Choosing The Music For Our Media Production

With our media production, me and April have decided to use one royalty free piece of music that fits and emphasises the mood of the narrative and creates a sort of 'youth' feel for our target audience. To help us make a clear and positive decision, we have analysed a total of four royalty free tracks so we can then analyse them in more depth, which will help us decide on our chosen track that will be used for our production.

Track Options

  1.Dubstep Trip
  https://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1118684/dubstep-trip

The track opens with a high pitch, slightly echo sound before launching into a serious of 

sounds that have been clustered together to create a 'dubstep', rave style music track. As the first serious of sounds are blended together,  emotions and concepts such as happiness and safety are drawn from the music, as the music track creates a positive feel for the audience. At around twenty seconds, and again around 46/7 seconds into the track, more sounds are introduced into the music track. The mood slightly changes after these sounds are added by introducing the track as a happy, upbeat piece of music that allows more feelings and thoughts to flow from the audience, to becoming more specifically categorised to 'nightclub'/'rave' style music. The sudden change in the music style also suggests that this piece of music is being aimed at younger audiences. This music track would be an ideal option for the opening title sequence of our film trailer and for the earlier house party scenes.

   2. Hazardous- Jungle War
   https://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1059293/hazardous-jungle-war

The track begins almost straight away with a series of different sound effects that have quickly been introduced and applied to the music track. Like the previous music track that I have analysed this track is specifically categorised to 'nightclub' and 'rave' style music, suggesting that this track is targeting more younger audiences. The begins at a normal pace before gradually increasing to becoming more fast paced as we get further into the track. This allows the audience to be 'taken in' and be allowed to 'feed in to' the track slowly before being thrown into the sudden change in pace of the track. The sudden change in pace also takes the audience out of their place of comfort and allows feelings of tension and suspense to arise from the audience. Like the previous track, the change of pace in the music could represent the sudden changes in Nathan's mental state of mind. This music track would be ideal to use for the earlier house party scenes.

    3.   Thirsty- Apex Rise
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kqb8ldONx4

    Unlike the previous three tracks that I have analysed, this track 'Thirsty' isn't as dark and as fast  paced, and represents a more 'youth style' sound. The track also mirrors 'nightclub' or 'rave' style music which fits well with the party scenes and the drinking scenes that feature in our trailer. The more slowed pace of the music track creates a more relaxed and calm atmosphere for the audience, and allows the audience to be more 'fed into' the shots, rather than being more 'thrown' into a scene. The use of explicit language that features in track also fits with our film trailer, as minor use of explicit language is used in our production, and is also a stereotypical key feature of teenage language. The pace only picks up towards the end of the track, suggesting that drama and mayhem is about to occur. This would also fit our production, (in terms of looking at the order of the following shots) when the disequilibrium of our trailer's narrative takes place. 

After re-listening to all three of the following tracks, me and April decided to choose 'Thirsty' by Apex Rise. We decided to use this track for our media production as we felt that this track represented the 'teenage culture' more accurately, with it's use of explicit language and 'nightclub'/'rave' feel. We also liked how the track slowly took the audience into each shot and allowed them to be introduced to each of the main characters that feature in our production. Referring to the point I made earlier about the track, we liked how the track didn't change to a more fast pace until it was nearing the end, and fits the following order of our selected camera shots. 

Poster Influences

Before creating my two film poster designs, I researched into various film and television posters that were similar to our media product in terms of genre to give us some inspiration for our own film poster. Below are a few of the film and television posters that I discovered.

Poster Influences

Rough Sketches Of Film Poster Designs 2

1. 

2.

Rough Sketches Of Film Poster Designs

Here are the two rough sketches of the poster designs for mine and April's media production.

1.

