Sound-track

After much thought and analyse of modern trailers (seen in previous posts) I have chosen to use a single, cut-down version of a song with no other sound apart from diegetic inserts and special effects.

I emailed various labels, groups and friends to ask for advice and gave them a short summary of what my project is. My contacts and I had discussed several options including my own choices of music, and many of those people, including "TheBBCmusic", continually referred to "TheCapitanMan" as the best choice. There decision was largely down to the balance between quality music that suits my project and ease of accessing rights.

Out of the contacts I wanted to pursue, I gained rights for use of Netsky music (thanks to Matt at Hospital Records), RJD2's new album "The Colossus" and any of TheCapitanMan's work.

I emailed OCR to confirm that use of songs like this is allowed in this course (as it is in the real world).

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OCR.GeneralQualifications@ocr.org.uk

Dear Jamie Prout,

Thank you for your e-mail.

The GCE Media qualification manager advises yes, as long as you clearly show you have sought permission as directed in the specification.

...

Kind regards

David
Qualifications Support

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Here is the most important email from Andrew (TheCapitanMan) on Hotmail:

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From: peewee36@hotmail.com
To: jamieprout@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Alps Project Music
Date: Mon , 26 Nov 2012 8:20:04

Hey Jamie yeah not a problem at all, great to get my music out there! So long as its non commercial its cool. I think your song choices are good but Awaken The Orchestra particularly fits the bill. The build up and drop are a good match for your project but may need slight tweaking.
Hope that helps, Andrew

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From: jamieprout@hotmail.co.uk
To: peewee36@hotmail.com
Subject: Alps Project Music
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:47:36 +0100

Hi Andrew,
Sounds great! I agree, Awaken The Orchestra has the perfect crescendo for a trailer. Thanks for your help in the past - some cutting down and re-figuring of the song will happen on my end to fit my project.

Cheers again, I'll send you a link on Facebook when I'm done!

Jamie

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The song we are talking about can be found here:

Reviewing Footage

Viewing all of the footage and rating it in priority order takes a very long time... But it is crucial for efficient editing - especially when you are not editing chronologically!

Camera Rig Construction

I decided to build a camera rig for my DSLR as I will need my camera and had at all times and, due to the fast-paced nature of this trip, I may not have time to set up a tripod all of the time. A more dynamic and moving, hand held-camera effect will be effective in my trailer too.

 

My original idea was to simply buy a Cam Caddie rig. These are particular quick to setup and use, and are very lightweight. However it requires you to hold it from above which would prove limiting if I required an over-head shot. The rig itself doesn't suplly much horizontal wobble resistance either.

After further research I stumbled upon the Manfrotto Fig Rig. With Manfrotto being famous for their tripods and other stablisation camera equipment, it is no surprise they have used an intuitive design. Whilst the circular rim supplies a large amount of stability (as moving one hand forwards 1cm to emulate wobble only moves the camera sensor ~2mm) Manfrotto have priced the Fig Rig at around £200. Without much budget at all I decided to make my own.

 

 

Many people have posted on the internet guides as to how to make your own rig like Manfrotto's. However the designs tend to be flimsy and do not look particularly practical or protective for the camera. Here is the most common example of DIY rigs; using PVC tubing.

 

 

To save as much money as possible I used as many of my own items as I could. After some experimentation I found the rim of the floor toms for my drum kit had the perfect radius for a comfortable and effective rig. 



 

A stable camera mounting method was using a small tripod head to attach the camera to the rig. I tried mounting the camera using a tripod head but later found the camera sat too high compared to the centre of the rig, causing awkward muscle strains in order to keep the rig upright when filming. Finally I disassembled the tripod head and used the top two elements of it to as a mount. The bolt size is 3/8" (9.525cm) with 16 threads, and cannot be bought in any local hardware store. Fortunately the tripod head included a 3/8-16 bolt which I could use.
 

I heated and bent the ends of a thick aluminium ruler and bolted the ruler into the rig to create a platform across the diameter of the rig. Here we can see the two elements of the tripod I used: the mount and the quick-release plate. The two elements of the tripod head were bolted onto the ruler - I added super glue to ensure not vibrations or slight movements occur.
 

Finally I used insulation and packaging material to create ergonomic grips that were the same size as the gap created when I curl my hands as if I am grabbing something and my thumbs and fingers can only just touch each other. This size of grip means holding the rig is not streneous at all. An additional grip was added to the top of the rig for shots when I may hold the rig from above such as when skateboarding or leaning out of a car window. A scooter hand grip was used here as it supplies great friction. Zip ties were used to fasten the grips down and the ends of the zip ties that stuck out were burnt off to add comfort to the grips.
Finally I added a green removable velcro bag-tie to the top of the rig so camera straps can be secured out of the way of the lens.
 

 

Movie Poster Analysis

Here are two relevant film posters of successful films in the adventure-sport genre.

