My A2 Media Courswork was to create a Movie trailer that consisted of all the common conventions of the century. Research was a crusial point in this project as it allows me to gain diffrent ideas and prospects and put them into consideration whilst creating my trailer. the genre i have chosen to cast my trailer as is Horror, simply because Horror movies significintly rely on trailers to promot thier Movie more than ther genres, and we saw that as a real challenge to take on.
Length: 2.4 minutes
Genre: action
Narrative: a Wanted crimainl who steals from banks and other goverment owned properties.
Number of Characters: 3 main charaters, the fugative, the leading poilce investigator and the fugitives girl friend.
Shots: Shot types used where very fast pace and dramatic to show excitment and action and only lasted 1.6 seconds avergally. the shot angles where mostly wide shots to show the amount of action that was going on. the trailer also consisted of 1 main trasition between shots which was a fade, this provides a really unique sence of drama to the Trailer as it Contains Romantic scenes.
Voiceover: the voice over was by Don Lafontaine who has voiced over 5000 movie trailers.
Animation/Special Effects: hardly any specail effects where used as this film was based on the early 60's however alot of upto-date camera techniques where used such as the extreme close up form the eye and the a 3D computer genertated plane was shown which looked pretty obvious that it was computerised.
Production Company: universal (shown first before the start of the trailer)
Credits/Intertitles: credits of the leading actors where only shownn during the trailer itself.
Transitions: the trailer also consisted of 1 main trasition between shots which was a fade, this provides a really unique sence of drama to the Trailer as it Contains Romantic scenes.
Pace: stars of very slow, however progesses to be much faster after the18th second..
Dialogue: voices where used in nearly every shot taken to give the viewrs an understanding of the theme of the movie.
Unique Selling Point: becuase this movie was based on the sixsties, it attracted young and old audiences.
Length: 1.48 minutes
Genre: horror
Target Audience: aimed at young adults
Narrative: a group of friends decide to take a short cut but end up paying a really high price for thier choice.
Number of Characters: 5 main charaters and two inbread monsters
Shots: Shot types used where very fast pace and dramatic to build excitment and horror. most shots only lasted 1 second avergally. the shot angles where mostly close up shots to build tension in the audinces minds. the trailer also consisted of 1 main transition between shots which was a 'straight cut'.
Voiceover: no voice over was used.
Animation/Special Effects: hardly any animation was used as this film however costumes where highly relied upon in thei movie.
Production Company: 20th century fox (shown first before the start of the trailer)
Credits/Intertitles: credits of the leading actors where only shownn at the end of the trailer.
.to be much faster after the18th second..
Dialogue: voices and screams where used in nearly every shot taken to give the viewrs an understanding of the theme of the movie.
Name: Chucky
Length: 1.59 minutes
Genre: horror
Target Audience: young teens and older
Narrative:a posessesd doll hats seeks revenge by brutally killing difrent people to try and aflict its anger
Number of Characters: 4 main charaters
Shots: Shot types used where mainly intense slow motion footage of the characters to try and build tention and exitment
Voiceover: no voice over was used.
Animation/Special Effects: hardly any animation was used as they dolls used where specail controlled dolls.
Production Company: 20th century fox (shown first before the start of the trailer)
Credits/Intertitles: credits of the leading actors where only shownn at the end of the trailer.
.to be much faster after the18th second..
Dialogue: voices and screams where used
Horror movie poster Analysis
Furthermore, all posters contain a visual image of the villan or the victim. However in Chucky they clearly show the face, unlike halloween and W.T where their outline is showing but not the charactrisitcs.
Also, all three movie titles have been shown in upper case, to appeal inresting at first glance.
after studieng the horror movie posters, it is clear that certain forms and conventions are constantly applied. The major forms and conventions of film posters include: A large title which attracts the eye, bold colours which stand out from the background, intriguing picture which would attract viewers to the film, persuasive language which might persuade the viewers to go and see the film, using the main character's name for promotion, and the certification will either to ensure that the right type of people are watching the film.
An example of how different types of film (e.g. comedy, horror) poster use these forms and conventions to attract a certain type of person (e.g. teenagers, horror fans) would be a really scary horror film, which will use scary images in order to appeal to most horror fans.
The images used are mainly of the villain or the victim involved, and the picture will project the story line of the movie, e.g. the jaws magazine is showing a women being eaten by shark, their for without any vocabulary, the audience will have a immediate mental image of the plot or the story plan of the movie.
All titles appear to be in upper case, and are clearly displayed on the top, also the vocabulary used is very straight forward and simple; however with the jaws magazine, their magazine website is placed on top of the image, and is aligned at a 45 degree angle as it becomes more visible to audience and helps promote their website.
