Shot list

16/12/16

Shot	Shot type	Camera movement	Description
1	Medium shot	N/A	Teacher 1 talking to the camera.
2	Close up shot	N/A	Teacher 1 looking for student who called him “Shit”
3	Two shot	Tilt	Student 1 is asking for help from teacher 1.
4	Medium-close up shot	Tilt	Camera zooming in on Jack.
5	Panning shot	Panning	Camera panning to Student 2 shoes, and to the teacher.
6	Close up shot	N/A	Expelled student talking about his time in Ashburn.
7	Medium shot	N/A	Titles being written.

Update: 27/03/17

I have had to update my shot list for a few reason because many scenes were replaced for a few reasons.  The main reason was that it was difficult to get actors for certain scenes together at the same time, which meant the original shots 3 and 4 had to be removed.  During filming we decided to replace the classroom with a shot of Mr Garrett taking a bribe in the playground and failing to control misbehaving students.

Shot	Shot type	Camera movement	Description
1	Close up	N/A	Hand writing titles on small whiteboard.
2	Medium shot	N/A	Mr Garret being asked the first question for the interview.
3	Medium shot	Pans and zooms out to reveal Thomas.	Mr Garrett is being interviewed about the Ashburn playground, when he is interrupted by a student called Thomas.
4	Wide shot	N/A	Mr Garrett tries and fails to intervene with a fight between two young students.
5	Medium shot	N/A	Mr Garret being asked the final question for the interview.
6	Wide Shot	Tilts down to students shoes, and then pans towards Mr Garrett.	A student asks Mr Garrett if he likes his shoes but instead of saying shoes he says “crepes”.
7	Close up shot	N/A	Hand writing titles on small whiteboard.
8	Medium shot	N/A	Expelled student is being asked questions.
9	Close up shot	N/A	Hand writing titles on small whiteboard.
10	Medium shot	N/A	Post-credits scene of the expelled student.

Analysis of responses to focus group

I picked my focus group to answer a set of questions related to the mockumentary genre. All my respondents were young males aged 16 to 17. All of them were fans of the mockumentary genre, and I selected them based on their knowledge of this genre. They all had in common a belief that mockumentaries were successful because they parody real life situations, while often still carrying a serious political message.

Then when they were asked about which type of people on the political spectrum like mockumentaries, everyone said a mix of everyone from both sides of the political spectrum like mockumentaries with the exception of one candidate. This candidate said that left wing people are more likely to enjoy the genre because they are more politically engaged. However, the lack of political correctness in some mockumenrary films such as Borat might appeal to right-wing audiences.

Now for the final question, we asked if there would be any problems with filming a mockumentary in a school. This was the most practical question that I included to help me make decisions regarding my teaser trailer. Three out of the four answers said that some problems could arise when a mockumentary is filmed in a school environment. The reasons why people have said that is because you might need to make fun of stereotypes like the studious nerd, to the intellectually challenged bully, in order to make the humor work. Some people might get offended by this. Also, someone said that schools are a place where sensitive issues should not be mocked because of the way this can affect students' well-being.  However, overall the respondents thought that people will enjoy the film and that the school setting would work well in terms of playing-off stereotypes.

Limitations
One of my limitations when I was gathering data from my results was that I did not ask a broader range of people. All of the respondents were male. They all gave similar answers: for example, to the first question 'What makes mockumentaries so successful?', they all agreed that the humour comes from parodying real life situations, which people can relate to and make fun of. The reason for the narrow range is because I go to a school, where most pupils are boys. To remove this limitation, I would spent time finding girls to interview and in general asked more people so I got a better range of results. 

Influence of focus group on planning for trailer
The influence of planning this trailer has made me decide that people like mockumentaries because they are mocking real life situations, and therefore I will attempt to make the style of my teaser trailer as realistic as possible, which is helped by the fact it is being filmed inside an actual school.  The respondents found that mockumentaries that contained scenes they could relate to were the funniest, but perhaps this was because I only asked a narrow range of school-age people.  I will therefore try to focus equally on stereotypes about teachers and students to appeal to a wider audience.

Script for mockumentary teaser trailer

Black screen slowly fades to reveal a teacher being interviewed in a classroom, by an interviewer. The teacher will be facing slightly to the right of the camera, at interviewer.

Teacher fiddles with microphone and seems not to know how it works. Cut to shot a minute or so later where teacher is ready for the interview

Title: ‘WELCOME TO ASHBURN ACADEMY’

Interviewer: So, what is your name?

Teacher 1: I’m Mr Garrett but the boys call me OG.

