Logo Production

Before creating a logo for my trailer our group needed a name. We began looking at the sports we love and considering words with connotations of aspects of those sports. We later used the concept of naming ourselves after animals to signify power of some sort. Finally we agreed on the name Arrow Fish. It has connotations of power, hunting and precision. It directly links to kayaking in rivers and is easy to pronounce and spell, so internet users can easily search for us!

Arrows tend to have a sharp spike of soem kind on the end - I decided to sue this concept when creating the logo. The font is bold and completely contrasts from the background to help it stand out.
Here is the first draft:

As the logo will be placed in the video I later decided to add some video effects - whilst my screen-grab is not particularly clear, the video effect gives a refraction effect, as if water has landed on the camera lens. These water particles are moving from right-to-left.

I later decided to give the logo a darker tone to create more suspense and fit in better with the intended, intense atmosphere of the trailer. Using a black/dark maroon tint creates a powerful impression of the logo and implies tension. I have also changed the water refraction effect to a less colourful style - this time the water droplets appear greyish and do not move.

Weather Forecast

Last minute weather forecast looks ideal! Heavy rain in short periods to supply our rivers, not too hazardous winds and some sun with mediaocre cloud cover.

 

Film Pitch

My film will be of an adventure-sport docu-drama genre. The target audience will be young to middle-aged, British adventure sportsmen, particularly focusing on people who are involved in rock climbing or kayaking. This will be explained below.

I recently approached four professional athletes and pitched the idea to them that we should make a film, documenting their kayaking and rock climbing skills. We agreed that emphasising our 'British' attitude in the film would make the film more appealing to British citizens. I chose these athletes to feature in my film as they are very talented at the traditionally british sports; kayaking and rock climbing. Complimentary sports will be undertaken throughout the video - these will include typical and relatable sports that rock climbers and kayakers also do, such as slacklining and skateboarding.

I aim to promote adventure sports, support the ideology that being proud to be British is good, and hope to inspire people to take up their own adventure sports. The London Olympics 2012 is the perfect 'tent-pole' event that will help support interest in my film. Despite the usual time to release tent-pole media being in the 'pre-buzz' before the event, releasing my film before an event of such a scale would simply make my film seem inadequate in comparison and not worth watching as there is simply so much happening before and during the Olympics. Instead I aim to utilise what the olympics did not offer: non-conventional sports. This genre of sport is thrilling to watch due to the harsh nature of adventure sports, and as a result it appeals to a wide audience who don't even participate in such activities.

I aim to produce a contemporary, relatable, typically British-styled adventure-sport docu-drama. To emphasise the modern style of the film I will use music that appeals to a contemporary audience. Popular recreational music currently consists mostly of modern rock, female solo-singers and post-dubstep eletronica-influenced urban RnB (PDEIUR). The success of PDEIUR is largely down to the recent proliferation of technological hardware and software. Many young people are becoming music artists of this genre as they have easy and cheap access to the tools required. Because of this many people who were very unknown yesterday are becoming rapidly famous in the genre today.
Due to this I aim to use post-dubstep eletronica-influenced urban RnB style music in my video as it not only fits the high-tempo and intense nature of the activities taking place but it will also appeal and be relatable to an enourmous audience.

Many point of view shots will be used in conjunction with clips of myself or others using camera equipment. By doing so the trailer will create an engaging atmosphere that will make the audience feel as if they are involved in the activities whether it is setting up cameras or participating in the sports.

The trailer will be between 1:55 minutes and 2:05 minutes to allow sufficient time for a wide array of fast-paced shots. With the exception of stereotypical North-American adventure trailers, I am not aware of any adventure sport docu-dramas with a voice over. This is most likely due to the environment presented being so extreme that words do not easily describe it without sounding 'cheesy' or creating humorous effects. The only example I managed to find on the internet is (again) Touching the Void (American version):

Audience Profiling

Here is an audience profile of people within my target audience (main market 15-40 males) who all enjoy adventure sport docu-dramas. This has helped me better understand my target market and known what they look forward to in a film.

