Use of camera in Marmalady

 How did you plan and storyboard the dynamic moments in your trailer. What moments are you particularly proud of in your trailer and were they planned or improvised on location?

Prior to creating and filming Marmalady, we only had a rough idea to what we were going to pursue. Although camera work is extremely vital to a successful production, we thought best to improvise, depending on the location. We used an array of long and mid shots, which enabled the audience to pick up on body language, increasing their knowledge of the characters emotions. Our most significant shot was in fact the "Dream-like sequence" at the start of the trailer, in our case, I was attempting to Focus on the characters, however this subsequently came to use for us, making it our dream sequence, an important part of the trailer. We did ultimately use a majority of the camera angles, in attempt to focus on a larger aspect of the trailer, whereas we mainly progressed with close ups and mid shots, as the dialogue was a big part of the trailer.

Our first opening shot involving characters shows two faded out figures by the ocean as the sun ripples over the waves. This runs as the dialogue of the protagonist narrating plays, "...When you feel like you belong, and the concept of love..." thus suggesting the film is primarily about a girl and a love interest.

We had the idea of having a dream-like sequence prior to filming but we had no intention of having a blurry scene, it happened to just come out that way and made the dream sequence more dream-like without having to use effects.





For our first shot of the protagonist, we wanted to use a close up shot, so the audience create that connection and intimacy with the character. This shot is overlayed with the diegetic sound of narration from the protagonist. This gave an intimate feel to the scene. Close up shots are important in portraying the characters emotion, we see the protagonist wake up from a dream, with a blunt expression, suggesting she is unhappy and isolated from society. This also depicts her sense of unusual-ness as she looks straight into the camera, creating that connection with the audience, also creating a strange feel to her character.

 We previously had the idea of a close up shot on the protagonists as she narrates whilst waking up from a dream, suggesting that she sees the world in a different light, thus enhancing her quirkiness and difference from her peers.

The close up shot of Lola's feet suggest the characters persona. The use of the one sock is significant in portraying her character, by focusing on this as opposed to an establishing shot of her waking up in her bedroom, it sets the attention and focus on her individuality by subtly picking up small features such as the sock. Additionally this links to Barthe's enigma code making the audience think and question to what is the importance of the one sock? or just simply thinking how weird is this shot.

 The mid shot of Ricky is progressed in slow-motion, at about 50% to enhance his features, and the protagonists infatuation with the character. We see Ricky run his fingers through his hair suggesting his vanity and also how the protagonist Lola obsesses over the small things he does, such as running his fingers through his hair, which is usually an unnoticeable gesture, however we are put into Lola's shoes and focus on the small things. We wanted Ricky to be on the phone in this scene as it suggests his popularity, and his constant smile suggests he is happy and content with his life.

 Here we have a mid-shot and a close up of both Lola and Sam. During the phone conversation, we cut to a close up of each character as Sam tells Lola that Ricky will be at the party she's attending. We are then forced to see the characters emotions and feelings by getting a larger insight to their facial expressions. We see the contrast in the midshot where Lola is reluctant to going to the party with her bestfriend Sam as she is unpopular and an outcast, however this changes as it cuts to a close up and we see her face light up once finding out about Ricky. This shot is also progressed to create that connection with the audience, as they also feel empathy towards the character. The use of Lola having her hair in space buns tells the audience a lot about her character, and the fact that she is in childish pyjamas contrasts between her bestfriend who is wearing a bandana.

 This over the shoulder shot is a key shot in our Trailer, as we are seeing it through the bestfriends point of view. Thus then leading to our comic turn in the trailer as we are shown a mid shot of Sam on her phone as she looks up to Lola, it cuts to a close up shot of Sam saying "Are you fucking serious" at this point the music is cut off, aiming to replicate a laugh out loud moment in the trailer. This over the shoulder and close up concept is commonly used in comedies, as we see the scene through both perspectives. Subverting the restricted narration and showing a subtle portrayal of omniscient. We decided to have the characters smiling in these two scenes to brighten up the mood and suggest a comic feel.

