Research into making Trailers

Interim Assessment

MoodBoard- Production Company Names/Ideas

http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/g_IxYtQn/share

My Pitch- Teen Movie

MoodBoard- Content for Film & Detailed Narrative

http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/AbqDdrET/share

Detailed Narrative Idea

Genre Research: Altman

Representation Theory Research- Teen Movie/High School Movie

Robert Stam- Essay Question, TWILIGHT

Exam question 1(B) - Theoretical Evaluation of a Product Formal Assessment 1: Genre

1(B) Robert Stam states that “genre is hard to define”. Analyse a recent film trailer of your choice in relation to the concept of genre.

With the statement that Robert Stam states about “genre being hard to define” I don’t feel that I agree with these because of there being many different ranges of genres in the film industry and all of them are specifically different other than two different genres being merged together e.g. Rom-com (romance and comedy). By defining all of the genres it gives a difference between all the films that are made but also reaches out to many specific different types of audiences. The genre that I have chosen to look at is high school/teen movies, the basic genre conventions that we see of a high school movie include: Arguments (drama), parties, drinking, different social groups (cliques), teen Vs adults and a type of rebellion. I think these are the basic genre conventions of a high school movie because most that are made involves this type of behaviour or event. The film that I have chosen to look at is twilight with it involving many different genres and involving a high school outline.

With twilight having many different genres they involve different conventions, the main genres for twilight is drama, romance and fantasy. The genre conventions for a drama is intense social realism, many conflicts, audience being emotionally attached and moved and ‘real life situations’ with ‘realistic characters’ but with the film being focused on fantasy (vampire) it is seen to challenge this specific type of genre convention. With twilight having 3 sub genres there second genre used is romance the main genre conventions of this genre are that it is aimed at female audiences, ‘boy meets girl’ scenario, the ‘happy ever after’ and the heroes tending to be men with this genre being easy to define many romance films use the same genre conventions being between two people. The third genre is fantasy with twilight being based on vampires there are many different conventions of this type of genre e.g. positive narrative outcomes, simplistic, emotive (usually romance) and also this type of genre having an obsessive fan base which is true seeing that twilight was so successful that they picked up a huge fan base e.g. Team Edward and Team Jacob.

Being that I could find and name the many different genre conventions of the 3 types it is typically right and easy to define in relation to Robert Stam saying “genre is hard to define”. But with the different genres that are used for the film “twilight” they are easy to recognise by key events that happen and how they are recognised by the audience. Rick Altman’s Theory can be related to this because of the semantic and syntactic elements, this is key to how genre can be approached semantic elements in a film is all of the props, characters, locations, music and shooting style (camera) you can define this by looking at a genre type e.g. sci-fi, involving time travel, aliens, on other planets, spaceships, laser guns etc. But with the syntactic elements of a genre this can involve what we would expect to see in this type of genre but also the structure of narratives within the genre e.g. in a romantic comedy we would expect to see potential lovers becoming to not like each other, this can be seen in the film ‘Friends with Benefits’. This can be another approach in disagreeing with Robert Stam’s statement that genre is hard to define, by looking at both semantic and syntactic elements it gives us an impression of any genre that we make when we go and see the film and what it includes.

Looking at the trailer for ‘twilight’ you see that there are many conventions of a typical trailer but also showing the audience what type of genre conventions the film uses. The typical conventions of a trailer are fast pace cuts, the use of a soundtrack to draw you in, key points from the film but not a lot, the name of the film (usually at the end), the date its coming out etc. By having a trailer for films it gives the audience a teaser of what the full film might be like and the genre that is used for the film so the audience can relate and want to go and see it. The first thing that we see in the trailer is the use of soundtrack to suit the type of genre the film is which is very intriguing but also spooky to suit the ‘vampire’ type genre. The trailer is very dark and mysterious with dark shots with spooky lit font, with the soundtrack also it gives the audience a representation of what the film is going to be like. The trailer for the audience starts of slow paced to build up the tension and then typically a trailer gets faster and faster to excite the audience. Then the trailer begins to show the audience scenes from the film where the editing uses fast cuts and uses fade outs and dissolve to again suit the genre of being fantasised. The company is shown before the pace gets faster to show the audience who distributed, made and produced the film to remember the name of the company. The trailer then shows quotes to intrigue the audience like ‘nothing will be the same’ and ‘forever begins now’ to like the fact that it is about vampires and they are eternal until they are called. When the trailers pace begins to speed up the trailer uses more relevant events that happen within the film to attract the audience and make them want to go and see it. By showing important scenes from the film it gives a general idea of what the film is going to be like. The soundtrack changes and then begins to make soundtracks over the clips from the film to suit what happens to create even more of an atmosphere.

