Magazine Cover

This is our final magazine front cover. Overall I am really happy with how this has turned out, as it took a lot of deliberation over what to do with the background and I feel that this looks professional enough to be a real magazine cover. I like the photo of Lauren as she is in character as Savannah by dressing up on the ballet costumer featured in the trailer and poster however she also looks quite natural as she is just sat down smiling, so it is a mixture of her character and herself which I think is common on magazine covers. I also think the layout looks very similar to the original Odeon cover. We managed to download similar fonts to the ones featured on the cover and added the sparkles on the letter using an effect on photoshop. The main 'odeon' title we copied off another image and pasted into our photoshop piece, and then edited the colour and background of the text and smoothed the edges as it had gone blurry from it being stretched.

Similarly to our poster, we added the subtle pink tint to the whole image, maning that the background was not as grey as when we first started and gave it more of a ballet feel to it. our final addition to the cover was the wording of 'The Dance Edition' below the title. This helped to establish the colour scheme of the black and pink writing used throught the cover.

Magazine Influences

When we were assigned the magazine cover task, the first thing we had to decide was which magazine would best suit our film being featured on the front cover. After much deliberation we decided on Odeon Magazine as after looking at other magazines such as Empire and Little White Lies, we realised that Empire featured an action blockbuster on the front cover and Little White Lies was too edgy for our film. After seeing this cover we realised we could also use the stars on the text as i would relate to our dance genre. We also thought the pink and white writing of the theme would suit our film's delicate image of a ballet dance-genre film.

Final Poster

This is the final design for the poster for Believe. I really like the simplicity of it as it does not look cluttered yet still gives across what the film is about and how Savannah leads two different lives within it. The font used is very elegant and suits the ballet theme, and the background ripples almost represent a curtain-like feel, such as on stage at a show.

We felt the font displaying 'in cinemas 2011' needed to be in a more neutral font as we wanted this to stand out a little to stick in the public's mind so that they would know when they can go and see the film.

We also added a very light pink tint over the whole image meaning the background especially was less white and more pinky, to add to the ballet elegance.

Photoshoot

To take the photos for our film poster Mia and I set up the photoshoot in the technnology block using the photography equipment such as the white backdrop, meaning we could easily edit the background of the photo if needed in photoshop afterwards. We borrowed the same ballet costume that we used in our trailer for Mia to wear, as Lauren was very busy and we needed the photos quite quickly, meaning Mia played Lauren's character in the photos. I used a pair of men's tracksuit bottoms and wore trainers and posed on one leg that was the opposite to Mia's, meaning there was an almost mirror image down the contre. We had decided on this composition of our poster as we wanted to show both sides of Savannah from the film: her trouble-making ways using the pose on the left, moving to her ballet lifestyle using the pose on the right of the image.

At time it was very hard to balance, so our friend Maisi had to take the photos very quickly once we had got into position as it was hard to keep for a long period of time. This meant we had to take a lot of photos quickly rather than a small amount of photos within a long period of time, meaning some of the photos were a lot better than others, of which we simply deleted once we had uploaded them to the Mac.

We decided to use the photo in the top right of this selection of images, as although it was dark, there was the best symmetry from our poses and it could be easily lightened in photoshop.

Poster Initial Ideas

With our initial ideas for our poster, we focused on our influences and used what we liked from each poster. The image half way down the page of the two different types of legs for example are inspired by Center Stage's poster where it shows the bottom of the character's shoes and the damage that has been done to them through dance.

The image at the bottom of the page shows a ballet dancer in many different poses which was inpired from the image on the Save The Last Dance poster. We liked the way each pose was different however we thought it does not show the more troublesome side of Savannah that is seen at the start of the film and so does not represent our film correctly.

