Third Initial Idea

Product: A film trailer or a short film about a support group (hard hitting and at the same time is will have some comedic elements and can also be seen as a coming of age type film.

Target Audience:

• Fans of cult/emotional dramas such as this trailer/short film

• Fans of coming of age films

• People who have been in the situations portrayed on the screen such as being depressed, being an alcoholic, being a drug addict and being bereaved etc.

• People who enjoy comedy films as it does have some sort of comedic element to it.

• Support group workers as it is relatable for the situation that they are in

• People who regularly attend a support group as it is relatable for them.

• People who work in and attend guidance counselling/therapy as this film trailer/short can be relatable for them also.

Idea: The idea is based on a support group of people who meet up every month for a meeting on how they are doing in life, it will be based on a support group either for drugs, alcohol, depression, suicide, bereavence, mental illness or other hard hitting subjects or a mixture of these things, the group consists of 6 members who have all met through a support website chat forum type, they have all become very friendly with each other over the months that they have been in the group and they all have different stories within the trailer/short film. The comedic element comes from the basis that they meet up in an abandoned shed every month instead of actually meeting up somewhere sensible like a community centre, throughout the short film/trailer you see flashbacks from their lives, scenes of them in the group having fun as well as emotional hard hitting scenes of them opening up to each other. Most of it will be filmed in the shed where they all meet up as it is only a trailer/short film and some of the scenes will also be shot in other locations showing flashbacks and storylines with the characters, I also want to present links between the characters.

Strengths

• It’s a great storyline which combines different genres of an emotional coming of age short film/trailer; it provides emotional content, comedic content and has a mixture of flashbacks and modern day scenes to back it up.

• With a storyline like this there is so much space to do a lot with editing, for example the transition scenes could look really good using after effects. I could also use the colour grading of the piece to portray its emotional content, for example the colour grading will be brighter in happy scenes showing lots of greens and yellows, whereas if a character is angry the colour grading will be shown as red or oranges and if a character is sad I will portray it with greyer colours and near black and white scenes.

• I will also create some motion graphics for the website that you see all of the characters using to meet up all the time, it will be presented on screens of a phone or on screens of a computer, I will also probably show text bubbles coming out of the people’s heads to create the coming of age computer screen effect, this could be a strength of the idea.

• Using double exposure with footage such as lens flares and dust particles could make the coming of age film effect come to life. Also with flashbacks I have a wide variety of stories that I could include such as trips, suicides, and people getting together and main storylines in general which could use some sort of double exposure with.

• If I filmed within an abandoned shed this would give me opportunity to experiment with lighting, a dark spotlight or illuminated faces could look cool if I decide to go forth with this idea.

Weaknesses

• The idea needs more of a finishing touch in the aspect of how these characters meet and how these characters have links between them, through idea development I will take this further.

• The idea needs a clear idea of who the characters are and what their stories are, this will also help towards the flashback scenes I want to compose.

• The idea needs to have a happy flow throughout if it is a trailer so that it can suddenly break down into the emotional parts of the story and then the third part of the trailer would be the coming of age part with a mix of emotions and then I want to either end with a cliff hanger to make audiences want to watch the full length feature film, or I will turn it into an emotional end or a happy ending but with a twist, it will all come through idea development.

• The idea needs to have a mix of emotions and a clear idea of what order I want to present them in if I decide to present this piece of work as a short film, I want it so that it doesn’t get boring throughout and has a bit of a bipolar storyline in the aspect of you don’t know whats going to happen at the end.

• Making the short film/film trailer have more comedic elements in more than just the fact that that they meet up in a shed is a bit of a weakness but through idea development I will sort this out.

Opportunities

• Camera equipment in the form of Sony HXR cameras, Canon DSLR cameras or Black Magic Cameras

• Tripod equipment in form of Libec Tripod

• Some lighting equipment in the form of a flolight with a flolight stand, I might need multiple flolights or other lighting so that I can experiment further with how I want the mise-en-scene to look.

• Access to the Adobe creative suite in the form of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe after Effects.

• I need access to a really effective location such as an abandoned shed or some sort of derelict location for the comedic location part of the scene

Threats/barriers

• Getting permission to use locations which are derelict and abandoned.

• Finding actors who are comfortable to talk and act in an emotional trailer/short film such as this.

• Making it light hearted as well as emotional will be quite a hard thing to do.

• Getting the lighting, colour correction and colour grading in the correct way so that it represents the emotions portrayed on the screen could be a hard thing to do.

• To overcome all of these barriers I will use constant trial and error as well as getting some feedback from people watching rough edits.