Planning: health and safety

During our filming of the trailer, we had encouted a cold patch of weather. This has lead to parts of the trailer being filmed on icy and snowy surfaces. This has lead us therfore to take precautions on how we film our actors/actress' and what the actors/actress' actaully do. In many cases we found ourselves very close to slipping over and injurying ourselves even when not filming. So what we tryed to do was to film in areas where the ice could cause little danger as possible or make sure what the actors where doing was to be done in a much slower pace. Even though the ice created an issue with the safety of our film, we also used it to our advantage. As it is a slippy surface, we managed to make some of the more action filled shots more intense by making the actors slide along instead of running along. In hinesight we could not of thought snow and ice could of made the trailer better, but we have managed to make it work in such a way that it could be better than the originally trailer idea

TASK;Filming

We have attempted two days of filming, For our trailer production Lola, In our First attempt we manged to gain the majority of indoor shots all involving our main character

RESEARCH AND PLANNING; Casting

For our final piece we decided that in our group we did not have the acting ability or requirements to match the character we needed in our film trailer, So we decided to look elsewhere for an actress to play the party of "Lola". A friend of the group was recommended as she had previous acting experience in drama productions at school as well as other media productions, so we asked her to play the part of Lola. She has blonde hair which allows the traditional character description of a seductive and mysterious character to continue and she has a pretty and enduring face which allows close ups as well as long shots to work effectively.
As well as a main character we needed minor castings aswell, we needed male victims for our piece, this meant Nilesh patel and myself ( Greg Potter ) had to act on set as male victims this required limited dialogue but allowed us to work our strongest aility being the physical side of acting.
Although our trailers are not expected to have acting of the highest quality, we deliberately went out of our way to find an actress who had the looks and ability to pull off what we were looking for and we hope that she could draw any attention away from lack of budget or any flaws seen in the project.

Audience Questionaire

As part of the pre-production for our film trailer we have put together a series of questions to ask a group of 10 people about what they want to see and get out of films and their trailers...
1.What genre is most compelling when watching a trailer?
Romance? 20%
Thriller/Action? 60%
Horror? 20%
This result has shown that the majority of people agreed that a thriller/action film trailer is the most likely to catch their attention and win their interest.
2.Would you find a male main character more intriguing in a action/thriller film or a female main character?
Male? 30%
Female? 70%
After asking this question we asked the voters for a female main character why this was and they said because they see most action/thriller films with male leads and they believe it may be quite interesting and a good change to see a female leading this genre of film for once. This hints a slightly postmodern view taking of the current film and media, showing that the normal conventions of the action/thriller genres are changing due to directors and audiences looking for something different and new ideas.
3. Are most films you go and see a result of watching the trailer for that particular film?
Yes? 90%
No? 10%
Although the majority of people said trailers are influential over what films they chose go and watch at the cinema, the one person who disagreed claimed its not just the trailer but the posters and magazines promotion that also influences them and also whether it is promoted through the internet, showing the technological advance in how the promotion of films is changing.
4. Would you rather know who the main character is in the trailer or wait for the film?
Trailer? 80%
Film? 20%
The majority vote in this question was for the main character being revealed in the trailer rather than the film. They explained this is because the actors included in films have a huge influence in their decision for whether to go and watch that film or not due to previous film viewing experience.
5. Do you prefer short, mysterious trailers or longer, explanatory trailer?
Short? 50%
Long? 50%
This question was proved a tough one when interviewing this group of people because they could not decide. This is because they said they tend to rely on the storyline of a trailer to help them decide whether the film is worth watching, for this reason they would vote for a longer trailer. But then on they other hand they do enjoy the element of surprise and a short trailer that is extremely effective in camera shots, music and mise-en-scene but levels the element of mystery is also just as influential and create more excitement. So from this answer we are going to try and think up ways to take conventions from a short trailer and a long one so that all members of the audience can be appealed to.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Comparison

After watching the teaser trailer for the original 1984 version of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the up and coming 2010 version I came up with some questions that I figured would help to compare the two and see how the new trailer has become more modernised.

What generic concepts were used in the original trailer?

Generic concepts used in this trailer are the slow, unnerving editing techniques and the creepy music used throughout the trailer. These concepts suggest to the audience that the film is a horror. There are regular shots of a creepy claw hand which becomes iconic and the regular showings of this hand is likely to creep the audience out and keep them on the edges of their seats.

What generic concepts were used in the new trailer?

High paced intense music is used in the new trailer with fast, quick editing which puts the audience on edge, suggesting the film is a horror. There is also screaming in the background a lot which is usually a convention used to scare the audience in a horror film. Most of the concepts used are similar to the original so people know what they are watching but it is modernised and make even scarier with the new available technology of today.

How were the trailers similar and different?

The trailers are similar in the way the new trailer includes iconic scenes from the original trailer. these include the claw hand, the red and black coat and the swing scene with a child singing in the background. They are different in the sense that the new trailer is more dramatised and fast paced, whereas the original is more laid back, unnerving and disturbing. this shows each trailer is using different techniques but still creating successful horror to scare the audience.

What did the new trailer try to achieve?

The trailer tried to indicate what the film was to the audience that have seen and heard of this film before and also tried to appeal to a new audience and show enough of the narrative to get a new audience in from a younger generation and still be as effective as it was 26 years ago.

What will make a successful teaser trailer?

