Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Sunday, 20 March 2016
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Evaluation Question 4
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning, and evaluation stages?
Development from AS to A2:
My use of software has improved greatly since AS, both in terms of the software used and in the way I used it. The software which has been consistently used over the two years has been Final Cut Pro, the way in which I've utilised the features of Final Cut has changed dramatically and the speed at which I have done so. Whereas initially I was mostly using the trim tool for editing and a fade to black, at A2 I have utilised many more features such as the Blade tool, Ken Burns effect, masques, cross fades, colour matchings, clipping masks and various other features. As the course went on I also had a greater understanding of how the program worked and therefore for the A2 trailer I was able to do far more effective sound layering.
Previous to the course I had never used Photoshop, and therefore over the two years my development in Photoshop has improved dramatically. I wasn't aware of how to use photoshop originally but through practise I have been able to produce two very successful ancillary tasks along with extra images for the blog such as artofthetitle-esque set of images. The learning curve was very steep due to the time constraints that were placed on particularly the ancillary tasks and my lack of prior knowledge, however it was fascinating and extremely enjoyable to get to known and understand how to program works.
My improvement in the hardware used is also very important, at AS our use of hardware was limited to basic lighting (the LED's) and the use of the Panasonic camera and tripod. This allowed us to experiment and be creative with a range of shots, however was fairly limited in the lighting. This year we took ourselves further and employed a wide range of lighting techniques, such as day-to-night filming of night filming in general, using flashlights as the main source of light. This helped create engaging and visceral images for our audience to remember. Our use of the camera has also also developed over the two years primarily in relation to our cinematography and positing/framing of shots. This was greatly helped by our extensive research and planning where we worked out the range of shots which we can utilise such as low and high angle shots to suggest the inferiority or dominance at certain moments. We also thought carefully about the positing of each character in each shots making sure to place the character who in control at that moment in the centre and the highest up in the frame. Due to our improvement in ability in Final Cut meant that in A2 we were also able to effectively utilise sound layering, this meant we record a wide range of foley sounds such as panting, gun cocking, doorbells etc. These were all recorded using handheld recorder, at AS although we recorded foley sounds we didn't require nearly as many.
There has also been a clear development to be found within our research and planning, especially regarding the convergence of software while using blogger. The embedding of Youtube videos, Prezi's, SimpleBooklets, SlideShares and various images allowed a far greater and comprehensive plan of our trailer and ancillary tasks to be made. This not only helps our blogs look better but also allows makes for a easier read and visually interesting experience. This is shown by our Anamatic which we produce which combined many elements, I've previously mentioned as each shot had to be drawn (70 in total) and then scanned in and edited in Photoshop to be able to differentiate each character. Once imported into Final Cut each shot got edited to the desired time frame, with some mock music placed over the top from one of our key influences. This video was then uploaded to Youtube and embedded onto our blogs.
Below a presentation can be found that we all produced showcasing the technologies we have used this year, and explaining how they have helped us.
Development from AS to A2:
My use of software has improved greatly since AS, both in terms of the software used and in the way I used it. The software which has been consistently used over the two years has been Final Cut Pro, the way in which I've utilised the features of Final Cut has changed dramatically and the speed at which I have done so. Whereas initially I was mostly using the trim tool for editing and a fade to black, at A2 I have utilised many more features such as the Blade tool, Ken Burns effect, masques, cross fades, colour matchings, clipping masks and various other features. As the course went on I also had a greater understanding of how the program worked and therefore for the A2 trailer I was able to do far more effective sound layering.
Previous to the course I had never used Photoshop, and therefore over the two years my development in Photoshop has improved dramatically. I wasn't aware of how to use photoshop originally but through practise I have been able to produce two very successful ancillary tasks along with extra images for the blog such as artofthetitle-esque set of images. The learning curve was very steep due to the time constraints that were placed on particularly the ancillary tasks and my lack of prior knowledge, however it was fascinating and extremely enjoyable to get to known and understand how to program works.
My improvement in the hardware used is also very important, at AS our use of hardware was limited to basic lighting (the LED's) and the use of the Panasonic camera and tripod. This allowed us to experiment and be creative with a range of shots, however was fairly limited in the lighting. This year we took ourselves further and employed a wide range of lighting techniques, such as day-to-night filming of night filming in general, using flashlights as the main source of light. This helped create engaging and visceral images for our audience to remember. Our use of the camera has also also developed over the two years primarily in relation to our cinematography and positing/framing of shots. This was greatly helped by our extensive research and planning where we worked out the range of shots which we can utilise such as low and high angle shots to suggest the inferiority or dominance at certain moments. We also thought carefully about the positing of each character in each shots making sure to place the character who in control at that moment in the centre and the highest up in the frame. Due to our improvement in ability in Final Cut meant that in A2 we were also able to effectively utilise sound layering, this meant we record a wide range of foley sounds such as panting, gun cocking, doorbells etc. These were all recorded using handheld recorder, at AS although we recorded foley sounds we didn't require nearly as many.