The image we decided to use was the design at the top of the page with the two different legs standing in a symmetrical pose. We thought this best summed up our film and gave the audience a hint about two different lifestyles coming together. We also thought this may be best for practical reasons as we were not sure if we would be able to take pictures of Lauren as she was very busy so may have to use other people. This would not work if we were to do the last design as it shows Lauren's face and it would confuse the audience if that were to be someone else.

Poster Influences

The first trailer we looked at was Black Swan so we thought it would be a good idea to look at the poster for the film to see how they advertised their film to see if it would influence any part of our poster for Believe. The poster is very simple with an image of a ballet dancer wearing a tiara with heavy eye make up. This connects with a swan image as the woman looks very delicate and classy. It lists the main actors/actresses and also the awards it has won, with a list of credits at the bottom. I really like the simplicity of the poster however i don't think the style of it would be appropriate for our film as ours is a little more contemporary.

Secondly, we looked at the trailer for Billy Elliot. This film poster is also very simplistic, featuring an image of the main character in day to day clothes dancing. This applies to the plot of the film as it is about one boy's transformation into a ballet dancer. The writing is bold and large and the colour gives a light-hearted feel to the genre of the film. I think that our film could have a fairly similar poster but with more of a ballet edge to it, as this film has a very similar plot to ours, meaning we could also feature an image of the main character dancing in failry normal clothing. This poster does not feature any cast members' names or list any credits, meaning total focus is on the plot and genre of the film which is expressed through the colours and font used in the poster.

Instantly it is clear that this poster for Save The Last Dance has a lot more going on in it than the previous two posters. Similarly to the Billy Elliot poster however, it shows the girl dancing in a normal day to day situation such as walking down a road. At the top is a super-imposed image of the two main characters smiling together, which hints that the film also has a romantic side to it. There is a tag line of 'The only person you need to be is yourself', cheesy but very common on film posters. The main actors/actresses' names are listed at the bottom of the poster along with the title in bold, but a clear, easy to read font. The credits are also listed at the bottom of the poster similar to black swan. I think that this is an effective film poster as it describes the plot well from the images used.


This poster for 'Take the Lead' using bright colours to address its audience as prominently teenagers. I am not sure why the colour of the background is green, as this doesn't express a dance film to me, however it is still eye-catching. There are splashes of black paint-like blobs coming off of the characters, which could be related to grafitti spray as the film is about a rough area's teenagers starting ballroom dancing. The poster features 2 characters from the film dancing with a spotlight in the background to emphasise their importance. It also has a tag line of 'never follow' and from seeing a few posters with tag lines in I think it is important that we use one in our poster. The credits and opening date are also featured near the bottom of the poster.


The final poster featured is for 'Center Stage'. This is a fairly calm and quite simple idea, but i think its really effective. The battered soles of the ballet shoes show the tough experiences that the ballet dancers have to go through, and goes behind the galmour we are so used to seeing from ballet performers. It also displays the cast of the film facing forward with blank expressions. The tag line 'life doesn't hold tryouts' makes out that there is more to this film than just the dancing. The red title of 'Center Stage' is the only thing which is in colour on the poster, immediatly drawing your eye to it. I like how the ballet shoes are shown in this but from another view as the soles which are battered which I think gives another level to the film that it is not just your typical ballet film.

Final Trailer

Production Logo

Titles

To make the titles between clips of the trailer we used the font called Snell Roundhand which we downloaded from the internet and put it into the new iMovie which had more themed effects for its title scenes. This meant we could use this background and also have the curls appearing as the titles play which added something to them to make them more interesting. Originally we were going to used a plain black title with a white font ontop but when we added these into the trailer we felt it was too plain and was not eye catching enough or showed the genre of the film properly.

