Ideas
When coming up with different ideas for our trailer we wanted to do something different and original rather than our initial horror idea. We started from scratch and decided that it would be a good idea to base our trailer on a sports drama. Therefore we decided to come up with many ideas linked with the sports genre. Our most prominent sports topic was basketball as we had many of the facilities at school. We had also come up with a story line.
Story Board
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Initial Idea
Genre: The genre for our trailer is a Drama with the Sub-genre of a sports biopic.
Where: The story for our trailer is set in London
Plot: The story of our trailer revolves around a young man named Victor who's story is based on a true story of a basketball player. Victor from a young age has had a dream of becoming a pro basketball player and wanting to play in the NBA games. Victor's dream was never really supported by the people around him, teachers and parents degraded his passion for basketball. Due to being in the middle of judgement from others and his goal he is trying to reach, Victor makes wrong choices by not getting the best of grades at school, having fights with others and taking drugs. His father is also abusive towards him which doesn't contribute well towards his unstable mind set. These choices that he is making is not easy to wean yourself off but it is important for him to make a change as these obstacles he has in his way are pushing him further away from his NBA career that he dreams off. In order for Victor to become the successful man that he aspires to be, he has to make a choice of which path he want to follow, the one towards success or the road to failure and a lifetime of problems.
Characterisation:
Victor - Victor is a young teenage boy living in london, who is seen to grow up into a young adult. He has been dreaming of the day of becoming a professional basketball player. Unfortunately obstacles are thrown in the way of his dreams such as getting involved with drugs, being abused by his father, not achieving the greatest of grades at school and getting into fights with others. Victor still hold this dream even when making wrong choices so he is now left with the decision of how he wants to go about trying to reach a goal he has aspired for such a long time.
Where: The story for our trailer is set in London
Plot: The story of our trailer revolves around a young man named Victor who's story is based on a true story of a basketball player. Victor from a young age has had a dream of becoming a pro basketball player and wanting to play in the NBA games. Victor's dream was never really supported by the people around him, teachers and parents degraded his passion for basketball. Due to being in the middle of judgement from others and his goal he is trying to reach, Victor makes wrong choices by not getting the best of grades at school, having fights with others and taking drugs. His father is also abusive towards him which doesn't contribute well towards his unstable mind set. These choices that he is making is not easy to wean yourself off but it is important for him to make a change as these obstacles he has in his way are pushing him further away from his NBA career that he dreams off. In order for Victor to become the successful man that he aspires to be, he has to make a choice of which path he want to follow, the one towards success or the road to failure and a lifetime of problems.
Characterisation:
Victor - Victor is a young teenage boy living in london, who is seen to grow up into a young adult. He has been dreaming of the day of becoming a professional basketball player. Unfortunately obstacles are thrown in the way of his dreams such as getting involved with drugs, being abused by his father, not achieving the greatest of grades at school and getting into fights with others. Victor still hold this dream even when making wrong choices so he is now left with the decision of how he wants to go about trying to reach a goal he has aspired for such a long time.
Target Audience
We set up a survey on Survey Monkey and asked class mates, friends and family members to complete the survey as a part of our audience feedback. Not all results turned out to be as we expected or wanted them to be but this allowed us to challenge ourselves further and reach out to our chosen target audience.
Locations
Alley Way - We wanted to film our drug scene in the alley way which represents danger. The Alley way is a closer narrow road which was a perfect location for when the exchange of drugs too place as it shows how Victor is trapped and almost has no choice to take to drugs. Also the setting signifies mystery and secrecy as Victors drug problem was hidden from his family and friends and it was a struggle he faced.
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Sports Hall - When filming in the sports hall we wanted to show many different fast pace action shots with the basketball to make the trailer more interesting and exciting. Also show that basketball was almost an escape route for Victor as many of the other shots and locations show Victors problems.
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Changing Rooms - When filming in the changing rooms we wanted to show Victors vulnerability as many of the shots in this location were of Victor alone. This was to show emotion and create empathy within our audience and create an element of drama and sadness as they saw Victor struggle with his struggles.
