Final Project

 I am happy to present, the final project for Teddy:

Click here for trailer #1

Click here for trailer #2

Click here for the Instagram page

or visit the page @teddymovie2021

Final poster:

Critical Reflection

 Within the two trailers for the Thriller film “Teddy”, different portions of what the actual film would include are revealed, both with the intent to create suspense. Through recurring motifs, sounds, and symbols, the products create a cohesive feel for Teddy, the film, to attract a curious audience.

Within the film, the main character, Jane Doe, is a victim of kidnapping by a middle-aged white man. Many of the covert details represent the typical demographic of those who are kidnapped, and those who kidnap. With the use of the name “Jane Doe” for the main character, a name typically given to people whose identity has yet to be confirmed, it is almost to say that the situation that she is in could be anyone. However, depicting a teenage girl, dressed in casual clothing, represents the demographic of those who are typically victims of kidnapping: females over the age of 12. Additionally, as reported by NISMART, 71% of kidnapping occur in outside areas, such as a park or the woods, also accurately represented within the trailers. While many of these statistics are not overtly represented in either the poster or the trailer, the social media page for the film of Instagram highlights a “Resources” story that includes infographics and resources to learn more about this issue nationwide.

The social media page has also been an integral part of creating a consistent brand. Towards the beginning of this process, I created a specific color palette to focus on consisting of blacks and greys for the darker tones and yellows for the lighter tones. This color palette is consistent within the Instagram page as well, most notable when you first visit the page and see the grid view of all of the posts. There is a stark pattern alternating between black and white photos, and more yellow-toned photos, creating almost a checkered pattern. Additionally, this is represented within the poster as the main image is black and white, and the title color is a yellow-tan tone. Being that the title is the only part of the poster that is that warm tone, it is meant to stand out from the black and white image and the other white texts. Finally, arguably one of the most time-consuming portions of this project for me, was color grading the trailers in order to highlight the cool-toned yellows and greys within the set and costume. By sticking to a consistent, simple color palette from the beginning, they have become representative of the film as a whole, allowing for cohesive branding of the film.

Moreover, many aspects of the final project were meant to be seen as direct communication with the audience. Especially with the target of a Generation Z audience and fan base, creating different ways for the products to seem interactive was integral in keeping their attention and intrigue. One way this was done was through the voiceover narration of the trailers: by having Jane’s voiceover speaking to Teddy throughout both trailers, it is almost as if the audience feels that they are being addressed, taking on the role of Teddy. Dialogue between the kidnapper and Jane is extremely limited, not only to create suspense behind the character of the kidnapper but also to highlight Jane’s direct communication with the viewer. Additionally, taking advantage of the many interactive features on Instagram, a social media platform popular within the target audience, helped enhance the sense of intrigue. By introducing the cast as “Meet my family”, rather than “Meet the cast”, and the use of leading questions in many of the captions furthers this idea that the products are communicating directly with the audience.

Notably, many decisions made for this project were formed on the basis of research. I initially wanted to pursue the fantasy genre, but upon researching many conventions, such as the use of CGI, I realized that it was not within my reach at the moment. Once I narrowed it down to the thriller genre, it was much easier to mold a story from those conventions. Inspired by both Room and Split, Teddy delves into the psyche of victims of abuse, kidnapping, and other traumas, representing how one would cope in those situations. The title also reflects these tropes, as one-word titles focused on a main theme or symbol within the film are popular within the genre, hence the name “Teddy”. Research upon the posters for these films also heavily influenced the one for Teddy, as they were simplistic and featured a dark vignette around a close-up image of the main character. Other posters that express this convention include the one for the film Us, a thriller by Jordan Peele. Research within the Thriller genre also helped in choosing the correct music, especially since the Youtube Music Library allows you to search by mood or genre. Knowing that I needed to find an ominous, suspenseful, slow song to be in the background of the trailers helped narrow down the search to just two songs until I was able to pinpoint the perfect one. Within this project, research into case studies especially aided in the process of capturing the essence of a thriller film, consequently resulting in a final product that is more in line with conventions rather than challenging them.

