Researching Genre

Original Genre in film:
Horror, Western, Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure, War, Romance, Noir, Sci-fi, Documentary, Animation, Musicals.

Examples of an adventure film:

Lethal Weapon 2

Enter The Dragon

Inception

Battle Royale

Speed

Action films normally contain fast-moving plot, containing scenes of violence, normally between the protagonist and the antagonist. The 'hero' is normally out on a series of intense challenges. From chases to training, to exciting suspense-builders at every moment.

Conventions: (In an action movie) - Example. 

• A great amount of destruction-  Explosions, glass-breaking, etc.
• Fights - Normally to the death, in hazardous areas
• Murder- Of loved ones, normally triggers much bigger events, a huge emotional power-up for the character.
• Always a motive- the plot is maximised through goals and aims. The motives of a cruel villain who is sick of humans.
• Futuristic elements- hover cars, domed highways, screens in the streets, advanced-looking satellites
• Missions, the ultimate goal.

How to recreate an action-related trailer?

• Dramatic, intense, nerve-awakening music.
• Fast, pacey, flashy cut scenes
• Chunky, 'dench', masculine font, all big and elaborate.  
• Loud noises, keep the eyes awake and interest in tact.
• Behaviour of actors alert and hyper, not a dull moment
• A clever, exciting plot

How to recreate a sport-related trailer?

• Include emotion, anger, sadness, grief
• Potential sense of sympathy and empathy 
• Show a sense of hope and longing from the protagonists' situation 
• Scenes of high intensity action, shows the pursuit as interesting and worth watching 
• Show the disadvantage, show the clear course of challenge in the story line that will be in the production 
• Sound effects must have a 'grave' feel to them, like something great is emerging - this calls for piano playing or trumpets being part of the backing track of the production 
• Ensure the theme is greatness. In most sports films, a satisfactory end to a trailer is to signify success, but this means complete success. No silver, no bronze, complete gold. In order to recreate a sport-related trailer, the theme of greatness will be signfied with shiny, brimming colours like gold in one way or another, for example. Or body language that just screams confidence. This creates a character the audience has hopes for and cheers for, even though starting off vulnerable. This recreates the sense of wonder from the audience that most sport trailers give off with the ultimate question, "How does he/she do it?" 

 Fast Girls plot (Sports film):  A talented runner (Lenora Crichlow) from a rough part of London joins the British track team and races for glory at the World Championships.
 Conventions already identified: A whole 'started from the bottom, WORK your way up to the top concept' which is a popular plot choice within sports choices. In this case, audience is targeted to inspire urban type youths into productivity, more particularly from a working class background. 

 the goal is to run under 23 seconds because that is the standard for the upcoming World Championships.  Shania just misses it and she isn’t happy. Another convention identified. There is always someting that goes wrong for the athlete, a physical/mental flaw that effects them emotionally and psychologically. This is what normally initiates their 'animal ambition' in order to undergo a transformation that really uplifts the paceand unfolds the mission of the film. 

Shania is introduced to somebody of equal skill, Lisa. A snobby upper-class athlete who carries a little bit of spite when it comes to Shania. Here is another convention recognised. To really fire-up a production, a rival who is lacking kindness but thriving in skill and arrogance bolsters the desire  for the audience to see all turn out well for the protagonist, and the antagonist is normally used as a material to make the protagonist more likeable. 
 
" The exchange between Shania and Lisa goes wrong and they finish last" And yet another convention of typical sports film. Normally, to avoid obvious consistency of ongoing success, ulitmately leading to the predictability that ends up hindering a production, more than one problem hits the dreamer, and it comes at unexpected times. This is to reawaken and boost the rush and concern that the audience has for the story, which ends up taking the audience's minds off the obvious end result and more on the present in the story, ensuring focus on every detail in that scene. This is further proved as in the story, Lisa later falls out with her aunt, and kicks her out.

In most popular sports films, the rivals ends up forming a respect for the protagonist. For example: Karate Kid, after the young man becomes the champion, his former bully, now the runner up, now shakes his hand with a smile. Lisa, is begging and is eager to make amends with Shania and wants her into the team. In Rocky, both boxers develop a mututal respect for eachother after the final battle. This serves as a final emotional moment to put a true happy ending for everybody in the story, giving the production a satisfactory end.

 

Film Posters

Definitions:

Typography: The style and appearance of printed matter, being words.
Iconography: visual images and symbols used in a work of art, being pictures.

Key Image: The main image that
Enigma Codes: Refers to mystery in a text. Clues are dropped about A hidden meaning, but that is as far as it goes.
Tag Line: The film's slogan which is memorable.

Language and mode of address: The way how text speaks to the reader
Action Codes: Visual codes often associated with A particular genre.

Star Names: Draw audiences to a film that are linked to certain roles.

Notes:

Every form of media has a target audience, they may be mainstream or niche.
Media text will in fact attract an audience and create appeal.

