The 'Fallen Grace' Teaser Trailer

Fallen Grace - Teaser Trailer from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Here is the final edit of the 'Fallen Grace' teaser trailer. 

Director and Editor: Emma Taylor

Assistant Director and Sound: Thomas Bailey

Director of Photography: Abigail Ford

Production Design and Sound: Saqib Younis

 

Tom Bailey's storyboard from the editing day

Below is the 'Fallen Grace' film poster

Here is a link to our 'Fallen Grace' website: http://www.fallengracemovie.co.uk/

Evaluation Question 4

Written by Abi Ford adapted by Emma Taylor

Who are your audience & what have you learned from your audience feedback? 

The intended outcome of our production was to create a coming of age, supernatural thriller trailer with the target audience being 15-25. I think we were successful in our endeavour, incorporating genre conventions and our own unique selling points to our film to make it as attractive as possible to our target audience. We denoted the thriller genre elements in the trailer, such as explosions, blood dripping from Grace’s forehead and hands, whilst also incorporating technical elements of thriller trailers including a fast editing pace, chiaroscuro lighting, and colour grading in Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). We also adhered to general conventions of trailers including fade transitions, institutional information (such as the production companies’ logos) and cross media convergence techniques of promoting our film, including our website address, Twitter and Facebook logos. These are widely used by our young target audience and therefore our reach on the social networking sites will be more widely used, and consequently helping market the film more effectively, offering competitions and engaging with our audiences.

We still kept the coming of age genre element by showing flashbacks of relationships among our main characters. Our intended audience will be attracted by the elements of coming of age genre as they will be able to relate to the cast due to them being a similar age and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) certificate of 15 also helps establish the thriller element of our genre, establishing that ‘Fallen Grace’ contains mature themes. It is rare for thrillers to be below the certificate of 15, and we did take inspiration from the thriller film ‘Trance’ directed by Danny Boyle for our graphic blood torture scenes when the blood is dripping off Grace’s hands. ‘Trance’ is also has a 15 certificate for its mature themes, so we looked to other similar media texts in order to establish the classification for ‘Fallen Grace’ whilst also looking at the classification criteria from the BBFC.

 We  chose this target audience as it is the one we can relate to most, our and could therefore portray our own emotions and experiences, helping the audience relate more to our production as we have a better understanding of the audience and of the characters in the movie. 

To further attract our audience, we included two titles plates in the trailer which states, “FROM THE MAKERS OF SWEET REVENGE”. This helps to pull in the audience as it will interest fans who enjoyed ‘Sweet Revenge’, which was also rated at a 15 certificate. It also gives some indication to the cinematic style of the film, as the cinematographer, director and production designers are the same in each film. Both ‘Fallen Grace’ and ‘Sweet Revenge’ are also mid-budget thriller films, made by the same production team attracting a similar audience. In AS Level, we established that ‘Sweet Revenge’ would be produced by several production companies, so that it would be less of a risk for the producers involved, and also that it would be distrusted in art-house cinemas such as the ‘Cornerhouse’ in Manchester and also potentially shown at film festivals in order to promote the film to other film makers. Christine Gledhill stated that ‘differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to’ meaning that we can give our target audience exactly what they want from a film to satisfy their needs and therefore create a successful film, and attracting a loyal audience of thriller film lovers. Abercombie states that ‘genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience’.

To check for any mistakes and places that could be improved, we asked our friends and family to view our second to last edit and give some constructive criticism. This is because we felt that since we knew what every shot meant and the plot, we may be biased about the outcome. Ben Wheatley, the upcoming British director and editor of ‘Sightseers’ and ‘A Field in England’ states that he is the worst person to evaluate the outcome of his movies and to assess what ‘makes sense’ to the viewer. The qualitative data we received was very helpful as it allowed us to see mainly where more sound effects were needed, which we then added in for the final edit. This included the heart beat at the end and the gasp-like sound effect at the highlighter floating back into Grace’s hand, to make the audience pay close attention and focus on these essential parts of the narrative.