Finally, understanding the target audience was the hidden key to this project. Once I was able to pinpoint who I wanted the film’s audience to be, it was much easier to work around it. For example, I knew that I wanted the audience to reflect my own demographics: Gen Z, curious, female, and mature enough to have the discussions the film touches on. Understanding the behaviors of this target audience especially, such as understanding that many have extremely short attention spans, aided in many decisions: length of the trailers, length of the clips, how to make the Instagram page more intriguing for the audience, etc. Research was the driving factor within the entire project.

DaFont = DaBomb Cont'd

 It comes that time again to do the tedious and almost disappointing task of finding a font. I say disappointing for one reason: the categories on dafont.com highlight the worst bunch, which always makes it much harder for me to look for fonts. However, I went in with two ideas:

The first idea was to just go with a simple sans serif font, like in the poster for Room

My second idea was to go with a sketch-like, etch-like, child's handwriting font like in the poster for Orphan

Once I started looking through the fonts for both categories, I narrowed my search down to a few options:

I also knew that I really wanted to be able to mimic a classic movie poster and find that really skinny, tall font that is used at the bottom for credits. Thankfully, the research process was not too extensive as I soon came across this Quora forum that detailed exactly what font I had in mind: Univers 39 Ultra Thin Condensed

Testing them out

Personally, I don't think I could have made a sure decision just by looking at the pages for each font. I had to see it for myself. I downloaded each font and quickly put the title on the poster shot, going between fonts to see which one I liked the most. For some reason, as much as I thought that this idea would be the one, I hated the handwriting-type fonts. I could not get them to look right or to emit the vibe I wanted to. But when I got to the sans serif font, I tweaked a bit of it and loved the outcome. I am proud to present the final poster for Teddy:

Determining Target Audience, and What That Comes With

 I realized as I was editing that I need to narrow down on how long I really want my trailers to be, and who I want them to be for. I am honestly astonished at myself for not researching this sooner, now realizing that this is one of those hidden keys to creating a good piece.

Beginning with the Target Audience

Of course, it could begin with who I want my audience to be: people like me! I love watching psychological thrillers, so naturally, I assume that many who fit the same demographic as me would as well.

• Gen Z - ages 6-24
• more mature, narrowing the age down to 16-24
• short attention span
• Female, but I wouldn't exclude males or nonbinary people from this film
• Philosophical interests
• Enjoys other genres like horror, sci-fi, dystopian, suspense

However, this has some contradictions with who the main target audience is for psychological thrillers in general.

• some can 18+ due to disturbing images and topics
• The average viewer of 35-50 years old
• Equal amongst socioeconomic classes
• Most avid lovers are females over 35

Now to find a middle ground of both categories, my intended target audience would be:

• ages 16-35
• enjoys other genres like horror, sci-fi, suspense, and even action
• more aimed towards females as there is less action within the film

What this Means

I think the most notable consequence of this target audience would be the attention span. Generation Z is infamous for having one of the shortest attention spans. In relation to my project, this could be a major obstacle. One of the main ways to create suspense within a film is to play with speed, typically going extremely slow in the beginning and then riling up to a climax, a technique I was hoping to incorporate into one of my trailers. However, this may not bode well with the short attention span of my audience. I think the main way to counteract this would be by ensuring that the trailers themselves are not too long as well, allowing for much of the film's details to remain unhidden, creating that suspense while satisfying an insatiable audience. Typically, trailers range from around 1:30 to 2:30 in length, so my goal would be to not exceed 2 minutes in either trailer. 

Diving into DaVinci

 As I begin to use DaVinci to edit, I am finding that I actually have to research how to do a lot of things. I thought it might be self-explanatory because many of the blogposts I saw when researching editing software noted that DaVinci is perfect for beginners and is really easy to learn yourself. However, when it comes to color grading, I have absolutely no background experience. I decided to google some tutorials and here are the ones I found extremely helpful:

Movie Poster Research

Movie posters, in general, tend to attract the audience in a similar way that a trailer does. The poster contains iconography and a brief introduction to the characters in order to attract a target audience. When it comes to movie posters in the Thriller genre, there are a few key aspects.

