Evaluation task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? What editing decisions were made? How did they inform the production? - Tom Bailey

The directors commentary was written and recorded by myself and then edited by Emma to go alongside the footage. As the assistant director I had good knowledge of the whole production and could easily recall all the decisions we made and recite in depth, the reasoning behined the final result. This included the research we conducted from primary sourced, asking around focus groups of our target audience to secondary research of existing trailers within the same genre as we were planning on making our own trailer. This allowed us to come to terms with the most common conventions of both thriller and coming of age genres. The voice over commentary allowed me to explain as a whole what the production was about and the reasoning behined our choices along the way.


 
Fallen Grace: The Director's Commentary from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Shot by shot analysis

I am number four

Dreamworks

 Our two production companies were DreamWorks and Spyglass entertainment; in keeping with conventions of film trailers we included both studios at the beginning of the trailer. Broken coal productions also appears at the end, as this would be the smallest contributor to the production. Both DreamWorks and Spyglass have previously made thriller and coming of age hybrid genres, examples include 'I am number four' (DreamWorks) and Abandon (Spyglass). We decided these two would be good examples to good as their previous films related well to the idea we were proposing. Therefore it would make sense that they could be involved in the production of ’Fallen Grace' as in terms of media products they are relatively similar. Our trailer features a sound bride, this creates a smooth transition between all of the shots, the soundtrack also builds up tension as it continues making it perfect material for a teaser trailer. There were also clear areas in the music that could be used as points when critical shots cut in and out.

Abandon

Spyglass entertainment

Shot 1

 The first shot shows the characters Charlie and Grace walking together in a field, they are boyfriend and girlfriend and as the setting is romantic we thought this would be a perfect shot to show the happy point in Grace's life when she was with Charlie. This is the happiness before the disruption occurs, the calm before the storm and the starting equilibrium. The footage has been colour graded to make the saturation deeper, making the colours appear brighter therefore connoting happiness, however the footage is also under exposed which could be signifying the darkness that is to come, as this happiness cannot last for grace. I feel that the cinematic style that has been created here, really adds to the emotive effect that we wanted to establish early on in the trailer. You can also see the vignette surrounding the image shining through; the inspiration for this particular edit came from 'Tyrannosaur' which has impressive cinematography.

Shot 2

This shot shows the main protagonist Grace in a dream like state, connoted by her body language and the way she gently opens and closes her eyes. We have used shaky camera movement in this shot while circling Grace to connote her light headedness and relaxed state, setting the audience up for the disruption that will arrive later.

Shot 4

This next shot features a lens flare to connote the happiness by emphasising the sun in the footage. The lens flare also acts as a tracking shot to the actors walking down the path in a long shot. The inspiration to use a lens flare was taken from a particular scene in Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban which features Harry riding buckbeak, a lens flare is used to connote Harry's happiness during this exhilarating scene and also doubles up as a tracking shot that follows the flight movement through the shot. 

HP3 Lens Flare

Shot 5

Mr Eastwood is our antagonist (Kidnapper) but before this, he is also Grace's teacher, so we needed to establish him in his teacher role before the kidnapping in order to create the audience shock factor that we wanted during the kidnapping. We also needed to form a relationship between the kidnapper and the teacher which could then create enigmas as to why who you would expect to be like any other responsible teacher is kidnapping a student. Our actor Grant, who plays Mr Eastwood is wearing a white shirt and tie as part of his costume, connoting that he is in a formal context and takes his job seriously. To make the scene even more realistic we gave him a white board and pen along with some A Level English language notes to teach to the class as if it were a real lesson. 

Shot 6

We also used a lens flare in the classroom scene where we see Grace use her super-natural telekinetic abilities for the first time. The natural light in this scene works beautifully at framing the composition, the lens flare is again connoting that she is happy at this point in the film, until she is caught using her powers by Mr Eastwood. Like many other shots, this shot applies the rule of thirds, placing Grace in the far left third of the composition, therefore making her the main focus of the shot. The mise en scene within the shot also features a classroom display board, connoting the overall classroom and educational atmosphere. Four clips from this scene are featured in the trailer because it is a very important scene and contains many signifiers. To draw even more attention to this particular shot we also added a non-diegetic sound effect as the pen rose off the floor to create added genre and tension. 

Shot 9

This mid close up of Mr Eastwood was particularly important, as it indicates to the audience through his facial expressions that he has seen what Grace just did and he hasn't reacted well to it, he looks confused and this sets up the enigma of his character and what he will do after seeing one of his students using telekinetic powers.

