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Friday, 12 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
The Conventions of the genre of Revenge thrillers and trailers. My trailer and how it will fit with aforementioned conventions.
The main aspects of the revenge thriller are the first (and probably most important) scene, which will consist of an event that will ‘drive’ our character’s behaviour to beyond what we are expecting. This will usually involve an injustice being committed against our character e.g. a murder, a framing. Before this scene we will usually have character development but in a trailer, we are usual given some form of overview of this in a voiceover or small clip, this is done effectively in the Harry Brown trailer when his friend tells him that he fears for his life. This often adds some sense of moral duty for our character, and will later motivate his revenge. However these scenes do not provide the action that many of the potential audience will be looking for, that is why these sections must be short but effective, that is one of the reasons that some trailers use sound-bites. The first major scene takes up the largest section of the trailer, the aim is to capture the entire build-up and the main action, and the end result in the trailer is to use the entire scene of the ‘point-of-no-return’ or at least the main action because it is undoubtedly the most crucial scene, it is central to the plot. Also it contains the action that the audience will want to see.
The second section serves as a sort of contemplation scene, where the character is contemplating potential possibilities of what he must do, an inner conflict must be present both physically on screen as well as in some sort of sound-bite that will convey how unsure he is of what to do next. The other thing to do is to have an external source of advice e.g. a friend (in my case possibly a father) who shows him a way of thinking that inspires him to take justice into his own hands. These sections are often set in churches, graveyards and areas that are quite solitary, due to the mourning there is often an extended family involved.
The third section is the main section of the film, yet however much of this is not shown, there is a montage flashed of images that show violence and action, this is the clincher the bits that the audience do not see everything they want to see. The music always picks up pace quite rapidly and ends with a bang with an important shot and then the title and that thing that always come after the title with the cast and crew. It is important to give a massive build up that shows what the audience wants. Guns, fights, redemption, perhaps a message, a definitive bad guy etc. and finally some sort of shot that will stick solidly in the minds of the audience e.g. a twist, a selling point. The title itself should have a memorable font but not too over-the-top because that would end up making the film look less serious.
The second section serves as a sort of contemplation scene, where the character is contemplating potential possibilities of what he must do, an inner conflict must be present both physically on screen as well as in some sort of sound-bite that will convey how unsure he is of what to do next. The other thing to do is to have an external source of advice e.g. a friend (in my case possibly a father) who shows him a way of thinking that inspires him to take justice into his own hands. These sections are often set in churches, graveyards and areas that are quite solitary, due to the mourning there is often an extended family involved.
The third section is the main section of the film, yet however much of this is not shown, there is a montage flashed of images that show violence and action, this is the clincher the bits that the audience do not see everything they want to see. The music always picks up pace quite rapidly and ends with a bang with an important shot and then the title and that thing that always come after the title with the cast and crew. It is important to give a massive build up that shows what the audience wants. Guns, fights, redemption, perhaps a message, a definitive bad guy etc. and finally some sort of shot that will stick solidly in the minds of the audience e.g. a twist, a selling point. The title itself should have a memorable font but not too over-the-top because that would end up making the film look less serious.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Trailer Analysis : Harry Brown
Does this trailer fit the usual conventions of a revenge thriller? if so how? (or if not then what is new?)
The trailer to Harry Brown is a very good example of a revenge thriller trailer. The trailer is clever in the way that it genuinely does make you want to watch the movie. The Trailer begins with the problem, violent youths on a council estate being watched by Michael Caine as Harry Brown. Yes, it sets up a victim, Harry's friend Leonard at the beginning of the trailer. As well as this it sets up the situation where the main character makes a decision that he must attempt to right, like when he fails to think properly about protecting his friend and then exacts his vengeance on the youths. However it diverts from the usual plot of a revenge movie in the way that the Police are, by the looks of it, not condemning Harry for his vigilanteism, most revenge films choose to view revenge as more
Which trailer conventions does this trailer use well?
