music...

I've found some new music to put over the more emotional section of my trailer, as after watching my trailer back, the music i had originally used was to 'piecey' and not long enough to cover what i needed it for. After looking through soundtrack pro i found a new soundtrack that would suit my trailer well. In the construction documentary you will see me adding it into the trailer and removing the old one.

trailer title

As i've already blogged about, i came up with a new idea for the title of the trailer. Below i have shared a link to a first draft of this which i completed. It is quite a simplified version and is not perfect, but it was just a first attempt to give me some sort of idea as to how i would need to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD0ezU4u3mM

To create this i used after effects. By freeze framing a section of the clip i desire i will have a shot of alex on his bmx freezing in the air. The background and the titles are moved around by key frame, meaning i can move them where ever i like. As for the paint splats, i can move those around too and get rid of the black background using colour dodge. In the final titles i will use colour effects like 'colour correction' to add colour to the titles. In my construction documentary i will show how i made the final titles.

The background will be the same for the final one, however the text is likely to change so it is the same at that from the poster and the magazine front cover. The clip may not be the same either, although i am yet to decide this.

As well as the draft titles i did, i tried another one as well. I never completed this, but i did add a few different things to it and it has the basic elements as how i made the draft in it. Below i've shared a link to a screen flow of me creating it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSHln_bVdz0

Magazine front cover

After looking at my magazine front cover first rough cut, i've come up with a few improvements that i feel will make it better.

• firstly, i don't like the title i i think it needs more colour. I have decided that i will add a little red to it to make it stand out a little more and work a bit better with the cover lines and photo.
• I dont like how red the film title is, and i dont think it stands out enough, so i will change the colour of the writing 'pushing the boundaries' to white and i will try and make the 'Alex Coleborn' part stand out more whilst keeping it red.
• I think the photo needs to be darker because at the moment it detracts away from everything else and ends up making the front cover look a little like a poster.
• There aren't enough cover lines and i feel that if i add a few more it will look more like a magazine front cover, rather than a poster, which i think it has the slight look of at the moment.
• Finally, i will change the stroke on a number of cover lines and also the mast head and the website. At the moment, many of these have a small stroke on them which makes them look like some kind of tacky word art from Word. I will replace the stroke with a drop shadow, but give it no distance and a larger spread so it ends up making a black haze behind the text. Hopefully this will be enough to make the writing stand out.

Improving the trailer's narrative

The rough cut of my trailer had a confusing narrative. The focus of the film is about Alex and his talents on a BMX, but by the end of the trailer the audience were left believing that the film is about Alex's struggle in a mission to become the worlds best BMX rider. On this light, i have decided to change around the order of the trailer slightly. I will still however, use the same shots. I will split the action section up into two parts, and then by adding the emotional section between them, the film is established once more as a more action film by the end.

Ancillary - Poster

After looking at what i was going to do with my trailer, i decided i should review my ancillaries too, in order to establish a plan of what i will do.

For my poster i will...

• change the font of the writing in the top right corner
• switch the top and bottom writing around
• make the writing of the main title look more like its on the fence and also more in keeping with the style

Reviewing my trailer

After looking at the the possible ideas of changes for my trailer, i will be doing the following:

• Changing the order to show a better narrative
• changing the 'emotional music' at the end of the trailer
• Ive already moved additional shot from the beginning to the end
• adding the new title idea (with the freeze frame and effects)
• Adding a few more effects throughout the trailer to show a different range of skills

trailer...

After thinking about all the changes that i could make to myu trailer i've come up with a few new ones. Instead of mixing the trailer up i will simply change the order so it tells a better narative, as at the moment it is set up too much like just an action film.


I am still going to do the other changes, like the smoothing the end music up and adding more effects. I've had a better idea for the title, instead of having the bmx riding through it i will have one that uses more effects. The general idea is that i will use a freeze effect and then have titles and paint effects come on to the screen.
 
A link to some similar styled titles is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F68ax29Qzs

This is the trailer for the film jackass 2. It uses some freeze frame style things at the start and this is similar to what i hope to achieve, although the writing on mine will also be animated.

Ancillaries

I'm now looking at the changes that may or may not need to be made to my ancillaries. I have already changed the writing on the poster to make it look like it is on the graffiti wall as it was suggested by numerous people that it would look better like that. I'm still looking at what i could do to the magazine front cover.

