PROMO PACK BRIEF

 

Sam de Bruin - Candidate number: 1815

I collaborated with ben Richardson 1853, Matt Heyns 1828 and Finn Hanley 1824

We made a promotion package for a horror/thriller film 'Off The Leash!'. Our package includes a regular trailer, a teaser trailer, official social media pages (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and a film poster.

Directing

The directing of the film was a group effort. This is because throughout filming we were all chipping in ideas, for example, I directed a shot of a jump-scare where a loud noise can be heard in the distance. This continuous group directing allowed us to film more shots than we needed which was a positive as we chopped and changed the footage we used when editing the trailer. However, I believe I was the main director for the film, as I was the one giving the most ideas and saying what the actors should do e.g., where to stand, what to do etc. Additionally, I wrote the script for our film, showing my ability to put myself in the shoes of the characters displayed in our film, allowing myself to imagine what each of the characters would say in certain scenarios.

Camerawork

Matt Heyns took responsibility for the camera work. He filmed our footage on his iPhone 12 Pro which has 2 12MP wide, 7-element, 26mm focal length lenses which feature an advanced optical image stabilisation. This allowed us to film high quality, high frame rate and well stabilised footage, giving us the best picture out of the options of camera that we were given. We did not use a tripod to stabilise the footage as whilst the iPhone camera does have auto-stabilisation, we still wanted a slight hand-held look when the trailer is released. However, Matt filming the footage with his iPhone meant that he didn't get a lot of time in the shot. This has hindered his character development and has meant the viewer is less able to connect with Matt as a character and are unable to relate to him on a personal level.

Editing

I chose the music we used for the trailer, searching YouTube for hours for music that would fit our film properly and match the themes we were trying to convey. In every edit we were making, we were looking for ways to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and scared, portraying an ominous feeling amongst the trailer. Final Cut Pro X allowed us to freely edit the film with full control over what we wanted. We were able to change every aspect of our footage which allowed us to tailor the trailer towards the target audience we were attempting to target. I also co-edited the film, although editing was done on Matt Heyns' computer using Final Cut Pro and the edits we were making were all recommended by the members of our group. This made sure everyone got their input on what they wanted in the trailer, ensuring no one was left out or felt like they didn't have a voice. On top of this, it meant our editing was thorough as if Matt was to miss something when editing, we would spot what he missed and recommend what he should change. 

Lighting

When filming in the forest we used the natural lighting in the forest when filming there. We did this as it added a sense of realism into the film. As a result, the viewer is more able to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and relate to the four boys in our film. This reinforces the scared and frightened feeling we were attempting to portray in our film. For selected shots for the trailer and promotional package, we took photographs in the dark room in Claremont. I used the red light in the room and shined it onto the subject of the photos, creating the theme of blood, making people feel as if they are in danger around the subject of the photographs; the protesters in animal masks.

My social media feed; Twitter

I made the Twitter page for our film Off The Leash!. It is a place where I upload behind the scenes footage, notifications about merchandise releases, the release dates of the film and the different film festivals we will be attending with our hypothetical film. On top of this, it acts as a forum where people can talk about our film and discuss the details of it. This creates word-of-mouth marketing on the film and enlightens more people about our film.

My Creative Critical Reflection is in the page above! 👆 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Tweets by OffTheLeash22

CHANGES

sam de bruin

changes

1412

original idea for our film

On the first day we started this project, we started to think about what ideas we should use for our film. Our first and main idea was a mafia film with blood, gore, violence and gun shots. We were extremely excited about this idea as it was something we all wanted to do. However, when pitching it to Mrs Mann it quickly was made apparent to us that we couldn't do this idea due to how it violated the rules and guidelines of the task we were set, meaning that we had to change our idea. This was painful for us as we were so encouraged and ecstatic about our current idea. Nevertheless, we had to adapt and change and over time we developed our idea for Off The Leash!, taking inspiration from other POV films such as the Blair Witch Project. Overall, it was probably a good thing that we had to change the idea of our film as our new idea has more in depth character development, plotline and character relatability. 

film festivals we are entering into

When thinking about what film festivals we would enter our film into, we originally thought we would enter it into high quality festivals like Cannes Film Festival. However, we quickly realised that was completely and utterly out of our reach and unrealistic due to our low film making skills. Because of this, we were searching for new  film festivals we could enter into, until we came across the London Youth Film Festival. We thought this would be fitting as for one, it is for lower budget films and secondly, it is for young filmmakers like ourselves who are budding and up and coming in the media industry. We also found the Edinburgh International Film Festival and believed that like the London Youth Film Festival, it would be fitting for our level, production company, budget and film.

When thinking about what we should make the minimum age to be able to watch our film,  my group and I originally thought that we should rate it an 18, due to the scary themes and risk of possible copycat violence, as it displays concering images of people in masks, which some may emulate. However, we realised by doing this that we would be taking our target audience out of the equation. Because our film is featuring an all teen cast, it appeals to a teenage audience. As a result, we would be restricting our main target audience from watching our film if we were to rank it an 18. Because of this, we thought that rating the film a 15 would be a fair rating. This is because the film would be too distressing to be classified as a 12 or 12A, however, would be restricting our potential viewer number if it was an 18. As a result, 15 is the perfect rating. On the left, you can see the top picture is the BFI certificate if our film was an 18, which it isn't and the bottom pitcutre is the BFI classification certificate we will use, which says 15.

Age rating for the film

"The more you PRAISE AND CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE,

the more there is in life

to celebrate."