(POWERPOINT)

Audience profiling from jamedodger

Analysis of Trailer: Appealing to Target Audience

How is the trailer for "Touching the Void" constructed to appeal to its target audience?

The "Touching the Void" trailer has a target audience of young-to-middle aged people, particularly British mountaineers. It falls into the adventure-sport documentary genre and is one minute fifty seconds in length.

To engage the audience with the harsh diegesis the produces have to chosen to, unlike the film, excluded interview imagery of the characters in the trailer. Through these doing, coupled with the non-chronological order of clips to allow the editors to further emphasise scenes, the "Touching the Void" producers were capable of gripping the audience with fluid and intense action.

The unique selling point of this film is held in its somewhat nich genre. The moment where main character Joe Simpson cuts the safety rope, thus leaving his friend to the fate of death, is very well advertised. This moment is the climax in the trailer, and is shown at the end of a high-tempo, fast paced, suspense building part. The music abruptly stops as we see Simon fall into an abyss, followed by an eery, non-diegetic 'hum'. This array of editing techniques leaves us as the audience at the edge of our seats. presented with such a sense of enigma, we want to see what happens in the rest of the story.

No voiceover is used in this trailer. Instead, narrative is presented through the dialogue between characters, overlayed with images of their expidition. This perfectly fits its documentary genre, thus appealing to their target audience. Text and titles are continuously used with 'fade-to-black' transitions to convey narrative and create suspense. At first the text showcases academy award winning producers. it later aids the suspensful scene by briefly showing words with powerful connotations such as "courage", "loyalty" and "fear". Towards the end text reappears, this time directly engaging the audience by showing "What would you do to survive?". Not only does this question target mountaineers and allow them to think how they would deal with the situation but it also emphasises the moral awkwardness shown when the character cuts the rope and looses his friend to the mountain. All of the text is small and in a hard-to-read font, keeping the audience focuses and increasing tension; exactly what a stereotypical mountaineer would enjoy.

Camera angles and techniques vary throughout. At first we see high-key, low aperture shots of snow equipment being prepared in a rush and icicles forming on the characters' helmets; these shots help set the scene and present character traits, for example how one of them is underprepared and has a gung-ho attitude to danger. Later the peace and equilibrium is broken in the narrative - this is also supported by the increase of low-key, high-aperture shots to create a sense of enigma. Like many trailer, this one adheres to Todorov's narrative theory but does not show Todorov's final stages: the return of equilibrium. By not revealing how the situation is dealt with the audience are hooking and left wanting to watch more. This in turn makes them want to watch the film.

The music used is not of a typical recreational genre, and as a result it does not explicitl;y appeal to a particular demographic. However, the music chosen is high-tempo, dark and mysterious, thus adding suspense to the trailer.

The dark but realistic nature of the trailer that appeals to the film's target audience of young maintaineers is also enhanced by the way characters are introduced. As there is no voiceover or text describing the characters we rely soley on imagery of the characters ice climbing and their stressed and fearful dialogue to set out impression of them. This forces us to pay close attention and as a results of us looking closely for details at the trailer, makes us more vulnerable and susceptible to the un-expected and jumpy moments in the trailer.

Similar Film Trailer Analysis



Here are two trailers of the same genre that my film will be, namely Touching The Void and 127 Hours. I have chosen to analyse these trailers in particular as they were the two most favoured films amongst my target audience (results in previous post, questionnaire).

