The document provides details about the production of a teaser trailer for a teen drama film by a group of students. It describes the influences for the film genre, the targeting of teenage audiences, challenges faced such as changing actors and weather, and improvements made from the prior year including expanded skills in editing, sound, and camerawork. Shots used included close-ups, high angles, and handheld footage to create a fast-paced and documentary-style trailer.

1. Media Evaluation

2. First Stages And Influences.For our final practical examination we were given the task of creating a ‘teaser trailer ‘ for a new film that we had developed ourselves. It had to be between 30 seconds and a minute and a half in length. We felt that this would be a challenge however we tried our hardest throughout the task. After brainstorming many ideas, as a group we decided that our best idea was to create a trailer that would appeal to us. We chose teenage drama as a basis for our thoughts and strengthened this idea throughout the process. From the first stages of production we selected three initial ideas that we felt could create an interesting, new film. We then chose our final idea, a teen drama involving a group of teenagers whose lives drastically change following the introduction of a murdered drug dealers son.

3. First Stages and Influences Continued...Following this decision, we worked through many influential trailers that fitted into our chosen genre. We were highly influenced by the following:Kidulthood/Adulthood– These trailers had a strong background of teenage life and terror. It was fast paced and exciting, the teaser captivated us and left us thinking about the storyline.

4. Juno– This storyline tackled many teenage issues surrounding the society we live in today. Considering we wanted to base our idea on these teenage troubles we felt highly compelled to this trailer.

5. Skins – Even though this is a long running TV programme we felt that the teaser adverts related well to our ideas and therefore we looked heavily at this as an influence.

6. Step Up – Although a dance film, the storyline is based on the main character changing his background, similar to our synopsis. The trailer also offered fast paced, exciting imagery that we felt was similar to our own.

7. Target Audience.We addressed and attracted our audience by our use of mise-en-scene. We took advantage of being able to use locations that many of the audience members are likely to recognise, making them feel as if they are part of the action too. We used lots of short scenes with quick editing to keep the viewer interested in the story and wondering what is going to happen next.We tried to use as many conventions of typical teenage lifestyle as possible. These included drink, drugs and friendship. We also included a love interest. Although some of these stereotypes were exaggerated slightly, we feel that most of them are true to a teenagers life, at least in some part. We understand that our trailer may not appeal to all teenagers and only represents particular social groups within the teen genre. However, we feel that our trailer is sufficient enough to cater for those teens and that it is a high enough quality to appeal to certain if not most teenagers, both female and male.

8. In our trailer we have aimed to capture many aspects of a teenagers real life. We feel that we have successfully managed to incorporate several different elements of this, therefore completed our aim. We constructed our storyline based around genuine adolescent lifestyles and the concerns that they have to face- we did this as we were inspired by our influential trailers that dealt with social issues such as violence and pregnancy. We tackled subjects such as drink, drugs and conflict. Our storyline was heavily based upon drugs, having the main character’s dad a drug dealer. We decided to show this in our trailer by subtly demonstrating the social lifestyle of our characters with the ‘mask scene’ acting as a representation of drug use. The idea of binge drinking is also displayed in our trailer representing the stereotypical label associated closely with teenagers today. consequently by doing this, we have kept in touch with our audience and society. We illustrated this typecast through our scene with our characters sitting in a large group drinking ‘alcohol’. This was not real alcohol as we would not have been able to show that within a trailer that is supposed to be released into the media and shown to the general public, of all ages. As part of the present stereotypes of teens, we decided to show aggressive behaviour. Our ‘fighting scene’ depicts the common scenes of teenage hostility that is portrayed in the media today. We feel that teenagers today are especially seen as promiscuous and as a result we felt we should include images that suggests this. We highlighted this suggestion with a ‘kissing scene’ which gave a twist to the film, involving a love interest. It was only short, however it illustrated what we needed to show. Contrasting to all these negative views, we decided that friendship was a main part in teenage life. We have shown this using a consistent group, seen in our casting photos.

