Film Trailer Production: Progress

Rough Cut Compilation

11/01/17

This is the earliest draft of our trailer. At this point, not all of our footage had been filmed due to complications with availability of actors, however we did have the footage from the studio, the woods and RAF Witham. We had not yet decided on a soundtrack piece to use as background music and we had not edited the length of the shots because of this reason that that they were open to be edited later once we found appropriate music to choose, therefore the only sound in the trailer in this version if from the video audio. We started changing the colour balance on these clips so that the colours could provoke the right feeling or atmosphere in each of the clips. 

16/01/17

Not much has been changed since the previous version of the trailer. We created a title card to go at the end by using Adobe After Effects and experimenting with the presets. We used the Green Crystals animation preset, but changed the colour to blue to match the blue lighting we have used in our posters, and in the shot featuring Anon.

08/02/17

Since before, we created our studio logo using After Effects again. The image we used for the title is actually the letter 'R' in the font 'Wingdings', which we mistakenly clicked on when choosing an appropriate font. We used the 'Smoke Rising' preset for the background, but recoloured the smoke from grey to blue to make the title stand out more and to match the colours of the title cards.We have inserted clips from the park and alleyway scenes as these had now been filmed. We inserted the song 'Act Three - Tenebrous Brothers Carnival' by Kevin MacLeod into the first part of the trailer, we felt that it did not have the right pace for the montage section.

10/02/17

We noticed a number of audio issues had crept up since the last draft. For example, when George says 'Haven't been getting my usual rounds lately', when it cuts to Alice, you can hear the end of 'lately' repeated. We have also added more colour alteration on some of the clips, and improved on others that were already altered. We created a new title card, as we thought that the previous version did not look clear or professional enough. In this new version ,the background glitches instead of the text. We have included a graphic of a target behind the 'I'. This helps to connote the crime genre as the red can connote blood and violence, and the target is associated with aiming a gun. This also makes the title look more unique, that it helps to create an identity to the film, unlike the previous version where it looked like a generic title that doesn't have any obvious indication that this is a crime film.

14/02/17

As of this date, the issue with the audio problems still exist, and even more have been created since adding the sound into the montage. The sound we used was a sting from Youtube's music library which we decided to repeat throughout the montage, however some of the stings are louder than others, so this is another audio issue we will need to fix. 

15/02/17

Anon's voice over has now been recorded and edited, and have been incorporated into the trailer. The dialogue has been placed throughout the trailer in places that we thought it would help create more suspense or more of a dramatic impact. For example we left the last line 'expect us', (which is almost a catchphrase by the group Anonymous in which the character is portraying a member of) is left to the end when the title card appears as it is almost a message to the audience as well to expect the film in the cinema once it is released. 

Final Cut (as of 17/02/17)

The audio issues have now entirely been fixed and all the shots have been edited. Although we are happy with our own attempts with editing the music and sounds to be our own and to be as dramatic and suspenseful, we feel as if it still does not suit the trailer, particularly during the montage which we feel is too quiet during the quieting of the stings. 

Music Commission
My group member Georgina posted our 17/02/17 verion of the trailer on a number of different sites such as Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr and Imgur. Unfortunately the trailer did not gain any attention, or very little attention  on Tumblr and Reddit.

The feedback we gained from Facebook is as follows: 

She also posted a survey on survey monkey asking what people think of the trailer. Here is a result that stood out to me: 

In both the responses on the facebook comments and on the last question of the survey, there was the suggestion of improving the music or sound to help create more suspense.

Music Commission
As there was clearly an issue with the background music that we had made, we decided reflect on our audience feedbacj and decided to look elsewhere for a solution to improve our music. Georgina came across this post on Reddit, made by Alex Benson: 


We looked at this sample of their work, which is their own unofficial composition for the background music of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trailer. We were both very impressed which what we heard and decided to get in contact with Alex to see if he would be interested in composing a track for our trailer, to which he agreed, an even said, "I liked the [Illicit Obsession] trailer, I think it builds up nicely and would look great with some more dramatic music, especially at the end".








Draft 1 01/03/17

We recieved the first draft of Alex's work rather quickly. At this point he had only worked up to 56 seconds, which lasts until the middle of the montage. I was very impressed with what I heard so far, particularly the opening of the trailer with the slow piano melody as I thought this helped reflect the mysterious atmosphere of Anon's character. The way that the music changed pace when The dialogue audio however was very quiet compared to the background music, but considering how this is just the first sample, I was not concerned about this at this point. Georgina and I agreed that we would like drum beats during our montage in order to make it much more suspenseful. We informaed Alex that we felt that the piano key after Eve's hand drops to the floor should be synched up to when it comes in contact with the floor as if felt quite out of place otherwise.