Interviewer: Ok, so what do you think about the students?

Teacher 1: My class is well behaved, I think I've got them under my total control.

Title: ‘MEET THE CLASS’

Flashback: cuts to scene when teacher has no control of the class.

Cuts back to interview.

Interviewer: So, do you have a good relationship with your class?

Teacher 1: Yeah, I command a lot of respect and we are best of friends.

Flashback: cuts to scene where student has his hand up.  He lowers it then begins to speak:

Student 1: I need some help sir.

Camera pans to Teacher 1

Teacher 1: Ask Jack.

Panning shot to Jack.  Jack shrugs and looks confused.  Cut to Student 2, with hand up, asking a question:

Student 2: Yo fam, do you like my crepes? (Camera zooms in on his shoes. Cut to Teacher 1) 

Teacher 1: Do I like you’re what?

Title: ‘MEET A FORMER STUDENT’

Outside the school, an expelled student is lighting a cigarette, and smoking it.

Expelled student: So, I got kicked out of Ashburn for punching this teacher.

Interviewer: Describe this teacher to me.

Expelled student: He's ginger, got glasses, you know, how the typical nerd looks, something like that.

Flashback: Brief close up shot of Teacher 1. Cut to Expelled student

Interviewer: So what do you think about Mr Garrett?

Expelled student: Ah yeah, lovely fella he was.

Interviewer: Oh that’s nice.

Expelled student: Just kidding, he’s a little posh boy snob, who always begs it with the students.

Title: ‘ASHBURN COLLEGE: A LIFE’

Location scouting

I identified four locations for possible filming which relate to four scenes I have planned for my teaser trailer:

1) Classroom for interview scene with teacher or pupil

2) Street corner for interview with former pupil who has been excluded

3) Exam hall

4) School corridor for second interview scene, with disruption to occur in the background.

5. Backup corridor if the corridor above is too filled up to film.

6. This is the playground that I decided to film when we show the teacher interactions with the students more. Originally, I wanted to do have the teacher interact with the class but due to people not being available, and rooms being taken, we could not proceed with this plan. So I decided to take some students from the younger years to act in the playground, and interact with the teacher in my film.

Finding locations for filming was fairly straightforward because my teaser trailer is going to be set in school, and this is where I did the scouting.

However, there are several issues with locations that I had to consider.  Filming will need to be done during lesson time so I am not disrupted by moving students, but the noise from filming may distract teachers. It will be difficult to recruit enough schoolchildren for the exam scene who wear uniform, so I will need to use actors wearing casual clothes.  This may make the scene appear less authentic.  I will have to plan the scene very carefully to limit the amount of filming time, as there will be at least six actors involved.With the outside scene, it may be difficult to hear the person being interviewed because of background noise from the street.

Focus Group 1 - Responses

These were the summary of the responses I received from my focus group:

      1. What makes mockumentaries so successful, as comedies?

Adam- They have real life situations, which people can make fun of.

Joseph- Because they have a take in real life situations, so you can relate to.

Khiz- Has real life situations being mocked, so they can be relatable.

Jordan- You still give information about real life situations, but make it funny.
Mr Gordon-  Often mockumentaries create humour because they parody the serious nature of a documentary.  The protagonist will often act as if the documentary being made is serious, and we can laugh at their inability to carry it out properly.

2.  Do you think mockumentaries are suited to a left wing or a right wing audience, or does it not matter?

Adam- It does not matter.

Joseph- Left wing because they're less politically respected.

Khiz- It doesn’t matter.

Jordan- It doesn’t matter.
Mr Gordon- They also tend to make good use of stereotypes, even when this childish, for example in Borat, when he is presented as backward and ignorant of western culture. 

      3. Do you think there will be any difficulties about making a mockumentary set in a school?

Adam- It depends on what you make fun of, but overall people will enjoy it.

Joseph- Yes because a school as a lot of sensitive issues, and might get upset.

Khiz- It will be fine.

Jordan- Yes because you have to go against stereotypes, and certain students might get offended by those stereotypes.

Mr Gordon- Mockumentaries are often controversial because their political themes and use of stereotypes might be offensive to certain groups (e.g. Kazakhstani people responding to Borat).

Audience survey

This is the survey I carried out, this was for research on what other people think about the mockumnetary genre, to see what fans of the mockumentary genre want to see, so that I can develop my initial ideas for the teaser trailer. I was looking at the connections between different information, for example, was their a link between someone's age, and their opinons about mockumentary. 

