CONVENTIONS OF A TRAILER

It is quite apparent that looking at trailers is a new experience, so I have looked at conventions of trailers to help me form my idea and think of ways to challenge it, there are various questions that need to be addressed when creating a trailer.  The first thing that needs to be demonstrated is the principles of the character, basically, who are they? Why would the audience like them or dislike them? However, you do not want to give away to much information, as it is a trailer and not the official movie, but enough content needs to be provided to hook the audience in with the content, so that they want to watch the film.

From the characters being introduced the next function a trailer needs to show is a plot device, this is basically an enigma also known as a puzzle, for example, a problem for the hero? Or even an epic war that needs to be overcome.

The twist in the enigma needs to appear near enough at the end of the trailer, this is the stage where the viewers are seriously going to fly of their seats and book tickets to watch the film. You want it to be interesting but not to complicated as the ‘mystery’ or ‘puzzle’ still needs to be solved, the question is how? When? Where? This is going to occur. The follow up in the actual movie, like I have noted before, cannot give of to this extent of information away because then it would not be interesting to go watch and turns into a short film.

The creator still needs to reveal a small amount of the ending this can be done in chronological a mixed order. The beginning can appear in the end, with flashbacks to make it identifiable, or the end can occur at the start of the trailer to and the build up can be how it concluded to that stage.    

The pace of a trailer is also very important to keep in mind, a good trailer starts of slow to keep the viewers interested and grip their attention gradually. This slow start speeds up the deeper we get into the trailer, with clear cuts and transactions the pace increases and gets the viewers completely attached, this all builds up to the climax and at that point the name of the film is revealed.

In terms of names and titles, it is crucial to know when they are supposed to appear. The name of the film must always come up at the end of the trailer, simply, so that the viewers see this last and remember the name of the film; the more people that remember the more views for the film and is also a clever advertising technique. The makers, producers and directors names can all appear in the begging, this will not happen throughout as other techniques will be the focus for example, the voiceover and narrators voice or the captions of the trailer.  

DIFFICULTIES WITH DECISION

My initial idea was to do a chick flick but I soon realized the difficulties I may face with this. It is important in these types of drama trailers to create a good story line and a good illustration, but seeing as the purpose is through the way its made and not the importance of the content I thought maybe this genre would not be suitable. Good trailers pick up the pace of the action half way through and chick flicks aren’t affiliated with active scenes. Although there are exceptions such as, Charlie’s Angles, even that includes a sub-genre of action espionage giving it a mysterious twist. Another issue with chick flicks is that it the target audience is narrow, whereas with horror everyone is interested and wants to get an adrenalin rush. The target audience will narrow in terms of age and gender; the older generation might not be interested in ‘girl drama’-teenage drama. In terms of gender, it might not appeal to boys. The question is why?

I held a questionnaire to young boys in my sixth, i came back with a few interesting and convenient  answers:

The first was, ‘I simply wouldn’t pay money to go watch a chick flick, because the story line doesn’t appeal to me and the target audience is women more than men.’

‘ I would go if my girlfriend paid for me and bought me popcorn’, this is slightly humorous but just goes to show how inconvenient chick flicks are to men, even teenage boys.
Another interesting point was, 'i find them boring but if the cast are people like Steven Spielberg, then i might consider it'. Overall, I have come to the conclusion that a chick flick may not be the most suitable for my genre choice and i might look at the potential for action films, such as thrillers, criminal drama etc. 

LOOKING AT TRAILERS-RESEARCH

Mean Girls

The young girl is introducing herself in the voice over; we get to see a track of her life. The  cean peal tape of her pictures of her in Africa really interest me and is very creative. An idea of mine is maybe I can use a photo album  to introduce my characters. Cady (LIndsey Lohan) does her own voice over to introduce her character. When cutting from table to table really builds a personality to the scene, it is filmed in an interesting way as each shot reveals a lot about each 'table group', when this amount of information is given to the viewers it becomes apparent to them if this is the kind of film they will laugh fully watch. The long shot of the 'it' girls walking not only makes them centre of attention but it is filmed with closeups to make them the focus of the shot, the tilt of their whole image intrigues the viewers. 