Shot 10

Shot 11

Shot 12

This point is where we begin to see Grace's life deteriorate, we see her have an argument with her boyfriend Charlie and she is then kidnapped by a man who turn out to be someone she thought she could trust, her teacher. However we decided to continue showing the shots of the hill scene throughout the trailer as a reminder of the good times Charlie and Grace had together and connoting that those memories are running through Grace's mind as her trauma unfolds. This technique also displays how different her life is not than to how it was before. We also start to build relationships with the characters through this technique; the audience will begin to feel sympathy for Grace during her traumatic experiences as they see her life suddenly fall apart. This scene also contains a match on action edit of Grace running her fingers through her hair, making a cut between a side profile mid-shot and a face on mid close up that continues the scene and also makes the cut between the shots run more smoothly.  

Shot 11 - match on action edit

Shot 12 - match on action edit

This shot also uses chiaroscuro lighting, only lit with the diegetic lighting of the street lights around the car park, this lighting was important for creating a realistic scene which heightened the emotion and the empathy that the audience would be feeling for Grace. The context of the scene is traumatic for Grace; her boyfriend has just walked off and left her alone in a cold car park in the dark, creating more enigmas. While his back is turned she is then kidnapped by Mr Eastwood.  The method we have used here is to show Grace being kidnapped at the same time her boyfriend, who could help her is walking away unaware of the commotion going on behind him. This creates dramatic irony within the scene as the audience is aware of an immediate danger that the character on screen is not, in the case it is the danger that his girlfriend is in that Charlie is unaware of. It is important for us to feature at least some disruption at the beginning of the trailer in order to help build the tension leading up to the main disruption. 

shot 13

We have included this cinematic shot as it features all of Grace's friends, except for her of course, as at this point in the film she has been kidnapped and locked up in Mr Eastwood's basement while he has returned to teaching as normal. This adds tension as we are wondering where Grace is and what could have come of her. The audience will be asking questions like where has she gone? and why has she been kidnapped? By creating these enigma codes we are luring the audience in. We have used a full circle effect with the editing by ending the 'happy' section of the trailer with a shot of Charlie and Grace on the hill, together again. We then see this shot of Charlie without Grace and it reiterates to the audience that Grace is no longer there next to Charlie where she used to be, creating empathy for both Grace and Charlie. We used a black frame in the middle of the trailer to break up the clear difference between the 'happy' scenes and the main disruption. Our main disruption features a large explosion, we slowed the shot down to create a more dramatic effect and also make the scene last a little longer as the explosion is a huge feature of the trailer we want it to be remembered so it needed to last longer than a second. 

shot 16

This shot of the explosion is our main disruption and follows a more minor disruption of Zara losing her temper and throwing chairs around a classroom, screaming her diegetic dialogue which clearly denotes her distress and anger. This follows that disruption through the increased tension and enigma of the shot as we as an audience have no idea what has caused the explosion. The chiaroscuro lighting also adds to the effect of the scene connoting darkness and depression. The next two shots that follow are of Grace tied up in the basement where she is seen to be battered and bruised with blood ridden hands as she tried to move about but she is restrained to the chair with rope, further adding to the disruption effect.

shot 17

This is the point when the title plates start to appear and we start to introduce the names of our actors. We followed traditional trailer conventions by having the name of our main actress Clare Fletcher appearing first. The title plated we used had a transparent word overlay with a shot of the explosion seen through from underneath creating a really effective fire theme to all the titles whilst adding dramatic impact. At the end of the explosion the fire burns out and fades to black just as the title plates fade out to black creating a perfectly smooth transition to the next shot. 

Shot 20

The theme of fire during the disruption continues into the next shot which features the fire engines exiting the fire station and preparing to carry out emergency procedures. The shots of the actual fire fighters proceed in the montage edit.

We deliberately used a tracking shot and a focus pull on the mid-close up shots of Grace in the forrest to how her worry, confusion and distroted mindset after she has escaped. We have purposely placed her on the right hand side in the frame according to the rule of thirds so she appears trapped.

Shot 24

The next shot features Charlie and Zara wading their way through the thick tall grass, denoting that they are searching for Grace. At the same time we continuously cut back to shots of Grace in the forest looking distressed and delirious, displaying emotions of hopelessness which the audience will relate to and then feel sympathy for her. We then begin to cut to fades of shots of Grace running around the forest frantically, looking around in panic. As this is only the trailer for the film we end still in the point of disruption so we never get to see Grace's problems resolved.

Shot 25 

The slow-motion shot of the fire fighter exiting the fire engine creates multiple enigmas within the trailer as the audience will be asking questions like what's happened? And why are there fire fighters? This will help fulfil our ultimate aim of persuading our target audience to come and see the film.

Shot 26

This shot features Grace's two best friends Charlie and Zara working their way through the tall grass trying to find her, this shot doesn't show the full story line of how Charlie is killed in the search for Grace. It was very important that we didn't give this storyline away as there is often an unexpected death in thrillers that adds to the dramatic effect.