For the iconic thriller The Shining, the poster features the two main characters, with the actor's name highlighted at the top. The iconography of the knife not only allows for both characters to be in view but also to indicate that this specific film falls under the "slasher" genre, popular at the time of the film's release. Posters like these typically exploit color theory to elicit certain feelings and allude to certain aspects within the film. Within this poster specifically, there is a major contrast between the cool-toned blue and the warm-toned red, both significant to the piece, representing the cold forest and blood respectively. When it comes to my movie poster, I also want to be able to allude to certain portions of the film. I find that many of these posters "look cool" at first glance, but as you watch the trailer and the film, many of the covert details becomes part of a clear wider picture. Some other thriller posters that have similar characteristics include:

Mnay of these posters seem to follow a template of: main character profile, key names on the top, title at the bottom middle, sometimes a release date below the title, and some extra credits at the very bottom. When it comes to the editing and composition of these pictures, there also seems to be a big of a oval vignette around the character's faces to highlight their face and create a suspense of the darkness behind them. The main image I was thinking of using for my poster is:

I think it would definitely need some editing to highlight the same features as the examples, but I think the composition of the image matches the emphasis on the character's face.

Finding an Editing Software

 As of right now, I have been using iMovie simply to piece together clips, finding out what I need to shoot later today and what parts I enjoyed. However, I did want to venture out into color grading, to exploit a certain tone and color palette within my shots, and iMovie does not have this feature. My other options include:

Adobe Premiere Pro

Arguably one of the most popular options, Premier is part of the Adobe suite and is known for its sheer power within the application. There is so much to learn about Premier, which is intimidating, but due to its popularity, there are also a lot of tutorials and resources to learn the basics. Using Premier would be a big step up from iMovie, and I have heard great things about it. Typically, I would have to purchase Premier as part of an Adobe suite package. Luckily, my dad really enjoys venturing out into these different editing programs, and he has Premier already. There are also a few people in my class who used Premier last year and have chosen to use it this year as well. I think the major drawback would be having to spend the extra time to understand the complexity of the program. But, a major plus would be that there are just so many resources available for Premier throughout Youtube, blogs, and elsewhere.

DaVinci Resolve

This particular editing software I did not know about until a classmate mentioned using it for years. DaVinci is a free downloadable editing program that also has more features, including the ability to play with color. While there is a paid version for extra features, I think this blockade would allow me to be more focused in my research on how to navigate this specific software. Similar to Premier, there are a few resources and tutorials on how to use certain features, especially those deemed for "beginners". Many blogs and question forums argue that DaVinci is amazing for beginning editors and filmmakers. One drawback would be that DaVinci is supposedly not as memory efficient as other software, but I am not entirely sure to what extent this is. Since my project is not a full-length film (yet), and I do not really use much of the memory on my laptop, I do not think this would be a problem for me. 

Final Cut Pro

I remember Final Cut Pro being mentioned all around Youtube when I was in middle school. This was around the time that lifestyle Youtubers would create "How to become a Youtuber" videos, showing what tools they used to produce their own content, and Final Cut Pro seemed to be a common thread amongst them. This is another program that my dad has used, so payment would not be an issue, but I do not recall him enjoying the software. Similar to Premier, FinalCut is notorious for being complicated because of how many features are available within the program. However, due to its popularity, there are also a lot of resources on how to do beginner techniques and simple features. One major drawback of Final Cut that I do not know I would be able to get past is how much stress running the program would put on my old-ish Macbook Air. I have seen some videos in which Final Cut has given up or crashed mid-project on a more powerful desktop Macs, so I fear for my own project.

I think I will begin by downloading DaVinci, especially since the "paid" version blockade would stop me from going down a wormhole of researching each and every feature. DaVinci also seems to be the most simple option of the three I was considering, and my main goal is to venture into color grading, a feature in the free version. I will begin this weekend, most likely Saturday after work, with editing the final draft with the new shots.