Film poster conventions

The Apparition trailer analysis

Genre: The Apparition is a paranormal/supernatural thriller.

From the trailer their are some typical horror iconography used; pov shots, woman trapped alone in a house, mysterious hauntings, dark colours, flickering lights, a crumbling house and flashing images of ghosts/ other supernatural creatures. This makes it clear to us that it is part of the horror genre

Female in danger

Narrative: A group of people set up an expreiment to test whether paranormal activity is real or if it is only a product of the mind, the experiment proves their is supernatural existance and they become victims of what they refer to as 'it'

Unique Selling Point: Recorded style shots, hand held camera use

Target Audience: Those interested in the paranormal/supernatural, thriller and horror movie fans aged 16+ (characters are roughly in their 20+s therefore it would most likely be appealing to a primary audience of this aged range.

Music: Non diagetic- deep horn sounds (possibly signifying the presence of the paranormal creature), thudding and banging.

Diagetic- screams and banging

Voiceover: Sci fi,  deep serious male voice

Special effects: Scientigic x ray images, flickering lights, smoke, infared camera detection, xray affect ghost flashing on screen.

Credits and intertitles: Voiceover at the start of trailer is shown on screen

Warner Bros logo, Dark castle.

Applying Mulveys Male gaze

Recognising film Trailer structure

In order to help us on our way to creating our own film trailers, we looked at the genre conventions and structures of different trailers. Here is the analysis of the new James Bond movie Skyfall, this task helped me to recognise the structural conventions of trailers in depth and really understand how each section within the trailer plays an important part in which gave a better insight creating a successful trailer that effectively promotes the movie.

Trailer analysis

Analysis of Tucker and Dale vs evil Trailer on Prezi

Analysing Trailers-
In class we begun analysing trailers and drawing out the specific codes and conventions used in trailers and what purpose they have. The trailer we analysed was called Tucker and Dale Vs Evil- a comedy-horror film,  by devising a prezi I have showed all the different comonpents of the trailer and how they come together to make an effective trailer..

Applying knowledge of trailers and target audiences to 'Skyfall'

Here I have applied my knowledge of trailers and how they appeal to their target audiences through uses and gratifications to the Skyfall trailer which we have been analysing in class

Todorov's Theory

A trailer does not follow a strict linear pattern, instead using clips of the best/most entertaining bits of the beginning/middle/end to try and promote the film using the highlights or noticeable moments of the film without giving the story away.

Todorov's theory states that all films follow a specific pattern which can be broken down into 3 stages:

1) An equilibrium
2) A disruption of the equilibrium
3) A new equilibrium

However, trailers generally do NOT include the new equillibrium or at least the whole of it as this gives away the plot and leaves nothing left to raise our curiosity. This task therefore highlighted that trailers are not infact smaller, sped up versions of films as many people assume but rather a taster of what is to be expected, raising our curiosity and expectations for the film with the ultimate goal of promoting and getting an audience to watch the film.

Analysing Trailers- Who are trailers aimed at

In class we began to explore and analyse different types of movie trailers and the specific conventions of trailers that are used to appeal to a specific audience (for example specific themes used to employ different type of genre- eg enigma codes are typically used in horror, for intense a masked man lurking in a dark shadow is bound to raise the viewers curiosity therefore tempting them to watch the film whilst also nailing in the fact that the film is a horror film. Other ways in which trailers secure and categorised their films into specific genres is through the use of logo's, credentials and inter titles. Examples of this include Disney- a company in which we associate its films with family, adventures, humour animation ect. While Lionsgate has connotations of horror films for example the Saw sequel. Therefore, just from seeing the studio or company that is behind the film immediately gives us an idea of what type of film we should expect.

Below I have attached some analysis of target audience for a range of different trailers and the different uses and gratifications that each trailer offers to it's target audience.

The Meeting task (continuity editing)

As a class we begun to look at using continuity editing (a style of editing in which everything flows in an consistent, smooth and orderly manner) as practise for vital skills that would come in handy in future when making our own promotional film campaigns. In small groups we were asked to do as follows; construct a story board between us with the title 'The Meeting' in mind- where effectively this would allow us to test and put our continuity editing skills to practise as we would only be editing a basic sequence of simple but well thought out shots, plan and prepare for filming the meeting, and finally film the meeting.
 The sequence consisted of different shots and angles for example long shots of a girl walking towards the male character. then a reaction shot to emphasize the emotion between the two and the idea that action is constantly happening within the narrative. We also used basic editing rules such as shot reverse shot- to show the action and reaction between the two characters and the 180 degree rule to create a realistic and believable sequence. Below you can find the story board my group orignally created:




And here is the short film we constructed (need meeting film)

.Although the overall piece came out fine we learnt that planning is key for a successful edit as we had failed to plan throughoughly which left us at a disadvantage due to not thinking enough about how/ in what way we would shoot the film, this meant we had to come up with new, spontaneous ideas on the day of filming providing us with a jumbled mix of shots in which it was very hard to piece together effectively and provide a continuous style of editing. If we had spent more time in thinking about specific types of angles, camera movement ect we would of been able to edit the overall sequence better and create a much higher quality piece of work then we had the first time.

Another problem we had was not sticking to our original story board- we had changed the narrative from what we originally decided to plan shot's for in the beginning therefore had to quickly prepare another set of shots for which would fit the changed narrative. Therefore, the piece lacked true continuity as each shot didn't lend into each other enough and the transitions weren't very smooth.

So, although the final sequence didn't reflect good continuity editing it was a great learning curve for us as it showed the importance of good planning which we will remember in future.

Foley Sound

Another important technique used in film production that we learnt about is foley sound. These are sounds which created by people behind the scenes which are used to enhance certain actions/ motions that cannot be picked up by the camera's microphone or simply need enhancement. For example sound such as footsteps, clothes rusting, doors opening, punching and hitting. As the sounds are added to film during post production actions can be exaggerated and intensified- therefore a simple sequence (such as one person punching another can be turned into a slapstick comedy through use of Foley sounds.

In class we put our own sound production into practice by creating our own Foley sounds added onto a short  film of two characters punching/hitting one another.

Here you can see how a simple action such as a fake punch can be turned into a humorous and exaggerated film clip, this therefore reflects how useful and important sound production/ foley sound can be in film.