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Character Profile
Young Victor played by Ahmed Alsoufah - When deciding who to use for our main characters, we decided to use someone who knew about basketball and played it as well. Ahmed fitted the role perfectly as he was on the Lampton Basketball Team. We decided to use a younger character to play Victor as well as an older character as we wanted the audience to feel sympathy for Ahmed as he was younger he portrayed innocence and vulnerability when going through struggles, which we wanted the audience to feel compassion and sympathy for Ahmed as they would see Ahmed grow up although watch the journey and paths he takes to fulfill his dream.
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Older Victor played by Yahya Muhieddine - In similarity when deciding our character for the older Victor we wanted someone who was familiar with the basketball world. Therefore we decided to cast Yahya who also played Basketball professionally. This made it easier to film the action shots as the Yahya already knew what to do and what skills to show with the basketball making our trailer seem more realistic. We decided to use the name Victor as it combined with our trailer title 'Victory'. Also Victory means win and triumph and therefore we wanted this to be associated with our characters Victor. Using an older character to portray Victor helped to bring the story along as the audience get to see the journey Victor has taken to become a professional Basketball player.
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Costume/Makeup
For cosume design we decided for our characters to be in their traditional basketball kit. Each of our actors had their own basketball kit in which they train in. We used to different kits so that the audiecne could differentiate between the two. As Ahmed our younger actor wore a school basketball kit, however our older actor Yahaya wore the professional basketball kit.
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Props
Basketball - This is the most significant prop used in our trailer as the plot of the movie is surrounds basketball. As our character throughout the trailer is portrayed as a teenager and young adult we want to show how driven he is to reach his dream. Therefore as basketball is always a reoccurring prop that is shown, it connotates that determination Victor has.
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Glass Bottle (Alcohol Bottle) - Victor does face some obstacles in order to reach his dream. Thus the bottle be one of those signs that portray a struggle he faces. We aim to make to audience feel sympathy for Victor as its his father that consumes the alcohol making him physically harm Victor and making him feel like a failure and worthless because of his ambitions
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Drawing - The drawing is a representation of Victors dreams and hopes. We decided to do a close up shot of this so the audience as clear of an image of what Victor wants for himself in the future. When the drawing is scrunched up by Victors teacher it foreshadows how close Victor is to possibly achieving this dream, at this stage in his life.
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Script
Script - We created this script for our final voice over that we were going to use in our trailer. After we had all our shoots filmed and together on final cut pro we decided to film a voice over from there. We had to think carefully as to whose voice to record for our voice over as we wanted someone with a urban idiolect as we thought this would be more suitable for our trailer.
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Film Festival
We decided to create our own film festival this was because our film was an urban based film and we wanted to associate our film with something that represents the younger generation in London. When researching different film festivals such as Cannes we felt that the culture of the films that they were associated with didn't speak to our target audience so therefore we didn't want Cannes Film Festival to link to our trailer. This is why we decided to create our own and give it a name that reached out to the youths of London. The film festival inter-title was created on Photoshop. We did this by using a template which we had found on the internet of the film festival leaves that are typical seen on posters and magazine covers. We had placed the logo upon a black background as we wanted it to fit the theme of our trailer and match our other inter titles.
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NBA (colours)
In our media products, mainly the poster and the magazine cover, we wanted to incorporate the colours of NBA into it. In the two media products it is noticeable to see the use of the colours blue, white and red. The NBA is a professional basketball league mainly focused in the US, but in 1978, they started the NBA global games which invited countries outside the US and Canada to play against foreign countries and other NBA teams. Through social media and talking to people in our school, we discovered that the NBA is highly recognized by male and female teenagers and young adults who are interested in basketball. The NBA's posters, logos and other merchandise, follow the same colour scheme making it something to identify the colours with. As teens/young adults are our target audience for our film, we decided to make the poster and the magazine contain the colours as there was more control over how much we could make it stand out. In our magazine and film poster, Yahya who plays Victor, is seen wearing an England Basketball training kit which stands out with its red and white. Ahmed who plays the younger Victor was wearing a training kit for his school basketball team, this didn't contain blue but we were happy that it still incorporated white. The background of the poster was made completely blue as this is the product that advertised the film and with Yahya being centred in the poster with a basketball, all the colours came together and complimented one another. The product showed the colours well enough for a basketball fan to hopefully catch on with its association with the NBA. On the magazine cover, it was not really creative to have a blue background again so instead it was made a black/grey colour with a flash of blue behind the two characters on the cover, fading into the rest of the background with a gradient effect. We had the characters in the same costume as we wanted the focus to be on the movie, as much as it was on the characters who would be featured in the magazines main article. Yahya is seen holing out a basketball to the audience so again all of the colours and props come together too hold onto the element of the NBA and keep it consistent in the media products.
