Costume

My group carefully considered how we were going to dress our characters. Below is an annotated photograph of our three main actors and the outfits we chose for them.

Above all else, we wanted to both comply with and violate conventions of the teen drama. We complied with them by giving our characters a stereotype to fit into- they are 'geeks' or 'nerds' and we dressed them accordingly, in sensible clothes. We wanted them to wear simple jeans, plain T-shirts and hoodies (in Sophie's case, a lumpy, shapeless man's jacket.) However, the reason that we did this was to subvert stereotypes about the genre- typically in teen dramas, the main characters are the 'cool kids', and are highly sexualised accordingly. We wanted the 'geek' stereotype to assume the role of the 'cool kids' without taking on their behaviours, thus we wanted to convey our character's innocence and naivety through their clothes. We felt this also heightened the absurdity of them finding themselves in such a dark situation.

We also wanted to emphasise the rural setting of our trailer. Commonly, teen dramas are set in gritty, urban surroundings and feature streetwise teenagers taking on dark situations. In order to contrast our protagonists' innocence with the grit of our antagonists, we thought a country setting would be more appropriate. As noted on the photograph, the girl's jacket especially panders to this theme, as it connotes dog walking and a simple, rural lifestyle- quite the opposite to the drug dealers that our characters find themselves involved with!

Risk Assessment

My group have completed a risk assessment- we considered the possible dangers posed by our filming and came up with solutions or ways around them.

Prop List

"A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is any object held or used on stage by an actor for use in furthering the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set decoration and a prop is use. If the item is not touched by a performer for any reason it is simply a set decoration. If it is touched by the actor in accordance to script requirements or as deemed by the director, it is a prop."

- Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_prop


For our trailer, we are going to need certain props to enhance the drama or comedy on screen.
As we obtain each prop, I will tick (✓) them off.

A sports bag ✓ filled with money
- A sports bag will not be hard to obtain. However, we obviously would be unable to use real money for the scene, so we plan to find a 'specimen'picture on Google and print off several copies to use.

Vodka bottles ✓
- There is a scene where our characters are getting drunk to celebrate the fact that they have discovered all of the money. For this, we will use empty vodka bottles washed out and filled with water.

A water gun
- For a comedic scene. We willl be able tobuy a small plastic water gun at a pound shop.

A car ✓
- For another comedic scene where our characters are overtaken by an old lady who is on foot. One of our group drives and owns a car, so we will likely use that as it is the simplest way.

A dog ✓
- We need a dog to chase one of our characters up a tree and bark at it. Again, two of our group own dogs, so we will choose based on the most obedient one (and the least threatening!)

Music: Final Decision

Based on our last-minute choice to shift the theme of the film from violent and Kidulthood-esque to a more comedic fare, we now feel that the D-Mindz song we were going to use is not appropriate. To reflect the lighter tone our film has now taken, we wanted more jovial music.

When searching for unsigned artists, we discovered Trip. We felt that his song, 'Who's That' had the perfect feel- it was fast and a little bit heavy to represent the action, but the lyrics are humourous and about a social misfit.



After hearing this song, we unanimously decided it would be perfect for the montage in our teaser trailer.

Here are the lyrics. The highlighted portion is the part we intend to use.

Who's that sitting at the bus-stop
Look at his mug shot
Looks like he's been mugged off
Woken up at night by the guard dogs
Plus he's got a pile of old broken alarm clocks


I can't even be bothered to
Read a book, write , clean or to cook
Feel like I’m Steve Mcqueen on foot
Look in my cupboards nothing but cheese and custard
My feet reek like Dijon mustard
So who's that sitting at the bus-stop
While his mums dog take a pee on his Dunlops
I lost my cherry to the solo in November rain
And I’ll always die hard like I’m John Mclane
So come on traffic lights go green
And come on STD test be clean
And pretty please Mr. Washing machine
Do your thing and take those funny stains off a my jeans
So come on mum, just leave that prick and
Come home sis at least for a bit
In school I was cool with geography and punch-ups
Picked on by the boy with the transformer lunch box