Out of the feedback we received, one particular comment noted was people's love for the explosion. This comment particularly pleased us as we had gone to a lot of effort to set up and film this scene and a lot of hard work happened to make it possible – and look good. We decided to use an actual explosion rather than use recordings from other films as we wanted to ensure it was right for our production and we as realistic as possible with our main protagonist Grace in the centre. We also wanted our main actress Clare to be in shot which would not be possible without filming the explosion our self or using a green screen, however it would be hard for Clare to reaction to an explosion by falling to an explosion that wasn’t actually there. To do this, we contacted local business ‘Lancashire Militia’ who had previously worked with our director Emma and agreed to do the explosion for free in a safe environment (we just had to provide the fuel). The explosion worked perfectly for the transition from equilibrium to disruption, as an explosion is a physical disruption and would shock the audience and make them more excited. We looked in depth at the risks involved in creating a real explsion, and ways in which we could make the shoot as safe as possible, which included ‘point lines’ where everyone had to be a certain distance from the explosion. We also had mats for Clare, our actress to fall onto so she didn’t hurt her knees on the ground. The explosives team at the ‘Lancashire Militia’ are well practiced at creating safe explosions as they do historic re-enactments with cannons, guns and explosions and have also been involved in filming explosions for the BBC and ITV in their drama series as they have all the necessary experience, expertise and legal requirements to create the explosion in a safe environment. 

Tzvetan Todorov

Conforming to conventions of trailers, we only included shots of the equilibrium and the disruption, and none of the resolution (in relation to Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory). This is because the point of the audience going to see a film is to find out what the resolution is and how the characters achieve it, so showing the resolution would be pointless and would lose viewers who would decide there was no reason to see the film if they knew the outcome, therefore we created enigmas to draw in our audience. We did however, have a very fast montage of previous shots at the end of the trailer. Due to the speed of the montage it is very difficult to see each individual shot included and we also reversed the shots. This was inspired by the trailer for “How I Live Now”. We included this as it was a very good way to end the trailer, creating excitement and reiterating key themes creatively without ruining the end of the film. It produces a very dramatic effect and the speed makes it quite thrilling, confirming the genre of the film. 

We have also included Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions (such as ‘Good v Evil’ and ‘Natural v Supernatural’) in the production of the ‘Fallen Grace’ trailer, which are used frequently in trailers. These are used to provoke tension and ‘arguments’ between extracts of the film which causes conflict and therefore drama which is essence, is the story. We therefore thought it was crucial that they had to be involved, both obviously in the narrative (Fallen Grace is centered around her supernatural powers) and subtlely (using Grace’s costume of white to connote purity and innocence whilst using Mr Eastwood’s semiotic codes of a dark coloured hoodie to symbolise his criminal behaviour of kidnapping Grace.

Claude Levi-Strauss

We also collected quantitative data so we could have statistics on how successful our production would be. We showed our trailer to the year 12 media class and gave them a set of questions to answer with yes or no, which could then be tallied and placed on a pie graph. The questions included; 

Would you go and see this film? 

Do you find the storyline interesting and does it leave you wanting to see more? 

Would you like us on Facebook or follow us on twitter? 

Do you like and think the soundtrack is appropriate? 

Do you like the characters and can you relate to any of them? 

Do you find the characters realistic? 

Could you easily identify the genre of this trailer?

The feedback we received was very positive, such as 85% of people saying that they would go and see the film at the cinema, meaning that our intended outcome was achieved as the students we asked the questions to are in the age of our target audience. We think this is due to contributing factors such as most of the people being able to identify the genre, which we achieved by the conventions and codes placed into our production. Also, our relevant use of mise-en-scene further helped as we clearly identified the thriller element with locations such as basements and the use of the explosion, and our coming of age element with locations such as house parties and the theme of young love. 

