Film Trailer Concept Pt. 2

I have edited the story line slightly to add in another focus group, more suspense and tension and to make the story line a bit more realistic.



Louis, Jade, Vic and Ellie are at school on Thursday afternoon, the day before the Easter weekend starts, and Louis comes up with the idea for the four of them plus his older brother, Dan, to go camping for the long weekend.

On the Friday morning, the five of them pack up Dan's car and take it up to the Cashmere hills where they'll spend the weekend. A romantic attachment develops between Ellie and Dan, and we learn that Vic and Jade are in a relationship.

-

We then cut to another focus group, smaller and consisting of two people - Kellin and Quinn- who work in Wellington as Oceanographers. They see that something strange is occurring in the ocean tides around countries in the Southern hemisphere and begin research into why it's happening. They find out it's because an ice shelf has begun dramatically melting in Antarctica and has increased the height of the ocean and dramatically changed the temperature of it.

The only option they have is to somehow try and contain the melting shelf so the dramatic changes in the ocean won't reach the Northern Hemisphere and cause huge devastation there as well as the Southern Hemisphere.

-

On the Saturday afternoon of our other focus groups camping trip, there's a sudden drop in temperature which Louis is confused by because he'd checked the weather report which had said the weekend would be clear and sunny.

Suddenly they hear a huge siren, although none of them know what it is, except Dan who volunteers with the fire department and therefore knows that it's the siren to alert everybody of an incoming Tsunami.

The group start trying to pack up but end up leaving their things and getting in Dan's car, taking it as high up the hills as they possibly can before suddenly a huge wave bowls in and wipes out the whole city. Other people had managed to make it high enough up the hills that they were safe, and three of those people are James and Aimee, Louis and Dan's parents, and Ellie's younger sister, Maisy.

Louis, Dan, Ellie, Vic, Jade, James, Aimee and Maisy then go down to see the devastation and look for any survivors who might be hurt or trapped.

Jade goes missing when they're in the city searching for people and Vic has a breakdown which results in him getting trapped under some debris from destroyed buildings. James saves Vic from his spot but dies in the process.

Dan gets a badly cut up leg trying to save a dog that he's found trapped, and needs immediate medical attention.

Louis gets everybody to the park where the survivors have congregated and Dan gets the help he needs for his leg.

-

Meanwhile the melting ice shelf in Antarctica is safely contained and there are no more serious disasters across the world, although it does terrify people because they realise it could have been them that were so immensely devastated by a huge Tsunami.

In a news broadcast, it is made clear by Kellin and Quinn that the ice shelf incident was not an accident but a repercussion of man's stupidity. People need to be more conservative and cautious, because if the intense amount of pollution, nuclear weaponry and radiation keeps up there isn't going to be a way to fix the problem.

"If we don't look after the planet, why the hell do you think it's going to look after us."

Production Schedule

Production Schedule



Production Schedule:
(Not currently accurate.)

Date & Time	Activity	Location	Gear	Crew	Alternative Action
18-5-2013 P.M.	Film scene 3	Riccarton high school - theory room beside food room in T block.	Camera, Mic and gear, tripod, props (name tags, mug, papers), costume (dress shirts)	Director, camera op (Jordan), boom op (Jaemee), Actors (Manish and Kezia.)
19-5-2013 A.M.	Film scenes 3, 4 and 5	Cashmere hills and Crosbie park.	Camera (2), Mic and gear, tripod, reflectors, props (refer to props list), costumes, car	Director, camera op, boom op, assistant, Actors (Jordan, Jordon, Jordin, Jourdan and Jordyn.)
20-5-2013 A.M.	Film scenes 6, 7 and 8	Cashmere hills, Crosbie park and some form of office like building.	Camera (2), Mic and gear, tripod, reflectors, props (refer to props list), costumes, car	Director, camera op, boom op, assistant, Actors (Jordan, Jordon, Jordin, Jourdan and Jordyn.)
21-5-2013 A.M.	Film scenes 9 and 10 and 11	Some form of office like building, Crosbie park.	Camera (2), Mic and gear, tripod, reflectors, props (refer to props list), costumes, car	Director, camera op, boom op, assistant, Actors (Jordan, Jordon, Jordin, Jourdan and Jordyn.)
22-5-2013 A.M.	Film scenes 12, 13, 14 and 15	Crosbie park, around Christchurch mainly really destroyed and run down looking places.	Camera (2), Mic and gear, tripod, reflectors, props (refer to props list), costumes, car	Director, camera op, boom op, assistant, Actors (Jordan, Jordon, Jordin, Jourdan and Jordyn.)
23-5-2013 A.M. P.M.	Film scenes 16, 17 and 18	Around Christchurch, some form of office like building.	Camera (2), Mic and gear, tripod, reflectors, props (refer to props list), costumes, car	Director, camera op, boom op, assistant, Actors (Jordan, Jordon, Jordin, Jourdan and Jordyn.)
24-5-2013 A.M.	Film scenes 19, 20 and 21	A couple of different houses, some form of office building, Crosbie park (or Hagley park.)	Camera (2), Mic and gear, tripod, reflectors, props (refer to props list), costumes, car	Director, camera op, boom op, assistant, Actors (Jordan, Jordon, Jordin, Jourdan and Jordyn.)