These are just some notes i found that we did at the beginning of the year on what makes a successful teaser trailer that may help us to make ours successful...
Successful Conventions in Teaser Trailers
-Lots of action packed into a short space of time
-Gives you a brief hint of the cast
-Fast and simple editing
-Can use humour/parody
-Don't give away the plot in detail
-Genre indicators
-Show names of directors and producers

Narrative/storyline

We have discussed as group many different ideas for possible story lines and what kind of twist we could create in the storyline to include in our trailer to make it more exciting. The idea that we all agreed on and liked the sound of is to have our female assassin work for someone, but at the same time have an everlasting grudge against men due to a taunted past she may have (that would be developed in the actual film). But at the end of the story all this revenge she is taking out on other men turns around on her and ends up with her becoming the victim. We are thinking of putting this in the end of our trailer by having the whole trailer about her being the independant powerful assassin and then at the end we will show her in a vulnerable position and have her being the one in trouble. We believe this cliffhanger type ending will give the trailer a good twist and will give the audience something to think about and want to find out what happens by coming to see the film.

Title Shot Rough Draft

The above shot is a very rough draft of some of the ideas we could encapsulate into our final title shot. The font is taken from http://www.1001freefonts.com/ and is called 'gun play' which is coincidentally relevant to our film and I initially liked it because it was bold and distinctive, two qualitys that I feel our font need. I decided to make the title red to make it stand out against a dark backround and because of the connotations of danger, romance and other themes that also happen to be apparent in our trailer. The image is a random silhouette I found of a girls back, behind which she is holding a gun. I think its effective as it visualises pivotal elements of our film in one simple picture; the feminine figure and the incongruous gun that intreigues the audience and hints at the action genre, just like in 'James Bond' and 'Charlies Angels' title shots. If we did choose to have a backround rather than a completely blank screen, for continuity purposes it would be better to create our own image. We could take a dimly-lit photo following the same outline (mid/close up shot of Lola holding gun behind back) and edit in the font over the top. This would come immediately after the penultimate shot of Lola 'hearing a noise and spinning round with vulnerable expression'; the juxtaposition of these two scenes would epitomise the extremes and exciting contrasts of Lolas character (for a second she could be the damsel in distress, but then we see the concealed gun and realise there is more to the story than meets the eye) which is what we are trying to convey to entice the audience.

Analysis of Title Shots

James Bond are iconic films with an equally iconic logo/title to match. The '007' image with the gun merged to the '7' is a recognised worldwide and is a symbol of the character of James Bond. The gun is a reflection of the films genre and although essentially the title shot is simple it is highly effective.

Charlies Angels is another film with a famous title picture; the font is distinctive from its boldness and the detail of the 'l' joining with the 's', its distinguishable from other films and makes the title stand out. The writing is juxtaposed with the famous silohette of the angels. Like James Bond, the image reflects the film effectively; in this instance the recognisable symbol is emphatic of the films main themes which are: the relationship between the three protaganists, having female leads and their power and dominance which is displayed through body language and low angle camera techniques.

Potential Fonts Within The Trailer

In our trailer we are going to incude captions and the voiceover's dialogue is going to be assisted by subtitles in some parts, we are also planning to conclude with a shot of our title 'Lola'. For this footage we obviously need to choose a font. This task may sound quite trivial but in actual fact the font we select will be an important representation of our film, especially as it will be used on the title shot which is often what people remember as it is the last thing we leave them with and the climax of the whole piece. With this in mind, we need to think what we'd like our font to encorporate in order to reflect 'Lola' as we want it to be portrayed. The font should be bold so that it is memorable and inkeeping with the big action theme, opposed to something more delicate. However, it would be good to also inject some indication of sexiness and femininity so perhaps something with a slighty calligraphic edge instead of other highly conventional basic action fonts. Failing this, on the title shot we could perhaps add some kind of icon like a gun or silohette leaning on the writing to create a memorable image. Potential options to follow...

Single White Female: Voice Over Analysis

Single White Female: 'How do you lock the terror out'.. 'When you've already invited it in'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggfSn_WzjiY

SWF has a classic action genre voiceover that narrates continuously through the trailer and concludes with the above tag line. We are looking to include this type of voiceover but maybe not as much as this trailer because I think it would be more effective if we built a bit of suspense and questioning before the voiceover gives the audience further clues. I dont think its necessary for the voiceover to spoon feed the audience the whole way through but I do like the tagline being a type of question as it's engaging.

Task: Film Trailer: Wanted

"Wanted" the film has been a successful hit and stars many famous actors such as Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uMlNKozweg

Initial thoughtsof trailer with out sound
.The opening 25 seconds of the trailer show a car chase with Angelina jolie being the main focus driving the car, this sugests to me that this film is going to have a dominant female lead meaning this film could be aimed at the female genre. The next shot is of her driving the car, doing a 360 turn to rescue what seems to be a another main character, this shows that this film will be intense and potentially be action packed. The next 25 seconds show all the main characters talking, this talking gives away abit of the story line which we as viewers have to go with when whatching the trailer. The next few shots are of all differrent types of guns with people who we as viewers regonise as a FBI or the "baddies", this shows that maybe Angelina is on the run or out to kill someone. The next few scenes are of one of the main characters being held hostage in a train, giving away a little bit more of the plot. This film to me will then attract the male audience as males like thrillers and action films.

With sound
.In the first minute of the trailer, we hear a voiceover of the charactor angelina Jolie picks up in her 360 spin of the car. He Then discribes to the audience about "how a woman can change your world forever", this tells us that there is a woman in this film that is about to save him. He then dicribes how his feelings have changed for this woman in the voiceover, suggesting there could be an element of romance somewhere within the film. The voiceover stops to hear Morgan freeman telling this man that he is a man a very few people who can "curve" a bullet. This tells the audience that that this film will have guns in it, so is most likely to be action packed or thriller movie. Morgan freeman carrys on his speach and talks about who these people are. He ends up saying that " we are an eternity of assasins" with Angelina Jolie saying "kill one, save thousands", these two lines give away the main plot of the films story line, and also gives away that it is going to be a action genre.

Within the rest of the trailer, there are fast snappy shots of what is in the genre, with the dominant shots being of Angelina Jolie. This tells me that she is going to be the one the main characters, which will therefore attract the woman audience and with the mix of fast snappy, car chace and other intense shots, it will also attract the men to come whatch it. This trailer i think is very big reason to why the film was such a success.

