The real media products our group focused on as comparison points were a number of films which either depicted a dejected protagonist (Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler/Gabriel Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness) or a gritty, harsh setting (Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone/Gary Oldman’s Nil by Mouth); two key elements found in biopic films portraying hard-lucked and possibly depressed individuals. The obvious convention that can be drawn from the aforementioned characteristics, let alone further research into the genre, is an incredibly negative, sombre and reflective tone to the film (at least for the majority of it if leading to an optimistic climax ala Pursuit of Happyness). This was something that was undeniably shown through our trailer, with the combination of consistently pessimistic images merged with a minor-scale soundtrack creating a depressing mood. On reflection, we strayed from the blueprint laid out to us by the Nil by Mouth trailer the least, as its inner-city London environment was the most practical to appropriately capture on film. We used a lot of the conventions found in this particular film, and indeed trailer. With the reminiscent environment, came similar character, with ours resembling those in Nil by Mouth. The symbolic codes consistent with our teaser trailer were the obvious cases of a distressed female protagonist, and violent conflict present in her life. We tried to represent these both vividly; depicting an aggressive argument between our character and her assumed lover, and also with the black eye we attempted to show on our magazine cover. The distress was also clear throughout our trailer, however an aspect of the symbolic code of character emotion found in a biopic, that we didn’t include, is that the protagonist’s life usually possesses a silver lining of optimism. This is shown in Nil by Mouth, and would have been in Heroine as we had originally planned to also include shots of a more content character, though due to the time restraints of a teaser trailer (that the Nil by Mouth trailer we studied was not subject to, being a theatrical trailer) weren’t able. Another aspect of the trailer that we felt suited to ours was the use of predominantly non-diegetic sound. In contrast to films who’s narrative or character name is key, our film is, mirroring Nil by Mouth, likely to be sold more on the premise of its dark setting and general story of struggle our character faces than any other factor. Two notable conventions we didn’t quite adhere to were the music used and the pace of the trailer. The music found in trailers such as Nil by Mouth is slowly paced, with an ominous tone overbearing the trailer. Our effort however, whilst indeed being a minor scale to match this, is far more dynamic and striking, especially towards the climax, this pacing ties in with the editing, with the increased speed of the music matching the increasingly short shots that we quickly cut between; creating a climactic feeling. One thing we also found and in the analysis of similar films and subverted to in our own, was that drug abuse is more commonly found to be a subject with a group of main characters rather than a solitary one. Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream are two such drug-riddled films, with Aronofsky’s recent effort The Wrestler and The Pursuit of Happyness paving the way for more singular character based films. So with Nil by Mouth the most influential in terms of tone and character, it was left to Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting to give us an insight into how drug abuse is represented through cinema, Requiem was the more surreal of the two, and Trainspotting the more naturalistic, though both films had their moments where they strayed from their respective styles. Ultimately, we found Trainspotting more applicable to our own trailer, as the surreal shots of Requiem were difficult to fully emulate with the limitations of iMovie HD, therefore we opted for more naturalistic shots of the drug abuse, as shown below:
This was a definite influence on our shooting, as we were made fully aware to our restrictions in our initial desire to film a large-scale football hooligan trailer. Upon realising that it wasn't practical to shoot due to the numbers and choreography required, it came to me that an ideal project would instead be numerous isolated shots with a minimal amount of characters. We were therefore forced to subvert the convention of abstract scenes representing possible delusions/altered mental state as a result of drug use.
I feel that the ancillary texts are very important to the overall promotion package and without doubt add an extra element to it when combined with our main product. Posters and magazine promotion offer the audience additional insight into the film, allowing them to become more familiar with the narrative before investing into the release. Reviews and features offer viewers the opportunity to be more informed about who is involved in the production of the film, whether or not authoritative sources such as film publications actually recommend the film and can also provide interviews with the stars which panders to a film, and more recently celebrity, obsessed culture.