(voice over? / dramatic sound? /is it structured into 3 parts? /does it establish the genre ? how? /what audience do you think it is aiming at? )
Most of the trailer is dominated by sound-bites and voiceover that really give us the structure of the narrative, Michael Caine's voice is very well known and so this gives us a sense of familiarity to him and as well as this, he manages to convince me that his vengeance is justified. The sound used, includes violent noises and the trailer itself ends on the sound of a gunshot, this prepares us for a violent, modern urban film. I would say that the trailer is structured into probably 2 or 3 sections, the first being his friend feeling threatened and being killed, then the impression on Harry and him pondering whether he can just let his friend's killer go un-punished, and the final section (by the look of it much longer than the first two) him exacting his revenge. I believe that this trailer knows it has a huge audience, Michael Caine personally draws a large audience as one of the most respected British film-actors, this will appeal to older fans who know Caine, the idea of rowdy youth as well would suggest an older viewpoint of young society. As well as this it could be seen as a film for a younger audience as it is filled with action and violence and has a soundtrack of young urban music and the British rapper, Plan B, is a co-star in the film.
3) What are three moments or images or edits that you think are particularly effective in this trailer?
The images of the youth rioting in this street from an above angle in the dark makes it seem really ominous, this shot encapsulated the fear that Leonard felt before he died, the second image that really makes an impact is Michael Caine crying due to the fact that primarily he is a good actor and we can see how much this means to the character, Caine is also famous for playing tough characters and thus it is a strange image to see. The other is the finishing image of the trailer, where he points the gun at the screen and says ''You failed to maintain your weapon, Son.' which is the image that we are meant to be left with, thinking that he is fixed on revenge and nothing is going to prevent.
4) look at the studio idents - (what can you learn about idents and their style from these?)
The Lionsgate is the text LIONSGATE in block capitals it is black on a background of clouds in a sepia sky of clouds. They are quite interesting
The trailer to Harry Brown is a very good example of a revenge thriller trailer. The trailer is clever in the way that it genuinely does make you want to watch the movie. The Trailer begins with the problem, violent youths on a council estate being watched by Michael Caine as Harry Brown. Yes, it sets up a victim, Harry's friend Leonard at the beginning of the trailer. As well as this it sets up the situation where the main character makes a decision that he must attempt to right, like when he fails to think properly about protecting his friend and then exacts his vengeance on the youths. However it diverts from the usual plot of a revenge movie in the way that the Police are, by the looks of it, not condemning Harry for his vigilanteism, most revenge films choose to view revenge as more
Which trailer conventions does this trailer use well?
(voice over? / dramatic sound? /is it structured into 3 parts? /does it establish the genre ? how? /what audience do you think it is aiming at? )
Most of the trailer is dominated by sound-bites and voiceover that really give us the structure of the narrative, Michael Caine's voice is very well known and so this gives us a sense of familiarity to him and as well as this, he manages to convince me that his vengeance is justified. The sound used, includes violent noises and the trailer itself ends on the sound of a gunshot, this prepares us for a violent, modern urban film. I would say that the trailer is structured into probably 2 or 3 sections, the first being his friend feeling threatened and being killed, then the impression on Harry and him pondering whether he can just let his friend's killer go un-punished, and the final section (by the look of it much longer than the first two) him exacting his revenge. I believe that this trailer knows it has a huge audience, Michael Caine personally draws a large audience as one of the most respected British film-actors, this will appeal to older fans who know Caine, the idea of rowdy youth as well would suggest an older viewpoint of young society. As well as this it could be seen as a film for a younger audience as it is filled with action and violence and has a soundtrack of young urban music and the British rapper, Plan B, is a co-star in the film.
3) What are three moments or images or edits that you think are particularly effective in this trailer?