 

These trailers share many characteristics and as a result are constructed in a similar manner. They both have real narratives as they are reenactments of true stories and present the narratives chronologically. The first minute of both trailers is spent on allowing the audience to engage with the narrative. At first establishing shots are used to show the location, then a sequence of clips to allow us to understand what the character(s) is/are like. This helps audiences, especially those who do not undertake the activities that feature in the film, to easily understand the context and setting. In touching the void we can identify the harsh nature of the particular route the team are taking and in 127 Hours we are thrown straight into the action whilst several foreshadowing elements are exposed. This foreshadowing technique is not used in Touching The Void due to its editing nature of switching between chronological events and interview shots of the real people in the story. However, foreshadowing is extremely effective in the 127 Hours trailer as the audience may notice particular things such as how he forgets his large knife and how he doesn't tell anybody where he is going. By acknowledging these elements of the narrative the audience is somewhat flattered when they work out what is going on later in the story. More to the point the audience may realise dangers and anticipate problems before the character does, creating a somewhat sympathetic or stressful effect which further enhances the experience.

 

Touching the Void has a much greater sense of abyss and tragedy which is signified by its slow pace, use of low-tempo music and fade-to-black transitions. 127 Hours on the other hand utilises a more dynamic atmosphere and uses fast paced footage in conjunctions with straight cuts between shots, high tempo music and enhanced diegetic sounds. By doing so the shocking effect on the audience is more potent at the climax, around half way through the trailer, thus making the trailer a gripping experience. Touching the Void also climaxes half way through the trailer and eventually uses a crescendo of events, music and fast-paced clips to create a similar shocking effect to 127 Hours, just using different techniques.

 

In both stories, as my target audience have shown to prefer in my questionnaire, we are not given the entire story. Rather, we are left with the climax of the story followed by continually 'dooming' events. This style of editing makes us as an audience want to discover the answer to the 'age-old question' "What happens next?". These techniques are critical to a film trailer and must feature within my production.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Location Filming and Risk Assessment

Characters

The five athletes I will be working with, including myself, are shown below:



 Jamie Prout (myself)
-18 years of age
-Rock climber
-Slackliner
-Downhill Skateboarder
-Producer of trailer
-From Swindon

Mike Richardson (left)
-18 years of age
-Rock climber
-White water kayaker
-Slackliner
-From Isle of Wight

Jack Atkins (right)
-19 years of age
-Rock climber
-Support kayaker
-From Liverpool

Harry Shakeshaft
-17 years of age
-Rock climber
-White water kayaker
-Slackliner
-From Marlborough










 
Tim Bolton
-19 years of age
-Rock climber
-Camera assistant
-From Oxford

Questionnaire Results: Analysis

It appears the two most popular adventure-sport films from my questionnaire participants were Touching the Void, followed by 127 Hours. The participants particularly enjoyed the true-story themes and loved watching people performing at an aspirational, elite level of sport.

Roughly half of the audience found their favourite film of this genre was the same as their favourite trailer of this genre; this may be due to how trailers can be tailored to different audiences as a film will barely change between where it is shown.
Here is an example of a North-American adaption of the British film, Touching the void.

We can clearly see from the voiceover alone that these two trailers are remarkably different. The second trailer, bespoke for a British audience, is true to the film in its documentary format but North-American version makes the most of all action elements of the film to help fit a stereotypical American audience. As well as this, the British will typically be more interested in the fine details of the characters as opposed to the action as the real characters from the actual event are British. Despite this, my target audience all agreed that a fast-paced trailer with suspense is extremely effective.

 

 

Almost everyone in target audience agree that characters who are of similar age to them are more relatable and make the trailer more engaging. Through point of view shots and featuring the cameramen in the film the audience felt they were involved in the adventure; an effect I will definitely use.



The target audience also prefer narratives to be presented in either a subtle way or simply not revealing much of the story in the trailer.

Questionnaire Results

Here are a few questionnaire answers that accurately reflect the many responses I recieved.

-24 questionnaires used






What is your favourite film of the adventure-sport genre?
Seasons: 1
Airspeed: 3
Sketchy Andy: 5
127 Hours: 6
Touching the Void: 9

What particular features of the film appealed to you?
-Concept of human triumph over power of nature
-Sports that I do are featured
-Elite performance
-Thrill of feeling as if you are part of the team, with the characters
-True story

Is your favourite adventure sport film trailer the same as your favourite adventure sport film?
Yes: 13
No: 11

What particular features of the film trailer appealed to you?
-Fast paced
-Intense atmosphere/lots of suspense
-Beauty and power of natural environment the characters are in
-Left me wanting more!