1. Age:

2. Gender:

3. Where would you see yourself in the political spectrum? (1-5) 1 being left and 5 being right.

4. How interesting are politics to you? (1-5) 1 being not at all, 5 being very interested.

5. What do you think about mockumentaries on a scale of 1-5? (1 being not at all, 5 being amazing)

6. What is your favourite comedy sub-genre? Please tick

• Action Comedy
• Romantic Comedy
• Crime Comedy
• Black comedy
• Comedy Drama
• Comedy Horror
• Mockumentary

7. What is your favourite mockumentary film, if any?

8. What is your favourite comedy film?

9. Do you think there are any problems with the mockumentary genre?

10. What type of teaser trailer do you prefer?

• Single scene trailers
• Footage that’s not in the main film
• Classic cinematic trailer

11. How much do you want teaser trailers to reveal?

• Very little/nothing
• Moderate amount
• A lot/the main details of the plot

12. Where do you usually watch them?

• YouTube
• Social media sites
• Cinema/DVDs
• Other online sites

13. How successful are teaser trailers in generating interest?

• Not very successful
• Moderately
• Very successful

Target audience

Our film is going to be a comedic mockumentary set within a secondary school. The predictions I have made are uncertain because this genre has a very wide fan base and demographic. In general I imagine gender is not that relevant in terms of fans. Age however, is more significant because there aren’t many young fans.  Mockumentaries are usually aimed at adults, and there are many jokes and references that younger viewers will not understand. They often present adult themes, which will not be appropriate for a young child to view. For example, Borat is satirising people who make fun of different cultures. However, it may still come across as racist, because the irony comes from the use of stereotypes, and this may not be picked up by younger viewers.

Before carrying out some research about fans of the genre, I was uncertain about their political leanings.  My initial thoughts was that people who are very right wing, would be very interested in this genre in particular Borat, because the film seems to parody different races, however, they are mainly parodying people who are racist themselves. Therefore, the audience is likely to not be right wing, and my predictions were inaccurate.

I did some research on the ‘Profiles’ section of YouGov because I wanted to get an accurate idea about my target audience. The trends that I saw was that a lot of films which have one or a group of racists in them, are usually more aimed at people on the left wing of the political spectrum because left wing people tend to show a greater interest in political films. As many mockumentaries are political, they are often more suitable for people on the left wing of the political spectrum.

As with Borat, and many other mockumentaries, Yougov reveal that fans of the mockumentary genre tend to be quite left wing, which I predicted because they are usually political, like Borat.

The reason I decided to set my mockumentary in a secondary school is that I wanted to move away from the trend of mockumentaries focussing on right-wing people who they attempt to show up. Instead, I will be playing on stereotypes of teachers, who tend to be left-wing.  I hope that I will be able to parody in a successful way without making my trailer appear right-wing.

I intend to have a reasonably wide target audience for my film.  However, the main demographic will probably be left-wing as I hope to add some political moments in the trailer. Because I study in a largely boys’ school, the characters will be mainly male, which might mean the target audience is focussed upon men.  In terms of age I will focus on young, school-age people primarily because this will reflect most of the characters in the trailer. However, other comedies set in schools such as Bad Education have wide audiences in terms of age because the humour is still relevant across age-groups.

The reason I decided to set my mockumentary in a secondary school is that I wanted to move away from the trend of mockumentaries focussing on right-wing people who they attempt to show up. Instead, I will be playing on stereotypes of teachers, who tend to be left-wing.  I hope that I will be able to parody in a successful way without making my trailer appear right-wing.

I intend to have a reasonably wide target audience for my film.  However, the main demographic will probably be left-wing as I hope to add some political moments in the trailer. Because I study in a largely boys’ school, the characters will be mainly male, which might mean the target audience is focussed upon men.  In terms of age I will focus on young, school-age people primarily because this will reflect most of the characters in the trailer. However, other comedies set in schools such as Bad Education have wide audiences in terms of age because the humour is still relevant across age-groups.

Synergy across a marketing package

        

                       Magazine cover                                                           Teaser trailer title card   

                           Poster #1                                                                       Poster #2

All these posters have a similar layout to each other. The most significant similarity to the posters is the font and the background which resemble a plain, office feel. This is also linking back on the title of the TV Show, The Office in which Ricky Gervais stars, which this film is based on, here playing David Brent ,the title character. The title of the poster has the same font "David Brent Life On The Road" The name David Brent stands out because he's the main protagonist of the film which is established by the title. The tagline on the first poster, "I'm a friend first, boss second. Probably an entertainer third" displays that he is an unprofessional boss, because he was referring to himself as a friend more than a boss. Similarly his unprofessional attitude is shown in the trailer when he sings a song about sex in a work environment.

