Summer project task

Research: Film trailer analysis 

Film trailer 1: Narrative and genre "The Disaster Artist"
The Disaster Artist is about the making of the film “The Room,” and follows Tommy Wiseau who is clearly not American, but tries to be, and Greg Sestero, who is American. The trailer for “The Disaster Artist” quickly and effectively communicates narrative and genre through the funny exchanges between characters to convey to an audience that it is clearly a comedy film. In addition to this, the use of over the top acting from James Franco portraying a famous and likable character, being Tommy Wiseau, further creates this comedic and light hearted atmosphere while the characters in the film try to create this movie, “The Room.” This of course is the main narrative in the film and has constant references, that being scenes that were hard to film, recreations of times at which Tommy Wiseau was hard to work with, and even inside jokes here and there that fans of “The Room,” the target audience for this film, would understand. One of these being the relief on the casts face when James Franco reads his line normally on the rooftop, as Tommy Wiseau had apparently struggled with that scene overall. On top of being a comedy, there are some elements of drama, whereby we see struggle amongst the stars of the film, not being able to make it in Hollywood, and instead, doing the inspirational thing and making their own work and making their own film.

Film Trailer 2: Mise-en-scene Django Unchained 

The trailer starts off with two men escorting other men who are chained up along a path. The use of costume and props in this trailer allows to audience to identify the correct timeline which this movie is set through the use of the characters riding horses and carriages. The lighting in the trailer is predominately bright which may go against typical genre conventions as this movie is about slave trade which would normally be seen as dark and horrific. High key lighting is seen used once Django is free and allowed to become a free man, the lighting is reflected on Django's life and it improved after being set free.

Film Trailer 3: Camerawork Spectre
The trailer starts off with a long shot and establishing shot of the environment to set the scene. Birdseye views shots were used in order to show the movements from the protagonist compared to everyone else (jumping over building whilst people on the floor are walking). Over the shoulder shots were used right before action codes in the trailer in order to show the perspective of the protagonist. Close up used on the protagonists in order to show their emotion before pulling the trigger allows the audience to create impressions of the characters before they're formally introduced.

Film Trailer 4: Editing Venom

This trailer consist of many fast edited cuts which allows the trailer inform the audience on what sort of film it may be, the fast cuts between fighting scenes suggests that this film will contain a lot of action as well as drama due to the slow shots where the narrative is described. The editing was used in a way to juxtapose between the character and his actions. At 1:20 the protagonist says "We cannot just hurt people" followed by a quick cut of the protagonist fighting someone. The voice over followed by this scene can allowed the audience to identify that this movie may not in fact be a typical superhero theme but contain an anti-hero instead with different typical motives.

Film trailer 5: Sound 8 Mile

In the trailer for 8 mile the non dietetic sound of the music towards the middle builds up as the beat and montage sync and the voice over starts when hes actually singing during the film so the film and song link. the voice over at the start of some parts do overlay into the actual footage which goes from non dietetic to dietetic sound. the dialogue portrayed in this makes us think hes living in a bad place, he has no hope but towards the middle his friend says hes going to help him come on top with him. the lyrics in the non dietetic music is him talking about his life and how he has one chance to get it and if you cant keep up with it you wont have another chance.

Film Pitch

Our coursework brief requires us to create our own film trailer and posters for an original movie that we have created in the horror or coming-of-age drama genres. Plan the following:
Title: Abandoned
Tagline: You are not alone
Genre (and sub-genre/hybrid genre if applicable): Horror
Logline – one sentence that sums up the film and hooks people in (25 words or fewer):
A group of friends investigate a abandoned building together to see what lies inside. They heard many stories before about it and though they were fake but nonetheless they still decide to investigate.
Other successful films that are similar to yours: Most films like the asylum, shutter island and etc..

Narrative structure – what happens in the film and in what order:

The friends meet up at someones house to then stumble upon information about an abandoned building with stories about ghost on the internet.
The group is split in half on who believes in the information and the ones who are skeptical about it.
They finally decide to investigate it to put the rumours to bed.
All of the group gears up to go and check it out.  
They arrive and break in together
At first it's quiet and nothing happens but towards the end of the day mysteries things start to happen.

Hero/heroine, their desires, the conflicts they encounter etc.: The hero's are the group of friends and their desire is to put to bed a romour but find a new goal of escaping

Target audience for your film (age, gender, social class, interests etc.): The main target audience for this film is teens to young adults at age 18-22. It’s best suited for males as the group is mainly guys which means the male audience will relate more towards the group of friends but females will still enjoy it equally as much. It's mainly for middle class audience as that's where the group of friends are from and live in that sort of area and that's where most of the setting is.

 Statement of Intent

I plan to make a 90 second to 2-minute film scene for a low budget horror film. The narrative for the film is the friends meet up at one of their houses to then stumble upon information about an abandoned building with stories about ghost on the internet.  The group is split in half on who believes in the information and the ones who are Sceptical about it.  They finally decide to investigate it to put the rumours to bed.  All the group gears up to go and check it out.  They arrive and break in together. At first, it's quiet and nothing happens but towards the end of the day mysteries things start to happen and they become trap. The scenes at first will be taken place indoor at one of the group members house making that the first location to film in a house and in a bedroom. Another location will be the actual abandoned building which I will be both filming outside of and inside of. I will be recording at both daylight and night time too see which will turn out better. This is because filming the day although is less scary is better for lighting purposes while in the dark will look scary and ominous however harder to see people in the shot. Many horrors use non-diegetic sounds in the background to put an eerie feel to the scene. I will be using the same kind of technique however I won’t at all the time as most of the film I want people to hear the diegetic sounds of the film, so audience can almost feel like the character they are watching and experience everything they are. In the film I will be using a whole range of different shots. The first one I will be using and will be in the mist if the film mainly towards the end is the point of view/first person shot as the group members will be recording what they see through their own camcorders. Another shot will be the traditional medium, close and long shots of the group and their expressions. Finally I will add an establishing shot of the abandoned place.

The main target audience for this film is teens to young adults at age 18-22. This is because teens are like thrill seekers and love to be scared and this film is best suited for them to feel like that. Also, the group of friends in the movie are around the same age as the target audience so they will find it easier to link with the characters (this links to Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratifications-1974). It’s best suited for males as the group is mainly guys which means the male audience will relate more towards the group of friends, but females will still enjoy the movie. It's mainly for lower-middle class audience as that's where the group of friends are from and live in that sort of urban area and which is where most of the setting is. The representation normally in feature horror films usually have a feature a full white cast. However, in mine it will contain ethnically diverse groups, subverting the stereotypes and hegemonic races seen in typical Horror films.