TASK; Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer Analysis

Toy Story 3 is a follow up to the highly successful Toy Story Franchise and this is the eagerly awaited film in the trilogy. The point of this trailer is to give the audience a taster of the film, with no relevance to the actual films storyline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-MYl-HzNw

The Teaser starts with the familiar string plucking music which anyone who has watched Toy story before will recognize and the recognisable pixar production company appears. We than see a shot of a wooden floor and cloud wallpaper, which can be recognized as a childs room as a skipping rope falls to the floor followed by a dozen green army men, who than have a conversation with someone out of shot, we are than introduced to the character feet first and we automatically recognize him as woody with his cowboy boots and Tom Hanks voiceover. we than move away from the low shot and move to a long shot where woody, calls for the remainder of the cast to move across screen carrying seemingly useless pieces of toys and other junk.

The first element of humour is introduced when mister potato heads back flap opens and he says "Oh no i've put my back out" this could be a sign saying that the characters are getting older as its been 15 years or so since the first installment. After the introduction of the cast members they cut to a shot of the cast pulling together a rag tag effort of the Toy story logo which is a handmade homely effort.

Buzz Lightyear than bumps into woody and we are than introduced to the punchline of the trailer as he introduces his own attempt at the logo which looks exactly as it should. this carries on the theme of the series with Buzz outshining Woody, but being friends they except it.

This trailer has nothing to with the film itself but continues the theme of the other films, and comforts us into reminiscing about the old films with the characters returning and only subtly saying the characters are getting old which could be said the same for the original target audience of the first film, This is something which our group wishes to take from this, we want to intrigue the audience into watching our film without giving much (if any) of the storyline away.

TASK: Toy Story 3 Teaser trailer Analysis

Planning and Research: Lighting

As said in my previous post, we thought lighting would be a problem and an issue that we would have to deal with. When filming in the dusk to night ( artifical light to Natural light), we found problems that the shots were to dark. We have now had to rethink of a way to make the trailer still seem well shot in the light we have available. When shooting, it is probably best that the outside shots for the trailer are now filmed in daylight way before dusk so then we should not encounter any lighting problems. This may effect the way we shoot the shots but should not change the outcome of the trailer.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard we came up with when thinking of ideas we could use for shots in our trailer...

Shot 1: This would be a mid, over-the-shoulder shot of the main character applying make up. This shot is to introduce the main character and make the audience aware this character is important because she is the first character you see.

Shot 2: This would be a seductive, extreme close up of the main character's lips whilst she applies lipstick. We are using the close up to build tension and make this actress's character come across as sexy and endearing.

Shot 3: This shot is a close up of a phone ringing, which will interrupt the woman putting on her make up. This shot will introduce a possible storyline to the audience.Shot 4: This shot will be a medium close up of the main character picking up the phone and answering it.

Shot 5: This will be a shot from behind this man's head. He is the man on the other side of the phone but to add a level of mystery to the trailer the lighting will be dark and you won't be able to see his face. He will tell the woman his orders in a deep voice to sound intimidating and powerful.
Shot 6: This will be a blank background with the writing 'Revenge is sweet...' This adds some narrative to the trailer and gives away some more information to the audience but still keeping them on their toes.

Shot 7: This is a long shot of the main character walking after a male victim who is running away from her. The fact that the man is running with a scared expression on his face whilst she is just strutting along carelessly makes her look like the more powerful character out of the two. We may add in some extra close ups here of the victim's face to show his scared expression (like the one below) and of her feet or face to build more tension from the fast paced shots.

Shot 8: This shot will be a full body shot of the victim slowing down and losing sight of his attacker. He will look puzzled and slowly begin to relax whilst looking around.

Shot 9: He will then look in front of him and in an over-the-shoulder shot his attacker will startle him and be holding a gun at him. This attacker is the main character of course and by seeing the woman assassin in action will give the audience a flavour of what role she is playing. This will hopefully intrigue both men and women because of the sex appeal and the 'powerful woman figure'.

Shot 10: The scene will then cut to the woman strutting down an alley towards the camera.

Shot 11: Shot 10 will cut to shot 11 with the writing 'But remember...' This narrative will keep the audiences focus for the end of the trailer.

Shot 12: The screen will cut back to the woman still strutting towards the camera, gradually getting closer.

Shot 13: The screen cuts to another piece of writing, 'What goes around...'

Shot 14: Back to shot of girl walking towards camera. (building tension for end)

Shot 15: Words 'Comes back around.' To end narrative with a twist and cliff hanger to make the audience want to see the actual movie. The screen will then cut to a close up behind shot of the girl who will hear a loud noise and spin around with a scared, vulnerable expression on her face. The screen will then cut to a shot of the name of the film and that will end the trailer.

Ideas for Trailer

After deciding what genre we were going to use we started coming up with different narrative ideas and finally came to our final ideas...
Beginning of Trailer
We are planning on beginning the trailer with a shot of the main female lead in front of a mirror doing her make up. She will then be interrupted by a phone ringing and the camera will cut to a dark close up from behind a man’s head talking down the phone to her. He will say one effective and relevant line and hang up. She will react by giving an evil and excited look and this will be followed by an upbeat montage of shots to build tension.
Montage Shots
•Shot of a gun.
•Shot of her running after a man.
•Shot of her taking a shot and smashing it.
•Flicking her hair towards the camera.
•Holding a guy by the neck with a gun out in front (holding him hostage?)
•Shooting the gun.
•In a fierce embrace with someone.
Ending
For the ending we plan on filming the main female lead at a low angle, strutting towards the camera. We plan on cutting from this shot to a blank screen with a hint of the release date, then cutting back to the shot of her again. Then cutting to another blank screen with a tagline on, back to the shot of her and back to a blank screen with another tagline. Then a shot of her hearing a noise and whipping her head round with a scared and vulnerable expression, showing how the storyline will change and adding a twist to the trailer. This will then cut to a big title ‘LOLA’ and that will be the end.