The trailer then speeds the pace up by faster music to create more excitement, but also showing close up shots, zoom and also slow paced cuts to contrast with the fast soundtrack. By the trailer creating a type of intensifying climax for the audience it makes the film seem better than it is but to create a buzz for the film. The trailer focuses on the two main characters and an outline story of what happens to give the audience a type of recognition to show the best parts of the film to make the audience want to go and see the film even more.

After these typical conventions happen the trailer is at its top pace and then starts to show the audience how the film came about by having a shot that says ‘from the worldwide best seller’ to make the film seem even more exciting. But also noticing the clue filter that is put on the trailer to make the film seem cold (like a vampire) but in the film the filter is seen throughout to keep the constant emotion all the way through. When the trailer comes to an end it is very dramatic while the soundtrack changes to a big bang noise then viewing the name of the film to make the audience feel excited or reluctant at what the film is going to be like. The date is seen at the start and the end of the film to make the audience remember when it’s going to come out which creates even more of a ‘buzz’. The mis-en-scene of the film is very basic and normal, with basic costumes on the characters who are students at a high school, but also the different locations being the complete opposite with high trees and mountains to suit the ‘vampire’ array.  With this it is seen to stretch the boundaries of a high school film with a vampire twist which is now seen as a modern classic. The film is stretching the boundaries because it is shown to suit a much younger audience; it is set in high school, young students but involving romance and thriller moments in the film.

With the film being about high school students with a vampire twist the trailer shows that perfectly by picking out key ‘remember able’ moments e.g. Edward saving Bella from being hit by a car where he gets in the way and dents the side of the door. Which is the starting key moment of how she figures out he is a vampire. With trailer doing this it shows the audience what the film has to offer but also the excitement of the film being different by involving vampires, romance and drama all at the same time and is probably why the film is seen to be a classic.  

In conclusion to this question I think that genre is very important involving the making of a film because of the audience’s purpose by being excited about the film where twilight is a key example by stretching the boundaries and because of this making the film so successful. I think the film makers made the genre very clear to the audience by involving key events off the film to give the audience an accurate idea of what the film is going to be like. If the trailer didn’t use any clips from the film the audience wouldn’t have an idea of what the film is like and what it involves which won’t make audiences want to go and see it. In my opinion I think that genre is very important and is needed for a film to be different from the rest that are made, without all the different genres all films would be the same and there wouldn’t be a variation which would jeopardise the film industry, audiences like change and a difference in film for them to become so successful. I do not agree with Stam’s statement because of genre having different conventions and without this every film would be boring. There needs to be a difference in the film industry for audiences to go and see the film e.g. some sequels are not as successful as the first one because it’s the same type of genre and basic outline. But without genre many films would not be successful and I think Robert Stam’s statement is un true because of the amount of genres out there in the industry and why loads of films are being made to stretch the boundaries of different genres or to become sub-genres. 

Survey Monkey- Results

Outline of Potential Movies- Teen movie

Genre: Teen movie/High school movie

Plot: A new male teacher has began a new job at the school, he is from america. He starts teaching a maths class at the beginning of a new year and a student called Bonnie who is one of the most popular girls in school and also the prettiest, but struggles with maths and not exactly one of the most clever in her class or year. The head of maths requests the new teacher to give her extra help and support. The next time they have a maths class, he decides to tell her that she needs to come to extra support lessons to improve on her maths, she forcefully agrees and walks off at the end of the lesson. When it come to the end of school she is needed to go to the extra help lessons, they begin to start the lesson and she isn't very interested but more interested in looking at herself in the mirror. When the new teacher starts to get frustrated he takes the mirror and phone of her until the support lesson is finished. She begins to be very agitated and refuses to learn more so he lets her go being the spoilt student she is.  The next day she doesn't have maths and is still angry at what happened the day before so she decides to take revenge and go to the headteacher and say that he touched her in a sexual way/manner. The headteacher took immediate action and decided to call the police and get the teacher suspended with no pay until proven, this effected him as he had young children and needed to pay for them. He then waited for Bonnie one day to tell her how much he needed his job back to pay for his family and guilt tripped her into confessing to the police that she made it up. After getting his job back as the maths teacher he began teaching Bonnie in one to one sessions after school every week, he did this for a few weeks until one week he decided to change what he was doing. He made sure no one was in the school building as it was late in the evening before closing the blinds and forcing himself on to her even through her resistance. He then whispered to her that no one will believe you now. She ran home and got into the shower in pain and was terrified. She didn't mention what had happened for weeks to anyone but she struggled to sleep so she had many sleeping pills and she struggled getting through the day sober and drinking every night along side her sleeping pills. One night she ended up taking an overdose of pills as she wasn't sleeping after taking one. Her mom came into her and called the hospital straight away and got her rushed into the emergency room. Bonnie managed to survive but this experience let her realize that she needed to tell someone about what the teacher had done before something like this happened to her again.