Pie Chart - would you see 'Fallen Grace'

Written by Emma Taylor

As we needed audience feedback from our target audience, the perfect opportunity arose when my mother said she wanted to use the trailer we had made in her English class that she taught at college to individuals with mental impairments. She said it would be perfect for a writing task her students needed to do as part of their course where they must look into contexts of a media text and analyses what they thought is happening and the range of possibilities which could occur afterwards. The audience were 16-18 year old people and were a mixture of genders, they did not know that it was a student made film and didn't know any of the film-makers or actors so these were unbiased opinions from individuals, which we wouldn't have got if we had just asked our friends. I found this feedback very interesting as the director, because many of them came up with various ideas of what the media text was about (they all got the crucial parts such as the supernatural abilities, the teacher kidnapping Grace and the relationship between Grace and Joe) but some individuals responded to the enigmas present in the text in ways I wouldn't have expected, such as assuming that the teacher was jealous of the relationship between Joe and Grace and this is why he captured her. Since trailers form their own narrative, and we couldn't show the ending of the trailer, I can understand why our audience thought this, even though this isn't how we planned the plot line for Fallen Grace to be. Their various interpretations are actually quite positive as it shows they engaged with the text and were attempting to solve the enigmas which would make them more likely to want to see the film to find out what did happen and satisfy their expectations. In audience theory, Fiske believes that people generate their own meanings and rejects the idea that the same message appeals to all people. This fits very well with the extracts below where it is evident that the students understand the genre of our trailer through our conventions. The 'uses and gratifications' model by Blumer and Katz investigates why people watch media texts. One is for 'identity'; we have a strong female lead character who young people in our target audience will relate to. This is also seen in the hugely popular film sequel 'The Hunger Games' where Katniss Everdine triumphs over evil with her strength, courage and bravery. According to the 'uses and gratifications model' we also go to watch media texts for 'social interaction'. Fallen Grace replicates the relationships of young people in modern society; the relationship between Charlie and Grace are very similar to the relationships seen in our target audience for example. Below are extracts from the audience feedback we received from this focus group: 'It's a story about a young couple probably about the age of sixteen-seventeen. The couple are in love, they are seen together a few times kissing and showing a lot of affection towards each other. The young girl is blonde and very pretty, she also has supernatural powers. The girl uses these powers whilst in school one day, the teacher sees these powers and kidnaps the girl. He takes her to the woods and ties her up. The teacher is very controlling and is also very jealous of her boyfriend. The teacher doesn't like the girl using her powers but in the end the girl uses these powers to escape. I think it will be a happy ending as the boy and girl are back together.' This is a good extract to see that our focus group understood the trailer and its key principal parts well. It is also evident that they understand the usual narrative of films and their trailers as they are evidently able to predict the future storyline of the trailer without seeing it, having related it to other films in this coming of age supernatural thriller genre, which usually do end on a happy note. It is evident from this extract that our use of conventions of trailers and genres in our production is used in an efficient way as our audience understands the key features of our trailer. This could be because we have used common conventions of popular genres which will make our audience more likely to go and see Fallen Grace if it's a genre they like. Fallen Grace appeals to a wide audience as it incorporates conventions of three genres. O'Sullivan et al 1994 states that media 'texts often exhibit the conventions of more that one genre. Hybrid genres are now conventionally and creatively sound'.

My Progression from AS Level to A2 Level - Evaluation task 4; Part 3

 Written by Emma Taylor

Evaluation Task 4 - Part Three

The following essay will explain my progression from AS Level media studies to A2 Level. This will incorporate my experiences and growth in media production skills including digital technology, creativity, research, planning, post production and using conventions from real media texts.

Despite having experience in film making prior to starting AS Media Studies I have learnt extensively about the production processes needed in directing the opening of a thriller film and a trailer, which is a role I hadn’t undertaken in my previous filming work. In the preliminary production I learnt film making rules and concepts such as the 180 degree rule, match on action shots and shot reverse shots which were incorporated into my production using the DSLR Canon 550D camera and Pinnacle Editing Studio. I was able to incorporate basic editing and camera work techniques into this short filming exercise (involving a phone call and a meeting) which were then also put into our AS Level thriller opening at a more advanced level, taking into account continuity errors such as changes in clothing due to filming on separate days which were seen in our preliminary production. 

