Research and planning: Group meeting

Previously to this video we assigned roles to one another, then thought it would be a good idea to let the moderator know what we had discussed so we made this short video letting the moderator know our roles.

Research and Planning: trailer analysis 2

The second trailer I will be analysing is The Lucky One from 2012.  This film was directed by Scott Hicks and was given a 12A certificate. This again will help me understand the narrative to a romance film.  This shows, as well as my first trailer, that there is always something that goes wrong in the storyline when everything seems to be going great in terms of the characters' relationships.

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

This film is a romance with elements of drama as the film's storyline has the ability to make the audience emotional. This film will appeal to a primary audience of 18-40 year old females as they could potentially relate to the narrative in terms of trouble with ex-partners and struggling to fall for someone they think could have a negative impact on their child's life. For women of this age group, the male character will appeal to them as he is seen in the army being near bombs and weapons and this to a woman gives off a strong and powerful feel. However as we hear by the voiceover of the main male character, he needs to find this girl to thank her for saving his life. For the audience this will make them feel emotional as for any woman, for a good looking man to come all that way to find you, and to only thank you, is quite special.

NARRATIVE

By watching the trailer it is clear that Logan the main character is in the army fighting in a foreign country.  We are shown him finding a picture of a girl in the rubble, then seconds later a bomb is dropped, but as he survives the bomb attack, he feels the girl in the picture protected him. So we hear as a voiceover Logan telling us that he is going to find this girl and thank her for saving his life. We see him walking in various shots with his dog, showing us that he's been travelling for a while to find this girl. Then as we see the shot of where he first lays eyes on Beth, the girl in the picture, we see Logan's face look amazed as if he's never seen anything so beautiful before. As he is so amazed by Beth it seems as though he forgot why he was there and ended up getting a job with her instead of telling her the truth. The grandma is shown being nice to Logan by giving him the job whilst Beth is not happy about it. We are shown Logan working hard and doing his job, then the little boy asks questions about Logan and Beth, his mother, seems awkward when speaking about him.  Then when she sees how he is with her son, we see her mood change towards him. Slowly we are shown Beth watching Logan and falling for him when really she doesn't want to.  We are shown soon after an aggressive man, which is Beth's ex and the little boy's dad, being aggressive towards Beth and still wanting to know things about her life.  Beth doesn't want him in her life so she snaps but the ex won't let go of her when she says so, then Logan tells him to listen to her, making Logan look like the knight in shining armour. Logan becomes protective over Beth and this makes her tell the aggressive man straight and Beth and Logan's relationship grows stronger. But then the ex once again ruins things by finding the picture of Beth that Logan found then things between them both go downhill. We hear the ex putting negative thoughts into Beth's head about Logan because he is jealous. But when Beth's mother talks sense to her they can't stay apart much longer so they come to terms with the fact Logan came especially to find her and stay togther.

REPRESENTATION

Logan, the main male character, is portrayed with a soft and sentimental side, as well as protective over Beth and her child. Logan represents young fit men that appeal to the primary audience of this film. Beth's ex is represented as aggressive and possessive over Beth and their child, we can see from the trailer that he does not like Logan acting as a father figure over the child so comes across as potentially violent.  This represents the stereotype of an absent father. Both Beth's ex and Logan have positions of power in the trailer as we see that Logan comes from an army background and Beth's ex is in the police force.

Beth is the stereotype of a single mum trying to do the best for her child, to try and stay strong and independent when raising her son.  However Beth is easily influenced by men showing the conventional emotional side to her. The grandma is also very stereotypical as she is shown to be wise, fair and kind. She is supportive towards Beth's decisions when raising her son and is friendly to Logan when he comes to their farm. Both Beth and the grandma are good with children, strong minded and show importance towards raising the child and making a good home.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Cinematography-  a tilt was used when showing the destruction the bomb made in the war scene. A worm's eye view showed the helicopter flying above, then a low angle shot of Logan's face when he was blown up.  An over the shoulder two shot was used when the dad grabs Beth and swings her around aggressively.