Who's that sitting at the bus-stop
Look at his mug-shot
It looks like he's been mugged off
Woken up at night by the guard dogs
Plus he' got a pile of old broken alarm clocks


Ey yo I stuff down a big fat breakfast that'd be fit for a builder
I got a crush on the waitress here a bit like Hillsborough
So when I dust I tip a couple of silvers
But I 'aint got a chance 'cos she looks like a film-star
But one fine day I’ll be a wealthy fellow
And then my piss-streak will a healthy yellow
But until then it's just me and my neighbours cello
Don't put your drinks on the table, please use my demo


Who's that sitting at the bus-stop look at his mug-shot
Looks like he's been mugged off
Woken up at night by the guard dogs
Plus he's got a pile of old broken alarm clocks


So I guess it's just me and the fruit machine
would someone please turn down the human-league
I’m trying to win some loot to get a new TV
So I can sit around all day and watch QVC

Final Storyboard

This is a final, more detailed and annotated version of our storyboard. We have cut out some scenes due to impracticality, and moved some around in the chronology, but otherwise the storyboard remains more or less unchanged.

Storyboard

Now we have our idea firmly in our mind and have the audience feedback to gauge what they are looking for, we have begun storyboarding the trailer. Obviously, a trailer shows all of the best shots in the film in order to lure the audience in, so we need to think carefully about what we want every shot to convey to give a fair picture of the film.

Based on our audience feedback, we amended the tone of the film somewhat. Comedy was cited as the most popular for boys and girls alike, so we have added several amsuing elements to the storyboard- slapstick comedy and sarcastic dialogue. The premise is exactly the same, but instead of our main characters being savvy and streetwise, they are socially inept and hapless, which is the main source of comedy. We intend to play up the angle of them being misfits and being the wrong people to be caught up in such a situation.

We like the genre of 'dramedy' for this genre, as British films tend to be incredibly serious and gritty. The light hearted feel of the film will hopefully encourage people in our traget audience to see it becauyse it features the things those surveyed said they wanted in a film.

Questionnaire and Analysis

We wanted to find out what it was our audience was looking for in the trailer we are making, so we compiled this questionnaire and gave it out to thirty people between the ages of 16 and 20, our main target market. What we hoped to find out was:

- What gender our project would most appeal to, and how to make it more friendly to both
- What genres are popular so that we can include elements of them, eg. comedy, romance?
- What would make people want to see our film?

We have also created a Facebook group to this end, so we can gather qualitative feedback from our target audience.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=638384457#!/group.php?gid=152168054819075

Males aged 16-20

All watched films at least once a week if not more.

Most popular genres for males were Action and Comedy.

Least popular was Horror.

Teen drama's popularity tended to sit somewhere in the middle of the popularity spectrum.

They agreed that a good trailer and good actors were the best way to make them want to see the film.

The ones that did actively seek out trailers tended to see them on TV or YouTube.

Skins and The Inbetweeners were the most popular teen dramas from this category.

Females aged 16-20

On average, the girls watched films once a week.

Most popular genres were Romance and Comedy.

Least popular were Action films.

The actors and the reviews were the most important factors in girls making a choice to see films.

Majority of girls didn't actively seek out trailers, but saw them the most in the cinema or on TV.

Skins, Kidulthood and The Inbetweeners were the most popular teen dramas.


Based on these results, we can gather that our main market for the film is teen boys, who were more open to the idea of a teen drama. Across the board, dramas Skins and The Inbetweeners were popular- Skins features a set of hedonistic youths involved in sex and drugs, elements of which will be simple to incorporate into our feature. The Inbetweeners is about awkward teenage boys, which will be harder to incorporate, although we will include some elements of comedy in our trailer based on this finding.

