Comparing to other work

When i think back to my AS work i did, where i filmed the first three minutes of a film then i feel already this is going a lot better. I feel a lot more up to date this year. I also am really enjoying the idea of what i am doing this year as last year the idea was about a stalker following someone that then turned into her brother. I feel a lot more into this years work and am much more liking what i am doing this year. I also feel not that many people have done what i am doing with my work with people swapping bodies.

When looking at the students work who did this last year these are their trailers i came across:

I think this trailer is a bit like my idea as it is set in a high school and is about a popular girl, same as my film where the protagonist is a popular female teenager. I can inspire some ideas from this trailer of how it is set out, for example how the school is portrait and the students, i am quite lucky with my film as the characters i have are already students and off the same age as what i needed them to be.
I really like this trailer as when i watch other trailers they seem a bit boring and it takes a while to get into it whereas this one then its straight to the point and you are focused all the way through. However on my film trailer it needs to be around 2 and a half minutes to fit a normal trailer time whereas this trailer only goes on around a minute and also with this trailer it doesn't really show you what is going to happen at all in the film or let you know much about it.

Storyboards

Flat Plan

Run through of a rough plan of what is going to happen in my trailer:

• 'Popular' main character wakes up in her bed, normal life.
• She gets ready for school and you see her doing what she does in her everyday life.
• Writing will then come across the screen to introduce her and have a tag off 'popular' to describe her.
• Camera then swaps to 'Nerd' girl waking up in her bed, normal life.
• She gets ready for school and you see her doing what she does in her everyday life.
• Writing will then come across the screen to introduce her and have a tag off 'nerd' to describe her.
• The scene then skips to school of the popular girl in her group and then the nerd girl on her own.
• They'll then be a bit in the scene of bullying from the popular to the nerd girl, e.g. pushing her books on the floor and being horrible.
• The camera will then film them sleeping and something strange will happen. 
• They wake up the next day in their different bodies and realise that they are not in their own rooms.]
• Popular girl looks in mirror of her in nerds body and says 'What?! This isn't me!'
• Then the popular girl dresses the nerd girl in very strange clothes that she wouldn't normally wear showing they have switched bodies.
• Then have some scenes of them showing each other trying to handle being in the others body.

Poster Analysis

I have looked at a few posters of the same type of film as i will be making as one of my tasks is to make a poster for the film as well as the trailer. I will analyze five of the posters that have the same genre as my film and see how the poster is set out and what is on it. 


This is the poster for the film 'Freaky Friday'

This poster shows the two protagonists on different coulored halves, showing how different they are. It shows the characters after they have switched. Also both of them look confused, it shows they shouldn't be in those bodies and the writing on the poster of the title is wobbly to show that their lives have been unsettled in the film from them switching.

This is the poster for the film '17 Again' 

This shows the main protagonist as him at the stage of being 17 in the film, it only shows him and not the character of him being his older self, this could be because he is at this age through most of the film. It has 17 again in block writing to stand out and has the date it comes out on on the bottom of the poster. It cleverly uses its tag line of 'who says you're only young once?' to show that the film is about him going back to being 17.

This is the poster for the film 'The Change-Up'

This shows the two main characters in their separate lives, it shows how different their lives are in just a picture. It shows one of the main characters trying to control two babies looking stressed, looking down on the other main character who was two ladies in his arms totally chilled out living the life. It uses different coloured backgrounds in each of the mans lives showing they are different, by putting the title in the middle of the picture it also separates the two pictures from each other. By the top character staring down to the other you can tell that he is wishing that he has the others lives.

This is the poster for the film 'It's a boy girl thing'

This poster also shows the two different characters sat at separate ends of a bench and the boy in dark clothes with the girl in light colours, contrasting each other. This also shows them as they have changed bodies as you can clearly see the girl not sat in a girly position with her sat opened legs and with her leg on her bag, whereas they show the boy sat very girly with his legs crossed and sat very nicely. This poster also shows how this is going to be a comedy of a film with how the girl and boy have switched places.

This is the poster for the film 'Just My Luck'

This poster shows exactly what the film is about. It has the girl on one side in a sunny new york and then the boy on the other side of the poster in a rainy stormy new york. This shows how the girl has all the luck and the boy has no luck what so ever, it shows how split they are by having them shown in the same place but with different luck, they are supposedly sharing an umbrella where hers is all perfect and his is broken and ruined when he is the one who needs it.


Evaluation

From looking at these five posters i have found that in all of the films that two people have switched places then the posters have shown each of the character and how different they are, all of the posters have a split in them showing how they usually live different lives. When we take films where the character has switched bodies with themselves like 17 again where he switches bodies with his younger self then the poster is just of the 17 year old boy as most of the film is based on him and it shows by having the tag line 'who says you're only young once' that he has gone back to his young self.
The posters fonts are usually wobbly and uneven with the whole title to show that the film is going to be a bit strange where peoples lives change, none of the titles are just altogether simply in one line.