 Omniscient narration is also progressed in this extreme close up of Sam texting what appears to be Ricky about the party. For the most part, we see the story through the protagonist by her narration, however this shot suggests otherwise, as this is through the eyes of bestfriend Sam, Lola is completely oblivious. This shot was completely improvised as we were going to progress this text scene with a mid shot of Sam texting Ricky, and then cutting to a midshot of Ricky texting Sam. Whereas, we thought to keep it quick, but still of importance, we used an extreme close up of the phone and Sams hands where we see the individual texts pop up on the screen, creating a more in depth and intimate feel.

 This is an establishing shot, where we are aware that they are now at the party, evident in the bright lights, famous red cups, and several characters we haven't been introduced to. This is important to the trailer as the use of a party scene conforms to that of a teen coming of age genre.

 The montage of Ricky and Lola successfully portrayed an up beat and fun atmosphere to the trailer. Body language was a key aspect to these two corresponding shots. We had the two characters sit on a bench as I captured their intimacy and body language. This helped to portray their love for each other, evident in the way their legs are turned to one another and the placement of their hands are an important feature of these shots. We cut between an establishing shot and a close up to exaggerate their passion and closeness, the audience are brought into their intimacy through the change of distance in the shots.

This is where we are introduced to a Match-Action shot, in which we filmed both long shots and mid shots multiple times before finding which ones suit best and were able to flow together. We progressed with a long shot of the two characters walking down a road, this then cuts as Sam reaches out for Lola, this fit perfectly and is unnoticeable to the viewer, it looks as if it were just one shot, however cropped to a midshot. We were most proud of this shot as it was purely improvised and came out clean and professional.

Another use of over the shoulder shots was shown in the second to last shot where we see a boy at the door of Lola's house, it's obvious that this is Ricky, attempting to apologise for what had happened. The quick pace of this and cutting short left the audience in awe as they wonder what happens next, but are unable to find out unless they watch the movie. This is a clever aspect in trailers, making the audience come back for more.

The Last scene is a birds eye view mid shot of the protagonist lying on the grass, this is overlayed with significant narration "Growing up is finding out who you are and what you want, and I guess I know that now." this was a perfect way to end the trailer as it created an intimate feel between the protagonist and the audience. This type of shot is progressed in many coming of age movies as it is a chance for the protagonist to reflect on the events throughout the movie.

Use of titles:

How did you use titles and how did they advertise your film in your trailer?

The first title we are introduced to is our Institution logo "Le Duckelle Films" which we created in our AS Year on a software called "Paint.Net". This production title fades into the shot through the waves, which is usually progressed in indie movies, a white minimalist logo on a moving image background. We decided to progress this on a moving image background as opposed to a black background as it fits better with our genre, and looks professional. The use of white font also adheres to our indie aspect of genre. Additionally, by using the same institution logo as last year, the audience are introduced to a recognisable feature and this will bring in the audience from our previous production.

Moonwalk Film Festival was created by myself on "Paint.Net" in attempt to mimic that of "Sundance Film Festival" without copyright. I found a basic font, and placed that white, and created the design by using different shapes on "Paint.Net" to replicate the Sundance logo.

We wanted to make our titles as minimal as possible because minimal titles are more associated with our chosen genre. Typically, a Horror would suggest an out there title, whereas "Indie" movies tend to follow through with a basic minimal white logo. The use of having our own Film festival logo conforms to our genre, as this is most common in Coming of Age movies, it woulf be unusual seeing this in big production Horrors as the use of a film festival institution is for smaller and independent movies.