In light of the popularity of Skins with both sexes. we plan to modify the tone of our characters- whereas we had previously planned to make them quite working-class, in the vein of Kidulthood, we will now make them more quirky and individual like the characters. Although it is difficult to convey seperate personalities in a trailer, we are going to try and convey characters kooks through their costumes, hairstyles and lines.

The overall verdict on teen dramas is that our target audience would watch them only if the plot interested them. We think the concept of ordinary, relatable teens finding themselves entangled with gangster types will be interesting- in fact, there was a storyline similar in the first series of Skins, where the character of Sid found himself in trouble with a drug dealer.

Locations #2

We have been searching for locations in Peterborough that would be good to use in our trailer. Our main priority in finding a location was somewhere with urban decay- a worn down, decrepit place reflecting the corruption and darkness of our plot. However, we had an idea about contrasting this with one of two shots in a beautiful place in order to make the decay look even uglier.


This location will be used for a comedy scene where a character is stuck up a tree. We selected it because it has low branches and will therefore pose a minimal health and safety risk.



This location will be used to film a scene of a character being chased by a small dog in a comedic fashion. We chose it because it is a clear path in a reasonably quiet area.


This is the alleyway that the characters emerge from at the very beginning of the trailer. The bush to the right is where the characters will find the money. We chose this alley because it manages to look both suburban and unkempt at once.


There is a scene in the trailer where the characters run past these garages. We chose them because they are battered and not particularly attrative, which represents the grittier world our goofy misfits find themselves caught in.

Location

Now we have settled definitively on our idea, we need to start thinking about where we are going to film it. Given the nature of the film, we feel we need to use gritty locations that convey the bleakness of the character's predicament.

This mood board gives an idea of the kind of locations we want to use. We want to use a setting with lots of graffiti and battered-looking buildings to represent urban decay. A lot of these images also feature backdrops of council estates and tower blocks to represent the lower economic background of our characters. The inclusion of a picture of a fast food joint also indicates this, as the characters are eating junk food instead of nutritious meals, presumably because their family lives are less than traditional.

All that's left to do now is find locations in Peterborough that have these features and can accurately convey the connotations we want.

Mood board

In considering the kinds of shots that are used in teaser trailers, I viewed several in the teen movie genre to get some ideas. Here, I have made a mood board, comprised of shots which I found effective and thought we may be able to take inspiration from.

This mood board consists of shots from Skins, Kidulthood, 4321, Fishtank, Cherrybomb and Garden State, all of which (except Garden State) are British teen dramas. Lots of the shots feature females, and are therefore mainly intended to serve as inspiration for our female character. Some of the shots I found inspiring for angles (such as the shot of the character from below from Kidulthood, in the middle on the far right), some for setting (e.g. the shot at a campsite from Skins, top on the far right, or the shot at the underpass, also from Skins, middle right, second from bottom) and some for the content (like the close up of Michelle's eyes from Skins, top on the far left, or the picture of the girl crying from Fishtank, second from bottom on the far left)

This is another mood board I've made, this time featuring shots from Misfits, Nearly Famous and Skins, all British teen drama series. This time, the mood board has pictures that are more male oriented, serving as inspiration for our two male characters. Shots I found particularly effective include the one of Owen from Nearly Famous crying (bottom far left), the extreme close up of of Nathan from Misfits drinking a bottle of vodka (middle of centre left) and the shot of Nathan from behind brandishing a gun (bottom far right).

Most of the shots on both boards feature dark lighting, indicating the realism and the dark tone of British movies and TV in general. Also, almost all of the shots are either mid-shots or close-ups- this is likely because it would be inappropriate to use establishing shots in a trailer, particularly a teaser, which flashes by exceptionally quickly.

Music- Local Artists

"Music helps set the tone and mood of the trailer. Usually the music used in the trailer is not from the film itself (the film score may not have been composed yet). "

- Wikipedia article on Trailers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_(film)

We have started to seriously consider the music we need to use in our teaser trailer, as we want it to convey something both about our characters and the genre of our film, and our target audience. Thus, we wanted the music to feel 'young' and modern- we thought a rap/ hip hop track would probably get this across the best.

