Classification

I would class my film as a 15 certification because it does not  encourage discriminate in any way. I think it would be too strong for a 12/12A as there is a sense of discriminitary language and there is a bit of imitable behaviour like the bullying and fighting. I think in my own judgement that the theme of the trailer is not suitable for 12/12A either as it contains quite mature themes like bullying and also the horror content is more than moderate is quite frequent. When considering the classification I went by the official guidelines from the BBFC.

I also took into consideration classifications from the trailers I researched. the trailer for 'Tormented' is a 15. This seems about right for me and since my trailer is heavily linked to it, it had an impact on me and my trailer. Other trailers I previously did research on like ' What Lies Beneath' and  'Blair Witch Project' are both 15. It seems that all of the same type of films are classified as 15 so it makes some sense to put 15 on my trailer.

Audience Theories

Two Step Flow

The theory suggests that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. Individuals, who are opinion leaders, pay close attention and receive information from the media. They then pass on their own interpretation of the information to people who are in social contact with the opinion leader. The opinion leader has personal influence on the medias messages and could change other people’s attitude and beliefs towards the media.

The Hypodermic Syringe Theory

This theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to the mass media. It started in the 1920s, the Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that audiences passively receive information from the media and get manipulated into believing what they see is true without being given a chance to question the message. The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a  large group of people directly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a response.

Reception Theory

This theory uses the audience’s individual background and circumstances to explain how the media affects the audience. The theory says that a person’s gender, class , age  and ethnicity effects how the audience interprets and reads the media.  Depending on the culture of the audience, the audience will read the media differently and have different views on the messages the media sends.



Uses and Gratifications

This theory is also more about the audience than the actual message in the media as it is considered an audience-centred theory.  The theory says that the audience look for a particular type of media to meet their needs.  Their needs do alternate though and the media provides a large variety.

My Trailer Planning

I expanded my trailer ideas to make the storyline and to choose the cast.  While I was looking at trailers I started to get a more specific idea of what I wanted to do. I chose to loosely base my trailer on the film 'Tormented' in the end because it was a film from my sort of age group and I thought it would very interesting to film.  Although it will be a remake, it will be a bit different as I am going to add in my own bits and do it my way. The storyline is  about a lonely sixth former who is bullied to an extreme extent and ends up being killed. Here is the storyboard for the trailer explaining the sequence.

Characters


The cast of the trailer was particularly easy because the characters are sixth form school boys. The main character is the that gets bullied and I chose Matt Daniel for this role. I chose him because he fitted the criteria of this character which included age, gender and looks . Then I had to find about three or four other people to play the bullies. I chose Nick Conner, Max Ansell, Frank Mowatt and Matt Scott as they are all the same age and gender and are all  also roughly from the same social group so they are naturally friends and comfortable together.


Location


There will be two locations in the trailer, the school and just outside the school in the road. The school is just an obvious and relevant location as the trailer is based on a sixth former getting bullied at school so it is just obvious. The road is used for a car scene.



Camera Shots and Titles


The camera shots I'm intending to use are a mixture. I am going to try and be versatile with my camera shot to make my trailer look professional and as interesting and possible.
I am also going to use intertitles as well during the trailer that will say about release date, title of the film and rhetorical questions. This will also make it look more professional and draw audiences in.