Since AS I have developed, polished and honed my skills as a film maker through digital technology producing and directing various different short films and music videos with professional film makers and actors. Through looking at various real media products such as the teaser trailer for ‘Gravity’ and ‘How I Live Now’ on websites such as IMDB, YouTube and Vimeo I have been able to analyse conventions of thrillers and trailers to adhere to in my production. For instance, many thriller feature film openings have text overlays with the names of the principal production contributors such as the director. producer and the actor’s names. I have learnt new cinematography techniques (such as lens flares which are created with a low aperture setting on the camera and having in intense light source catching the lens, these are included in two of the shots in my A2 Level trailer) and key directing principals needed to create tension and suspense within films (telling the audience more than the characters within the movie and creating dramatic irony) which I  have learnt by working with my producer Tony Lund0n and my DOP (Director of Photography) on the national music video release ‘Let it Out’ which I directed and partially edited on Final Cut Pro X. When creating my A2 trailer I put the knowledge I had gained making these films into practice. For example, in my AS Level coursework I had learnt how to colour correct in Final Cut Pro X but with guidance from Tony Lundon, he taught me to colour grade on the same post production software, to create particular moods. In my A2 Level trailer I have colour graded each scene effectively and creatively to provide a cinematic shot by clicking ‘colour balance; correction1’ and altering the colour, saturation and exposure of particular clips. In the scene where our protagonist Grace has been tortured and tied up in a basement, I graded the clip to have a blue tint to make the scene feel cold. I also digitally underexposed the shot to give a more sinister atmosphere and increased the saturation of the mid tones in order to give manic colouration, which connoted a sense of deep disruption to this scene through a chiaroscuro lighting style. The work was also enhanced by using my new camera the DSLR Canon 6D which enabled me to film on a Sigma wide angle lens making the production look more professional as the focal range and quality was greatly enhanced from AS Level. Due to the high spec camera, we were able to effectively film in low light as the ISO setting on the camera could reach to an impressive 25,600ISO which proved useful for Grace’s kidnapping scene in a low key; high contrast chiaroscuro lighting setting. On the Canon 550D used in AS Level, however I was only able to film up to 3200ISO making the scene where Jess pulls out her knife a grainy picture limiting the professional quality of the production. The sound boom we used to record the diegetic sound when filming scenes provided us with clean sound which could be used in our productions. The quality of the sound was enhanced by using a Rode wind muff/ dead cat to stop any wind noise from disrupting the sound recordings. I learnt from working alongside a sound technician on the feature film ‘Candyfloss’ after my AS course that the closer to the sound we could get, the better, as it’s clearer and can be altered in post production. He also stated that a film is 40% sound, and that a good film could be ruined with low quality sound recording, so taking that on board in our A2 trailer, we made sure we made wild tracks on set of the surroundings to create atmosphere in the film and recorded sound efficiently and effectively whilst making sure we stuck to our filming schedule. In the making of our film poster for the A2 ancillary task I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create a thriller esc poster with a deeply contrasted photograph which I had taken on location for that purpose where Grace was covered in fake blood and bruised, to denote the thriller theme of the production. 

