Textual Analysis for my main text (Film trailer)

In order to make my film trailer the best that it can be I must first look at professional film trailers which are similar to my trailer, therefore i can pick out bits which they do and make sure that this is included in my film trailer to make it the best that it can be. For a film trailer to analyse I have chose the film "The Hitcher". The reason I have chose this film is because this film is the same genre to my film, but also they are on the same lines as to the plot to my film.

Here is the trailer to the Hitcher, I will pick out aspects of the trailer that make it fit into the horror.

The thumbnail of the video itself is scary, a frog on a seat with blood in the background, to me this seems a horror straight away because the frog as a stuffed toy is associated with children and this also gives a sense of innocence about the frog, the blood suggests that there is danger or that something has happened with this innocence.

First shot in the trailer.

This is the first shot the viewer will see when they what this trailer about the hitcher, this first shot is of a road which appears in the middle of nowhere, there are headlights on the road as the car is travelling down the road which seems at a fast pace, the car from this shot is un-identified which would lead the audience to ask what car this is and what it is doing along which appears to be this deserted road.

This is the second shot in the trailer, the car driving along the road then fades into black, I believe that this goes to black because the colour black is menacing and is very bleak, many people are scared of black because they feel like they can not see, many monsters are associated with come out at night time, therefore the trailer for the first shot to flow into the second black shot, this gives a clear idea that the film will be dangerous and mysterious.

This is the third shot in the trailer, this shot cuts from the black screen in the previous shot, this is a shot of a car from the inside which appears to be driving down a deserted road in the rain, with the windscreen wipers wiping, from what appears there is nothing in the road whilst they are driving but the road looks mysterious with no head lights on.

After the third shot, this is the next shot. This a long shot of a character on the road in the rain, this character appears to be alone on the road, in the background you can see a car driving towards the character. You can not see this character but you can see the outline of this character, this character appears to be wearing a long coat and appears to be a male. This is menacing for the audience because the previous shots before this have crated suspense for the viewer because they fear that something will happen to the characters in the car and now the fears and thoughts have been answered with this.

This shot-reverse-shot from the two shots before shows the car driving along without a figure in the road, then the camera cuts to a figure in the road with a car driving towards him, cutting back to the car you see a figure now in the road. This shows how the characters were just simply driving along then they are stunned by this figure in the road. I believe the audience would have an emotional response because they are no expecting this character in the road. They would feel for the characters in the car because they can tell from all the mise-en-scene such as the rain and shadows everywhere meaning there is danger nearby.

  This medium-close up of the character in the car stopping to pick up this figure in the road, the window suddenly smashes and hands come through the window to grab this male driver in the car. This is a very quick action for the viewer and by the past shots the viewer would suggest that the figure in the road who was standing alone is the person who is grabbing the male driver, this gets an emotional response from the viewer because they feel for the driver but also because they know this figure is no normal hitchhiker.

After the window smashes the shot then cuts to black, i believe this has been done because this then ends this sequence for the trailer and creates a short story for the audience to peace together. By fading to black this can end a sequence which means that i could use this for my trailer to create a little short story for my audience.

This is a scene, where the screen looks dis-orientated, i think that this has been put in because in the before scenes where the driver has been grabbed by a figure, this shows how the audience will be feeling, the opening scene happened so quickly and therefore they feel dis-orientated.

This is the shot straight after the one before, this shot is very unusual because the viewer is forced to watch what appears to be an interview or question from the cam-recorder because the actors face is blurred up so because of this the viewer will watch the actor from the mini-camera screen. I believe this has been done because this shows that the trailer is in control, that this film has the ability to force the viewer into what they want to do, this could frighten the audience that the film has so much power over them. Also this leads questions as to why the actors face is blurred but not the one in the screen.

After the horrifying opening scene of the film trailer, you see this clip where you see the car drivers meeting in a nice open sunny town, which appears to have people around them. This is interesting to put this scene after the one before because the one before shows that they have been split up and that she is alone speaking the camera. This would get an emotional response because the audience would feel for the characters because they have just seen that they are very close together, possibly girlfriend and boyfriend?

As you can see from this shot that the male character is obviously intrigued by the female character getting dresses in his car, this could hint towards that maybe he wants to be more then friends, this would also get an emotional response from the audience because from the scene before with the male character being grabbed from his car but also because the female character was seen being by herself on the camera which would indicate that she is now by herself without her lover boy.

