Planning - Storyboard

Storyboard

Planning - Soundtrack

For the soundtrack, I have found an ideal piece of music that suits the drama I want in my trailer. The track is "Pop goes the weasel" by Kevin MacLeod. The artist is well known for making royalty free music (no strings attached, no copyright), and as such, the track I have selected is free to use.

Below is a link to the track in question:



The track also sustains a nice beat/rhythm, meaning I can easily edit my trailer to match the beat of the track.

Planning - Actors

Actors are a key component to any film. Due to the fact that I have next to no budget (so everything I do effectively has to be free to use), I have no way to hire any form of professorial actors. Ergo, I have asked a few of my close friends if they will act in my film trailer. They agreed.

Using my storyboard, I've outlined that I need four actors, all listed below:
'The Victim'
'The Stalker'
'Police officer 1'
'Police officer 2'

I have managed to fill all of these positions with my friends, so I expect shooting to take place on schedule. Two of them have previous acting experience, with the others none. Ergo, I have prioritised that the positions with talking go to the actors with experience, that way the trailers integrity/seriousness doesn't get compromised.

Planning - Locations

Location, location, location!

For my trailer I need to use several different filming locations to represent several different locations in the film, ranging from a forest, to a local landmark and even a police station.

One of the locations I have chosen for my filming is the local country park, called the 'Grange country park'. This location provides a thick forest with easy access that I can use for many aspects of my trailer, and it is quiet so there won't be much interference. The location also provides a stream, waterfall and a large lake that can be used for background effects. In this forest there is a path which I can use to ensure my actors are safe, but also allows for easy shooting, as obviously shooting on rough terrain would be rather difficult.

What my landmark looks like

The second location I need is for a police station type location, so I am going to use my school to act as a sort of 'holding cell' for the criminally insane. This is because the building is large and very brightly coloured, but also available to shoot within my schedule.

Other then these key places, I may use a few simple/stock footage shots of sunsets or local buildings/streets just to help build suspense/tension or to fill the trailers gaps. The sunset footage could also be used to help represent the time of day.

Planning - First ideas

After analysing all of the below film trailers and film posters, I have begun to grasp a general idea of what I would like to see in my film trailer. Below, I have rough drafted some ideas of what I want:

General storyline: Action/Thriller. A stalker regularly meets people through the social networking site, Facebook, and then murders them in sick and twisted ways, hiding the bodies as he does. The police eventually get a hold of him, but discover that he is no ordinary human being.
Soundtrack: Pop goes the weasel - Royalty Free
Establishing shot: Facebook website, messages sent between two people.
Filming locations: Country park(forest), school (Police station)

I can use this as a basis to begin planning the rest of my trailer, such as elaborating on the locations, soundtracks, shooting schedules and of course a storyboard.

Research - Film trailer, Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye is the third trailer I have chosen to analyse because it falls into the 'Action/Thriller' genre, which separates it from the other two (as the others had hints of comedy). This once again fits into the genre I would like to produce my trailer in.

The trailer begins quickly, getting the production company logos out of the way, then jumping in to quick shots of the main character using an ATM, with very dramatic 'drum beats' in the background every time the shot makes a key change. Something immediately goes wrong, as we see him unable to withdraw money, yet 2 seconds later he is able to withdraw large amounts of money, and the machine begins firing bills at him. It then quickly changes to the character going home to his apartment, where upon entering we see him surprised to find an array of weaponry on the inside, once again using quick cuts.

These quick cuts help build suspense and add 'sudden drama' to the trailer, keeping the viewer enticed, but at the same time giving us a small amount of story for the trailer to progress.

The trailer continues to show the main character being arrested and going through some interrogation as well as encounters with an unknown being. The shots appear to show a continuous scene but with small bits cut out, effectively showing all of the action and none of the boring stuff.

Research - Film trailer, RED

RED is an Action/Comedy film released in 2010 starring some of the oldest action film actors. I have chosen to analyse this film as it falls into the action genre that I would like to make my trailer in.

The trailer begins with very relaxing violin music playing, with a few shot cuts fitting to the beat of the music. A few seconds of dialogue then takes place between two key actors, before it all ending abruptly after an actor saying “I do take the odd contract on the side”. It quickly switches to a shot of said actor on a mounted turret firing upon a convoy of vehicles in a parking garage. This kind of effect is sudden and is unexpected by the viewer, so is perhaps used as an attempt to get the viewers attention.

The next segment in the trailer has some very chilled cheerful upbeat music, cutting between title slides and shots revealing all of the actors/characters in the trailer, as well as releasing small parts of their personality/character histories. This is used to give the viewer a closer bonding with the character, perhaps to help them understand what may happen in the next segment of the trailer.

The last segment has a different soundtrack again, but reveals more action shots such as fight scenes, gun fights, explosions etc. basically anything associated with an action film. The use of these quick shots can reveal a lot about what's in the film, keeping the viewer enticed and wanting more.