We have found a local artist who produces the kind of music we would like to use, D-Mindz. His song Monster is sung from the perspective of a boy who is destroyed by his love for a girl, with lyrics connoting violence and anger,tying in with the drug dealers.



These are the lyrics of the song:

Monster
How should I feel
Creatures lie here
Looking through the window x2

I'm surrounded by the darkness
And the harder that I try to break free the more it tightens on this harness
I try ripping it, it's so sickening
All these creatures in the carpet I'm living in

You tried screaming for help
But I had my hands wrapped round your mouth, I felt frightened of myself
I had your heart in my palm, I can do what I want
So I tear it apart, what I felt necessary

I turned into something I didn't wanna but you made me so cold
And now I'm sitting here, the record's playing, and no one's home and
Hey, I didn't mean to break your heart
We all make mistakes, I'm the one you'll regret forever, babe

Monster
How should I feel
Creatures lie here
Looking through the window x2

You're my poison, you're the toxic, running through my veins,
You're the puppet master with the strings through my brain,
But then I broke free from your hold
You've never seen a hot boy turn this cold

You wrote me a love note to make me feel better
At the bottom of the page, I found blood on the letter,
At the top of the page was a smiley face sulking,
Man, I never knew a girl so insulting

It's all jokes and laughs until you get your hopes smashed by broken glass
And you're sitting on a cloud still floating past
Til the bullets smoke past and don't you crash,
You could try reversing memories
If you went back a century we'd still be enemies
I hate you, but should I keep that a secret or introduce you to this side of the truth?

Monster
How should I feel
Creatures lie here
Looking through the window x2

Take a little bit of heartbreak, a little bit of vodka,
I'm still in love with a bitch called karma,
I got my nails so deep in her flesh,
If I ran, I could rip the heart straight from her chest,

And it's lust with neglect,
I just wanna f*ck you, girl, I don't need your respect
And my attitude is very ugly
And trust me, you wouldn't dare to love me

It must be the drink, it must be the scars,
It must be the girls I find in bars
But I never seem to find the right one,
Somebody dial 911
I hate you, I hate you
I hate you, I hate you
Forever, babe

There is a lot of violent imagery in the song ('But I had my hands wrapped round your mouth, I felt frightened of myself', 'I got my nails so deep in her flesh, If I ran, I could rip the heart straight from her chest') which its in well with the theme of our film.

Thoughts about shots

This is one of the last shots from the 2003 movie Thirteen. The scene represents the girl, who has escaped from the pressured lifestyle she had previously been involved with (not quite a violent gang, but a rebellious, drug using crowd) letting go of all the negativity in her life up to that point. She is on a merry-go-round (holding on to her childhood innocence?) and screaming, venting her frustrations at the life she chose.

I think a similar shot would make a good opening to our teaser trailer- it would represent Cassie's character ridding herself of the drama that has been surrounding her.






The other images capture some of the tone that we hope to emulate in our work.They include teenagers, mostly lone shots to capture the feeling of isolation, and including a lot of smoking to show their disregard for social taboos and laws, but also some shots of them together to represent their camaraderie.

Potential Music 2

I have been conducting more research into what music would be most effective in our teaser trailer. Here are a few more of our options.

Calvin Harris- I'm Not Alone (Doorly Dubstep Remix)




Again this song is a dubstep remix of a reasonably melancholy tune, mixing the sadness in the lyrics and tone of Harris' voice, singing lyrics that tie in with the themes of our film ('God, I can't do this anymore' could represent the group's struggle to escape from the mistake of taking the money) with the edgy, urban vibe we were seeking to create.

Example- Kickstarts (Bar 9 Remix)



Yet again, this song is a dubstep-type remix of a pop song. The lyrics talk about being in love but feeling uncertain ('Avoid the obvious, we should be facing the truth') but, unlike the original song, this version has an ominous feel to it, fitting with the tragedy in our movie.

