Costume

This is an interesting article that I found when researching effective costume design in film, it discusses the meaning and messages behind certain articles of clothing and their relation to the character wearing them. This will be useful when it comes to dressing my own characters.

http://clothesonfilm.com/how-to-read-costume-on-film/20146/

When thinking about how I would dress my characters in the teaser trailer I looked at films which have characters similiar to my own main character, as well as films with the same psychological theme.

I have looked at the attire of both male and female characters that are portrayed in film with a psychological disorder, the images I have found all have a similiar theme in clothing, which helps me greatly with how to dress my character.

The character of Nina in Black Swan is clearly portrayed as having a mental disorder, which has been viewed as a Dissociative disorder. This involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception. This will be similiar to my own main character in the teaser trailer, as she is going through circumstances which portray the disorder. In the film Nina's main colour themes are pink and grey, she often wheres clothes which cover all of her skin and cosume her, this could act as a protection against the world she does not know outside of ballet. The layers of clothes she wears could portray the layers of her personality, she becomes lost in herself and does recognise reality.

 

The character of Susanna in Girl, Interrupted suffers from a borderline personality disorder. She often defeminises herself through wearing quite masculine attire, involving jumpers and jeans. I have found that in quite a lot of the characters studied, dark clothes, mostly layered shirts and jumpers are worn. This may reflect their dark personality, wanting not to be noticed, or as a protection.

 

This wintery/layered attire is again shown in these two mentally unstable characters, I have found that the more sinister mentally ill characters such as Jack Torrence in The Shining wear colours such as red as a sign of danger or evil. As my character intends no harm on others I will dress her in these dark layered clothes, although the child that features in my piece will be dressed in red, to portray her as a warning or sinister character. In the beginning of the piece I want my character to be dressed almost entirely in white, to portray that she is being held in some kind of institution, this will change to a summery dress in the second scene. That scene will show the moments when the character leaves their previous sane self behind and takes her journey into darkness. I have chosen for her to wear a dress as she will have a lot of skin on show, showing her vulnerability and weakness. As the scenes progress the attire will become dark and layered, showing the character going into herself and letting go of reality.

Cinematography

In preparation for the creation of my teaser trailer/poster/magazine cover I thought it would be useful to study the cinematography in two vastly different films. The look/mis-en-scene of a film is very important, for my own film I will be going for more of a 'Tyrannosaur' type style rather than a complicated, high budget, picturesque film like 'Inception'. This distinction is important as it partly dictates where a film would be shown, in smaller arthouse cinema's you usually find lower budget films whereas in large cinema's e.g. Odeon popular blockbuster films are quite usually exhibited. This is due to the scale of the film and it's budget. Films such as Inception are full of special effects, CGI, big name actors and action, the full effect of this would not be suitable on a small screen, through condensing the size of the screen the splendor of the scenes would not be fully appreciated. This contrasts to films with a small budget and lesser known actors.

The film Tyrannosaur, a typical arthouse film, focuses more on the power of acting and atmosphere to attract its audience rather than effects and scale. In my opinion, the lower budget films have slightly better acting, this is because they cannot rely on effects and CGI to carry the audience through the film. Arthouse cinema's are usually quite small and homely, they create a sense of nostalgia as the screening rooms are much more intimate and condensed. This creates the effect of sitting in a living room or somewhere like home, which allows the audience to relax and connect with the film. Acting in lower budget films, as I said is very important and effective, I believe this is appreciated fully in a small screen as the audience has much more intimacy with the film, with none of the noise and food crunching that you find in large cinema's. Here are some examples of cinematography in the two films;

These images are all from different scenes in the film Inception, as you can see they all rely on a sense of grandeur and hyperreality, this is emphasised by the large scale and special effects. The images are very 

powerful because of their surrealty and the sense of wonder around them (as they are based in dreams). The film would be enjoyable simply because of this imagery that is featured throughout, it would still be effective even if the acting wasn't great. This is seen in a lot of high budget films who are popular mostly because of their effects rather than the level of acting or storyline (thor, tron, generally marvel films...). Only in my opinion of course.

These images from the film Tyrannasaur appear very raw and gritty, which contrasts to the grand imagery in Inception. These images are all set in everyday locations, which need no special effects or large budget. The images focus on the actors rather than the surrounding, emphasising emotion and atmosphere. The films are very different in style, as you can see the colour and surroundings here are all slightly desaturated and dull, which related to the dark themes in the story. Inception focuses on dreams and the impossible, which is most effective when filled with colour and effects.
For my own film, as it will be arthouse in style and on a low budget may be similiar in appearance to that of Tyrannosaur, This is England or perhaps Dead Man's Shoes. I will look at some of the film posters and perhaps magazine covers (if there are any) for these films, to try and find inspiration from their styling and photography.
When looking at psychological horrors it is clear that a lot of the imagery is dark and dismal, to conform with the horror theme. Evil and darkness is a recurring subject matter in this genre of film, and so the imagery will often accomodate to this. I believe my locations will reflect this well, being of dark and sinister nature, I will go into this further on a separate post.
The cinematography in my own piece will act as a basis for my magazine cover and film poster, I plan on using images from the trailer to use in these artifacts. This will link all three products together and will generate interest for the film.

