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.