- Oprah Winfrey

American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist.

Reference: JF Community

2000

REFLECTIONS

sam de bruin

reflections

1412

First day of filming

On the first day we started filming in the woods, we thought the footage was great and that we would definitely use it for the final product of our trailer for our film Off The leash!. The filming included the 4 boys in the woods, searching for the masked protesters as seen on the news. However, when reviewing the filming when I got back home from filming at Esher Woods, I thought that the natural light of the filming, audio sensitivity and general acting was not great and that we needed to re-film. After coming to this conclusion, I was fairly nervous about consulting the other 3 members in my group about the issues, as I thought I might have been the only one to sense these issues and realise that we have to do it all over again. However, luckily we were all on the same page and agreed that we needed to re-film what we did that day. This is an example of how reflecting on what we did has helped us hugely, as it has pushed our film to the next level, allowing us to produce the highest qualiy film trailer possible.

Age rating for the film

When thinking about what we should make the minimum age to be able to watch our film,  my group and I originally thought that we should rate it an 18, due to the scary themes and risk of possible copycat violence, as it displays concering images of people in masks, which some may emulate. However, we realised by doing this that we would be taking our target audience out of the equation. Because our film is featuring an all teen cast, it appeals to a teenage audience. As a result, we would be restricting our main target audience from watching our film if we were to rank it an 18. Because of this, we thought that rating the film a 15 would be a fair rating. This is because the film would be too distressing to be classified as a 12 or 12A, however, would be restricting our potential viewer number if it was an 18. As a result, 15 is the perfect rating. On the left, you can see the top picture is the BFI certificate if our film was an 18, which it isn't and the bottom pitcutre is the BFI classification certificate we will use, which says 15.

When thinking about what we should make the minimum age to be able to watch our film,  my group and I originally thought that we should rate it an 18, due to the scary themes and risk of possible copycat violence, as it displays concering images of people in masks, which some may emulate. However, we realised by doing this that we would be taking our target audience out of the equation. Because our film is featuring an all teen cast, it appeals to a teenage audience. As a result, we would be restricting our main target audience from watching our film if we were to rank it an 18. Because of this, we thought that rating the film a 15 would be a fair rating. This is because the film would be too distressing to be classified as a 12 or 12A, however, would be restricting our potential viewer number if it was an 18. As a result, 15 is the perfect rating. On the left, you can see the top picture is the BFI certificate if our film was an 18, which it isn't and the bottom pitcutre is the BFI classification certificate we will use, which says 15.

Age rating for the film

"The more you PRAISE AND CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE,

the more there is in life

to celebrate."

- Oprah Winfrey

American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist.

Reference: JF Community

2000

EDITS

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

REFINEMENTS

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

22nd November

On this day, we filmed the main basis of our trailer. We filmed in Esher woods. We thought this location was best as the woods provided us with an eery setting with natural sunlight. Additionally, when people think about the woods they think about animals and dogs being walked. This reflects the themes in our film where protesters in animal masks are in the woods, on the loose. 

The filming was successful as Esher woods was the perfect location to film at, as it allowed us to film at strange, eery locations in a local area. The woods has secluded areas which were handy to film in as it made the viewer feel isolated and helpless, as no one was around to help the 4 boys. Additionally, it was a nice day on the 22nd of November which meant the sun was shining on the actors, giving a sense of natural light. On top of this, there were large sticks and logs around in the wood. This was helpful as we needed something to make a large noise, so we hit a log against a tree to make a bang noise. This scene was the hardest to time so we needed a lot of logs as they kept on breaking. The large abundance of wood there allowed us to do this. 

The downside of filming in the woods was that there were constantly people there, mostly walking their dogs. This meant we had to wait until they got out of shot until we could start filming, as if there were normal public civilians walking around at the time of filming, the sense of urgency and danger would have been destroyed, and would have looked too casual. 

1st December

On this day of filming, we went to the car park which lead into Esher Woods. We needed to film at this location as we were filming Alessia Stefanutti, one of the actors, sitting in the car. The scene we were filming was Alessia in the car being oblivious of two masked men sitting behind her, and one standing in front of her car distracting her from the two behind her. This included reaction shots of Alessia seeing the men in her car and an over the shoulder shot of Alessia sitting in the car.

Filming in the car park went well due to it being Wednesday, the woods were fairly quiet meaning there were no cars driving into the car park when we were filming, allowing us to start shooting the scenes on our own time. Additionally, as the car park is surrounded by woodlands, it has an eery look to it. This builds on the film being a horror film and complies with the scary themes.

One of the downsides was that it started raining for a part of the filming, meaning we had to sit in Alessia's car and wait for the rain to stop, as water would have got on the camera lens and make the footage look blurry and unprofessional.

Aside from filming in Alessia's car, the group also filmed the protest scene for the trailer, on the road leading up to Garsons Farm, from Esher Woods. We had to find an area with minimal foot and car traffic as we were letting off flairs for the protest scene, and we didn't want to cause any unrest in the area, of locals worrying about what we were doing. The filming included a front shot and canted angle shot of the 4 masked protesters wearing animal masks, giving the viewer a complete representation of what they looked like and how daunting they were. 

A positive from filming was that there was no rain at the time of filming the protest scene, meaning that we could set off the flairs without them going out, as rain would have put them out. 

A negative from filming the protest scene was that there were actually a few cars coming up and down the road, meaning we had to wait for people to pass, as for the filming we were doing, it required absolute isolation on the road.