Hi my name is Ellen and i am doing my A Level media course, i am making a film trailer for my coursework. This is where i will post all of my ideas and everything to do with my coursework.
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:
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I researched what were the top 5 box office hits from body swapping films, these were the top 5:
Big
Freaky Friday
17 Again
13 Going On 30
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
