Soundtrack compilation for 'The List'

Some of the sounds that we were thinking of using in our trailer was a song taken from 'Batman: Dark knight' film called 'why so serious'. The reason for this is because it builds suspense and causes tension, and this is why it is used at the beginning of the trailer to cause tension, we plan to use this for the first 50 seconds. When our montage happens were going to have something fast paced like 'Dub step' to get adrenalin pumping into the audience, to get them interested.

Here is a link to the 'why so serious' soundtrack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QjuEWsdgEc

Props and Costumes

Passport

Black Suit

Black Shades

A few of the props and costumes that will build up a story in our teaser.

A2 Media Research

Our teaser is based as an action movie. The range of sub genres in action films comes from; psycho, comedy, romantic, thriller. Such titles include; Mr & Mrs Smith (Romantic), Rush Hour 1,2,3 (Comedy), and thriller would probably be the Die Hard “Quadrilogy” (1,2,3 & 4).

We wish to work in the action genre because we are enticed by many of the films. The elements such as the thrill, the plots, which seem absurd to real life situations, are what create this genuine enthusiasm for action films. 

The trailer I saw for Bad Boys II (inset) is a canvas that I would our group to work from. The first half builds a guess into the possible storyline for all the action and high impact scenes involved in the film. It presents itself as a brief summary with coherent dialogue scenes before it is absent in the second half. This second half is split second shots in a montage. It is a figurative of the action and anticipation to expect from the film. Some shots include; guns holstered, bomb explosions, 

We want to try to emulate as many of these shots as we can for our montage, within our means because our time and our budget is a factor. 

A2 Media Research

While planning for our teaser trailer I decided to research films that are similar to our  own production.

The first film that is similar to our idea is Inception. Inception is similar to ours because of the type of genre that it is which is mystery/ action and thriller.

It has various camera shots that we will use during our trailer such as close up shots of the character’s face to help show the emotion of the character. Shots such as the crane shot is also similar to what we want to create because it helps show where the film is based or present an area or location which will appear in the rest of the film. In our trailer we plan to use Liverpool Street as the main location because it is a built up area.

Editing techniques which are similar to the ones we want to use are the use of titles. Titles are used to describe the narrative of the film and give information about the genre and the themes. The titles in Inception read “ Your mind” and “A crime will take place.” This tells us that there is a psychological element to film, also it’s telling us there is going to be a crime. Other techniques that are used are quick cuts to show the main parts of the film easily to the audience. Fade outs are also used to signify to the audience that it is not continuity editing and just the best parts have been selected.

Using a heavy base non diegetic soundtrack to set the mood of the film is something that we as a team are looking to do to help get the message across. Inception also uses a montage to show what type of action there is during the film and make it more appealing to the viewer.

Crane shot from Inception show the building in China to show the location of where part of the film is based 

Editing technique the use of titles in inception to help build the suspense and give more information on the film.

The use of close up shots to show how the character feels and to help show the personality of who they may be and helps to create a mysterious feel as he looks shady.

The mise-en-scene contains props and characters which are important to the film. We plan to use similar props in our film. A clock is used in the Inception trailer that helps show its importance of time and it also creates the impression that the film will be fast paced, but it is still mysterious as you still don’t know the meaning of why its there.

The Machinist 

The Machinist is from a similar sub genre which is mystery, the film also contains a lot of action which puts it in the action/thriller genre. The Machinist is similar to our film in the way editing techniques are used., The techniques that they use in the trailer are quick cuts and montage to display lots of scenes. which is what we are planning to do in our trailer. It uses a series of camera shots such as a close up and medium shots on the face. The film also use a dramatic soundtrack to create atmosphere within the trailer.

Mise-en-scene

This films is all about the main character and they use props such as post stick notes reading “ who are you?” which helps to hint towards the psychological themes of the film. They spend lot of time in a factory, which gives you some idea where the film is set.

Close up of christian bales face  to capture his emotion

Memento 

Editing techniques used within in this film trailer are a series of cuts and fade outs which is something that we plan on doing in our trailer.

Mise-en-scene 

In the mise-en-scene they use a series of props and costumes that help give information on the film. For example the character has tattoos all over his body to help explain some of the narrative - he is using tattoos to remember who killed his wife.That is something that we are looking to do within our trailer but by using different array of props or equipment such as letters, phones etc. 

