Synopsis

Only the Family (OTF)

Cameron Riqueza, the egocentric head of a dominant crime syndicate is about to make the biggest move in the history of British crime. He lives on top of the world with plush clothes and fancy cars. Everything is priceless, where money is never a second thought. Murder is necessary to protect the organisation he controls. Getting ready to make an immense narcotics deal, Riqueza inducts Al Ciento making him a valuable addition to his clique.  Little does he know, Al Ciento has secretly been elected as the head of Cameron Riqueza main rivals, 300.  This leads to a brutal betrayal which leaves untouchable Riqueza weakened and on a revenge path and reveals a cold and merciless side of him. A spree of killings from both parties becomes frequent, leading to a full out war with law enforcement. Treachery tends to be a pattern in the lifestyle of these ‘business men’ as they attempt to protect their interests and violate the power they control. The selfishness of both narcissistic characters is their downfall as they come to a gripping standoff. 

Initial Production Company Logo Ideas

A production log is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Production logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie or video game (an "opening logo"), or at the end of a television program or TV movie (a "closing logo"). 

Examples of generic production company logos:

We first came up with four film production company names:

1. Infinity productions.
2. Exquisite productions.
3. Blue Spark Films.
4. Square root productions.

This is a description of the ideas for each individual production company names above, which explains the process of the animated indent. 

Blue Spark Films

This will contain a small bright moon followed by a mixture of a blue spark effect which would be scattered across the screen and also involve a blue lightening strike which will eventually move across the screen and expose the film production company name (Bleu Spark Films)

This transition shows how the lightening strike eventually moves towards the left side of the screen and meets the moon in the centre where the size of the moon light would increase at the same time.

The moon light eventually dissolves in the background and the lightening strike continues to move across to the left side of the screen, where then our production company name is shown. The lightening then moves left to right and vise versa.

Square Root Productions

This shows a square box and the square root sign which would both have a black outline. Eventually the size of the square box and square root sign increases.

The square root sign would then meet the square where both collide into each other as demonstrated on the photo. This would then be followed by a red colour light following the path of the root sign which will then immediately reveal the production company name.

After showing our production company name, the title would disappear where the outside of the title (the square root sign and square) closes as a transition.

Infinity Productions

This shows a line which follows the direction of the arrows illustrated on the photo, forming a film reel in the shape of the infinity sign.

Across the infinity sign would be a animation of the film reel moving.

This would then move out of the screen leaving a curved wavelength which moves repeatedly. Subsequently, the production company name would appear on screen.

Exquisite productions

This would start of with a massive 'X' covering the screen frame, which will then minimise in size and merge along with the production name.

The production name would then appear on screen just shortly before the 'X' comes along with  the title. At this moment, the 'production' part of the title would be scattered across the screen and moving continuously in and out.

The letters will then eventually meet each other and fall below 'exquisite'. 

Experimenting with our chosen title:

With this one we liked the concept of the film reel around the letters. We thought this would make it seem more noticeable that it is a film production company and add some sense of realism. However, on the basis of the style of font used for this idea, we thought it lacked the profession to be the font for our production logo name. As our film is a crime/thriller we believe that the idea didn't relate to the theme of the film. As this would be practically the first thing on screen we thought by using this style of font would mislead our audience in terms of the theme of our film. The font seems to represent more of a love or drama and you would ratherexpect a crime/thriller to have a bold and strong font style to create some sense of seriousness rather than some sense of happiness. 

We thought this font was good for our film production logo as it has a blood drip effect. We thought this would relate to the theme of a crime/thriller as our trailer consists a lot of action scenes which contains blood. After experimenting with the font, we decided that this font wasn't the most suitable. We realised that the film can be misinterpreted as a horror due to the blood drips on the font. Despite our film containing scenes which involve blood we thought that this concept of blood shouldn't represent be expressed in the font of our production logo. Although it can work in both ways, you are most likely to identify such style of font for mostly horror films and came to end that this wasn't the greatest of fonts. 

This font was more of a better potential. We tested it out on after effects with the our template created and it seemed to pull off pretty well. It has the traits of being professional and a gist of class in which we thought is more appropriate to have as our production logo. We however then realised after rendering the whole production logo, the end product of the logo didn't seem to come out as first suggested as the font wasn't clear enough as it wasn't bold. 

After experimenting with a few fonts, we noticed that we need to make our fonts look more strong. So then we decided to experiment with this one and see how it looked. After testing it, the outcome of it also didn't go so well. It didn't really match the background template as it was too narrow and tall. 

