Audience Feedback Questionnaire Analysis

These are the results and feedback that we received from 20 people about our trailer from the questionnaires we handed out.

1.       The graph shows that the most popular answer, surprisingly was the Variation of shots followed by the narrative as the second most popular answer. This was a surprise to us as we expected the narrative to be the top answer because it is our unique selling point (USP).

The results conveys the point that our variation of shots was an element that our group worked well on, even in the continuity in editing, which is important to show that our trailer  is of good standard.

2. As the pie chart shows, the majority of the audience we asked thought that the non-diegetic sound used in our trailer matched the action on screen. However, only a small few considered that the sound that didn’t sit well with the action on screen.

3.  From the graph above, all of the audience agreed that they could clearly see the effects of the drug taking by the main character Nicole, with various shots used in our trailer conveying the effects the drug has on her.

4.  From the options of the different biopic movies listed above, the most frequent answer of what film does our trailer remind the audience of is Nil by Mouth as it portrays biopic elements with a string narrative but more notably a common ground with our trailer as it shows the effects of drug abuse.

5. The graph portrays that the audience agreed unanimously that our biopic trailer conveyed codes & conventions that are usually found in a biopic for e.g a strong narrative,   sad incidental music to reflect the mood of the character as well extreme close-ups of character’s face which are elements that visible in our teaser trailer.

 

6.  What was bad about our teaser trailer? (Open Question)

The negative points that we received about our teaser trailer was that they would have liked to have seen more on how the main character ended up as a drug addict which is a fair point raised by members of the audience, but however must remember that this is a tease trailer.

7. What could we do to improve our teaser trailer? (Open Question)

The main point that was frequently put forward to the group was by having a wider variation of camera angles as well as more explanation on the story how the main character, Nicole, started to become an addict.

Also, many mentioned that a good idea would be for the narrative to show how nicole obtained the drugs i.e. by drug dealers.

Others points put forward were that whilst the main character was walking on the pavement towards, it could have been screened in black& white & show it as a flashback.

A few enthusiastic people commented in our questionnaire by saying they thought there wasn’t anything bad in our trailer and there was nothing to improve on it!

8.  As you can see from our graph, there was an overwhelming majority in people who would want to watch the whole film having seen our teaser trailer.

They thought that the trailer appealed to them to follow-up their interest in the film so they may know what will eventually happen to the main character because they thought the narrative was intriguing &attention- grabbing, which are the given reasons why they would want to watch the whole film.

The people that said they wouldn’t be interested in watching the film gave reasons such as the genre of the film is not their type i.e. Heroine being a biographical film, although they thought that the trailer was of good standard.

By Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

This questionnaire was created in order to obtain feedback from the audience about our finished trailer.

1.       What did you enjoy most about our teaser trailer? ( Circle your choice)

Variation of shots

Music

The narrative

Continuity in Editing

2.       Did the sound go well with the action on screen? ( Circle your choice)

Yes

No

If no, explain why

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

3.       Could you clearly see the effects of the drug taking? ( Circle your choice)

Yes

No

4.       What film does our teaser trailer most remind you of? ( Circle your choice)

Pursuit of Happyness

Transpotting

Nil by mouth

The Wrestler

5.       Did you think the teaser trailer conveyed codes & conventions that you would usually find in a biopic film?

Yes

                No

                If no, what was missing

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

6.       What was bad about our teaser trailer?

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

7.       What could we do to improve in our teaser  trailer?

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

8.        Having watched our teaser trailer, would you want to watch the whole film?

Yes

No

If no, explain why

.........................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................... .........................................................................................................................................

By Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Storyboard

This story was created using Micorsoft PowerPont with the each slide with shot details being printed screened.

 

Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Locations

We shot in 2 main areas in addition to around our school; one of which was a park playground, the other a bedroom.

The bedroom acted as the main setting, with it being the closest practical location similar to the garage in which Bubbles finds himself in my earlier Character Analysis due to the untidiness and off-white coloured walls, the window shown in the picture also allowed us to have the light necessary to shoot effectively.

There were obvious obstacles such as the presence of media devices such as a TV and CD players, but they simply weren't included in the shots.


The second setting we filmed a lot of (although our final cut only included 1 short shot from it) was the playground

 The latter of these photographs is where we set our character, smoking what we tried to portray as illegal substances through a clear pipe. I also felt it would be an interesting concept to situate such harsh subject matter and character in such contrasting scenery of a playground.

 Jamie

character profiles

Character profiles

Nicole Smallman: Main character, a chronic drug addict coping barely with her feeble excuse of a life. She resembles a skinny trampy looking individual struggling with day to day normalities without her fix!!!

Ruaidhri Sharp: The unforgiving boyfriend once in love but was turned away by her junky ways and slowly gave up on his former love to the extent of taking her money to improve e his own life.

Mark Mayaski
Pictures by Jamie McLynn

Props

Props

Crack pipe: Was used to symbolise her drug taking and the problems she has her life.

Lines of “coke”: Once again used to symbolise her chronic drug issues.

Spoon with cinnamon burning: used to recreate heroine burning.

Syringe and belt: to show her taking heroin, and her junky ways.

These props were very important to the trailer in symbolising her drug addiction and her poor state of life the trailer would have been very bare without this content. The props being real drug utensils gave the trailer credibility and a professional feel rather than imitating them.

