Questionnaire Analysis We have conducted a questionnaire analysis for all the questions and here are our results.
Q1. The pie chart clearly shows that more males took time out to fill the questionnaire than females.
Q2. The table shows that the most people who answered the questionnaire were between 15-18 years. We didn’t simply want teenagers to answer the questionnaire as we wanted to obtain the views & opinions older and younger as when a film is being made, it is important that the trailer caters for all of the age groups mentioned.
Q3. As you can see from the table, the most frequent answer given for preferred genre was Comedy. This is an important question to ask, as this enables us to find out the tastes & preferences of our audience that we have researched.
Q4. List your favourite conventions of your preferred genre? (Open-Question) Many different answers were given the most common answer was high tempo music, fight and explosions. This is an important question as this will tell us the most important elements that must be included in our trailer in order to make authentic and original.
Q5. The table shows that the most occurring answer given was Plot Details. This gives the group ideas as what elements to include in our trailer that the audience would enjoy seeing. We will obviously have elements of character details as this was the 2nd most popular choice.
Q6. As you can see from the table, people who have filled out the questionnaire prefer a narrative based trailer. This is an important question as this tells us whether the audience prefer character or narrative based trailers.
Q7. The graph shows that most popular answer given as element you would most expect to see was a powerful narrative. This is strongly expected in a biopic film as films of this genre are meant to grab the reader full attention and make them feel part of the story as most biographical films attempt to bring the viewer close to the narrative in order to relate to it in some form. The second most common given was voiceover, as this element is most of the time used in biographical films.
Q8. Out of the choices given, the most frequent answer given for their favourite biopic film asked on the questionnaire was Transpotting and in 2nd place was the pursuit of happiness. It seems that both of these films are very popular amongst biopic audiences as most elements you would expect to see in a biopic are in these films and are conveyed very well which is what makes a good biopic.
Q9. What sort of issues would you most expect a biopic trailer to convey? (Open Question) Out of the all the answers we were give, the most common answer given was financial issues and the other answers that we were given were relationship issues & family. This seems to have a huge emphasis in many biographical films like the pursuit of happiness, in which we see their financial issues take a strain on the main character’s relationship with his wife which leads to Chris Gardner to separate from his wife Linda.
Q10. An advertising campaign is very important when trying to tell people about films. Most of the people who we asked in our questionnaire said that a trailer affects people the most in watching a film. This isn’t a surprise as TV is best method used most often by producers in telling the general public that a film is out for public viewing.
Questionnaire 1. What gender are you? Male Female 2. How old are you? 12-14 15-18 19-25 25+ 3. What genre do you prefer? Comedy horror action thriller other 4. List your favourite conventions of your preferred genre? ............................................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................ 5. What do you expect to see in a trailer? Circle Character details Plot details Fast tempo Voiceover
6. Do you prefer a narrative or character based trailers?
Character Based Narrative Based
7.What elements would you most expect to see in a biographical trailer?
Voiceover Slow-paced music Powerful narrative Naturalistic environment
8.What is your favourite biopic film out of these choices?
The Pursuit of Happiness Transpotting Nil By Mouth Requim
9.What sort of issues would you most expect a biopic trailer to convey? ......................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................
10.What advertising campaign affects you to watch a film the most?
Requiem for a Dream is an Oscar-nominated film directed by Darren Aronofsky, released in the UK in 2001. The plot revolves mainly around four individuals whose lives are affected dramatically due to the introduction of heroin.
The trailer is incredibly surreal, with very quick edits of unconventional and slightly disjointed shots (such as the laughing mouth of a woman, CCTV footage and a high angle black and white shot of a distressed character). Such editing also allows the trailer to get across a large number of aspects of the film; cramming in numerous scenario's and characters which a trailer so short in time might restrict. Crosscutting is constantly used between locations, characters and indeed drugs. The technique is clearly utilised to highlight a relationship between each, helping smooth over the narrative of the trailer, also representing the simultaneous nature and events of the lives of the numerous characters to portray the parallel narrative avenues of the film.
The aforementioned disjointed shots are representative of a similarly themed trailer, with such shots as the CCTV ones mixing with various others to create an incoherent watch for the viewer.