Characters

For one of my main protagonists then i am using a teenage girl, she will fit the part of a high school girl and she will be a bully, this is Millie. I will make her wear nice clothes and have her hair and make up nicely.
Whereas my other main protagonist will be another teenage girl, Chloe. I will have her wearing baggy clothes with her body all covered up showing her to be 'nerdy' and she will have frizzy hair to fit the part more. As when you watch films the 'popular' girls are always perfect and pretty and the nerdy girls are more covered up and do not make as much effort with themselves.

This is a photo of Millie, the popular girl:

 

This is a photo of Chloe, the 'nerd' girl, who gets bullied:

 

More Research into Film Trailers

I asked four students from my school the following question:

What do you prefer, a body switching film where a person switches bodies places with their selves at a different age in their lives, or a body switching film where two complete opposite people switch places?

My first student i asked was Ollie and this was his response: 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thf3PED3tis&feature=plcp


This is Harriett's response to the question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JkYdIRaj_k&feature=plcp


This is Harry's response to the question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I28OW-kgIm0&feature=plcp


This is Laurens response to the question:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOH7J0QNbb0&feature=plcp


My four responses all had different opinions, as they wanted different things in a film. However two people had the same response that they prefer when two opposites switch bodies as they feel this would be more interesting and i also feel this. As this was interesting to research then i am glad i have decided to do the trailer on two opposites, as i think it will be more of a plot where there is two girls who are completely different from each other.

Final Idea

After researching all in to other trailers then i have decided i am going to create a film trailer where two teenage girls switch bodies with each other. It will have two main girl characters in the trailer whom are the total opposite of each other, one whom is a popular horrible girl and one whom is a geeky nerd girl who gets bullied by the popular girl. They end up switching bodies one night and wake up in the other persons body in their room. They then have to try and fit into the other persons lives without messing up each others lives. But how will that plan out when they are the total opposite of each other?

Trailer Research Evaluation

After researching into other trailers, which had the same genre as what my trailer will have then i have found some interesting things out.
I have found that an average trailer last around 2 and a half minutes which is a reasonable time and seems like it works well.
I also found that the title of the trailer comes in at the end of all the trailers, with just over 10 seconds of footage left after the title is shown.
Another thing i found out was that in all the trailers it shows the swap and what caused it, so i must show what caused the swap in my film trailer.
Also all these trailers have a voice over explaining the lives of them before they switched or they have writing over the acting to tell you who is who and either with the writing or the voice over it shows that they have switched bodies.

Narrative Theorists

My film trailer can be referred to Claude Levi-Strauss's narrative theory as his theory was all about binary opposites and in my film trailer and in some of the ones i have researched i come across many binary opposites such as:

• Popular and Unpopular

• Rich and Poor

• Lucky and Unlucky

This is the biggest narrative theorist i can link my work too as it is full of binary opposites and the whole film is based on two girls who switch places who are the complete opposite to each other. As 'Millie' is happy, whereas Chloe is sad. Millie is popular and Chloe is unpopular, Millie is lucky and Chloe is unlucky. This shows that my film trailer is full of binary opposites so this theory fits it best.

Target Audience

The target audience for my film will be 15+ but i am really aiming it only up to the age of around middle ages as as i have done my research i have found that older people do not watch film trailers and do not tend to watch new films as much, also the theme of the film is not really aimed at older people. It will be aimed at teenagers mainly, so the rest of my research will be based on teenagers and what they enjoy and expect from films as my survey monkey was aimed at a broad amount of people of all ages.

Results from Survey Monkey

This was the tweet i sent using new technology as researching into film trailers:

Theses are the results from survey monkey that i collected: 

From this audience feedback i have found out the following things, that people more enjoy having films with romance in then not. I have also found that people would more want to watch a high school comedy than a zombie film or romance. I have also found that people expect to find out a lot from the film from watching the trailer. The longest people would watch a film for is 3 minutes. Favourite film genre is comedy from this selection of people. Finally i found out that people watch film trailers regularly compared to not watching them at all. This helps out a lot, and will help me be able to make the best possible trailer possible to suit my target audience from what they have said through this survey.

Audience research using new technology

For some audience research into film trailers then i made my own survey on survey monkey, i then posted it on twitter and asked for all of the people who follow me on twitter to complete the survey for me, these are the questions i asked:

1. Do you watch film trailers often? 
2. What is your favorite film genre?
3. What is the longest you would sit and watch a trailer?
4. Do you expect to find out a lot about the film through the trailer?
5. What type of film would you rather watch?
6. Do you enjoy comedy films with romance in?