Here, we have our Green band Trailer of which we created on "Paint.Net" replicating both the red and green bands to create our own that would suit our rating. We wanted to be original by creating our own personal band for Marmalady, taking aspects from mainly the Green band, for example the colour. The use of "Appropriate" audiences was a mixture between "All" from the typical green band, and "Restricted" from the red band. Instead of suggesting the film was promoted by the "Motion picture association of America" we created our own title to fit our Production and Company, "Indie Filmmaker Association of Surrey" therefore giving it our own identity and also a comic appeal to the Trailer. The certificate part of the band was simply created using square boxes and the line drawer on Paint.Net, we filled this with what you would associate a 15 to be, although this is hard to pick out from the trailer, we had the general idea that this could be a raunchy film, but to an extent in our trailer, we conformed to this rating through the use of profanity from both Sam and Lola.

Marmalady's title was the most important to the Trailer, as it brings the Trailer together. We needed to pick a font that would symbolise both the protagonist and film. We went onto google and searched "Indie font download" and came across several potential fonts before choosing the final one which was titled "Shady Lane". We wanted to create an innocent and lighthearted atmosphere through the use of colour, however we didn't want to be dull and go for the common use of white, so we went for a baby blue colour, which connotes youth, youth and growing up is the main aspect of Coming of Age movies. This was additionally successful as the use of baby blue suggesting youth fit well over the narration followed through in the end scene where Lola reflects on what she's learnt throughout the movie. Evidently, Coming of age movies tend to have titles in different colours to enhance their individuality and quirkiness, white/ black font is typically progressed in Thrillers or Action movies as they don't want to use vibrant colours, as this would subvert their genre.

For the credits, we took a simple text that I had pre-downloaded a while ago, as I dabble in graphic design. We wanted to replicate the most common typography for credits, however, slightly conforming to our genre. We stuck to the theme of Baby blue as this looked good over the grass. In our credits, we firstly displayed the Actors names, followed with Writers, Directors and Producers, and lastly involving the names of the People who helped us create Marmalady with their own Soundtracks.

The "Coming Soon" was a downloaded brush stroke effect, this conformed to our genre as the handwritten effect is primarily progressed in these type productions, connoting youth and life, due to its adolescence nature.

Brand Identity in our Final A2 Production "Marmalady"

To create our very own brand identity to our product, we advertised our production with a slogan of which was created so that the audience would be able to remember us distinctly, this is effective to appeal to a larger audience and intrigue the viewers. A catchphrase from the production is a successful way in creating your own brand. Many indie teen coming of age films follow through with this concept. We chose a slogan that was short enough to be memorable to our production, if someone where to repeat it, you would associate it with "Marmalady" while also relating to the plot of our movie and conforming to our coming of age genre.

"Growing up is finding out who you are and what you want" we incorporated this slogan in the ending of our trailer as the camera slowly pans to the right from a birds eye view shot of our protagonist Lola lying down on the grass. We decided for Lola to narrate over this scene with the slogan at that moment as we wanted the audiences' last memory of the trailer to be this final scene with this significant catch phrase. Thus enabling it to intrigue the audience to want to watch the final production, and more likely for the audience to focus on the scene and remember the catch phrase. We purposely dragged on this scene making it slow paced in contrast to our former fast paced jump cuts.

Another evident representation of Brand identity was presenting this slogan in our film magazine, of which we created on the software "Paint.net". We presented this in a dark handwritten type of font beside the image of Lola on the front cover to suggest that it is a catch phrase Lola personally says in the movie. We decided to include the slogan in both our trailer and magazine front cover so that they link with each other and furthermore create a brand identity for marketing purposes so that our film is easily recognisable due to the use of our slogan. This marketing method has been used with several other Hollywood block buster films such as "Taken" in the famous quote "I will find you....and I will kill you". Other productions such as Teen Comedy "17 Again" include a slogan in their Movie Poster "Who says you're only young once?"

Our brand was well established through our ancillary texts. Prior to creating a magazine, it was imperative that we made our magazine seem that of a professional standard, as if it were to really be sold nationwide. Graphology of both the movie poster and our magazine was a key aspect in creating a successful brand identity.