9. Example Stills.FOLLOWING DOWN STAIRS FIGHT SCENEGROUP SHOT CLOSE UP AND EYELINEHIGH ANGLETWO SHOT

10. Shots And Editing.After looking at our influential trailers, we noticed that they all had a fast pace, short cuts and a busy atmosphere. We liked this and so decided to include this element in our trailer. We felt the fast pace would fit very well with what we were doing. Being teenagers ourselves, the fast paced editing reflects the behaviour of teenagers today. We sped up some of the clips, for example when some of our characters were walking down the road and two girls hug and nearly fall over. We felt this was effective because the speed caught the attention of our audience. We used simple, plain shots so that the audience could focus more on the content. Our favourite was the high angle shot following the characters down the staircase which emphasised the lively and busy atmosphere and also gave a documentary feel to the trailer. We chose to do some handheld shots as we felt that the atmosphere we created by doing this helped to make the idea of a documentary more believable. As well as the real lifelike storyline, the documentary feel made the film more convincing. Pans, establishing shots and close ups helped us to encourage this.

11. Shots And Editing Continued…We finished our teaser trailer after completing the final preparations which included music, transitions and text. The music we chose, we felt fitted well with the genre and style of the trailer- the feedback from the trailer also supported this. The trailer did not include many transitions however; the ones we did include supported the clip and connected it nicely with the following clip. The transitions we used flashed, faded to black and black out stood out in the trailer and emphasised the fast pace and high momentum of the trailer. We added text at the beginning and end of the trailer to introduce the film and have final credits at the end. The ending credits appeared after the tagline ‘Ready, Steady, Go’ was said by the main character. The effect of this spoken tagline we thought was rather strong and complimented the trailer itself well and was also catchy enough to be remembered by the viewers. As we had so many filming sessions where we were able to film a variety of shots, after discussions we often changed our mind a deviated from the storyboard. This resulted in the trailer having a wider variety of shots- shots that are sometimes repeated. We found that this also emphasised the increased pace of the trailer as well as highlighting the key shots throughout the trailer.

12. Shots We Used.CLOSE UPHIGH ANGLEHAND – HELD ALSO A TRACKING SHOT3 SHOT/ MID SHOTPAN

13. Problems During Production.During production we experienced a range of problems that interrupted our availability to film. These included having to change our main actor half way through filming as he was not often available to film as he had work commitments. We thought that this would be a huge issue as it would be obvious of the change, however, after looking carefully through our film we realised that it was not too obvious and so we managed to change our actor effectively without any disturbance to our trailer. However, we were able to keep the recognition of the main character consistent through the use of his costume- the main character is wearing a grey hoodie throughout the trailer which, we feel, highlights him as the main character.We also had an issue with rain as for one of our filming sessions we went up to Southbank in London. Most of our filming for this session was planned for outside and when it started raining it made it harder to shoot. Therefore, we couldn’t film all scenes and had to change the location for some shots. We also had a problem with light as it started to get darker and it was harder to film, so we had to move some of the shots to lighter locations. We wanted to film in an area that was protected by the government and film our ‘fight’ scene. We therefore asked a policeman if we were able to film and they gave us an official notification under the terrorism act to say that we were able to film.

14. What We Have Improved On From Last Year.For our practical coursework this year we have joined together two groups as members from both groups left the course. We feel that this has given us the advantage of having more knowledge available of different genres and techniques to create a trailer that has helped us to improve on our already existing skills and develop new ones. We feel that we have been able to develop our skills in sound as we have been able to better fit the timing of the trailer and the editing. We have learnt a wider range of shots and improved our editing and sound skills enabling us to cut scenes and make the transitions from scene to scene smoother and more professional. We have also learnt how to more efficiently use a camera and a tripod to create different angles and shots in a scene. This has enabled us to use effective shots and to film things in different ways to create different effects, atmospheres and moods.

15. TRAILER CONCLUSION:Strengths. Editing and sound – we made the sound fit the timing of the editing well.

16. We edited our trailer well so that meaning was apparent to the viewer.

17. We used shots and cuts that enhanced our film, making it look more professional and smoother.

18. We came up with an idea quickly, that we were able to develop on and come up with our final idea.

19. We worked well as a group and were able to objectively discuss each others ideas.

20. We split work up into sections and everybody would take a different section so that work was even and fair.

21. The sound that we chose to use in our trailer received a lot of positive feedback as it suited the genre of film well.