Our Draft Campaign

Draft Film Poster

Feedback on our draft poster:

- People liked the idea of the image that we used.

- They said the image was too dark and that it was hard to define the villain's head from the foliage in the background.

- Most people liked the font of the writing and liked the writing where we have put the director, producer etc. They said this was almost identical to how real film posters have it.

- A couple of people said that the director and producer writing was too hard to read.

- Everyone liked the reviews at the top of the poster and that this made the poster look more authentic.

- Also they liked the way that the main actors were written underneath the reviews, separating them from the other names.

Draft Magazine Cover

Feedback on our draft magazine cover:

- Our audience didn't like the way that the actresses head is cut off at the top.

- They didn't like the poor quality of the editing.

- Or the limited variety of articles advertised on the cover- they said that it sounds as though almost all of them are related to "Missing".

- They liked the idea of the film strip down the right hand side

- They said that the little details like the barcode, price and the line where we have put "The UK's number one for film!" add extra authenticity to the cover and define it as a magazine.

Draft Film Trailer

Feedback on our draft trailer:

- People liked the transitions.

- Liked the contrast between the calm at the beginning and then the fast, chaos of the rest of the trailer.

- The liked the way that it is left as a cliff hanger, as they said that this makes it seem like a real trailer and makes them want to see the film.

- Some people commented that in trailers of this genre they normally give some narrative of why the villain is doing what they are doing (in this case- taking the child).

- People said that we should have had more shots of the child after she had been kidnapped- showing her emotions. They said that this would make them sympathise with her even more and what to find out what had happened to her.

Magazine Analysis 4

This magazine follows some of the things I have seen on other magazine front covers and goes against others. Again it only has one image, and this image covers part of the magazine name. However in this issue they have chosen to use a plain colour rather than a location. The fact that there is hardly any writing on the cover and the writing that is there is hardly visible, is not surprising due to the image. It advertises 'Batman' which is an iconic image, the fact that the actor is wearing the 'Batman' costume, means there is no need for there to be any writing as the audience they target will immediately associate the image with the film and 'Batman' will sell itself.

Again there is no other writing, advertising other articles because it is not necessary. 'Batman' targets a large enough audience to sell the magazine.

Magazine Analysis 3

The main image on this magazine front cover is actually the only thing on it, other than the name of the magazine. This is interesting as it doesn't actually tell you what film the image is advertising. However this magazine has, again, used the idea of having a location in the background, making it look more dramatic. This also helps the audience to identify the genre of the film. They have also got the characters covering a small section of the magazine name. Making the focus on the image rather than the magazine- the film will sell the magazine rather than the magazine name. With both of these factors used together- having image covering magazine name and the fact there is nothing on the cover other than this makes the film look really important.

Magazine Analysis 2

The main image on this poster is the image of Max Payne- advertising one of the Bourne films. I have chosen this magazine cover as this is an action film. Again this magazine have chosen to have only one image with other articles only advertised with writing around it. Similarly to the previous poster I analysed they have chosen to put a location in the background rather than a colour. However this time they have chosen to keep the same colour scheme with the background as with the image of the actor.

Again the biggest font on the page (other than the name of the magazine) relates to the image, however they have used the actors name to advertise the article (and put this in bigger font), rather than the name of the film (which is then referred to underneath in a smaller font).

Magazine Analysis 1

The main image on this poster is from the James Bond film- Quantum of Solace. I have chosen to look at this one because the film is an action film. For this magazine front cover they have used the main character of the film as the main image, and rather than having a simple colour behind like most normal or gossip magazines; they have used a desert scene- which the audience then relate to being a location from the film. By having this as the background image it makes the image more interesting. They have made sure that the main character stands out from this background by having the background image out of focus and the image of him, sharp in the foreground. They have also contrasted the colours by having the background image pale but bright and then putting the actor in dark clothing. They also make him stand out by having him covering part of the magazine name.

The biggest font on the page (other than the title of the magazine) is the writing about the article which relates to the image on the cover. Whilst the cover also advertises other articles in the magazine, the most focus is on this one and they have emphasized this by having this as the only image on the page.