We finally found the ideal font for our production logo! We liked the design of this font as it the spacing between each letter was well spaced and we like smoothness of the font. We thought it had a sharp look which created some sense of coolness and elegance. When tested on After Effects, it worked out brilliantly and we had no trouble with the boldness. It worked perfectly with all the transition effects applied on our template and was visually clear to read. 

25 Word Pitch

 'The heads of two crime syndicates who battle it out for dominance of all the narcotics and money. Working together created doubts about the other and leads to a tale of bloodshed and betrayal'

Initial Ideas and Influences

Initial ideas and influences: 

Below are our main influences and ideas from films that we can easily relate to. We created a spider diagram which evaluates the main points from the trailers in which we found inspiring. We came up with two different film ideas which contained some similarities and differences between themselves. Doing so, we had to decide which one between the two would overall have a better outcome.

Umed: Los Blancos 2

We used our AS media piece as an influence for our trailer. If we were to run with the idea of a prequel to our As media film 'Los Blancos' we would need to go back and assess certain aspects from our As opening sequence and implement them into our A2 trailer. Some aspects we would have to recycle is the use of props, mainly the plain white mask. We the name of our film around the mask. 'Blanco' meaning white in Spanish reflected upon our mask. 

Goodfellas was one of the main influences for our As piece. For our A2 trailer it would make aspects like costume and themes such as 'Violence' obvious. Remembering 'Los Blancos' revolved around young professionals we needed our characters to dress the part. In our A2 piece we wold see characters in suits and dressing very formally. 

For our A2 piece, we would see ourselves taking a great deal from the film 'American Psycho' as it features many aspects we want our characters to have. Also it features themes we will be aiming to present in our trailer as well as having very interesting camera and sound work. Patrick Batemen is the greatest example of a psychotic young professional we could find. We wanted our characters for this to follow this young professional look but instead of being psychotic and killing for no reason, we would want them to be sociopaths who do not feel when killing and do it for a purpose. Others aspects we would gain from American psycho would be costume, props and themes such as violence and murder.   

We found 'Hitman' very interesting when drawing up our influences. What we found most interesting is that both 'Los Blancos 2' and 'Hitman' follow the story of a Hitman. Both films would feature a sociopath killing on demand of their agencies (Agent 47 gets instructions for his contracts from his agency whilst Jose Sanchez follows orders of Agency Blanco). Agent 47 would be the best character to match with the protagonist of 'Los Blancos 2'.

Naiem: Only The Family (OTF)

We used 'The Godfather part 2' as an example to help us create the protagonist and antagonist and their characteristics. We found that Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone would be the two best characters to base our protagonist and antagonist on. Both Vito and Michael Corleone are/were the heads of a great criminal enterprise something which our two main characters are. We took Michael's cold, merciless and ambitious characteristics and combined them with Vito's money making ability, vengeful nature as well as both characters sophistication to create two characters parallel in power.       

We used 'Heat' to portray how the members of a crime syndicate operate and interact with each other. Looking at Neil McCauley's team of professional thieves, we see good communication and closeness between the members of the group. We see this by each looking out for each other during the 'jobs' they carry out and how they are successful near to almost every time. Also when we see the shot of these characters together with their families makes us aware they are more than a bunch of business partners but are friends and more family. We would want to base the members of each crime syndicate in this way to show loyalty. 

We used 'Iceman' as an influence in relation to the protagonist and antagonist of our film. The character Richard Kuklinski is portrayed as the villain (although he is supported by the audience) where his lifestyle is highly related to our protagonist and antagonist. Kuklinski is a contract killer who is criminal-minded and we thought we can use his characteristics and some aspects of his acting as an influence for our trailer. We also thought that Kuklinski 'dark-side' is a major influence as in our trailer we would want to imply the evil side of our protagonist and antagonist.  

We thought 'Casino' was another influence for our protagonist and antagonist.  We thought that Sam 'Ace' Rothstein character was a major influence as in the trailer it expresses his dominance in the film, by making the Casino make a substantial amount of money. I liked the fact that the very first shot of Sam Rothstein was a low angled shot looking up to him portraying him as a great figure in which I believe could be very effective in our own trailer. Also, during the trailer I thought the use of credits was expressive. For example, the credit 'MONEY' which was then followed by scenes of Rothstein gambling etc resembled his lifestyle. 

Moodboards

We created moodboards to help identify the genre of the trailer; as well as helping us think up ideas of what our trailer will be about. It will also give us a direction to what themes and ideas to include in the trailer.

Umed's Mood Board:

From the moodboard I took inspiration from many different films and TV series to draw inspiration for our initial ideas on what our trailer will be about and the content it will contain. I found myself mainly looking at gangster films and being mesmerized by the lifestyles and look of gangsters such as Michael Corleone, Henry Hill and Tony Soprano. From this I feel that the trailer will include many gangsters, a running theme of violence and crime. 