Within the action sport genre...

Do you relate better to film trailers with characters who are of similar age to you?
Yes: 22
No: 2
Explain:
Gives me more inspiration as I feel closer to them. As I am friends with people my age I prefer to socialise and pay attention to what people my age are doing. It is easier to empathise with the characters. I sometimes prefer seeing somebody elite embark on the adventure rather than people my age (older than target audience participant)

Do you prefer trailers that reveal the majority of the story?
Yes: 23
No: 1
Explain:
Prefer mystery, film is not as satisfying if you know what happens. I HATE spoilers. Leaving the trailer on a mysterious note and not revealing what happened is gripping. Cliff hangers make me watch films!

Do you enjoy the build up of suspense in trailers?
Yes: 20
No: 4
Explain:
Keeps you in interested, hooks you to action. Makes my palms sweat and excites me. Makes me feel energised and alive. I prefer watching films of people exploring rather than being in dangerous environments.

Do you prefer trailers that make it obvious the characters are involved with the filming, e.g. Showing the cameraman in shot, characters working with the cameraman, etc?
Yes: 20
No: 4
Explain:
Make it seem realistic and not staged, you can relate to characters and better understand the situation. The filming process is interesting as well as the sport. Takes me away from the suspense of the situation as I am aware people are filming and not 100% commiting to the situation.

Do you enjoy point of view shots in trailers?
Yes: 19
No: 5
Explain:
Makes you feel as if you're in the scene, helps relate to characters. Enables me to step into the characters' shoes.

Technical Equipment List

Camera Equipment
-Canon 600D DSLR w/ lesnes: 18-55mm f3.5-f5.6, 70-300mm f4-f8
-Nikno D5100 DSLR w/ lenses: 18-55mm f3.5-f5.6, 300mm f5.6
-Nikon D3200 DSLR w/ lenses: 18-55mm f3.5-5.6, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6, 50mm f1.8, 10.5mm f2.8
-Oregon PS w/ mount
-GoPro w/ helmet and boat mount
-Class four or faster memory cards (approx. six 16GB cards required)
-Three tripods of >160cm height
-Hand-held camera rigs (cam caddie and circular rig)
-Camera rain covers/umbrella
-Waterproof camera bags

Software
-Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 64bit - used for video editing
-Apple Final Cut Pro X 32bit - used for video editing
-Nikon View NX 32bit - used for content managing
-Fruity Loops V2.2 64 bit - used for soundtrack creating, editing and modifying

Camera Techniques - Lines & Structure

I recently wrote an article for an online magazine to help teach fellow videographers/photographers about composition. This article is directly relevant to how I will film my trailer.

Creating Lines and Structure

 

Most people do not actively think about the effect lines have on how we see things, yet alone their impact in videography/photography! Our eyes are constantly controlled and affected by the lines, edges and structures of the array of shapes in front of them. Horizons give us balance, a lack of lines indicates an absence and invisible lines such as lines of motion indicate the direction of movement – I will explain these concepts later.

The structure of a video/photograph is defined by the way the video/photo is built up and what visual relationships subjects have with each other. Lines create the structure and, perhaps most importantly, control where the viewer looks.

I like to split lines into two categories: concrete lines and imaginary lines.

Concrete lines are the physical lines you can literally see; these include roads, people, a particular person’s body gestures etc. Many horizontal, vertical or perpendicular lines in a video/photograph create the impression of stability and control. This kind of video/photograph would work well with static subjects such as buildings. In contrast, curved lines form dynamic scenes and exaggerated atmospheres that would complement an extreme-sports video/photograph.