Our first idea was to have a close up shot of Lewis and Nico's (Nathan and 'The Other Nathan) face to take up the majority and be the main focus of the film poster, whilst having screenshots of certain shots of the other characters featuring near the bottom of the film poster. Taking on board what we found when we analysed various editing effects used in similar film trailers, we chose to use bold font for the name of the film. We also made the creative decision to have reviews of the film to be place just under the character's face, so that it would be the next thing that our target audience would notice. Our film's slogan is made to appear as a question to the audience, allowing them to question themselves and what they are seeing on the film poster. Following one of the codes and conventions of film posters, we chose to have the film's billing credits and website address at the very bottom of the poster. 

2.

Our second idea was designed to appear a lot simpler, but effective. The decision to make a brain the main focus of the film poster was made to try and represent and relate to our film's narrative (in terms of looking at how our lead male character is suffering from a mental disorder, and everything that has been going wrong from him stems from this type of mental health issue). We made the creative choice to have the name of the film appear like it was being spelt out by using various pills, which again links to the narrative of our film production, as the lead character is heavily involved in the drink and drug party scene. The film's slogan appears more as a statement, almost warning the audience of the danger that is to come. We slightly broke one of the codes and conventions with this poster design by having the name of the film placed at the top of the film poster rather than near the bottom. Like with the first film poster design, we chose to have reviews of the film placed either side of the image of the brain so that the reviews wouldn't go unnoticed by the audience.

The Progress Made In Terms Of The Editing Of Our Film Trailer

After spending the majority of the day on Thursday 9th of April editing our film trailer, we have made some changes in the order of our selected footage, and have now managed to arrange our chosen footage in the order that we want it to appear. We have also managed to cut down certain clips, so that we manage to follow one of the codes and conventions of film trailers of creating a film trailer that does not run over the time limit of 2 minutes. We have also made the creative decision to apply text to certain shots of the trailer. Before we made these creative changes we watched a series of film trailers that belonged to the same and were from similar genres to our production, to analyse the order and layout of their selected footage. We made the decision to watch various film trailers before we started our editing so that we would get a better understanding of how to mirror and follow the layout of Teen Drama trailers.

Trailer Influences:Editing Techniques

Now that me and April are at the editing stage of creating our media production, I have been looking at various other film trailers (that are similar or can relate to the narrative of our film trailer) that demonstrate a series of creative editing choices and will help to inspire our own media product. The first film trailer that I thought would give us some inspiration is the 'Cherrybomb' trailer that I have previously analysed.

The trailer has applied a series of different editing effects to the production and distribution companies involved, such as a slow 'fade in' effect, which is then followed by a much more faster 'fade in' effect. The company name 'Generator' appears three times in between a series of quick jump cuts, which allows anticipation felt by the audience to build up, due to the sudden change of pace in the trailer. There are some creative editing choices that have been made with the purpose to disorientate the audience, such as the scattering of the letters of the film title 'Cherrybomb' in the swimming pool, which could have been done to represent the disorientated state of the film's narrative as a whole. Another creative editing choice designed to disorientate the audience was the applied sepia effect to certain character driven camera shots. The pace of the film trailer is also slowed down for these shots, so that the disorientated state of the characters is emphasised to the audience and makes the character/s in the scene seem trapped in their own world and secluded from society. The creative choice of applying a black and white fuzzy line effect appears after the first showing of the 'Generator' company name, almost mirroring an old fashioned 'TV style' effect. A series of editing effects has been applied to the text that appears in the trailer, such as visible text messages from the characters, and the names of the actors starring in the production.


The second film trailer that I have looked at was for the British Action film 'Shank'.

