Poster Image

During the filming process, we were conscious of the fact that we also have to make a poster and magazine simultaneously with our film - therefore we thought that it would be a good opportunity to take the image on the day of filming. The above image is the image that we decided. We feel that this is a appropriate poster image as it features all of our characters and gives a indication to the personality of the characters especially Alice (right middle). This allows the audience to get a feel of the character before the trailer has even been realised, none the less allowing them to understand that Alice is the main protagonist due to the fact that she is acting in a way in which stands out on the poster.

Diary Post: Started Filming!

Hiya, so today my co producer Olivia and I, and our cast and crew began filming our trailer! Our filming schedule didn't follow as planned due to some slight issues with equipment yet we are now well underway to creating a trailer! Despite some stressful moments in which all producers are due to experience, I had such fun and cant wait to continue the filming process! Here are some photos below of the filming process.. 

Diary Post: Filming Schedule issues!

So as is evident on my filming schedule, I was planning to go out and film on the set dates that are shown in my filming schedule, however due to circumstances out of my hands, some of these filming days didn't quite go to plan. Although this was a issue and we had to reschedule the days in which we plan to film - this will not effect the quality or quantity in which we aim to film. 

Film Poster Planning: Feedback

Feedback received so far: 

• Add convergent links such as hashtags
• Experiment with the placement of cast names

This is the current feedback in which we have gained from putting our poster on our Instagram page. The feedback we have received has been constructive and we will defiantly take this on board when creating the final drafts. Although we are hoping to get more feedback on this poster in order to better our creation, the feedback we have received so far as been really beneficial and we can begin to adapt and change our poster based on this. It is also helpful that so far, we have gone one female opinion and one male opinion as this balances out the gender and gives us feedback from both genders of our target audience. 

Already, Instagram has been a very useful platform in order to market and gain feedback o our film as, as you can see in the above screenshots, our target audience can interact with each others comments and comment back to one another. 

Marketing: Social Media

As my co producer Olivia and I well on our way to producing this trailer I think that now, this would be a perfect time to begin to market our film in order to create a large target audience that will promote and get the film heard. After debating various ways and marketing strategies we could use, we decided to make a social media Instagram account based around our film. We felt like this would be the most successful option and social media is accessible and is consumed daily by our target audience. As our Instagram page has only just been made public, we are currently awaiting followers from our friends and family who are all going to share the page in order to get the page as many followers as possible. We will also use this Instagram page as a way of feedback, we will post drafts and versions of the trailer, poster and magazine cover in order to gain constructive feedback from our target audience.

The left above screenshot is of the Instagram page, as you can see the name of the page is 'thechristmasfilm' this is a working title for our film - not yet confirmed however we wanted to use this title for the page as it gives a indication to the genre and the media platform allowing people to know that is a film we are producing. Also, we have included convergent links such as the website to further promote the film and make it look as realistic as possible. 

We have posted one photo so far which is a hint to when the main film is being released. Despite this, we have included the marketing strategy of a hashtag in order to promote the film across social media platforms. 

Font Research And Intertitles

I have previously analysed the inter titles for the Christmas romantic comedy 'The Holiday'. This is a film that my trailer is going to be heavily inspired by as I am going to try and replicate some shots and some of the mise en scene that features in the trailer. Due to my trailer not being fully produced as of yet, it is difficult to find fonts and styles that will suit the film i am producing. As i have already looked at The Holiday, i am going to look a other films within the same genre and gain inspiration. 

The above inter titles are from the Christmas film 'Love Actually'. All of the inter titles that feature in this trailer are consistent in the font and colour scheme, this is very important to me as i aspire my trailer to look sophisticated and professional therefore producing a trailer with a consistent and fluent colour scheme/size and font is a definite. In terms of this trailer, i like the fact that the white red and black colour scheme compliment each other without being too bright and colourful. Red and white are colours that my co producer and I have previously discussed for our font as these are conventionally linked to Christmas film, as evident in the above snap. It is also interesting to notice that the inter titles and fonts accompany what is on the screen and the mise en scene at that particular part in the trailer, for example in the medium slightly left aligned shot of Hugh Grant, the titles are next to him instead of in the middle as this fits with the cinematography. This is something that i will defiantly be conscious of when making the font and inter titles for my trailer. Also, i am inspired by the fact that some of the inter-titles are accompanied by an image and some are simply located on their own against a coloured background. Therefore the isolated inter-title makes the sans serif font become the main focus allowing the text not to be overpowered by the dominant image.

