Applying Recognisable Conventions Of Trailers

In groups of three we came up with ideas about the recognisable conventions of a trailer and we had to promote our trailer called Bloodshed High.

As a group we decided what to base our movie around,Vampires/Dracula in an American high school.

We started to sketch our ideas onto a 12 shot story board explaining how we are going to go about our trailer.

 The USP of our film trailer is that it was going to be released in 3D as this enhances the illusion of depth perception. Another USP was to have a mixture of genres, teen movies/horror, which is explained in more detail in our production movie blog below. 

We included a famous actor, Robert Pattison, because he is well known to star in other horror movies such as 'Twilight' and has been a big seller. This actor is also known to many teenagers therefore bringing more audience to us.                                                    ENJOY!

Conventions of Trailers

WHY DO PEOPLE GO AND SEE MOVIES?

We summed this question up with some simple answers such as the genre of a movie, maybe because of the story line (narrative), unique selling point for instance a 3D movie, actors in the movie or simply because of film reviews. As a class we focused on three different movies to see how each trailer captures the audience’s attention. Below I have evaluated two of the three movies and shown the conventions each trailer uses.

From these screen grabs you can see that the movie has a blend of both comedy and romance genre's. The video game animation gives the trailer a unique convention as this is not often seen in many movies. The animation may also suggest that the movie is suitable for a younger audience.

Giving the directors name in the trailer could also be another reason why people would want to go and see it as if a previous movies was directed by this person and the movie turned out good then viewers would want tosee more films produced by him/her. The directors are trying to sell the movie as their name is being credited. In this case we see two popular movie names ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ which are both also comedy movies.

The trailers includes the movies release date towards the end of it. When this is shown you also get additiona; information such as th eir website, credits to Universal Studies and the record name of who made the soundtrack to the movie.This is a good way to also get the publics intrests in other forms of the media which stills connects then to the film.

When watching the trailer we realize that quick rapid shots are used and this makes the pace of the trailer more faster which keeps the viewer more interested and focused on whats going on. They also capture the best pats of the movie making the trailer a kind of summary. The non-diagetic music adds onto the pace as it is also quick and up beat. Along with the music and rapid quick shots, there is dialoug which gives us a clue to the narrative so audience know what the film is baseed around.

My Dog Tulip Trailer

I looked at this trailer to comapre with the trailer 'Scott Pilgrim V The World'. This trailer has much longer shots and gives more of an understanding of what is happening. There is a voice over throughout the trailer explaining the narrative of the story which develops the charatcer in the trailer. The genre differs from the first above trailer as this trailer is mainly cartoon based. Towards the end the trailer the credits are shown in more detail and how they are involved in the movie.

Research and Planning:

Before starting the task set i had to research what is already out there and what makes a good trailer. I also had to look at the movie posters and see what went into it and what makes a good one. To the images below i connoted and denoted each poster to give me an idea of what i had to produce. In all the posters i looked at the title first to see what clues it gives me about the film then base them on the ideas i associate them on.

In this poster the name of the title seemed like a mystery or law movie. The number 39 seemed to be important and significant in the movie. By looking at how the title was written gave me a clue as to what genre the movie may belong too. The glowed, black background with classical old style font suggested it may be a horror/thriller movie.






This movie title was thought to be about pregnancy or something time bounded. However, after looking at the poster we found it to be either comedy based or comedy horror. The way its written in block capitals and in white shows that its pure and simple comedy.




This title was thought to be about someone or something to be locked out trying to come in. Immediately we thought it would be a horror movie as it has a title that would suit it. Our judgement was correct as looking at the poster and how the title is written looked spooky. The skinny reddish letters give the movie a sense of no hope and bloody and gory.





This movie title was harder to guess what the genre was. At first we thought it might be a comedy about culture clashes then we thought it might be about the American dream or patriotism. We then looked at the poster and found out that the movie genre is an action film. The yellow background and silhouette figure gives it a more modern feel which is emphasizes with the bold font in white.

Analysing a Trailer:

I watched the trailer of Paranormal Activity 2 on Itunes and started evaluating it through 5 set questions.

We are told the name of the movie at the end of the trailer as it keeps the audience gripped to find out what the name of the movie is.

we are not told who is starring in the movie as it is a sequel and the same actors/stars are used again.

We don't see any major action as the whole movie is done by hand held camera to give it a sense of realism. The major action of t

he trailer is of a man being thrown against the camera in the trailer, a dog braking and a child standing.

There are no music in the trailer as its is the sound of the natural environment. The trailer includes as scene where the audience is watching the trailer and they end up screaming.

The speed of the trailer stays the same as if you were watching the movie. The speed of it is very slow as they want to grip the audience into what is going to happen next. This also adds more drama to the horror movie even though not a lot is going on.

The information that was given in the very last frame of the trailer was the movie name and who directed it. In some cases it can also show the release date for people to go and see it.

You would expect to see this trailer in the breaks of TV programmes and before film in the cinema. This is so it intrigues the viewer and you wouldn't forget it as it has a lasting image in your mind.

The Concept of Horror:

On Tuesday 14Th, we brainstormed our concept around horror. We asked ourself questions around horror and what is a horror movie? The next day we as a team allocated each other concepts we could do some research into to bring it back to the group and share ideas to get an idea into what out horror movie trailer can include.
I was allocated to do research into music and influences of horror movies.

Music:

Music within film is very important. Not only it helps to create the ambiance of the film and its plot, it also helps to evoke the emotions of the characters, so that the audience gets to feel the same thing.

Classical Horror Music:

Orchestral music was mainly used for horror movies. It has been used throughout time and is the most popular type of music used in horror films. One reason why orchestral music is so common in horror films is probably that the open-endedness and great dynamic range of the genre allows the composer to greatly vary his compositions to follow the events in a film. Another reason could be that it is very neutral and appeals to a wide audience, but perhaps the main reason is that powerful orchestral music simply works very well when there is a need to convey emotions and set a certain mood.

Modern Alternative:

Nowadays music is created through computers and horror movies use special effects to get a crowd screaming. A horror movie requires the right kind of music to function properly with the movie.


Influence's:

Firstly we as a group have to decide what our trailer is going to based around. After we decide i will then look into trailers based around we choose for example if our trialer consists children we can look at trailers such as 'the oprhan' or animals 'the hills have eyes'.
I will then see what all the tailers have in common and what makes then different to the other horror trailers.