When each character is introduced they have a moment where they speak, this is meets up with conventions of a trailer. The split screen with close up of face, allows you to show two different locations but one conversation, in this case a phone conversation this is fascinating and is a exiting way of editing instead of cutting from one person to another on the phone. 


The screenshot is a close up of the actresses facial expression, as you can see it reveals her emotions through her facial features and angle of her eyebrow. It is really important
to include these shots if it is a expressive genre such as, drama, thriller or crime. This shot usually lasts two seconds long.

LOOKING AT TRAILERS-RESEARCH

The Possession

unlike the other trailer I noticed how this one used a different approach, it included the writing at the start and also instead of a voice over it had words such as ‘death’ and  ‘lives’ to capture the audience instead of an oral voiceover, this is because a lot more shocking sound is used in this one and a narrator would not work when action is taking place.

Sounds such as screaming, whispering, thunder, winds and creaks really freak the audience out and helps the trailer advertise its movie better. Pathetic fallacy is used in horror movies and the night/darkness is emphasised in this trailer. Suspicious unexplainable events occur at night and have a relation to danger.  The mid-shot of the trees and the young female on the bed really created the whole setting and added that little bit more of a fright factor to it as a whole.

The establishing long shot of the house was also done at the start to reveal where most of the action and abnormal events are going to take place, much like the romantic comedy trailer. The bird’s eye view shot of the road was very inspiring and I think was done when on a helicopter?

The cuts used are much more intense and used more regularly to pick up the pace of the trailer and to shock and scare the audience through each cut. This really grabs their attention and even though it’s scary they want to watch on!

The creativity with the bats and the end with the fingers coming out where done with various zooms and extreme close ups. This was done to show the grouse explicitly much like a horror movies do.  The fact that it’s based on a true story really does make the whole thing much more realistic and unsettling. I might take this on board and get inspired from someone around me...

Anyways much more to come stay in tune J

LOOKING AT TRAILERS -RESEARCH

THE BREAK UP
Im going to look at all genres first and then make up my mind with which genre i would like to do. This one is an example of a romantic comedy.

Instantly we are presented with a high angle shot to emphasise the length a tall building-that is the characters home. It seems as if the area is wealthy and the people may be from a high social class, maybe middleclass. This particular shot was one I found very interesting and after watching the rest of the trailer it was clear to see that all of the main events happened in this particular building. I think to show the main setting first is a simple way to show where the action is going to take place, however in most trailers for films there are several settings and not one fixed place.  

The cuts are obviously important as it helps show a lot, in a short time frame, a trailer is on average around three minutes long not giving much time for a lot of information and acting to take place. I believe that a trailer has a lot of potential to involve a lot of creative editing and for it not to look abnormal or unnecessary and help me gain the marks needed. If you notice the three cuts are on average six seconds that means two seconds of each shot, obviously this paces the trailer up and looks interesting.

Eyelevel angles are used a lot in this trailer, this is because it is a romantic comedy and usually in this type of genre simple shots are used when conversations are being healed to let the personalities of the characters shine through. It also reveals that the characters are on the same level. Over the shoulder shot of the man sitting down at the bar was used to show a classic filming skill done when two people are having a conversation/interaction. Thoughts are being exchanged and the flow of the camera helps to keep up with the each characters facial expression.  Close ups reveal emotion because romance is intimate and emotive, a main convention of a romcom.

A voice over of a narrator is used in this trailer to explain the story line and let the audience make sense of everything, but also this is done as a hook to keep them interested on what is coming up next...much like an actual film. The split second shot of the women standing in front of the mirror is done very cleverly, I personally will test and learn how to construct a mirror shot without the camera being in the reflection, I will have to acknowledge what angle works and I intend on testing it all out. I will keep you updated with how it all goes. 

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, my name is Dee and welcome to my A2 Media Blog. In this blog i will upload ideas and plans i have for my promotion package for a new film, this will include a trailer, together with a website for the film and a poster for the film. Hope you enjoy my blog and feel free to comment. Thank you