Poster Analysis; Taken Poster





Again, this poster uses a simple colour scheme. However it isn't just black and white like the Saw poster I analysed. This is because the Saw poster had the red detail, whereas this poster has no other colour at all. So rather than being all black and white they have a grey-brown colour.
If they had used all black and white this could have given the impression that it was another genre of film and put the actual target audience off going to see it.
We can tell from the main image that this is going to be an action/crime film because the actor is holding a gun. The viewer can tell that he is the main character because they have used him for the main image and then put together a strip of images from the film running horizontally behind him.
We know immediately that the actor in the picture is a well known actor because his name is separate from the others and in a bigger font. The title of the film is in the largest font and is linked onto the main image so that once the viewers attention has been attracted to the image it then flows into the title.
The release date is also included in the poster and even this is smaller than the main actors name! However is it bigger than the names of the others so that it does draw attention. Along with this there are four lines of writing in the left top corner- these are about the film so that if the image hasn't made you want to go and watch the film then these will! Writen in clear, simple font- doesn't need fancy font; font is not important, the writing is. Certain words are in bold font to make them stand out and grab attention.

Poster Analysis; Saw 4 Poster



This poster follows the typical colour scheme that I discovered whilst creating my mood board. Using a majority of black and white and then highlighting with red. The black and white in this poster creates an effective sense of chiarascuro with the shadows coming off the objects and the highlighting on the pig face. The red 'cloak' then creates a very dramatic picture as the viewer will associate the red with danger, anger and blood because it is next to the black and white.
The image is simple but yet it doesn't make sense- which makes you want to see the film so that hopefully the film will enlighten you about what the image means.
The title of the film is over the top of this image in red. They have used a brighter red than the rest of the red in the image to make it stand out against the red cloak which is behind it. Due to the fact that the Saw films are a series of now six films (Saw 1,2,3,4,5 & 6) the font used for the title is the same as all the other Saw films. This makes it easy for the viewer to see that and immediately identify it as part of the same series of films (this is the same for most sets of films, e.g. Spider Man, Harry Potter, Batman etc.).
At the bottom of the poster we are given some additional information that we would want to know it we were interested in seeing the film. Such as a line to perhaps give us some clue or insight into the film "It's a trap". The actors who are in the film and key people in the making of the film like directors and producers. Lastly, but most importantly, we are given the release date to the film so that the target audience so they can clearly see when they will be able to go and view this film. Due to the fact that this is possibly the most important thing on the poster- besides the title perhaps, it is in a different colour to the rest of the writing around it and it is in a larger font to the names of actors/director etc.

Focused Analysis of Location; Panic Room Trailer



In this trailer the location plays a key part to the story, as the whole film is based around a room and it's effects. This trailer uses location to build tension and create atmosphere in a very effective way. It also relies on the confusion the location causes to draw the audience in and make them ask questions- resulting in them wanted to go and see the film to find the answers to these questions.
Right from the start of the trailer we are being shown around a room with copy (a female voice over) to explain things to us and decribe the room. All of the little details she gives the viewer makes the viewer on edge as we want to know exactly what this room is for and what events are going to unfold here. From the beginning we can tell that the disequilibruim (of Todorov's theory) is clearly going to happen in or due to this room. With it's thick concrete block walls, the impression that everything in there is made from steel, cables, tv monitors, big steel door, big bolts, the green laser light and the big red button it creates all sorts of possibilities which run through the audiences' mind. Could someone get trapped in here? Could there be something hidden in this room that requieres so much protection? Then when the voice over tells us "the room has just one purpose-keep people out" the viewer heads more to the idea of there is something in this room that no one can see, no one is allowed in this room because it is top secret.
The viewer is then shown a second location, through various shots of a house- stairs, a bedroom etc. This location also builds tension because it uses stereotypical traits of a horror film. The staircase is wooden, which automatically, even with no sound on the trailer makes the viewer think of creeky stairs and noises in the night. This is echoed in the use of the wooden flooring, with creeky floorboards. Many horror films use wooden flooring because it creates good dramatic effect- you can have things hidden under floorboards, shots of people falling and then close ups of the persons hand on the wooden flooring can look very effective. Plus the connotations that this dark wooden flooring makes the house old. Old people are seen as vunerable and fragile- and in a way this is the same with anything old; furniture, houses etc. The feeling that this house is old is also portrayed through the elevator- which has the old fashioned cage door of iron bars across it.
The whole trailer uses no colour, it is very dull the whole way through. I think it is very effective the way that rather than just using black and white as some horror films do, they have used a sort of steel colouring- reinforcing the idea that the whole of the 'panic room' is mainly made from steel. Also creates a cold, chilling effect which makes the audience feel more on edge and boosts the tension and atmosphere.
The viewer is not sure if the room (the panic room) from the start of the trailer is in the house we are then shown when the description of the first room is over. We want to believe that it is as this would make sense. However the two locations look so different we find it hard to believe that this technical looking room (the panic room- location one) is in this house (the old fashioned house- location two).

