Evaluation Task - Representations in our Trailer

Written by Emma Taylor

Claude Levi- Strauss

Claude Levi-Strauss stated that 'some paradigms are encoded into texts and others are left out in order to give a preferred representation', meaning that the producers of media texts purposefully choose and make decisions on all aspects of production depending upon the desired effect on the audience. In our trailer we have done precisely this in order to convey meaning. For example, our protagonist Grace frequently wears a floral headband in her hair and a pure white top, which connotes a happy and bright girl which is an ideology which we expect the audience to understand, so that they both like, and relate to Grace as a character, making her being kidnapped all the more dramatic. In the case of Mr Eastwood (our kidnapper) we have chosen to design his costume when he's teaching his class to the expectations of a 'regular' teacher including a white shirt, tie ect in order to denote his position of authority. This changes dramatically when he captures Grace and is wearing dark clothing including a hoodie which is concealing his face, in order to symbolise criminal intent and 'thuggish' behaviour. In our audience feedback these representations have shown to be successful, as our audience realises that Mr Eastwood is the same character, but now has a more dark and sinister motive when wearing a hoodie and capturing Grace. 

David Chandler stated that 'representation always involves the construction of reality' and we have tried our best to replicate this in our trailer in order to make our characters more relatable to our target audience of teenagers. For example, Charlie (Grace's partner) is seen to have clothing typical of a seventeen year old boy (converse shoes, jeans, white t-shirt). However, modern representations of youth in the media frequently display young people as being badly behaved, drunk and a burden on modern society, but we have used Claude Levi-Strauss' theory of binary oppositions (age and good vs. evil) to challenge this youth representation and have a teacher (who are regularly is seen to be a fine upstanding member of society) to be the 'bad' character in our story. This may not be what the audience are expecting and therefore adds dramatic effect into our trailer.

We have used the representations of officially recognised bodies such as the Fire Service to aid our trailer. The fire service are recognised globally and are recognised with helping serious incidents, and so having them involved with our production (coming out of the forestation with the sirens and lights on, and cutting open cars) meant that the audience recognised the seriousness of Grace's troubles and were able to effectively understand her position. 

Fallen Grace: Shot by Shot Analysis

Written by Emma Taylor
The Teaser Trailer Edit - Editing Decisions and Why

Below is the first edit of the teaser trailer. This includes cropping (for an anamorphic lens look) and a colour grade. I was the main editor working on Final Cut Pro X having had a lot of experience on this non-linear editing software in the past. Tom and Abi also contributed by choosing shots, creating a storyboard for the position and pace of the teaser trailer and finding music/sound effects.

Fallen Grace - First Edit - Teaser Trailer from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

A directer answers questions, and makes crucial decisions within the making of the film, having been involved in 7 different film shoots and two editing days, there are a lot of important decisions within each and every shot in our trailer.

All the production within this trailer was filmed with a Canon 6D with a full frame sigma lens.

I am Number Four

Abandon

Our productin comapanies Dreamworks and Spyglass entertainment) appear in the first two seconds of the film, whilst Broken Coal Productions, which would be the smallest contributor of the film appears in the last shot. Both Dreamworks and Spyglass have made thriller and coming of age, examples include 'I am Number Four' (Dreamworks) and 'Abandon' (Spyglass). As these production companies have made similar films to our proposed film in the past, they are likely to be involved in the making of Fallen Grace as it's a similar media product. The sound bridge of the non-diegetic soundtrack helps create a smooth transition between all of the shots, and with the powerful soundtrack music building tension throughout, I thought it was the perfect music for our teaser trailer,  and it also allowed me to fade the most crucial shots to fall in time with the music.

shot 1

We open the footage of the trailer with the mid-long shot of Grace and her boyfriend walking in a field. As this is a romantic setting, we thought it would be a perfect shot to connote the happiness before the disruption comes later on in the trailer, so the audience can clearly relate to the characters. The footage has been colour graded so that the saturation is deep (connoting happiness with brighter colours) but with the footage under exposed to display the darkness which is to come. This creates a cinematic style, making the vignette surrounding the image to shine through, I have been inspired to edit in this particular way through films such as 'Tryannasaur' as I thought the cinematography was very impressive and fitted the mood of the film perfectly.  The next few shots (of Grace turning her head and of dancing) also continue to display the happiness and 'calm before the storm' allowing the audience to continue to relate to this characters, and to introduce them as 'regular' teenagers. 

 

shot 4

This shot on the trailer uses a lens flare to connote happiness as the sun is shining through. As the camera pans across to where actors are walking down the bridal path in a long shot, the lens flare takes us via a tracking shot to the actors. This technique of using lens flares in a film has been inspired by 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' where lens flares are used throughout to display Harry's joy. One example is when Harry is riding Buckbeak, and the lens flare aids to a beautiful tracking shot.

