone to the editing. We edited using Final Cut Pro, importing voice memos and music to accompany our footage and dialogue. We used iMacs to import footage from the memory cards, which proved useful in allowing us to airdrop voice memos and items like the BBFC certificate. The process of editing was a long one, with all of us taking responsibility for tweaking sections and making small changes. One particular challenge in editing included making it not look like continuity piece, as not to reveal too much about our narrative and keep audiences intrigued. To avoid this, we used fast cut editing and intertitles to break it up.

Directing

Directing our trailer was a group effort, as we all put forward suggestions on shot types, locations, acting and narrative. We thought that we could achieve the highest quality production by having the greatest creative input we could. When I was behind the camera, I enjoyed making prop placement suggestions and encouraging the acting. Charlotte was helpful in working out what props were needed and supplying them and Jess assumed the main script writing role, as she has lots of acting knowledge and experience.

Social Media

Each member of my production took responsibility for a different social media platform, working cohesively to construct brand visibility on various platforms. Personally, I took responsibility for twitter. 

Link to my social media

FILM POSTER

I created a film poster for our film - Dodging A Bullet. I used photoshop to construct of my poster, downloading the billing block font to make it look professional. The photos were taken using a cannon camera in front of green screen, allowing me to easily remove the background.

OFFICIAL DODGING A BULLET POSTER

SOCIAL MEDIA: TWITTER

Within my production team, I was responsible for the twitter social media platform for our film, Dodging A Bullet. I have been coordinating a slow release of materials on my platform, designed to build excitement and audience engagement.

I tried to make my posts encourage audience interaction, for example behind the scenes sneak peaks and posts asking audiences to retweet guesses at our mysterious star talent.

The link to my twitter is here - https://twitter.com/theframingfilm?s=11

SOCIAL MEDIA by Ellie Smart

Locations On the Set

 

Location Recce by Ellie Smart

CONSTRUCTION: Merchandising

 As part of our promotion package, we created merchandising which we cohesively promoted on our social media platforms. Merchandising is a useful tool used to promote films, generating profits and acting as a hook to attract audiences and fully immerse them in the product. This critical role in the marketing of the film is often fulfilled before a film is released - it encourages excitement for a films release and on average at least 40% of film merchandise is sold before the release of the film.

It contributes to brand identity, building consumer loyalty as they buy merchandising that represents the film. Merchandising is also beneficial for production companies as it provides an extra revenue drip, even after the film is released.

Merchandise for DODGING A BULLET

After research we found that t-shirts are one of the most products to sell as merchandising, they sell fast and target a broad demographic. Along with our tees, we created a broad range of merchandise: tote bags, painting sets, literacy sets, stickers, mugs and phone cases. We felt the bags were useful and durable items that promote environmental friendliness, a quality that appeals to young-adults (our target demographic). With our painting sets, we tried to reflect the painting focus of our film, appealing to those with an interest in art collection and painting in particular. We created such a variety in order to extend the reach of our film, making our merch appeal to all consumer needs.

On each item, we chose photos that reflected our unique selling points and which were appropriate for all audiences- the impressive painting, female representation and the mansion. These photos also feature in all areas of our marketing, creating continuity. Equally, we printed the 'Dodging a Bullet' title onto the merchandising, keeping strong brand identity and cohesion with our film posters in particular. 

We went for plain tones of black and white for our products - extending the reach of the product with a gender-neutral colours. We selected images that were highly saturated and brightly coloured, making the t-shirts eye-catching and fun. In terms of scale, we made our graphics large, filling up the majority of the canvas'. This was because we wanted consumers to feel immersed in the film, as well as advertising the film to people whose eyes the t-shirt might catch. 

CONSTRUCTION: REFINEMENTS

CONSTRUCTION by Ellie Smart

CONSTRUCTION: REFLECTIONS

 

REFLECTIONS by Ellie Smart