Craig Collins

Craig Collins
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At the beginning of this project, we decided to create a teaser
trailer for a post-apocalyptic film. We chose this as it was
something we were all very interested in creating due to our
individual film interests, and we also believed that it would be a
unique, original idea in the context of the classroom setting. We
were also all aware of certain areas we could shoot our footage
where we could easily create the illusion that the rest of society
has fallen, thus making this difficult genre doable for us.
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For our initial research (blog posts 8th-22nd November), we looked
at several different post apocalyptic films to establish what the
common conventions of them are. Studying films such as The
Road (John Hillcoat, 2009), 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002),
Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995) and Zombieland (Ruben
Fleischer, 2009), we found that although the content within these
films varies massively (each with elements of drama, zombie
horror, or even comedy) , there are several key themes that are
woven into the narrative of each.
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The most obvious example is the isolation; most of humanity is usually either dead
or on the brink of extinction, and therefore other than the main characters, other
humans will be scarce and usually divided up into two groups: fellow survivors, or
enemies. Therefore, the relationship between the main characters is always
emphasised, such as the father and son in the road, or the four travelling survivors
who are initially strangers to each other in Zombieland. We have incorporated this
in our teaser trailer by only showing the two main characters, except for the last
shot where it is hinted that they join with another pair. The only other human
shown in the trailer is a victim of a lynching, and the characters running in the
trailer hints at enemy factions. To heighten this theme, we also elected to use
landscapes and shots that evoke loneliness, such as the wide open empty
countryside.
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Another common theme in the films is a certain character type: the main
characters in these films, or at least one of the main characters, can usually be
classed as what Dr. Eric Dodson (2010) refers to as the "post-modern cowboy".
While they differ from gunslingers in the Wild West in that they have not chosen to
be part of the world they live in, they share many traits by being strong, selfsufficient, and able to live under the constant threat of further devastation. While
our characters don't exactly get much development in the teaser trailer, we chose
James (our main actor) to play the role in the film as his larger build fits in well
with this strong character type. We wanted to represent his character as a strong
lead, our own post-modern cowboy.
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Films of this kind often have many elements that you’d find in action and thriller films, such as
intense action sequences and chases. However, what you often get from these films that you
don’t from others are philosophical overtones; these films often stem from the worries of the
people over how the world will end, and are often influenced by the political environment at
the time. For example, films featuring the threat of nuclear war are not uncommon and, in this
day and age, the economic downturn often plays a part. We incorporated the latter into our
treatment of the film; while it does not feature in any of the texts we produced, we had the idea
that the reason for society collapsing was due to the economy crashing and healthcare
subsequently failing, allowing new diseases to spread. We made most of the trailer slow and
atmospheric, to emphasis these more solemn themes, and hinted at disease in the intro.
However, as we still want our film to contain action elements, we also showed faster paced
scenes right near the end of the trailer. This also helps us to appeal to a broader, more
mainstream audience.
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Both our film poster and magazine cover feature the same main
image, the silhouettes of the main characters in front of a blood
red sky. This is a single iconic image that is also used at the end of
the trailer, and evokes all the feel of the film, as well as the harsh
colours hinting at elements of horror and action/adventure, which
helps to appeal to a broad audience.
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The key differences between our poster and our magazine cover lie within the surrounding
text and layout. The poster features a tagline over it that immediately reveals the dark nature
of the film, and leaves little else in the way of details other than a title, a release date, and of
course the main film crew, production company and accolades in the way of film festivals. The
magazine cover is less about the film itself, and more about an early feature on it contained
within, using the image only as an advertisement for what’s inside. Of course, as the magazine
isn’t made specifically for the film, we researched what other films were to be coming out in
that time period that would likely be reported on, and included them as the “side stories”
advertised on the cover. Both are designed to appeal to the casual onlooker going on their day,
possibly about to make an impulse buy in the cinema/newsagents and we have shown our
understanding of this by making our main advertisement image bold, memorable and able to
stand out within that context.
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In our “blood red sky” image, we have created
a strong, unified brand image for our film
across several mediums. Therefore, I believe
that are combination of ancillary texts results in
a highly cohesive marketing strategy for our
target audience.
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As we developed our film and made rough
cuts, we uploaded these to Youtube to receive
peer feedback, initially coming from our
friends and other family members by posting
the links to Facebook and Twitter. This
feedback was highly positive, with the main
criticism being of the editing, which in places
was clunky and made the actions onscreen look
more comical than serious. This was fixed as
time went on as a result of the feedback.
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As our trailer was nearing completion, we showed the near-final
cut to other Media students in Varndean College. Again, feedback
was highly positive, with particular focus given to the voice-over
and locations. The main criticisms given at this point were on the
fonts of the text used in the trailer at this point, as well as some
transitions of shots still not sitting quite right. As we finalised the
piece, these criticisms were taken into consideration, and the fonts
were quickly changed and we made the editing more
synchronised with the music in the background to make it flow
better. It was great for us to gain approval of people our own age,
as this age group reflects the lower-age level of our target
demographic for this film.
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As we were developing the film, we always had it in
mind that we would want to make it a film that’s rated
as a 15, as this would allow us to be violent and edgy
with the material without losing out on much
audience, as we don’t think young children would be
interested in a film of this dark, somewhat depressing
subject matter. By gaining approval from people our
age as well as some older people, I believe we have
done a good job at catering our film towards a specific
target audience of young adults.
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Our film was created using an HD camcorder, which offered a
good compromise between portability and image quality. All the
footage was stored on tape, and could then be connected to the PC
for manipulation on Adobe Premiere. The software was highly
sophisticated and intuitive, allowing us to easily alter the footage
in many interesting ways such as changing the colour and tint in
order to create a dreary atmosphere, or create interesting
transitions between shots such as large bursts of light, or adding
effects to shots such as the “negative light” effect.
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The piece of music that can be heard in the background
of the trailer was written and created by Callum for the
sole purpose of use in our trailer. Created digitally
using music editing software, it was made with a
steady rhythm and a crescendo in order to give the
trailer a backbone in terms of pacing and a “beat” for
the clips to fade in and out to.
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Our initial research and planning, which can be seen on the blog,
mainly featured us watching films and clips of films that were
relevant to our initial ideas, and then talking about them in
relation to our plans. A great advantage of the blog, as well as
using Powerpoint presentations such as this, is that is allows us to
communicate our ideas visually as well as through text. However,
a limitation is that we could only link to Youtube clips rather than
present them on the pages themselves.
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Using the blog as a medium for writing down our recaps and
thoughts over the processes of the development of our trailer has
been very beneficial to us as a group, as it has helped to make the
effort a very collaborative one. The blog as well as Powerpoint
have been very effective methods of communicating our ideas,
though we are all very aware that Powerpoint does not lend itself
very well to large essays, and instead encourages a somewhat
more visual approach than your standard write-up.