Fonts and Title Ideas

These are ideas for our film title ideas, We started with our three original title ideas which were,

'The Taking'

'Left At Home'

'Abandoned'

Before we set our idea on 'Abduction' we had these three to choose from. We chose 'The Taking' Its quick, simple and easy to read. We wanted something with fewer syllables. Using the website, 'Dafont' We managed to choose from lots of different fonts to create our titles.

For 'The Taking' We first of all chose something that looked as if it was written by somebody else. We found this interesting to use.

for 'Abandoned' we chose something that was solid and very blocked. The blocked letters, give the illusion of a house or building. This is one reason we chose this type of font.

For 'Left At Home' the one that stood out the most was this font, which is sectioned on some letters. I found it gave a good effect with the sectioned areas.

After looking at these, we chose the best title to suit our plot. We chose to use 'The Taking.'

Using Dafont, we chose lots of different fonts to try them out and see what one we preferred. The one that striked me most, is the third one down. It looks scratchy and has an atmosphere to it. It looks as if a young child has scribbled  this. Which could relate to the younger children going missing in our plot and could be them. I also like the first one, which I can see suiting this type of film because its very simple and has an elongated effect like most thriller types have.

This shows we have two options to consider from.

Scripting For 'The Taking'

It took around an hour- to two hours to finalise the scripting for our trailer, 'The Taking'.

We have decided to base our trailer on an American mainstream trailer, this gives it a more realistic feel.

during filming we did try out two different versions of the voiceover, a British accent and  a standard American accent. Listening to both of these, we found that the American worked best for our genre and type of characters. We also asked our main actor what accent they feel best doing, they also said American.

We also added the sound of a clock ticking in the background, this portrays the characters regrets as time has changed the way she now lived her life. We have decided to keep the clock ticking as we feel it gives a good effect to the rest of the voiceover.

 

Our script is now in the vocabulary of the United States. We feel this will work well. I also thought we needed some American names for our characters in our script, so when the actors are performing, they will feel their character. The more they get into their character, the better they will perform so that we can capture this well.

Our script consists of three pages,

 

 

 

 

 

‘The Taking’

Characters:

Emily: Madison-Eldest

Conor: Cody-Second Eldest

Michael: Tyler-Younger brother

Holly: Zoey-Youngest sister

 

(Voiceover of Madison during the 8 quick

 

scenes)

 

Madison: “I find it funny how time passes; I always thought that bad things came to those that had broken the rules in life- I was wrong...”

“January 25^th, 2014 is when things changed. My family, I took for granted.. Something I regret. I suppose I learned my lesson the night my Mom went to work..”

 

Black Screen

 

Shot of the Mom walking into the living room

 

Mom: “Right, kids I’m off to work. Madison can you come here for a minute please?”Mom walks out to kitchen and Madison follows

 

Madison: “I’m supposed to be going out tonight?!”

 

Mom: “Stop sulking please, it’s only for a couple of hours. Help your Mom out a bit?” Madison grunts

 

Madison:“Well am I going to say to Aspyn?! We were supposed to be going out? I’m always the one to babysit.”

 

Mom: “Don’t start.” Mom walks off towards the door

“Be good, you two, stop fighting!”

 

2 kids come back out to kiss Mom goodbye

 

Mom: “I won’t be long.”Door closes

 

Black Screen

 

Pans of all watching a film

 

Slow pans of two children fidgeting and facial expressions show signs of boredom

 

Madison shows signs of frustration

 

Madison: "Can't you two just be quiet? I can't hear anything, if you're gonna be noisy go away!"

 

Tyler: “Were bored, can’t we just go outside?"

 

Zoey: “Pleaseeeee?”

 

Madison is on her phone, not concentrating on what’s going around her

 

Madison: “Yeah, if it shuts you both up!" Spoken in frustration

 

Shot of Children putting on hats and scarves

 

Cody:”Did Mom say that they were allowed out?”

 

Madison: “I dunno.. They'll be fine.” Cody has looks of concern on his face

 

Black Screen

 

Cody:“I think you should call them in?”  

 

Madison: “Yeah alright, I’ll go see, pause the film will you?”

Cody Pauses the film

 

Black Screen

 

Madison comes back in with fright in her eyes

 

Cody: “Where are they then, did you find them?”

 

Madison looks frightened and stares for a moment

 

Madison: “I can’t find them... I’ve been everywhere, around the block twice, down the road, up to the park… I can’t find them anywhere.”

 

Everything turns silent for a moment..

 

Cody: “What.”

 

Madison starts to panic and runs to grab her phone and puts on her coat

 

Cody: “Where are you going?!”

 

Madison: “I need to sort this myself. I shouldn't have let them out."

