Market research

Now that we have come to a decision regarding the name and overall storyline of the film our trailer will be based on, it is necessary to do market research to see what people will think of it, and what suggestions they can give. After spending some time discussing which questions we should ask, these are the ones we came up with:
What is your preferred ratio of institutional information to actual footage? This question concerned the amount of institutional information, such as the name of the production company, for example, compared to the amount of actual footage filmed; we felt that it was important to ask potential viewers how much institutional information they wanted to see in a teaser trailer.
What would you expect from a romantic drama trailer? This was an obvious question, as by knowing what an audience would expect from a trailer, we can hope to fulfill these expectations, as well as find out what we could do to make our trailer original.
What do you think of the name Ménage à Trois? This was to show people's reactions to the name of our "film".
What kind of audience do you think would be interested in a period romantic drama? Again, this question was obvious to as to help establish our target audience.
Would you be interested in watching something like that?
This question was to find out how much interest there was in our film. These are the interviews:

Market Research on Prezi

Plan

Here is the plan we have made to organsise the process of constructing our promotional packages:

Plan

July:

·         Analyse trailers and get ideas and inspiration

·         Take notes on camera angles, editing techniques, mise-en-scene and sound used in trailers

·         Plan ideas and storyline for our own trailer – decide genre

September:

·         Research trailers of a similar genre to ours and establish conventions of them

·         Make storyboard

·         Research locations and costumes needed/where to get them

·         Audition actors

·         Find/research props

·         Decide on which actors to cast

October:

·         Contact people about costumes/locations

·         Get costumes and confirm locations

·         Research hair and makeup

·         Research film magazines and posters

·         Plan filming dates and book out filming equipment

·         Plan photoshoot

·         Film

·         Do photoshoot for magazines and posters (whilst on location?)

November:

·         Do research into using Final Cut Pro

·         Begin to edit footage

·         Do more research into film magazines and posters

·         Begin print work

·         Research soundtrack and voice-overs/text for trailer

December:

·         Begin to add transitions

·         Find soundtrack

·         Write voice-over/text

·         Cast someone for voice-over/record it (if using one)

January:

·         Finalise editing

·         Finish print work

·         Get audience feedback for trailer and printwork/overall promotional package

·         Blog posts on how we made print work

·         Personal evaluations/group evaluation

We hope that we won't encounter any problems, and will be able to stick to it as closely as possible. 

Name of film and overview of storyline

We have decided upon the name "Ménage à Trois" for our film; this translates from French as "Love Triangle," and the romantic connotations held with the French language emphasise this and create a sense of mystery. The overall storyline was thought up after the brainstorm we did on issues in the Victorian age. We all agreed that the aspect of class and status within that era played a vital role in society, creating strong divides between the wealthy and the working class. We have therefore decided that this is an issue we would like to cover in our trailer, combined with aspects of romance. It would be considered a great scandal in those times if a wealthy young woman of high class was seen to be involved with a poor servant, particularly if a rich man of very high class was also courting her. We wanted to emphasise this "love triangle" by filming confrontation scenes between the two men, in order to show the relationship between the three of them.

Storyline:
A wealthy young woman in her late teens is torn between a steady courtship with a rich Count, and a scandalous romance with one of the servants. The woman cannot decide who she loves most, but continues the secretive scandal without thinking of the consequences. The Count becomes suspicious of the servant and confronts him, leading to the servant denying everything, and later on causing a drunken scene in a bar. We have also taken inspiration and influence from the TV drama Downton Abbey, and have decided on a potentially contreversial scene, but one that we know will work well due to the success of Downton Abbey: there will be a shot of the woman's eye looking through a keyhole, followed by a shot of the two men seen through her eyes. All we will see is their feet moving towards each other rapidly; this will make the audience question whether they are fighting or embracing, encouraging people to watch the film in order to find out. We envisaged following this scene with a mid-shot of the woman waking up from a nightmare; this will act as another incentive, leading the audience to wonder whether or not the previous scene was genuine, or whether it was merely an element of the woman's dream.

Brainstorm Prezi

Brainstorm on Prezi

Ideas brainstorm

We originally thought about doing a 19th century themed teaser trailer after watching other examples of A2 media coursework teaser trailers, and brainstorming what we could do to make ours different. As the predominant number of A2 teaser trailers on YouTube appeared to be modern horror-themed, we decided to go with an older theme. Furthermore, we have thought about making a trailer which would challenge the typical conventions of its genre. We knew this could be effective if we pulled it off, as, for example, the TV drama "Downton Abbey" tried this and was extremely successful, although it is set in a different century.


We then thought about issues that were present in that era, and the subject of class, things which could potentially play a large part in our trailer:


We have yet to decide the storyline and theme running through our trailer, but this has given us some different ideas to work with, and inspiration.

Interesting factors of different trailers

 Theatrical trailer for Water for Elephants: 

• High shot, establishing shot, POV shot

• voices and banging sounds create suspense

• music starts up – suspense

• Importance of elements picked – close- up of main character’s faces

• Elements selected appeal to target audience – beautiful woman, good-looking man

 

·     
   Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides teaser trailer:

•        Interesting and original – direct mode of address, one of main characters is telling audience about what is going to happen instead of showing lots of clips from it.

Teaser Trailer Analysis of War Horse and Mission Impossible 4

Teaser trailer analysis powerpoint

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