There has also been a clear development to be found within our research and planning, especially regarding the convergence of software while using blogger. The embedding of Youtube videos, Prezi's, SimpleBooklets, SlideShares and various images allowed a far greater and comprehensive plan of our trailer and ancillary tasks to be made. This not only helps our blogs look better but also allows makes for a easier read and visually interesting experience. This is shown by our Anamatic which we produce which combined many elements, I've previously mentioned as each shot had to be drawn (70 in total) and then scanned in and edited in Photoshop to be able to differentiate each character. Once imported into Final Cut each shot got edited to the desired time frame, with some mock music placed over the top from one of our key influences. This video was then uploaded to Youtube and embedded onto our blogs.
Below a presentation can be found that we all produced showcasing the technologies we have used this year, and explaining how they have helped us.
AF
Evaluation Question 3
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We recently held an audience screening which you can see below. In this screening questionnaires were given out asking both quantitative and qualitative questions concerning our trailer and their film watching habits. An example filled out questionnaire can also be seen below.
In our sample we had 17 responses all within our target audience of 15-24. 65% of the sample were female, as previously we had imagined our main target audience as male, it was important that we got a large female input. In order to gain an insight into what kind of films our participants enjoy we asked several questions before the viewing of the trailer. All the participants regularly watch films with nobody stating they on average don't watch a film per week, 53% of responses stated they watch 1. When asked about there favourite genre, there were two clear leaders, thriller (42%) and comedy (33%). These are great responses as this shows that theses people are all within our target audience, as they are all young and enjoy watching films with a strong interest towards thrillers.
When questioned about their habits when watching trailers, their answers were also encouraging with the majority of people stating they regularly watch trailers, and everyone stating that they don't try and avoid them and feel they are helpful in encouraging them to see a film. Therefore they should all be well equipped to advise us about our film. When asked what films they had seen of our key influences, unsurprising The Dark Knight came out ahead, with 14/17 people having seen it, followed by Reservoir Dogs with 9/17. Although many of them hadn't seen these films it isn't a issue because they have previously stated that they enjoy thriller films and therefore should be open to watching ours.
After the viewing we asked questions about their reactions and feelings to the trailer. Everyone correctly identified thriller as the genre, with several people adding in additional genres. One response was particularly interesting having described our genre as 'Action/Thriller/Romance'. The romance angle wasn't one that we deliberately encoded however I can understand how someone would possibly decode this element, particularly as our key influence 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' goes down this route.
We also asked what they think the target age range and genre of the film is. 76% of the participants though that the film is targeting both genders with the rest all leaning towards it being a male targeted film. This was very informative and shows us that we should target both genders as both genders enjoy this style of film and therefore only one shouldn't be targeted specifically. A broader response was received for the age range question. However the majority were inside the our preconceived range of 15-21. A large number of participants also widened the range with one going as high as 50. Unfortunately due we didn't receive any responses from this age range which is unfortunate as we are therefore unable to come to any conclusion about this age range. This also shows us that many people follow our understanding of what the certification our our film should be.
The question regarding the narrative was also positively answered with 65% of participants thinking the right amount of the narrative was shown, with 24% thinking less should be shown. This ties into the question asking if any section of the trailer wasn't clear. Only 2 people thought that parts weren't clear stating: 'How did the girl get to the woods?' and 'Whats the story behind the kidnap? Why kidnap just to rescue her again?'. Both of these responses are helpful however the second response is incorrect and shows a misunderstanding of the plot, meaning perhaps there is a larger problem with the overall narrative being unclear however as everyone else seemingly understood the plot. I feel this response should be taken as an outlier rather than the standard. The first response is also an important one, though we felt that we had already shown a large proportion of the narrative and therefore we didn't wish to show any more, this is supported by 65% of the participants when they said the right amount was shown.
In regards qualitative research we posed a question regarding their favourite parts of the trailer. All the responses can be seen below:
In order to get a more focused analysis of our ancillary tasks, I took some vox pops which can be seen below for each the Magazine and the Poster. I asked a few people who are inside my target audience what they think about them.
Although these were helpful, overall they didn't offer much useful insight into what needed to be changed as many people were unhelpful in giving constructive criticism. It was also a fairly time-consuming method of gathering feedback, especially when a large majority of the answers are unhelpful.
Everyone was praising various aspects of the products, such as in the Poster most people noted that they like the ink and font for the title. This was extremely relieving for myself to hear as it is unusual feature for a poster to have and therefore it was great to hear that people liked it. The reviews seemed to be the most divisive with one person saying how they like it and another saying they thought it was 'clichéd'. This is frustrating and shows the problem of using vox pops for our audience feedback as the sample size is fairly small meaning that it is difficult to get a enough data to come to any meaningful conclusions. One comment noted how it looked like a 'French film poster', although this wasn't the style that I was attempting as I haven't done any research into this type of poster. It was extremely relieving to hear someone say that they think it looks like a real film poster, which was my main aim. For the magazine everyone thought that it looks professional which was my overall goal and the most important piece of feedback for me. One person noted how they didn't like the font for the capture text, this feedback was very important as I too was unsure of this font, in order to address this I have slightly changed the dimensions of the font making it appear slightly taller, this I hope improves it. The central image was consistently stated as one of the great parts of the magazine, this is great news as a good central image is essential to the success of a magazine. Many people also said good things about the overall structure of the magazines, with the puff and layout common elements that people liked. Overall these vox-pops where useful to learn what elements people liked however weren't very helpful to learn what elements aren't as successful.
AF
We recently held an audience screening which you can see below. In this screening questionnaires were given out asking both quantitative and qualitative questions concerning our trailer and their film watching habits. An example filled out questionnaire can also be seen below.