Analysis of Film Magazine Covers

Empire

• This cover includes a quotation from a predecessor in the franchise. This is effective because it pays homage to the original Star Wars trilogy, and therefore attracts buyers who are already fans. Also the quotation is bridging that gap between the old and new trilogies, as this film is going to complete the story.
• At the bottom of the magazine cover it says "2 TO COLLECT!". This is linking to a mainstream audience who like to collect the magazines, and who are also interested in offers. The capitalization and the exclamation mark  grabs the viewer's attention, however it may distract from the focus which is the new Star Wars film. A more traditional magazine such as Sight and Sound would not include advertising like this because they are more elitist and aimed towards students of film and critics, who are unlikely to be as interested in promotion as the readers of Empire. 
• The predominant color of this magazine is red, both in the color of the title, and the film. The word "SITH" is larger than the rest of the title, drawing attention to the fact that this movie will take a darker turn than the previous five films. 
• Every sub title in the cover has an exclamation mark, although this grabs the reader's attention this does become quite ineffective and cliched.  

Total Film

• The title of the magazine "Total Film" is not at the top of the magazine cover, instead we are presented with pictures of iconic movie characters Loki, Kick Ass, Darth Vader, Batman, and the Mandarin. Below the photo, there's a tagline which says "THE HEROES AND VILLAINS ISSUE". This links to the 5 pictures above because a variety of heroes and villains from iconic blockbuster franchises are shown. The tagline is also in capital letters which draws the attention to the viewers who are fans of those particular characters. Combined with the main feature, this edition is directed towards fans of the superhero subgenre, but bold headlines on the right of the page attract readers who are interested in other films.
• The left side of the magazine has a flash which says "100 GREATEST HEROES AND VILLAINS EVER!" This links to the title at the top, confirming that the focus of the whole issue will be about heroes and villains from iconic films. 
• At the middle of the poster, there's a title which says "It's time for a change" MAN OF STEEL. This suggests that there will be an interview with a cast member about the film, rather than it just being an opinion of Total Film itself. The quotation is reinforced by the central image of the two characters because his outfit is darker, and he has a more straight face which addresses a change of tone for the franchise. They couple almost completely fill the page and cover over the title, which lends support that the film is going to be big, bold, and ambitious. 
• On the bottom of the cover, it says "THE WOLVERINE FIGHT! FIGHT ! FIGHT!". Here and in general Total Film is using informal and flashy language to sell the magazine to the audience, and grab their attention. This is unlike more serious film magazines such as Sight and Sound whose language is less clearly about grabbing the reader's attention, and more about indicating the features and interviews of the edition.
• The designer of this magazine are filling in any free space on the front cover, with bold, capitalised names of famous Hollywood actors, in order to attract viewers who are already fans of these people.
• Both Empire, and Total Film have similar approaches to the design of their magazine covers, and their ways of attracting readers.  Both use bold writing and have the magazine title overlap with an image of an iconic movie character. Sight and Sound however focus on feature interviews in their magazine with a director, or an actor.
• Total Film magazine's price and edition information is found about the arch of the 'M', which may be an attempt to copy Empire's style.

Sight and Sound

• Like the two previous magazines I spoke about, it has the title of the magazine on top. However, the formatting of the title, Sight & Sound, is different to Total Film and Empire, the title is not capitalised compared to the others, which are aimed towards a more popular audience. 
• On top of the magazine as a tagline which says "THE INTERNATIONAL FILM MAGAZINE". Although this is capitalised, it is small, minimalist, and is not there to grab the reader's attention. Instead, this title wants to attract an international audience and to suggest that it is not simply focused on big British and American film companies such as Warner Bros or Disney.
• On the top left handed corner, the BFI logo is present to inform the reader that it is produced by the British Film Institute, a respected British company. The logo however, does not stand out because it's not there to draw the reader's attention similar to the tagline.
• Near the bottom of the magazine, the name of director David Fincher is put up in bold writing. This is the only form of text that they use to make it stand out compared to the rest of the cover. This is different from Total Film and Empire because these magazines usually feature the names of films, and put in a pun, this time they have put in a real life celebrities name as the USP. 
• The film title is put on top of the actors name. "THE 'GONE GIRL' INTERVIEW" 

Analysis of film posters

Borat

The text in the movie poster says the title “Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”. The use of incorrect grammar parodies Kazakhstani people suggesting they are ignorant and that they cannot adapt to western culture, and yet continue to try to copy it. . Putting the lead actor's name at the top of the poster is the only commercial attempt to market the film to fans of Sacha Baron Cohen films. For example, the title will attract fans of the Ali G TV show, which Borat was in as well. The font is important because it’s illustrating to the audience that it’s a comedy film, and it’s making fun of people from foreign countries.  

