Choosing a production company name

I have finally put together a production company name and logo for my film "Home"! At the beginning of most trailers, there is a short space of a few seconds where the production company's name is shown. As my film is a drama, I wanted quite a subtle and soft production company name, nothing that draws too much attention but still states a point. I looked at some examples and found a few that I really like. These are Dreamworks and Lionsgate:

I like the way that Dreamworks and Lionsgate use clouds as their background and then their production company name in the middle, I think it easily states who the production company is but also is very subtle by having the clouds as the background. So reflecting on these production companies, I decided to create a similar one for my film. I used Photoshop to edit it. I have called it 'Sky Motion Pictures', with a small 'NDP' below it; Niamh Dilworth Productions. I got this idea also from the Dreamworks logo; underneath Dreamworks it says 'SKG', which stands for Steven Spielberg, Jefferey Katzenberg and David Geffen; who are the founders of Dreamworks. Other companies also use this. So I thought about doing this for my production company. Here is a picture of my production company logo:

First cut

Here is the first cut of my teaser trailer, "Home":

This cut is after I had put all the scenes together and worked out how long they need to be and cut them to the exact second that I need. I have also got a sample of the non-diegetic music that I am going to use. I created a quick sample so I could get a feel of how it sounded and if it was the right choice of music for my trailer, and luckily it was! I still have a lot more to do on my trailer. Such as the transitions; which will help the trailer flow from shot to shot and all fit in properly. I also have to create the production company logo, create the titles at the end and then do the final touches on the music track so its fits each shot. There are a few things that I am not quite sure I like at the moment; such as the black screen shot of the arguing, but once I get closer to the end of the editing process I am going to analyse whether to keep it or not. So hopefully soon you will see the full and final trailer on here!

Second filming session

I had my second and final filming session for my teaser trailer "Home" on Friday 8th October 2010. Again, I was very pleased with it. It went really well and I managed to get all the shots plus extras that I needed. The only thing that we found tough was getting in to character for filming. It took one of my actresses a while to stop laughing! But then after a few shots she got in to character and played it very well. In this filming session I filmed shot 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18. It was a very long filming session! I also got quite a few extra shots that are not on my storyboard. I did this because after watching a few examples of different trailers; I found that a lot of them have 1-2 second shots of random objects in the scene/setting. So whilst filming I spontaneously did a few of these shots. I did one of the young girls teddy bear, one of lit candle and one of some colourful flowers. I also did this so whilst editing I had a variety of shots to chose from and see whether they fit in with my trailer or not, hopefully some of them will be successful. I also found my storyboard very useful in this filming session, again it helped me plan and schedule what shots I needed and how long it would take.

First filming session

Filming has now begun! I've had my first filming session of my teaser trailer: "Home". I feel that it was very successful and I managed to get the shots that I wanted. I found that my storyboard helped me a lot through filming because it gave me an idea of what shots I need to film and roughly how they need to look, without the storyboard it would've been harder to film as I would of had to quickly try and think of the shots there and then. In this filming session I filmed shot 4, 5, 7, 8, 12 and 15 from my storyboard. I filmed each of these shots two or more times, I did this just incase one of the shots went wrong, so I had a backup. I also filmed a few of the shots from two different angles, so whilst editing I have a variety of shots to choose from, to see which one fits best with my teaser trailer. Here are some photos of whilst I was setting up the camera and starting to film.

Casting shots

I have three actors for my teaser trailer; "Home". The main character is the young girl; Evie Becks, played by Lily Hewitt. I chose her because she is very good at acting and has experience in acting even though she is young, so I thought that she would be perfect for the role of Evie. She fitted the image that I wanted to create of a young and vulnerable girl. My other two characters are Nicola Becks, played by Emma Hewitt and Tom Strade, played by Conor Hewitt. Nicola is Evies mum. I chose Nicola because she is a versatile actress who can change from one different thing to another very easily, and this is similar to what her character does. Because at the beginning, Nicola is a happy and kind mum, but then when she meets Tom he changes her and she begins not to care about her daughter or herself anymore. And I chose Tom because he is very tall and looks the part of a villian (don't tell him I said that!). I felt that he would live up to the role of Tom that I had created.

I am very grateful for all the work that my actors have done, they have made my idea come to life in every possible aspect, thank you.

This is Lily Hewitt, who plays Evie Becks:

This is Emma Hewitt, who plays Nicola Becks:

This is Conor Hewitt, who plays Tom Strade:

Location shots

Here are some location shots of where I am going to film my teaser trailer:

Choosing a location wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. This is because my film is filmed in an average family household, so I just chose a house that I thought would work with my idea. The first picture is the house where I filmed the whole of my teaser trailer, inside and out. Then the next picture is of the living room where I filmed the first shot of the video camera effect and a few other shots throughout the trailer. The next picture is of the road where I filmed the outside shots of the girl running and of her on her own in the last shot. The next picture is of the girls bedroom where I filmed a few shots of her upset and packing her bags. Then the final picture is of the first shot of the trailer where the sad, non-diegetic music begins.

Choosing a title

Choosing a title for my film was much harder than I thought! It is crucial that the title of a film sounds right and not too 'cheesy', and that it doesn't give everything away. I was going to call my film "Runaway", but then I thought that it would give away the story line that the young girl runs away from home. So I thought about other names such as "Evie Becks" - the young girls name, and "A Broken Family", but I felt that they didn't sound effective enough and "A Broken Family" sounded too 'cheesy'. I then thought about calling it "Home Sweet Home", but it still didn't sound right. So I decided to call it just "Home", although its only one word, it portrays the right message for my film. It gives the audience an idea about a family home but also leaves it open for thought about how things aren't as they seem behind closed doors.