Film Trailer Concept

Basic Outline

- Come up with something outrageous. First of all, it needs to have a disaster.

An Earthquake which then triggers a Tsunami that takes out the city of Christchurch.

- Can you make this idea more relevant or interesting to the target audience (year 12 students) somehow?

Younger characters in the focus group, tension and intense moments, unexpected twists and romantic attachments. 

- Is your idea at all possible? For you to create?

Yes it's possible, some of the shots like the Earthquake and any after shots from the Tsunami might be a little challenging, but it's still possible.

- Expand your idea, write a basic outline of the full story. (1/2 page at the least.)

Louis, Jade, Vic and Ellie are at school on Thursday afternoon, the day before the Easter weekend starts, and Louis comes up with the idea for the four of them plus his older brother, Dan, to go camping for the long weekend.

On the Friday morning, the five of them pack up Dan's car and take it up to the Cashmere hills where they'll spend the weekend. A romantic attachment quickly develops between Ellie and Dan.

Saturday afternoon, there's a big earthquake which freaks out Vic and Jade who decide they want to go home, so they pack up their stuff and walk down the hill to catch a bus to take them both home, leaving Ellie, Louis and Dan up on the hill. Later that night when they're asleep, a huge Tsunami comes in and flattens the city below them.

In the morning they wake up and see the destruction. They drive down to find out what's happened, and there's no phone service or power because it was all taken out by the Tsunami.

They try to find their families and Vic and Jade who had gone home the day before. Louis and Dan find their dad and family dog but they can't find their mother. Ellie finds her younger sister who is badly injured but their parents are missing.

There are next to no survivors because of the time of the Tsunami, mostly everyone was asleep so were taken out while they were unconscious. They can't find Vic or Jade anywhere.

Dan, Louis, their father James, the dog and Ellie have to get Ellie's younger sister to a hospital of some sort to fix her badly broken leg banged up head.

There is no physical affects on the people of the rest of the world or country, but it does scare them all and makes people realise they need to be more careful about how they treat the earth, and live their lives to the most because it could end at any time.


- What disaster genre features are already present in the story?

• A focus group.
• The normal equilibrium of life is disrupted by unusual and violent events.
• Romantic attachment (between Ellie and Dan)
• An opening section in which the key characters are sketched in.
• Foreshadowing of the Tsunami (the Earthquake)
• Children (Ellie's younger sister) to add to the drama.

 

- Can you think of any disaster genre features that you could easily add to the story?

• A hero who manages to overcome the disaster and save a small group of people.
• There will be a series of obstacles that the focus group has to overcome before they can reach safety.

- Rewrite your plot outline to include the new features.

Louis, Jade, Vic and Ellie are at school on Thursday afternoon, the day before the Easter weekend starts, and Louis comes up with the idea for the four of them plus his older brother, Dan, to go camping for the long weekend.

On the Friday morning, the five of them pack up Dan's car and take it up to the Cashmere hills where they'll spend the weekend. A romantic attachment develops between Ellie and Dan, and we learn that Vic and Jade are in a relationship.