This shot is after the montage of the characters meeting and preparing for the road trip that they are about to take, this shot shows the car that they are in driving off into the deserted road, this shows the starts of their journey and how it all began. By adding this shot into the trailer could suggest that the trip that they had planned had never turned into the road trip that they were expecting, therefore this shows the audience that their expectations of the road trip were different to how it turned out.

This is the first text in the trailer that the audience will read, this shows what other films the producers have funded for, these films are; The Texas chainsaw massacre and The Amityville horror. These films are both thriller films which were successful and it would be added into the trailer because this would show the audience that the producers are capable of making good films. The effects which are on the trailer make the text seem to be fidgeting whilst being un-control, therefore this would match the film because the film is about a hitcher who is out to kill these characters on a road trip, therefore by the hitcher being un-control, therefore it would make sense to add this into the text. This text is introduced at 01:03 therefore this is about halfway through the trailer which means a good basis for the story line has been created for the audience before they introduce text.

With the text jittering and being un-control live, the trailer cuts to shots such as this one, these have had effects put onto the trailer, these shots last half of a second, so they are very quick between the text. This has been done to show the viewer the scariness of the trailer, with quick cuts between the text scars the viewer because they are scared of what is next. With the effects this will also scare the viewer because this is not what we perceive as normal footage, there is a black and white effect with a character screaming at the camera.

 This is the final shot of the trailer, this is a black screen with the title of the film in the same text as the text before, also the same effects of dis-orientation as before, this gives a theme to the film but also the text is more towards the bottom right of the frame. This shows that the film is unusual and things are not where you expect them to be. The black around the title shows that there is mystery and darkness which the audience is scared of.

This is the final shot of the trailer showing the release date of the film, this is centralised in the frame which is where the audience will be focusing on and therefore this will get the attention of the audience and they will know when the release date of the film.





By studying a professional film trailer for the film "Hitcher" I have learnt that in order to make a high professional film trailer there are things I must include in my own film trailer, such as;

•  To build suspense I will use shots which show the main characters are entering some sort of danger, such as they are laughing and in the background there is a figure which then could fade to black with a women screaming. I must show the audience what is going to happen rather than what is happening.
• I must also show some relation between the characters, this will engage the audience to feel more for the characters because they will be shown a relationship which the audience would feel guilt if this is torn apart, I could do this by showing the characters are related or they are deeply in love. 
•  Lastly I must show the titles after something dramatic has happened, such as a women screaming or a character dyeing, this will give the audience a last little buzz before the titles appear and then the audience will want to find out what has happened, then in return they will want to watch the film.

Audience Targeting

In order to make my film I must decide which target audience I will aim my film at, this will help me see which aspects I need to involve in my trailer and ancillary tasks so that they appeal to this audience, I have narrowed down my target audience and this is what my target audience is going to be.

Things that define a target audience are;

• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Social economic status (A - E)

Age and Gender

After discussion we have decided that our target audience is going to be males between the ages of 15-28. We have done this because we think our film would be an "15" certificate from the BBFC because all of the shooting and scenes of violence that our film will have. So anyone under 15 will not be able to view our film our buy it so we can not go any under than an 15. We have deiced our target audience will be males because men are typically the type of gender who like all the action and shooting films with loads of gore in the content, because there will be characters around 20 years old, this will give the audience a chance to relate to those characters. The reason I do not believe that the film will be an "18" is because the film will not have any sexual references or heavy swearing which would make the film an "18"

Social Economic status

Our audience will be D to C1, which means from the working class to the lower middle class. The reason I have decided for D to C1 is that the characters will be young adults and have more of a crime theme rather in the D to C1 category, this film will not show loads of money which the A to C2 category of people will have, this film would not appeal to them because of this reason.

            

Interests

The interests in our target audience will that they love going out with their friends to the cinema or going on a night out, this film will excite them so that they can talk about this film with their friends or many weeks after they have seen this film. They will also like watching a film which involves a bit of mystery so that when they are watching my film, they can decide what is going to happen next and see if they get the right answer, because my target audience is in the D to C1 category this means that they will only have a little bit of money to spend and that when they do spend their money they want to spend it on something meaningful to them, so therefore my film would appeal to them because this will enable them to talk about the film for weeks to come or even see the film twice.