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Shots and Angles
Soundtrack
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A member of our group, Nakita, proposed the idea of using the track 'Power' by Kanye West as the main background track for our trailer. This track suited well with the action that appeared on screen and was really engaging. She thought of this idea when hearing the track on an ad for an energy drink. The lyrics suited well towards the story of our trailer and it matched really well with the Urban theme that we want to keep continuous in our trailer. The issues raised by using this track was that firstly it is not copyright free so we cannot use this exact one. Using an instrumental had the same impact as the tracks with the rapping did. We found a few instrumentals that we could use but no one was happy with the quality of the sound and the length of the track that we could use.
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After researching further into the song, Nakita found an instrumental which some had interpreted and made it sound almost like the original track but added extra beats which made copyright free. This way it will not be removed when it is put on YouTube as it will not be recognised as an existing track. Reading through the comments we found that the person who made this track allowed others to use the track they made available to download. He/She requested that they were credited however in our trailer, we are unable to do so, we emailed the user to notify them that we have used their track.
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Technology
S4600
We chose to use a high quality professional camera in order to get the best possible photos for our magazine cover and poster. We needed the vibrancy of Yahya's costume to be picked up well and as we were using a white background, we wanted a clear segregation of the colours so that it would be easier to cut out the background around the actor's body without it being rigid on the edges or not being able to use the magic eraser tools to quickly get rid of the background. |
Flip Camera (School Camera)
This camera was used to film all of the footage seen on our trailer. As we had all the facilities needed in school to film our trailer, using the school equipment did not become a burden against our timing. We were able to film various shots from many angles in order to get the best quality footage that we could. The quality of the picture was at a great standard, picking up the colours of what we filmed and not making the footage blurry. |
Lights
The lighting is very poor in the green room so it was crucial that we had extra lighting that we could use to project onto our actors for the shots that we used in our magazine and film poster. we used around 3, focusing mainly on having one each, shine on our two characters. we used our 3rd one to even out the light around the green room as we had light coming in from the open side of the green room. The lighting allowed us to capture great quality images and it also helped towards making the camera pick up the vibrancy of the red in Yahya's costume. |
Tripod
The tripod was used when filming practically all of our shits beside the end shot of the basketball going through the hoop, coming towards the camera. The tripod allowed us to get panning shots that were smooth as well as shoot from different heights and angles without the camera shaking and looking as far from professional as we wouldn't want it to be. As this was part of the school's equipment, other students were probably going to use it for their work however we did not have any problem with one not being available so we were able to get all the shots we wanted at the best quality that we could. |
Light Reflectors
Light reflectors were used to get rid of the shadows that appeared on Yahya from the objects surrounding him that were too difficult to move. It also allowed us to direct the light around him to shine more on his face as he is much taller than Ahmed and the lighting was set so it was mid way between being sufficient for the both of them. This improved the quality of our images a lot as we could move the lighting more and make it suits the needs individually for our actors. . |
iPhone 5
As the flip cam did not pick up the sound for our footage, very well, we decided to use the iPhone 5 to record some of our audio as the sound quality was very good. For our voice over, we had used the iPhone to record this and we were pleased with the outcome as it sounded very clear and there were no noises or a on going muffled sound in the background. We also used the iPhone to film the audio for the scene at the beginning where victor;s teacher scrunches up his drawing. Transferring the audio files from the phone to the school's iMac was very easy as we just emailed it to our personal account and loaded it to final cut pro, in a short space of time. |