I asked each of these questions to find out what people think of trailers, and if people even watch film trailers a lot, i also used this survey to find out what genres people like. As my film is going to be a little bit of a comedy then i wanted to find out if people would enjoy a comedy with romance so asked that question within my questionnaire. I made all of the questions have multiple answers so it would not have to much of a broad response, the maximum was 5 answers people could chose from.
I am waiting for responses now as i would like as many people as possible to fill out my questionnaire so i can have the best range of answers. 

This was what the survey looked like online:

I feel these questions will really help when constructing my piece. I will have the answers from my target audience and this will then make me be able to make my trailer as i have made critical questions such as the time that they would watch the trailer, this will help me out in knowing how long i need to make the length of my trailer. Also it will help me know for certain that i made the right choice about a 'high school comedy' or would of everyone preferred a 'zombie apocalypse'? Getting the answers to these questions from my target audience should definitely help make my trailer the best it can be and form it together.  

Certificate

As i researched into films i found out that there are many different certificate of ages that you can have, these are the range of different certificates you can have:


This shows that your film can be rated from a U to an 18.
With the films that i have researched that are similar to mine they are rated as the following:
Mean Girls - 12A
Freaky Friday - PG
Just My Luck - PG

As my films content will be similar to these, but not exactly the same then i would certificate it as a 15 because there will be romance in the film eventually, and also there are scenes of fighting in film, only vague violent scenes, but i do not think that it would be suitable for 12 year olds. However there will be no gore or extreme violent scenes. I would not certificate it as any lower than a 15 because it could be confusing for children of them swapping bodies and it would not be appealing to young children. I will also certificate my film a 15 as i feel that as the trailer would go on as it is based in a high school i would like to create most aspects of things that happen when in a high school, so there would be drug taking when at parties. Or the people in school who are known for doing drugs, i would like to make sure all the different groups of people who you find in a high school are highlighted.

When certificating it as a 15 then the types of things i can include are:

• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.
• The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

I am perfectly happy with being able to have that to include as i do not have to include them but that is the extent that the film can go to, my film will not have extreme strong violence and language so this is why i do not need to put it to a 18 and it would have no sexual scenes where full nudity is shown, there will also not be big scenes on violence and crime either so it would not be an 18.

Top 5 body switching films and research

I researched what were the top 5 box office hits from body swapping films, these were the top 5:

1. Big
2. Freaky Friday
3. 17 Again
4. 13 Going On 30
5. The Change Up

'Big' was made in 1998 and is about a little boy who wishes he was 'big' and then wakes up in a mans body. In 30 seconds of the film they introduced what film industry made it which was 20th Century Fox. 2 minutes and 12 seconds into the trailer they introduced the title of the film 'Big' and the trailer lasted 2 minutes and 24 seconds long. This is the trailer for the film 'Big':

The Film Freaky Friday was also another big hit which i have already discussed where a mum and daughter switch places. This is 'Freaky Friday' the trailer:

The film '17 Again' which was a big hit with Zac Efron in was about a man who goes back to being his teenage self over night and goes back to high school as him which is a very funny story, made in 2009. It is 2 minutes 23 seconds long. The man wishes that he could do his life all over again as his wife is just divorcing him and there was a big storm where he comes out as his 17 year old self. The title of the film comes in at 2 minutes 18 seconds, near the end similar to all the other trailers. This is the trailer for it:

13 Going On 30 was also a very popular film of a woman who wakes up in an older body but she wants to be back to her young self again and she has to figure out her life of who she is now as she is in her body but just a 30 year old her. The trailer has a voice over saying how the main character couldn't grow up fast enough, 11 seconds into the trailer it shows who the film was produced by which was Colombia studios. The voice over explains exactly what is happening over the acting of what is going on, it tells how she makes a wish on wishing dust to be 30. She wakes up 17 years later and it shows how she copes with catching up with what is going on with her life. The trailer goes on for 2 minutes 27 seconds. The title comes in at 2 minutes and 6 seconds, leaving just over 10 seconds of the trailer left. This is the trailer for the film:

I have already spoken about the film The Change up lower down but here is the trailer for that:

Trailer Research

Another one of my inspiration is from the film Freaky Friday as in my film the 'popular' girl and the 'geek' girl switch places. In freaky friday the mum and daughter switch places.

 

This is the trailer for it:

This film trailer is 1 minute and 16 seconds long and the title of the film comes in at 1 minute and 5 seconds so it also leaves about 10 seconds worth of footage afterwards and it shows most of the trailer before showing the title. 

Just My Luck is another film where it is like people switching places as the girl looses her luck to someone else and gets all of the other persons bad luck, they then learn to live in each others lives.

 

 This is the trailer for it:

In Just My Luck then the title of the film comes in at the end of the trailer with about 10 seconds left of footage afterwards. It shows a lot of the binary opposites from the women and man and shows what happens when it switches. The film trailer is 2 minutes and 14 seconds long.

