Music and Sound

During the montage at the beginning of our Teaser Trailer, instead of non-diegetic light-hearted music, which might sound a bit unprofessional, we are going to dominate the soundscape with exaggerated sounds of each task the protagonist is doing at that time.

Simon Pegg does this in a lot of his films- a good example is from The World's End when the barman serves the drinks:

Also in his film Hot Fuzz- in this video:

TubeChop - Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy (00:13)

Filming the Drug-taking Scene

To film these shots, we placed Bethan in front of a black curtain and shone a bright red light at her.

We are using this lighting for the drug-taking scene because of the connotations of the colour red- anger, passion and sin. These emotions foreshadow the events later in the film.

Having such a bright light meant we could play around with it, filming silhouettes of Bethan and in many of the close up shots- half of her face is lit while the other half is much darker. This represents the split personality a drug as powerful as this one, can bring out in someone if they get addicted.

Although we filmed Bethan before and after taking the drug, we feel that the actual digestion of the drug should be the most dramatic shot and should be the focus of the audience's attention. We attempted to film this from many angles, in a few different ways. One of which was filming Bethan's shadow on the curtain.

Bethan was wearing a dark grey jumper which symbolises the normality of our protagonist's life. While all the people around her at the party are dressed up, in masks and makeup, Bethan is natural and wearing casual clothes. The effect drugs have on the brain and the way they alter your memory, is presented by this.

Deconstruction of Before I Go To Sleep Teaser Trailer

Before I Go to Sleep Deconstruction

The opening shot of this teaser tailer is an extreme close up of the protagonist's eye. This is very shocking to an audience and immediately captures their attention, and invades their personal space, forming a sense of discomfort. The character's eye is very wide, dilated and bloodshot, this automatically connotes a sense of panic and fear, and depicts that something is very wrong, to the audience.

The following shot displays the protagonist waking up with her partner. The natural lighting allows for the protagonist the be lit with sunlight, whereas the partner, whose face is hidden, is shadowed. As his face is hidden and he is shadowed this creates negative connotations, and depicts that the male character is hiding something.

Positions of power are established in several ways throughout this trailer, one of which being the framing of characters, particularly in this shot. The audience is presented with a central, front on, medium-long shot of the male character, which focuses the audiences' attention onto him, whereas the female character is displayed through an over the shoulder shot, she is out of focus and heavily shadowed. This gives the power to the male character and grants him with a more superior and pivotal position. Additionally, the low-key lighting resembles the female character's confusion and negative emotions.

This displays very effective use of graphic matching, as the sequence flickers between the protagonist in her home and in hospital wear. This highlights her disorientation, it could suggest that this is a flashback, due to her lack of memory. It hooks the audience as it creates a sense of mystery and tension as it causes the audience to question what has happened in her past.

Several of the shots within this trailer obtain very low-key lighting, which could depict the darkness and deceit found within the film. One example, is this shot, which portrays the protagonist's husband lingering by the door, watching her as she sleeps. This is a very disturbing shot, as it distorts the traditional view on marriage, and creates the impression that the male character's intentions are not as he says, but perhaps are much darker. This is done by creating a sense of mistrust and fear throughout the trailer, this is done through the cinematography, music, typography and the narrative. For example, the use of red in the typography 'What if everything is a lie', connotes pain, blood and evil, which could represent what the protagonist has experienced in her life. 

The music is very tense and dramatic, it builds tension by beginning as very slow and eerie, conveying the disturbed nature of the film to the audience. This conforms with the psychological thriller convention of the use of contrapuntal music, as the sound is high pitched, slow, piano music, which would usually be associated with serenity and tranquility, but in this trailer it is distorted by a low pitched ominous swooshing sound, which causes the music to appear dark and eerie, which mirrors the onscreen action and enforces the sense of fear. A change appears when the phone rings and there is a high pitched sound which evokes tension within the audience, this signifies the thrilling side of the film. As the on screen action unfold, the music mirrors it throughout the trailer, as it grows in intensity and creates fear and tension in the audience. The music constantly builds up to a climatic point at the end of the trailer, this creates anticipation, which is followed with very quiet sounds and a non-diegetic voice over of the protagonist.