Naiem's Mood Board:

From my moodboard, most of my inspiration was from a variety of films including classics and mainstreams. Most of these films consisted famous Hollywood actors who had a similar role of our main actors featuring in our trailer as it has the concept of gangsters/criminals/hitmans. Elements in which I highly concentrated as an inspiration was fundamentally from mise-en-scene. The costume has a vital impact from the images above as they easily relate to our ideas for our trailer. We want our  main male actors to wear suits as this is a representation of a hitman. Also, the use of props such as a gun was vital as this reveals the genre to the audience. I also took inspiration from actors who used a cigar as this makes it easier for the audience to establish that the actor is a gangster/hitman. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger in the picture above is smoking a cigar making him seem prestige and gives him the cool look. 

A2 Media Introduction

What is a trailer?

Trailers consist of a series selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.

Naiem:

This is an example of the "Human Centipede 2" trailer:

We notice that throughout the trailer of 'Human Centipede 2' it is edited in a grayscale effect, where this has a mixture of tones between the colours of black and white. I believe this effect was used as it symbolises mystery and fear which resembles the genre of the film (horror) strongly. I believe that the trailer produced is well constructed as it shows concise little snips from the film which in one way doesn't give away the storyline fully but can also be very persuasive for the audience to watch the film as they'd be intrigued to know what actually happens. I personally believe that the sound editing plays a fundamental part in this trailer as it easily hooks the audiences attention. The different sound effects used which changes quite oftenly makes it very hard for the audience to lose interest and attention as at the same time there is a constant change between the pitch of the sound. The use of credits as well may also make it hard for the audience to lose its attention as they're associating with the trailer. There's also an echo and unfamiliar background sounds such as screaming which is played frequently in the trailer. This easily manipulates the audiences thoughts and opinions based on the storyline. Essentially, the film has a surreptitious storyline, which in my opinion, it is more of a successful outcome than the audience actually having a vague or rough idea of what is going to happen in the actual film.  For example, 'Pacific Rim' where this is explained below. This is because the main concept and aim of a trailer is to attract the audience to watch the film. In circumstances where the trailer leaks most of what the film is literally about, the audience would lose its interest in the film as this is deemed as a 'predictable' film. The key negative point of this trailer is that it can be taken into a different perspective by the audience where they could potentially find it unacceptable and gruesome as it reveals a lot of violence as some may say 'imitable' behaviour. This would therefore mean that the purpose of producing the trailer may not result into such a successful outcome as expected. 

Umed:

This is an example of the "Pacific Rim" trailer:

The trailer for 'Pacific Rim' is one which is easily match-able to the action genre. In my opinion the heavy use of special effects and vibrant lighting, alongside the many scenes of cities crumbling and combat scenes do not help the film attract audiences to come and watch the film. The film which has a few power moments with sound effects and voice over is the only thing  which helps it attract audiences and make them feel in the presence of something powerful. However the trailer for 'Pacific Rim' gives away too much about the film. It shows the beginning of the film with the rise of the monsters, the middle, when humans fight back by creating massive robots to challenge the monsters, and the end, the final battle between a powerful monster and the robot. The trailer fails to draw attention to the characters and fails to help build a connection between the audience and characters and instead forces us to try and build a connection with a robot which does not have any human emotions we can empathise with. Also there are brief moments where by humour is tried to have been implemented, however these moments feel forced and does not make me want to go see the film anymore. It also contradicts the main objective of the film. We question that a film trying to enforce itself as a movie in the action genre and being a serious film with serious themes. In a film like this where monsters are destroying the world would we find people joking and laughing. I think not. 

What is a teaser trailer?

A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads". A teaser trailer for an upcoming film, television program, video game or similar, is usually released long in advance of the product, so as to "tease" the audience.

Naiem:

This is an example of a teaser trailer for "Human Centipede 2":

At the start of this teaser trailer, it begins with the production logo, 'Monster Pictures'. From the name of the production logo, there is a slight implication of what the genre of the film is. Not just from the production title 'Monster Pictures' can we identify what the genre of the film is, but by the use of colours, this emphasises more on the genre of the film. The use of dull colours such as black and a range of green shades creates an element of misery and gloom. Also, the sound effect used engages the audience immediately, which enhances the dramatic atmosphere. This effectively has an immediate response on the audience as the audience at this point may experience feelings of fear and anxiousness. At this rate, the audience may be in a 'edginess' condition due to the intense feeling, but at the same time, this leads to a gain in interest and eagerness as they would want to know what might happen in the film. This implies how easily the production logo can have an impact on the audience just from sound, colour and visual elements used. 