Task: Takers: Movie trailer analysis

"Takers" is a screen gems (sony) produced film set for release in 2010. From numourous occasions of looking through the trailer, I think that this trailer should be looked at for its editing and sound choices which maybe a problem when editing our trailer together. Below is my anaylsis of the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwmFjCeEag

Within the first half of the trailer, we get told the basic plot for the films story. It is about a group of people who plan to take millions of dollars from a city but will have the difficulty of specialist police units on their tail to stop this from happening. From all my other analysis of trailers, it has seemed to be custom to get tell the basic storyline first. I think this is good because it grabs the attention of its target audience early on which is important when making a attractive trailer. I think this movie has been aimed at mainly for males between 15-50 because as the audience have to go along with the story line given, it indicates that this is going to be an action packed film with lots of voilence and tense chases.

The actual storyline should not be accounted for in our film because our target audience is different and the plot is different aswell. But the editing of shots, cuts and montages we should look at and maybe use for our trailer. The non diegetic music goes perfectly imbalense with the first few shots we see. In these shots we get to see the setting, a plane and 6 people all walking at the sametime in a line. This editing i think is good because it already establishes a few interpritations an audience might get from the film.

The next bit of editing and non diegetic music we should take ideas from are from the 19-22 seconds of the trailer. Here the audiences witnesses quick flashing shots of what looks to be crimals putting head masks and touching and reloading guns. With these quick snappy shots, the non diegetic music between each cut away is of a gun being reloading. This editing and music choices I think is really good for the trailer because it works perfectly intime in the trailer but also gives more away of the film plot as the aduience gets to know that guns will be used in this film.

Task: Salt: trailer analysis

Salt is a Columbia made film which stars the very well known actress Anjelina Jolie. The film is going to be out in 2010 and here is my analysis of the theatrical trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNkTFao5_UI

Within the first half of the trailer, the basic outline of the films story is given away. I think this is good because it states the story straight away, which means it will become clear who this film will be targeted at. The trailer gives away that a russian spy is going to kill the american president in New York. We also find out that the russian spy is the woman questioning the russian guy. This tells me that this film is going to be a intense action thriller because we find that the "spy" (Anjelina Jolie) will be on the chase from her colleagues. I think that this film has aimed itself at both men and woman. Woman will want to whatch it because the main lead is a Anjelina Jolie, this means that woman will be fighting men in the film when usually its men fighting men. Men will also want to whatch this film becuase it seems to be like an intense thriller and that Anjelina has the "sex appeal".
Through out the first half of the trailer, there are slow cuts between shots. I think this is because the audience dont want to get all tense when finding out the plot of the film. Also, the non diegetic music is slow, dark and then slowly gets faster and the music changes as we find out who the spy is.
In the second half of the trailer, there is a variety of different shots used and the non diegetic music speeds up and goes in sinc with the timing of the cuts. This tells me that we are going to get a sneak preview of what the audience is going to experience during the film. Also at the start of the trailer we get told the main story line, in the last few shots of the trailer, we see a woman peeling off some sort of face mask. This tells the audience that there maybe a twist in the story which the audience will have to go whatch to find out what it is.
Overall, this film trailer is a good example for ideas we should take for our trailer because it uses areas in which we plan to use in ours. We should perticularly look at how the creaters of the film have made a potential twist in the film and how they have created the suspence.

Mr & Mrs Smith Trailer Analysis

Mr & Mrs Smith was released in 2005 and is considered a ‘romantic action comedy’. The film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored married couple who learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other. The narrative bares similarities to our production, such as a female lead and suggestion of romance. Their love story is obviously more prominent than ours as it’s centered round a couple, but we have nevertheless identified that we could learn a lot from a successful action film’s trailer such as this.