Sound and Music

The first sound heard in the clip is the voiceover of the judges hammer and him saying "Savannah McCoy I sentence you to 50 hours of community service". We used our media teacher to do the voiceover and simply banged something on a table to achieve the sound of the gavel. Our teacher spoke into a microphone that was connected to the camera, this meant it would be a lot clearer and wouldn't have as much noise. We then imported the sounds into our trailer in iMovie, we had to extract the sound from the clip as we wanted it separate to put it at the beginning of our trailer. We removed the muffled background noise by using 'Noise Reducer' in the AudioFX part of editing in iMovie. We decided that we wanted the voice of Mr Go to have a slight echo and to be deeper, therefore we edited his voice using the Pitch Changer and moving the toggle slightly nearer to the 'Monster' setting to make it deeper. We added the echo effect by using the 'Atrium' setting in 'Reverb' editing.

The second part of the sound in the clip is our music. We made our soundtrack using Garageband. It starts off using Delicate Piano 15 as we thought this sound was fitting to our the genre of our trailer. We timed our music by playing it along with our trailer in iMovie, this way we were able to get the music changes in time with the clips in our trailer. We made the next sound, called Delicate Piano 07, start when the first title came on screen, as we thought that it added drama to grasp the viewers attention. We the had Delicate Piano 18 and RnB Beat 09 start at the same time when the second title appears. We liked the beat as we thought it made our trailer seem more contemporary and appeals to a younger audience. We turned of all the sounds except for the beginning Delicate Piano 07 when she falls on stage as we thought the beat should stop when the trailer is on slow motion. This was because we wanted to draw attention to her falling and make the trailer more intense. When the shot of her receiving the shoes comes on screen the music then starts back up but without the RnB Beat. This lasts until the final shot of her dancing professionally on stage which has just Delicate Piano 15 playing along, as we felt it should be quieter to draw attention to her dancing.

We think all of the sounds in our trailer make it look professional because we matched up the sounds to compliment the genre. We also spent a long time making sure each sound and tempo change fitted with the clips shown on screen. We feel that the music is very catchy as we have been humming the tune all the time, even out of lesson time! Therefore we think other people our age will enjoy it just as much as we do.

Believe - 3rd Cut

This 3rd cut includes some trial titles. We used iMovie's 'themed' titles to create the poster effect shown. Because we wanted to have some phrases summing up the theme and plot of the film, we had to think about how we could do this when we were unable to enter text into the theme. We decided to open up Photoshop CS3 and create an image of a black rectangular background, with white words saying the phrases we wanted to entice the audience with about the plot of the film. We then saved the image and re-opened iMovie and imported the image into the title scenes. Originally we liked the way the poster title theme looked as it showed the rougher side of the film of Savannah's character who had originally committed the crime. We also really liked the way this particular title scene panned across the 3 posters and zoomed into them to play the clip.

At 1.07 the main title of 'Believe' is displayed. We created this on iMovie using the option of 'clip movie'. This meant that we could have some text, in this case 'Believe' in a font we had downloaded off the internet to fit the theme, and also one of our original movie clips playing in the text. To find a suitable clip that we hadn't used already we went into the 'trash' in iMovie. Here we found lots of clips that we had cut as they were not exciting enough for a teaser trailer, and some of which were simply repeated shots from when we filmed a scene a few times to ensure we had a good shot. We chose a cut shot of Lauren (playing Savannah) spinning in her bathroom to insert in the text in this title scene, as her legs spinning from left to right of the text gives a similar feel of a ballet dancer spinning through the text. We also liked how the clip in the title scene continued on through to the next clip, as straight after this title Savannah is dancing on stage and spinning across the stage, similar to the clip used in the text previously.

Finally the title of 'In cinemas 2011' appears against a black background. We have used the same text in this as in the main title to show continuity, however there is no effect on it as it is simple and to the point.

The final 10 seconds of another title saying 'Believe' upon a background with a picture of ballet shoes was another trial title scene which we found on iMovie. We liked the fact that we could use an image in the background and the title panning on from the left, however we did not like how a subtitle appeared in the bottom left hand corner saying the word 'believe' again, as we did not want it displayed twice or it may confuse the viewers into thinking the title of the film was actually 'Believe Believe'.