We're first introduced to a seemingly innocuous kitchen and living room as our establishing shot, however to further tie in with the off-key tone of the trailer, their significance is never dwelled upon, these shots lead to the first character represented via a close up to access facial expression, helping portray the emotion of a character straight away.
The trailer has it's share of medium and long shots, however it's the angle that strikes the audience more. The use of low and high angle shots to empower and disempower characters consistently found, although sometimes the trailer yet again breaks the mould and subverts expectancy, with one of it's low angle shots seemingly capturing a very frail looking woman (again, our red haired protagonist).
Another unique element to this trailer is the intermittent close-ups of drug-related shots; a lighter, a mouth blowing smoke, a blood stream, eyes, a syringe and more; these shots subtly preparing the audience for what the feature film will contain, as alot of the trailer isn't so specific in this area.
The surreal and disturbed nature of many of the characters is further emphasised by the sound. The music, which initially starts as a grand classical piece, progresses after the introduction of pills to a more hard hitting drum-based tune. The latter is far more synchronous with the blurred abstract visuals that the trailer quickly cuts between, and it's through this non-diegetic sound that much of the trailers tone is represented, the revisited voice over (initially taking a diegetic form) describing the drugs that the red-haired woman is taking and the voice over of an audience chanting "Help" especially add an eerie feel to the trailer.
In tone, this film will not be reminiscent of ours, with ours set to take a far slower and less abstract one. However such a film as Requiem for a Dream certainly allows incredible insight into how drug abuse has been alternatively represented in cinema previously.
Jamie
Trailer Analysis: Trainspotting
The trailer starts with the production company Poly Gram and then the immediate introduction of the song “town called malice” then what seems, to be the main characters running vigorously from the police. A voiceover is heard stating their mind set giving the reason, a little insight to why they are doing what they are. Orange writing then appears and solidifies that he is the main character with the number 1 then his name Renton. Smiling straight at the camera showing his character a “cheeky chapster”. The trailer is very fast paced showing the impact drugs have on people living life at 100mph seems good but the film shows how all is not as desiring as first thought. 2 Spud his dopey friend much like a dog will not betray, his introduction of the character was much shorter showing we are going down in importance. 3 Sick boy gives a bit away about his character the unlawful one trouble maker making Renton do silly things. Next and finally number 4 Begbie the nutter immediately shows him screaming then beating a bloke with a snooker cue! Shows how his character is off the rail and very unpredictable, when Renton climbs into the toilet and is seen underwater getting further and further away from reality as he struggles to come back upto the surface it shows the real him underneath the drugs, underneath the persona he feels he needs to put on to keep his druggy pals. The dirty putrid surroundings that the toilet is situated in is significant to when he pulls himself out of it showing his desire to get away from the decrepid state he has fallen into. The outback’s of the Scottish countryside depicts the vast emptiness that the characters portray within their hobbies (drugs). It is followed by the all the names of workers on the film and actors.
Mark Mayaski
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) is a biographical drama film directed by Gabriele Muccino. The film is set in 1981, where it portrays the life of a promisingly intelligent & family man Chris Gardner, who invests in bone-density scanners, which at that time were more expensive than x-rays scanners as they provided much clearer images. The film shows the struggles his family goes through as they can’t cope with paying the necessities for living such as the rent for the flat.
From watching the trailer, I was impressed by how the trailer attracted my whole attention for the full-length of the theatrical trailer. The impressive and well chosen camera shots and soundtracks selected worked well together which definitely showed the type of effort needed to make a trailer look professional and authentic.
The mise en-scene plays an important part in our trailer. In the beginning of the trailer, Chris Gardner is seen wearing an old suit, emphasising that he struggles to make to decent amount of income to even buy new attire, which makes him seem as lower-class. As the film progresses to the end, things start to look up for Chris as his life starts to get back on track from the struggles of financial insecurtiy and homelessness. We in a way see a transition in class from lower-class to middle class as his appearance improves looking more presentable at the Internship at Dean Witter for the job on offer, which he eventually gets.
The camera shots used were also important in showing the characters emotions during the difficulties the character goes through. Many close-ups are used to show emotions of the character, but also notice that there variation of camera shots makes the trailer seem very professional as well as the smooth edits between various scenes in the trailer work well with the non-diegetic sound to emphasise continuity & match on action.