Creativity was an integral part of our production process emerging from initial idea mind maps, creating animatics, looking at other media texts similar to our own and looking at how we could use our hardware and software specialisms such as camera work and editing to provide a creative piece of work. At the end of our trailer we had a fast montage edit of all our key shots from the trailer flashing onto the screen consecutively to provide an extreme flash back type effect. This was aided by the non-diegetic sound effect of a ‘wooshing' backwards sound to conclude our film and to add to the tension and drama within the piece as we could not show the ending of the film in the trailer. Another key creative aspect of our trailer was the ‘Modify; Retime; Rewind’ special effect we used in order to film a pen dropping from Grace’s hand onto the floor, which we could then rewind , so it looked like the pen was flying into her hand to show she had special powers.  An extra ‘sweeping wind’ sound effect was added onto this in our second trailer edit to make the audience draw particular attention to this crucial part of the story line. Whilst we did use creative special effects in our AS opening (using green-screen and chroma-key technology to fake a suicide jump) I had previously done this whereas I had not had practice at reversing shots in such a way that it would be convincing that a pen was flying through the air. In order to make sure this was filmed correctly on the day of shooting my assistant director and I practiced filming and editing these shots twice to make sure we has the effect polished for the day of the shoot, and extensive research and planning was needed to ensure that this idea was going to work. Being on an acting agency and working on films previously meant I had an extensive range if actors who were willing to act for us both as a favour and to enhance their own portfolios, and this proved effective in making the trailer a success and looking more professional. I was more ambitious with my A2 coursework than my AS as I felt more confident due to increased work experience on set and in post-production. We therefore requested the aid of 14 extras from a local drama school for three different scenes in our trailer (house party, assembly and classroom/ pen flying scene). This taught me how to manage and direct a large number of actors on set effectively, sticking rigidly to set timings in order to get all the scenes complete, a skill which I hadn’t fully developed in my AS work as I was only directing two actors. 

Technology aided planning within our coursework. We were able to look at teaser trailers such as ‘Gravity’ and ‘How I Live Now’ in detail online to analyse the conventions within them which we would implement into our own teaser trailer. In the soundtrack for ‘Gravity’ we found that the pace started mellow and slow and then build up at the point of disruption in the trailer, and our trailer adheres to this idea in our trailer as it builds up tension until the point of disruption where we hear the bang from the explosion after a brief black pause in the frames before, the same as ‘Gravity’ does. As we recorded our coursework ‘journey’ online on Blogger, an online blogging website hosted by Google, we were able to share work such as shot lists, props lists and character profiles. Through using Vimeo as a hosting website for our trailer and all our graded rushes from each scene, it enabled us to upload the compressed version straight from Final Cut Pro X to Vimeo which could be shared using the HTML code from my Vimeo account, which made it time efficient as we didn’t have to upload the footage to everybody’s individual accounts.

In conclude that I have developed my skill range and experience extensively since starting my Media Studies course enhancing my film making knowledge through creative and digital media devices, and I have learnt a great deal from looking in depth and analysing real media products similar to my own, including the low budget film ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. This has enabled me to make concrete and successful films which I hope to continue to make in the future. I have been able to look at my past mistakes (such as the continuity error in my preliminary production) and gain knowledge in these areas to improve. To avoid continuity errors in my A2 trailer I bought two identical tops for Grace to wear as one was going to get stained in fake flood in an early film shoot and so we needed another for a scene previous to her kidnapping where she had to wear the same clothing. I have been able to look in depth at areas of production I previously wasn’t confident in such as costume design and when picking costumes for my actors now I understand that ‘moire’ could be a factor in not choosing a particular costume as the design of a t-shirt (with two separate designs i.e.. lines interact with each other to create a third line moving with the light resulting in a disorientated viewer).

Evaluation Question Three

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? - Written by Emma Taylor

The website was designed and produced by Emma Taylor and Tom Bailey. The Poster was designed by Tom Bailey, Abi Ford and Emma Taylor; It was produced by Emma.

Fallen Grace; Evaluation Task Three from emmabrgs550

Here I have produced a PowerPoint document using Keynote on Mac, which has been shared using an online publishing base called 'Slideshare'.

I have explained the effectiveness of the ancillary tasks and the main trailer looking in detail at specific examples in my work and referring to relevant media theorists. 

http://www.fallengracemovie.co.uk/

Written by Tom Bailey

We have created the domain www.fallengracemovie.co.uk as it appears more professional and closer to real film websites than it would if we were to use a wix website for example. The website opens up with the home page clearly displaying the title of the film and when it will be available in cinemas, with a menu bar underneath containing a search bar, allowing viewers to search for more specific pieces of information. The menu bar also contains the following buttons taking viewers to different places within the website: Home, ‘About’, ‘Contact’, ‘Competitions’ and ‘The Makers Of’. There are also the logos from some of the international film festivals that the film would be screened at if it were a real film such as 'Raindance' and 'Cannes'. The film festivals make great promotion for an upcoming film and also aid in persuading potential viewers to go and watch the film as it has received recognition from various international film festivals. 