Believe - 2nd Cut

The main difference of the 2nd cut from the 1st, is the length of shots. In the 2nd cut we have cut most shots down again, to make sure the audience doesn't get bored watching too many longer clips where not much is happening, as this would not make an effective teaser trailer if the audience is not excited by it.

Also, in this cut we have added in the 5 seconds worth of black screen at the start of the trailer, where there will be a voiceover to introduce the audience into the plot of the film.

We have also cut some shots completely, such as the close up of Lauren (playing Savannah) being seen by Emily (playing Eleanor) and the ballet teacher. We cut this shot out as we thought it did not look professional and also didn't give anything extra away to the audience, just emphasised the same point as in the shot before that Lauren was embarrassed that the ballet dancer and teacher had caught her watching them practice.

Another shot we have cut down is of the ballet teacher saying "from the top Eleanor." We decided to cut this down to simply "from the top" as we thought the way 'Eleanor' was said was quite comical as although we wanted the ballet teacher to be well spoken, this was slightly over the top.

We have also shortened each shot of Lauren practicing at home, as we wanted to create more of a montage effect from these clips, so just cut about half a second of each, to give it a faster more flashy feel.

Believe - 1st Cut

This is our first cut of Believe, using all the scenes originally planned for and set out in the order of our storyboard. When filming we ensured we got long shots of each scene to make sure we had enough quality footage of each, so we have already cut down many of the shots a little in this first cut. We shortened each shot filmed to make sure we had the best part of each, as trailers only show the best parts of the film to advertise it to possible viewers, however in this cut we have not yet added in any title scenes, and as the length is already 1:24 we may have to cut more clips down to make sure the length stays at around 1:30.

Location Shots

This is a picture of our main school hall. As our trailer is based at a ballet school, we needed a spacious area with a plain backdrop to film against as it was too difficult to try and film at an actual ballet studio. It also meant it was available most days after school for us to film.

This is Lauren's bathroom. We filmed the shorter shots of her practicing at home here as it gave it an authentic homely feel to the shots. We were also able to use the large mirror for the Billy Elliot style shots which are filmed in the mirror.

This is Lauren's bedroom where we also filmed short shots of her stretching and practicing her ballet moves.

Importing and Editing

Importing and editing this year was a lot easier and faster than the same time last year. An obvious reason why is because we have experience from last year's projects and knew how to use iMovie and the features effectively.

To begin with we plugged the camera into the usb port into the computer and opened iMovie. We then clicked import and pressed play on the camera to start importing the footage. As we watched all the footage for the first time we cut each clip using the apple key and T key. This meant that we had each clip and scene filmed separately so that we could immediately start playing around with the order of clips and cut the clips that we knew we had no chance of using due to technical faults or unbalanced and badly framed camera shots.

Filming Session #2

Our second filming session took place on 5th of October 2010. We filmed this in the main school hall, as a lot of it was supposed to be taking place in a ballet studio and on stage, meaning we needed a large space for it. We had originally planned to use the drama studio, as it is a big black painted room with hard floor so would be suitable for the ballet scenes. It also had a spotlight in which we wanted to aim at Lauren in her final scene when 'perfoming on stage', however we got around this problem by using a slightly more difficult to use spotlight in the main school hall instead. In this filming session we filmed the majority of our shots, meaning we needed to be organised and know what order we were filming in to ensure the actors did not have to hang around waiting for us to decide who we needed first. Because we were using 3 actors in this filming session: Lauren playing Savannah, Emily playing Eleanor and Mrs Smith playing the ballet teacher, we ensured that we filmed the scenes involving Mrs Smith and Emily first, as they were in the least shots and therefore we didn't want them to have to wait around.

The filming went really well. All actors performed without getting distracted, meaning the whole process was a lot faster, and the shots looked good. As we were filming on the school hall stage, we decided to remove the front blue curtains and also some equipment at the back of the stage. We also pulled across the black curtains and placed a CD player at the edge of the stage to show they were practicing with music.

