Analysing Film Trailers

Film Title: 2012            Genre: Action/Sci-Fi    

Intended Audience: Male, age 15+ Intelligent

The title is used as a selling point as the world ending in ‘2012’ is a known prediction and is current knowledge, therefore the audience will gasp each caption and ultimately at the very end of the trailer the title ‘2012’ will appear and the audience will be able to connect everything that happens in the trailer with the title.

The genre is recognisable due to various elements within the trailer. These include the use of film shots; men within a science laboratory dressed in black suits, this gives the impression of an important meeting taking place in somewhere also of some significance. There are also shots of famous world buildings at the beginning of the trailer therefore the audience can comprehend the film will be about the world. Later on there are film shots of building falling, down, roads falling and aeroplanes crashing, this distinguishes the genre as an action.

The captions used in the trailer begin with ‘The Mayan Calendar Predicted It’ and ‘Science has Confirmed It’ ‘But we never imagined’ ‘it could really happened’ all separated with different film shots. The isolation of each of these captions teases the audience and consequently they want to know more as to what this new film contains and is about. The captions later go on to read, ‘from the director of Independence Day’ which gives the opportunity for the audience to make connections between ‘2012’ and the successful and recognised film ‘Independence Day’, and ‘Day after Tomorrow’ this influences them to think the current film will be as successful and will have a similar genre.

There is voiceover of the American president in the trailer, with him speaking to his country about the end of the world. The voice is quite deep and he speaks at a slow pace, mirroring the pace of the film shots. The voiceover sets the tone for trailer as the audience can recognise the seriousness of the subject through its pace and therefore they know the film will contain high tension action within it.

Additional elements are conveyed by the music in the trailer. The music starts quietly at a slow pace, with a dramatic tone which then starts to get faster as the trailer progresses. Towards the end of the trailer the music is very quiet, with the sound of the buildings crashing and falling to the ground being the dominant noise. The trailer also contains sounds of ambulances and police car sirens which conveys danger. Overall the music portrays the action that occurs in the film shots and sets the tone of the film.

The film’s media language is also aimed at its target audience through the use of mise en scene, sound and camera editing. The mise en scene is used through the shots of world famous building which later in trailer come crashing down, the editing used in order to create these shots would appeal to its target audience as they would like to see vast amounts of editing used to represent the action they crave to see in a film.

Film Trailer Conventions

Film trailers are an important part of film marketing, they promote the film to the public which as a result, creates immediate interest in the film before its release. There can be several versions for one film, earlier ones known as 'teaser' trailers, tease the audience with only a few exciting details. Later ones give more detail including the all important release date.

The conventions of a film trailer are as follows:

• Trailers include key moments from the film which are not placed in the sequence of the film, and do not give away any crucial plot details (some trailers are criticised for giving away too many details)
• The title of the film is not usually put on screen until the end of the trailer, often followed by a release date.
• The names of the main stars are out on screen early on in the trailer. This is important as it lets audiences know who they can expect to see in the film. Audience will often decide they want to see a film just because of the stars in it.
• Sometimes the names of the director and/or producer are included, with phrase such as 'from the director/makers of...' This helps the audience to make connections between the film being trailed and previously successful and recognised films.
• Many mainstream films will use a powerful voice-over that draws our attention to the key points of the film.
• On-screen text gives important about the film, including the stars, director/producers, tag line, title and release date. Notice the style of this text and how it is often accompanied by a musical beat.
• Music is essential in trailers as it can suggest the genre, style and plot of the film. Look at how music is used cleverly to bring all the elements of the trailer together.

Documentary: Production & Post-Production

Production

We were given two  (10 hours lesson time) in order to research, plan, produce and edit the documentary. We used around 4 of these hours for filming. Fortunately, we were all avaliable for all of these allocated shooting hours. We all allocated roles for ourselves. Myself and another person in the group were involved with filming and editing and had a small role in acting, the third person in the group was the main actor. We also used a few extras for certain scenes, such as interviews and a mock drug deal. We managed to get to the town in the morning in order to avoid the business of the town centre which might cause problems when filming.

Post-Production

The post-production aspect of the documentary was very time consuming, and unfortunately due to people in the group being absent we only had two hours of lesson time to complete this process, therefore we decided to take an extra two hours of our own time to finish it. We should have been more organised with the timing aspect of the post-production and should consider this in future tasks.

The documentary had to be a maximum of 5 minutes long, ours was just over 4minutes. We had plenty of footage to work from and managed to incorporate most of the material into the documentary. Once each shot was put into the film, we also had to incorporate post-production skills in the documentary, these included:
Transitions- using 'fade in' etc to amplify continuity into the documentary.
Voiceover- expressing how Harlow Town Centre used to be a shoppers paradise however due to the rise of 'Chavs' is now a place of crime and derelict shops.
Captions- These were used to emphasise the name of the 'Chavs' We used the four words which made up 'Chav' along with four images into a montage, three of council houses and the word Vermin in conjuction with our main actor.
Music- To begin with we started with a happy song which faded out for the voiceover. We decided to use 'chavvy' music for the scenes where 'chavs' were and where the derelict shops were.

Overall I think to improve, more planning is needed in order for any aspects that could potential go wrong can be overcome. For example is someone in the group is absent then we should plan to approach another aspect of the task so there is time to finish everything required to accomplish the task. Within the planning, I also think we could have brainstormed in more detail in order to have acheived a better overall documentary.

Documentary: Planning

We were put into randomly chosen groups of three in order for us to experience working with people we might not usually chose to work with. The title given for the documentary was 'Harlow: A Dying Town Centre'. From this title we produced a flowchart, with any ideas and connotations associated with the title. As the title was a 'Dying' town centre, I tried to include negative connotations. I also thought it was a good idea to isolate each word/phrase of the title in order to initiate more ideas.

From the flowchart I produced as a group we decided to concentrate on various aspects we covered. Predominantly the 'Chav' aspect and how we could connect this to crime and the empty derelict shops. We decided we would direct our documentary on how Harlow Town Centre was a exciting, safe area to be but how 'Chavs' - (Council House Assosiated Vermin) have had huge negative impacts on the town centre- empty, derelict shops and crime.

Next we ventured around the town in order to scout accurate locations for filming. We found many empty shops with grafitti and litter nearby also.

I also created a shot list to follow for filming. We follwed the list as close as possible, it was useful to have when filming.

Shots of 'Chavs'- Film medium long shot of chavs in town with some shots where the camera pans, following them. Also shots of groups of chavs. Shots with chavs on their own, main chav in documentary- include close up shots, medium close ups and medium long shots.

Shots of empty shops- medium long shots, where camera pans to create a sweeping shot of many empty shops together

Shots of Watergardens- medium long shots, sweeping shots of row of restaurants