Completed Film Trailer

This is our final trailer, and we have added captions to our video on YouTube to explain what certain features have been used. Our film trailer is relatively short, but we feel perfect for television. From audience research we found that over half of our audience watch trailers mainly on television and therefore this will reach more people.

As you can see, we de-constructed existing products like trailers, posters and magazine covers therefore with the products we created I'm going to de-construct them to give an insight as to why we have done certain things. 

The first still represents really the heart of the story. The whole plot revolves around the mother, Helena and the events that occur due to the death of her baby therefore this shot introduces the characters. By having this as a first shot we see happiness and innocence due to the white colour themed setting. However, immediately in the trailer it soon goes very negative. As you can see the rest of the stills in comparison to the first are very dark and creates an eerie atmosphere. The costumes and setting manage to convey where she is well and this is the hospital.

The second still introduces the company who produced this film: S.E.R Productions and as you can see we have a colour theme throughout our trailer. The main colour scheme is red and black which is typical of films with dark themes therefore conventional of trailers. The black background allows the red and white to appear more vibrant and therefore catch the eye of the audience. The red smoke represents blood but also anger for the loss of her child and her not finding answers.

The third still shows the baby in his cot in a darkened room which creates an atmosphere and indicates that something bad is about to happen. Due to the lighting we were able to create shadows and we’ve created a shadow of a hand going over the baby’s got which we thought would be able to represent the baby being taken away from her  mother. Although we find out that it is actually her who kills her baby, by doing this we through the audience off as they think that it has been taken from her therefore they do not realise any twist and turns in the plot which is crucial for a successful thriller film. We also used a high shot to show the baby as inferior to whatever this is and seem helpless.

The fourth still shows our main character sleeping and drifting into a dream. We have managed to convey this by using the camera to pan up to wall as this is often associated with dreams. The dark lighting indicates night time which is when bad things tend to happen and this is iconic of films.

The fifth shows the dream that our main character and we did have trouble with the lighting however it is clear what is happening, this conveys the killing of the baby but it is not clear who did it. This is essentially one of the most important parts of the film as this is what is going to unfold as the storyline continues. We also made it a mid-shot as we did not want to make this scene to graphic as it is a sensitive subject.

For the sixth still, we used a low angle here to show the private investigator arriving at Helena’s house in the film. We felt that a low angle would convey how superior he is to Helena. He has the power to give her answers that no one else can and therefore this shot conveys this well. It also establishes the location of her home; this location is very thrilling as to have these things happen in her home where she feels safe it just adds to the tension of the film.

The seventh still displays an extreme close up shot of her eyes, this part of the film is when she is really suffering from her illness and the close up of the eyes manages to convey emotion and feelings but is also quiet unnerving for the audience.  This shot also allowed us to really show the make-up of her face that we have used. We used dark eye-shadow to convey bruises which only adds to the mystery of this. The audience will be question how did she get these bruises? This will be an aspect which will hopefully motivate them to go and watch this film.

The eight still is crucial to the trailer as it is the title, D.I.D YOU? Special effects are in use with the red smoke that we used and also with the star flashing through the middle of the title which together really emphasises the title.

The final still is of the release date, the production companies information/logo and website, however we have constructed this part of the trailer so that the release date and website are on the frame before to give the audience time to concentrate on that image, but then fades into the production and distribution details.