One problem we found was that once filming a few scenes we thought that Lauren playing Savannah was actually slightly better at dancing than Emily playing Eleanor, which may have caused the viewers of the trailer confusion as Lauren was supposed to be the amateur who was just learning to dance, but finally at the end of the scene was a pro at ballet. We decided to film a few shots of each character dancing, and when it came to the editing stage we would simply have to cut the parts of Emily dancing her best and Lauren dancing at her worst to portray their true characters.

Filming Session #1

Our first filming session took place on the 2nd October 2010, from 2.30pm-4pm. Our main aim of this filming session was to film the shots of Lauren (who plays Savannah) practicing ballet at home, after being inspired from seeing Eleanor dancing at the Ballet School she is sent to clean. Overall, the filming went really well. We ensured we filmed each shot a few times so that when it came to the editing stage we would have enough footage to go on if there was a problem with one piece. We also made sure we used a range of shots, from mid shots to low angle shots, so that when edited these would look effective in a montage together.

An improvement for the next filming session is to ensure we know exactly which shots we are due to film and in what order, so that we can set up the camera into position quickly so that the actors do not have to wait around whilst we decide which shot to film next.

Filming Schedule

This is the filming schedule for our trailer, displaying all the days when we are planning to film, and which shots we will film on that day and where. We have also included any costume we will need to bring for the day so that everything is fully prepared and we don't have to panic on the day we are filming by gathering forgotten belongings. This filming schedule is very important as it means that we are exactly aware of which shots we are filming when and where, so that we will not waste both our and the actors' time by being unorganised.

Screen Play

INT. BLACK SCREEN

JUDGE:
(bang)'Savannah McCoy I sentenece you to 50 hours of Community Service'


INT. BALLET STUDIO - NIGHT

SAVANNAH:Enters the ballet studio and begins mopping the floor.

ELEANOR:Gives Savannah a dirty look for interuppting her dance.SAVANNAH:
Makes an apologetic face but carries on mopping.BALLET TEACHER:
Says 'From the top'ELEANOR:Begins her dance again, while Savannah watches on in the background.

INT. BALLET STUDIO - DAY

SAVANNAH:
Enters ballet studio with the bucket and mop.ELEANOR:
Is leaving the studio and pushes past Savannah as they walk through the doorway.SAVANNAH:
Whilst cleaning on stage she pauses for a moment and begins to dance.BALLET TEAHCER:Sees Savannah dancing as she walks past the door and is surprised at how good she is.

INT. OUTSIDE - DAY

SAVANNAH:Does a little twirl in the road as she is walking home.
INT. BATHROOM - DAY
SAVANNAH:Practises dancing infront of the mirror

INT. BEDROOM - DAY
SAVANNAH:Stretches out her legs and tries to do the splits.

INT. BALLET STUDIO - NIGHT
SAVANNAH:Is dancing on stage and she falls and crashes to the ground.
BALLET TEACHER:Enters the stage and gives Savannah a pair of ballet shoes.
SAVANNAH:Smiles.
INT. BALLET STUDIO - NIGHT
BALLET TEACHER:Helps Savannah by putting her hair up in a bun for her audition.
SAVANNAH:Dances on stage for her audition

Storyboard

We have drawn out a storyboard for the shots in our trailer. Although we know this may change, it was vital to have some sort of plan so that when filming we were able to follow some guidelines, making the whole task much easier and less time consuming once we had got to the location. Our storyboard consists of 30 shots, some of which are title sequences. If our teaser trailer is 1 minute 30 seconds long, 30 shots gives an average length of about 3 seconds for each, which is what we are hoping to achieve because the film is a dance genre, so we need the trailer to be flashy, short eye-catching clips to grab the viewers' attention and persuade them to go and see the film.
We have then created this animated storyboard using iMovie, and cut each shot to the length we would like it to be in the actual trailer, to give an idea of the length and feel of the trailer before filming. We think the length of scenes works well, however we may change these once we have filmed the footage and we can truely see what the trailer starts to look like.