The images of the youth rioting in this street from an above angle in the dark makes it seem really ominous, this shot encapsulated the fear that Leonard felt before he died, the second image that really makes an impact is Michael Caine crying due to the fact that primarily he is a good actor and we can see how much this means to the character, Caine is also famous for playing tough characters and thus it is a strange image to see. The other is the finishing image of the trailer, where he points the gun at the screen and says ''You failed to maintain your weapon, Son.' which is the image that we are meant to be left with, thinking that he is fixed on revenge and nothing is going to prevent.
4) look at the studio idents - (what can you learn about idents and their style from these?)
The Lionsgate is the text LIONSGATE in block capitals it is black on a background of clouds in a sepia sky of clouds. They are quite interesting
Thursday, 9 September 2010
Trailer Analysis : Oldboy Trailer
The Oldboy trailer is a good example of a trailer that trys to appeal to a foreign audience. As a whole I don't think that it is a great trailer, but the movie was a huge international success. The first shot of the trailer remains unexplained adding mystery to the film. Then a selling point quickly pops up, "Winner of Grand Prix Festival of Cannes 2004", for many foreign films, it is quite difficult to sell them without the authenticity added by an award at a festival. We are then given some text with a distinctive font and a patterned background. Does not just tell the plot, shows it on screen. There is also a selective use of well-framed shots that show us the character as well as his surroundings. The trailer then changes to show our character having suffered, then action and revenge constitutes a change in the music. The trailer very much concentrates on our character 오대수 and I think it is quite clear that we are meant to view him as frustrated and obsessive by his behaviour and appearance. As it gets nearer the ending of the trailer,whilst flashing quotes from reviews to reinforce that it is infact a great movie, we get more of the impression of a tragic ending with the shots of the woman crying and our main character being beaten up. In this way, the trailer presents us with an outline of a story. Then the title comes up in a distinctive style of title.
Teaser Trailer Work : What is a Teaser Trailer?
What is a Teaser Trailer?
6 Months before Trailer, they are between 30-90secs .
They aim to tease the audience.
They show the name, the date, the stars.
Best bits of the film, good framing, ACTION, PLOT etc.
Dragon Tattoo
Closeup Image, the date comes second.
More graphics.
Characters, Text.
Faster pace, few soundbites, not much explanation.
Establishing single-shot characters.
Location.
Series of shots that seemed to link a crime.
Violence shown, the punch.
Played with Fire
US Version, the titles are very good
Uses visual effects, ripples the titles, multiple colours and capitalisation ‘they FRAMED HER for MURDER’ emphasis
Hornet Nest
Focus on a character.
A little shot between titles, and the music
Actor’s names
Only a bit of action, not actually needed…
Visual impression,
6 Months before Trailer, they are between 30-90secs .
They aim to tease the audience.
They show the name, the date, the stars.
Best bits of the film, good framing, ACTION, PLOT etc.
Dragon Tattoo
Closeup Image, the date comes second.
More graphics.
Characters, Text.
Faster pace, few soundbites, not much explanation.
Establishing single-shot characters.
Location.
Series of shots that seemed to link a crime.
Violence shown, the punch.
Played with Fire
US Version, the titles are very good
Uses visual effects, ripples the titles, multiple colours and capitalisation ‘they FRAMED HER for MURDER’ emphasis
Hornet Nest
Focus on a character.
A little shot between titles, and the music
Actor’s names
Only a bit of action, not actually needed…
Visual impression,
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Analysis : Trailers : Winter's Bone
The Trailer
Camera
There are several establishing long shots showing nothing substantial on camera, this conveys that this is not a heavily populated area.
A majority of the shots shown are mid-shots showing conversation between characters.
Shots tend to be quite stationary at the start, movement increases later in the trailer, again highlighting the increase in intensity shown on screen.
Editing
The opening shots of the trailer fade to black and back from black to set the scene and at the same time. Then a lot of quicker transitions to convey the build up to a finale. It is clear that the film will have a large ‘reveal’ at the end and they show this in the trailer by cutting the shots quicker and quicker.