Here we can see the picture has been composed so most of the elements and objects within it lead the eye towards the busker

 

In this shot the curvature of the ramp signifies a dynamic environment and helps enhance the action. People conventionally look left-to-right in our society, so viewers naturally see the skater in the backgroundf on the left and follow the ramp up to the main subject on the right.

 

Imaginary lines are conceptual and invisible. A simple example of an imaginary line is ‘line of sight’: naturally people make eye contact with people in a video/photograph then follow their ‘line of sight’, perhaps out of curiosity, to discover what they are looking at. For this reason, allow viewers to complete this ‘curiosity’ process by exposing the item your subject is looking at, or have your subject looking across the entire shot (e.g. standing on the left and looking right) so the viewer will establish eye contact with the subject then look across the entire frame. Making the most of the frame's space like this is crucial; every videographer/photographer’s naïve first few snaps had their subject in the middle of the image. Note how in my ‘line-of-sight’ example I said “looking from left to right”. This is because so many things in our culture are made for ‘left-to-right’ viewing, such as the way we write and the positioning of images on product packaging – this is because ‘left-to-right’ structures are more natural and relaxing for the viewer. Whilst videos/photographs with a right-to-left structure still work, it is slightly easier to make the subjects seem awkwardly composed. However, a video/photograph using a ‘right-to-left’ structure may stand out as original and powerful amongst many more conventional images.

 

 

in the example the viewer's eye in lead in a circle. At first the viewer establishes eye contact with the subject, later to follow her 'line of sight' to see what she is looking at. Once the viewer is looking at the right-most side of the frame they notice the light is pointing, and leading the eye back to the left. This creates an efficient 'circle of movement' that makes full use of the entire frame.

Another great use of imaginary lines is implied movement. Even if the subject has been frozen in time thanks to our one-thousandth of a second exposure we can still identify where they are moving. Again, make the most of your space by letting the subject move ‘through’ the frame; this may be from the edges of the frame to the middle or from one side to another. The best images will lead the eye around several places and may even make the eye ‘loop’ and take a second look at the finer details of an image.

 



This shot uses the 'loop' structure as well. Two main imaginary lines are present here: Line of sight (showing relationship between the two motorcrossers) and movement (also enhancing the tension between them).

Common shapes can also be used ‘join-the-dots’ style, such as an imaginary triangle to suggest three subjects are linked in some way, or circles to give an organic, scattered and flowing structure to the video/photograph.

As always: experiment and you won’t have to worry about going cross-eyed from checking if that last video/photo worked  each time.

-All pictures/video shots are my own and can be found here https://picasaweb.google.com/113237858961407281656/StarredPhotos?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Camera Techniques

Target Audience Questionnaire

Results to be displayed soon

What is your favourite film of the adventure-sport genre?
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What particular features of the film appealed to you?

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Is your favourite adventure sport film trailer the same as your favourite adventure sport film?
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What particular features of the film trailer appealed to you?

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Within the action sport genre...
Do you relate better to film trailers with characters who are of similar age to you?
Y/N
Explain:

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Do you prefer trailers that reveal the majority of the story?
Y/N
Explain:
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Do you enjoy the build-up of suspense in trailers?
Y/N
Explain:
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Do you prefer trailers that make it obvious the characters are involved with the filming, e.g. Showing the cameraman in shot, characters working with the cameraman, etc?
Y/N
Explain:
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Do you enjoy point of view shots in trailers?
Y/N
Explain:
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Are you male or female?

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How old are you?

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What is your occupation?

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Codes & Conventions of Trailers Continued

I have made a list of key attributes for my trailer; I will continually refer to the list to ensure I have considered each point along the production stage.

