Graphics Planning - Background and Movement Influences

Although many trailers like 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Blue Valentine' use basic text on black background for the credits, we thought that it would be a lot better to follow other trailers with more inventive backgrounds on the credits. We thought this was much better as it helps set the scene and mood and also would look a lot more professional to use a slightly moving background, and will look work better to create more colour. However, we still want to retain a level of simplicity so we don't want to use distracting font. 

In 'The Lucky One', they use a faded and quite basic background for the credits, but also include a bright exposure in the movement of the title. 

I really like the use of light in these credits as it is a lot more interesting than a simple title on the background. We would like to incorporate a light change in our credits though possibly something more subtle and elegant like in 'Like Crazy':

For the credits, the graphics fade in and out from the scene. They also play around with light with the glitter and put gradients across the font, which is very subtle but works well in making it look professional and classy. This also happens in the titles:

In the trailer for 'Dear John', the background does not actually move or reflect light (though fades in and out), but the actual credits do, drawing more attention to them.

Through looking at these examples of credits, I have understood that simple font is still necessary in terms of conforming to the conventions of a romantic genre trailer, however there are ways to develop the graphics to make it look more interesting than that of 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Blue Valentine.' Evidently colour is extremely important in terms of symbolism for each film - 'The Lucky One' tries to replicate the desert as Logan is fighting in Iraq, whilst 'Dear John' uses blue as an echo of the sea which is where John and Savannah spend a lot of their time. I really like the credits for 'Like Crazy' as it is softer and more romantic trying to recreate a feeling of fairy lights. This would also be perfect for our film as we want to create this same comfortable, homelike romance and we will be filming a lot of fairy lights when we film at Christmas in the Laines in Brighton. To come up with similar graphics, we will be using Final Cut Motion for our credits.

W.H.

Graphics Planning - Font Influences

From looking at other trailers and posters for all types of  films, the same font and colour scheme is generally used throughout all marketing campaign and is also the same for the title. For example 'Drive':

In the romantic trailers that I have studied, the majority of the font is very simple with basic colours, completely different to that of 'Drive.' The text in the trailer, for example showcasing the stars of the film, is usually the same font as the title which is used on all the posters. An example of this is the font used for Revolutionary Road, as this is very basic and simple, yet is used throughout all the marketing schemes.

                          
                        POSTER                                                                          DVD COVER

TRAILER CREDITS

 In 'Like Crazy', they also use the same font throughout all the marketing schemes, and it is similarly very basic. However, they have changed the colour scheme without the font.

                         POSTER                                                                        DVD COVER 

TRAILER CREDITS

In 'Blue Valentine', there is no clear continuity in the font used. In the trailer, there are two types of basic font, the title emphasised in bold and chunky font. 

However, they released a number of different styles for the poster with different fonts, photos and colours. In the end, the font for the main poster was completely different to that of the trailer. Originally the posters featured the same font, or something very similar:

The final and most famous design was the following poster, which used completely different colours and font. This was the design used also on the DVD cover and the soundtrack cover.

POSTER:

DVD COVER:

 SOUNDTRACK COVER:

Through the trailer I have researched, it seems more common to have the same style of font for the trailer and all the posters as it clearly links everything together. In our project we will be doing this, however, I like the font that they used in the final poster for Blue Valentine as I thought it was slightly more inventive than the standard font used in both Revolutionary Road and Like Crazy. I also liked the change in font for the title from the standard credits in the trailer as I think it made it stand out. However, if we choose to replicate this, we will only make simple changes, for example emboldening the standard font. 

W.H.

Sound and Lighting

For the soundtrack of our trailer, we are searching for a piece of music which is melancholy and docile. We will use a single track throughout the whole trailer, rather than a number of varying tracks which is used in most rom-com trailers. In the trailers we have looked at such as blue valentine and Revolutionary Road, there is a single song used as the backing song, and the way the mood is changed is that the volume is varied or the beat gets faster and softer, building tension.