Saturday afternoon there's a big earthquake which scares Jade who then wants to go home, so they pack everything up but before they can start driving home, they hear a huge siren. Dan knows that it's the emergency siren because he volunteered with the fire department so they get in the car and drive as high up as they can. Other people try get to the hills, including Dan and Louis' parents with their family dog.

Not long after, a huge wave washes over the city, killing thousands of people that hadn't made it high enough. We don't see the big wave but hear it as an aural bridge.

Louis, Dan, Ellie, Vic and Jade go back down to look for survivors - the water has all washed away but nobody knows where to. Louis and Dan find their parents, James and Aimee, and their dog, Kermit. Ellie finds her younger sister, Maisy, who has a really hurt leg so she can't walk and is in a lot of pain. Dan gets caught on something which badly cuts his calf, so his dad rips part of his shirt to wrap around it as a bandage, but Dan still needs immediate medical attention - so does Maisy.

Jade goes missing and Vic has a breakdown and ends up getting trapped under some debris. James, Louis and Dan's father, saves Vic but dies in the process - killed by falling debris.

Louis gets everybody to the park where the survivors have met and Dan and Maisy get the medical attention they need.

There are no physical affects on people around the world, but it does mentally hurt the deceased's families and friends in other parts of the country. It also scares people and makes them realize they need to have emergency plans set, and that they should make the most of their lives because unexpected things happen at unexpected times.

Armageddon features

Features	Example
Focus Group	Harry Stamper and his drilling team who are sent up into space to destroy an asteroid, cancelling out the rest of the world as they're the only ones in space, leaving us with a focus group.
Romantic Attachment	The romanctic attachment between AJ and Grace - it wasn't originally part of the film but was added because of the success of the Titanic.
Hero	Someone who manages to overcome the disaster that has occurred and save a small group of people, in this case the hero is Harry who sacrafices himself to save the whole world by detonating the nuclear bomb on the asteroid.
Obstacles	A series of obstacles which the characters must overcome to get to safety - in this film there was the drill not working on the asteroid, the time limitations and arguments between NASA members and the drill team.
Disruption of normal life	When normal life is disrupted - Richard and Little Richard biking through New York City and traffic jams, people going about their everyday business then being disrupted by fragments of the asteroid crashing into everything.

Armageddon

Armageddon

Armageddon was released in 1998 by Touchstone Pictures and was directed by Michael Bay.

In this film, NASA discovers that there's an asteroid heading straight for earth that's the size of Texas. 
If the asteroid were to hit earth, it would result in the end of the world, killing off all the life the planet has. NASA develops the plan to blow the asteroid in two using a remote detonated nuclear bomb, which - if detonated early enough - would cause the two separate halves of the asteroid to pass by earth safely. The drilling aspect of the plan proves difficult to the people at NASA, and so they hunt down the worlds best oil driller, Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and bring him to the NASA headquarters as a consultant. Under the strict time limitations, Harry decides the best idea is to take his own drilling crew to do the job.



Interesting things about Armageddon;


-  Each of the actors in the drill team came up with what they wanted from the government in exchange for saving the world, and Bruce Willis (Harry Stamper) read them for the first time while the camera was rolling.
- Director Michael Bay made a cameo appearance in the film as one of the NASA scientists. 
- Armageddon took 8 months to shoot, and the film makes shot 1.3 million feet of film.
- Bruce Willis had a picture of his daughter in front of him to make him cry in the scene where he had to say goodbye to Grace
- Liv Tyler turned down the role of Grace Stamper two times before finally accepting it.
- The cast of Armageddon are the only civilians to ever wear NASA spacesuits which cost over three-million-dollars each