The film trailer remains at a constant fast pace throughout, providing an unsettling and tense feel for the audience. The names of the companies involved in the production are all introduced to the audience in quite a quick pace with various effects having been applied to them. The fast pace of introduction of the company names could be used to represent the tension and action, in terms of looking at the film's narrative. The appearance of the company name 'Gunslinger' is demonstrated to represent a quick gun shot, hinting at a possible death/s in the film. Like 'Cherrybomb' the third company is introduced by using the black and white fuzzy line 'TV style' effect. The other forms of text that feature in the film such as the film's title 'Shank', the release date of the film and the film's billing credits have an old fashioned film style effect, as if it were from the early age of silent films applied to them. The font is also black and bold, and takes up the majority of the screen when first introduced to the audience, before fading back into the shot. The use of having the text enlarged on a massive scale makes the text almost intimidating and threatening to the audience. The use of having the male character directly looking at the camera as he punches the film's screen increases the fear and tense feel from the audience. Certain shots and character movements have been dramatically slowed down, so that the footage appears in slow motion. The shot of a male character jumping over a railing and scenes of conflict are slowed down to create a dramatic effect, whereas the shot of the city where the camera slowly reversing out of a scene is done to disorientate the audience. The are a lot of quick cut away and jump cuts to emphasise the tension within the film's narrative. The colours appear quite dull, in order to create that grainy, gritty, inner city image. 

The final film trailer that I have looked at was for the British Thriller film '4.3.2.1'.

Unlike the two previous film trailers that I have looked at, in terms of editing the film trailer chooses not to open with the introduction of the company names that were involved with the film's production. It is not until seventeen seconds into the trailer that we see the first company name 'Universal'. The trailer opens with a low angle shot of a plane preparing to land before a few quick jump cuts are introduced. Around fifteen seconds into the trailer, the pace and variety of quick cut away shots increase, allowing tension and suspense to build up for the audience.This also allows the audience to get a sense of the film's narrative. A black and white fuzzy line effect is applied to certain parts of the trailer, almost mirroring the 'TV style' effect that was applied to the 'Cherrybomb' trailer. The creative choice of splitting the screen into four sections (so each section of the film screen is focusing on one of the four female characters in the shot) could have been done to represent the girl's separation, as their lives are possibly heading in different directions. Panning is also used to when one of the female characters is seen running away from danger which allows the audience to follow the character's movements, and almost feel like them themselves are also in the scene. Other creative choices include a blue tint and a camera flash effect being applied to certain shots of the film trailer. Like the 'SHANK' film trailer, the font used in the trailer is black and bold, and appears slightly threatening to the audience. As certain text that features in the film trailer gets ready to fade out of a certain shot, it dramatically speeds up and is enlarged to take up the majority of the camera shot. Other text that features in the trailer seems to zoom out into a shot at quite a fast pace for dramatic effect. The use of the dramatic black out near the end of the trailer provides suspense for the audience as they wonder as to what will follow after the blackout.

After analysing the creative and effective choices each of these three trailers have chosen to make, I know have a better understanding of what makes a film trailer more eye catching and appealing to it's target audience, in terms of editing. It has also given me some creative ideas as to what I could apply and experiment with in terms of editing our own media production. 

Rough Sketches Of Institution Logos 2

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Rough Sketches Of Institution Logos

Here are some rough sketches of mine and April's designs for institution logos.

Design 1

Our first idea was based on the London Underground and tube station signs. We both agreed to consider this design as it creates a sort of 'funky' vibe to our production company, and could be used to represent that 'inner city', gritty style that we have presented through the narrative of our film trailer.





Design 2

Our second design is of a city landscape which we both thought would help to make our production appear more modern, in terms of appealing to our older teenage/young adult audience.







Design 3

Our final institution logo design links to the geographical location and setting of our film trailer.

Beginning The Editing Process

On Monday 23rd March, me and April began the editing process. In the time that we were given, we managed to select the clips that we wanted to feature in our film trailer, and place them in the order that we wanted them to appear. Using Adobe Photoshop, we trimmed certain clips, either because they were too long or to cut any unnecessary footage. We had also begun to experiment with various effects to certain clips. I expected today's editing session to overrun slightly as we had to re-watch particular clips that we had filmed, in order spot the clips that contained minor errors such as misapplied blur 

Filming And Editing Control

There had been some slight changes as to who was taking control over the filming and editing process. Originally, me and April were going to control the filming and editing together, but as April had to go away during our filming schedule,  I took control of the filming process. We have now agreed that April will take control over the majority of the editing process where I will help her to make good, creative decisions in terms of editing.