Chosen Genre

Our chosen genre for our film trailer production is 'crime'. From the beginning of the project, me and my partner, Tia Briers, agreed that we want to defy conventions, but at first we struggled to find a suitable plot, along with characters etc, that would allow us to do that (whilst still being plausible and realistic in terms of production and resources). To get together some initial ideas, we made a mind-map.

The forms and conventions we would like to include as a result of the brainstorming session are:

Plot
After going over many possibilities (such as the usual cop vs. criminal conflict) we decided we wanted something that was creative and unique, so that the trailer could be recognized as different from the typical crime film that modern audiences may now be unimpressed by. We decided we wanted to go for the route of criminal vs. criminal, but keep it ambiguous in the trailer regarding who the audience should be rooting for; the plot follows a hacker and supposed member of the 'Anonymous' group (famously represented by the Guy Fawkes mask), who is looking to punish drug users and addicts. However, this character is not a member of Anonymous, and is in fact an individual who is faking it and holds a misguided sense of revenge and motive, with hints of murderous tendencies. The drug users have done something against him/her (the gender is so far undecided), and they seek vengeance, but the enigma in the trailer lies in the fact that what has been done to make them want it isn't specified. This is our initial idea for the plot, as we will go deeper into it during future planning stages.

Characters
The initial list of characters so far is very short according to plot, but there is the possibility of extras later on in the planning process, perhaps for realism purposes and to make it more professional.
Anonymous/Hacker - gender undecided due to target audience needing to be specified
Drug addicts/'druggies' - both female and male, to further defy conventions

Props
Fake guns
Guy Fawkes mask
Prop drugs (e.g flour or sugar crystals)
Gloves - leather
Knife (a prop for the hacker to make them more threatening)
Webcam/laptop (we want to create a video of the 'Anonymous' member speaking of his plans)
Headset & mic (again for the hacker)
Smoke machine (for a possible drug den)
Fake blood (to stain the hacker's clothes)

Locations
Drug den - location can be chosen later in production
Studio - for hacker scenes
Alleyway - for possible drug scenes

Effects
Using a typewriter/scroller text effect on-screen to show what the hacker is typing would give the hacking scenes a modern or futuristic look and make it more professional. We could also use this as our title font to create an established theme for the trailer and keep it consistent.

Cinematography
Our initial ideas for styles of cinematography we want to use are:
Slow motion shots to dramaticize the trailer
Close-ups
Glitches and pixel-y footage to match the hacker theme and keep the trailer engaging
Straight cuts between mid-shots and close-ups, with the close-ups lasting for a split-second
Arc shots, such as when a character is holding a gun
Hand-held shots
Tracking shots for fast-paced scenes
Lighting: for one of the scenes we would like to have cross-lighting, where we have blue light on one side and orange on the other, to create contrasting colours and give our trailer its own unique style of cinematography.