Sound - Non-diegetic
Build-up as if suggesting progression towards a finale
The singing man at the beginning is contrapuntal to what is shown on screen, the lack of backing music, similar to the typical use of singing minus backing instrumental in the horror genre to build tension.
The mood of the music changes from mellow to speedy and wild, highlighting the fact that what originally appears to be a simple mystery is far more complicated than expected.
Sound - Diegetic
The accents suggest the rurality of the area of America in which it is set.
‘You were warned and you didn’t listen’ suggests a strong conclusion
There is a clear link between each instance of speech shown in the trailer, each one highlights the fact that they don’t know where her father is, or maybe they do adding more and more to the mystery
Mise-en-scene
Grey sky, dull landscape
The yard with the dead dog and the charred furniture gives the sense of a lack of real community, alienation from real society.
There is realism in this world, we are made to believe in this community and the places in which they are taking place, there is nothing, at least in the trailer, to hint at the supernatural.
The titles fit with the filters and colours shown on screen, this allows a certain mood to be set, also assisted by the silent stationary text, which looks more sophisticated. Silent text is generally used in thrillers and dramas.
Camera
There are several establishing long shots showing nothing substantial on camera, this conveys that this is not a heavily populated area.
A majority of the shots shown are mid-shots showing conversation between characters.
Shots tend to be quite stationary at the start, movement increases later in the trailer, again highlighting the increase in intensity shown on screen.
Editing
The opening shots of the trailer fade to black and back from black to set the scene and at the same time. Then a lot of quicker transitions to convey the build up to a finale. It is clear that the film will have a large ‘reveal’ at the end and they show this in the trailer by cutting the shots quicker and quicker.
Sound - Non-diegetic
Build-up as if suggesting progression towards a finale
The singing man at the beginning is contrapuntal to what is shown on screen, the lack of backing music, similar to the typical use of singing minus backing instrumental in the horror genre to build tension.
The mood of the music changes from mellow to speedy and wild, highlighting the fact that what originally appears to be a simple mystery is far more complicated than expected.
Sound - Diegetic
The accents suggest the rurality of the area of America in which it is set.
‘You were warned and you didn’t listen’ suggests a strong conclusion
There is a clear link between each instance of speech shown in the trailer, each one highlights the fact that they don’t know where her father is, or maybe they do adding more and more to the mystery
Mise-en-scene
Grey sky, dull landscape
The yard with the dead dog and the charred furniture gives the sense of a lack of real community, alienation from real society.
There is realism in this world, we are made to believe in this community and the places in which they are taking place, there is nothing, at least in the trailer, to hint at the supernatural.
The titles fit with the filters and colours shown on screen, this allows a certain mood to be set, also assisted by the silent stationary text, which looks more sophisticated. Silent text is generally used in thrillers and dramas.
Analysis : Trailers : Inception, SALT and Heartbreakers
1) What cinematic techniques are used to establish mood and tone?
Visual Special effects show that this is largely an effects-driven film. Voiceover tells us a vague, maybe too vague idea of the concept of the film. Music is building, showing the progression in the plot and an increase in the tension throughout the film.
2)How does the trailer establish the themes and narrative?
Establishes plot using narration by Leonardo DiCaprio
They make sure that what he is saying and what is being shown on screen correlate, ‘A single idea can build cities’
We are intrigued to know what this idea is, and why he is stealing it
3) How does the trailer establish genre?
The effects and chase sequences suggest an action movie or a thriller. The idea of the idea being all-powerful suggests science fiction. I think I would describe as a
4) Who is the target audience and how is this audience targeted in this trailer?
The main target audience I would say is 15-35 year olds,it is also appealing to the audiences of other movies, it looks similar in many ways to ‘The Matrix’, what with the city being controlled by the mind being similar to that of the collective imagination in ‘The Matrix‘.
5) What is the reason/ effect for using the director's name and previous work?