Her best friend started having one to one sessions with the same teacher and Bonnie became worried, so told her about it, but her friend didn't believe her. Bonnie then googled the teachers name and his name came up on a wanted list for pedophilia and he had been on the run in america for months before coming to England to start a new life. Bonnie showed her friend immediately and they went straight to the police with this information. But when the police went to the teachers house to question him, he wasn't there and the whole house was empty. The police searched for days with no luck before he turned up and pulled Bonnie into an ally, he grabbed her and was pulling her around screaming in her face saying he was going to kill her. he drags her to his car to take her away before an off guard police officer sees them in the distance and.....

- BONNIE TELLS MANY TEACHERS BUT DON'T BELIEVE HER
- HE WAS CAUGHT AND CONVICTED (WENT TO PRISON FOR LIFE)
- HIS SHOWS BONNIE PICTURE OF FAMILY BUT ITS A FAKE FAMILY 

Key Characters:
Main School girl (Louise)
Teacher (Mr Chair)
Louise's Best Friend (Katie)
Headteacher (Mrs Cloud) 
Louise's Mother (Emma) 
Police Officer 

BBFC: 15, involving true, serious issue that can be difficult for people to watch) 

Potential Locations: School, Louise's Home, Police Station, Louise's Bedroom. 

Costumes, Props, Makeup: Massive amount of makeup for Louise (being an attention seeker) 
Costumes are generally school uniforms, suits, police officer uniform. Props being school equipment, pills, alcohol etc. 

Soundtrack, non-diegetic and diegetic used to create tension and atmosphere. 

Outline of Potential Movies- Vampire

Genre: Vampire

Plot: A sophisticated group of vampires decide they only want to 'dine' on human beings who do not deserve to live e.g criminals. So they organise a series of dinner parties to decide whether the humans live or not. The sophisticated process unfolds and a series of dinner parties go on with humans trying to escape, survive etc just because the vampires can't eat anything other than human hiding the fact that the dinners are all made from humans. The last dinner party that is planned is the biggest and most serious of them all. The vampires do not know that stye have invited a secret vampire slayer and all get killed by stopping innocent people being killed. 


Name: Come Die With Me

(Narrative included when we have more of an idea)- Propp, Strauss, Todorov 

Key characters:
The vampire family
People who are killed 
Vampire Slayer 


Locations: The vampires house 

 BBFC: 18 

Outline of Potential Movies- Psychological Thriller

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Plot: Two girls at school are the best of friends, they are invited to a party and attend obviously together. They get to the party and are having a good time one of the girls disappears for half an hour and the other girl is eager to try and find her, when she goes to look for her she is no where to be seen. She spends the whole night looking for her, asking people, looking around the house she can't find her. The party finishes with still no luck of finding her, when she cones out of the house she figures out that she has forgot her coat, she goes back into the house and finds her best friend in the closet on the floor. She panics calls an ambulance and they find out she's dead, they suggest that it is a murder with the injury's. After the news and the funeral etc, the friend alive goes into depression and her parents suggest therapy, but the girl is still angry at the fact that she was murdered and wants to figure out who the killer is. She spends sometime trying to figure out who the murderer is while still going to therapy. By her going to therapy and group therapies she meets a boy who is gone through the same thing and begins to get close with him, they begin to get into a relationship (still her trying to figure out who the killer is) even though the killer of her best friend was the boy she met at therapy lessons. She begins to figure out that he isn't what she thinks he is, he is a mass murderer attending therapy sessions for deaths he has caused. 

Name of the film: THERAPY

Key characters: 

• Two best friends (caitlin and carrie) 
• The boy (Jake)
• Therapist (Mrs Age) 
• The girl alive's mother and father  (Emma) 
• Policeman 
• The girls' teacher (influences her to figure out who murdered her best friend) 

The story involves typical character types aimed at a younger audience with the characters being 13 and above. Being in school you usually have two best friends who do everything together with a psychological thriller there is usually a different take on films by messing with the audience e.g. Shutter island but with the character types theres usually a hero, victim, villain and within a psychological thriller most of these types are seen. Lots of stages of disequilibrium being a psychological thriller because it creates tension, drama and also helps the audience be on the edge of there seats but also creates twists and turns in the story. Strauss involves the binary opposites, in a psychological thriller we have life VS death. good VS evil and also male VS female of how the story unfolds. If we didn't have conflicts a psychological thriller must be boring. 

Potential locations: school, therapy, 'party house', the two girls house. 

BBFC: 15- Content involved not suitable for anyone under the age of 15. (SWEARING, VIOLENCE ETC) 

Lots of non-diegetic and diegetic sound to engage the audience more. 

Costumes and makeup- Normal clothing to contrast with the deep story, normal teenagers clothes also no make up for the two girls only at the party.