A large focus of these adventure-sport films is the awe-inspiring emphasis that is created by juxtapositioning man against mountain. The mountains here are presented as omnipotent challenges to somehow overcome. This emphasis is created in these movie posters using multiple techniques:
-Contrast in light, colour or shape between the person and the environment
-Composition of picture consists of lines pointing inwards, towards the main subject: the person
-Main subject completely centered which signifies they are engulfed in a greater force (ie. The mountains)

The titles are fairly centered and, like most movie posters, the title is placed between text. By doing this it helps exaggerate their award and nominations, creating the impression that the film has recieved many awards due to how much space the awards take up on the cover, as opposed to listing the awards which would not consume as much space, thus suggesting they did not have so many.
The titles are both using bold text that is coloured in contrast to the direct background, thus helping the title draw the eye and be easily recognisible for reference.

Due to the nature of 127 Hours, being a somewhat serious and suspensful film, the producers of the poster have decided not to include any critique quotes. By doing so they maintain a serious perception of the film which perfectly fits their intent.
Blindsight however has multiple quotes of its success plastered on the poster. These positive and carefully selected quotes help encourage an audience to convince themselves the film is worth watching.

The large bulk of text at the bottom of most movie posters, including these, contains details of distribution and production staff. It connotes professionalism and implies the film is well polished. This is an especially useful perk for films of the adventure-sport genre as often it is inpractical for professional filming teams with large amounts of equipment to film in these environments, resulting in an expetency for a lower-quality production.

Fruther Reading: Pete Fraser Article

Here is a short article by Pete Fraser that he posted on his blog some time ago - it was good reading material and helped consolidate a few of my ideas and techniques.

Once key moments from a film have been chosen the editors who cut the trailer refer to editing conventions (some might say clichés) that can provoke the intended emotions and begin to tell the story. The following are some examples that can be seen in horror, action and fantasy;

1. Long shots to establish character, setting and the 'dilemma'
2. Fades to black that suggest shifts in time
3. Transitions accompanied by booming SFX, building tension and placing significance on the text on screen – often white on black
4. Short shots and quick cuts of some of the most exciting moments from the film, the ‘events’ that lead to resolution but not necessarily in chronological order
5. Quiet music to establish story, menacing music to highlight villains, build to a crescendo
6. Sudden moments of quiet and silence between and after music and SFX, which have equal impact on mood and pace.

Trailers for a comedy are very different. Editors can play fast and loose with transitions to create a lighter touch. The use of split screens, wipes and sound effects become acceptable as the film is not to be taken seriously.

The voiceover and text on screen will most likely feature the film’s USP, its unique selling point. This will be something that can be communicated on a poster. If lots of the chosen moments of the film feature character dialogue then these phrases may appear on screen to read instead. Here is a selection of commonly used stock phrases;

1. 'This Season'… (creates a sense of anticipation)
2. 'From the people who brought you…' (refers to established audience)
3. 'Based on the unbelievable true story…'
4. 'Based on the bestselling book…'
5. Star Names (actors or director)
6. The Title (often heard and seen to cement in viewers' minds)
7. Official website so audiences can find out more

Besides from these persuasive features however, the language on screen and in the voiceover can also establish the narrative. Words chosen can suggest key themes and summarise the plot in a grand way to suggest the plot is timeless and universal. Some clichéd examples are:

• They will find hope where they least expect it
• One man's destiny…
• She will face her biggest challenge
• It will change their lives forever!
• Experience a new kind of fear

Music Inspiration

The film needs to fit my target audience of young, adventure-keen people including mountaineers. To do this the music needs to not only work in conjunction with the film but relate to a contemporary audience. I will do this by using 'post-dubstep eletronica-influenced urban RnB'. 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 enormous audience.

I have played percussion and drum kits for bands for about five years. Despite this, the music we play or could orchestrate is of the wrong genre and includes the wrong instruments - PDEIUR mainly consists of heavily electronically modified or created sounds. I am somewhat unexperienced in producing my own music of this genre so I am currently looking at other options. Due to my ownly funding being personal budget I cannot afford to purchase the rights to commercial music.

After some research I have created a list of contacts I have in this music genre's industry:

-South West Connections, friends, local rap and modern hip hop artist group
     -Here's a taster example http://soundcloud.com/mc-grorty/raw-art-of-raw-instrumental
-RJD2 American Artist, worked with to make music for a short-film in the past
     -Taster:

-Mr Scruff UK Artist, met at local gig

     -Taster:



-Hospital Records, record company, worked with in the past to use music in short-film, manage big artist names such at Netsky and Camo & Krooked

http://www.hospitalrecords.com/artists/

-TheCaptainMan, dub-step orientated artist, worked with previously to make a short film, was excellent at helping me pick and fine-tune tracks to suit my film.
     -Taster:

I will continue my research outside of my contacts too and post again on this soon

Europe Update

Our filming road-trip round Europe was a great success! We learnt a lot as a team and I managed to acquire a ridiculous amount of footage. I have begun to trim and delete completely uneccessary footage, and have used a rating utility my media managing software supplies which allows me to rate footage on a scale of 0-9. By doing this I can roughly priotise shots for quick recognition and use later on.



Here are a few pictures of what was happening outside filming hours!

More photographs can be viewed here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/113237858961407281656/EuroTrip?authuser=0&feat=directlink