The Day After Tomorrow features

Features	Example
Focus Group	Members of a Scholastic Decathlon team - Brian, Sam and Laura - went to Manhattan in New York and were trapped in a library with a large number of New York citizens who later decided to brace the cold and get out of the city, which killed them off, leaving us with a smaller focus group in the public library. Jack, Sam's dad, and two of his crew/friends set off to find Sam, creating another focus group because they leave the other workmen.
Romantic Attachment	From the start of the movie they establish romantic attachment between a lot of characters - Sam and Laura, J.D and Laura, Jason and Janet, and Jack and Lucy.
Hero	Someone who manages to overcome the disaster that has occurred and save a small group of people, in this case the hero is Sam's dad, Jack, who faces the cold in order to save his son and the people that he's with.
Villain	In this film, the villain is the Vice President of the United States of America, who refuses to listen to and belive what Jack has to say, and is very against having people migrating south because all he worries about is the economy, not what's best for the human race. In the end, he realises the error of his ways.
Sacrafice	When a character sacrafices themself to save a group of people, in this film Jack, Jason and Frank were walking to Manhattan to find Sam, connected to one another by rope, when Frank stood on a plate of glass which broke and he fell into a shopping mall. The rest of the glass began to break because of the weight, and to save Jason and Jack, Frank cut the rope, sending him down to his death and sacraficing himself for the safety of Jack and Jason.
Kids	The use of children to add drama, because you want the child to survive. In The Day After Tomorrow, there was a sick young boy named Peter, and he couldn't be moved from the hospital unless it was by Ambulance, and all the Abumlances had been evacuated which created tension.
Foreshadowing	Often during the opening scene, the disaster in the film is foreshadowed. In The Day After Tomorrow, in the opening scene we see Jack, Jason and Frank drilling in Antarctica when an ice shelf breaks off, foreshadowing what's going to happen.

Five Minutes with Hayden

Hayden Curtis, a Twitter obsessed sixteen year old boy is a big user of the media. If he isn't sending tweets, he's listening to music or playing video games. Here are the questions I asked Hayden along with the interesting things he had to say in response.


I: So, what different types of Media do you use and how often do you use them?

H: I use Twitter and play video games, and I do that pretty much every day.

I: What kind of video games do you play?

H: I play the older video games which I grew up playing, and I just find them more enjoyable

I: Cool, so how has the media affected you? Has it made you more or less sociable and has it changed the way you think and feel about certain things?

H: Well I'm really sociable online because I don't actually have to talk to these people face to face so it's really easy to talk to them, but then when it does come to talking to them in real life it's quite awkward, so it's had an impact on my offline social life. It hasn't changed the way I think or feel about certain things though.

I: Fair enough, well is your cellphone or another hand held device a big part of you using the Media frequently? Do you get tweets or emails etc. sent to them?


H: Well I don't have a cell phone because I accidentally trod on it, but yeah my iPod's a big reason I use the media. Uh, I get a lot of tweets and emails and Facebook notifications which gets kinda annoying because the noise goes off like ooh you've got an email and I feel like I've got to check it.

I: Do you use Social Networking - if so what different types do you use, how often do you use these types and for what reason?

H:  Well I hardly use Facebook but I do use it to catch up with friends and see what they're doing, and I use Twitter every day because I like it and find it interesting. Oh, and YouTube too, I use that most days just to listen to music that I don't already have on my iPod.

I: What kind of music are you interested in?

H: Basically anything really, I listen to a wide range of music.

I: So do you listen to the radio? If you do, what stations do you listen to and for what reasons do you like those certain stations over others?

H: No I never really have the chance too, and they don't play particularly good music. The DJ's are usually quite annoying and so are the ads so I don't tend to listen to the radio.

I: What genres of movies are you interested in and watch often?

H: Uh well I like comedies because they make me laugh and make me quite happy, but I also really like horrors. Some of them are really bad which is quite funny.

I: Do you have a favourite actor? Like, would you watch a certain movie just because it had that actor in it?

H: Not Nicolas Cage that's for sure [laughs] uh Tom Hanks, yeah.

I: Do you like watching advertising like TV ads and infomercials? If so, why?

H: I try not to, I find them quite annoying really. The songs in them get stuck in my head and I just end up singing them, they're really over the top too. They just annoy me.

I: That's fair enough, so do you use print media like newspapers and magazines?

H: I don't read newspapers I find them really boring and they just don't appeal to me, but I do read music magazines because they're interesting and have stuff I'm into in them. 

I: Finally we made it to the last question, how do you think the Media is affecting us as a society and do you think it's in a negative or a positive way?

H: Well, a lot more people are constantly expecting updates to do with Media and Media sources and a lot of people basically live off of it, which I wouldn't say is a positive thing.