For example, the use of cost and a bar code on our magazine was conventional, it created a professionalism to the production. Additionally we included a subtext about what else would be available inside the issue, suggesting that it was more than just the promotion of "Marmalady".

The title in itself is a very key aspect to creating our very own brand identity. I personally came up with the idea of having a one-worder for the title of our production because they are usually associated with indie movies "Moonlight", "Lion" etc. Additionally a one worded title will grip and intrigue an audience as opposed to a long title which may be hard to remember. Marmalady suggests the characters persona, "Marma" meaning hidden, and or secret, thus suggesting the characters isolation from society and her mysterious atmospheric representation. Furthermore, the "Urban Dictionary" meaning of Marma suggests that of a male drama, so we took this aspect and related it to our own concept. Marmalady is a teen drama, in which we are introduced to drama involving a male, the love interest, so we are able to suggest this concept to an extent. However, we primarily came up with a word that had a ring to it, and was unusual in the sense that we could depict this unusual representation with the protagonist. Alternatively, the use of "Marmalady" would make the audience think of Marmalade, a jam that is of lesser preference to Strawberry jam, thus suggesting the character being that of an outcast and unliked by many.

The use of this unusual type of Production name, suggests Roland Barthe's enigma code, making the Audience question the general concept of the film, as we are oblivious to it's suggestion through its mysterious title. Thus, making the audience intrigued and want to go on and watch the movie. This type of Film title creates a conversation between viewers, for example "Have you heard of that new movie, Marmalady? It's got such an unusual name, I wanna see it." this is clever as we are enabling the audience to discuss the movie before its general release.

Institution Titles were also a big factor of our brand identity, "Le Duckelle Films" was created last year prior to our AS course, we continued with this production name as it was our own brand, therefore creating a sense of fluency in our work. Additionally, this enables our previous audience to want to see our upcoming production, as the Institution is recognisable. Le Duckelle Films was created on a software named "Paint.net" in which we used a basic font for "Le Duckelle" as minimalist is usually more appealing, and juxtaposed this with a slanted cursive font for the "films" part, which made it look professional, and created our identity. By using a white font, we were able to approach a larger genre of productions, not just horror, although there are film companies who only associate with a chosen genre, we wanted to appeal to a larger audience, our first year was a horror, and our final year was an indie coming of age trailer, we challenged this stereotype, and took it into our own hands to create a different yet successful production.

 Here is a screenshot from our AS Production, and beneath is a screenshot from our most recent production, our A2 Trailer titled "Marmalady". By using the same colouring and Institution logo, we were able to sustain our brand creating a more professional representation of our work.

 

Another aspect to creating a brand identity was evident in our Green Band for our trailer, instead of downloading a copyrighted picture of a green band, we created our own template on "Paint.net" and followed the concept of both a Red band and a Green band, to convey to our chosen genre, also, we added "Indie filmmaker association of Surrey". We mimicked that of both of these trailer bands to create our own. You will be able to see below the aspects we took from both of the bands, thus creating our final product.

Our Audience Feedback G324 - A2

We received some useful feedback from our target audience about our film trailer. We received mostly positive feedback about our use of sound in dialogue and our unique soundtrack, of which we created ourselves to add to our brand identity. Our narrative was also well received and conventional, however a few thought that our production could have been more successful if we had developed other characters in the plot instead of focusing on only Lola's perspective.