Actor Release Form

Below is the actor release form in which i am going to distribute to the actors and actresses that are going to feature in my film. They will then fill the form out, give it back to me granting their consent to feature in the production. 

PRODUCTION TITLE: ‘The Christmas Production’ – Working title

PRODUCER: Emma Eustace

DIRECTOR: Olivia Ogle

ACTOR RELEASE FORM

To Whom It May Concern:

I (the undersigned) hereby grant to _____________________________ the right to photograph me and to record my voice, performances, poses, actions, plays and appearances, and use my picture, photograph, silhouette and other reproductions of my physical likeness in connection with the motion picture tentatively entitled (the “Picture”).

I hereby grant to _____________________________, its successors, assigns and licensees the perpetual right to use, as you may desire, all still and motion pictures and sound track recordings and records which you may make of me or of my voice, and the right to use my name or likeness in or in connection with the exhibition, advertising, exploiting and/or publicizing of the picture. I further grant the right to reproduce in any manner whatsoever any recordings including all instrumental, musical, or other sound effects produced

by me, in connection with the production and/or postproduction of the Picture.

I agree that I will not assert or maintain against _____________________________, your successors, assigns and licensees, any claim, action, suit or demand of any kind or nature whatsoever, including but not

limited to those grounded upon invasion of privacy, rights of publicity or other civil rights, or for any reason in connection with your authorized use of my physical likeness and sound in the Picture as herein provided.

By my signature here I understand that I will, to the best of my ability, adhere to the schedule agreed to prior to the beginning of my engagement. Additionally, I agree, to the best of my ability, to make myself available should it be necessary, to rerecord my voice and/or record voice-overs and otherwise perform any necessary sound work required after the end of filming. Should I not be able to perform such sound work, I understand that _____________________________ may enter into agreement with another person to rerecord my

dialogue and/or record voice-overs and use this sound work over my picture or however they deem appropriate.

I hereby certify and represent that I am over 18 years of age and have read the foregoing and fully understand the meaning and effect thereof.

Name:

Address:

Telephone:

Character Name:

Call Sheet

Call Sheet # 1 – TBC

Trailer: ‘The Christmas Production’

Call time:		Weather:
Production Contacts: Director: Emma Eustace/Olivia Ogle Camera Operator: Emma Eustace/Olivia Ogle Any other jobs: Reggie Bateson		Phone numbers: Emma Eustace: 07500934198 Olivia Ogle: 07493208404 Reggie Bateson: 07538742810 Cheam High: 02086445790	Email addresses: emmajeustace@aol.com livo1998@hotmail.co.uk reggiebateson@icloud.com
Set/Scene/Storyboard frame	D/N	Location:	Synopsis:	Cast:
My Home		Cheam	Family environment, Christmas spirit, decorations and embracing the Christmas spirit.	Family Members, Emma Eustace, Grace Bennett, Olivia Ogle, Millie Nelson.
Winter Wonderland		Hyde Park, London	Filming the Christmas ambience and the general activity that happens at winter wonderland. Stalls, Rides, Bars etc.	The general day to day goers of Winter wonderland, yet no close ups or shots in which people would be able to be identified.
Church		Cheam	Outside of the church – the mise en scene of the church and holy environment, then filming footage of the inside carol concert that is being presented by members of my school.	The members of the school choir, parental permission and permission from those featuring in the footage will be required.
Harrods/Hamleys (Busy shops in central London)		London	Montage of footage for the first part of our trailer, therefore filming the Christmas atmosphere and the busy London streets at Christmas time in order to set the location for the film.	The general shoppers, yet no close ups or shots in which people would be able to be identified.

Production Requirements	Who is responsible?
Travel:	Olivia Ogle
Catering:	N/A not filming during short period of time
Props:	N/A
Costumes:	N/A no specific clothing for majority of scenes.
Hair & Make-Up:	Olivia Ogle

Preliminary Schedule – Subject to Change
Time	Action
11.59am	Train from Worcester Park to London Waterloo. Trains come every half an hour on a weekday, every 15 minutes on a weekend therefore the wait is not long if train is missed.
12:30	Arrive in London and let the day take us!....

Health and Safety

Very busy in the London area, especially at Christmas time, need to be aware of pick pockets and other dangerous things that may come our way. Equipment needs to be carefully looked after and during the filming, we need to ensure that we are not blocking anyone’s way or causing danger to any of the members of the public.