We are asking our friend Charles Stooke to write a song which is similar to these songs to use as the backing soundtrack to our trailer. We will write our own lyrics to roughly fit the narrative of the story, and instead of using multiple different tracks in our trailer like many other genres of trailer do, we are going to stick to using one song right the way through, because that is what the usual song is like in romance trailers. We will change the mood of the trailer from happy to sad using alternating speed in the song and during the happy montage we will most likely have the chorus, whereas during the sad montage, we will use the sad and melancholy sounding verse.

We will have our trailer lit at the start in a warm dim lighting, as the couple will be at a bus stop in the evening so it will be dark naturally, however we will have to use some artificial lighting to stop the film from becoming pixilated and bad quality, but we do not want to over do it and make the shot look unnatural or unrealistic. We also want to set the mood at the beginning to be happy.

To make the mood seem uplifting and show that there is love in the air during the first montage and half of the trailer, we will generally use brighter lighting and dress Grace and Isaac in brighter coloured clothes to reflect their mood. An example of a trailer where they use this technique is 'Revolutionary Road'. The first half of the trailer is bright and sunny and the couple are very much in love, interested in each other, and seem to be happy. This can also be seen in 'Blue Valentine', when the opening few shots are noticeably lighter and more happy than the second half. 

We will use artificial lights when filming inside to make the film clearer and better quality, and hopefully more professional looking. We will also use accordant lighting to show the mood, for example, we will use dull, glowing, warm, yellowy lighting to show intimacy, for example in shots where Grace and Isaac are inside their flat during happy moments.

'Blue Valentine' early shot

'Blue Valentine' later shot

'Revolutionary Road' early shot

'Revolutionary Road' later shot

B.M.

Location Planning

Since I think the costume planning will work well in terms of when we start filming, I wanted to do something similar for Location. I set up groups of where we will need to film with sub-groups within them so that we can move quickly between locations and film all the shots that are in that location.

Locations:

Shots:

W.H.

Costume Planning

To make sure we have continuity in terms of costume within our shots, I compiled a spreadsheet and list of different costumes to know exactly what costume our actors should be in for each shot.

Grace's Costume Changes:

Isaac's Costume Changes:

W.H.

Reccee

W.H. B.M.

Storyboarding 2

Throughout this week, I have been editing the drawings from my storyboard on Adobe Photoshop so that we can have a more realistic and helpful storyboarding to help us with our filming. This will give us an idea of how it should look when piecing the actual filming together. However, I also spent a considerable amount of time colouring the drawings and putting hues on them to distinguish the mood and atmosphere of the shots. I put an 'Old Style' hue on the majority of my shots as they are part of the downfall of the relationship. This gives us a clear idea of how we should film and edit these particular shots to make them look mundane and depressing. I also coloured in certain objects in the shot to highlight the dark colours and add to the gloominess of the shots. Currently, I am placing the drawings in Final Cut Pro to create a timeline that looks similar to what our final project should come out as.

W.H.

Symbolism

• As well as using colour to create a depressive mood in the office for Grace, we want to show that she feels isolated and locked into her own world. For this, we want to create the separators they sometimes use in offices to make her look cramped and boxed in.

• To show that Grace is becoming overloaded with the jobs at home by herself, we will be including a shot of her looking very busy and trying to handle cooking, being on the phone etc. all at the same time. This will also apply to look like the typical stereotype of a domestic mother, so this will suggest to the audience that she is getting ready or at least wanting to settle down. This will also emphasise the downfall of Grace in comparison when she sinks into depression and unhappiness.
• For the shot of Grace collapsing against the door, we want to film it from the inside of the house to suggest that she is shutting herself out of the world, like the office booths, and hiding herself away from everyone.
• For the shot of the hands intertwining, we would like this to be ECU to create a sense of claustrophobia and over-whelming closeness in the argument, suggesting to the audience that this might be one of the reasons for Grace's downfall and the downfall of their relationship.

W.H.