Script

As I am creating a 'teaser' trailer my script for the production will be very short and simple, to tease the audience and not reveal too much of the plot.
A teaser exposes the audience to a hook and enigma, it is a promotional tool to persuade the target audience to purchase tickets - this is done by generating conversation, desire and intrigue in the audience. I hope to create this through the ambiguous imagery and conversation in the trailer. This will be mimicked in my ancillary products, the front cover of the magazine will have an image from the second scene of the trailer, it is purposefully mysterious to attract not only film fans but photography fans also - the image will not be obvious as one of that from a film. The poster will contrast to the peaceful and serene setting of the magazine cover, it will show the darker side to the film's theme enticing the audience to discover the plot and narrative. I may use one of the lines in the script for the poster/magazine, to link all three together, like a puzzle that the audience has to solve. I wanted to create the magazine and poster as polar opposites in terms of imagery and lighting, to reflect the conflict of good and evil, and the psychological split in my main character.
Through my research of teaser trailers I have found that dialogue is very limited as to create a feeling of mystery or suspense, it is normally something vaguely related to the story, intriguing without giving away the game.
I am planning on only using dialogue in the first few seconds of the trailer, before the music kicks in for dramatic effect. I have reconsidered using no sound in the trailer apart from music, I want to add in a scream near the end of the trailer, and perhaps some wildlife noises (e.g. leaves, birds, wind) through specific scenes.
My trailer will begin in a clinical/sterile looking room, with the noise of a tape recorder buzzing. This will suggest to the audience maybe a prison, psychiatric ward or somewhere else, I want to make it purposefully ambiguous to create mystery. The female character will be in shot, with the camera coming from the 'man's' perspective, as he begins to speak to her. Not being able to see who is talking will keep the mystery aspect up.


Man: ...and how did you feel when you discovered you were... alone.
Woman: I... I felt myself letting go.


This is the point where the classical music will begin, leading into our first setting. The mystery is heightened through the lack of dialogue, the text may suggest several plots or outcomes.
Somewhere in the middle of the trailer I will have a screen with only text on it, which partially suggests what the narrative is about.

When someone leaves this world, what do they leave behind?


This could suggest death or disappearance, it will be left for the audience to decide and ponder what the story actually is.
28 November 2011 16:38

Teaser Trailers

These are all teaser trailers that I've found which have been featured during intervals of the Superbowl in America, this is a prime spot for trailers to be aired as its draws in around 111 million viewers each season. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnE4uzT7sro - Captain America: The First Avenger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1CzuaFQ87M - Super 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRv4Out7X8 - Transformers: Dark of the Moon


These are all high budget, high grossing films which are shown, you wouldn't find a small independent film anywhere near here. This shows the difference between blockbuster teaser spots and lower budget or more niche genre films. 


Often teaser trailers are shown before movies at the cinema, or perhaps between programmes on TV. I have found it quite difficult to locate teaser trailers for psychological horrors, this may be because it is primarily blockbuster type films that have the need for a teaser campaign. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXO0he1WjYw - The Sixth Sense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJztRnDxdM8 - Jacob's Ladder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZu1cTg-xUM - The Blair Witch Project


The Blair Witch Project trailer is a good example of a teaser trailer, it shows quick flashes of some scenes in the film, but is mostly noise and some speech which gives it a mysterious and ambiguous quality. The trailer does not explicitly show what the film is about, but draws audiences in through the is it real, is it not factor. It may intrigue as it appears frightening yet you do not know what the cause of this is. 

Focus Group

I have identified 4 people so far that would be suitable for my focus group, these are Joe (18), Kieron (17), Troy (27), Cem (19). Having this range of ages will be useful for my research as I can attempt to make my products suitable for most of my target audience.
I will be asking this group what they think of my initial storyline/ideas for the teaser trailer, and what they make of the poster/magazine. I can collect the data I find to improve upon my work. I will be both videoing and writing about our progress.

What actually is a teaser trailer?

A teaser trailer is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming film, television program, video game or similar, usually released long in advance of the product, so as to "tease" the audience.

Movie 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. Their purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on internet downloading and the convention circuit.

-Information from Wikipedia

Cloverfield + Transformers

The teaser trailer for the film Cloverfield was originally shown before Transformers in cinemas, although being conventionally longer than the usual 30-60 seconds it contains most of the attributes of a teaser. Here you can see the teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqQzvfn_s30&NR=1. Only the producer's name and the date of release are shown, not the actual title, adding to it's mystery. Both of the films have quite similar themes/genres, they fall into the sci-fi category, whilst crossing over with a few others, but are both essentially driven by the science fiction themes. The films are both about some kind of invasion, whether it be robot or monster, linking them together. Both Cloverfield and Transformers are very high budgeted blockbuster type movies, which likely be shown in large scale cinema's attracting a large audience. Showing the teaser for Cloverfield before such a popular film like Transformers would have cost a great deal in advertising, and would guarantee good publicity. It seems that Transformers supported this Cloverfield in more ways than one, in the actual film the poster for Cloverfield is shown in the room of Shia Lebeouf's character's room.

This example is similar to the exhibition of The Incredibles, which was featured in front of Finding Nemo, 18 months prior to it's release. Both films were distributed my Walt Disney and are primarily aimed at young audiences, fitting them well together.

When exhibiting my own teaser trailer I would have to consider what upcoming films would fit in well with my own, it would need to be some form of horror/thriller/drama to be suitable for feature.