The poster is, I think, one of the strongest aspects of our practical work this year. Whilst obviously not being industry standard I think the incorporation of many elements of real-life attributes of film posters heightens the realism and gives it a relatively professional look, albeit with a lack of real knowledge of Photoshop. The general mood and tone of the film is represented in the dense, dark effect achieved by the desaturated colour from the original image, also the title of the movie will have instant connotations with drugs due to its play-on-words origin. The Academy Award aspect is just something I thought I'd add because it, if done properly, could heighten the plausibility of the overall poster, adding a further element to enticing the audience. I am aware however that 9 nominations at such prestigious would be perhaps over ambitious for such a film, however I saw the recent acknowledgement by the Academy for similar darkly toned biopics such as The Wrestler and especially Precious in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Using Photoshop to design both the magazine cover and poster, I tried to clearly differentiate in style of photograph used and the effects I put on it. The poster matched the overall mood of the film, with a desaturated effect and darkened light levels setting a depressing tone. The magazine cover however provided a lightened picture, partly to highlight the black eye applied via make up to our character, and partly because it seemed more fitting for a (fictional) nation-wide film publication.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The audience feedback (to the finished trailer and its initial concept) presented us with a good alternative perspective in terms of trailer planning and evaluation. The first of these questionnaires were given to people during the planning of our trailer, the second to those who had just watched our finished product, all questions aren't included only those I deem relevant.
The initial gender question, due to our relatively limited capability for an extensive survey, more highlighted the context in which our feedback should be read instead of bringing about definitive conclusions. This was much the same with the age question; both essentially allowing us a structure to decipher results within.
These two graphs showed us that for one, the most expected characteristics of a trailer were plot and character details, and also that 70% of our respondents prefer narrative-based rather than character-based trailers. This did had an overbearing influence on our planning, though we didn't rigidly obide to it, as character details were undoubtedly the key characteristic necessary for a film such as ours, with the plot following a similar narrative to films of the same genre; where our protagonist is effectively on a conveyor belt of suffering and obstacles.
Rather surprisingly (I would've expected Pursuit of Happyness to be leading), Trainspotting was the favourite biopic film, the undeniable suggestion this gave was the biopic films are far better received when possessing an element of optimism or lightheartedness. However it is worth noting that the results also directly correlate with the reknownedness and mainstream nature of the film, allowing possibility for the darker of the four to not have been as seen as the leading two. Q9. What sort of issues would you most expect a biopic trailer to convey? "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." We directly used this in one particular shot due to time restraints, showing our character with her assumed lover, depicting a violent, strenuous relationship in which money is the key issue.
One thing worth noting was that those reluctant to watch the full-length film were more inclined to blame this on their unfavourable attitude towards the genre itself than the trailers actual quality.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research
Youtube was a key media technology in the planning and construction of our product, allowing us to access industry standard material to use as comparison points, creating a blueprint for our own trailer.
Planning
Blogger.com allowed us to document and plan our trailer, providing us with a medium to store our progress and analysis whilst making our practical piece.
We used a digital camera to benefit our cinematography; providing an insight into how our settings would be represented through a lense so as to help our decision in the most suitable shooting locations. We also used it to take photographs of our locations to add to our blog.
Construction
A camcorder was used to record our scenes, creating our trailer.
We used a tripod to steady our shots and introduce alternate angles
Upon recording our footage, we uploaded it to an iMac - the hardware on which the entireity of our editing was composed
The editing software used was iMovie HD, it's a competent programme however was limited in its add-ons and effects, preventing us from adding the frequently referenced surreal dimension to our trailer.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 was used to create both the magazine cover and poster. Though limited in my experience with the programme I feel I was able to create an impressive poster and decent magazine cover, it offered a lot of creativity and was key to the construction of our media product.
Cubase Studio 4 was used to devise the soundtrack, a programme I have some experience with. I was pleased with the outcome of the music, although our College's sound library for the software wasn't extensive. A screen shot of the finished track is below.
Evaluation
Blogger.com was again the key media in evaluating our product, offering us a place to think over and judge our work much in the same way we planned it.