From pin-pointing my target audience, I know now what I must put into my film in order to meet the requirement for my target audience, I have also learnt that there is a final girl theory which I will study when I get to the theoretical post.

History and Development of the Horror genre

In order for me to understand the Horror genre, I must look back to the roots in which the Horror genre started and this will enable to me to see what the Horrors were like back then, but also get a clue to see which aspects of these films I can use to put into my own film.

Where the Horror genre started from.

The Horror genre first started in 1890 where a director called Georges Melies made a series of short silent films, the best known of these films was a film called "Le Manoir du diable" which stands for "The Haunted Castle".




George Milies



A scene from "The Haunted Castle"


Here is a picture of George Milies (on the left) and a scene from "The Haunted Castle" (on the right). As we can see from the right that the film looks old and withered, which is no comparison from the modern day horrors.




In 1910 Edison Studios produced the first feature length film for "Frankenstein" which was thought to be lost for many years.

Here is a picture of the "Frankenstein" in Ediston Studios 1910 production. The CGI compared to today do is nothing like what it was back then.  As you can see from the bottom right picture, the more "stereotypical" frankenstein has been re-modelled with much more colour and electrobes coming from the neck. If this modern day Frankenstein was swapped with the 1910 Frankenstein then i believe the audience of that time would be much more scared then the original. This is because the audience of 1910 would not be expecting the technology or the look of the modern day Frankenstein.

In 1923 the first production of the monster Quasimodo appeared in the film "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". A British researcher found that there was a hunchback stone carver in Notre-Dame at the time the film was made, there has been presumptions that this is where the director has got his influence from. At this stage of the Horror genre being transformed and progressed, i have realised that the "bad guys" of the Horrors are monsters, there are no serial killers or physco's at this stage of the genre, this tells me that more people were afraid of fictional creatures then the real life human serial killers that are out there. 

With the modern day horror, a final girl theory has come into play. The final girl theory consists that in the modern day horror, the last victim from a physco killer is a women, this is unusual for a masculine genre. The horror genre is now a female genre because of this theory. The reason the final girl theory has come around is because females can show abject terror in the film, this shows more fear then the male actors and therefore the final victim tends to be a female. Therefore with the female always surviving the masacer the female audience tends to sway towards horros because they know that a women will survive in the end.

A quick example of the final girl theory is from the film



As you can see from this trailer that the film the Hitcher is a thriller about a person who is stalking a couple driving across the country, in the end the girl kills the stalker with a shotgun, the male character is killed from the stalker, this is proof that more and more horror/thriller films are having the female character survive at the end. This shows the development of the genre because the horror films in the 20th centuary were films about characters who nowadays are not as scary as they were back then, with the development of technology and understanding this has meant that characters have become more menacing and scarier to the audience.

From looking at the first version of horrors films in the 20th century i have found out that they were scary to the audience at the time that they were made, this has ment that when technology and the development of understanding the genre has ment that todays horrors are far more scarier then the ones made in the 20th century. The horror criminals have developed from being monsters and outcasts of society have transformed into the characters that we do not assciate with being outcasts, therefore we find this more scarier because these physco killers can be everybody around us, i believe this is what is scary about modern day horrors.

Debating on making a film magazine front cover

The last ancillary task for the film trailer brief is to create a film magazine front cover for my film, the front cover will have to consist of my film with some deals that I could say go with the magazine, such as ;

· A free film poster

· A chance to win free film tickets

· Blogs about the film

· Film critiques reports

Positives of a film magazine front cover

· I can show off my technical ability by making an amazing front cover by combining pictures in front and behind of writing on the cover,. this will help me make a kick ass film front cover for my film.

· The magazine cover will also be able to test the benefit of the cover by asking members of the public if they would see my film from just looking at the cover.

· The front cover will let me show off my main characters in my film and let the target audience know who the main characters are but also give a little detail about the character in their clothing.

Here are some examples of real life film magazine front covers which I can take inspiration off of;

 

Here are 2 front covers for the films Iron Man (on the left) and The Dark Knight (on the right). Just by looking at these covers I can see that the whole page has a theme with the film, such as Iron man, the "Empire" is coloured with the same blue as in Iron man’s chest, this shows how the film is in connection with the magazine. By looking at both of the covers i can see that the character is in the centre of the magazine and also covering up the title of the magazine. This will be a great starting point for if I come to make my own front cover.