Presenting our Trailer G324 - A2

Representation...continued

In this scene,we have pushed towards a general cliche in teen comedy dramas, "The wardrobe change" which is frequently seen in such movies. We prompted into portraying this cliche as it would conform to our chosen genre, and be a recognisable situation to our target audience, creating empathy to the character. Movies like "The Duff" include this type of scene, usually the protagonist lacks a "fashion sense" so we primarily see the other significant character help them out. The protagonists bestfriend is usually the rebellious and cool character, contrasting that of the protagonist, making the audience question their friendship. The Bestfriend is usually the one to get invited to the popular parties and have a larger friendship group, that the protagonist is dragged into. This scene is primarily approached as a comedic effect, which is ultimately used to make it evident this is more or less an upbeat movie with traits of drama.The soundtrack is a big factor to making it seem like an upbeat movie. Meanwhile, the wardrobe scene does help approach this comedy-type convention as the music cuts out and we are shown the bestfriend saying "Are you fucking serious?". The cliche of a line of sarcastic dialogue said by a character is always progressed with the music being cut off, to emphasise the line as this is usually when the audience will laugh or react. Many Comedy trailers have this effect.

The "Boy meets Girl Party scene" is evident in about 80% of Teen Coming of Age Movies, as this is a usual scenario for teenagers allowing the audience to empathise with the situation and feel connected with the protagonist as we experience the awkwardness and watch the characters infatuation.

The "Grass" Scene is used frequently in indie coming of age dramas. This scene is effective in a reflection of the movie and the protagonists thoughts and feelings. It usually shown with narration over the top. We also see this in the scene of Hazel in "The Fault in our stars".

Representation

*Have you subverted or conformed to stereotypes typical of your genre? 

Take some screen shots of characters from yours and compare to screen shots from characters of other trailer. Write an analysis of the representation in your trailer.

 The first shot of our protagonist in "Marmalady" clearly conforms to a generic coming of age story. Many films I have had the pleasure of watching incorporate a character waking up in the morning, in their bed, followed with the non-diegetic sound of the protagonists narration. This is evidently representing a Coming of Age teen film as it corresponds to the stereotype of following one character as they grow up and delve into the adult world. Additionally, seeing the film through this perspective creates and intimate feel and is usually progressed in teen films, to create the effect of empathy or need to affiliate with the character. We thought it would be a successful approach by reinstating this stereotypical scene into our film as it is a recognisable feature and would appeal to a larger audience.The use of the protagonist opening her eyes to look straight into the camera lens creates a relationship with the audience, the bond between the character and the audience is a very vital factor to a successful film or production.We are given a true insight to the character as we follow her through her morning routine and additionally her thoughts and feelings as the dialogue represents what she is thinking as she proceeds to say " Have you ever reached that time in life, where you feel like you belong, and the concept of love, makes sense. Well that wasn't that time for me" this creates a sympathetic and empathetic approach and a relationship between both the audience and protagonist is created.

 This clip of "Ricky" the love interest, is progressed in slow motion (approx. 70% speed) in attempt to emphasis his lack of flaws as the protagonist narrates over her feelings for Ricky "See, Ricky was everything..."
There are several movies out there in which incorporate this idea of a slow motion effect on a shot of the love interest, to suggest the infatuation with the character, and how that character makes the protagonist feel as if they were in a movie, or even dream everytime they looked at them. You could compare this to the stereotypical "Baywatch" slow mo of female lifeguards running, which is used to emphasise the infatuation for them and their feminine features, although we did approach this, we took it into a different light, which is also used in many teen films.

The scene of protagonist "Lola" walking up the stairs at school and being nudged by a fellow student embarks the stereotypical nerd and outcast character. This conforms to a typical teen film as a majority of them do in fact suggest the sympathetic feel of being an outcast and trying to fit in. The mise-en-scene use of glasses and school books suggests her isolation from society and lack of friends, we are oblivious to her actual amount of friends before meeting her bestfriend in the film.Her body language suggests she is afraid of her peers as they ridicule her and treat her with disrespect because she is seen as different as she subverts from the typical popular girl. In "She's all that" we see this nerd concept through the protagonist, who also blossoms throughout the film. This film is very similar to Marmalady in the sense she gains popularity and the love interest. In the stair scene of She's all that, we see the same traits as Marmalady, the use of school books and being isolated, the character is also shown to be wearing glasses, suggesting that she is an outcast, as glasses are associated with characters who are considered "Nerds".