Borat has a funny looking smile in the poster. Therefore this is displaying that this movie is going to be a comedy because of his facial expressions. If the main protagonist did not have a smile on his face, this would have changed the whole approach of the film, and made movie goers mislead what this film is about. His smile is also displaying some of the characters personality traits from what we may see in the feature film. In the comedy genre, the main protagonist should be full of life and exciting for the viewers to watch, but should also be an object to be laughed at, which is definitely the case with the ridiculous and out-of-place Borat.

Borat has a very scruffy looking suit. This tells us that he is a person who stands out from the regular crowd. The suit does not probably fit him because his trousers are quite baggy and too big for him. His hair style is important because it’s implying the characters personality more to the audience. Overall this represents the character to be badly dressed, not very intelligent, and different to the whole crowd. 

Borat is also holding an American flag. This is ironic because the font of the title was implying to the viewer that Borat is not from America, he’s Eastern European. This is suggesting to the audience that he will be in America exploring the country, and making fun of the locals there. The film is therefore a combination of parodying both Kazasthani people and American culture, particularly their prejudices.

This advert is constructed to appeal to its target audience which is fans of the comedy genre, and patriotic Americans who like to see their country in cinema. However, they will not be happy when they are finished watching that film, as Borat consistently highlights their prejudices. The poster also attracts fans of more generic comedy through his ridiculous expression and silly, outdated fashion. 

The Silence of the Lambs

In this poster, the dominant colors are black, and white. With the exceptions of the eyes, the butterfly, and the title, which all appear as red-orange.

The title is not bold, large, or capitalized, and doesn’t take away all the viewers’ attention, so that instead they can focus on the content, and specifically the face of the woman.

The face appears unnatural because a butterfly replaces the human mouth. This links to the title of the film because the butterfly is creating the silent element for the viewer. Another factor that contributes to the unnatural appearance of the face is the framing of the face and that fact that is not well defined. It is as if the face has no blood, which connotes that the person might be dead, and people have been known to go pale when they are frightened, which points towards the horror and shock of the film.  The fact that the face blurs into the background makes identifying the woman difficult, adding to the mystery and threat of the unknown.

The face in the poster also has very wide eyes. This is another trope of someone who is experiencing fear, and specifically it is a fear for the audience of the unknown because we are not allowed to view the horror she has witnessed.  It is also the kind of fear that is so horrific she can’t speak about it, which is emphasized by the lack of a mouth.

Teaser Trailer Analysis #3 - Borat

This is a teaser trailer for the 2007 comedy film, Borat starring Sacha Baron Cohen. The length of this teaser trailer is 18 seconds long.

What is presented in this teaser trailer is a sneak peak of Borat with a man. We learn that Borat is quite clumsy, and doesn’t have good spatial awareness. This is usually aimed to make the viewer laugh. This is relating to character comedy which I spoke about in my comprehensive analysis about the comedy genre.

This teaser trailer is unlike the vast majority of Hollywood teaser trailer, even though it was a commercially successful film. There are various reasons for this. The most important is the fact the director wants to make it seem like an actual documentary, and not like Hollywood fiction.  One way in which the director achieves this is through the lack of music.  Most teaser trailers have music and Borat wants to distance itself from idea of a franchise and also big Hollywood films that use music to create atmosphere.  For example, the new teaser trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One uses music familiar to fans to connect them with the new film.  Borat on the other hand isn't part or a franchise so doesn't have a well-known soundtrack to draw on.

How Mise-en-scene is used: All the characters appear to be wearing very light colors in the teaser trailer, to make them stand out in the clip. Very bright colors are also used in the clip to set a light tone for the teaser trailer to appear to fans of the comedy genre. If they used dark colors it could put the audience off the film, and depict it as a different type of movie.

Both characters presented in the teaser trailer have different tones to each other. Borat’s tone is quiet but has put on a bit of an expression to exaggerate because he’s a foreigner and people from different countries usually have different accents. They have done this to make him stand out in the scene as “different” and usually in comedy movies, the person who stands out is classified as the main comic relief. The other man has a very normal and calm tone. This is put in because you can’t have Borat being funny and the other guy being funny because another cliche that is used in comedy, is the characters reaction when someone does something funny. 

The set design is presented in the teaser presents the fact that it is a furniture shop. The reason being for this is a lot of vases, lamps are placed around the whole shop, this is all equipment which is used for furniture and design for someone's house.