The trailer begins with a short sequence of mid-close shots of the two protagonists. The content of the shots focus first on Brad Pitts face, then his waistline displaying a gun, the first suggestion of action. This is followed by two of the producers logos and then onto Angelina Jolie. There is a shot of her face, then her body, then the top of her stocking which also shows a gun. They are short in length and the rhythmic transitions almost create a sense of a heart beating, this establishes suspense and intensity which subtly rises as the editing becomes ever so slightly quicker.
Coincidentally, we came up with an opener that could be likened to this section; our ‘make up scene’, presents the image of a seemingly normal woman getting ready. Close ups acknowledge her sexuality before the normality allusion is contradicted by the revelation of her gun- it is an early example of the contrast in genre and audience appeal we involve. We could consider adopting the films quickening editing techniques to improve suspense.
With regard to the mise en scene; Brad Pitt wears sunglasses which implies mysteriousness and perhaps secrecy- as well as sex appeal – he looks cool, is a big name star, and will immediately attract a female audience. The same goes for a male audience with Angelina Jolie, her feminine side is accentuated by her outfit, its quite revealing and stockings will always have sexy connotations. The juxtaposition of both these characters so early in the trailer hints they are the main characters and also is the first sign of the romance element.
This again coincides with appealing to a wider audience; stereotypically, there is romance for females, action for males, and a heartthrob for each, equaling a widespread target audience and more chance of success resultantly. This is something, therefore, that we are keen to explore so as not to exclude certain audience segments. In order to avoid that happening and to display our capabilities through a range of genres, we have a romantic edge and a dimension of vulnerability in Lola- she maintains her sex appeal to men but is hopefully not intimidating to women. This is not intended to be patronizing as we are aware there is an appeal in the sense of empowerment or ‘girl power’ for women seeing a female lead; this is still relevant in our piece, but we believe introducing a taste of her sensitive side will enhance audience engagement with the character.
The sound is non diegetic music which is low and minimal to begin with, building anticipation and complimenting the editing method. The action theme is put to full effect when a booming male voice reads the subtitle that has now come on ‘They are the worlds most deadly assassins’ confirming our suspicions that they aren’t your average couple. The caption is complimented by snap shots of them as if taken by someone following them whilst they’re undercover. There is then an action packed montage complete with helicopters, rocket launchers, explosions and so forth, and a loud and thrilling soundtrack is played alongside this. The shots are varied in distance and angles, and again there is quick editing which achieves excitement and tells the audience there is a lot going on- they’re not going to be bored, and it also is a way of teasing the audience by only showing it in short bursts.
We are currently in the process of trying to finalize the wording for our captions, this is such a typical feature of action films and we want to get them right. I like the assisting snapshot idea too; it would be effective in portraying that Lola is an undercover assassin like it does for Mr & Mrs Smith. We will follow the same blueprint for our action montage, I’m confident we can combat our low budget by using numerous camera techniques/angles/compositions and keeping the shots short and sharp so as to not emphasize our lack of special effects! We are also at the moment looking for some exhilarating music to heighten the mood, this is important and will have a massive bearing on the feel of the whole piece.
The trailer then takes an interesting turn, the caption reads ‘their identities are a secret’… ‘even from each other’, the action music is cut at this point and a more cheery, lighthearted tune ensues. There are scenes of the couple doing everyday things such as brushing their teeth and having a meal together; the juxtaposition of this scene against the previous high-intensity shots has a humorous outcome. This is epitomized when the music cuts again and there is emphasis on some short dialogue: ‘Did you change something?’ I added peas’… ‘ahh…. Peas’, at which the music starts again more up tempo than ever, accompanied by more typical action shots and hints of the plot. The action/comedy theme has been established.
I think a comedic twist could be something we may look into as the genre is so generically appealing, and would heighten our attraction to a widespread audience. It’s a tried and tested formula seen in many action films, an example being Rush Hour 1, 2 & 3.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING; Film Planning

During our brainstorm of ideas we often found ourselves using silly cliche's and funny scenario's for our character to be involved with, this gave us a possible idea of doing a parody film, what started with our film being a serious violent thriller than turned into a silly mockery of all action films before it. We decided as a group that we should stick to a serious film for the following reasons ; we could not come up with the flow of jokes for our trailer that would be necessary to film and that parodying action as well as every other genre has become rather over used with Epic movie, Naked gun, Hot Fuzz and Austin Powers. Our group than agreed that any sense of Pastiche would be inevitable as there have been thousands of films in a similar mould to ours, so if we can make it as serious as possible and use sound effects, camera shots and costume that will make the scene look as realistic as possible than any critic who notices something similar in our film to another will mean we have reached our goal.

Task: The Hurt locker: trailer analysis

The Hurt locker is a very successful american film produced by summit entertainment. There are not many well known actors in the film but has won numerous awards for its work. Here is my Hurt locker trailer anlysis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg

Within the first 10 seconds of the trailer, we see two men both in army costumes, this tells the audience that this film maybe about what life is like at war. But then the two men start having a convosation about what the name of the camp their kiving in is called. The black army man says they changed the name to camp victory because it "sounds better". humor is created here because at war, humor is a rare sight.
Within the next 30 seconds, the trailer gives away the basics to the films plot, this telling of the film is good because it gets the audiences attention straightaway, instead of waiting for the plot to be told over the hole trailer. It is about a man who disarms bombs for a living, and has been moved to the deserts of the middle east to do his job. From the plot, i think that the target audiences to the film are males aged between 15-50 because men prefer war films and enjoy intense thrillers. At this point, the non diegetic sound of ticking creates a more intense mood, as if something is about go off but the audiences dont know about it. We then see a shot of the main man disarming a bomb, with the ticking non diegatic music getting faster creating even more suspence.
Halfway through the film, humor is created again, the bomb disposal man talks about the things which almost killed him. In this box is his wedding ring where he talks about how his marridge almost killed him. Then the next shot emidiatly goes back to the plot of the film, a tense scene of a bomb exploding bringging back the supence to the film.
In the final 20 seconds of the film, all non diegetic music stops to

Setting Photos

As we have started filming some practice shots we have been taking pictures of some of the settings we plan to use. these are some of the ones we have taken so far...

The shot above and below are of shots down an alleyway. We chose this alleyway setting because we want the character to look vulnerable at the end and we believe if she is down a small, creepy alley she will look more in danger. One problem we did come up with though was the lighting, we wanted to try it in the dark with a street light, but this has proved too dark and we might have to change our timing when we shoot the real thing.

The pictures above and below here are of the setting we plan to use for the beginning of our trailer. We chose this setting because it contains the typical dresser and mirror with good props and lighting that compliments the actress and we believe this is an effective beginning to draw in viewers.

The picture below shows some of the props we plan to use, we chose these because they are what you would usually find on a womens dressing table and this helps us to make the trailer realistic.

The picture above is the business-like outfit we planned in previous posts to have our main charatcer wear. It i sexy yet superior and powerful looking and will make our main actress look like the dominant female we want her to come across as. Secondly, below there is a picture of a dress that we have decided to have our actress wear in the first make up scene. We chose this particular dress because it is dark, to make her look mysterious and possibly evil, but also sparkly and sexy to keep people guessing and make her look more glamourous.

Planning: Lighting for the trailer

For our trailer, we will be filming in the outdoors and indoors. The lighting in the trailer will be an isssue that we will have to deal with and make a solution towards it. One of the scenes in the trailer is Lacey Cole ( Lola) putting on lipstick and mascara in the mirror. The problem with this lighting will be the reflection off the mirror and how much lighting will be used when filming. To much lighting could over power the scene and make it seem to dominant which could potentially give away too much of the Lola story line, but too little lighting then the viewer may not be able to see what Lola is doing. When filming outside, we are planning to film at dusk, meaning the transition from natural light to artificial light may cause a problem when filming the scene. We hope that the dusk transition doesnt cause to much of a problem as it could interfere with the outcome of the end trailer. There will be a fine line between good lighting and bad lighting.