Sound- diagetic sound of the helicopter flying and the bomb exploding. A non-diagetic sound of beeping noise to symbolise a heart monitor created tension when watching the trailer. Two different scores were used during the trailer to emphasise the change in the storyline.
 

Editing- a montage of jump cuts are used to show the time in the storyline move on. Slow motion is used to emphasise the impact of the bomb explosion, more jump cuts were used to show aggression and to tell the story in more detail. Fades were used between most shots to give off the romance genre.
 

Mise-en-scene- the sun setting at the beginning of the trailer shows the romance side, rocks used on Logan's face when the explosion goes off shows the extent of the damage it caused. A modern coloured photograph was used as the main link in the storyline. This shows the modern age of the film. All the props used in the family house make it feel more warm and 'home-like' and finally all of the action in the trailer is mainly focused around that house showing how much it means to their family.

Research and planning: trailer analysis 1

The first teaser trailer I will be analysing is Love and Other Drugs from 2010. The film was directed by Edward Zwick and was given an age 15 certificate. Analysing this romance trailer will give me more confidence when thinking of ideas for my own romance film trailer. I can see the way romance trailers flow and incorporate that into my own work.

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

This film is a romance and also includes drama features as well as comedy. It will appeal to a primary audience of 18-40 year old females as the trailer portrays a desirable lifestyle in terms of the male protagonist; tall, dark and handsome. The lifestyle in terms of a career is made to seem desirable to this audience as well as the city in which they live. From the trailer we see the main character, Jamie, slowly turn into the perfect partner, from the 'bad boy' 'player' image he was at the start of the film. We also see a woman come onto the scene that changes him into that perfect man.  Any woman of this aged audience would love the thought of the power of turning a bad boy into that perfect image of a partner. This is why the trailer will appeal to this specific audience I stated earlier.

NARRATIVE

From the trailer it is evident that there is a parallel narrative for the male character Jamie. This is shown through two key themes which are his work life and his personal life in terms of relationships. For the first theme to do with his work life, we are shown that his dad disapproves of him being a pharmaceutical rep, but we are shown in the shots following his dad disapproving, Jamie having success with the new drug and becoming really popular with the ladies. Even though he may be getting success from his work life, during the clips shown we are introduced to his love life changing with the influence of a woman called Maggie, a patient of a doctor he is trying to sell his drug to.  It states on a clip that Jamie has 'met his match' in terms of having a spontaneous love life, and this makes him want Maggie more because she doesn't reciprocate. As Jamie and Maggie grow closer, and Jamie develops more feelings for her that he's not used to, Maggie becomes ill and it rocks Jamie's world.  He realises he loves her and chases after her, this again for the audience is an idyllic thing to happen in their world, so feel more attached to the film.

Research and planning: Influences

I watched The Lucky One at home last night and thought about my trailer for Media and decided that this would be a good film trailer to analyse and think about for my own trailer.

Research and Planning: BBFC film certificate

These are all the different film classifications that films and their trailers can be given. They are given a rating so that the audience will know what to expect from the film in terms of the content without watching it. This is good for parents when worried about a certain film that their child wants to watch, because by looking at the rating given they can make a decision about it. I will be giving my film trailer an age rating of 12 because as it is a romance film trailer, no horror scenes will be shown and I am making sure that no sexual scenes will be in the trailer that will be unsuitable for a 12 year old unaccompanied by an adult.

U - The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range.

PG - PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content might upset younger or more sensitive children.

12 & 12A - 12A means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film unaccompanied. The A stands for 'accompanied' and 'advisory'. Children younger than 12 may see the film if they are accompanied by an adult (eg someone over the age of 18), who must watch the film with them. 

15 - No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD.  15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

18 - Films rated 18 are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy/rent an 18 rated DVD. No 18 rated works are suitable for children.

