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.