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?
Trailer
Billboards
Posters
Radio slots
Mark Mayaski & Mohamed Al-Mousawi
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Trailer Analysis
Requiem for a Dream
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
George Bridges
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.
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