Negatives of a film magazine front cover

·         The negatives could be that by making a front cover it may be hard to get the technical ability in order to make a successful front cover.

·         Another negative could be that by making a magazine front cover, the whole concept of making a front cover i would have to come up with everything, from making the magazine title to making up all the offers that come with the magazine, such as give-aways from the newspaper.

From quickly researching the pros and cons of making a magazine front cover I have come to the conclusion that I will make a magazine front cover because I feel I can make an amazing front cover with my technical ability and also that I will be able to express my film on the front cover how I want to.

 

Debating whether to make a film poster for an ancillary task

Another project to make for the ancillary task is to make a film poster along with the film trailer. A film poster is important to support the film trailer before the film itself is released. They are designed to grab the audience and indulge them to watch the film, they promote the film and the audience are able to gain a lot from a film poster about the film, what the film is about, the characters used and any stars that are in the film. I will sum up the positives and negatives of making a film poster to understand if I should make one.

Positives of making a film poster

· The film poster is a task which can have a massive impact for the audience, maybe a simple poster is more effective than a busy poster (this is dependent on what genre you choose).

· With the film poster I could go with something really complicated or something really simple, this could be a positive because the poster can only be a picture of a few characters or a scene, this can give the audience an idea of what the film is about and the characters within the film.

· A film poster will be easy to find out if it is successful because i could ask members of the public if they think that they would go see my film just by showing them the poster, therefore I will be able to get decent results off of this.

Here are 2 film posters. The one on the left is a film poster for "James Bond golden eye" and the one on the right is for "They Grey". The Grey film poster is much more simpler then the James Bond poster this is because the film The Grey is about a skilled huntsman who takes a group of plane crash survivors through the artic whilst a pack of wolves are trying to kill them, this genre is a thriller so therefore the poster would not need to be complicated because the film contains excitement and not gun chases and explosions. The James bond film is about a 007 Agent whose mission is to stop Russian nuclear missiles from launching into space. This film contains explosions and gun fights so therefore the poster will be exciting and show a lot in just one poster, so I can either choose one of these routes to make. 

Negatives of making a film poster

· A film poster is very hard to get right, if everything on the poster is not smooth then the posters use will not work 100%. The poster is a first taster for the film, so this means if the poster looks rubbish then the audience's perception of the film will be rubbish.

· A persons training in Photoshop and photo editing software has to be high in order to merge the photos and scenes from the film together in order to make the poster of a high quality.

· The college i am studying at does not have a capabilities or the technology for still images which means the image quality for a film poster will not be at the best it can be because then the film poster will not look amazing and therefore the film will suffer because of this.

Overall I have debated up the pros and cons of making a film poster and I have come to the conclusion that I will make a film poster because I can easily measure the results of my film poster and if it is successful but the cons would be that I would need to improve my skills at Photoshop in order to make a very high quality film poster.

Debating on whether to make a website for the ancillary task

I will look at making a website for the ancillary task, this means that I will look at the positives and negatives of the website and decide whether I will use the website as part of the 2 choices I have.

Positives and Negatives of making a website for the homepage.

Positives

· If I create a website for the homepage then this means I will be able to interact with the website and show how I have created the website, this means more blogs to create and show the understanding of the colours use and describe why i have used the colours.

· By creating a website means that I can also preview my trailer onto my website which most websites which are dedicated to films do, i believe this is done because this promotes the film and this will also show the audience that this website is the place to go if you would like all the information about the film.

Here are some examples of a website which uses a trailer to promote the film on the website;



Here is a print screen of the Avatar website where on the home screen you are shown the film trailer straight away; I believe this i done to "force" show you the trailer so that you watch the trailer before clicking away because the trailer has started already. The link for this website is; http://www.avatar-movie.co.uk/

Negatives

· The negatives are that the knowledge on how to create a website would be a challenge in itself, this means that it would be very hard to create a website that looks appealing with all the relevant information on it that I website, such as avatar might have, I think that if I can’t make a website such as good as avatar then I won’t be able to access the high grades.

· Secondly I would need to make the website last because if I would like to embed the trailer onto the website then this would be impossible if I don’t have the trailer to embed.