Four ways of achieving this are:

Language & mode of address
Familiarity and novelty
Use of stars and Celebrities
Design and layout/Technical codes

For example:

"IMAX"- implies a promise of high quality, a great cinematic experience.
Images of an explosion, an action code.
Recognition of actors, draws an audience, of a particular genre, or anyone
Colour coding and text must keep in touch with the genre
Tag Line, the catch phrase, could create emphasis, must be catchy and attracting.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Examples of a sports film poster; "Remember the Titans" Typography, Iconography, codes, key image, star names, mode of address

• The main aim of this poster is to portray a specfic sport as a vicious and serious field to partake in.  This poster consists of two main colours black and a goldish-brown. This gives a double meaning towards how this sport is seen in the film, the black represeting the coldness, violence, monstrous side of sport, shown to all who take it serious - and the golden brown is to represent the feeling of glory and the position of high status to those who are victorious, as well as the pride for giving it your all. 
• In this sports poster there is a silhouette of a man with a sports helmet with two enormous weapons in his hands. The film's genre is sport and the sport in the film is football. This image is supposed to be symbolism that matches are no different than battles, and that athletes are no different than warriors. This captures the readers attention as this portrayed image gives a riviting and exciting image that captures the viewers attention.
• There is an image of a young man staring off into a distance, upwards, with a serious and vacant look in his eyes. This is coherent with the colours and images of the poster as it implies the same amount of grave cruciality that the movie may have. This is also carried by the font of the film - being bold, big and elaborate, no coincidence that these are characteristics a great sportsman should have -being bold, big (in stature) and standing out.
• This also includes star names - Denzel Washington has received 'three Golden Globe awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor for the historical war drama film Glory, and Best Actor for his role as a corrupt cop in the crime thriller. With his name being so big globally and having made so many notable and memorable appearances, having his name in the poster is a smart move as it will draw a huge audience, to a point even where an audience comes from outside the interest of genre - leading to a greater chance of huge success for the film. 
• Overall, this films target audience would in fact be those teenage boys in education who partake in sport (14-18 y/o). This would be becase of the plot - being high school football being seen as a way of life - the quote "way of life" giving more evidence about the sport of football being a means of survival, aplenty of 'do or die' situations - how serious the sport is being taken, to a point where it is much more than a game, being sure to influence powerful emotions. Due to it being in 'high school' and 'football' is actually more rugby (in the view of how it is typically seen in the UK)  - this film more relatable to the boys in America than the UK- therefore the audience is more for those in the US.

Where are film trailers shown?

Where are film trailers shown?

Trailers are shown on the television, online, poster campaigns, radio campaigns alike. This is for the purpose of giving massive coverage. Scenes may be cut in concern for the ages of the viewer.

A lot of film trailers appear to be on social media such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc. I have noticed that in a lot of film trailers, the film is always made to appear glorious, great and elaborate, an obvious effect of a film trailer. In most film trailers, a comedic scene is always thrown in to make an even greater impression.

An advantage of using all these platforms to advertise films is that it increases the chance that people will be drawn to it. It gives the incentive that the film is huge, not to be missed. It makes the film very elaborate, and the chances of people watching it increases dramatically.

A disadvantage could perhaps be the amount of money spent on it. If unsuccessful, time and effort could be wasted.
People also may not even focus on the adverts whilst watching TV. This contributes towards that factor. On average, more people watch TV than go to the cinemas. There is also the factor of piracy. People may just get the incentive to just watch it online. This can't be helped sometimes, because unofficial uploads end up bypassing copyrights.

Sound in Trailers

Sound in Trailers

"Sound is a important component in film trailers that should not be overlooked". This is because it gives meaning towards a scene, adds a certain flavour towards how the images are perceived.
"Sound is a powerful tool for storytelling, constructing genre and conveying emotion." This is because sound is a powerful indicator for drama, danger, sadness, anger. It is a great tool for building up moments, improving the quality of a scene, and getting the audience in the edge of their seats.
Without sound, a movie becomes completely boring, makes a scene more empty, and overall a frustration to watch.
How exactly does sound achieve this? Because sound effect is a huge tool for indicating twists and other events in a production - for example, a betrayal is about to be revealed and it is somebody in the room, as the characters slowly turn towards the rat who nearly cost them their lives, high-pitch music starts to play, giving a more exciting edge towards the build up towards the incoming drama. It 'dresses up' the moment and therefore draws in the audiences attention.


Sound, is made using methods that are quite clever. Sounds, using objects are brandished to resemble sounds in a fitted situation. For example:

Sound intended:                            Object behind the scene

Galloping horses                            Clapping empty coconut shells
kissing in a romantic scene            Kissing the back of your hand
punching somebody                        thumping a watermelon
the sound of a guillotine                 slicing a cabbage with a knife
footsteps in snow                            crunching grain held in a glove


what are the aims and objectives?

They construct meaning and effect. For example, the sound of trumpets when a man is giving a pre-battle speech. it builds a sense of glory and seriousness. Makes soldiers and captains appear bold, brave and professional.

"Blind screening"

Where sound is the only form of observation. Since sound is supposed to be a representation of the actual trailer/film, splitting it into different categories could be extremely hard. For example, if all one could hear during a blind screening would be heartbeats and footsteps, they would get the impression that the character is in some sort of serious danger. This shows just how powerful sound is.

Diegetic sounds:

-Sound heard in the fictional world (heartbeats, battle scene music, etc.)
This sound effect sounds very convinient for a sports film. In moments of emotion and high tension, it can be made evident and glowing by sound effects that are coherent with the moment.
-Sound in the world (plates smashing, explosions, cracking, sizzling, etc.)
In a sports film, sounds such as crowd screaming and cheering are very likely to occur, it gets the audience just as wild at heart as the audience in the production.

non-diegetic sounds:

sound, outside the fictional world
characters in the fictional world cannot hear
this includes soundtrack
voice-over narration

How does sound work to generate meaning?

Volume: Volume makes the level of intensity in a scene much more visible and evident. For example, the music at a party. Shows how excited each character is, or how eerie music turns slowly louder. Shows that a threat closes his way in on his next victim.

Narrative: Shows what tense the story of what it is in. Gives the audience hints, offers explanations into what might not make sense, builds up suspense, for example "He never knew what mistake he got himself into next..."

Character: It depends on what sound is associated with the character. If the character is on his own and the only sounds you can hear are raindrops, it can hint a bit about his character. Perhaps he is sad, depressed?