Here's a print screen of the poster with the new title on it.

Trailer changes...

As well as the changes i am already reviewing for my trailer, it has been proposed that it appears to be split up into 2 parts and that i should perhaps mix it up a little bit in order to make it flow better... I will look at doing this over the next couple of weeks or so, but we're coming up to exams now so everything is very busy.

I filmed the shot i'll need for the title of the BMX over the green screen yesterday, although i dont think i will be adding that it for a few weeks or so, just before i complete the trailer and look at evaluation.

With all ancillary drafts and trailer drafts completed, i am well underway to meet the new dealine towards the end of february. This allows me a lot more time for changes and improvements to all of my project pieces, in order to come up with the final productions. As well as that, it means i have much more time to ensure my evaluation is done thoroughly and well.

NEW COURSEWORK DEADLINE!!

On returning to school today, i found out that everyone has been given an extension from the 21st january to sometime at the end of february. There are numerous reasons for this, from the deadline being in the middle of exams, to Mr. Dowson being understandably absent, and also the fact that this way works a lot more efficiently for the rest of the course.

This extension in the deadline means i have a lot more time to complete the coursework, which is helpful over the exam time throughout january, and also offers me more time to improve and achieve a better standard of work.

Potential changes

After talking to the Big D about my trailer today i have come up with a series of potential changes to make:

• i want to add a few more effects to the middle section and change around the writing parts because im not too keen on how they look,
• The end bit needs a little bit of tidying up so it runs a bit smoother,
• i am going to change the music over the end bit so its not so piecey
• the additional shot i put at the start of the trailer, i will move to the end where i think it wuill fit a lot better.

I will have a play around with these changes opver the next couple of weeks and update the bloge if i change anything. At some point Mr.Dowson will have a quiick look at my drafts and see what he thinks of them, after that i'll have a look at changing parts of them.

Back to school

Today we came back to school after the christmas holidays. I've now finished bothe the rough cut for my trailer and the rough cuts of both ancillaries. Over the next couple of weeks i will go over and review all the projects and collect some audience feed back to help me in prioducing the final copies. After that i will sort out all of the evaluation and essure my blog is completely up to date. I will blog my construction documentary as soon as i have finished making everything and completed editing it together.

Rough cut ancillaries complete

Here's the rough cuts of the two ancillaries, there a likely to be improvements across the two of them to produce the final copy.

Poster:

Magazine:

Update

I'm on track for finishing my ancillaries by the time i go back to school on the 5th january, an then about a week after that i will finish my trailer and start the evaluation which will give me a couple of weeks for that.

I've now got all of the photos and i've chosen the ones i will use.

I also decided that the poster looks better without the image of alex himself on it. I will still, however, use this image on the front cover of my magazine. This means that the main focus of the poster will now be the BMX bike in the centre, coupled with the title above. I did, however, take some screen shots of me cutting out the image of alex in photoshop and i have posted these below...

This is the original photo. The background uses a variety of colours which made it a little tricky to cut alex himself out. To begin with i tried using the 'magnetic lasso' tool on photoshop, but the range of colours made this a tedious and painstaking task. I then came to the attention of a different tool of which i can no longer remember the name. This tool allowed me to colour around alex in red.

Here is what the photo looked like after i'd coloured the area i didnt want in. From here i was able to select the outside of alex and delete the rest, leaving a white background.

By this stage i could select alex and copy and paste him to where i needed the image.

These are the photos i have chosen for my two ancillaries...

I felt that of the photos i took of the actor, that this was the best one. This was simply because on his facial expressions. I intend to use this photo on both the poster and the front cover of the magazine to establish a link between the two and make it look like some kind of marketing strategy.

I have chosen this one because the BMX is in the far left of the image and it engages the rule of thirds.

This shot was meant to look quite amateur as it will feature on the magazine front cover as one of the 'extras'.

This image is the same as the above in nature. I chose these too out of the selection that i took because the character is central to the photos and they look quite casual.

This was a second idea i had for the magazine front cover, although i dont think i will use this. It's a back up plan of sorts.

This photo has a lot more space around the bike and it is for this reason that i chose it. It is different to the other one in that it would allow me to use more of the fence and ideally, work it into the poster.

