Sink Film Trailer

Film title: SINK

Plot: A young man and his brother live in a cold dark city where crime rates are high and blood shed is higher. The main character is the story keeps to himself and does not agree with the life of crime and violence that his brother and others lead, instead he prefers to stay away from the dark life and look after himself. You do not learn the two brothers names, as there is little dialogue between the two.

One night when the main character's brother persuades him to come out and go looking for trouble they stumble across a high class party which unknown to them, is being held by one of the most notorious criminals in the city, Marcus. When they walk into the party they receive some unwanted looks by many of the guests. The brother wanders off on his own for a while so the main character is left to explore. While walking through the house he locks eyes with a gorgeous girl who appears to be upset. He goes to comfort her, at first she allows him to socialise but she suddenly starts acting strange and distant towards the main character after they share a kiss. The girl quickly disappears after the kiss. The main character moves on quickly to search for his brother, he felt strange, he didn't feel good about this party, where they are or the strange behaviour of the girl. He wanted to get out of here before any trouble starts.

He finds his brother strolling around the house drinking, so he quickly pulls him out of the house and they drive home. Once they are in the house, the brother pulls out a very expensive looking ornament from his pocket and laughs. The main character is furious that his brother had stolen from the house that night. The main character goes to bed, still angry at his brother.

In the morning the main character discovers his brother beaten, bruised and gasping. The main character rushes his brother to the hospital however does not make it in time. He drives to the house where the party way, the lead character has a strong feeling he knows who was behind his brothers death. From outside the house he could see the crime lord laughing and drinking with another group of men. His mood quickly changes to aggression and he smacks a girl to the floor. The other men laugh. As the girl gets up, cowering in fear the main character realises that it is the same girl who he saw at the party. The main character doesn't no what to do, he needs to kill Marcus, but he can't right now, he doesn't even know what he's doing. The main character drives home with the last few days flickering in his mind. He's sure that it was Marcus that killed his brother, plagued by anger the main character sets out to have revenge on Marcus. When he arrives at his house he sets about getting ready, thinking about what to do.

A week later the main character hears that Marcus is having one of his usual poker nights with his gang. He grabs his coat and his keys and walks out the door, he fills his car boot with chains, knives and an axe. He slides a gun down into his holster. Everyone needs a gun in this city.

He arrives at the party and walks round the side of the house and climbs in through a window quietly. He wants these to be quiet kills. He wants to kill all the gang members one by one so that he can have the satisfaction of scaring Marcus with blood and body parts. He slowly manages to pick off each gang member until it is only he and Marcus left in the house. They have a long fight in the large expensive house, often hiding and resting in different rooms and using various house hold objects as weapons. The main character dives into a bedroom too hide, in it he finds the girl from the party who is crying because of all the violence. The main character comforts and promises her that they will be fine and out of here soon. She kisses him again.

Marcus finally finds the hero hiding and they start to fight again, Marcus clearly winning as he is a lot bigger and stronger. As soon as the chance arises the character takes it and pushes Marcus down the stairs when he's off balance. Marcus falls unconscious, only to wake up in a bath, a couple of hours later, all chained up with no way off moving. The main character is perched on the side of the bath with a look of hollowness in his eyes, he is holding an axe. He starts his revenge..

Genre: The genre of my film is a mixture of thriller/film noir/crime. When I researched modern film noir I found that all the films of the genre are very dark, sometimes in black and white and use very low lighting in most shots. Film noir movies very usually always involve A hero, a girl who will most likely end up with the hero, and then also a villain is mixed into the plot as well. This is a good example of Levi-Strauss' binary opposition theory, where all important characters and themes have opposites. For example good/evil and also boy/girl.

Evaluation:

When I first started planning my trailer, I already had it in my mind that I wanted to create a dark, agressive film noir. I wanted to take the classic genre and bring a modern darkness to it. I used a Canon EOS 7D DSMC (digital still and motion camera) to film my trailer, this was a big step up from the equipment I was using for my AS piece. With the 7D I was able to shoot my trailer in 24fps, the same frame rate used by pros. This created a very smooth look to my film, perfect for my film noir vision.

I always tried to use low lighting for all my scenes as it created a very effective high contrast in my shots. I didn't want any shot in my trailer to look bright and cheery, as this would clash with my general film idea. Instead I used deep, dark colours such as black and red, then reduced the saturation slightly and increased contrast to create a look that struck out to the audience.

I have learnt a lot about filming this year and I have also got more involved with the camera work this time around. I was the one who primarily set up the camera, changed the fps, exposure, arpeture and shutter speeds.

I also feel as if my editing has improved this past year. In my trailer I featured shots of the rivals walking in each other's direction. I first shot the scene very low to the ground and got a medium close up of each character walking forwards. Afterwards I shot the same scene however from the level of their waist and hands, I did this so that the audience can see the weapons that the men are carrying, this hints at violence and agression. I cut the different shots so that the camera angle moved from the feet to waist in a smooth transition. I then filmed the two enemie's faces close up. I cut these scenes very quickly and alternated from quick shots of the mens faces to a tiled floor being covered in blood. I made sure I used a strong black and white effect on the bloody floor, this is so that the trailer would still be suitable for a wider range of audience ages.

I wanted to create suspense in my trailer so that the viewer wants to see more, and then hopefully go pay to see the film in the cinema. One shot that was very dark, and full of suspense, featured a corridor with a door at the end. I slowly zoomed in with the cameras lens while my brother hid behind the wall and flickered the toilet light. This created a brilliant, almost scary effect. I then did a similar style of editing to the scene before featuring the close up faces and blood. I kept cutting from the corridor zooming in, to blood pouring into the bath.

I finally finished my trailer by using my hand to smear the blood all over the bath. This looked very gory and violent.

After I had completed all the shooting and editing, my next step was to add original music to my trailer. I used a small simple MIDI set up and managed to create a track which was quite simply drums and a trumpet. I used the trumpet as my chosen instrument, as the trumpet is an instrument often associated with classic city music such as old jazz clubs in the dark city.

I feel that the making of my trailer went very well. At the very start I was concerned because I felt that the shots did not go well together, however I managed to quickly develop the shots into something a lot more than just quick scenes shot on a camera. By darkening, reducing saturation and increasing contrast I was able to make my shots blend together nicely. I was very fortunate this time of filming as I did not have any complications at all, apart from having to spend a long time cleaning up fake blood.

I feel that I have made a very good product seeing as all I used was a DSMC and a tripod, I've been able to create some good images for my trailer. I am happy with my product, however I do feel that I could have put more action in my trailer.

Other people who have seen my trailer have all given me positive feedback however some agree with me and feel that I could have more going on in the trailer.