Casting Shots

This is Lauren Firkins, our main character for our teaser trailer, playing Savannah McCoy.

Synopsis

A rebellious teenage girl called Savannah is sentenced to 20 hours of community service after committing a crime. Her punishment is to clean the ballet studios at the London School of Ballet, a prestigious dance school nearby. Whilst cleaning one of the studios Savannah comes across one of the students practicing a routine infront of the mirror. Savannah is amazed by the girl's talent and finds herself wanting to be able to dance like that as well. She begins to practice the girl's routine infront of the mirror at home but thinks she'll never be good enough to make it as a dancer. After cleaning the studio late one night, Savannah begins to practice dancing and is oblivious to the dance teacher watching her every move. The dance teacher befriends Savannah and coaches her to improve her dancing, inviting her to attend classes at the school which Savannah is flattered by and agrees to instantly. Savannah attends the class but the other students look down on her and so she walks out angrily. The community service ends, and Savannah begins to return to her rebellious ways but the dance teacher convinces her she has something special and tells her not to let the other girls put her down. Savannah auditions to earn a place at the London School of Ballet but the other dancers try to sabotage her chances of getting a place. Savannah ends her audition leaving the judges speechless, and earns a place at the London School of Ballet, and in the future finds a career in ballet dancing on stage.

Target Audience

Our film and teaser trailer will be mostly aged at females, however we do not think there will be an exact age range. We chose this gender because our film is a ballet-orientated dance film and we think it will be more enjoyed by younger aged women, as contemporary music will be used throughout the film to entice young viewers into seeing the film, as it seems modern and up to date. However, we also think that older women will want to see the film as there is nothing offensive in the film, and it has an interesting storyline and the music and dancing could be nostalgic.


I think the age rating for this film would be a 12A, as although there are not any scenes which are too disturbing, anyone younger than 12 should have a parent/guardian with them as the film contains some rare moderate swearing and some scenes of fairly discreet violence. However, there are no scenes of horror, drug misuse or nudity and therefore I think children aged 12 and over would enjoy the film.

Another way we came up with the age rating for our film was by using a similar film's user ratings' report. In this case I have used the ratings for 'Step Up' (2006). From the image to the right we can see that the age group that rated the film with the highest scores were females under 18 and females aged 18-29. However it also shows a lot of females aged 45+ have rated it fairly highly, which is why our film does not have a specific age range for our target audience, as we think women of all ages could see it and enjoy the dancing, drama and overall storyline.

Influences

Influences on Prezi

Black Swan

This teaser trailer opens with a shot of a girl dancing in a spotlight in a dark room. This is an effective way of introducing the main character and I really like the way the shot looks. Another influence from this trailer are the shots of the girls stretching infront of the mirror in the ballet sudio, as this immediatly tells the viewer the genre of the film and makes them want to see more. The music is used well, as the tempo changes as when we see the girl being abused, building up suspense and tension among viewers. Finally, the titles are displayed over 'black swan'-like feathers which connects to the title of the film, and creates immediate synergy for the film.

Billy Elliot

This trailer opens with a magazine's review written against a black background. This immediatly informs the viewer that it has good reviews, however we could also use the same style of scene with a famous dance/ballet quote, which would then tease the audience about the genre of the film. After this, there is a voiceover ontop of shots from the film, which we found to be a useful way of introducing the plot. Our most influential shot from this trailer is of Billy practicing his dancing infront of his bathroom mirror. We thought this because it is an idea we could use in our trailer, as it is also about a young person who's trying out a new style of dance. Finally, nearing the end, the music changes from a lighthearted tune into a more serious tempo, showing the seriousness of Billy's aspirations and efforts to become a dancer.