The narrative such as 'Sometimes when the truth is painful I don't always have the strength' and 'He says he's protecting you, but don't trust him' reiterates this lack of trust and sense of fear, as it suggests that the protagonist has a very disturbed past and is now left confused and unable to trust anyone in her life.

Evidence of her disturbed and traumatic past is conveyed repeatedly throughout this trailer, such as flashbacks to her attack. These flashbacks are presented in black and white, along with this being done to convey to the audience that these are flashbacks, this effect could be used to depict the darkness and the trauma of the events.

The past paced editing used in these sequences highlight the panic felt by the protagonist as she is being attacked. Additionally, as conveyed in the narrative, she is an amnesiac, therefore, cannot fully remember her past, so the fast paced disjointed editing represents her inability to remember the events properly and chronologically. 

Pitch

At the beginning of the course, we presented our initial ideas to the class. Since then, our ideas have developed and changed:

We have now established our teaser trailer genre is going to be completely Psychological Thriller. The storyline has also been altered slightly and now consists of a montage displaying our protagonist's simple, easy life. Then she will take a drug and the party scene will occur through her eyes. The audience will then see shots of her life as a result of her addiction to the drug, which is now complicated and frustrating. 

 Our initial ideas of shots have stayed the same, apart from the idea of having a shot outside the party. Although our venue looked good with the lighting inside, it looked less impressive from the outside, and also too dark to film properly.

These were very rough ideas for a title, which we have now improved on. Our title options, as we put in our survey are:

The Tranquility of Ecstasy

Indulge in Ecstasy

Euphoric Rhapsody

Harmonious Delirium 

Our favourite and also the favourite of the people who did the survey is Harmonious Delirium.

Our main inspiration for our film was Limitless- both the film and the TV show. These are some of the shots we liked the best and were very inspired by. 

We like the extreme close ups of the eye as the pupils dilates- representing the sudden effects the drug has on his physical well-being. This is a technique we might attempt in filming, to clearly demonstrate the imminent effects of the drug.

The red lighting of this shot is something we will definitely use in our trailer, for the shots of the protagonist taking the drug. This will contrast both the high -key lighting we use for the opening montage and the low-key lighting used to represent her psychological and physical breakdown.

We liked these shots due to the contrast between the cool and warm tones. The shot of the clenched fists is warm toned, suggesting the power he has gained and how he it utilising this to his benefit. The shot of his palms suggests helplessness and a sudden realisation of the extent to which his powers affect his life. 

The drug

One of the most significant props in our trailer is the drug.  We are opting for a similar drug to the one used in The Matrix.  We decided for the drug to be the colour red because it has connotations of lust which is synonymous with addiction. We also plan to use a translucent drug because we might be able to get some interesting shots with the light reflecting through the drug.

Protagonist Headshots

We chose our protagonist based on the knowledge that she has had acting experience, taking part in A2 Level Drama studies. Therefore we are confident that she will be a professional and effective actor for us. 

We decided to subvert the conventions of casting in a Psychological Thriller by choosing a female to play the lead. 

As these photos display, Bethan is comfortable in front of the camera due to her previous filming experience- she starred in an AS piece of Media Coursework as well. 

Bethan could be described as an English Rose- and this is another reason why we cast her as the lead. The idea that our protagonist is an "attractive girl with a delicate, fair-skinned complexion" is apparently the epitome of Britishness within a female. 

Filming Schedule

Filming Schedule for our Teaser Trailer

Friday 30th October-Party Scenes at the location of the hall.

Thursday 12th November- Scenes in the house using the GoPro

Friday 13th November-Scenes in the house, showing the after effects of the Protagonist taking the drug.

Friday 20th November- Theatre scene when protagonist first takes the drug, using red lighting. 

Wednesday 25th November- Day-to-day life shots for montage

Thursday 26th November-Scenes outside the house showing the after effects of the Protagonist taking the drug.