Planning

For the film trailer I was in charge of:

• Writing out the plot to our film trailer
• Planning and Storyboarding the trailer
• Character Planning and who to cast
• Costume Choices
• The Logistics (planning when to shoot, with who and what will be needed)

In my planning I have also included extra research and planning that I had to partake in to ensure that Chloe and I knew what we wanted to achieve when it came to filming our trailer. E.g location ideas and choices, make up and props.

Monday 2nd October 2017

The Initial Planning Stage

I have now moved on to creating my trailer, film poster and film magazine front cover. In this section of my blog I will be planning out the plot of my film as well as finding locations, actors, costume and everything else that I need to make my marketing campaign. Throughout the audience and genre research I began generating some rough ideas as to what I wanted to do for my own trailer which I wrote down. I have used the software Flickr to upload an album of my initial ideas.

Tuesday 3rd October 2017
Collaboration

Below I have inserted a video and commentary of planning. We both came to the process with ideas and themes in mind and wrote them up in a mind map format so we could visualise our plan.

I used my iPhone to take photos of the mind map which we created on the board. At this stage in our planning process, we are merely noting down our initial and general ideas. From this, we will alter and mould them to fit a film synopsis and trailer during later stages of our planning. 



Wednesday 8th October
Narrative Planning in more detail

After mapping out our ideas, I thought it was important to create a detailed plan our the film as a whole. This is because even though we are only creating a trailer, by creating a plan for the whole film, we will know exactly what we want show to the audience through the trailer.

Below is a video I creates using the software VideoScribe which has allowed me to give a visual description of what the synopsis to our film is.



Here is a transcribed version of the video if you do not wish to watch the video. I wrote and planned out the synopsis myself.

The Synopsis to Our Film Trailer from Eleni Papaioannou

As this is only the beginning of our planning process there may be some elements of the narrative that we might change later on. This will be because we will refine, polish and develop our ideas further as we start to focus on other aspects such as the costume, lighting and props however, the synopsis here provides a basic and solid understanding of what our trailer/film is to be about.

Trailer Presentation from Eleni Papaioannou

Friday 10th October

Our Influencers

Here I have included a presentation on how the films that I have analysed and studied in my research have helped me to construct the plot of our film. I focused on the conventional features that were found in psychological thriller films and also the structure of the narrative as I feel these are the two most important parts when establishing the genre of a film.

Saturday 11th October
Script Treatment

Friday 13th October
Locations and Location Scouting

I have created a mind map using the website Bubbl.us to illustrate my thoughts regarding locations to be used not only within the film but more specifically in the trailer. Within this there are four main locations that I think are necessary to show in order for our audience to have an understanding in where the film is set. This includes: Bea's House, The Party, The Psychiatrist's Office and the outdoors surrounding Bea's house. From these key locations, I have thought in more detail about where these locations and shot can be taken realistically which will help me when I come to planning out the filming dates.

Location Scouting

Below I have created a Flickr page with all of the potential locations that we are going to use in our film trailer. The outdoor shots have been taken at the times in the day that we are likely to shoot to see how the lighting corresponds. Since we plan to shoot in November to January time, one thing we need to consider is that it gets darker outside much quicker than in the summer and so our outdoor locations have to be in a nearby location that we can get to easily.

Indoor Locations



Next I have made a presentation explaining how each location will be used:

Location Choices by Eleni Papaioannou

Sunday 15th October
Character Profiles

Character representations from Eleni Papaioannou

Monday 16th October
Character Costumes

For the next part of the planning process, I looked into the costumes that I would like my characters to wear and also the reasoning behind. I initially used a website called FlippingBook to collate my ideas however as it was only a free trial the software would not allow me to upload my work. I therefore took a different approach and used Adobe Indesign to create a short booklet on the characters and their costumes.




Friday 3rd November
Mise-En-Scene Planning

Friday 10th November
Final Story Board

I have used a website called storyboardthat to create a final story board for our trailer. This is what we will use as the base of our trailer. It will also be useful to refer back to when we come to planning how to frame and shoot each shot.