I have chosen this selection of photos for  various reasons. I may not use them all and there may be a couple of different ones that i use, should i end up not liking any of these. But for the mean time i feel that these photos are easy to work with, and could hopefully produce so decent ancillaries with a little editing.

Ancillary photos

Here are the photo's i took today for the two ancillary tasks:

Update

Just a quick update as to where i am now...

My trailer is pretty much finished now,  managed to do a lot of work on it in the last week of school, so all there is left to do now is put the title in place. I have to film one little bit on the green screen to do this and then make the the title with it in after effects. I'm going to use the idea of having a BMX ride through the title. After that my trailer will be finished. A for the ancillaries, they will be finished over these christmas holidays as i have photoshop at home. My actor has been in England for the last 6 months or so but he's back now, so i will be able to take some photos with him and select the best ones to use for the two ancillaries. As you already know, i've done a lot of the little things for the ancillaries so all that really remains that will take time is the photos. The rest is all quick and easy. This means that as soon as i have finished my title on the trailer i can move on to the evaluation aspect of the coursework, which means i will have about 3 weeks to do it in.

I'm currently editing together a construction documentary which i will upload at the end of the construction sequence. This will show you how i made all of the project, including the two ancillaries. 

Evaluation...

I need to start thinking about the evaluation section now, and i will do this as i put the finishing touches on the trailer. I can't properly start this until the trailer is completely finalised, but i have up till the final deadline (21st january) to do it. I won't be able to do anything to my trailer until i'm back at school on the 5th of january, because i don't have the software at home to edit it, which will set me back a little. However, i am confident that i will have enough time to do everything in the three or so weeks between then and the final deadline.

Ancillary Tasks...

Now my rough cut in finished, i can concentrate on the ancillary tasks. I can do these over the holiday's because i have photoshop at home so that allows to to use the time instead of being sat at home with nothing i can do. I've done a bit of work on the two tasks anyway as i've previously posted so there isnt too much more to do.

On a positive note, i have been to find a fence for my location down at the skatepark and there is one covered in graffiti which would be the perfect location for the photo for the poster. This means that the skatepark will be the location for the main image on the poster.

Rough cut complete!

I finished my first rough cut on friday and you can follow the link below to it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYo0fa5iUk
It's not the final copy and, of course, there are parts that need sharpening up and things like the title and the work sections that still need to be edited in. But the main structure is there to work with.

I'm not 100% sure about the music for it. It fits the genre well but it was thinking about taking a different spin on it and putting some completely contrasting music over the trailer. This would create a more abstract effect and hopefully would have a more memorable impact on the audience.

The next thing for me to do is import the rough cut into aftereffects and put the remaining components in it. This shouldn't take too long and i should be finished in a couple of weeks. As soon as im done with this i will put together my construction documentary and post it up on here.

Today

I continued to edit the rest of my trailer today, and there's not a long way left to go now. One thing i did realise today was that i needed some more musci for the end of my trailer because it was a little to quiet and the mood needed to be established. I spent about half an hour looking through soundtrack pro before finding an appropiate sound clip. I wanted something that sounded emotional and involved a pianio.

Theres 4 days until the first rough cut deadline, so i'm on track to have that completed on time. I willl post a construction documentary at the end of the month to show the various stages of me constructing the trailer.

I also had a new idea for the title of the film, i want to have the bike essentially riding through the title, and to do this i will need to filom over the green screen. I wont be able to have this done by the end of the week so i have arranged with mr.dowson to do that as soon as possible, instead of for friday.

New footage

I took the footage for the new shot i have thought of today, and i now plan to have the voice over playing on top of it, and a little less over the heart beat effect. I think that the voice over is better spread between different parts of the trailer to build excitement and tension throughout. Anyway, here is a screen shot of the new footage:

The trailer...

i'm now over half way with the trailer, i've finished the middle section of the trailer now and i'm well on track for the deadline, despite the problem we've had with the weather over here in the past week. I have, however, decided to make one change to the start of the trailer. I now plan to add an additional shot before the heartbeat begins, where Alex is lit up from the back in the dark. This will establish him as the centre of attention for the film.

The music issue that recently occurred is now totally solved and i've sorted the music completely.

One thing i did have to do the other day is straighten out a shaky image in after effects. Below you can see a few screen shots of me doing this, and in my construction documentary you will be able to see footage of it.