Film Magazine Research

After researching different institutions in which we can use for our film magazine. Looking at a variety of magazines companies such as Total Film, Empire, Sight and Sound and Entertainment Weekly, it is evident that they all have differentiating conventional films in which they feature on the front of the covers. For example, it is evident that Empire magazines conventionally feature big budget Hollywood hits, which is something we are not producing due to our low budget. Therefore a magazine company such as Entertainment Weekly, which features a variety of different productions across different media platforms on a lower budget, therefore my co producer and I are going to chose Entertainment Weekly as our magazine company. 

The magazine cover in which we have taken inspiration from, is the 2016 phenomena 'Bridget Jones' Baby'. From research i found it hard to find a film magazine cover of the Christmas Genre, however i am going to take inspiration from the layout and design of the below magazine cover. This is what we aspire for our cover to look like, yet with a festive colour scheme and a alternate image. 

Location Recce

Location to be used: Date of when location is needed: Time of when location is needed:	Winter Wonderland – Hyde Park 2/12/2016 The location will be needed in the afternoon/evening due to the atmosphere of the event being at the most suitable for the production of our film at these times.	No additional notes
Do you need permission to record/photograph in this location? Who will you need to contact?	No, this is an open and public free event which is held in the grounds of a park. Therefore permission will not be required for the filming inside of the event as we will be filming the ambience of the park its self and the surroundings not specific people or acting out a specific scene – therefore the act of my filming process in this location will not cause any problems to the event.	Although we will not need permission to film in this event, if we were to film any specific people within the crowd that would potentially feature in our film, we would need their approval that they agree to do so.
Will the levels of noise cause a problem? If so, how will you overcome this?	No the level of noise is not due to cause a problem to us as this footage will feature as part of the montage footage – therefore there will be no acting and dialogue that could potentially be overstricken by the noise of the ambience and atmosphere.	No additional notes
Is the level of lighting suitable?	Yes, the level of lighting is suitable as the shots I am planning to film only require a dark background accompanied by the magical lights that light up the event, for example the fairground rides etc.	If the filming deems to be unsuitable on the day I will have to result in either going back to film another day, or adding a filter or playing around with the editing software in order to increase the brightness levels.
If inside, are the Emergency exits clearly visible and available? Is Emergency equipment provided?	Yes throughout the park there are various fire exits allocated around the site due to the large capacity of people that are there, there is more than one – so in the event of a fire, the fire exits will be clearly evident.	My crew and I will not be taking fire equipment with us however as this is a large event there will be health and safety people there that will have equipment in the event of an emergency.
Is there public transport easily available to you?	Yes, directly outside of Hyde Park is Hyde Park underground station with links to various tube lines which makes our journey easy and accessible, despite this Green Park station is a short walk down the road, and there is various bus stops located around Hyde Park.	Having an Oyster card makes it easier and more accessible for my crew and me to get around the busy London town on the days of our filming!

Film Poster Planning

Today I put the preparation for the actual trailer on hold and began to think more concisely about my film poster that is going to accompany my film. After researching and finding some film posters that range across all genre, I was exposed to various different styles and types that I could possibly replicate. Myself and my team member Olivia sketched out a ruff outline and draft of what we are hoping to produce, so let me explain to you our idea...

We are aiming to have two protagonists (one female and one male) pictured standing, looking and observing a large Christmas tree, immediately showing the audience the christmassy feel that we aim to exemplify throughout the film. The Christmas tree will dominate the poster as it is the largest item on the page, in the background we will have the ambience and city, passers by which we will blur out making the two characters by the Christmas Tree the central focus. The working title will be located at the top of the poster with the star on the tree acting as the 'I' in 'Christmas'. Social Media links will defiantly feature in our poster as this is a great marketing technique and a good way of promoting the film, therefore this will conventionally feature at the bottom of the poster. Although these are our ideas at the moment, this is only our first draft, therefore we are aware that our actual professional poster may deviate from this slightly.

Making My Music: Update

Here's an update of where I am at with the making of the soundtrack for my trailer. This is a time consuming task as Garage Band is a new software that I am slowly getting to grips with, however I am doing my best - and with the help of the music tech teacher - to navigate around the software and make this soundtrack the best it can be! So far, I have added numerous 'loops' of sound including, bell transitions, jingle bells etc that all accompany one another nicely and my soundtrack is starting to come together. Although I am making the soundtrack now before my filming is all complete, I am aware that I will have to manipulate the music slightly to fit the pace, transitions and footage that will construct my trailer. 

