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

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REFLECTIONS

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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.

INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA TASK

Individual social media task by Sam de Bruin

FILM POSTER

Poster development by Sam de Bruin

TWITTER: INTERVIEW POST

 

I have made a Twitter post about a hypothetical interview including myself and Matthew Heyns talking about our film Off The Leash! with the BFI Future Film Festival.

OFF THE LEASH OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE

The merchandise line for our film will be useful for me and my group as it supplies two key elements. One of which, is a secondary stream of income. People will have to buy our merchandise, meaning we will make money off of the products we sell. This will increase the profitability for the film and allow us to recoup some of the costs spent on making the film. The other element it supplies is how it is free marketing. If people were to buy these products, they would show them out in public, like a shirt or phone case, which people see. Not only is this free marketing, we are being paid to market our film. This is because people see the title and cover art and immediately associate it to our social media page which has the same design. This keeps our film fresh in people's mind and means people are constantly thinking about it when they see these products.

Above is an example of our merchandise. These are exclusive phone cases featuring the title and main design for the film.

Above shows both T shirts we will sell. On the right is one of the animal masks, and on the left is the title and art of the film.

TWITTER PAGE FOR 'OFF THE LEASH!'

On the Twitter page I made for our film Off The Leash, I designed a profile picture and banner art for it. This art will be used throughout all our social media campaign and this style will be used for our distribution campaign and possibly our merchandise. By keeping this style of art consistent throughout our film's distribution campaign, the audience will recognise it over time and immediately associate the images they see with our film, Off The Leash.

PLANNING: POTENTIAL PRODUCTION COMPANY ANIMATION

 

PLANNING: CHARACTER OUTFITS

PLANNING: PROPS

 

PLANNING: RISK ASSESSMENT

 

Risk Assessment	Hazard Proposed	Hazard posed to whom	Risk Level	How Risk was Controlled
Journey to location of filming.	Walking from Esher to the woods  and back from to Esher from the woods– cars.      Travelling via train to and from Esher – big step between train and platform, fast moving trains, public behaviour.                  Travelling via car to and from Esher – be aware of other drivers and pedestrians.	All 4 of us.               Sam, Finn                              Ben, Matt	High               Medium                              High	We took extra care when travelling to our site of filming, always looking both ways when crossing a road.   Sam and Finn will take extra care when entering and exiting the train making sure to check how big the gap between the train and platform is. Make sure to stand behind the yellow line on platforms. Avoid public confrontation.   When driving always check your mirrors and stick to the speed limit to reduce chance of accidents. Always look for pedestrians.
First Aid	Tripping/falling when filming in the woods.           Falling ill/sick Lack of vision - animal masks greatly reduce vision.	All 4 of us               All 4 of us All 4 of us	Medium               Low High	Take care when walking on uneven surfaces. We will carry plasters at all time to accommodate for any cuts.   Taking appropriate measures to help individuals who feel unwell i.e. calling their parents or getting them water. Walking slowly through woods when filming.
General public	Theft - drone, laptop, phones. Assault	All 4 of us                 All 4 of us	High High	Always carry items in a zipped up bag and never leave unattended when filming. Always checking we still have our valuables.   We will walk through public areas as a group of 4 in order to look less approachable. Will not speak to any other members of public.
Public incidents	Terrorism - caught up in terrorist activity leading to injury or confusion. COVID-19 lockdown - preventing us from filming.	All 4 of us All 4 of us	High High	We will follow given government guidelines and be aware of our surroundings so we do not get lost. Make sure everyone knows emergency contacts if needed e.g. 999. Making sure everyone follows covid-19 government guidelines and not breaking the law. Waiting until after the lockdown to continue filming.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

FILM FESTIVALS WE WILL ENTER

We aim to submit our film OFF THE LEASH for screening at film festivals where possible. 

We hope to be successful at the Edinburgh International Film Festival: Youth. I think this is suitable for our film as it is not too unachievable for our comparatively small budget. Film festivals such as the London Film Festival and the Cannes Film festival are out of reach for our budget as films with reputable directors and actors attend this, not a group of 4 student film makers. The Edinburgh Film Festival: Youth on the other hand is not out of reach for me and my team. This is because the genre of film there is more niche and lower budget. Additionally as it is the youth section, we will be coming up against people our age with fairly similar ability. This will even the playing field and give us a real shot at winning it.

Another film festival we will be entering is the BFI Future Film Festival. Unlike most film festivals the BFI hosts this one is for up and coming young creators. Because of this, we have a possibility of attending the Film Festival and is not a completely unrealistic goal for our team with our low level of resources and micro budget. 

BBFC CERTIFICATE

 

PLANNING: TARGET AUDIENCE AND SIMILAR FILMS

 In an interview with Entertainment One UK, Kezia Williams exclaims how important it is for distributors to "know their target audience". This includes what makes them go to the cinema and what interests they have. Additionally, she says that distributors use a variety of data from past films similar to their one, and what made their target audience want to/not want to go to the cinema and see the film. Williams' interview shows how knowing your target audience is a key factor for distributors to be able to distribute the film, directly effecting the success of the film.

I will now be composing a comp list below. This is looking at previous films with a similar genre, USP and story line to our film. With this, we will be able to analyse the success of past films, what they did wrong and what they did right to then finally assess the potential financial success of our film.

Comp List