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.