· If i was to create the website and something drastic was to happen whilst filming which meant ideas that i put onto the website where not relevant to the film trailer then the whole time writing the website would be useless.

After looking at using a website as part of the ancillary task I have come to the conclusion that by using a website would not be suitable to me, this is because the software needed to make a decent website are not available to me and the knowledge on how to make one is also not available to me. Therefore it seems impossible to make a website.

 

Positives and Negatives of creating a film trailer

By creating a film trailer I have to sum up the positives and negatives of creating a film trailer, by investigating the positives and negatives gives me a clear idea if creating a film trailer is a beneficial idea. I will first sum up the negatives.

Negatives

· Firstly by creating a film trailer, this means that i would have to film many times to get the footage for the trailer, rather than a short film, I can film the story line with or without as many cuts as I like but with the film trailer I would have to film in many locations with many characters to make the trailer look like it has been made for a film. Look at this video of a film trailer for James Bond - Quantum of Solace

         

         As you can see there are many characters in different locations around the world, this trailer is a complicated trailer with many cuts and shots, and this may be hard to film with someone who doesn’t have a multi-million pound budget.

· Secondly, editing the trailer may take some time if many cuts are involved with effects on the footage, by creating this by myself means that the editing stage may take a while to make.

· If my film trailer does not excite the target market then they will not want to go see the film because the trailer is bad, therefore my trailer will have to excite the audience so they will want to spend their money watching the film.

Positives

· A film trailer will let me pick any genre which means that I can use the codes and conventions of that genre and show the audience in the trailer all the things that go with that genre, for example an action/adventure would need fast cars and explosions and a horror would need a knife and blood. By showing these in the trailer will show i have researched the codes and conventions of that genre and show i have understood what goes into that genre.

· By showing a film trailer to my class or teachers I can easily measure how effective my trailer is by asking the audience if they would want to pay money to see my film, if the answer is a yes then my trailer is successful, however if it is a no then my trailer hasn’t been successful then I can ask why and make improvements.

By summing up the positives and negatives of a horror I can determine that there are a few negatives as to not doing the film trailer but then I understand that the main reason is because of time consumption, if I manage my time then I can overcome this, therefore then there will be no more negatives. I believe that the film trailer will be my final brief as along with either;

· A website homepage for the film.

· A film magazine front cover, featuring the film.

· A poster for the film.

I will have to choose 2 out of the 3 above along with my film trailer.

First Ideas of the whole

Looking at the briefs given by the examiner I pick out 3 that catch my eye, there is an advert brief, a documentary brief and a film trailer. These are appealing to me because these are the briefs that I know I can do well at. I will look at these briefs and pick out one that I will go for and which will be my final product. My first ideas for the briefs are to do an advert; my ideas of the advert would be to do something based along the lines of adverts such as PPI claim back and managing debts. This YouTube video gives you an idea of what my advert would be based around.

After thoughts I have decided that trying to make a advert would need more attention to detail then what facilities I have, such as a green screen and video editing software, furthermore by making a advert to do with mortgage companies means that i would have to make my own company with new numbers for the audience to ring, i would have to make sure that these don’t already exist as numbers or as a company.

My next idea could be a documentary where I would survive out on the moors and teach the audience how to survive on the moors. Bear Grylls is the typical lines I would follow, this clip from YouTube shows what my documentary would look like. My idea is that I would go out onto Dartmoor and show the audience how to survive on Dartmoor, such as how to make a shelter and how to get food. All these ideas come from programs such as Bear Grylls who survives in multiple locations around the world with the bear survival materials. I am thinking something along the lines of this for my documentary.

After thoughts, making a possible film trailer looks nice to me, by making a film trailer means that i can improve my skills in film making and there are so many genres I can chose from to make my film, such as; 

• Action/Adventure
• Thriller
• Horror
• Romance
• Etc.

There might be a few problems with making a film trailer, such as making the film trailer would require loads of shots and characters in order to make the film trailer look realistic. The film trailer may look time consuming which would be correct but with good time management skills means that i could overcome this hurdle.

There are so many choices I can chose from and this opens so many doors to work from. I believe that I will make a film trailer because the film trailer is the one that I can fully customise and make my own with no boundaries also by choosing a film trailer with so many genres means I can rack off points by hitting the codes and conventions of that genre in order to make the film trailer look like that genre.