Shot 27

The close up shot of Grace's feet running through the forest adds a huge amount of tension to the trailer and symbolises the high action and drama within the film. Her bright red trainers are also good for connoting the danger while the saturation of the shot is increased in order to make the red particularly stand out and symbolise the danger that is to come.

Shot 28

This close up of one of the fire fighters helping to cut open the door on the crashed car also added to the enigma codes of the trailer. The close-up nature of the shot creates an enclosed setting in which these enigmas can be found. Although we cannot actually see into the corner of this slightly saturated shot, there is actually broken glass denoting the disruption within the scene.

Shot 29

 

Here we see Grace turning her head, this symbolises her fear and how she is looking around for anyone that may be able to help her. This connotes her vulnerability at this time. It is vital that the audience see this in order to feel empathy towards the character and relating to her as an individual. She is also behind a cage of branches connoting that she is trapped and the victim in this scene.

Shot 30 

 This next shot features Grace locked up in the torture scene again, the position of Grace within the frame accords to the rule of thirds. This is an unconventional shot as she is close to the camera edge, giving her little looking space. This is deliberately done so she has little movement within the fame and creates a sense that she is trapped, the darkness of the colour grading also puts the majority of her face in shadow connoting that she is mentally in a dark place as well as physically.

 Representations within our trailer

Written by Emma Taylor adapted by Tom Bailey


According to Claude Levi Strauss 'some paradigms are encoded into texts and others are left out in order to give a preferred representation'. This basically means that when producing a media text you are able to manipulate the representations by picking and choosing, making decisions on all aspects of the production to have the desired effect on the audience. We have done exactly this when producing Fallen Grace in order to convey the desired meaning. For example we dressed our main protagonist Grace in light clothing (often white) and she always wears a floral headband or a flower crown. The purpose of this was to connote Grace as a bright, cheerful and optimistic character. This characterisation is an ideology and we would expect the audience to understand this. By doing this the audience will both like and relate to Grace as a character, therefore increasing the dramatic tension when she is kidnapped by Mr Eastwood (our antagonist). We have used a similar idea when costuming Zara; she is designed to be the polar opposite of Grace providing a contrast to our main protagonist. We have dressed her in a black studded leather jacket, with dark coloured jeans, a band t-shirt and black boots. The dark colours connote a darker side to the character creating enigma and binary opposition of light and dark between Grace and Zara. We have deliberately adhered to stereotypes when it came to Zara making it easier to quickly establish her as a character to the audience, dressing her in a typical punk rock style to coincide with a darker, dysfunctional personality that is often portrayed with this stereotype in the media. In the case of Mr Eastwood, we have chosen to adhere to expectations of a regular teacher when designing his costume for the classroom scenes; dressing him in a white shirt and tie etc... Denoting his position of authority as a teacher. However his costume changes dramatically in the scene where he is kidnapping Grace. For this scene we adhered to stereotypes of typical street thuggish like characters, dressing him in dark clothing, including a hoodie that disguises his face. The purpose of this was to connote him as a thuggish like character with criminal intent. According to our audience feedback these stereotypes appear to have been successful in establishing the nature of the character through the clothes they wear. Our audience were able to instantly identify Mr Eastwood as the antagonist through his costume when wearing the hoodie but were also able to make the connection that it is the same person that was teacher Grace in the earlier scene.

Looking at David Chandler's theory that 'representation always involves the construction of reality' we have tried to replicate this within Fallen Grace in order to make the characters more relatable to our target audience of teenagers and young people. We have deliberately reversed stereotypes for the character of Charlie who we have costumed in a typical 17 year old boy's attire, (jeans, converse, white t-shirt etc...). However modern representations of youths and particularly youth males is largely negative, often associating them with thuggish like behaviour and being a burden on society. But instead of adhering to the stereotype, we have turned it on its head through the use of Claude Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions (age and good vs. evil) to challenge these youth representations by making Charlie a good character and our teacher Mr Eastwood; who would normally be associated with being the trustworthy and upstanding member of society the antagonist or villain.
This is likely to be against the audiences expectations and will hopefully create a shock factor that will add more dramatic effect.

On top of this we have used representations from officially recognisable bodies such as the fire service to aid our trailer. The fire service is recognised globally and is associated with tackling serious incidents. Therefore having them feature in our trailer will connote that something serious has happened in the film. We filmed the fire engines coming out of the station with the lights flashing and the sirens on. We also filmed some footage of the fire fighters using hydraulic cutters to open up a car door as they would in a real emergency. The intent of filming with the fire service was to connote the audience the seriousness of Grace's situation and for them to effectively be able to understand her position.