Institution Research

As I am beginning to creep into the filming stage for my trailer, I think that this is a important time to begin to research the production/institutions that are going produce and distribute my film. Due to making a film of the Christmas Genre and having films like Love Actually and The Holiday as inspiration, it is important to look at institution and company's that are significantly involved in films of this genre. My co-producer and I are aspiring to make a film that realistically would be distributed by large and successful company that falls within the 'Big 6' such as universal in order for our film to be successful and in the real world, have the most potential to be a hit film. In regards to producers, we were planning on having a production company that is independent and can mirror our low budget that we have! Therefore with a independent producer and successful 'Big 6' distributor, our film has the most potential to succeed. 

I researched the 2003 Christmas Phenomena 'Love Actually' in order to find out the production and distribution company's associated with such film. 

This is a film that is one of my inspirations as it includes a variety of Hollywood actresses and actors that work as the USP for the film attracting a wide audience, also despite this it follows the festive theme, like i wish to do with my film and cleverly accompanies various narratives against each-other. Part of the reason for the success of this film (Like any blockbuster film) is due to the production and distribution company associated.

Production company/s: 
Universal Pictures
Studio Canal
Working Title Films
DNA Films

Distribution Company/s:

Various company's were used in order to distribute the film yet the most poignant was Universal.  

From this research and knowledge of the film industry it is evident that the most popular and successful distributor is Universal. Therefore my co-producer and I are settled on the fact that Universal should distribute our film as this gives our trailer a great platform to be able to become a successful Hollywood film following Love Actually and The Holiday.

Filming Schedule

After looking and considering a range of dates, my co-producer and I have decided on a range of dates over the December period in order to begin to film our production. December is a prominent month for us as our film is a festive Christmas film, therefore all major Christmas activities and mise en scene is going to be taking place within the month of December, considering this the majority of our filming needs to commence in the coming few weeks. 2nd and 5th of December are inset days, therefore we are going to take these days in order to go to London and film some scenes on the busy and festive London streets!

Locations

In my trailer, the aim is to create a trailer that includes a wide variety and locations in order for me and my co partner Olivia to show our skills to the best of our ability. Using a variety of locations allows our trailer to look professional and present the amount of locations that would appeal realistically in the whole length of the film. From completing research and trailer analysis, I realise that a large number of locations need to be covered in order to make a successful trailer.

This is the Hamleys store in London, which is one of the locations in which I am to film at. This is a conventional location for a Christmas film as it is common for films within the festive genre to feature a scene in a popular and festive toy shop for example in home alone there is a scene in the famous toy shop in Macys in New York. This is a location in which would fit the genre of my film perfectly as the mise en scene inside the store within the festive period is clearly identifiable to a Christmas film. 

Another location which is a definite on the shooting script is the ever busy and extremely festive 'Winter Wonderland' located at Hyde Park in the centre of London. My co producer and I feel like this is a perfect location as it is a free event and has the exact Christmas ambience that we are trying to portray in our film. Also within this event there is lots of different shots we could film as there is a ice skating rink, fair ground rides and lots of typical Christmas events that would be expected to see in a film of such genre. 

Storyboarding

After weeks of research and planning, my co-producer Olivia and I have come to a very exciting stage in the preparation of our film! We have reached the storyboarding stage!! wooohoo. Although we are both aware that this is going to be a challenging task as we are not 100% secure on the story line, and we understand that our film is not 100% going to replicate our storyboard - we are going to give it our best shot and clearly plan out the different shots we are hoping to include in our trailer, making it easier for us when it comes to the filming stage. I will keep you updated on how our storyboards are coming along! 

This is my current storyboard at the moment, these first 7 shots indicate the institutions and distributors of my trailer, also the first few shots that show the montage of this particular scene. 

 

Music: Garage Band

Today I had a extremely beneficial tutorial with a music tech teacher, and I was taught the simple steps and navigation around the software Garage Band. This is the software that I am going to use in order to create original music that will fit my trailer and accompany the action directly. Learning how to add loops of music, play around with the tempo and understand a idea of the sounds that will suit the festive genre, is something that I will benefit from as I can now start the exciting process of making my music! Being able to manipulate and edit my own soundtrack for my film will allow me to make a unique trailer, ensuring that I do not include any copy right music. I am so excited to further my skills on Garage Band, with extra tutorials and support from my teacher, as this is something I definitely want to include in my trailer. 