Focused Analysis of Mise En Scene; Event Horizon Trailer



I chose this trailer for my focused analysis of mise-en-scene because the mise-en-scene is the key feature to this video.

The main part of mise-en-scene used in this video is the spaceship which was all completely made as part of the set. However you also have the space suits and costumes the actors are wearing which make this believable. 

Focused Analysis of Sound/Music; Master And Commander



I chose this video because other than the transition from slow to quick editing, the sound is the main/only thing that builds tension- and it does this very effectively. Which is why I was not surprised to find out that it won many awards, including:
- The BAFTA Film Award for Best Sound (2004)
- The Oscar for Best Sound Editing (2004)
- The C.A.S Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures (2004)
- The Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Domestic Features- Sound Effects & Foley (2004)
- The Golden Satellite Award for Best Sound (2004)
As the trailer starts we hear music, this has a strong beat to it to create an atmosphere but at the same time it is still calm. Due to the calmness of the music we are able to hear a voice over the top of this. Then the music very discreetly fades to nothing and we hear enhanced sounds of the water against the ship and the wind. After a couple of seconds this then fades back into the music and the voices come back (music still quite calm). The voices help us to understand and get an idea of the story, as does the copy which comes up on the screen.
After all the copy on the screen is finished an actor shouts and the shots get progressively quicker and the music builds up with this. The quick shots and music continue to progress for approximately 7seconds. These 7seconds make the tension rise along with the audiences anticipation to find out what happens next. At the end of these 7seconds the music then comes to a climax and cuts out in time with a black out on screen. At this point the audience are completely wrapped up in the trailer and want to know how this ends.
The black out doesn't last long, we then get an actor on screen who shouts "fire". As soon as he shouts the music comes back. The music now has very strong beats to define each bar. We are then given some more copy on screen and this is timed in with the beginning beat of the bar, making it very dramatic and increases the tension even more. The shots get progressively quicker after the last piece of copy and again this comes to a climax and then cuts sharply with another black out.
There are then 2 more beats of music for the title of the film to come up on screen and then the release date.

Focused Analysis of Characters; Twilight Teaser Trailer



This video is good to look at for the focused analysis of characters because it has lots of characters in it, with various levels of importance as well as status' of innocence, good and evil.

We are shown who is the innocent character by her stance, the way she moves and the actions she makes throughout the trailer, everything she does are normal, everyday actions which the audience can picture themselves doing. Her clothing is normal and she is a normal girl. This is good for attracting the target audience as they can relate to her. She is very girl-next-door and this works well in supernatural films like this as the audience can put themselves in her position and feel like this could happen to them, they can imagine themselves in her place.

Cleverly, they have dressed the good-powerful character in normal clothes too. They have used a good looking male as this would also attract their main target audience which is dominantly teenage girls. However by his stance and actions we can tell that he is not 'normal'. Certain shoots confirm this, like when he pulls up the tree- showing great strength and running up the tree trunk.

However, we can tell the evil male is infact evil, even though he doesn't have anything obvious to tell us this. He, like the others, is dressed normally (jeans and no top) but his status is shown to us through other means. He jumps into the shot and when he lands he is in a half crouched position- this shows the fact that he is trying to intimidate and creates the image of preditor vs. prey. Also by using the code of expression we can see that he is very pleased with himself and 'smug', this along with his stance emphasises that he feels he is better than whoever he is with and thinks that he has the 'upper hand' in the situation. By the way he is domineering and we never even see the character he is looking at we can tell he is evil.

By showing us the 'good' characters first, we know that these two (the male and female) are going to play a large part in the film- possibly even the largest. In showing us the 'evil' character second, we know he is going to play a large part to the story line but possibly not as big as the two 'good' characters.

In introducing the 'good' an 'evil' characters to us in the trailer it allowed them to use Tzvetan Todorov's theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium. However because it is a trailer they cannot show the restoration of the equilibrium as this would make it a short film and not a trailer. As well as this it would detract people from wanting to see it because the idea is that they want to see how the film ends. Leaving it at a point where everything is chaotic and unsolved makes the audience want to go and see the film to see how it all gets solved. If you restore the equilibrium at the end there would be no point in the audience going to see the film and the film would fail.

Mood Board

Here I have put together some film posters that I found which could fit with the genres that our trailer is going to fit in with. I will be choosing a couple of these to analyze further. However by looking quickly at these images you can see that there is not a lot of colour used, the designer has used an effect of chiarascuro to create the detail. Generical colours that seem to appear in most of them are shades of black and white, with very little colour used. Then when colour is used it tends to be a bold red.