Made with Storyboard That


Made with Storyboard That

Monday 13th November
Filming Days

Now that we have planned out our film trailer, I created a call sheet for all the shots that we were to film on the 9th December which is to be our first day of filming. We are to be shooting at Chloe's house which means we can do the majority of indoor location shots during the daytime. Having all of the logistical planning done means that when it comes to the filming day, we can move from shot to shot swiftly and efficiently making it easier for both me and Chloe and our actors.

In my plan I have also included the props and costumes that we would need for each shot. This again will help when we come too filming as we as well as the actors will have a clear understanding of what needs to happen.

By using only two (if not less) actors for the majority of shots it meant it was easier for us to find dates that everyone was available for. We arranged the dates by using Facebook Messenger and Snapchat to stay in contact with one another and to ensure we all had our schedules cleared for fays of filming.

Thursday 1st February
The Start of My Film Poster Planning

Now that I have completed my film trailer planning and am undergoing the editing stages of my film trailer, I have now started to focus on the planning for my ancillary projects, the film poster and magazine. The most important thing fro me to think about when creating these ancillary projects is that there should be a cohesiveness to the three marketing products to show that they are all working together to advertise one film. I also want to ensure that the main theme of deteriorating mental stability is made clear to the audience.

Film Planning Part One from Eleni Papaioannou

The Hermenutic Code - Roland Barthes by Eleni Papaioannou

Semantic Code - Roland Barthes by Eleni Papaioannou

Friday 2nd February
Rough Edits

Now that I have planned out my film poster, I began to make two rough attempts in Photoshop by playing around with different tools, effects and opacities so that when I had taken the pictures of Georgia and Tom for my real film poster, I can quickly and efficiently edit them in as I will already be familiar with the process undertaken. I have taken some stock images online to fill in where Bea and Justin will go.

On the first attempt of planning I created the rough structure of how I want my poster to look. It is split into thirds with Bea being in the centre as she is the protagonist. The fact that the two Justins (real and hallucinatory) are either side of her are reflective of how she is constantly fighting in her head between what is real and what is illusion. I have decided to use close up images of my characters as this will put greater emphasis on the minds of the characters which is important since the psychological thriller focuses on the deteriorating mental stability of Bea.

On my next attempt, I kept the same structure but by using the eraser tool on Photoshop, I was able to blend the two faces together more so than the first attempt. I zoomed in much closer onto their faces which reflecting back now is not something I am too sure about however it does allow for the central part of the poster to be on Bea's eyes where the direct address entices the audience. The most notable difference here is the addition of the water which is an effect that I will definitely incorporate into my final film poster as it is so paramount to the film's narrative. 

After creating these rough drafts, I hope to create something similar in my final product and the editing/ production process should go a lot smoother because of my planning now. I will then be able to give a step by step guid showing how I created my film poster as I will know exactly what steps needed to be taken to achieve  my desired effects.

Monday 5th February

Magazine Planning

Now that I have a clearer understanding of how I want my film poster to look, I can start planning out the front cover of my film magazine. This will require slightly more planning because of the fact that unlike a film poster which tends to convey most of its meaning through images, a magazine front cover combines both images and text to coney meanings to audiences. I will also have to plan the layout of basic things such as the masthead, skyline, puff and cover lines which I did not have to consider when planning my movie poster as the layout stays roughly the same. It is also important that my front cover shows similarities to my film poster and trailer through the mise-en-scene, house style and images used so that there is a clear link between all three of my media products that are all part of one cohesive marketing campaign.

The best way for me to do this would be by having Bea, the protagonist featured on my magazine. Unlike on a film poster where there can be more than one character pictured, magazines tend to use a mid-shot of the protagonist which is what I will do for mine to adhere to conventions. Having said this, psychological thriller films are a smaller type of film that aren't as popular with mainstream audiences as I discovered from my genre research. This means that they're aren't advertised on the front covers of film magazines as often. Consequently, I feel I must break some of the conformities and conventions of film magazines to make my film appeal to my audience and make its genre clear.

         

Below is the reasoning behind my layout choices:

Tuesday 6th February

Colour Scheme Planning