HP3 - Lens Flare

shot 5

We needed to introduce the teacher character into the trailer before the kidnapping, so an obvious relationship can be formed between the teacher and the kidnaper, which would then create enigmas as to why a teacher is taking a girl to be kidnapped. Grant Bromley, playing Mr Eastwood in the film wore a shirt and tie as part of his costume, as it's typical teacher ware. We also gave him a dry wipe pen to write on the classroom board to display him teaching part way through an English Language lesson. 

shot 8

This shot also contains a lens flare, creating a beautifully framed composition. The lens flare displaying that she's happy at this point... until she gets caught using her powers by her teacher. This shot, along with many other applies to the 'rule of thirds' which puts Grace in far left third of the composition, putting her as the main focus in the shot. The mise-en-scene within this shot also accurately displays a classroom, adding to relatablilty of the characters to the audience. We also put this four clip scene into the trailer as it's a crucial part of our filming, and to draw more attention to this, in the second edit I also added a mysterious, non diegetic sound effect to add to the drama and tension.

Shot 9

This mid-close up of Mr Eastwood really speaks to the audience, as we see his confusion at what he's just seen Grace do and creates an enigma about what Mr Eastwood will do after seeing one of his pupils using telekinetic powers.

shot 10

shot 11

shot 12

From this point onwards we see Grace's life start to deteriorate, with her kidnapping and argument with her boyfriend. However, I decided to keep using shots of the hill scene throughout the teaser trailer to display how different her life is now to how is was and I think this is a powerful technique as we start to build relationships with the characters, feeling sympathy and empathy for Grace during her kidnapping and argument. There is also a match-on-action edit used between a side mid-shot to a face on mid-close up to continue the continuity of the scene and to make the cut between the shots to run smoothly. 

shot 11 - math-on-action edit

shot 12 - match-on-action edit

This shot with chiaroscuro lighting, only lit with diegetic lighting such as street lamps was important for creating emotions such as empathy and panic as her boyfriend has just walked off after an argument, creating more enigmas, and has literally and metaphorically turned his back on her whilst she is being kidnapped. In the book 'On Film-Making: A Guide to the Craft of the Director' it states that a way to create tension is to make the audience know more than the characters, to build up suspense to help create a gripping scene. This is what I've tried to do here by audience seeing she is being kidnapped whilst her boyfriend is unaware. It was important to have some (but certainly not all) disruption in the first half of the trailer to help build up to the main disruption which will follow shortly.

shot 14

This cinematic shot, which includes all Grace's friends except her, also adds to the tension and suspense of her kidnapping and the audience asks questions such as 'where has she gone?' and 'why has he kidnapped her?'.

I decided to end the first 'happy' half of the teaser trailer on another frame of the hill scene to bring the opening in full circle as we started on his shot, and as they're hugging, it's almost like they don't want to let go of each other but they've been broken apart by force.

We used a black frame in the middle of the trailer to break up the clear difference between the 'happy' scenes and the main disruption. I thought we needed a big start to out disruption and the explosion we filmed in slow-motion was perfect for this. 

shot 16

Following this dramatic disruption is Zara screaming her diegetic dialogue clearly denoting distress and anger. This follows the disruption through increasing tension and enigma in this shot. The chiaroscuro lighting also adds to the effect of the scene connoting darkness and depression. The two shots following of Grace battered and bruised in the basement and her hands blood ridden also add to this disruption effect.

shot 17

The title plate following these four shots start to introduce the names of our actors, with the main actress' name coming first. I used a title plate with a transparent word overlay, over the footage of the explosion which adds dramatic impact to our title plate. At the end of the explosion the fire turns to embers and fades to darkness, which fades out the title plate perfectly to create a smooth transition into the next shot.

shot 20

The disruption theme continues into the next shots as footage of fire engines and fire men follow in the montage edit. 

The tracking shot and focus pull in the mid-close up shot of Grace in a forest is purposely done to show her distorted and worried mind set. She is purposefully on the right hand side according to the rule of thirds so she appears to be 'trapped' in the frame.

shot 24

The shots of Charlie and Zara walking in long grass denotes that they are trying to find Grace yet we keep cutting back to shots of Grace being distressed, displaying hopelessness emotions, which the audience can relate to and feel sympathy for, after their best friend/girlfriend has been kidnapped. Each shot with the within the fades cutting back Grace running, and looking around her frantically still displays we are in the distressed/disruption section of the trailer. As this is  trailer for a full film, we cannot show the ending to the film, and so never actually come out of the disruption stage of the trailer.  

shot 25

 The slow motion shot of the fire officer coming out of the fire engine produces enigmas to the audience about why they have been called out, what they are doing what consequence this is going to have for the story. This will interest the viewer into coming to see the film which is our ultimate aim. 

