Proposal
I am making a trailer for my thriller/drama short film; "Gone?" which is currently in post-production. "Gone?" follows the life of a school girl; Shannon, who wakes up one day and everyone is missing. We see the initial discovery that everyone has disappeared then we follow Shannon for a month, seeing her overcome life activities like cooking and learning to drive. We also see her hit a low point and contemplate suicide. The narrative throughout the film is displayed through Shannon recording video diaries of herself each day. In some of these video diaries she talks about where everyone might be and expresses her feelings that maybe she isn't alone. I will also be using some point of view shots to give the audience the feeling that someone might be watching her. Shannon also experiences horrifyi. dreams about black figures following her in the woods and wakes up in a panic. One day when she goes for a walk, a dog runs up to her. Relieved to see another living thing but scared of the unknown, she follows the dog into the familiar woods, fear full of who she might see.
In the trailer, I will feature Shannon discovering everyone has disappeared and use editing techniques to give the feeling of disorientation. It will then cut to the first video diary where she tells the camera that everyone is gone. When she says the word; gone, "Gone?" appear on the screen along with some film information such as the director and release date etc.
The unique selling point of trailer will be the different formats of video. Using regular footage, point-of-view/CCTV style footage and video diaries, this will keep the audience interested.
The target audience would be age 15-30. Age groups 15-20 would feel they could relate to the character as the are a similar age. Age 20-30 would find the trailer appealing because they enjoy the genre of thriller/drama so would find the story line exciting.
I will advertise the trailer on TV, on social network sites and at the cinema. On the TV I would advertise it on channels like E4, Film 4 and MTV because these are typical channels that my target audiences would watch. Advertising on social networking would also be ciritical because my target audience are the prime age that use those sites like twitter and facebook. I would also advertise through YouTube at the start of videos. At the cinema I would have the trailer on before films like The Hunger Games because is it of a similar genre and similar target audiences.
Treatment
Shannon is an 16 year old school gitl who attends The William De Ferrers School. She lives at home with her sister, Chloe and her parents, Dawn and Collin. Shannon is very quiet and clever at school and often teased for being shy and a teachers pet. Shannon gets on well with her family who are quite rich and live in a small Town. One morning, Shannon wakes up in a fluster as she has had a night mare about strange figures dressed in black chasing her through a woods. Realising she is late for school and quickly gets ready. She rushes to the station and waits for the train which never shows up. She calls home but recieves no answer so decides to walk home and get a lift. When she arrives home she calls out for her mum and searches around the house but cant find anyone, she calls both parents again but still gets no answer. She scans the house again and find her parents phones on charge by their beds, her dads work shoes and briefcase by the front door and her sisters school uniform still in her wardrobe. She finds this very strange and begins to become frightened so knocks at her neighbours house to see if they knew where her parents are. knocking at all the houses down her road, no one answers. Panicking, she runs into town, searching in shop windows, she discovers the normally bustling town is empty.
On return home, she records a video diary of what has happend, explaining that she woke up and everyone has dissapeared. That night, she has the same recurring nightmare about the figures in the woods and wakes up scared at how real the dream felt. Over the next few days, Shannon tries to overcome daily life like shopping, cooking and learning to drive but soon becomes bored. She looks at photo albums and realises how much she misses her family. That night she records a video diary of how much her family means to her and that she doesnt see a point of living without her friends her family. She begins to contemplate suicide and cuts herself but she cant bare the pain. When looking for bandages she discovers her mums medicine, she empties the packet on the basin but again decides that suicide is not the option.
That night she has another dream about the msyterious figures chasing her, this time she finds herself in an operating theatre, she cant see clearly but can hear two unfamilar voices acessing her condition. Again, Shannon wakes up in a sweat; scared, frightened and alone. She decides to go for a walk to clear her head and finds the woods she is walking through oddly familar. Out of no where, a small dog runs up to her but turns and runs off into the woods. Fearfull of the unknown but thrilled to see another living thing, Shannon follows the dog into the trees. Chasing the small dog, she suddenly hears a branch snapping in the distance. Heart pounding she turns on the spot, eyes fixed on the two familar and unsettling figures that appeared in her nightmares.
I am making a trailer for my thriller/drama short film; "Gone?" which is currently in post-production. "Gone?" follows the life of a school girl; Shannon, who wakes up one day and everyone is missing. We see the initial discovery that everyone has disappeared then we follow Shannon for a month, seeing her overcome life activities like cooking and learning to drive. We also see her hit a low point and contemplate suicide. The narrative throughout the film is displayed through Shannon recording video diaries of herself each day. In some of these video diaries she talks about where everyone might be and expresses her feelings that maybe she isn't alone. I will also be using some point of view shots to give the audience the feeling that someone might be watching her. Shannon also experiences horrifyi. dreams about black figures following her in the woods and wakes up in a panic. One day when she goes for a walk, a dog runs up to her. Relieved to see another living thing but scared of the unknown, she follows the dog into the familiar woods, fear full of who she might see.
