Planning: Storyboard

Planning: Final idea

After much consideration, I have finally decided on my trailer idea. The concept is that there are two men, who are both hired for agencies as they are mercenaries. THe first mercenary is Tom Springall who shall be seen the most during the trailer is the actor during the scene in the forest where he shall be hanging from trees stabbing people and doing a lot of running around. The second actor Charlie Tonge we shall be using for the forest also, but when it is raining, so it seems like a different time and place as to imply a different mission. The story as a whole is that, these two mercenaries are very greedy, they take on too many jobs and eventually end up taking on the same target. THey end up getting in each others way and it turns to killing each other, which does not exactly work out for the best.

Planning: Idea 2

My second idea was a romance/action film. It would have been set around the 1940's during the World War. The plot would have been fairly simple. A British soldier on deployment in Germany where he meets a woman that is one of the prostitutes for the German soldiers situated outside Berlin. He meets her on an ambush of one of the German bases and 'saves' her from this nightmare. But after a week with her they fall in love, what he does not know is that her children are held captive by the Nazi's and she feels obliged to tell the Germans about the location of some British troops. She realises the mistake she has made and confesses to her new lover who informs his Captain of the attack and then sets out to get her children. He is clearly outnumbered and does not survive but sacrifices himself so that they never know of her betrayal. After careful thought i realised this would be rather hard to do, firstly because of the setting, I would have to get clothes and equipment from the time of the World War, and would also have to find a location that resembled that of the German outskirts during 1940's.

Planning: Idea 1

Our first idea for this piece of coursework was going to be a hybrid between horror and comedy. I thought about using a similar basis to my AS work, a stalker who is fixated on a girl that he knows from work or school and tries to make her love him. As she rejects him over and over again he realises there is only one way for them to finally be together or at least keep her for himself, Death! This is where it would begin to take on the feel of a scary movie film, whereby every attempt to kill the girl is made funny with some stupid accident or mishaps that are not planned. But to maintain a horror film, there would be plenty of blood, screaming, surprises and most importantly, Death! After consideration and some feedback from friends and family I decided it would not be a great idea, solely because, with comedies, it is hard to tell what is funny and what is not, for one person falling over could be hilarious whereas to someone else it could just be seen as pathetic, and as I had already done a horror i decided against it as I felt like more of a challenge.

Planning: Influences for Trailer, Magazine and Poster

The First Trailer shown above is an action genre that was released 3 or 4 years ago, Black Haw Down. The first point I took from this influence was the soundtrack used. It is a rather intense piece, you can hear string instruments, drums and trumpets, but the clearest instrument so to speak are the vocals. They are loud and dramatic which enforces the idea of a war not being easy. The second aspect of the trailer that aids it in the dramatic effect is the voice-over and script that has been included. They produce snippets of dialogue which reveal the gist of the film but do not give away so much that it is pointless seeing it. I will consider both these points when making my trailer.



This trailer, Green Zone is still the same genre as the previous one, released recently but there are a few differences. Firstly, the soundtrack in the background is different. Again there are the sound of drums, but in general, there is a continuous beat throughout. There is no voice heard until the end of the trailer at which is sounds like a rap of some kind which quickens up the pace as rapping is rather fast paced and 'actiony'. This does work well with this trailer and it may be because it is based around one man on a mission. Because of this, I have decided to rule out the idea of a vocal soundtrack, but still using strings and drums to maintain a dramatic beat but still tense.



The first magazine cover that I have linked to this blog section is that of 'Total Film'. One aspect of this magazine that I shall definitely be including in my magazine cover is the use of a large and bold font for the title. The font seems to be Arial further supporting the boldness and helping the magazine to stand out on the shelf. This being the case, my magazine will have a large font size and most likely use the boldness of writing tools. Another aspect of the title is the colour used. All the colours are fairly plain, whites or gold's have been used which gives off a rather modern yet 'antique/professional' look. The use of white helps it stick out as it is a light colour and contrasts with the fairly dark background of character and setting on the magazine cover. Lastly, compared to other magazines that I read, this front cover is very simple, there are no other photos, and limited pugs. Still, there are some incentives on offer for the buyer so I feel that with my magazine I should include something like this.



The second magazine cover that I have linked is 'Empire' magazine. Once again the title is large, but this time not as bold. Another difference is the use of a red font colour, in my opinion it stands out better against the dark background whilst still sustaining a professional look whereas Total Film looked too simplistic. Once again there is a large main image on the front cover, but it does not follow any rule of thirds and fall down the middle third, instead, the image is off to one side. Also, the image covers part of the title which seems like an interesting idea that i may implement into my magazine, but i must note that this is a well known magazine so even after covering up a letter, they can still know what the magazine is. A lot of the pugs unlike total film are a reasonably small font size, they are not all bold and stand out, which makes it easier to fit in pictures of articles that are in the rest of the magazine. This helps to draw the eye of the consumer to the magazine as it gives them a quick overview of what is involved.



The first poster that influenced me was James Bond Golden Eye. The reason I took interest in this was the fact that it is based around one man army who everyone relies on to get the job done. As this is the basis of my film i thought it a good one to inspect. You can instantly tell this will be an action film, it is 'busy'. There are explosions, helicopters, cars, and guns and the whole poster just shouts action. I notice that the main actor Pierce Brosnan, even though slightly in front of the 2 female actresses, he is the same colour and about the same size which does not help him to stand out, which is not what I want. I feel that the poster should make a person stand out especially the main actor.



The second poster achieves this very well. After looking at the green zone trailer and realising that it resembles the idea of my film, i felt it best to have a look at the poster. The first thing you notice is how domineering Matt Damon is in the poster. He fills up the whole page leaving very little space for anything else. It is not colourful, rather dull, but war is not a happy place. Also the title of the film is rather large and a lighter colour making it stand out against the dull background. One problem with this though is that there are no signs of action, i.e. guns or explosions, but I am assuming that as Matt Damon is a well known actor, the majority of people will know that is the type of film he acts in.