 

Also on the homepage an embedded link to the trailer on vimeo, allowing straight away for potential audiences to watch the trailer without having to search for it, the trailer is by far the biggest persuasive tool that can be used to promote the film, so it is essential to make sure that above anything else the visitors of the website watch the trailer, especially if they haven't seen it already. Also beneath that is a short description briefing the viwers about the film and the studios involved, the description also references to previous films the studios have made such as 'Sweet Revenge', our Thriller opening from our foundation portafolio. 

                                                                                                                      

At the very bottom of the page is a series of studio photos of our artists in character. The photos were shot in a studio rather than just print screened from the footage in order to make the website look more professional and as close as possible to a real film promotional website which is our ultimate aim.  There are also links to the individual websites of the studios involved including 'Spyglass Entertainment' 'DreamWorks studios' and 'Broken Coal productions'. 

   

   Also seen at the bottom is a small copywrite stamp simply maintaining all rights to Fallen Grace, adding a slightly more professional touch to the website, this can be seem on all other film promotion websites such as this one from the promotional website for Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows part II. 

                                                 

The 'About' Page

The about page, pictured above features a small synopsis of the film, introducing the characters, their backgrounds and how their stories fit into the overall narrative of the film. There is also a little more insight into the actors and actresses that play the characters should the reader want to carry our further research into them. Also featured on the left hand side is a live twitter feed from the official twitter account we created for the film, with updates on the films progress, including sneak previews and links to other websites and social media relating to the film such as the Facebook page. This also provides visitors to the website with the opportunity to follow the twitter account and receive these live updates on their timeline. Social media is now a huge tool used by film companies to promote an upcoming film, so by including a live feed and links to the social media sites on the website we are ensuring that we are staying current and up to date with the most effective way of promoting through the media.

                                                                                                                                 

Also on the about page is a meet the actors section containing a head shot and a little bit of information about our actors and their background.

On the right hand side of the page there are the logos of several cinemas where Fallen Grace will be screening. Anchored by the title, it is clear that the film is being screened at a variety of different cinemas across the country so a screening will be in close proximity wherever the viewer might be.

On the 'contact' page there is a list of the studios involved in the production along with their addresses and contact information should the audience have any queries and wish to contact the studios directly.

      

   

Websites for films are also prime opportunities to promote other films by the production companies, we have utilised this by including trailers of other recent films by the production companies involved on the website's about page also, such as 'Real Steel' by DreamWorks and 'The Ruins' by Spyglass entertainment. We have also included a pre-order option of the DVD to make the audience feel as though they will be one of the first to receive this exciting new film on DVD, it also secures immediate sales upon the film’s release. The pre-order link also contains the option to share the film with their friends over social networks such as Facebook, twitter and e-mail. By having the viewers share the film with their friends, the film will gain more interest and then more viewers and then resultantly more revenue.

                                                                                                  

A common convention with film promotion websites is the option to enter a competition to win a prize relating to the film. We have offered our viewers the opportunity to win a signed poster of the film with all the cast signiactures. All they have to do to be within a chance of winning is like the Facebook page and follow the Twitter page, this provides excellent promotion for the film and encourages as many people as possible to follow the social network pages which can then be used to maintain the interest of the potential viewers up until the films release.  'The Makers Of...' The website also features a ‘the makers of’ section containing some information on the production companies involved. The information includes a little information about the production companies’ history and their backgrounds. This will increase recognition of the studios and also help persuade the audiences to watch Fallen Grace as if it is clear that the film was made by highly experienced and professional studios it will be of good quality. Also if the audiences have seen films by these production companies in the past and particularly liked them they will be further inclined to watch ‘Fallen Grace’ as they are likely to enjoy it also.