Christmas/Festive film clichés!

After changing the idea and genre of our film, I have decided to do some research into some Christmas film clichés that I may/may not include in the opening of my film.

1. Unrealistic amount of snow

Something that appears in most Christmas films is defiantly snow, and tons of it! This adds to the Christmas feel and the audience will easily be able to identify the genre just by this mise en scene. Typically american Christmas films produced by large institutions feature excessive amounts of snow, which sometimes looks somewhat unrealistic. Although it would be great to have snow in my film ...this is a convention of Christmas films that I am not certain on replicating in my film as it can not be guaranteed that snow will be forecasted to fit with my filming schedule. 

2. The neighbours are your enemies     

Something that is common on all Christmas films is that the main dominating family in the film do not get along with their neighbours! As a fan of the Christmas genre this is something I have seen before many times, in films such as Christmas with the Kranks. This is a film I am hoping to take inspiration from therefore maybe this is something to include in my story line if I decide to include neighbours! 

3. Santa gets an impostor 

This is a cliche that will not be appearing my film as Santa is going to feature in the trailer, yet won't be one of the main protagonists. Christmas films that include characters like Santa typically appeal to a younger demographic yet my trailer is going to be aimed at those teenage/adult range. 

Audience Feedback Update

After distributing my survey to a variety of people between the ages of 16-20, 6 have completed my online survey regarding film trailers. This is clearly not enough results as 6 is a significantly small amount of people, and I aim for about 10-15 people to complete it in order to gain a wider range of results so I can analyse effectively. However for the mean time, I thought I would analyse the 6 answered surveys that are completed.

I included this question in order to establish whether the demographic are interested in watching the trailer first in order to get a understanding of if the film is worth a watch. From the results it is evident that there is a 50/50 split between very likely and likely, therefore it is essential that a competent trailer is produced as this will be a reflection of the real film, and from the results we can see that it is frequent that my target will watch the trailer to decide whether the real film is worth a watch. Linking to the purpose of a trailer being to entice the viewers to watch the full film.

As I am still in the planning stages of my trailer, it is not yet clarified whether I am going to produce a theatrical or teaser trailer. These results showing that the audience prefer theatrical trailers helps aid this problem I am yet  to solve! This gives me a definite indication that I will produce a theatrical trailer. A theatrical trailer will therefore allow me to include more shot types and exhale my skills more efficiently as theatrical trailers are conventionally longer than a teaser.

I included this questions as it enabled me to gain a understanding of what film trailers people of my target demographic watch - therefore indicating the type of films they are into helping me with my narrative. Also, this question allows me to do some further research into what trailers have been watched but haven't done a good enough job of enticing the viewer to see the film at the cinema. For example 'Girl on the train' appears twice in the results of this question, meaning that there might be a specific reason for this - or contrastingly they just might not have got round to watching it yet as it is a current film in the market! I will do some further research into this.

This question enabled me to get a sense of whether trailers that deploy the whole narrative from start to finish work effectively. From the results it shows that 2 people think this works effectively, however a greater number of 4 people think that this doesn't entice a viewer to watch the film. Based on these results, in my trailer, I am going to aim to keep the ending omniscient in order to give people a reason to watch the full film and find out what happens.

This question enabled me to get some research on what sound will work effectively in my trailer. It is a common convention for trailers to have a voice over, however I was unsure whether this is something that my target audience find powerful, or contrastingly distracting. From the results 1 person thinks that it is slightly distracting, 3 people think it is not very distracting  and 2 people aren't quite decided on what they think. This is a varied distribution of results - however the largest distribution is with 3 people who are not fazed by a voice over, which is something I could consider to deploy my narrative in the trailer.

In the creation of this questionnaire I wanted to gain a idea from a specific target audience of what trailers do not work effectively and in fact subvert the viewer from watching the film. Therefore from the results of 6 and 7 I was able to do so. 4 people interestingly said that they have never been put off by a trailer, however 2 people challenged this and said that they have been put off. I included question 7 to find out specifically what film/films have done so. One result showed that the person cant remember - meaning that the film trailer obviously didn't impact the viewer enough to even remember the name!...Something that I am definitely trying to avoid! The other named 21 jump street, further to this I will do some research into why this trailer didn't adhere to it's purpose and entice the viewer into watching the whole film.