Whilst dealing with my music problems, i tried a different approach. I thought about having an abstract take on the trailer, with more orchestral music. An example of this kind of media is the xbox advert that was banned. You can see it by following this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuRQmvykwk

It didnt work very well with the style of my trailer, and the music clashed with the video. You can see this abstract draft of the trailer by following this link to youtube.com...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCRfX-AY8I

Ancillaries

Right, i started to put my ancillary titles at such together the other day, i wont be able to get the final photos until mid december due to the actor being away, but that's not a problem as i can sort out the rest and finalised them when the final photo's have been taken.

I'm sticking pretty much to the final drafts and i'm planning on using the same text as i have in the trailer for the movie title to make it more recognisable across the different media.

I've taken a few screen shots to show the work i've done so far with the ancillaries, minus of course the title which will come at the end when i've sorted the title for the trailer.

The magazine screen shot you see below is one i started to make at the very start of the year before i had created drafts, which explains why the title is wrong. I intend to use the title that you see in the final draft.

Music developments

Right, it would appear that after searching through the websites there is nothing that i deem to be appropriate for my trailer. However on the bright side i have found something i could use on soundtrack pro. It's a style of backing track which is quite common with films of this kind and so is well suited. I will edit this to what i need and use this.

Music Problems

Today i encountered my first real problem with my project. I was under the pretence that i could use any music, so long as i was to seek permission for it's use. However, i was wrong in thinking this and so i now need to search around for some copyright free music, as at this late stage i don't have the time to piece together my own soundtrack.

I've discovered a few websites where i can find some music at little or no cost. Examples of these are:

• www.shockwave-sound.com
• www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free.html
• freeplaymusic.com/
• www.freesound.org

I am hoping that between these 4 sites and also programmes like soundtrack pro on the mac's at school, i can find some background music that suits my trailer.

This issue has set me back somewhat, but despite this i have continued to move on to the next stage of the trailer. This is the part where the pace picks up and the music kicks in.

The next stage of editing

I'm now finished with the heartbeat and i'm moving on to the next part of the trailer. This is the part where the editing becomes sharper and quicker. I have left the main title for now, as i will be sorting that out in aftereffects at a later date. I am hoping to do the title so that you see a silhouette of a BMX riding through it.

You can see my trailer so far by following this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjTasSjfSZY where i have posted it for you to see.

I have also been looking around for a place to download fonts for my trailer and also the two ancillary tasks. So far the best website i have found is called 'dafont' where you can download hundreds of different fonts for free. A link to the website is: http://www.dafont.com/

A quick update...

Everything seems to be going okay at the moment. As the last post says i've begun to put everything together now and i should be finished on time. The rough draft is due some point in the middle of December, i can't remember the exact date but i know i'm on track.

I'll update the blog when i've finished the first part of my trailer and am moving on to the next stage.

I've also made a 'bang' sound effect in sound track pro that i will use over my main title. I made it by simply choosing a sound effect and then cutting it down to the part i wanted, and then exporting it to itunes for later use in my trailer.

Putting everything together

I've now begun to put everything together. Starting with the newly made heartbeat soundtrack I will put the appropriate footage over the background sounds to being producing the complete trailer. The heartbeat section is the start of the trailer so obviously it makes sense to start there. After that comes the fast cut action section, which will need editing which is a lot more jumpy and quick.

Here a a few screen grabs i took whilst i was putting together the start of my trailer:

As you can see i am working in final cut pro for the moment, and then will move the file into after effects where i will add things in like the titles etc.

The main song

I only need to use certain sections of my chosen song for the trailer, and i edited the song in order to create the first bit i needed as well over the past week. Below are screen shots of how i did it.

I was a lot more familiar with garage band as i used it quite a bit during my as coursework. This was a lot more simple when compared to the heartbeat sound section i made because all i had to do was cut out the sections of the song i wanted, and then mix them together si you wouldn't notice where they were cut. The only other thing i did was add a sound effect at the end.

As well as the main song, i also created a different sound effect that i would need. For this i simply used sound effects and cut and changed them to create what i wanted. I also played around with the volume levels so that i sounded smoother.

the heartbeat sound track...

Right, since i last blogged i have now finished creating my heartbeat soundtrack for the start of my trailer. I made it in sound track pro by editing their heartbeat sound quite dramatically.