In our sample we had 17 responses all within our target audience of 15-24. 65% of the sample were female, as previously we had imagined our main target audience as male, it was important that we got a large female input. In order to gain an insight into what kind of films our participants enjoy we asked several questions before the viewing of the trailer. All the participants regularly watch films with nobody stating they on average don't watch a film per week, 53% of responses stated they watch 1. When asked about there favourite genre, there were two clear leaders, thriller (42%) and comedy (33%). These are great responses as this shows that theses people are all within our target audience, as they are all young and enjoy watching films with a strong interest towards thrillers.
After the viewing we asked questions about their reactions and feelings to the trailer. Everyone correctly identified thriller as the genre, with several people adding in additional genres. One response was particularly interesting having described our genre as 'Action/Thriller/Romance'. The romance angle wasn't one that we deliberately encoded however I can understand how someone would possibly decode this element, particularly as our key influence 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' goes down this route.
We also asked what they think the target age range and genre of the film is. 76% of the participants though that the film is targeting both genders with the rest all leaning towards it being a male targeted film. This was very informative and shows us that we should target both genders as both genders enjoy this style of film and therefore only one shouldn't be targeted specifically. A broader response was received for the age range question. However the majority were inside the our preconceived range of 15-21. A large number of participants also widened the range with one going as high as 50. Unfortunately due we didn't receive any responses from this age range which is unfortunate as we are therefore unable to come to any conclusion about this age range. This also shows us that many people follow our understanding of what the certification our our film should be.
The question regarding the narrative was also positively answered with 65% of participants thinking the right amount of the narrative was shown, with 24% thinking less should be shown. This ties into the question asking if any section of the trailer wasn't clear. Only 2 people thought that parts weren't clear stating: 'How did the girl get to the woods?' and 'Whats the story behind the kidnap? Why kidnap just to rescue her again?'. Both of these responses are helpful however the second response is incorrect and shows a misunderstanding of the plot, meaning perhaps there is a larger problem with the overall narrative being unclear however as everyone else seemingly understood the plot. I feel this response should be taken as an outlier rather than the standard. The first response is also an important one, though we felt that we had already shown a large proportion of the narrative and therefore we didn't wish to show any more, this is supported by 65% of the participants when they said the right amount was shown.
In regards qualitative research we posed a question regarding their favourite parts of the trailer. All the responses can be seen below:
The acting, it brought the trailer
together
The suspense as it was a cliff-hanger
Title at the end/Car chase with
gun/Shooting Robbie as it was realistic/Eliza
The death scene
The acting it made me smile/Background
music was cool
The ending I liked that it didn't give
too much away
The title/The first shot of the hands
tied up as it gets your attention
The pace of transition between scenes
The ending with the victim crying with
a bag over the head as it was believable
When the girl was tied up good
acting/Cutting between scenes
Didn’t reveal too much plot
The chase part, liked the ending because
the suspense built up/The music was good too
Music was really suiting/Loved the
filming from a variety of angles
The shot where 3 guys were stood around
the captured girl, very dramatic
I liked the kidnap scene
Eliza crying with the bag on her
face/good acting/setting
Running through woods as it was tense
Ending with the blood
I have chosen to ignore the responses surrounding the acting as this is non-important to us. Several participants highlighted the emotions that they were feeling in certain moments with words such as 'suspense', 'tense', 'dramatic'. These are encouraging signs for us as those were exactly the emotions that we were attempting to recreate, seeming successfully. The music was also highlighted as a fantastic which is great news as the music ties the whole trailer up and often can make or break a trailer. It was also pleasing to see one participant recognising that the ink behind the title represents blood, this is helpful for my poster feedback as well.
We also asked 'What their least favourite part of the trailer was':
Sitting round table, didn't seem
serious
Too many scenes in house/sitting around
a table
The running sequence
The scene in the house where the men
discuss the girl
Started off slow/Lots of the storyline
given away eg "There’s two choices" Really? We see Robbie dead…where’s
the suspense?
The actors smiling when the guns where
by their faces
Robbie’s acting
The scene where they are deciding what
to do
The music in the background was too
loud
The weird blue shot of the house
Background music slightly too loud
Some of the shots eg. House one/POV
Too much of the beginning was given
away
It gave away a lot of beginning of the
film
Again I have chosen to ignore answers surrounding the acting. From this section we have discovered that many people though that the scene of them discussing what to do with the girl didn't work. This is imporant to note and hopefully in a later edit we may be able to cut this down, however I feel that this section not working is due to the acting ability, which we can't change. Several people also felt that the start of the trailer was too slow and gave too much away, I feel this however is essential as we needed the introduction to the characters and I see no way in which we can fix this. Another helpful piece of feedback was surrounding the music and it being too loud, this is an element that we can easily change and hopefully we will be able to do so. One person talked about one of the characters death, this was also an answer to the last question, showing how unreliable in places the feedback can be as it differs from person to person. This response however is slightly unusual as it was never our intention for that shot to be of the character dying, as I would have felt that including that in a trailer would show too much. It seems however that it isn't a major issue as many people didn't seem to think it was a shot of him dying, though that shot is perhaps something we may want to change in the future.
The final question that was asked was 'Does the trailer make you want to watch the film?'. 100% responded Yes. This is extremely encouraging also due to the fact that all the participants were of our target audience and all enjoy films this shows us that this group is perfect and we are targeting the right audience. Overall the responses were extremely positive with helpful feedback in every question. From this survey I have also learnt however how unreliable many people can be, as in several instances the question clearly states 'Please Circle' or 'Please Tick' and a large percentage of people just didn't read the question and didn't do what was asked. This shows a clear unreliability in the overall answers and a major problem with questionnaires overall.
Although these were helpful, overall they didn't offer much useful insight into what needed to be changed as many people were unhelpful in giving constructive criticism. It was also a fairly time-consuming method of gathering feedback, especially when a large majority of the answers are unhelpful.
Everyone was praising various aspects of the products, such as in the Poster most people noted that they like the ink and font for the title. This was extremely relieving for myself to hear as it is unusual feature for a poster to have and therefore it was great to hear that people liked it. The reviews seemed to be the most divisive with one person saying how they like it and another saying they thought it was 'clichéd'. This is frustrating and shows the problem of using vox pops for our audience feedback as the sample size is fairly small meaning that it is difficult to get a enough data to come to any meaningful conclusions. One comment noted how it looked like a 'French film poster', although this wasn't the style that I was attempting as I haven't done any research into this type of poster. It was extremely relieving to hear someone say that they think it looks like a real film poster, which was my main aim. For the magazine everyone thought that it looks professional which was my overall goal and the most important piece of feedback for me. One person noted how they didn't like the font for the capture text, this feedback was very important as I too was unsure of this font, in order to address this I have slightly changed the dimensions of the font making it appear slightly taller, this I hope improves it. The central image was consistently stated as one of the great parts of the magazine, this is great news as a good central image is essential to the success of a magazine. Many people also said good things about the overall structure of the magazines, with the puff and layout common elements that people liked. Overall these vox-pops where useful to learn what elements people liked however weren't very helpful to learn what elements aren't as successful.
YouTube also allows users who view the video to comment on it, as our video was uploaded via YouTube this was another way to grasp an idea of the interest for the film. Obviously this is the worst kind of audience feedback as we have no knowledge amount the people who are commenting and it is a very small sample size. However it is still pleasing to see that people are liking the trailer.
AF
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main products and the ancillary tasks?
AF
EJ
EL
AF
EJ
EL
Saturday, 5 March 2016
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Genre - 1
Conventions of genre can be found in all action-thriller films, as the intertextuality and familiarity of other real media texts is what informs the audience of the genre. Some of these conventions include a large variety in the colour scheme or high production values, as seen in The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Welcome to the Punch and 7 Minutes. We aimed to conform to as many conventions of genre as we could, and by doing so we hoped that our trailer would feel similar to many different trailers to the same genre and thus the audience would be clear in the genre of our film. One way in which we hoped to establish genre through conventions is denoting to the audience a clear premise and plot for them to decode, this is established primarily in Act 2 which utilises cross-cutting between the protagonist, the antagonist and the central conflict in order to show a clear narrative which is simple to understand. This is further emphasised in the montage in the third act where these cutaways are shown in conjunction with the dim shots of the woods, hinting at the location for the resolution of the conflict.
The first shot of our trailer acts as a teaser to the the rest of our film, showcasing a strong image of the girls hand's tied up, our trailer then shows the kidnapping of the girl. This all happens within the first 15 seconds, this was deliberate as David Coultas states that "you've got grab the audience's interest in the first 10 or 15 seconds or they're eating their popcorn again". When producing our trailer we were extremely concious of the audiences interest and therefore we needed a moment of excitement within the first 15 seconds, we hoped that this piece of excitement both grabbed the audiences attention and informed them of our genre. This convention can be seen in the majority of trailers, of all genres, however primarily in the thriller genre which is particularly over crowded and therefore films need to grab the audiences attention quickly. Films such as 7 Minutes, Hummingbird and The Town utilise this technique.
Location - 2
We took great care in choosing our location, taking inspiration from our main film influences such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Reservoir Dogs for our different locations. We wanted to avoid using any noticeable landmarks in order to gain an anonymity within our trailer and therefore not have to place our setting in any one place. This is seen in many thriller films as the budget may not be large enough to include large set pieces involving London's skyline as seen in large blockbusters such as Skyfall, therefore mid budget thriller films such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 7 minutes or John Wick became primary influences to us. This also meant that our trailer moved away from the traditional British Social Realist film, such as Shifty or Welcome to Brighton and towards a more American style of thriller.
We wanted to use a large variety in our locations in order to showcase the large scope of the film, Our trailer consisted of shots inside of a warehouse, a wooded area, several interior shots of different houses and finally several shots on different streets. We wanted to include many different locations in our trailer with many shown in the montage in Act 3, this adheres to the conventions of many action-thriller films, where the montage showcases the frantic action packed nature of the film. Having a montage which includes many different locations helps build the tension as the audience begins to see the large scope of the conflict and how it's able to sustain the hour and a half/two hour run time.
Our locations were influenced by several real media products, this was because we hoped that the audience would be familiar with those films and therefore be able to establish the genre and style of the film. The woods location for example, shown in Act 3 of the trailer was inspired by The Disappearance of Alice Creed as the woods along with the shovel denote danger. The warehouse location was primarily influenced by Reservoir Dogs, however unlike in Reservoir Dogs where the whole warehouse we lit we wished to include a sense of mystery and sinisterness to our warehouse and so therefore we used a spotlight in order to only draw attention to the characters, this also hides the size of the warehouse further creating a sense of peril through the location used.
Title - 9
We wanted our title to appear less mainstream than other thriller films than we looked at, we felt that in doing so we could differentiate ourselves from them and leave the audience with a memorable moment from the trailer that would make them remember our film. Most titles in action-thriller trailers consist of large bold text on a black background, this can be seen in many films such as Taken or The Equalizer. In order for our title to stand out we felt simulating blood dripping created a very powerful image, this is important as this image also needs to be incorporated onto our poster in order to create a synergy between them. We were influenced by the horror genre in particular It Follows and Oculus. This image is powerful due to the connotations of blood which it represents, this image also fits into the style of the trailer as the red has connotations of danger and peril. By using conventions of horror trailer titles in our trailer we are aiming to create a hybrid between the two genres of horror and thriller, with the desire to entice both sets of audience to watch our film.
Graphics - 8
We used two different graphics throughout our trailer, the reviews were inspired by our main film influence The Disappearance of Alice Creed, with the roughed up background behind the bold text, this background implies blood or dirt hinting at the conclusion of the trailer. The strobe effect on the graphic was inspired by another main film influence 7 Minutes, it is important for thriller trailers to build excitement and tension throughout and therefore having the graphic flashing in time to the music aids that. This graphic was created with the mass market in mind, as it uses many conventions of thriller graphics, such as the white bold text and the reviewer's name appearing smaller, it was also essential that the graphic fitted into the style of the trailer, which was accomplished through the placement of the reviews which help in building tension throughout the trailer. This graphic fitted far better in to the traditional connotations of a thriller trailer, consisting of sharp, large, clean fonts which build excitement.
The graphics used for the narrative graphics are different, we used the deep flowing red ink from our title behind these graphics. This gives them a different darker feel along with drawing together the trailers stylistics and the connotation of the colour used, the deep red implies danger and blood. The effect of having a moving image behind the title was inspired by Welcome to the Punch, however we felt that using a red image would fit better in our genre of action-thriller rather than the blue image used in Welcome to the Punch which has far more connotations towards a police crime thriller. Similar to our title, the red used for our graphic is unusual for a thriller film and represents a hybridity of genres between thriller and horror, specifically It Follows, similar to our trailer the graphics which are used before the title hint at the image. This technique is successful as it doesn't spoil the title but draws interest from the audience as they are curious what image is behind the text. This style of graphic is less traditional and therefore was made with a far more niche audience in mind who perhaps prefer horror and intellectual thrillers rather than the standard blockbuster.
Colour/Style - 6
Lighting tropes were essential to our trailer, as obviously we didn't have an extremely high budget, meaning we had to think very carefully about the style, positioning of the camera and colouring in order to create the stylised, key images that we were after without using a expensive camera or very powerful lighting equipment seen in many of our key influences. We set out to include a variety of colours throughout our trailer, so that the trailer would be visually appealing to the audience, similar to high budget films such as The Signal or Spectre. As the colour scheme is changing it gives the appearance of a film that has a far larger scale. As we had several night time shots we wished to include as much chiaroscuro as we could, creating an aura of mystery and danger. We wished to contrast this with the interior shots which would be well lit, showing the lack of danger in those particular moments and the scene in the woods where the green was dimmed giving a creepy, sinister sensation. In the montage the full effect of having a wide range of colours is seen as the whole trailer becomes far more interesting to look at, this technique is used by our major film influences The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 7 minutes and The Town this showed us how successful and important the range of colours used are. The style of our trailer is conventional to fans of other thriller films such as Nightcrawler where the low key lighting creates a sinister tone, this tone is shown in the first 15 seconds and is then carried over throughout the whole trailer. Using tropes of the action/thriller genre was essential as the narrative conventions such as the fight between good and evil, the damsel in distress and the building of tension are all encoded through the colour and style, this can be seen in virtually all action/thriller films such as The Dark Knight and Inception, therefore it was essential that we followed the same style in our trailer through the positioning of both the camera and the lighting.
Character/Actor - 5
We adhered to many conventions of the thriller genre through our characters and their motivations, in order to keep our trailer more mainstream, we decided it was important to have the intentions for each character clear and easy to understand for the mainstream audience, therefore our trailer consists of a clear hero/protagonist, villain/antagonist and a character who is leaning towards villainy. Most action/thriller trailers place importance on showing the protagonist and the antagonist and the divide between them, this can be seen in The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Welcome to the Punch, in these trailers a large proportion of time is spent showing the battle between the two characters. As in The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Reservoir Dogs we wished to establish the characters as all morally ambiguous from the start, as all the characters decided to rob the house. Similarly in Reservoir Dogs this was done to show that none of the three male characters are 'good guys' and are instead all criminals with differing views on how to solve a problem. We adhered to the conventions of many action/thriller trailers by keeping the protagonist and antagonist mostly separate through Act 2, through the use of cross cutting in order to then bring them together in the third Act to further enhance the tension and anticipation throughout the trailer. We wished to establish that the leader of the men was in control throughout by using low angle shots on his close-ups representing the control he has and his positioning in the frame, always in the centre between the other two. The leader primarily performs a narrative function, in order to push to story forward, this is appropriate for a trailer as there is a only a minimal amount of character development that can be done in the time span, especially for one that has to introduce the audience to the films premise and characters.
The conformity to the conventions of the genre is further enhanced with the casting of Robbie Whyte as the protagonist, highlighting the characters metrosexual and appealing nature, reflecting the lead actors of many thriller films such as James McAvoy (Welcome to the Punch), Luke Mitchell (7 Minutes), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight). For our antagonist we cast Charlie Fox, we chose him based of Mr Blonde (Reservoir Dogs), as you don't immediately know that his is villainous by looking at him but through his actions you can. Our female character was inspired by Amanda Seyfield (Gone) and Gemma Artenton (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), throughout planning we were away of the trope of the blonde damsel in distress and wished to combine this trope of the weak female character, to make her appear vulnerable with scenes of her escaping showing her courageousness. The tropes that we associated with each character allows Barthes Action code to take effect, playing with ideals of expectations and representations within class, age and power all within the action/thriller genres conventions.
Narrative/Structure - 4
The narrative structure of our trailer is very conventional and we have conformed to many of the conventions which are used within trailers, such as the three act structure. Our narrative follows the conventions of Todorov's narrative theory as well as the action thriller genre. We use the Redemption arc as our protagonist looks to correct the mistake he and his companions have made. The three act structure allowed us to show the stages of Todorov's narrative theory in a clear and precise way, meaning that it is not difficult for the audience to follow along. The equilibrium and disruption are shown in Act 1, with the realisation of the distribution shown in Act 2. The final attempt to repair the damage and the restoration of the equilibrium is not fully shown but are however hinted at during the montage during Act 3. We felt that the three act structure was essential as all of our main film influences incorporated it including The Disappearance of Alice Creed, The Town and Nightcrawler. This structure allows the audience to follow the narrative consciously and due to this structure being a convention of the genre it allows audience members to pick up the story even if they haven't seen the start of the trailer, a trait which is essential if targeting a mainstream audience. Many trailers utilise a voice over at the start in order to introduce the audience to the situation, we however deemed this was not necessary as the non-diegetic sound would distract the audience and place too much importance on one particular character. We instead decided to follow the technique used by The Town and The Disappearance of Alice Creed of cross-cutting between scenes, using sound bridges to link them together, this also utilises both Barthes Action and Semic codes as it gives the audience a clear understanding of each characters ideologies and thought process. By adhering to the conventions of our genre and form, utilising the structure of trailers and using classic story types after adapting them, we were able to introduce the situation clearly and create a readerly text which therefore means we are able to target a mainstream audience.
Editing - 7
The editing of our trailer for done in a way to prioritise the increase in tension, which is essential for a thriller trailer. We accomplished this primarily through the Final Cut effect 'fade to black' and using a mix of high and low paced editing. We took influence from The Disappearance of Alice Creed trailer for the editing speed as we felt that the The Disappearance of Alice Creed was successful in creating a contrast between the fast paced action and the slower more intimate, narrative based moments. The general convention in a trailer is having the editing slowly get faster and faster throughout leading into the montage in the third act, we wished to challenge this convention by including moments of fast paced editing throughout the trailer before slowing down the pace again, we got this idea from The Disappearance of Alice Creed and hoped that this would increase the tension throughout and give a greater contrast better the different moments. Similarly to 7 Minutes we wanted to have a moment of fast paced editing right at the start of trailer, as said previously we hoped that this moment would intrigue the audience and encourage them to continue watching.
Sound - 3
Most of the trailers we watched when planning our music used a similar set of techniques such as the requiring soundtrack that kept the flow and rhythm of the trailer along with a distinctive beat that is recognisable, so that audiences can attach the trailer to that sound. A large amount of foley/ambient sounds are also layered into the music, such as gun shots, sound booms or the sound of a car. We adhered closely to these conventions when producing our trailer, for example our use of sound booms before a credit or title or the use of ambient sounds such as footsteps or the shovel. The soundtrack which we used was provided to us by an outside source and tailored to our specific trailer and the thriller genre, this soundtrack was perfect and met our needs due to the way it builds throughout the trailer and gets faster and faster paced. The distinctive sound that is used in our soundtrack is an electric guitar, played during the montage. This is fairly unusual and we hope is distinctive enough for audience members to remember our film.
Genre - 1
Conventions of genre can be found in all action-thriller films, as the intertextuality and familiarity of other real media texts is what informs the audience of the genre. Some of these conventions include a large variety in the colour scheme or high production values, as seen in The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Welcome to the Punch and 7 Minutes. We aimed to conform to as many conventions of genre as we could, and by doing so we hoped that our trailer would feel similar to many different trailers to the same genre and thus the audience would be clear in the genre of our film. One way in which we hoped to establish genre through conventions is denoting to the audience a clear premise and plot for them to decode, this is established primarily in Act 2 which utilises cross-cutting between the protagonist, the antagonist and the central conflict in order to show a clear narrative which is simple to understand. This is further emphasised in the montage in the third act where these cutaways are shown in conjunction with the dim shots of the woods, hinting at the location for the resolution of the conflict.
The first shot of our trailer acts as a teaser to the the rest of our film, showcasing a strong image of the girls hand's tied up, our trailer then shows the kidnapping of the girl. This all happens within the first 15 seconds, this was deliberate as David Coultas states that "you've got grab the audience's interest in the first 10 or 15 seconds or they're eating their popcorn again". When producing our trailer we were extremely concious of the audiences interest and therefore we needed a moment of excitement within the first 15 seconds, we hoped that this piece of excitement both grabbed the audiences attention and informed them of our genre. This convention can be seen in the majority of trailers, of all genres, however primarily in the thriller genre which is particularly over crowded and therefore films need to grab the audiences attention quickly. Films such as 7 Minutes, Hummingbird and The Town utilise this technique.
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| Shot taken from The Town trailer inside the first 10 seconds |
Location - 2
We took great care in choosing our location, taking inspiration from our main film influences such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Reservoir Dogs for our different locations. We wanted to avoid using any noticeable landmarks in order to gain an anonymity within our trailer and therefore not have to place our setting in any one place. This is seen in many thriller films as the budget may not be large enough to include large set pieces involving London's skyline as seen in large blockbusters such as Skyfall, therefore mid budget thriller films such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 7 minutes or John Wick became primary influences to us. This also meant that our trailer moved away from the traditional British Social Realist film, such as Shifty or Welcome to Brighton and towards a more American style of thriller.
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| London skyline as seen in Skyfall |
Our locations were influenced by several real media products, this was because we hoped that the audience would be familiar with those films and therefore be able to establish the genre and style of the film. The woods location for example, shown in Act 3 of the trailer was inspired by The Disappearance of Alice Creed as the woods along with the shovel denote danger. The warehouse location was primarily influenced by Reservoir Dogs, however unlike in Reservoir Dogs where the whole warehouse we lit we wished to include a sense of mystery and sinisterness to our warehouse and so therefore we used a spotlight in order to only draw attention to the characters, this also hides the size of the warehouse further creating a sense of peril through the location used.
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| The Disappearance of Alice Creed |
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| Reservoir Dogs |
Title - 9
We wanted our title to appear less mainstream than other thriller films than we looked at, we felt that in doing so we could differentiate ourselves from them and leave the audience with a memorable moment from the trailer that would make them remember our film. Most titles in action-thriller trailers consist of large bold text on a black background, this can be seen in many films such as Taken or The Equalizer. In order for our title to stand out we felt simulating blood dripping created a very powerful image, this is important as this image also needs to be incorporated onto our poster in order to create a synergy between them. We were influenced by the horror genre in particular It Follows and Oculus. This image is powerful due to the connotations of blood which it represents, this image also fits into the style of the trailer as the red has connotations of danger and peril. By using conventions of horror trailer titles in our trailer we are aiming to create a hybrid between the two genres of horror and thriller, with the desire to entice both sets of audience to watch our film.
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| Title from the It Follows trailer |
Graphics - 8
We used two different graphics throughout our trailer, the reviews were inspired by our main film influence The Disappearance of Alice Creed, with the roughed up background behind the bold text, this background implies blood or dirt hinting at the conclusion of the trailer. The strobe effect on the graphic was inspired by another main film influence 7 Minutes, it is important for thriller trailers to build excitement and tension throughout and therefore having the graphic flashing in time to the music aids that. This graphic was created with the mass market in mind, as it uses many conventions of thriller graphics, such as the white bold text and the reviewer's name appearing smaller, it was also essential that the graphic fitted into the style of the trailer, which was accomplished through the placement of the reviews which help in building tension throughout the trailer. This graphic fitted far better in to the traditional connotations of a thriller trailer, consisting of sharp, large, clean fonts which build excitement.
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| Disappearance of Alice Creed |
The graphics used for the narrative graphics are different, we used the deep flowing red ink from our title behind these graphics. This gives them a different darker feel along with drawing together the trailers stylistics and the connotation of the colour used, the deep red implies danger and blood. The effect of having a moving image behind the title was inspired by Welcome to the Punch, however we felt that using a red image would fit better in our genre of action-thriller rather than the blue image used in Welcome to the Punch which has far more connotations towards a police crime thriller. Similar to our title, the red used for our graphic is unusual for a thriller film and represents a hybridity of genres between thriller and horror, specifically It Follows, similar to our trailer the graphics which are used before the title hint at the image. This technique is successful as it doesn't spoil the title but draws interest from the audience as they are curious what image is behind the text. This style of graphic is less traditional and therefore was made with a far more niche audience in mind who perhaps prefer horror and intellectual thrillers rather than the standard blockbuster.
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| Welcome to the Punch |
Lighting tropes were essential to our trailer, as obviously we didn't have an extremely high budget, meaning we had to think very carefully about the style, positioning of the camera and colouring in order to create the stylised, key images that we were after without using a expensive camera or very powerful lighting equipment seen in many of our key influences. We set out to include a variety of colours throughout our trailer, so that the trailer would be visually appealing to the audience, similar to high budget films such as The Signal or Spectre. As the colour scheme is changing it gives the appearance of a film that has a far larger scale. As we had several night time shots we wished to include as much chiaroscuro as we could, creating an aura of mystery and danger. We wished to contrast this with the interior shots which would be well lit, showing the lack of danger in those particular moments and the scene in the woods where the green was dimmed giving a creepy, sinister sensation. In the montage the full effect of having a wide range of colours is seen as the whole trailer becomes far more interesting to look at, this technique is used by our major film influences The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 7 minutes and The Town this showed us how successful and important the range of colours used are. The style of our trailer is conventional to fans of other thriller films such as Nightcrawler where the low key lighting creates a sinister tone, this tone is shown in the first 15 seconds and is then carried over throughout the whole trailer. Using tropes of the action/thriller genre was essential as the narrative conventions such as the fight between good and evil, the damsel in distress and the building of tension are all encoded through the colour and style, this can be seen in virtually all action/thriller films such as The Dark Knight and Inception, therefore it was essential that we followed the same style in our trailer through the positioning of both the camera and the lighting.
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| Varied colours shown in The Signal trailer |
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| Chiaroscuro in Nightcrawler |
Character/Actor - 5
We adhered to many conventions of the thriller genre through our characters and their motivations, in order to keep our trailer more mainstream, we decided it was important to have the intentions for each character clear and easy to understand for the mainstream audience, therefore our trailer consists of a clear hero/protagonist, villain/antagonist and a character who is leaning towards villainy. Most action/thriller trailers place importance on showing the protagonist and the antagonist and the divide between them, this can be seen in The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Welcome to the Punch, in these trailers a large proportion of time is spent showing the battle between the two characters. As in The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Reservoir Dogs we wished to establish the characters as all morally ambiguous from the start, as all the characters decided to rob the house. Similarly in Reservoir Dogs this was done to show that none of the three male characters are 'good guys' and are instead all criminals with differing views on how to solve a problem. We adhered to the conventions of many action/thriller trailers by keeping the protagonist and antagonist mostly separate through Act 2, through the use of cross cutting in order to then bring them together in the third Act to further enhance the tension and anticipation throughout the trailer. We wished to establish that the leader of the men was in control throughout by using low angle shots on his close-ups representing the control he has and his positioning in the frame, always in the centre between the other two. The leader primarily performs a narrative function, in order to push to story forward, this is appropriate for a trailer as there is a only a minimal amount of character development that can be done in the time span, especially for one that has to introduce the audience to the films premise and characters.
The conformity to the conventions of the genre is further enhanced with the casting of Robbie Whyte as the protagonist, highlighting the characters metrosexual and appealing nature, reflecting the lead actors of many thriller films such as James McAvoy (Welcome to the Punch), Luke Mitchell (7 Minutes), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight). For our antagonist we cast Charlie Fox, we chose him based of Mr Blonde (Reservoir Dogs), as you don't immediately know that his is villainous by looking at him but through his actions you can. Our female character was inspired by Amanda Seyfield (Gone) and Gemma Artenton (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), throughout planning we were away of the trope of the blonde damsel in distress and wished to combine this trope of the weak female character, to make her appear vulnerable with scenes of her escaping showing her courageousness. The tropes that we associated with each character allows Barthes Action code to take effect, playing with ideals of expectations and representations within class, age and power all within the action/thriller genres conventions.
Narrative/Structure - 4
The narrative structure of our trailer is very conventional and we have conformed to many of the conventions which are used within trailers, such as the three act structure. Our narrative follows the conventions of Todorov's narrative theory as well as the action thriller genre. We use the Redemption arc as our protagonist looks to correct the mistake he and his companions have made. The three act structure allowed us to show the stages of Todorov's narrative theory in a clear and precise way, meaning that it is not difficult for the audience to follow along. The equilibrium and disruption are shown in Act 1, with the realisation of the distribution shown in Act 2. The final attempt to repair the damage and the restoration of the equilibrium is not fully shown but are however hinted at during the montage during Act 3. We felt that the three act structure was essential as all of our main film influences incorporated it including The Disappearance of Alice Creed, The Town and Nightcrawler. This structure allows the audience to follow the narrative consciously and due to this structure being a convention of the genre it allows audience members to pick up the story even if they haven't seen the start of the trailer, a trait which is essential if targeting a mainstream audience. Many trailers utilise a voice over at the start in order to introduce the audience to the situation, we however deemed this was not necessary as the non-diegetic sound would distract the audience and place too much importance on one particular character. We instead decided to follow the technique used by The Town and The Disappearance of Alice Creed of cross-cutting between scenes, using sound bridges to link them together, this also utilises both Barthes Action and Semic codes as it gives the audience a clear understanding of each characters ideologies and thought process. By adhering to the conventions of our genre and form, utilising the structure of trailers and using classic story types after adapting them, we were able to introduce the situation clearly and create a readerly text which therefore means we are able to target a mainstream audience.
Editing - 7
The editing of our trailer for done in a way to prioritise the increase in tension, which is essential for a thriller trailer. We accomplished this primarily through the Final Cut effect 'fade to black' and using a mix of high and low paced editing. We took influence from The Disappearance of Alice Creed trailer for the editing speed as we felt that the The Disappearance of Alice Creed was successful in creating a contrast between the fast paced action and the slower more intimate, narrative based moments. The general convention in a trailer is having the editing slowly get faster and faster throughout leading into the montage in the third act, we wished to challenge this convention by including moments of fast paced editing throughout the trailer before slowing down the pace again, we got this idea from The Disappearance of Alice Creed and hoped that this would increase the tension throughout and give a greater contrast better the different moments. Similarly to 7 Minutes we wanted to have a moment of fast paced editing right at the start of trailer, as said previously we hoped that this moment would intrigue the audience and encourage them to continue watching.
Sound - 3
Below are my prezis in which I have responded to the Evaluation Question 1.
AF
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