The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. ‘R18’ videos may not be supplied by mail order.

Research and planning: Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire results from oliviataylor678

Here is a slideshare of my questionnaire results in the form of a variety of charts. From this chart it was made clear that the most popular audience was 17 year old, females, that prefer a romance film with a twist in the storyline. They would prefer a one off film rather than a saga and also with a contemporary storyline such as Love and Other Drugs, which has an initial (equilibrium) scenario then the meeting takes place, followed by conflict, resolution and then tragedy.

Research and planning: Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire I will be handing out to people of different ages and gender to research people's opinions on film genre and preferences.

Research and planning: Audience interview videos

These are my audience feedback videos from both a younger and older generation.  From these videos I can see what different generations prefer in term of film genres etc.

Research and planning: Audience interview questions

Here are the questions I am going to ask my audience;

1. How old are you?

2. What type of outcome do you prefer in a romance film?
 

3. Would you prefer the setting to be in a city or a rural environment in a romance film?
 

4. What type of background music do you expect to hear in a romance film?

5. Would you prefer in a romance film, the male character to be in touch with his emotions or laddish?

6. What's your favourite romance film?

Research and planning: Plan for the week

This week I will focus on getting my audience interview questions done, audience interview videos, questionnaire questions and their results.

Research and planning: The Pitch

This is the Pitch that me and my partner Chloe created to explain clearly what we wanted to get out of our trailer, this included the plot, the sound, location, typical direction and how will we link it to magazine and poster.

Research and planning: Photoshop Challenge

This is my first time back on Photoshop since back in AS, so to familiarise myself with the programme I played around with the colour of texts and the different sizes and fonts. I also cropped the image and stretched it to fit my page. I would like to do a romance genre for my trailer therefore I stuck to the stereotypical layout, images and word choice of a romance film poster.

Research and planning: Chase sequence

This is my chase sequence, a series of jump cuts are used to fill out the clip, I put a comical track as background music to fit well with the running around and it gave a classic humourous watch.

Research and planning: Genres

Animated films

Stereotypically animated films are aimed at a younger audience, such as Monsters Inc., A Bugs Life and Cars. I think is because for a younger audience used to watching cartoons on the TV, when they see the advert it will appeal to them, therefore result in them begging their parents to go and watch it. Animated films are so big nowadays, companies such as Disney Pixar and DreamWorks are constantly making new films. Disney for example has been so successful in the animation business they have stores worldwide selling merchandise from those popular films that the young audience will watch.

Horror Films

Stereotypically horror films have very dark lighting to make the audience feel more into the film by making it more believable with the use of scary music and dark lighting. Horror films tend to have a storyline that is based on real life events. This allows the audience’s mind to think more into the film, therefore creating the effect the director wanted. To create synergy around the films, large budgets are used on things such as trailers, posters and viral marketing. Most horror films will have a high certificate rating of 18 because stereotypically the film's editing will make you jump, scared and have some scenes that may scare a younger audience.

Romance Films

Romance films usually are aimed at a female audience, because stereotypically there is always a male character within the film who the female audience fall in love with. This is the root of the ‘chick flick’ label. There are usually three/four parts to romance films; a couple meeting, they fall in love, something goes wrong (someone falls ill, they break up...), then they get back together making it a happy ending. These films are usually an easy watch for the audience including editing such as shot reverse shots, straight cuts and dissolves when love is the theme. Usually romance films depending on the sexual content can range from a certificate rating PG-15.

Comedy films

With comedy films these are also seen to be an easy watch. Nothing usually goes wrong in the story line to make the audience emotional or to have too much of an impact, but something may happen to make the main (funny) character think seriously for a second. The use of strong language is sometimes used also as this can be seen as humorous to some people. The main character in comedy films usually stays the most seen character throughout so we as an audience can grow to his personality, therefore finding him/her more humorous.