shot 26

The shot of both Zara and Charlie working their way through tall, dead grass looking for their friend Grace. This hints but does not explain the plot line later on in the feature film where the two characters search to find their friend resulting in Charlie's death. It was important for us not to display this deal so that enough enigmas would be made to interest the audience.

shot 27

The close up shot of Grace's feet running through the forest symbolises high drama and action within the movie. Her bright red shoes connote danger and I have deliberately increased the saturation within this shot to make the red shoes stand out, and act as an omen to what is to come.

shot 28

The close-up shot of the second fire-fighter working on cutting open the car also enhanses the enigma codes found in our trailer. The close-up shot provides an encolosed setting in which these enigmas are found. However, we do see in the right lower corner of this highly saturated shot that there is broken glass connoting destruction within the scene.

shot 29

Clare’s head turning in mid shot in the trees symbolises her being scared and looking around for whoever has made a noise around her. This connotes her vulnerability; an aspect of her which is vital to the audience relating to her as an individual. The fact that she is behind the trees creates a sense of entrapment making her the victim in this scene.

shot 30

The next shot is of Grace being locked up in the torcher scene once again. The positioning of Grace accords to the rule of thirds, and this is an unconventional shot as she is close to the camera edge giving her little ‘look space’. This is done deliberately to create a sense that she is trapped and the dark colour grading puts her face in the shadows connoting that she is going to a dark place mentally.

Explosions!

The Final Explosion

 For each shoot, I both filmed and edited the clips, whilst Tom helped, and was interested in the making of the explosion. 

Final Explosion from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

I have a strong connection to the Lancashire Militia, having done some film and photography work for them previously. As they have all the necessary safety and legal licenses to create petrol explosions, they frequently are used to create explosions for professional bodies such as the BBC and a wide variety of feature films. They also perform historical reenactments on a national level.

Tom, Abi and I went to their base in Haslingden, and recorded three petrol bomb explosions on Sunday at 11am. Whilst it was light, we wanted to see Clare's face when falling. Below is the first explosion shoot.

Explosions (Rushes) Shoot 1 from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Ted suggested to us that the explosion would look much better in the dark, and we agreed, so we were invited to film the explosion again the next night. So on Monday night we went to Haslingden again to film the explosions. This time, having looked at other films with actors running away from explosions, we decided that we did want Clare running away and then the explosion to go off. Below is the second, and final explosions.

Explsion Shots (Night) - With Lancashire Militia from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Changes in Production

We have made a few changes to the production planning of the shoot. For reasons we couldn't control, we are now unable to use the chippy for the cafe scene. We have decided to cut this scene as it's not a crucial shoot, and we already have a lot of footage.

Due to the availability of Barton Airport we are not able to film the helicopter scene, as the period in which to complete our coursework limits us. I feel that this is not a big issue however, already having so much footage including a fire station and explosions.

Studio Photo Shoot

I organised a photo shoot studio session at my house where I created a studio set up with lighting rigs and a white backdrop for all our characters, with professional looking I did photography on all the pictures and edited on Photoshop CS6. 

Cafe and House Party Scene

Written by Emma Taylor

Cafe

In the Cafe scene Grace, Zara and Charlie are sat in the cafe laughing and eating and this scene is to display that all the friends were happy and have 'normal' life, which the audience can relate to. Even though the cafe scene only includes cut away shots, they are important in conveying the character's close relationships to each other, and will heighten the drama and tension when Grace is kidnapped.  

Photograph of inside the restaurant/cafe

The cafe also has large windows at the front creating ideal lighting conditions and a bright sunny atmosphere which we require to connote the happiness in Grace's life and her innocence as at this point she has not been kidnapped and everything is going well for her. 

 

House Party Scene

Within this scene, the house party is supposedly in full flow, when an argument breaks starts outside the house party (we don't see the reason why in the trailer, which creates enigmas). When Charlie walks off during the argument, Grace is kidnapped whilst watching Charlie walk away, creating extreme tension and dramatic effect.

Script for the 'House Party Scene' (Written by Tom Bailey and Abigail Ford)

Grace: You’re unbelievable!

Charlie: What the hell are you talking about?

Grace: If you’re going to act like that why are you even here?

Charlie: You know what; I really don’t need this!

Grace: Fine, just leave.

House party shot list

Crane shot from balcony going down through the French doors starting position on the brick wall slowing lowering down and coming to rest on the party scene through the window

Long shot of the crowd dancing

Medium shot in slow motion of a hair flick.

Close-up of Zara passionately kissing fellow pupil against the wall

Long shot of Charlie and Grace arguing

Cut to car park

Long shot of Grace storming out of door

Grace and Charlie continue to argue.

Shot reverse shot of Grace and Charlie arguing (scripted)

Over the shoulder shot from Grace of Charlie walking off into the open car park.

Close up on Grace’s face as she is kidnapped and pulled back into the darkness.