TASK: Kill Bill Trailer Analysis

Kill Bill is a fillm about "The Bride" who is gaining revenge on the people that stole her baby and shot her in the head, the film follows her through her bloody sword thrusting revenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-czwy-aVbbU

The trailer starts with a plane flying over an Asian setting, before a series of production names and stating it is a Quentin Tarantino movie, The trailer than bursts into life with the word action heard over head before a slender woman throws open a boot with a motorcycle helmet, You than follow her to riding a motorcycling, and cutting between another female lead obviously of some importance as she is surrounded by other people, As the upbeat heavy music reaches a climactic rise we than see the back of the character in yellow and she turns to show us her face anyone who hasn't seen a previous Tarantino film than gets a "Uma Thurman" Subtitle across the screen, The music has now reached a faster pace and we are met by a montage of the lady in the jumpsuit having a sword fight with men dressed in black, this could be a connotation of light yellow colours signifying good against the evil characters in black, this could also be pying homage to Bruce Lee who made the yellow jumpsuit famous and it is now clear with the japanese theme that is dedicating it to him.

It becomes apparent that the majority of the main characters in this film are female as we follow the jumpsuited lady through each scene whith her violently encountering each character with knives and balls and chains. We than get a series of shots where characters are lloking down on the camera in an intimidating position, this could be showing the characters that could be involved or "in the way" of "The Bride".

There is than a close up of "Uma Thurman" and her eyes, the camera than pans away from her and upwards to the large mob of sword wielding hit men surrounding her, this shows her loneliness and perhaps vulnerability, but this feeling is short lived as it moves into a montage of more violence with "Uma thurman" beating up all this Asian hit men, with the stylish camera work mixing up black and white, colour and slow motion.
The trailer ends by emphasizing on the main character with a close up of her having a conversation, with the "bad guy" who sais "You didn't think it would be that easy would you" The good girl than responds "For a minute there I thought it was" it ends with her running up a banister and finishing of another henchman and the words Kill Bill appearing on the screen.
What ideas we gained from the trailer is to attract the target audience with what they want, so play off the female leads character "attraction", aswell as the overwhelming use of violence.

Costumes used in previous trailers

The long Kiss Goodnight
There is a contrast in the clothing that the main character wears throughout this trailer. When she is being displayed as a vulnerable, loving mum she is wearing normal, everyday clothes that display what character she is playing. But when the trailer switches to her being the hard-edged assassin her clothes are all dark but plain, but help to make her look more dangerous and change the audience's view on her. This shows the clothing being in dark colours is good at displaying what kind of character she is, the character we plan to use in our trailer.

Charlie's Angels
Again in this trailer the main characters are wearing black clothing throughout, showing how this colour is effective in a female action trailer. Their clothing is all business like and this helps to make the characters look more important and powerful, which is what we plan to imitate in our trailer.

Kill Bill
The main character in this trailer wears a bright yellow, leather outfit. This colour is used for the writing and is shown as a memorable, iconic colour because it makes the main character stand out. The use of this bright colour makes it easy for the audience to identify which character it is straight away. This is a different way of displaying the main character compared to the two trailers above. This could be because there are more background people in the Kill Bill trailer so making the main character more identifiable is even more important. This is another technique we could use in our trailer.

Lara Croft
All the techniques used in the above trailers are used in this Lara croft trailer. When she is on her own in shots she is wearing dark clothing like in 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' and 'Charlie's Angels'. But when she is in shots with lots of other characters you see her wearing all white clothing. This makes her character stand out and let the audience know she is the main and most important character.

In conclusion the use of dark clothing and clothing that uses colours that stand out are clearly the most effective and overused in action trailers. We will take these ideas into account and use them in our trailer. Another thing noticeable in all these trailers is how the clothing makes the female characters look attractive and bring in that sex appeal. This is something we plan to achieve in our trailer as well.