A2 Media Research

We had to conduct research into similar films and explore the techniques that are used in each, including camera work, editing, sound, mise-en-scene. The films that we found that may be similar to our film are The Dark Knight and Inception.‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Inception’. use a crane shot in the teaser which helps set the scene.  We are also going to use a crane shot in the beginning of the teaser to set the scene as it gives the audience a glimpse of were the film is be set. This shot also helps narrate part of the story to the audience for example, in the The Dark Knight the crane shot shows a part of Gotham City, which looks rundown and dark. This shows that the film may be set in a dark place with a dark atmosphere, with Batman fighting the evil side. 

 

The same shot is used in Inception teaser trailer which creates the same effect of letting the audience see where the film is taking place. 

 

The Inception teaser uses a montage towards the end of trailer. They use different camera angles and movements in the montage to build up tension and show fast-paced action. Quick cuts from different angles and shows are used to create a quick but effective montage to bulid up atmosphere and allow the audience to see the best parts of the film. 

A mid-shot of the man in the suit is used in the montage.

A close up shot of a clock.

A medium close up of the main character in the film.

The Expendables also uses a montage in their teaser trailer. They use different camera angles the montage too build up tension and create a tense atmosphere. This may help promote the film to those diehard action fans out there which would help attract more audiences.

Titles are used in the ‘Inception’ teaser quite frequently. This helps with the narration because the audience may not understand what the film is going to be about. The titles will enable the audience too understand the main plot and themes within the film.

The mise-en-scene used in the Inception and The Dark Knight teaser creates a dark atmosphere. There is a black and white contrast in colour used in both teasers. The black and white contrast may have been used to symbolize the good vs evil fight. This effect is similar to what we want to use in our teaser - we are going to use low key lighting at times in our teaser to create a evil atmosphere and we may contrast this with the use high key lighting in other scenes to create contrast and symbolize the ‘good’ characters. 

The soundtrack used in the ‘Inception’ teaser is similar to ours because in the beginning the sound affects used slowly build up Momentum for the teaser. Before the montage begins the soundtrack is low, but still dramatic. As tension builds up the soundtrack becomes more dramatic and more powerful. This helps build up atmosphere for the audience so that they are tempted too see IF the film delivers. This effect would be used in our teaser to attract the audience and entice them to watch our film.

Story Board for 'The List' Page 3

Story Board for 'The List' Page 2

Story Board for 'The List' Page 1

Collage of Action Films

We created a collage of important shots from action movies, in order to gain some ideas about what shots would work effectively in our montage sequence. We selected moments which we thought were memorable and important from action films we have seen. The medium  close up shot of 'Jet' Li', from the film 'Romeo Must Die', captures the characters emotion - this is important in engaging the audience and enouraging them to feel emotionally attached to our characters. From his facial expression you can see that he is angry.

Shot List for 'The List'

Shot No.	Shot Type	Camera Movement	/Content
1.	Title	Zoom	Warner bros
2.	Title	Fade out, zoom	Producers names
3.	Close up	Still	Letter exchange
4.	Title	Flash	Directors name
5.	Crane shot	Still/ and or tracking	Man walking in station
6.	Mid shot	Tracking	Man following someone
7.	Title	Fade in/out	Characters name
8.	Close up	Still, fade out	Character being kidnapped
9.	None	None	Screen cuts to black
10.	Mid shot	Still	Man on a table
11.	Close up	Tilt	Phone on table vibrating
12.	Long shot	Still	People escaping from building
13.	Montage pic mid shot	Flash low angle	Being beaten up
14.	Title	Zoom towards you fast	Information
15.	Montage pic	Tracking	Punching
16.	Close up	Zoom in fade out	Letter with writing
17.
18.	Long shot	Still/ high angle	Person being punched
19.	Tile	Tilted	In formation on film
20.	Long shot	Still high angle	Person being taken away
21.	Tile	Fade in	Information
22.	Title	Fade in	Information
23.	Mid shot	Low angle	People round table in suits
24.	Long shot	Quick cut	Building where thing is based
25.	Title	Letters appear on screen	Name of film
26.	Title	None	Additional information

 

Die Hard 4 - Trailer

This film is a vintage classic from the action genre and therefore we thought it was relevant to include in our research. The Die Hard Series uses many codes and conventions from the genre which we want to copy.

Rush Hour - Trailer

This is a comedy/ action film which uses good actors to create a comedic effect. This is done particularly through the visuals and the dialogue. We go some ideas about script writing from this film. Although our film is not a comedy, we want to have some funny or light hearted bits in the script to attract our male audience.

Kill Bill - Trailer

This movie could be described as a pastiche, as it includes elements from genres such as western, martial arts, kung fu and thriller. It relies quite heavily on special effects which would have been added in post-production. We do not have access to a lot of these effects, but we liked the use of hybrid genres and this is why we thought it was relevent to look at to gain ideas from.