In the trailer, I will feature Shannon discovering everyone has disappeared and use editing techniques to give the feeling of disorientation. It will then cut to the first video diary where she tells the camera that everyone is gone. When she says the word; gone, "Gone?" appear on the screen along with some film information such as the director and release date etc.
The unique selling point of trailer will be the different formats of video. Using regular footage, point-of-view/CCTV style footage and video diaries, this will keep the audience interested.
The target audience would be age 15-30. Age groups 15-20 would feel they could relate to the character as the are a similar age. Age 20-30 would find the trailer appealing because they enjoy the genre of thriller/drama so would find the story line exciting.
I will advertise the trailer on TV, on social network sites and at the cinema. On the TV I would advertise it on channels like E4, Film 4 and MTV because these are typical channels that my target audiences would watch. Advertising on social networking would also be ciritical because my target audience are the prime age that use those sites like twitter and facebook. I would also advertise through YouTube at the start of videos. At the cinema I would have the trailer on before films like The Hunger Games because is it of a similar genre and similar target audiences.
Treatment
Shannon is an 16 year old school gitl who attends The William De Ferrers School. She lives at home with her sister, Chloe and her parents, Dawn and Collin. Shannon is very quiet and clever at school and often teased for being shy and a teachers pet. Shannon gets on well with her family who are quite rich and live in a small Town. One morning, Shannon wakes up in a fluster as she has had a night mare about strange figures dressed in black chasing her through a woods. Realising she is late for school and quickly gets ready. She rushes to the station and waits for the train which never shows up. She calls home but recieves no answer so decides to walk home and get a lift. When she arrives home she calls out for her mum and searches around the house but cant find anyone, she calls both parents again but still gets no answer. She scans the house again and find her parents phones on charge by their beds, her dads work shoes and briefcase by the front door and her sisters school uniform still in her wardrobe. She finds this very strange and begins to become frightened so knocks at her neighbours house to see if they knew where her parents are. knocking at all the houses down her road, no one answers. Panicking, she runs into town, searching in shop windows, she discovers the normally bustling town is empty.
On return home, she records a video diary of what has happend, explaining that she woke up and everyone has dissapeared. That night, she has the same recurring nightmare about the figures in the woods and wakes up scared at how real the dream felt. Over the next few days, Shannon tries to overcome daily life like shopping, cooking and learning to drive but soon becomes bored. She looks at photo albums and realises how much she misses her family. That night she records a video diary of how much her family means to her and that she doesnt see a point of living without her friends her family. She begins to contemplate suicide and cuts herself but she cant bare the pain. When looking for bandages she discovers her mums medicine, she empties the packet on the basin but again decides that suicide is not the option.
That night she has another dream about the msyterious figures chasing her, this time she finds herself in an operating theatre, she cant see clearly but can hear two unfamilar voices acessing her condition. Again, Shannon wakes up in a sweat; scared, frightened and alone. She decides to go for a walk to clear her head and finds the woods she is walking through oddly familar. Out of no where, a small dog runs up to her but turns and runs off into the woods. Fearfull of the unknown but thrilled to see another living thing, Shannon follows the dog into the trees. Chasing the small dog, she suddenly hears a branch snapping in the distance. Heart pounding she turns on the spot, eyes fixed on the two familar and unsettling figures that appeared in her nightmares.
Trailer Production
I created a basic cut of my trailer in Final Cut Pro, where I cut a few of my favourite shots together along with some scenes that explain the story. I overlapped some footage and added crossfades to give a disoriantated effect.
I then used After effects to create my titles. I started a composition by going Composition > New Composition then matched my setting to my video in Final Cut to ensure the ratio and scales of the video were the same. I then wrote out the script I needed using the Text Tool, I then added key frames in the position function and added one with the writing off the right sight of the screen, i then moved alone to 2 seconds, move the text of the screen to the left side and added another key frame. This gave the effect that the writing was moving horizontally across the screen. I then created a new shape a drew a line going across the screen, I then parented this to the text but moved it along 1 second to give it a delay, this gave the appearance that the writing was following the line. I got this idea off the Arctic Monkeys "Do I wanna Know" music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOSxM0rNPM).
With my fianl script, I put the last word, 'gone', in a new text box, again parenting it to the previous writing so it followed but when it reach the centre of the screen at 1.02 i added a key frame in the scale scale function. I then moved the track along to 1.02 and increased the scale so the word enlarged. I then added a motion blur to give it a 3D effect. I then created a new text using the text tool and wrote out the date of when my film will be released and centred it very small. Like the word, 'gone', I added a key frame at the start of the transition in the scale function, moved it along 1 second and enlarged it. I then went to Effect and Presets and added an Apear Blur which is similar to the motion blur but more exaggerated.
The text and line was originally white but i added an adjustment Layer and altered the Hue/Saturation and levels to a dark blue to make it look more profesional. I added the titles to the render queue and exported the video.
I then imported the video into my original sequence and cut them inbetween peices of footage. I also used the track "Like Lust" by Movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRgqdqvRU8) which is featured in my short film. I also added some thriller/horror diegetic sound when the writing appeared to build tension.
