Trailer Analysis: Number of shots

When writing our shotlist, we will aim to have around 60 shots for our trailer. Some trailers such as those for horror or action films use a much larger amount of shots (closer to 100), but in most of the romance trailers we have studied, the amount of shots is around 40-60. This is probably for a number of reasons. Firstly, because in romance trailers there is usually a montage or two, but rather than a fast paced action filled montage like there might be in some trailers, it would be slow paced and contain longer but fewer shots.

The trailer for 'Blue Valentine' only has 24 shots, whilst the trailer for 'Revolutionary Road' has 67 shots. This is an example of how the number of shots can range so much. Some of the differences between these trailers is that the one for Blue Valentine does not use a voice over and has a slower montage whereas Revolutionary Road has a voice over and a much faster, action filled montage, as well as being longer. The trailer for 'Dear John' has 100 shots and the trailer for 'Like Crazy' has 48 shots.

We would like our film trailer to be more like the trailers for 'Like Crazy' and 'Blue Valentine' than those for 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Dear John', because we want it to have a softer and more romantic feel rather than being fast and cheesy.

B.M

Sound and Lighting

Sound Influences:

For the soundtrack of our trailer, we are searching for a piece of music which is melancholy and docile. We will use a single track throughout the whole trailer, rather than a number of varying tracks which is used in most rom-com trailers. In the trailers we have looked at such as blue valentine and Revolutionary Road, there is a single song used as the backing song, and the way the mood is changed is that the volume is varied or the beat gets faster and softer, building tension.

We are asking our friend Charles Stooke to write a song which is similar to these songs to use as the backing soundtrack to our trailer. We will write our own lyrics to roughly fit the narrative of the story, and instead of using multiple different tracks in our trailer like many other genres of trailer do, we are going to stick to using one song right the way through, because that is what the usual song is like in romance trailers. We will change the mood of the trailer from happy to sad using alternating speed in the song and during the happy montage we will most likely have the chorus, whereas during the sad montage, we will use the sad and melancholy sounding verse.

Lighting Influences:

We will have our trailer lit at the start in a warm dim lighting, as the couple will be at a bus stop in the evening so it will be dark naturally, however we will have to use some artificial lighting to stop the film from becoming pixilated and bad quality, but we do not want to over do it and make the shot look unnatural or unrealistic. We also want to set the mood at the beginning to be happy.

To make the mood seem uplifting and show that there is love in the air during the first montage and half of the trailer, we will generally use brighter lighting and dress Grace and Isaac in brighter coloured clothes to reflect their mood. An example of a trailer where they use this technique is 'Revolutionary Road'. The first half of the trailer is bright and sunny and the couple are very much in love, interested in each other, and seem to be happy. This can also be seen in 'Blue Valentine', when the opening few shots are noticeably lighter and more happy than the second half. 

We will use artificial lights when filming inside to make the film clearer and better quality, and hopefully more professional looking. We will also use accordant lighting to show the mood, for example, we will use dull, glowing, warm, yellowy lighting to show intimacy, for example in shots where Grace and Isaac are inside their flat during happy moments.

'Blue Valentine' early shot

'Blue Valentine' later shot

'Revolutionary Road' early shot

'Revolutionary Road' later shot

B.M

Audience Research

Location Ideas

Location

For our location, we are going to film in Brighton, England. We have chosen this location for a range of reasons. Firstly, because there are two universities in Brighton (Brighton and Sussex), so there will be lots of students walking around which will make our scenes of the young Grace and Isaac realistic and show that Isaac and Grace are at university. Also, our actors George and Thea both attend Sussex university, so it would be ideal for them if we filmed in Brighton rather than asking them to come up to London. We like the towny busy feel to Brighton, it is unique as it is also a seaside holiday town which is picturesque and romantic.
We plan on filming partially in the busy main roads with shops, partially on the beach and perhaps at the university and the train station. Also, we will film inside Thea's house and use warm, soft lighting.

Character Personalities

Grace:

• For Grace, we need to show a clear shift in personality throughout the trailer, because obviously her deteriorating mental state is the key reason to the downfall of their relationship.
• When we first meet Grace, we need her to be a bold and confident character with lots of energy. As the audience first meets her at university, she needs to be cheerful and excitable. By exaggerating this side of her personality, the divide for when she goes downhill will be clearer
• After leaving university and when she starts in an office job, we need her to become gradually completely different to the Grace's original personality - she becomes bored, unhappy and has little motivation and energy.
• Throughout the final third of the trailer, Grace needs to be a radical character who is changeable, angry, aggressive as well as extremely low and depressed. This phase of Grace's character needs to be completely unrecognisable from the first phase of Grace that we are introduced to, showing a character who is completely lost and estranged from happiness.
• Influences of character: Cindy in 'Blue Valentine', April in 'Revolutionary Road.'

Isaac:

• We want to show that throughout the relationship, Grace has always been the more extreme and energetic half, whether happy or unhappy. Therefore, at university, Isaac needs to be equally cheery but also more calm and caring than Grace. He possibly is less confident than Grace so that we see him change throughout the trailer and their relationship/ We want the audience to like him to show a divide of his character as well but not as clearly defined as Grace's.
• He needs to become more confident as his job begins to grow and he fits in more happily than Grace. He also needs to be more outgoing and happy to meet and hang out with people at work so that it becomes clear he doesn't want to go home to Grace a lot of the time.
• Through the final stage, he needs to become progressively more irrational and upset at Grace's behaviour, resulting in him deserting her. 
• Influences of character: Jacob in 'Like Crazy', Frank in 'Revolutionary Road'

Costume

The costume for our characters are going to be deliberately casual and normal, they will reflect a typical outfit of a middle class young English couple who live in Brighton but are not too fashion conscious themselves or aware of their appearance, whilst appearing effortlessly attractive at the same time.

GRACE

At the beginning of the film, Grace is 21 and is at university (with Isaac). She will be dressed in clothes typically worn by students, such as baggy cardigans and jumpers and jeans or simple skirts. The weather will be cold as we are filming in October and November, so she will have to also have a coat or jacket of some sort. We will be allowing Thea to wear her own clothes for the scenes in which she is a university student because she is a university student so owns the appropriate clothes.

However, when Grace grows older and gets a job, she will be dressed differently in the way that she will have more dull, grey clothes such as work suits which look slightly shabby and reflect the fact that her and Isaac’s relationship is on the rocks and they are no longer the happy, young, free loving couple they used to be.

Grace when she is young:

Grace when she is older and working:

ISAAC

Similarly to Grace, Isaac will be wearing student-esque clothes when he is a young student which will reflect his potential financial struggle that most university students face. He will get a high flying job in the city, so will start to wear suits similar to Grace’s although he will look stressed which can be reflected by his costume looking worn, and we will try and make his face look older and under lots of stress as him and Grace’s relationship starts to deteriorate due to financial and general struggles.

Isaac when he is young:

Isaac when he is old:

Character - Grace

Grace mood board

Character - Isaac

Isaac mood board