Another film i found with a similar strap line where two people switch bodies is a movie called

'The Change Up.'

A married man with kids switches bodies with his best friend who is a known player and gets all the girls, it was made in 2011. When researching into this film i watched the following trailer.

Throughout the start of the trailer then it introduces the two separate men and shows how one is a 'family guy' and what his life is like and then the other man who is a player and shows him having a good time, contrasting each of the characters against each other, showing how different their lives are. It shows how they are different and introduces them by having writing introducing them, like having writing across the scene of 'the family guy' when introducing one of them. It then shows what film industry made it, this one being 'Universal'. It shows the main plot in the trailer of them wishing they had each others lives and then switching bodies waking up in the different body.

The title of the film comes in at 2 minutes 21 seconds and the trailer goes on for 2 minutes and 32 seconds. It does not show any of the bad things that happen in the film only funny bits and what is the main plot of them switching places.

Another film where the event of people switching bodies occurred is in a film called

'It's a Boy Girl Thing'

This film is about sworn enemies who find themselves in each others bodies, and use this to ruin each others lives.This is also a comedy, i am finding all of the films i have researched with people switching bodies are comedies. This is the trailer for this film:

I found when watching this trailer then at the start of the trailer the two had already switched places and it uses a voice over to explain what is happening of them waking up in each others beds and then going to high school. The trailer then goes on to show how they live their lives in each others bodies, showing some comedy to the film but not too much as they wouldn't want to ruin the film by showing the trailer. It tells you how the two of them will have to go through extreme lengths to fit into the place of being in each others bodies. I found that this had a lot of writing at the start of the trailer telling you what the voice over was saying like 'waking up in the wrong bed'. The trailer lasts for 2 minutes and 6 seconds and the title comes in near the end of the trailer at 1 minute 53 seconds with just over 10 seconds of footage left after the title.

Inspirations

The main inspiration for my film is from the film 'Mean Girls' as it was a very popular film which is still watched many times by people, it is also one of my favourite films so i will enjoy making this film.

As i researched into this trailer then i found it has a few different trailers for it, the main one being 1 minute 32 seconds, and the others being around 2 minutes and 32 seconds. The title of the film usually comes in to the trailer around the end at around 2 minutes 20 with some big impact beforehand making you remember it, after the title they have put in 10 seconds more worth of footage. The trailer doesn't give out too much information but tells you everything you need to know to no what you are letting yourself into when you come to watch it.

Second idea

As my idea before was to have a zombie take over then when i thought about it and how it was all going to work it did not seem like it was going to work out right, i then thought of a new idea of a film which is to have it filmed in a high school of a group of popular girls and unpopular 'geeky' girls starring in it. The 'popular' girl will bully the 'geek' girl and then throughout the film they will change bodies with each other, this will create a dilemma of them trying to fit the place of each other and will bring some funny, interesting events.

Certificate

 
My choices for my film certificate are above, i know for a fact it would not be certificated at a U because the whole film wouldn't work and an 18 would be too high as i would not like to have it too violent it is meant to be a comedy as well. I would like to keep the violence down to keeping it at a 15 as then i know the audience will be wider and more crowds to crowd to watch it. I like to have it as a 15 for a wider market and for i would like it to be a bit funny anyway, also by putting the main characters as teenagers i would imagine this would direct more at teenagers. After doing some research i found out what types of things can go into a 15 film, this includes; strong violence, some swearing and nudity. My film will have some violence in and some swearing so this is good. This is perfect as that is all i need to put into my film for it to work.

                                     

So i have chosen for my film to be 15.

First idea

I have decided my trailer will be will be a thriller/horror maybe a bit of comedy. My inspirations are from Derren Brown 'Apocalypse' and the film 'Hot Fuzz' also 'Shaun of the dead'.
My film is going to be about a little village getting taken over by zombies. I think that it will work very well with the places i have in mind and should come together very well, including making people want to go watch it by having a good trailer come along. I am thinking of having a plot of where some hopeless teenagers have to take the whole situation into their own hands to save the world.

Trailers

To help me decide what i am going to do and how long my clip is going to be i will watch other trailers which i think that my type of film would be similar to.

Hot Fuzz is the first trailer i watched, this trailer goes on for exactly 3 minutes and doesn't give out to much information.



I then decided to watch Shaun of the Dead as this film really inspires me and is similar to the types of ideas i would like to do, this trailer went on for 1 minute and 50 seconds.

First Idea

I am going to make a trailer for a film for my project.
 I have come up with a few ideas of what i could do my trailer on, so far i have decided that i want it to be a horror and maybe with some comedy in it so a mixed genre. I am still unsure whether to make it a horror and comedy, the reason i wanted both is because i can't decided whether to make the whole genre comedy or not as i have some ideas that fit into both genre.