Draft 2 02/04/17

 The next soundtrack update came the next day. Since before the dialogue had been edited slightly as there is a slight echo or reverb added onto the Anonymous voice, an effect that we were both extremely happy with. The piano note had been swapped with a different sound because, as Alex states on the left 'I couldn't sync the piano with the hand very wel because of how the scenes were timed'. We preferred the latest version because we felt it matched better with the rest of the music and felt much more dramatic. The drums were still a work in progress at this time so they did not sound entirely befitting with the rest of the music or with the atmosphere of the trailer, but as I have said before, I was not concerned about this as the music was still in development.

Draft 3 04/03/17

The main update with the third draft is that the montage had been edited a great amount and no longer features the violin like sound from before but instead sounds as if there is an underline bass or guitar helping to keep the pace of the drum beat. The dialogue audio has been made louder and clearer so it can now easily be heard over the top of the soundtrack music. The background music also drags over the film title now as opposed to before when the music stopped just before the title card appeared. We both thought that the improved montage music made this section of the trailer more punch-y and dramatic. Compared to the original music we had used in our 17/02/17 version of the trailer, we felt that Alex's composition had overall improved the tone of the trailer. We were so amazed with what we heard in this draft neither of us could suggest any improvements to be made, but rather the final touches relied with Alex should he want to make final adjustments. 

Final Version 06/03/17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBbug44vJbw

Here is the final version of our trailer. There had been very little editing since the last update on the soundtrack, but there are subtle differences with notes here and there. We added a credit for Alex on the release date and credit card at the very end of the trailer.

Film Trailer Production: Vlogs

Shooting Day #1 - The Woods

Here is a vlog made by my group member Georgina Gilbey, documenting how our first day of filming went in the woods. The scene consisted of Georgina's brother, Ryan Gilbey (playing the role of Connor) hearing a noise in the bushes, turning towards it, and also running through the woods for our montage scene. It was late in the day when we filmed, and it progressively got darker towards the end of the shoot, so there was an issue of not having enough light to capture the scene with decent lighting. However, this did help to make the scene more dramatic and it can potentially be edited in Adobe Premiere Pro to make it brighter if needed.   

Shooting Day #2 - RAF North Witham

We decided to go to RAF Witham (now Twyford Wood) as we knew that we would have access to the site since it is now public property. Unfortunately, after a long walk up to the control tower, it was fenced off with signs saying 'authorised access only', this was probably because the building is now too old and unstable for any public member to enter. We compromised and decided to use the remains of what was a raised platform or a bridge to shoot our scene with Eve. We filmed in mid-day when the sun was strongest, which made Dominika (who played Eve) look pale and sickly, like we wanted as it makes it more believable that she is a drug user. There was large areas of thick ice on the ground which we had to look out for when we were moving around to change camera angle. We also filmed a section in the woods near the car park where Eve is walking along whilst holding the pill bottle and acting 'high'. Since it was a narrow and slippery muddy path surrounded by nettles and thorny plants either side, we were limited with the amount of space we could walk around in this area, and caught people in the background of a few shots. 

Shooting Day #3 - Park

In this scene, Alice and George are required to have a conversation about the disappearance of Eve. To prepare for this, we created a script.

This vlog was made by myself. Though it was cold and wet, the weather on this day was perfect for filming as it was extremely foggy, which made for an interesting background. Filming went fairly smoothly on this day, although there was a great number of outtakes where actors would forget their lines or where they would look at the camera when talking, or for instance in the scene in which Alice (Reannah McNee) would be running, a woman and her two dogs would walk into shot, and later the dogs would directly greet Reannah as she exits the gate, so  we had to switch to another gate on the other side of the park, albeit the background was less interesting and you can see two students walking in the distance, however since it was foggy, this is not very noticeable. 

Shooting Day #4 - Alleyway

This was our last day of filming, and it was shot in the Alleyway. Dominika Malina (Eve) and myself (Anon) were to be acting in this scene, consisting of Eve walking down the alleyway, spotting Anon who is approaching her, resulting in a chase. There were a number of times when we had to stop filming because someone was walking down the alleyway and we did not want them in the shot. The shots where Anon were the hardest to film as I had to try and keep up with Dominika, and my group member Georgina, who was filming, had to keep up with me. We decided to improvise a POV shot of Anon aiming the gun and running whilst Eve was running away, however this meant I had to hold the gun, whilst Georgina held the camera and we had to run at the same time, which did not have satisfactory result. 

Voice Over Recording
Like with the park scene, we created a script for Anon's warning message to the drug addicts. 

We created three practice recordings prior to the final recordings we were to create in the recording studio.It was a way to experiment with the audio edits to help make the voice sound slightly distorted. It also let us experiment with the way the voice-over would be spoke, either aggressively or slow and threatening.

Georgina and myself recorded this speech in the school's recording studio. We recorded both of us saying the speech so that there could be a back-up narration should one not be up to a satisfactory standard, also becuase we had an idea that we could mash up the two voices when editing the audio tracks as this would make the character sound much more 'anonymous' so that no one could detect who the character is by their voice.

Magazine Cover Production

Final Product:

Poster Production

Final Product: