RESEARCH: Research into Film Posters

Secondary research into film posters

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RESEARCH: Research into Trailers

This is a trailer for a horror film that has recently been released.  I watched this trailer 3 times, analysed it and researched more into movie trailers. A lot of my findings related back to the initial trailer discussion and my post on trailers.  The first thing that is shown in this trailer is the production company, Warner Bro's - a Time Warner company. This immediately tells the audience that this film will be high-budget and high-quality. Along with the slow piano non-diagetic music, the grey clouds and grey stone like logo give the audience an insight into the genre of the film as the colour grey has negative and dark connations. The stone logo turning around is almost like a door opening and as the camera zooms in the audience will feel as if they are being pulled into that door, thus making them feel as if they are going into another world. The sound of the gust of wind enhances this feeling.

Unlike the conventional film trailer we are not told who stars in the film. This is because instead of using celebrities and to promote and attract an audience, horror films use the genre itself and fright factor to attract an audience. Instead of staying who stars in the movie they want to create authenticity and make the audience feel as though the characters are real people and connect to them, making the movie that more scarier.

The beginning of the trailer starts with slow piano music. As soon as the optitcian says “I’ll be right back” leaves the room the music suddenly gets even quieter, this indicates that something is wrong.  The piano stops and then the violins start and begin to get faster and faster, thus building up the anxiousness and fright factor.

The camera cuts to a computer of some sort that reads “DO NOT EXCEED 5mW” in capitals, as capitals have connotations of danger/ergency. The thermometre  begins to increase and as it increases it beeps to create aniticipation and aniouxness. When it hits 5.1mW and immediately there is a loud thud the beeping gets louder and fast telling the audience that something is wrong and something bad is coming. This is accompanied by the sound of a heartbeat getting louder and faster, again creating anxiousness and frightening the audience. After this part of the trailer the music changes to rock music. This is because this part of the trailer shows all the action and exciting part of the film and rock music creates an exciting and fast paced atmosphere.

After watching this trailer I watched 2:09 of a clip of the film and then counted the amount of cuts each of these videos had. The film trailer had 87 cuts within the 2:09 however the clip from the film had only 30. This is because the trailer is deliberately made more fast paced and fits in as much action in a short amount of time to capture the attention of the audience and hold it for the whole 2:09.




The very last frames of the trailer show the film title and the release date. This it to draw the audience in with the storyline, action and fright of the film and heightens anticipation. Then when the title of the film and release date is told to the audience at the end so that the name of the film is the last thing in their head, making the film more memorable.



I would expect to see this trailer before films aimed at a similar target audience. I would say this was people of a similar age to the victims of the film, from around 15 - 30 years old who have an interest in scary films. They would like films that are more exciting and thrilling so this trailer would probably be shown before other scary supernatural films such as Paranormal Acitivty.



I also think this trailer would be broadcasted before shows like Misfits that would have around the same age group, same type of people and the same target audience. It is also based around the supernatural and so is quite similar to Final Destination in that content.




There are four main uses and gratifications that media will satisfy an audience...
Diversion and escapism is one. This is when media takes the audience is taken away from their daily lives and stresses and instead their minds are diverted to a whole different world.
Personal Companionship is another and the audience being able to discuss this with their peers afterwards.
Personal identification and being able to relate to and compare their own lives with the lives of the characters.
Surveillance and to get information .
I believe that this trailer satisfies all for of these uses and gratifications as the trailer not only distracts audiences from their everyday lives and gives them information about the upcoming film, but it also allows audiences to compare their lives and relate to the characters and discuss their anticipation for the film with others, especially since the film is a sequel.

RESEARCH: Production Companies

Dennotations, Connotations and Audience Expentations

The Globe in this logo symbolises that it is a international and global brand for everyone and that 'Universal' movies maybe set in interesting and exotic place. The light being emitted from the globe shows that it is big and spectacular. The stars here may represent how it is high budget and high quality.

The bright castle in this logo may symbolise the spectacular, magical and grandness of the films produced by 'Walt Disney Pictures'. It also represents fairy tales and excitement. The big 3-D silver bubble writing has kiddy, fun, child-like connotations and tells the audience that the film will be high budget, modern and high-tech. The audience expectation will be fantastic locations, animation and child friendly (if not child aimed).

RESEARCH: Trailers

Trailers aren't short films like the preliminary task. They are put together and designed to grab the attention of the attention of the target audience and give an insight into the film and what the film will be about.They give enough information to create curiosity and heighten anticipation in the target audience, however not too much that it gives away the story of the film,just a short plot summary. They create a specific type of mood or atmosphere,re-creating the mood, atmosphere and genre of the actual film to tease the audience.

Another thing that trailers do is promote their stars, directors and producers. For two reasons...

• Well respected, known and loved actors, producers or directors will bring along a fan base who will be likely to watch the movie thus giving the movie a wider target audience.

• The film will not only promote the stars and directors but the stars and directors will also promote the film. Through various interviews, film premieres and more they will 'talk-up' the film and give the film a positive look attracting even more of an audience and persuading more people to watch the film. Above is actor Tobin Bell being interviewed about the new SAW 3D movie.

RESEARCH: Initial trailer discussion

In class we all watched this film trailer...


We then all got together and had a discussion on this film trailer and trailers in general. We asked ourselves 3 questions...

What is the purpose and intention of a film trailer?

The main purposes of a film trailer are to persuade, inform and entertain its target audience. It is to give an insight into what to expect from the movie, market the film and create publicity to attract its target audience in order to get as much people as they possibly can to go watch the film as its main overall intention in to create as much profit as possible from this movie.

What effects should a film trailer have on the audience?

From the very beginning right through to the end 'The Amazing Spiderman' trailer Conveys exact what genre and type of movie that the audience should expect to see. The lighting, sound, music, facial expressions and fast pace suggests a sense of panic, anxiousness and action. Film trailer should create a specific mood and atmosphere with enigma codes.

What does a good film trailer do?

What this particular film trailer does well is it showcases and promotes the 'Spiderman' franchise. This is because its target audience and people that are most likely to go watch the film are 'Spiderman'. Along with the enigma codes of the action genre it gives enigma codes of the 'Spiderman' franchise.

What it also does, and most good film trailers will do is promote the stars, directors and production company. This is because if the film is associated with a specific and well respected/loved actor, director or production company the fans of the actor, director or production company will go and watch the film.

A good trailer will also use the lastest and best technology (if suited to the film). The 'Spiderman' trailer shows this as it has the lastest technology used for the fast-paced action film. This is very important that 'Spiderman' is up to date like this as there have been several other 'Spiderman' films. It needs a unique selling point to make people want to watch the new one as everyone already knows the 'Spiderman' story.

DISTRIBUTOR: What a distributor does?

Distribution

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DISTRIBUTOR

Jade the Distributor... :)

RESEARCH: Other blogs

After looking at the other blogs I have realised that the design, look and colour scheme of my blog is inappropriate for the blogging of the process of making a HORROR film. My blog should express the horror theme and genre. As of this point my blog looks like this and what you should be seeing now (what I will start to create) is a whole new horror themed blog.

RESEARCH: Other Blogs

Research into other blogs

PRELIMINARY: Meeting First 1 - Evaluation

What could be improved?

Although I do think we did very well especially since we were amateur to using a camera there is always room for improvement and we do still need more work on our film. Although we wanted to convey meaning through movement and the camera we didnt use sound very well. There was very few diagetic sound and no non-diagectic sound which are important as sound can help enhance, propel or/and tell a story. Also I do think our editing was done very well however the part of the film where the woman opens the door was not edited perfectly and didnt go as smoothly as I would have liked. Next time we film we must be more precise with our editing and cuts. It would have also been much better quality and look more professional if we would have used a better more professional camera

PRELIMINARY: Meeting First 1 - Evaluation

What was good?

We really thought and planned well before we started filming. We used several different shot types including Long shots, over the shoulder, mid shots and more depending on the effect we wanted to give. For example we used a close-up when showing the expression on the woman getting fired's face which was very important and this is what made the short film humorous. Our editing techniques included eyeline matching and constant and average cuts whereas if this was a horror short film rather than comic I would be more likely to use fast and quicker paced cuts to create a sense of anxiousness. We also had good use of mise-en-scene. We had two different settings, the boss’s office and a waiting room, to make the film more interesting and give it more substance. We also used props like the desks to convey meaning. Notice that the bos's desk has a computer with lots of documents and files on it and she is sitting on a swivelling comfortable office chair, where as the other woman was sitting on a plastic chair. This was to show the difference in power and status as the boss is more powerful so has a better and more expensive seat than the other woman. This also may give some indication to why the woman is getting fired. She is very different to the boss and also the secretary. The boss is very busy writing and working and at first is so busy that she does not even look up at the other woman and so is the secretary as she is on the phone and is very blunt and quick in the tone and is quick to leave. This contrasts to the fact that the other woman has nothing in her hands and is doing nothing.

Our short film was also good as it was entertaining (well I found it funny).

PRELIMINARY: Meeting First 1 - Technologies

After filming we uploaded our video to iMovie. This program aided us in aditing our short film.Becuase we took two of each shot we were able to choose which was the better shot and cut out all the shots we didnt need. We then cropped and orderd the shots accordingly and a movie was made!!

PRELIMINARY: Meeting first 1 - Technologies

We used this camera to film. It it quick, easy and cheap to use and although the quaitly was brillant it was good enough to get decent picture.
It has several different feautures and allowed us to edit the film as we went along. We also took a minimum of two takes of every shot so that we had choice when putting the final edits to the short film.