Charlie's Angels teaser trailer analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njcY2ufCxyM
We chose the Charlie's Angels trailer as one of our trailers to analyse because we thought it would be beneficial because it has the same genre and female leads. This trailer having the same genre gives us an idea of what conventions, types of shots and styles we can use in our trailer, to make it just as effective as the Charlie's Angels one was.
Music/sound
There is a voice over throughout this trailer, it is clearly a man's voice and has a deep, serious tone to it. This fits in with the background music which starts straight away, this is fast paced and suggests the film's genre is an action. The first thing the voice over says is, 'It's a dangerous world out there', this also suggests the action genre . The fast paced music carries on throughout, keeping the action genre going. Near the end the music stops and you hear a phone ring in the background, followed by the dialogue, 'Good morning angels', 'Good morning Charlie'. 'Good morning Charlie' is clearly said by girls because of the higher pitched, fun sounding voices, which takes some of the seriousness off the trailer.
Camera action/camera shots
The first thing you see is a dark setting with a dark figure walking towards the camera, ithas the outline of what looks like a man. But then you see three girls jump out and land into fighting poses and strut towards the camera. The camera is at a low angle which makes the characters seem more important and powerful. As they come nearer to the camera you see their faces and it is obvious that these are the main characters. Keeping the characters in the dark for a while keeps the audience on their toes and makes them want to keep watching to find out who they are, this is a technique we could use in our trailer.
The camera then cuts to close ups of the girls faces, one by one. This is introducing the characters with the actresses real names being shown also, this shows the trailer clearly relies on how well known the actresses are to draw in a bigger audience. The close up shots show the female characters pouting with suggestive expressions, wearing lots of make up and flicking their hair in slow motion, this brings in some sex appeal and is likely to bring in a male audience. Although a female audience will also be intrigued because of how the the trailer makes women look like the more powerful sex. These ways of appealing to both men and women is something we aim to achieve and we intend to take ideas from the way the Charlie's Angels trailer achieves this. Next you see the same close up shot of a male, who copies what the girls do and it is made to look more comedic, this suggests an alternative genre, which is likely to invite the audience in further. This comedic view of the only male seen also demotes the male sex and makes the women look more important and serious, which is likely to appeal to more women but also be attractive because of the switch in the usual dominant sex, sparking more interest in the film.
The camera then cuts back to the shot of them strutting towards the camera, which is still at a low angle. Fire then comes from the background and takes over the screen, making a nice attractive effect. This is followed by fast mid shots of the girls doing fighting movements, such as kicks and jumps with serious faces, again making them look even more powerful and showing the action genre even more. This then cuts to the title of the film 'Charlie's Angels' with the girls standing in action poses as black figures, suggesting that these girls are charlie's angels and possibly explaining some of the narrative. Just like the analysis for 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' trailer we could take some of these unintentional displays of narrative and add them into our trailer to make it just as effective.
The camera then cuts to a black background with the words 'This fall' written across the screen, then the words 'Get some action' replace them. These words don't give away the exact date but let them know when to expect it, this keeps the audience waiting and adds a level of excitement to the trailer, this technique is something we can use in our trailer. The tagline also has the genre 'action' in it, bringing the trailer to an effective close.
Mise en scene
The clothing the girls wear throughout is black, smart suits, which straight away shows what kind of characters they are playing and makes them look powerful. This business like attire is the kind of clothing we are thinking of using in our trailer, to show the audience the character's identity.

The Action Genre: Backround Research & How It Pertains To Us

The roots of the action genre can be traced right back to the birth of cinema; the silent era was filled with many examples of the earliest subgenre- 'Swashbucklers'. The term itself derives from olden day fighters who carried swords and a 'buckler', a type of small shield. They were often based on romantic costume novels and usually abided by the following formula;

- a heroic sword fighting character
- renaissance western Europe setting
- lavish costumes
- clear-cut morality
- a damsel in distress and a romantic element
- as film evolved, triumphant, thrilling music also became a prominent feature

The films of Douglas Fairbanks are considered to define the genre, and Errol Flynn was another pioneer that followed. Notable swashbuckler films include: The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1922) and The Scarlett Pimpernel (1934).

As technology progressed, so did the action genre; swords and shields became guns and gadgets, and in the 1962 James Bond burst on the scene, popularising the modern day action film for a new generation. Early American action films at this time tended to centre around the police force, such as; Bullit (1968), The French Connection (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971). This period of action film was characterised by quick cutting, car chases, fist fighting and more elaborate action sequences than had previously been seen. These techniques are therefore worth considering, if achievable, for our piece.

Despite its success, the action film genre didn’t become a dominant form in Hollywood till the 1980s, when it was made famous by big name stars like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis. 'Die Hard' in 1988 was a particularly influential on the development of the genre that followed that decade. Consequently, the new wave tends to require a big budget and include numerous explosions and complex stunt work. This could prove to be a problem with our limited budget but by paying attention to detail on other aspects (camerawork, editing, sound etc) i believe we can still be successful.

While action films have traditionally been aimed at male audiences, from the early teens to the mid-30s, many action filmmakers from the 1990s and 2000s added female heroines in response to the times, glorifying the strong female archetype. This is an indication of our trailer being contemporaneous, in the present day there is an open reception to the 'girls with guns' subgenre thanks to such films as 'Lara Croft' and 'Kill Bill'. It is encouraging to know we have a tried and tested formula and an established target audience. It is no longer incongruous to have a female lead.

Current trends include CGI, terrorism dystopia, intertextuality with the sci-fi and humour genres among others. Our idea outlines a 'sexy action' incorporating a possible romance narrative, i think this is a strong basis to work around because it reaches out beyond our assumed target audience- which is primarily men -and gives some appeal to women thanks to the suggestion of some kind of love story. The vulnerability of our character will make her easier to relate to but whilst sticking to other typical features of action and 'girls with guns', men will still be interested. In a way we are linking back to the early days of action before it became a male orientated genre.

Because of their expense, action films are often regarded as mostly a Hollywood genre, although a significant number have emerged from Hong Kong, these are mainly modern variations of martial arts films. Hollywood tends to indulge in expensive special effects whereas Hong Kong focuses on the quality of the fight scenes. Again, our budget may restrict us but with good editing and camera work we can improvise!

Previous Coursework

This is my work from last year all my work should come under Greg.


http://mitpatarpot.blogspot.com/

RESEARCH AND PLANNING; Why Is Having A Female Lead Controversial?

Why Is Having A Female Lead Controversial?

1) Men Can’t Identify With Female Leads
Men and women are different, it’s a point that is particularly relevant in this case. We often find ourselves attached and invested in film characters that we either identify with or aspire to be. For men, that’s a hard sell with female characters. Add to that the fact that the audience for the Action genre is predominately male.

2) Believability
A lot of men complain that “I’m sorry, but how can I get into a movie like this?” There is no way that stick figure can take me in a fight”. It is nonetheless at the root of why many men don’t buy into a female lead action film. “Movies aren’t always supposed to be about believability, quite often it’s supposed to be about the suspension of believability, but it wouldn’t change the fact that men have a hard time buying into a female character beating up a lot of male characters. Women in prison movies on the other hand are a totally different story.

3) We’re Brought Up In A Society That See’s Women For Their Sexuality And Intelligence In Film.
I think in the movies we’ve become conditioned to see female characters just in terms of their sexuality or their intelligence. Seeing female characters as tough or bad, ready and willing to beat you up at any moment is just outside of what we’re accustomed to seeing. At most we’re used to seeing women as the damsel in distress or as the love interest in action films, not participating in the Fight.