The soundtracks used in the trailer emphasises the struggles that Chris goes through and also the stage of the happyness when he finally gets the job at Dean Witter. I think that this trailer is ideal example to view and analyse the codes & conventions of a biopic like the pursuit of happyness as many elements of a biopic were obvious which gives our group ideas of elements we should include when creating our own biopic trailer.
Mohamed Al-Mousawi
Trailer analysis- ‘Nil by mouth’
This trailer does not convey much of the story line. You get a general idea about the characters and some of the relationships between them but hardly anything else.
The lighting is very dim throughout the trailer and even in the shots which are set in the day the picture looks bleak and old. This helps to communicate the emotions which the characters will go through in the story. The low level lighting brings the mood down and suggests sadness and turmoil. Through research of this trailer and others of this genre I noticed this was something which is commonly used, and by looking at films which have a brighter and happier narrative, I noticed that this trailer reflected this by using higher levels of lighting. The darkness implies a sense of loneliness and entrapment; these themes are ever present throughout the film. We will employ the same technique in our trailer, setting the shots in dark and dingy places, we may even cause the image to look dimmer artificially during the editing stages if we conclude that it does not show effectively enough show entrapment and loneliness.
There is almost no diagetic sound in the trailer, excluding a tiny bit of dialogue spoken at the very beginning by the man speaking to his wife the only sound is non-diagetic, which is a piece of music played throughout the trailer. In the ‘Nil by Mouth’ trailer it is a slow peice of music and with the images which are being shown has a powerful effect. We wish to put non-diagetic sound into our trailer as we believe it helps to convey the mood and build emotions in the audience members, which is important because the stronger these emotions are in the audience members the bigger the impression it will have on them, which should attract them to see the film.
A lot of the shots and clips of scenes which are shown show a few seconds of each, this is so that what is happening in the trailer can be seen by the audience. For this trailer it is important as what is happening is very emotive and can have a powerful effect on the audience, however, the same effect cannot be achieved if the clips are much shorter and do not show what is happening. In our trailer we will employ the same technique in our trailer because we realise that the best way to attract an audience to this type of film is to build deep feelings for the characters, we think the best way to do that for this genre is to show longer clips. Also the ‘Nil by Mouth’ trailer is in slow motion because it causes a stronger impact and means the audience linger on the moment and their emotions.
Finally, the mise-en-scene, the setting of the film is in a working-class society. The locations and attire which the characters are in tell us this. Our film will not hold very many clues towards this, the audience will understand that the character is in financial trouble; however, this will not be conveyed in much detail. The ‘Nil by Mouth’ trailer is in slow motion, this allows it to fit better with the music and create a very emotional trailer, we will also make changes to the speed of parts of our trailer in order for it to have a strong impact on the audience and make them want to watch our film.
For our Media A2 coursework we've been instructed to compose a promotional package for an upcoming fictional film release; including a teaser trailer, magazine cover and the films poster. The group will consist of George, Mark, Mohamed and myself (Jamie)
After initial brainstorming the concept on which we've settled is that of a film revolving around drug addiction; with a lone female protagonist and a narrative mirroring tragic biopics that are emerging recently with more frequency in cinema.
Four trailers that we've researched into to help construct our own have been The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Nil by Mouth (1997), Requiem for a Dream (2009) and *** (***).
Teaser Trailers
A teaser trailer is a form of advertisement utilised to promote a soon to be released film where alot is still left up to the imaginations of its audience. It's most commonly present in big-budget big-franchise features, as the advertisement most can then rely on prior knowledge of the brand, characters or story to make the narrative more accessible; evident in all of the trailers shown below.
The trailers are short in length, with usually less than a minutes worth of actual footage shown. This footage present in the trailer isn't always truly representative of the film either as, due to the demand of the type of film that most use teaser trailers, some are known to air and create hype around a films release before shooting has even begun. It's therefore common for teaser trailers to include footage that's in fact not present at all in the film itself.
Q2. The table shows that the most people who answered the questionnaire were between 15-18 years. We didn’t simply want teenagers to answer the questionnaire as we wanted to obtain the views & opinions older and younger as when a film is being made, it is important that the trailer caters for all of the age groups mentioned.