There are a variety of sound effects used throughout the teaser trailer. We hear a dog hounding and repetitive stumps which signals a mixture of violence and intensity. This is followed by a range of background sound where you can hear screaming and disturbing noises. At the same time, it shows the viewers watching the unpleasant scenes and what they're experiencing. The teaser trailer portrays Human Centipede 2 as an 'intolerable' film through the viewers expressions and emotions where they show signs of distress and unease. This is further emphasised through the horrifying noises made. The stumps begin to get louder and become more continual, which builds a sense of tension and draw the audience in a jittery position. 

We notice that the teaser trailer doesn't show any scenes of the film which in my opinion, has both advantages and disadvantages. The key advantage and purpose I believe is to make the audience even more keen to see the film just by watching other viewers reactions and what they're witnessing. This technique would highly influence the audience to watch Human Centipede 2 simply by watching other viewers reacting in such way which may make them more intrigued to experience the feeling, as just by watching it over the television or internet etc. it seems very oppressive. The glimpse of sound effects extracted from the film was also a key element in manipulating viewers to see the film. Also, another advantage of not showing any scenes from the film in the teaser trailer insures that the story plot isn't easily identified but mysterious, as this is sometimes a common reason why the audience may change their views upon a film from watching the trailer. 

Looking on the positive side, there are also some disadvantages where I personally believe the teaser trailer is arguably misleading  and exaggerated. As the viewers watched the film in a van, the viewers watched the film in a different condition as to where majority of the audience would usually watch the film. This therefore means the audience's experience could vary significantly when around different environments. Also, I personally think this is in a controlled environment which by all means that the producers had encouraged the participants to exaggerate their emotions and feelings. This is simply because it seems fairly obvious that the participants are overacting, reducing the realism of the film. As previously mentioned, showing snips of the participants behaviour could intimidate the audience to watch the film, however, I believe there are two perspectives and outcomes in using this technique. This could also 'put off' the audience by the expressing the film as irrational. This would therefore increase the chances of misinterpretations of the film and criticisms. I believe my point is further explained through the credits played thoroughly. For example, "harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers". Audience may potentially feel disturbed from the credits used. This also explains as to why I feel the teaser trailer lacks realism, as the audience may feel that they're trying to be too persuasive through text and actors but in reality the film itself may not be as good shown. 

Umed:

This is an example of a teaser trailer for "Man of Steel":

The teaser trailer begins by showing the production companies involved in producing the film. This is done by shortly illustrating their logos. From this we can identify the type of film this will be. After identifying Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures, DC Comics and Syncopy; we can tell that this will be a big budget superhero movie, which will allow it to be inducted into the action genre. The physical look of the production company logos further emphasises the type f film this will be. The use of dark grey, black and dirty silver, all accentuate themes of seriousness, darkness and mystery whilst the dirty silver underlines a feeling of falling from greatness or the struggle and sacrifices to get there, as well as strength and age. The soundtrack also provides additional support to illustrate the genre as well as the feel of the film. The score which runs through the teaser trail creates a feeling of greatness and that what we are witnessing is epic. Which draws us into the teaser trailer. Whilst the voice over almost sounding god like provides feelings of calm and interest which makes us believe we are being told something good. 

The teaser trailer also gives us a few shots of the film which indicate what the film is about. The first few shots of the setting of the film shows a dark gloomy coast, very unattractive and lifeless.

This immediately highlights how loneliness is present, this is also evident especially when we see the single house on its own. Also the shot with our protagonist and a dog, which could emhasise the lack of human company
further shows the void of loneliness. 

The trailer then shows the ugly lifestyle which is led by a man who we can assume is our protagonist. We see him carry out unattractive tasks such as hitchhiking, which tells us that the area is not of high affluence and economically very underprivileged. Also the shot of him going to the docks tells us his occupation consists of hard work, long hours and low pay.

Regardless o these shots we are further enticed by the prospect of hope and happiness when we see the shot of the child playing in the field. With the long red cape we can identify who we will be watching and what the film will be about.Everybody loves a story of struggle to achieve, of sacrifice for a greater good and this is exactly what this teaser trailer shows. This is what mainly draws the audience in and makes them want to go and watch the film and makes the excited for it. This teaser makes the typical childish figures of superheroes seem more adult and dark and makes us want to see how these suerheroes act in situations where the themes and setting is more adult and dark.  

Finally the teaser trailer uses the title 'Man of Steel', instead of Superman; this shows us that there has been a new presentation on an old now less regarded superhero. By regenerating the Superman brand would make audiences want to come and see the film more to see how he is now shown.

Overall I believe this teaser trailer was very successful by it not giving away to much about the main plot but still showing the main character and his origins.