Planning: costume (shoes and blazer) Ideas for Lola

pLola's clothing is meant to be very business like with a hint of seduction. the clothing idea must therfore be convincing to viewers that she is a business woman and that she could potentilly be a killer.



Here are a few idea....

The blazer should be of a dark colour as it symbolises a womans power. It also looks very business like to a consumer. Also a black blazer can be matched with the majority of colours, meaning we can mix and match Lolas costume

For footwear, we think that long heal boots would be the best for Lola's clothing because the clapping of the heals on the floor can be seen
as sexy and seductive to men.










The shirt should be convinsing enough to be be seen as business like. We also think that the shirt should be of a red or white colour as that can represent blood to viewers but also be seen as a seductive colour to the eyes of male audience.

The Long kiss Goodnight

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDuma1M09B0
We chose this film trailer as one of the trailers we would evaluate because we believe it has the same genre and we can benefit by analysing the different conventions and style that they use. Especially as this film's main character is a female assassin and this is the character we want to give our female lead.
The first glimpse of a scene in this trailer is calm with gentle piano music. It is a close up of a lady (Geena Davis) and two young girls, that look like they could be her daughters, having a conversation. The conversation is short and humorous and sets a warm atmosphere. The next thing you here is a voiceover begin and it asks, 'what if you don't remember your first kiss?' This includes the audience straight away with the rhetorical question and makes reference to the film's name. More shots of the woman are seen that flow smoothly and slowly and are of her with vulnerable look facial expressions, this suggests to the audience that this is the main character. The fact that the trailer shows you the main character could suggest it is using this to draw the audience in because the actress is well known. We could use this style in our trailer by showing the main character straight away because the film includes a certain kind of sex appeal and may draw the audience (especially men) in straight away.
The mise en scene and setting carries on being calm and normal and gives no reason for the audience to think that the trailer could be a horror or action film. But then you see the woman cutting up vegetables, she gets faster and the excitement between her and her family grows, but then she throws a knife at the wall and the atmosphere immediately changes because the gentle music stops and her families faces turn to worried/scared expressions. There is then an extreme close up of an eye blinking and the shots turn to dark images and you see a flash of a knife which builds tension in the audience. This is followed by gunshots and a disturbing looking man turning up with a gun, showing the obvious change in atmosphere and building more tension.
Next a song in the background starts which isn't creepy and actually lightens the mood again. These changes in mood are effective and keep the audience on their toes and wanting to see more. This could be an important convention to include in our trailer and could make the trailer that bit more effective. The dialogue starts explaining the narrative further by telling the audience the woman has amnesia and used to be an assassin and her past is coming back to her. This tells the audience the story, hoping that they will be intrigued enough to want to watch the film, which is what we intend to do with our movie trailer.
Next you see a shot of the woman with a different haircut, its blonde, short and slicked back, making her look alot more hard edged and begins to make the audience think she is the bad guy rather the victim. This is followed by shots that back up this new appearance, such as a shot of her holding a scared looking man with a gun to his head and beating up a man and also taking shots at a bar. As the trailer goes on more characters are introduced but shots of one particular black guy (Samuel L Jackson) are repeated suggesting this character is important to the story as well. Also the shots of the man are usually humorous, showing the audience his personality as well as the main character's. You then see shots of her with her daughter which shows her nice side and makes the audience favour her again, this messing with the audience's emotions is likely to keep them interested. More intense music follows after a huge explosion and a montage of fast action filled shots are shown, ending the trailer on an intense high and leaving the audience wanting more. The trailer then ends with the voiceover saying the actors names and the name of the film.
The main factor I love in this trailer is the way the mood goes up and down, keeping the audience on edge, and I intend to include this kind of style in mine and my group's trailer.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING; Trailer ideas

Choosing the genre

Horror Genre
Pros
-Many shots are easy to complete and emphasize, this effective camerawork is vital in a horror, resulting in the trailer reaching its full horror potential.
-Multiple settings can be used, making it easy to find a place to film the trailer.
-Simple props can be used to produce a big impact.
-It is more simple to produce a tense, scary trailer because it is easy to produce fast paced editing to produce this type of trailer.
Cons
-Not challenging enough!
-Effective soundtrack may be hard to find without copyrighting.
-Costume and make up is usually complicated to produce the best effect which may be expensive.

Romance genre
Pros
-Amazing graphics, which are hard to produce, aren't vital in a romance.
-Romance storylines can be simple and easy to think up.
-Multiple shots can be used for effective camerawork.
Cons
-Reliant on acting and dialogue.
-Many extravagant settings may be needed to emphasize the relationship/romance in question.
-More than one actor will need to be involved, it may be hard for us to find characters who are all free at the same time.

Thriller/Action
Pros
-Fast paced editing is easy to produce and will emphasise the fast paced action/thriller movie effectively in the trailer.
-Everyday props and clothing can be used, resulting in the trailer being inexpensive to produce and becoming more realistic.
-There are many existing trailers of this genre to draw inspiration from.
-We believe the technical elements and body language would be more beneficial to the film and create more tension. Which is easier to produce effectively compared to a film reliant on dialogue.
Cons
-Props such as guns may be hard to get a hold of.
-Finding the right setting to produce highly powerful shots may be difficult.

As a group we have decided to create an action/thriller trailer because we found more pros than cons and believe it will be an exciting trailer to produce. We also came up with the most ideas and a storyline faster than we did when thinking of the other genres. Another reason we chose this genre was the help and inspiration we had from the many existing action/thriller trailers we have found which have helped us with the production and imagination process. We will display and evaluate these trailers on our blog in due course.

Old work

Here is my yr 12 coursework link. Every post i have done is under my name

http://hannahemilynileshjohn.blogspot.com/