Swedish House Mafia ft. Pharell- One (Your Name)



This song is a house track with a heavy baseline and a clubby vibe, but lyrics like 'You just killed me,' which might represent the emotional turmoil of our characters. It is also fairly current and so would connect well with the generation of our target audience.

Placebo- Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush cover)



This song has quite a different vibe to the others we have considered, but we thought it could also work as it is quite chilling in tone and the lyrics would fit in well with the trailer we are making.

Potential Music

Over the summer, I have been considering what music would be most effective in our trailer. We want to achieve an edgy, urban vibe to correspond with the themes of our film, so we thought the genres of rap, hip hop and dubstep would be the most effective and would reflect the vein of the film the most effectively. Here, I have gathered a selection of possibilities.

D-Mindz- Monster



This song is a rap song with lyrics about a man being destroyed by his obsession for a woman, fitting with the themes of a love triangle. The lyrics 'I turned into something I didn't wanna, but you made me so cold' fit in with the thmes of violence in the film. Also, as the song is by a local musician, there are no issues with copyright.

Imogen Heap- Hide & Seek (Dubstep Remix)



The original version of this song is very bleak, using no instruments, only Heap's voice and an autotune machine, with lyrics speaking about loneliness and abandonment. However, the dubstep remix adds the edgy urban vibe we were seeking, and strikes the right balance between the melancholy (as the film is tragic in nature) and party-esque.

B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams- Airplanes



Again, this song features rapping, but features female vocals talking about needing a wish, adding the layer of melancholy necessary and relating to the group's predicament and wishing that they had never taken the money. However, we felt that the beat may be a little bit slow- we wanted something a little more fast paced to represent the pace of the film.

Cherrybomb

Recently the film 'Cherrybomb' came to my attention- a film intended for a teenage audience also featuring a love triangle between two boys and a girl. Although more in the vein of Skins than Kidulthood (as ours is) the similarity in premise led me to consider how such a film was marketed.

I found the original teaser trailer online. It is 1 minute 39 seconds long, so on the longer spectrum of the teaser trailer, but it utilises the technique of no dialogue, only music. For this film- something where the premise is fairly obvious- I found this extremely effective and it made me want to watch the film.

Analysis of a Teaser Trailer- 4321 Comparisons

In order to better understand the teaser trailer, I am analysing those that I find of films from the genre we intend to use in our trailer. I thought a good way to do this would be to compare two seperate teaser trailers for the same film, 4.3.2.1, and see the different ways in which the film was promoted.



This teaser was released first, in late 2009, with the film's release set in summer 2010- being released half a year before the film's release makes it a traditional time to release a teaser trailer. At 49 seconds long, the trailer certainly fits in with the conventional length of a teaser.

This particular trailer makes use of the technique of showing various, quickly cut shots set to music, enabling the audience to get a feel of the film without giving the plot away b featuring dialogue (only two lines are heard: one at the beginning, spoken by Emma Roberts, and one at the end, spoken by Tamsin Egerton, and neither of these give away plot details aside from hinting at the violent undertones of the movie.)

Again, this teaser does not contain any original material, but for the same reason as the Kidulthood trailer that I previously analysed (written, directed by and starring the same man, Noel Clarke) this is likely due to the relatively low budget of the film.



This trailer was released two months after the previous trailer, in February 2010 (the film was eventually released in May). A totally different technique is utilised in this teaser; the use of a short, relatively unimportant but comedic clip is used, to give people a flavour of the film (so from this trailer we realise it features young, urban English people) without giving away plot details.

At 32 seconds long, it is shorter than the other trailer, which is unusual, as trailers tend to get longer as the release of the film gets closer, but the length itself is in keeping with the conventions of a teaser.

Personally, the first trailer would be the one to generate my interest in the film, as we are shown the cast, the setting and get more of a feel of the tone (the film is actually about the group of teenager's encounter with a gang of violent diamond thieves) that I did not feel was present in the second trailer.