-Genre
-Narrative
-Voiceover
-Unique selling point(s)
-Pace of shots/music
-Credits, titles and text
-Dialogue
-Target audience
-Soundtrack/music
-Shot types/camera techniques
-Special effects
-Editing techniques
-Actors present

Voiceover Analysis Continued

Here are some points about how film trailers that do not feature voiceovers convey information:

-Text & titles for producer names, release dates, etc.
-Always at end, largbe 'block' of centered, symmetrical text displayed showcasing important production team, cast, etc. Tends to only be present in adult-aimed films as it bares connotations of professionalism and perfection
-Narrative conveyed through imagery; clips cleverly and often non-chronologically presented to help build narrative in a clear way or to build suspense, often with a sense of enigma
-Music: Popular music may appeal to particular audiences, certain music has different effects, e.g. instruments used, their connotations, the tempo of the music, its pitch, may even be contrapuntal (such as Batman: The Dark Night Rises trailers)
-Signifiers such as mise-en-scene, non-diegetic sounds, etc.
-The presence of particular actors, their connotations, how popular they are, the expectations of them as a character, etc.
-Sometimes characters are shown in a clip and the frame is frozen, along side a caption of the character's name

As we can see some of these concepts require a fairly in-depth level of thought or simply more knowledge to relate to than young children may have. This is why many films trailers aimed at children use voiceovers. Another contributing factor is the amount, and the pace of text in more adult-orientated trailers. Children may not be able to read the text fast enough, may not bare the knowledge to identify the actors and may even wish to avoid reading in general as they may associate it with difficult learning, stressful experiences at school, etc.

Voiceover Analysis

The codes, conventions and use of voiceovers for film trailers:

-To convey Narrative
-To present background information of characters, setting, etc.
-To showcase star appearances such as famous actors
-To showcase the production team including producers, editors, etc.
-Help build anticipation and suspense, often a climax in the trailer
-Present the title of the film
-Present release date
-Summarise story; especially common in films aimed at children or families
-Sets tone and atmosphere of film
-For comedies, contrapuntal tone
      -Serious, deep/low pitch tone of voice is the conventional voice over tone used - connotations of seriousness and action, yet is very commonly used for films with a target audience of children

Unfortunately it seems voiceovers are not common in the adventure-sport docu-drama genre. So far these characteristics do not seem to be useful in my trailer. I will continue my research into voiceovers.

Technical Camera Settings

Colours
-All cameras will be set to the same white point/balance of 6500K to match that of modern computer monitors as well as HD televisions
-All footage will be colour-balanced in post-processing

Resolution & Framerate
-All cameras will be filming at 1920x1080 resolution at thirty frames per second (FPS) - this is the maximum resoltion these cameras can film at, and 30fps is chosen over other defaults such as 24fps or 25fps as these lower framerates can be noticed by the human eye and can sometimes make fast-moving motion (such as a kayaker on a river) seem 'jumpy'
-When a slow-motion effect is desired I will set the cameras to their fastest framerate setting; 60fps. This will allow for us to record twice as many frames of motion than before, giving us the option to display action anywhere between realtime speed and half-speed
-Here is an example of framerate differences
http://boallen.com/fps-compare.html

Aperture
-Aperture will be carefully selected to ensure key subjects are included and their relationship to other objects are clear
-Large aperture (small f-stop/small depth of field (DOF)) will be used when subjects do not stand out from the background, ie. when a large focul length is used, when subjects are next to other objects or
subjects are colour-camoflauged against their backgrounds
-Smaller apertures (larger f-stops/larger DOFs) will be used to include multiple subjects which are somewhat seperated, ie. two kayakers next to each other or a group of people walking up the mountains
-Of course, the choice of aperture is dependant to some extent on the available light

Exposure Length
-I intend to have each frame being exposed for a very short of time (~1/250s to ~1/4000s) this way no individual frames will appear blurred when the camera is recording fast moving information, such as fast camera pans or a rock climbing falling
-Even at night scenes I intend to keep exposure times as fast as possible to maintain a fast-paced, action-filled atmosphere - fast exposure times can be kept at night with the exchange of high ISO
-As the 'slowest' recording setting we will use is 30fps it is impossible for our film to contain any footage with exposure times of slower than 1/30fps