Mark Mayaski

Film Synopsis

Nicole Smallman was an ordinary woman with an ordinary life, however, one day and one man who she was whole heartedly besotted with ruined everything for her, it started out as what seemed to be the perfect relationship. She would have done anything for him and this weakness leads her to a life of drugs and heartbreak. She is in so deep that she feels as if her life could never change for the better and her life is headed for death some way or another so maybe she should just get it over and done with. Can her problems ever end and will someone loyal to her, if there is anyone, come to her rescue.No money, addicted to drugs, no home, no friends, no family and no prospects for improvement, can Nicole turn her life around or will it end before she can find out?

george bridges

Our Own Magazine Cover and Film Poster

Our magazine took the conventional means of basing information around the portrait photo of an actor/character. The archives of various film magazines highlights that, understandably, the majority of film publications sell their product with a cover featuring the biggest film in terms of potential box office revenue, so accordingly we've had to slightly adapt the concept and present Heroine as such a film, although the genre, concept and style of shooting is far more reminiscent of low-grossing independent films.

I tried to emulate commonly found conventions in film magazines, such as side features based on up and coming actors; "The next De Niro, Nicholson, Jolie and more", and (fictional) director biographies; "Mayaski & McLynn". Such numerous features crammed onto one page attempt to lure a reader into buying the magazine based on appealing to their film-related interests even if the main feature doesn't.

I also obviously designed the magazine to take the same structure as similar publications, with the striking title as the header, a clear portrait photo, clear bold font with the name of the main release that month etc.

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.

Magazine Cover Analysis

In order to establish a basis for the design of our magazine cover we looked at covers of two leading film publications in the UK; Empire and Total Film.






The seemingly ever present feature of these film magazine covers, released on a monthly basis, is that the cover is devised from a generic template built around a photo shoot image from the biggest picture in which there is revealing previews or the actual release in that month. The examples here are King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005), Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, 2010), Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) and The Dark Knight (Chris Nolan, 2008) respectively.

The aforementioned template of the magazine, especially these four, follows a simple layout:

• The Title - At the centre and top of the page in a large print, the title is the first thing that a shopper reads and has its own definitive font. Whether it's due to an already dedicated fanbase or the importance of the film, magazines such as these don't necessarily prioritise the complete clarity of the font, which can be compromised for extended artwork, as shown in all four of these.
• Other Fonts - The main font advertising the film is, in these instances at least, synonymous with the character or film depicted. The 'Joker' font is rigid, messy and sharp; representative of his character. The 'King Kong' font is simply blocky and bold (both in literal terms and terms of colour). The '2010 Preview' font is slyly representative of Depp's Mad Hatter, and the 'Iron Man 2' font's blue outline provides a metallic-style element.
  
• The Features - Usually to the left or right of the cover to emphasise the photograph. In covers such as the first, there will be a prolonged feature (in one of these cases the winter preview) and more including interviews and articles that are contrastingly typed on the other side.
• The Header and Footer - Another oppurtunity to cram information of the issue into the public perception. This content can vary between reviews of lesser films, previews and/or magazine giveaways.
• The Picture - For the most part, images are of instantly recognisable characters, with the picture sometimes being a mid shot but usually a close up portrait.

Jamie

Film Poster Analysis

The Firm poster to promote the film shows the main characters and then there backing with there so called “Firm”. It sets out straight away to give the viewing public how it’s going to be, the casts dress and demeana tells of a light hearted footy film with the occasional comedy element. I personally get this from the colourful colours of there clothes then the black and white faces show the darker side of the film the hidden element behind the cheeky chappy persona that you are originally confronted with. The big blue and white writing incorporated with the dress of the characters immediately gives the impression that it is set in the past. The layout of the poster and the position of the characters show the hierachy and the main characters within the film the top boy of the firm the bloke dressed in red shows his character as a hardy chap with his fist clenched closed and his mean looking walk.
This film poster relates to our biopic as it is about one mans anger and revenge against an oppsoing firm and shows his story through the flm and also the young lad who gets caught up in the firm but then decides to change his ways. These are both very strong stories which show big changes in the characters lives, which is evident in all biopics.
The advantage this gives us by analysing this poster is the amount of ideas we can get for our own poster and how to accomodate our ideas of the film into a advertsing campaign.

Mark Mayaski












The biopic film that I chose to analyse in order to obtain ideas as to how create our own film poster with biopic elements is The Pursuit of Happyness.

By Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Character Analysis

In an attempt to increase genuinity of our trailer, I felt it would benefit to take inspiration from suitable characters in previous series or films I've seen, none more so than Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins, played by Andre Royo in the HBO series The Wire. Bubbles sub-plot is that of somebody struggling against their addiction to heroin; living in abandoned houses and making money off selling scrap metal and informant work for the Baltimore Police Department.

The performance of Bubbles is an incredibly vivid and true-to-life depiction of homeless drug addicts in the projects of America, with his character development (something the critically acclaimed Wire is famous for) astounding over the course of 5 series. Whilst such detailed development obviously won't be possible in our trailer, I felt obliged to look more at the character and have identified and analysed some helpful scenes which are available to me on Youtube, as well as the 5 seasons of the show in its entirety, which should be beneficial towards our representation of a similar character.





I see the first of these two as the scene we can get the most from as, although all the clips represent the hardships of leading the life Bubbles does, this one exceeds in it. The beating is graphic yet realistic and comes about simply as a result of being in the wrong place in the wrong time. The mise-en-scene represents the sort of location we need to look for aswell, with Bubbles' temporary squat being basically a desolate, run down garage with a mattress.

The second is much the same in that it just shows Bubbles' daily struggle, but differs in that he's even dismissed by the authority to serve and protect. Again the confrontation with the initial perpetrator is realistic and shot well.



In this scene Detective Sydnor is displaying the mock up junkie-attire that he'll be wearing whilst going undercover, with Bubbles giving feedback on its genuinity. Whilst most of the dialogue of this scene is that of the detectives, it's contributed greatly to how we're going to dress our actress.

Jamie

Questionnaire Analysis

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.




By Mark Mayaski & Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Questionnaire

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

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

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.

George Bridges

Introduction and Teaser Trailers

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.








Jamie