Title Development

After doing extensive research into typical urban drama film titles we found that the can use a variety of techniques to have an affect on the audience. I have decided to create a survey asking the public a series of questions on what the title should include/be. The key questions that i plan to ask will include:

1) should the title have an obvious link to the storyline?
2) should it be play on words?
3) which drug related title is your favourite?
4) which non-drug related one is your favourite?
5) which one is your overall favourite and why?

I did some research onto drug related terms that might make an affective title for our piece and particularly liked the five:

Comedown
Intoxicant
Joint
Roach
Re-up

I also wanted to look into using some non-drug related words as a title and found that these sounded very appropriate for our trailer:

Destitution
Privation
Depletion
Straits
Exiguity


Results:

From the results it was clear that we should not directly link the title to the narrative but however, should involve a play on words more loosely linked with the genre. 'Comedown' and 'Straits' were by far the most popular choices of title so I weighed up the pros and cons of both. With consideration to these and looking at the results for the final question, i decided that Straits would be the best title for our piece. Not only does it represent the 'dire straits' the protagonist is facing but also is a play on words to the 'straight' lines of cocaine that will feature in the trailer. 

New Casting Profiles

We faced a lot of problems with our original actors and therefore to keep continuity decide to start again and re-film many parts with a completely new cast. We ended up using six actors in the final piece, each playing an important role in the trailer. In terms of the characters in reference to theory of narrative, many conform to Propp's theory on 'spheres of action' and adopt one of his seven different character types.


Name: Ben Wallace
Character: Protagonist, the 'hero'










Name: Kevin Dowling
Character: Antagonist, the 'villain'









Name: Jill Avery
Character: Mother of protagonist, the 'dispatcher'

Name: Justas Zabotka
Character: Friend of protagonist, the 'helper'





Name: Holly MacDougall
Character: Drug buyer, possible 'donor' or 'false hero'






Name: Ella Dowling
Character: Drug buyer, possible 'donor' or 'false hero'

Diegetic and Non-diegetic Sound

As opposed to our AS piece which was a film opening, trailers more commonly use diegetic sound throughout- something that is much harder to produce and make sound effective and professional. We definitely want to include some sort of speech in our trailer, not only to conform to trailer convention, but to challenge our production and technological skills. There is generally two options in which we could involve speech; on screen coming directly from the protagonist, or off-screen. Something that we are particularly interested in trying is using a sound bridge to make off-screen speech flow smoothly into on-screen. Subverting typical urban drama stereotypes, we are considering having the villain of the narrative speaking rather than the main protagonist. By doing so, we feel that we can create a massive impact on the audience by building tension through this medium.

In terms of non-diegetic sound we aim to use in our trailer, we plan to use a fast paced rap piece as the main body of it in order to conform to urban drama genre conventions. Obviously we will need to a lot of research in order to find a professional sounding piece which is not copyrighted. In conjunction with the typical rap music, we also want to incorporate some form of slowly melodic music at the beginning. Conforming to Todorov's theory of narrative, we want to begin our piece with softer music and establishing shots to suggest a sense of equilibrium. We hope to then gradually fade in the more urban fast paced music running parallel with the increased pace of shots- helping to build tension and excitement.

Initial storyboard

This is the initial storyboard for our teaser trailer.

Potential Casting Profiles

Name: Ernest Young
Age:17
Potential Character: Protagonist
Involvement in narrative:  The main character will be a drug dealer who has been forced into it to tackle the financial struggles that his family face.
Although he is a criminal, his redeeming quality will be that he is doing the to help his mum. 
The stereotypical protagonist is a black male and therefore we have chosen to use Ernest to conform to this. 











Name:Kali Newman
Age: 17
Potential Character: Girlfriend or long term friend of protagonist
Involvement in narrative:  religious and very family orientated. Disapproves of protagonist's drug problem and is trying to stop him. Blinded by love for him but relationship is progressively under strain throughout trailer. 

Name: Ella Dowling
Age: 17
Potential Character: Drug addict (supplied by protagonist) 
Involvement in narrative:  Supporting role, one of protagonist's clients. Possibly gets herself into trouble and calls for help from protagonist causing friction between him and his girlfriend. 

Name: Tyla 
Age: 9 
Potential Character: Younger sister of protagonist 
Involvement in narrative: respects her older brother but unaware of his drug problems. Very loved by the protagonist and main motivation into supporting his mother.