Furthermore, all three barcodes are placed on a vertical position, which is a common convention in horror movie magazines, however not in the magazine market, as all other main magazines regardless of genre usually place the barcode horizontally.
Movie Narrative:
a casual teen boy who is heading to his friends house for a party ends up stuck at a deserted forest where communictation is vertully immpossible. he decides to try and walk out of the that place but soon dicsocovers the error of his chioce.
the shooting areas that we have decided to consider have various benifits as they include the common conventions included in horror movies such as dark setting, massive trees, deserted fields and running lakes.
| Site | Hazard | Control measure |
| Woods | Injury – getting lost - | Insuring all pupils have mobile phone with them at all times – giving all pupils a quick tour around the woods encase they get lost to show them all exits |
| Car | Crashing | Insuring seatbelts are worn at all times |
| | | Keeping a safe distance whilst insuring camera angles are at appropriate stand |
Movie synopsis:
A casual vehicle breakdown turns Alfi Turners life into a living hell. Being trapped in the
character analysis:
After having completed my analyisis of my three chosen movie posters I had to sum up all my findingd into presentable format and make sure I maintain all the3 key points in order to apply them to my poster.
Today was our first day of filming; it took quit a while to settle on our starting position as we had three different shooting areas. However once camera started rolling everything seemed to fit in rather smoothly. At first we had to shoot the motor way seen, which was the first scene in our trailer was in order to pick p the narrative.
To edit our movie we had to travel to professional editing studio whcih was around 6 miles away from school. we where given a mac each group and where given a small tour on the software that we where using to edit the movie. it took a very good 5 hours to get the trailer primary finished.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
In the process of producing my trailer I insisted on challenging as many conventions as possible to induce a different form of horror to my audience. Whilst giving out questionnaires a lot of potential audiences where really keen on this new approach and also gave me feedback on how to maximise the effect I had in mind.
My first major challenge was shooting the trailer during daylight, however not any daylight, I constantly followed weather forecasts to find a windy and misty morning. This will give our trailer a mixture of two genres, thriller and horror. It also reduces the amount of effects we needed to add during the editing.
March the 7th; a perfect combination of slight rain and windy mist, the moment I woke up I knew it was the ‘perfect day’.
The second challenge was not having a voice over, and let the scenes ‘do the talking’. This is very unconventional in horror trailers and all the horror trailers I have researched contained some sort of voice over. However my approach was to have deep and fast pace `scary` non-digetic soundtrack playing and have the voice of my character screaming during the end of the trailer.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Reviewing your audience’s feedback is a crucial aspect of success in promoting your trailer. My viewer’s feedback significantly helped me focus on the key areas I needed to change or develop. Whilst I was discussing the trailer with a small group of audiences from the media class in the year below, a lot of them had very enthusiastic ideas that I just had to include. The first was creating ambiguity on the villain’s character in my trailer and make his identity and form anonyms, to add a sense of enigma to the trailer.
They where also not to keen on the transitions between shots and gave me specific idea’s on effects that can be used during different sequences. These changes genuinely helped add a sense of creativity to my shots.
Talking to my potential audience and taking there comments into account really helps sell the movie at a wider scale as you have taken into account different thoughts and ideas and not just your owns.
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning of your media product?
During the whole process of constructing and producing the trailer I heavily relied on many professional software and hardware to try and conclude a well structured trailer.
I used DVD’s and VHS videos to research different elements of editing and to pick up new ideas from professional directors. YouTube was also a very useful site in researching trailers as it had included more than 60,000 movie trailers!. I also used a still camera to produce the animatic which was a hand drawn draft of my trailer, then uploaded it using a scanner. The use of software such s Microsoft word and adobe Photoshop was also repeatedly used in different forms such as research and plotting information and ideas.
After looking at the amount of work that is needed to be done for the production of a 3 minute trailer, I am really starting to admire the effort that goes into producing professional shoot. Collecting and organizing all the pieces together is a really hard job that requires multi tasking and really good working skills.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?
The ancillary text; which consisted of a magazine cover and a poster really helps promote the movie in many different forms. The poster is still advert that must be constructed and displayed in the correct manner to appeal to your target audience. My poster included all the general convention of a horror movie poster, by showing the victim being attacked from behind by an anonymous `thing`. I also used typical horror movie colours (white, red and black) and the typeface was also had a gloomy effect which immediately springs the genre HORROR to your audiences mind.
The magazine however is more of a `backstage` promotion about the leading character or cast. It usually shows the characters in casual mode and addresses there personal life and career. My magazine poster consisted of the main character as the main image and side news and events that where included in the magazine to sell the magazine to my target audience.