Our Decision

My group and I have decided that doing the Film Trailer option would suit us better. S0 now I am going to be brainstorming ideas, analyzing film posters and as a group we will be trying to put together a storyboard.

Shot Analysis- Casino Royale Trailer

The trailer starts off with a series of shots in black and white, including a long shot to introduce the main actor to the audience, followed by shot reverse shots of the main actor having a conversation with another man. This then leads into some quick action shots which the audience work out to be flash backs or a situation the two men are talking about and then concluding this we are brought back into the room with the two men for another set of shot reverse shots, however these are done using close ups instead of long shots like the previous time. These shots use a black and white theme to make it more mysterious and therefore helping to build the tension. It also helps the audience to focus on the intense amount of information they are being given in a short time, rather than getting absorbed in the colours and small details of the scene. We know the main character is the 'good guy' in the film, but by having these scenes in black and white the audience can also tell that the man he is talking to is evil. This all leads to the shot where the main character shoots him- when the audience's suspicions are confirmed.

From this point the trailer moves to colour. This trailer uses a very explanatory approach, so rather than using dramatic music we hear a woman's voice explaining the situation to somebody. With the shots used we are then shown the woman who's voice this is and who she is talking to- the main character. All the shots inbetween the ones of her talking to him are shots which explain what she is saying, for this reason her voice is laid over the top of these shots so that the audience can clearly see what she is talking about. The shots used to show these scenes of action to us are a variety of establishing shots, medium long shots, close ups, over the shoulder shots, pan shots, extreme close ups and at times low angle shots and high angle shots to help the audience to work out who the 'good' and 'evil' people are and who has more authority.

This is the trailer for Casino Royale which is part of the 007 James Bond set. These films are known for their action scenes, guns, exotic locations, nice cars- which inevitably get smashed up by the end of the film and the pretty female actresses; all of these things put together make a James Bond trailer. If you watch the trailer you can see that every scene depicts one or more of these five stereotypes.

Like I mentioned earlier this trailer- along with the majority of other Bond film trailers, takes a very explanatory approach. This could have a very negative effect if done too much as the director would find himself giving too much of the story away. However, Martin Campbell- the director of Casino Royale, has managed to include enough to explain the story but without giving away key points to the film and plot, this leaves the audience with questions which further entices them to go and see the film.

Robbie Williams - Bodies

Robbie Williams- Bodies, was directed by Vaughan Arnell and is set in the Mojave desert. The thing that caught my eye with this video was exactly how many shots there are. The song lasts for 4:11, and in the first 1:57 there are around 64 shots.

Shot Analysis of The Bourne Ultimatum




The first thing that caught my eye with this video was the establishing shot right at the start. This is typical of most films of this genre, which open showing a shot of the person seeking revenge but keeping some element of mystery- here they have done this by keeping the shot very plain with little detail and only showing us the back of the person.
The shots start of slow, and are intermittent with text (explaining that the persons loved ones have been murdered etc.) Then the editor has sped the shots up, building tension leading up to the text that shows he is really out for revenge (his past destroyed etc.)
The slow shots have very little sound, with only sounds at the highlights between shots as the shots change from one to the next. The sound then picks up as the shots get quicker. For example the gun shots, the car going over the barrier into the water. Then getting quieter again when the car has entered the water and they are under the water (woman drowning). Then the there is a moment of silence before the person we assume is the protagonist starts to speak. All of this sound is used to build the tension and fully displays perhaps the main genre of the film - by using lots of action shots in a short space of time, the target audience can see this film will have a lot of action, due to the fact that film trailers and especially teaser trailers would take the best shots from throughout the film.

Weezer- Buddy Holly

No real storyline to it, just teenagers in café dancing, enjoying the music and socializing.

There is a limited amount of special effects used in this video, in fact there is only one- and even that one is extremely subtle. Spike Jonze has taken shots from an old, very well known TV programme ‘Happy Days’ and used layers to put the band into these shots. However Spike Jonze did this in a very impressive way- right at the end when the song finishes the cafe owner from the original show actually interacts with the band: talking to them, looking directly at them, and possibly the most impressive of all- they even manage to get the cafe owner in the old footage of the programme to touch one of the band members in the new footage on the arm. This is done so well throughout the whole video though that you can't actually tell this has been done. It's like the actors from the programme were actually recruited to be in the video. This is a parody and also a form of intertextuality.

Brief

For my Media Studies A2 Coursework we have been put into groups to create either a film trailer of no more than 2 minutes, a magazine front cover advertising the trailer and a poster or a music video, a magazine advert and a cover. 

I will start by analyzing a couple of both products and then my group and I will choose together which one to use for our project.