Save The Last Dance

This trailer opens with scenes of the main character in her past, then using short clips creates drama from her mother's car crash incident to set the scene to the audience. Throughout the trailer, titles are used to describe the plot of the film using a few words. Towards the end of this trailer, the shots swap from her ballet dancing to her street dancing simultaneously, and finally there is a montage of faster, shorter clips to create drama and build up towards the success gained at the end of the film.

Take The Lead

This film is about a group of troubled teenagers who are taught ballroom dancing. It is a similar plot to ours as it involves people from outside of a skill trying to fit in whilst learning the style of dance. This trailer clearly sets the plot of the film, in a lot more detail than we will be, using mostly clips from the order of which shown in the film. Finally, the trailer ends with the title appearing and the music stopping, so all eyes are on the name of the film. Straight after, there is about 10 seconds worth of footage with a comedic feel to leave the audience laughing and hopefully remembering the trailer.

Center Stage

This trailer opens with close ups of the ballet dancers stretching, focusing on the ballet shoes to set the scene to the audience. Throughout are many short clips from many different angles of the dancers practicing in the ballet studio. There is also conflict between the ballet dancers and instructors, which is unusual as they are seen to be such professionals, which interests the audience as they want to see what happens between the two characters. Fianlly, the trailer ends with a monatge with flashes between each short clip, and ends on the girl spinning on stage infront of a large audience.

Initial Ideas

Initially, Chloe, Mia and I were planning to create a teaser trailer based on a film about the 9/11 terrorist attack. We thought this would be a good story to base a film on as it is a true story so many of the audience would be able to relate to the different characters. We decided that it would also have a romantic twist to it because we wanted the main characters to be in love and then eventually get separated when the man goes to work in the World Trade Centre and gets killed in the attack. We were going to use footage from news reports to show the Twin Towers collapsing as the planes drove into them, we thought that this would be effective as there was no other way of us showing our audience what actually happened on that day. We looked at many different trailers for this idea, to get inspiration for this type of genre. This included Remember Me, The Lovely Bones, Flight 93 and United 93.

Eventually we decided against this plot as we found it difficult to even find a place that would be suitable to film and also because the subject is still very raw we did not think it would be appropriate for our A Level project as it is a serious matter.

Instead we started to think more along the lines of a dance film. We thought of this because one of our friends is a dancer and actress therefore we were able to use her for our trailer so we had to find a genre that would express her skills clearly. We also wanted to aim our trailer to a target market similar to our age, this was easy for us to do as we know which films are popular with this age group. We thought that the trailers that are used to advertise dance films tend to be exciting and fast paced which is the kind of trailer we were intending to create.

We then researched many films and trailers that we could use as influences to produce a dance film trailer. Some of these were: Center Stage, Billy Elliot, Step Up and The Black Swan. Watching these trailers gave us real inspiration and many ideas that we could incorporate into our own teaser trailer.

What is a Teaser Trailer?

A definition of teaser trailer:
a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming film, television program, video game, or product.

During the lesson we as a class, watched 5 very different teaser trailers. The aim of this was to identify what was successful in each trailer, and also what did not work quite as well, so that we could begin to think about what techniques we could use during our teaser trailer to make it look professional and to also make the audience want to go and watch the full length film when it comes out.

The first teaser trailer we watched was for 'Inception' (shown below). One of the first things I recognised about this trailer was that it was noticeably short; much shorter than I had first expected. I also noticed that there was no digetic sound used. The only sound throughout the trailer was to set the tense and action-packed mood, with a reoccurring heartbeat-like beat. By doing this, it keeps the audience involved in watching the trailer to try and figure out the storyline of the film, and doesn't give too much away. All the clips used are short and most display a lot of action, to clearly suggest the theme of this film.