The trailer states clearly that it has the same director as ‘The Dark Knight’ which was insanely popular. Christopher Nolan has a reputation for making great films and being a real upcoming film maker and so the audience will be great.
1) How does this trailer promote and focus on the big star? (look at camera work, editing, sound...etc..)
A vast amount of the shots clearly show Angelina Jolie’s face. As well as this, she has the largest amount of dialogue and all the other dialogue is used as voiceover to almost describe what she is doing on screen.
2) Action films are thought to appeal to a predominately male audience. How does this trailer target both a female and male audience separately?
The film is targeted at a female audience by having a woman as the protagonist, however this also appeals to the male audience because she is Angelina Jolie, who has been considered to be one of the World’s most beautiful women
3) How does this trailer use editing to create atmosphere?
It shows what I presume to be the most action-packed moments of the film. As well as that, there are fades to black in the establishing shots and they get faster. The trailer also attempts to make us excited by spending the entire first half of the trailer slowly setting out the plot and revealing the twist, which is the USP of the film.
The Heartbreakers trailer displays many cultural differences between France and the UK. The UK distributors know that they will sell less if they show that it is a foreign language film, so they include the only English dialogue in the movie, on the other hand, they do not show any of the real substance from the movie, the voiceover is unable to really demonstrate the tone of the movie. The British trailer portrays it as a romance film with comedy, the french trailer seems to portray it as a film that is mainly comedy with a romantic plot, the trailers show the film as two completely different films.
Visual Special effects show that this is largely an effects-driven film. Voiceover tells us a vague, maybe too vague idea of the concept of the film. Music is building, showing the progression in the plot and an increase in the tension throughout the film.
2)How does the trailer establish the themes and narrative?
Establishes plot using narration by Leonardo DiCaprio
They make sure that what he is saying and what is being shown on screen correlate, ‘A single idea can build cities’
We are intrigued to know what this idea is, and why he is stealing it
3) How does the trailer establish genre?
The effects and chase sequences suggest an action movie or a thriller. The idea of the idea being all-powerful suggests science fiction. I think I would describe as a
4) Who is the target audience and how is this audience targeted in this trailer?
The main target audience I would say is 15-35 year olds,it is also appealing to the audiences of other movies, it looks similar in many ways to ‘The Matrix’, what with the city being controlled by the mind being similar to that of the collective imagination in ‘The Matrix‘.
5) What is the reason/ effect for using the director's name and previous work?
The trailer states clearly that it has the same director as ‘The Dark Knight’ which was insanely popular. Christopher Nolan has a reputation for making great films and being a real upcoming film maker and so the audience will be great.
1) How does this trailer promote and focus on the big star? (look at camera work, editing, sound...etc..)
A vast amount of the shots clearly show Angelina Jolie’s face. As well as this, she has the largest amount of dialogue and all the other dialogue is used as voiceover to almost describe what she is doing on screen.
2) Action films are thought to appeal to a predominately male audience. How does this trailer target both a female and male audience separately?
The film is targeted at a female audience by having a woman as the protagonist, however this also appeals to the male audience because she is Angelina Jolie, who has been considered to be one of the World’s most beautiful women
3) How does this trailer use editing to create atmosphere?
It shows what I presume to be the most action-packed moments of the film. As well as that, there are fades to black in the establishing shots and they get faster. The trailer also attempts to make us excited by spending the entire first half of the trailer slowly setting out the plot and revealing the twist, which is the USP of the film.
The Heartbreakers trailer displays many cultural differences between France and the UK. The UK distributors know that they will sell less if they show that it is a foreign language film, so they include the only English dialogue in the movie, on the other hand, they do not show any of the real substance from the movie, the voiceover is unable to really demonstrate the tone of the movie. The British trailer portrays it as a romance film with comedy, the french trailer seems to portray it as a film that is mainly comedy with a romantic plot, the trailers show the film as two completely different films.
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