 

Cody: “Shall I call Mom?”

 

Madison: “No, I can sort this myself, Mom will go mad.”

 

Cody: “But-“

  

 

Madison: ”No Cody! I need to do this by myself.”

 

Madison slams the door shut

 

Black Screen

 

Phone starts to ring

 

Cody picks it up to answer

 

Cody: “Hello?”

 

Shot on Cody ^^

 

Muffled voice on other end

 

Madison: “I can’t find them” (Through crying)

 

Cody starts to feel sick

 

Cody: "Why?! You need to, we are going to be in so much trouble, they could be dead for all we know?!"

 

Cody starts to cry

 

Madison: "Don't say that! I will find them, I promise." (Through tears)

 

Shot on Madison ^^

 

Cody: "I think we should call the police.."

 

Shot on Cody ^^

 

Madison: "No Cody! If we do that-"

 

Madison breaks off and she starts screaming and crying down the phone, During this there is no sound of Cody.

 

Madison: "Cody?! Cody are you there?!"

 

Shot on Madison ^^

 

Shot of a walking shadow passing by house

 

Phone breaks off and "The other person has cleared..." is said.

 

Title of The Taking

 

Climax has been reached and trailer will end in cliff-hanger.

 

 

This shows the different conventions of the script, we hope to see this work well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storyboard- 'The Taking'

This is the official storyboard for our trailer, 'The Taking'. We have only drew out half of this as we had around 85+ scenes and cuts and this would have taken a long time to draw out.

As explained previously, We have five characters in this, One important (The main character) and one extra (The Mother).

In the end, we decided to follow similarly the layout of editing from the trailer 'Hours', we felt this went well with our own trailer, this is where we are heading.

The first nine scenes show each individual character for approximately 2s. The institution is also going to be shown within this time also for either 1-2s. During this, a voiceover from the main character will be played, telling the audience of her wonders and regrets.

The next nine scenes show the Mother telling her children she is going out to work, as she works night shifts. She then calls out Emily, (The main character) to talk over with her before she leaves.

The Mother tells the younger children to stop their fighting, kisses them goodbye and leaves. These scenes are all going to be cut even further so they last for 1-2s long.

 

We thought the black screens in 'Hours' was really effective and we wanted to use these in our own trailer, We then have these throughout to break up the different times in our trailer.

After this, the camera will show the characters in the living room watching a film that is more suited for adults, the young children are shown to look restless and want to go outside to play.

They are then shown putting on their outdoor wear, and are ready to go outside.

The next five finally show the two eldest characters talking about getting the children in as it is getting dark, Emily is responsible for them both.

I think that the first half of our storyboard has come out well, we hope to edit this so that it comes just under 2m.

 

Make-up and Hair styling

I considered the Make-up and Hairstyling for our main character, since she will be featured in this trailer a lot.

We have two options for her characteristics and personality traits that we will think would work well with the rest of the plot.

The 'Matured' Teen:

Cares about what she does

Good grades in school

Doesn't go overboard with her looks

Has a good reputation from her family and friends for babysitting

The Stereotypical 'Bad girl' Teen:

Very laid back

Doesn't do very well at school in this phase

Has her own unique style

Doesn't think things through

We paired the two together to compare, asking a few of our family and friends after reading them the plot this is what they said;

Hannah (16) 'I think someone with a bad reputation would be better as this would be unexpected for the audience, they would assume she isn't too bothered about the younger kids but in reality it hits her when she realises she can't find them.'

Lewis (19) 'If the girl is bad, most guys are gonna want to watch this. It gives someone character and I think if she is too 'Worried and always on her feet' The trailer could become a little boring if she is questioning and always taking things seriously.'

Louise (22) 'I personally like them to have good characteristics. If this is a thriller/horror wouldn't the victim/s be useless? like the heroine in a film.'

Taking these into consideration, we found that the 'Bad girl' rep was the most popular.

 

We have chosen soft waves and a natural looking face for this.

For this, we chose a straighter hairstyle and smoky eye makeup.

 

Peer assessment by Louise Maclaren

Feedback

Well done Lauren, you have included a lot of detail into each post. From reading your posts it clearly tells me your idea of your trailer and I think you have a lot of great ideas.
To improve maybe you should include more terminology.

Institution Ideas

Institution Ideas:

We have discussed our institution ideas for our film trailer, we searched on different films the same as our own genre and this is what we found:
The trailer for 'Children of Men' Is a thriller, except it uses the 'Universal' institution and this was unexpected, as most don't use this type.