I really liked the Inception trailer, as although it was short and had no digetic sound, it clearly displayed what the film was about and effectively made me want to see the film. One thing I could use from this trailer for my trailer, is the titles between scenes giving brief hints about what the storyline is, without giving too much away. I also thought that the name of the film: 'INCEPTION' at the end of the trailer was really well composed.

The second trailer we watched was 'Cemetery Junction'. This was an original idea for a trailer, as it was simply 3 of the cast members standing against a white backdrop and talking a little about the film. It does not use a lot of non-digetic apart from an upbeat tune playing with the voice-over man at the end of the trailer whilst talking about the details of the film, such as when it is released. It is also very short at just 1.01 minutes long.

Although this trailer is very different from many other trailers, it did not really grab my attention to go and see the film. I also think that they have made the film out to be a comedy in this trailer due to all the jokes made, but it is infact more of a drama. Another point, is that the trailer does not tell the viewer anything about the plot of the film, but is simply promoting it on the fact that it has famous cast members starring in it. All in all, this trailer does not work for me as it does not promote the film to its best, and I found it quite boring to watch.

Thirdly, we watched the teaser trailer for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The first thing to notice is that this trailer is 1.36 mintues long, and this will be about the same length as the trailer I will be making in the upcoming months. The trailer starts with a Doctor from the film, speaking directly to the camera about their surgery to remove painful memories. This stands out when watching the trailer, as there are not usually direct narratives aimed at the audience in the trailers. It also helps to introduce you to some of the plot of the film. It then cuts to clips of the film, and an upbeat song starts to play in the background, whilst a montage starts to play on screen. They are all very short clips to match the mood of the music, and to express to the viewer that this is a comedy. The title scenes displaying the actors/actress' names are also very upbeat colours.

I think the teaser trailer for this film clearly gets across that it is a comedy film, and by showing short clips that do not make much sense when put together, makes the audience want to watch the film so that they can put the pieces together and figure out the real storyline.

Next, we watched the teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity. This trailer is very cleverly done, by inviting members of the public to go and watch the film for the first time in a cinema, whilst filing their reactions to it. This way, we at home can see true reactions from past audience members, and because this is a horror movie, the reactions are strong enough to make us consider going to watch the film, as strong reactions are what's wanted from a person going to see a horror film. The trailer cuts between showing clips of the film, to showing the audience's reaction, allowing us as an audience to get a feel for the plot of the film and also other people's thoughts on it.

I really like the way this trailer has been made, and from watching it I would want to go and see the film as the audience's reactions are so extreme. The non-digetic sound of horror slashing noises when displaying some titles at the end also presents the theme clearly, and I think the title of the film is simple yet works really well.

Finally we watched the teaser trailer to 'Live Free or Die Hard', which was 1.15 minutes long. From the start, the tense music immediately creates suspense, and the audience is waiting for something big to happen. The montage of images at this point are in slow-motion, showing fairly calm scenes. However, once the titles have named the film this completely changes, and the trailer shows action-packed scenes with no dialogue whatsoever, but simply the digetic sound of helicopters, guns and explosions. From this point onwards the theme of the film is clear, and it promotes the use of special effects throughout the film to the audience as it is probably a very strong selling point of the film. After this, the film title is displayed again, and it finishes with a comedic scene between two of the cast members, relating to previous 'Die Hard' films of which fans will relate to.

This trailer works well for an action film, as it does not show a lot of the plot, however the audience gets to see some of the special effects and scenes that will be in the film, giving them an immediate idea of the kinds of action used to attract them to view the film. I like the way it relates to previous films to keep fans interested, and i think the quick-cut scenes in the montage work really well for the action theme.

In conclusion, as stated in my definition at the beginning of this post, a teaser trailer needs to be short and needs to advertise. All these trailers have those things in common, they are between 1 and 2 minutes long, and are trying to invite the audience to come and watch their film. Most use a montage of clips from the film at some point, and many do not use a lot of digetic sound, but a background track which sets the mood, and clearly highlights the theme to the audience viewing the trailer.