Analysis of a Teaser Trailer- Kidulthood

In order to better understand how to create and recognize teaser trailers, I am going to analyse this one, a trailer for the 2006 film Kidulthood, because it is in a similar vein and aimed at a similar audience to our proposed first idea.



Firstly, the length of this trailer is 1 minute- compared to the length of the theatrical trailer for the same film, which is 2 minutes 46 seconds long. The teaser also obeys the convention of not giving away any major plot points- nothing in the trailer is mentioned of the young girl's suicide, which is the catalyst for all the movie's events, and only gives the merest hint of the strong theme of gun crime in the film, with a quick flash of a gun at 0.43. However, it manages to give the audience a strong flavour of what the movie is about, and who it is aimed at.

This teaser trailer does not feature any original material, but this is likely because the film was relatively low budget and the makers could not afford to film extra material. A voiceover is used, however, which enables the trailer to include dialogue, but not any of the lines from the movie, enabling the trailer to give a summary of events without, again, revealing important plot points.

The teaser was released in late 2005, with the film being released in March 2006. This breaks the convention of teasers being released long in advance of the actual movie, but again, this may be due to the movie's budget constraints (only £600,000 was allocated to the film.) Anothe possible reason could be that as the film is aimed primarily at teens, it was released later so as to keep the film fresh in their minds.

Overall, the Kidulthood teaser is in keeping with the structural traditions of a teaser trailer- it was simply released later than most.

This teaser is going to be influential for us, as our film has similar themes and will include similar violent imagery and bleak landscapes. However, we intend to use music instead of a voiceover, as we feel it will be more effective for our action-driven plot and will better represent the pace of the film.

Conventions of a Teaser Trailer

I have examined several teaser trailers and there are certain conventions present throughout almost every one I have watched.

- Commonly, teaser trailers are very short- between 30 seconds and 1 and a half minutes, compared to the length of an ordinary trailer being 2-4 minutes long. This is to generate hype for a film long before it's release and increase the public's anticipation for the film.

- Teaser trailers are usually released many months or even years before a film is released- as the name suggests, they are intended to 'tease' the audience because they can't see the film. The teaser trailer for The Da Vinvi Code (2006) was released before a single scene of the movie had been shot.




- Often, very little is given away in teaser trailers- either a short, sometimes comedic, scene is posted to give a flavour of the film without hinting too much at the plot, or a series of very short clips flash up on the screen set to music, so that no dialogue is heard. (The trailer for The Da Vinci Code, as mentioned above, features none of the actors who were in the film, only a voice over giving a brief synopsis of the plot).

- It is also worth noting that teaser trailers often include unique footage that does not appear in the finished film. This tends to be because teasers are released so far in advance of the acual movie, sometimes shooting hasn't even begun, as with the example above, The Da Vinci Code. Pixar, an animation company, are famed for their use of original material in trailers, used to amuse the audience and give a flavour of the film without revealing any plot elements at all.

Brief & Initial Ideas + Audience Feedback

The brief we have been given is to create a promotional pack for a new movie, including a teaser trailer, and either a poster, a magazine cover or a website homepage.

We have three ideas for what kind of movie we could create the promotional pack for. We intend to ask our audience for feedback regarding which they would most like to watch.

Ideas

Idea #1

This idea is recycled from one we seriously considered using during AS media, until we decided that it didn't draw enough attention as an opening. However, for a trailer, we feel it has potential.
The idea features three lead characters- two boys and a girl, all aged about 17-18, the target audience we are trying to appeal to. The girl is in an abusive relationship with Boy A, but truly wants to be with Boy B. Near the beginning of the film, she inadvertently reveals this to Boy A, which results in him waging war on Boy B. The ways in which they get at eachother become more and more dangerous until it's too late, and the film ends with a funeral of one of the boys.

This idea is inspired by films like Skins and Fishtank, set in 'rough' areas featuring working class youths. We thought this would make a good trailer in the vein of the Skins TV teaser. We even had an idea for a tagline- a Jean-Paul Sartre quote, "Hell is other people."