Others that include this type of institution are, 'The Strangers' this also claimed to be inspired by a true event, this type of phrase tends to scare viewers, either making them want to watch it or shy away from it.
The next is by 'Summit Entertainment'
This type is popular among thrillers and horrors, we are considering using this type in our own trailer. This is featured in the film 'Hurt Locker' which is considered a thriller.

The last we are considering is 'TSC The Safran Company' Which is used in the 'Hours' trailer, which we are basing our editing on. Hours is a thriller based genre, and has a different institution to what most thriller films would generally use.
Another film that includes this is, 'The Conjuring' which is liked by many viewers of 2013. This shows that maybe using this one is a good option.

Universal Pictures was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle.


Summit Entertainment was founded in 1993 by Bernd Eichinger, Andrew G. Vajna and Arnon Milchan.


TSC the Safran Company was founded by Peter Safran, where he has been the producer for many films starting as a co-producer in 1997.

Target Audience Questionnaire

The Questionnaire:

We created a questionnaire about our plot summary on our film trailer.
From the findings we gathered that the majority of the age group were 16-17. it is shown that this particular age group tend to watch more thriller/horror films than adults and the elderly.
This means we needed something exciting for this age group to watch.
Most of the audience chose extremely different horrors that were their favourites such as,

• The Conjuring
• Insidious
• Exorist

These are all different to each other with their own storyline. From this evidence we will need to create a storyline that's unique and will keep the audience entertained. If its the same as any other storyline, this will get boring and our trailer will not hit the higher rates.
The most popular was non-fictional, which is based on true stories or events. This scares the audience a lot more than fiction, because of the thought that it has actually happened previously.
The feedback suggested that they would expect to see lots of 'paranormal' happenings, this also links in with scenes that are 'jumpy'. This was the most popular.
The most requested for music was 'classical' this gives off a sad and weird atmosphere to what is happening throughout. This told us that maybe we should be using classical types of music in our trailer.
Other options which stood out was Orchestral types of music. This can be loud and dramatic which will be great for the end climax.
Most people chose to have a solved ending to the trailer, which we were considering.
Another question was, 'Does appearance of the front cover determine your choice of film?'
There were half and half on this, some answered yes and some no. This will them help us to do the best we can to make the front of ours look good and worth watching. We want them to feel taken in by this.
Most said that they would expect to see the climax of the trailer towards the end when the tension has built up throughout. This is a good answer as we were planning to do this in our own trailer.
I think that if the climax is towards the end, it will shock the viewers in a good way that will make them 'hyped' to go see this ASAP. Which is good for rates and star ratings.
When we were considering having a voiceover in the beginning of the trailer, we asked people this. Most of them said yes to a voiceover, because it gives an insight on the story without giving away too much straight away. We are using a voiceover in our trailer to give this effect.
Another typical question is do they view the trailer beforehand, many answered yes as they would like to see what the film is going to be about and if they would sit through to watch it. Some have personal preferences on genres, so this is a good way to view before they watch the whole film.
We asked about the conventions people would generally like to see in this type of trailer, answers were:
Screaming
Darkness
Suspense
Blood
Voiceover

We are considering including most of these, if not at least three or four. Knowing that these conventions will then get audiences on the edges of their seats reassures us that these can safely be included into our trailer. This also links into our plot line of 'Abduction' because of the screams and suspense in this.
We were given many plot ideas, that were great. Due to the set idea we had on abduction, 'haunted house' and 'Isolated Farm' were brilliant ideas, but after many thoughts they were hard to access from where we live. If we did find these areas, we would have to make time for travelling. Also if we needed to re-film any areas, time would be tight.
We have concluded this, and noted things we will take into our ideas such as the conventions and different times of climax. These are important for our trailer as we take in what the audience would like to see as viewers themselves. Our aim is for them to want to see more.

Collage for film genre Comedy

I chose to do my collage on 'Comedy' which is something different to what I usually do. I chose this genre because this is popular among a range of different ages. Especially the film, 'Step Brothers.' This is a famous film that many people like to watch. This is because of its humorous characters. They also have a 'dopey' side to them which I think makes them have a slightly funny side.

Another film is 'Ted' This is more of an adult rated film, because of the strong sexual humour, At the start of the film the bear is shown to be innocent and childlike, but as it grows up with the boy, he becomes more human like and has an 'Alpha male' characteristic to him. He uses strong language, sexual references and drug use. This makes it humorous because its different. No stuffed animal is 'Alive' so this is funny to most audiences.

New Years Resolutions

This year I want to succeed in my Media lessons and make my blog stand out with lots of blog posts to show evidence of my planning and work towards my final trailer.
For my new years resolutions, I am going to:

• Keep up-to-date with all blog posts in general
• Find extra resources to use that can be written about for more ideas
• Write about posts and findings in more detail