The main thing i needed to do was alter the speed of the sound clip. It needed to start a lot slower and finish a lot quicker, whilst being a lot shorter in total length. I took a few screen shots of me playing with the sound in order to create what i wanted. It wasn't too pressing as all i had to do was use the time stretch tool and then highlight and delete sections that i didn't want in order to make the timing correct. After completing all of that, i started to edit the distortion and other such effects to to make the sound as best as it could be. Screen shots of all this can be found below.

Following that, i exported it as an mp3 and put it in to final cut pro, where i began to put clips of my video to it. This is what i have been doing over the past week or so. It's taken me perhaps a little longer than it should have because i had to learn how to use the software first, and i'm not 100% great at final cut pro either, but i hope i will get better as i become more familiar with it.

START OF EDITING

Yesterday the editing process started, i uploaded my footage onto the mac and began to arrange the clips and select the best version of each shot.

... I have also begun to look into the music and soundtrack for the trailer as this will be a very important part.

I also started to look into achieving the effects i desire for the titles on certain clips as you can see from the storyboard, and what i spoke about in the anamatic storyboard.

Today, i looked more into the soundtrack and left the video editing to rest. I began to produce the heartbeat at the start of my trailer which will last for a short time. I then started to play about with my song choice, which was tears dont fall by Bullet for my Valentine.

Extra research...

It came to my attention that i would need a little more research into the documentary film genre. To do this i have found a trailer called 3: the story of Dale Earnhardt, which is the stroy of a NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. This is the link to the trailer... http://espn.go.com/three/index.htm

One of the first things you notice about the trailer is the concentration on the main character. From the very start we are shown close ups of him in action, showing his face, but also enough for us to understand what he's doing. As you can see in the following screen shots we are told from early on that this man is important and we should concentrate very much on him. We come to understand this because of the constant close ups of his face.

In the above shots the camera is focused directly on the character and we are seen to be facing him. The fact that his eyes are covered show him in quite a mysterious fashion, perhaps offering us an insight into his character.

The sound of the trailer is quite simple. As well as the main soundtrack (music) there is the diegetic sound of the clips themselves, which adds to the realism of the trailer. At the same time there is the dialogue from the scenes. This helps to tell the narrative and offer the audience some kind of understanding surrounding the story within the film. The main soundtrack, or music over the top helps to define the genre as an action film. The up beat, suspense building music tells the audience instantly that this is an action or sporting film, and the concentration on the main character tells us he is central to the plot. Through these two simple things we, as the audience, have come to quickly understand a lot about the film itself.

The next point i noticed was the variety of shots and shot distances that were used throughout the trailer. Below i took some screen shots to show examples of this.

This screen shot shows a very close up shot of the car racing action. This not only tells the audience that the film is central around the sport of NASCAR, but also it stops the audience from becoming to familiar with the editing and therefore keeps the audience interested.

Above you can see an extreme long shot, which is used to both show the audience the surroundings and the setting and also as an establishing shot. It shows the audience where the next scene is going to take place and therefore prevents confusion and helps to tell the narrative.

This is a shot that i noticed and thought was clever. The camera is stationary and and close to the action as the cars zoom past. This is something that is commonly found within films of the action/sporting genre.

Another point i had was the depiction of a crash, seen in the following screen shot.

Showing the flip side of success is something that we often see in action/sporting/ or documentary films. It is important for the narrative that we are show the main character struggle so we can begin to relate to him/her.

The use of continuity editing is evident throughout the trailer, and i good example of this is the use of shot reverse shot seen many times throughout. I took a some screen shots of this too.

This use of shot reverse shot helps the audience to understand the situation a lot more easily. As well as this, the 180 degree rule is obeyed, which stops the audience from becoming confused. Everything is where the audience expect it to be and because of this they feel more like they are there and in the situation themselves. In this respect, the narrative becomes more personal and they feel somewhat involved in the scene.

One of the most important things that i have seen in the trailers i have researched, is the use of writing. It is something that you always see in trailers and it is important for the audience to understand what is going on. As well as this, in many ways it helps to dramatise the film and almost 'sell' it to the audience a little more. Dramatic 'one liners' or 'triples' can be used to drive home to story, or in this case the true story. Below are a few screen shots of the writing within this trailer.