Idea #2

The second idea we came up with fit into the genre of 'stoner buddy comedy,' in a similar vein to Pineapple Express or I Love You, Man. The idea involved a pot-smoking social misfit and his cool, womanising dealer being somehow stuck in an enclosed space together, although we haven't yet worked out where or how it would come about.

However, we were slightly dubious of this idea because as none of us are writers, we felt we would struggle to come up with any lines that were amusing, and therefore this idea may be difficult. Also, we thought we may have trouble casting the part of the dealer (we had someone Russell Brand-esque in mind).

Idea #3

The third idea that we had was to create a trailer to accompany the opening scene of Blackout, the film my group and I made for our AS project. We thought that, as a dramatic pscyhological thriller, it would make an interesting trailer, and we also have plenty of foreknowledge of our characters and the kind of places to shoot the trailer.

However, as in our original plot, Matthew became a fugitive and was frequently chased by the police, we thought this may be difficult to film. We were also unsure whether it would be a good idea to use the same idea, as we wanted to try something new. We thought it might be bette rfr us- and we might learn more- by attempting a different genre.

Idea #4

This idea is in a similar vein to the first, but has a slightly more Kidulthood-esque vibe as opposed to the sleeker, more Skins like tone of the first.

In it, a group of teenagers find some money in the middle of the street. They take it and spend it all on cars, clothes, drink and parties. The drug dealers find out that their stolen money was taken by a group of teenagers and hunt them down. The group end up accidently killing a member of the drug gang , landing themselves in more trouble. The group try to run for their freedom, both the police and the gang are after them and want to bring them to justice- only one can be the winner...

Of these four ideas, we like numbers one and four the best, as we feel they will be easy to relate to for our target audience of teens.

Audience Feedback

Our audience, a class of 17-18 year olds, responded best to ideas one and four, just as we thought. They said they found them more relatable and accessable, as the characters are their own age, and that the plot ideas of those two seemed both the most developed and the most interesting. Now, we just need to decide which of the two ideas to use. We plan to ask a different focus group which idea of the two they prefer.

We have also made a Facebook group (http://tinyurl.com/33ke76s) where we will post discussions about the film and ask teenagers what they think we should do in order to gain more ideas about what our audience want. Here is a print screen of a discussion asking them if they prefer idea #1 or idea #2 (idea #4 in this post)




These were the common criticisms, and how we plan to address them:

- "Examiners are getting bored of marking hoodie films, so they might lower your grade because of it".
We are going to attempt to play with genre conventions so that our film stands out from the others and hope the examiners like the originality.

- "You need to make sure that your Trailer is long enough, so that it doesn't look like you haven't done much because you are lazy- not because it is the convention"
Teaser trailers usually last for between 30 seconds and 1 and a half minutes. In order to cram in as much work as possible and show that we have thought everything through, we are going to make a trailer that is on the longer side.

- "How are you going to make your Trailer original?"
We are going to try to twist the conventions of both teaser trailer and genre and make them work for us, resulting in a unique product.

After much deliberation, we decided to go with the fourth idea- that of the teenagers finding te money.

Our Project: Teaser Trailer

"A teaser trailer, or teaser is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game, product, or television series. Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name "teaser" is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience."

When my group and I first decided on the teaser trailer project, I was uncertain about what the difference between a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer was. My first part of research was to find out the difference, and this is a definition I came across on Wikipedia.

In order to gain some ideas about what to include in our teaser trailer, I have found teasers for several movies with similar themes and a similar audience, mainly aimed at teenagers.

4.3.2.1 teaser




Skins trailer




Kidulthood trailer




Chatroom trailer



Tormented trailer




Garden State trailer




The Last Kiss trailer




This trailer for season 4 of Skins is exactly the sort of thing we want to do- unfortunately I am unable to post the video but this is the link to it.

http://www.e4.com/video/bsT92GRq7Lu6v6G5QKRjl1/play.e4