SlideShare - Question 1 - Evaluation
- 1. My coursework does all three, it uses develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products,
- 2. My coursework does all three, it uses develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products, Trailer- My trailer idea has always been to be an action. I have always loved going t the cinema to watch action movies and loved the trill and tension that they use to make my blood rush that little bit faster. Action films are described to be a genre in which one or more heroes are thrust into a series of challenges that typically include physical feats, extended fight scenes, violence, and frantic chases. Action films tend to feature a resourceful character struggling against incredible odds, which include life-threatening situations, a villain, or a pursuit which generally concludes in victory for the hero. (Wikipedia) This therefore puts me in the position to try and recreate this myself using my own actors, filming techniques, editing skills, props and settings. Todorovs theory is often placed into the genre of action/thriller films because of the balance of equilibrium being broken by the antagonist and tried to be resolved by the protagonist.
- 3. My trailer followed Todorovs theory, Craig and the smaller gangs he runs around Chelmsford are disrupting the equilibrium of the City. In doing so they kill Nicks family and leave him alone in the world. Nick becomes the protagonist although he can also be seen as an antihero character and tries to restore the cities order by killing off all those trying to destroy it. This follows and uses codes and conventions of action films as the story line and lead theorist is similar to the tried and tested classic action plot. Another code and convention that we followed and used is the use of low key lighting, changes in shot angles and quick cuts. All of these are found in almost every action film and my piece is no different and follows the same codes and conventions. In my trailer we also used flashback scenes, chase scenes, diabetic sound of breathing/heartbeats and finally gunshots. I was able to identify all of these conventions, not only in my trailer, but also in the three I analyzed being ‘John Doe:Vigilante’, ‘Harry Brown’ and ‘Gangster Squad’. All of these three trailers are action/crime films from the last 6 years which makes them newly released genre similar films. When I analyzed the three trailers and identified their codes and conventions I made note of them as they appeared. Here are the three combined trailers’ lists of the codes and conventions.
- 4. Jump cuts involvement of police low key lighting flashbacks black and white scenes tension building music strong beat heavy music after quick cuts different angles same scene shot reverse shot extreme close ups close ups establishing shots medium shots rarely long shots gunshots/explosions inter titles protagonist dramatically looking up to camera. Female character that needs help - over sexualisation
- 5. Within my trailer I decided to count up all the times that these happen, here are the results. Jump cuts x 1 involvement of police x 1 low key lighting x 23 flashbacks x 2 black and white scenes x 1 tension building music yes strong beat heavy music after yes quick cuts x 18 different angles same scene x 2 shot reverse shot x 3 extreme close ups x 3 close ups x 15 establishing shots x 2 medium shots x 10 rarely long shots x 1 gunshots/explosions x 5 inter titles x 8 protagonist dramatically looking up to camera x 1 From these results we can clearly see that I have followed all the codes and conventions i was able to identify out of the three trailers I analyzed.
- 6. I developed the standard codes and conventions by tying in features from other genres into my own action genre. Although my film is still very much an action film it involves aspects of thriller and even a few horror conventions along the way. For example, the way the trailer builds slowly at the beginning, with an eery music in the background. As the trailer continues to develop and the scenes become more shocking and scary, the eery music highness and then drops suddenly. This is a common theme used in horror films where an eery noise plays in the background as the protagonist becomes in danger. This time however it is occurring up until a point. At this pint, more action music plays and the trailers events follow the action conventions I previously mentioned. This the in of the horror/thriller genre into the action genre is interesting and blatantly shows my media piece developing normal conventions of action films. This I find interesting and exciting about my piece and think that it word very effectively.
- 7. Finally at some points of my trailer, it does completely challenge and contrast between normal action films. In many action films a female actress is used as a ‘damsel in distress’ and needs to be saved by the over masculine protagonist. I myself think that my piece is a refreshing change from the normal plot and think that actresses should be given more of a similar role in action films than just to be a sexual object. This is the case in one of the trailers I analyzed. Action Squad uses the main character of Grace as an attractive woman who has an affair with the protagonist. Although this is common within these films, I chose not to use this convention and the main female character was the mother of Nick who is killed in the film fairly early on, shown in the trailer. I also challenged the common conventions of a trailer by having very little audio dialogue in my trailer. I decided to let the dramatic music play the most important part to set the scene of the trailer and focus on the action within the film. I think that this is what actions should be like and so decided to stay away from in depth audio and relate my trailer to the old style of a real full packed action film. This is how I challenged action genres common codes and conventions within my Trailer,
- 8. Within my ancillary tasks I also used, challenged and developed common codes and conventions. Firstly with both my poster ad my magazine cover i decided to follow the convention of other posters I analyzed. This was a large title, the film name in the middle just below the main body of the image in a contrasting color to the main images color. All posters and covers I looked at also had the main character of that film in the middle, this is a strong image that stands out from anything else on the age and has a direct point of focus with the audience looking at the print products. This direct point of focus gives the image more presence on the page and makes it stand out a lot more than t would without it. Secondly i decided to follow the white text effect. Lots of the similar pieces used white font, this is because it stands out, looks sharp and has a good contrast it the rest pf the page.
- 9. In my magazine cover the top line ‘The All Action Issue’ is common among Total Film magazines. This tells the audience what kind of issue this months magazine will be focusing on and automatically sets the scene and content of the genre incase none has heard of the new film ‘The Vigilante’. With the Magazine cover I decided to follow the convention of smoke and rain. Although there is not always rain in an image, I found that action prints, be it a magazine cover or a poster, there is usually something else in the image such as an explosion, fire, a damaged building or smoke. In my magazine cover I decided to use smoke leaving the barrel of the gun and rain hitting the character. This could be seen as pathetic fallacy showing the weather around him representing his mood. The rain effect was achieved in Photoshop by manipulating shapes, giving them a Gaussian blur and then changing colors and opacity. I also added into the cover famous names as sub titles and the old they are talking about within the Magazine. This sort of information is often on the front cover to help the company sell their magazine to potential buyers. The sneak peak at films from 2015/2016 on the cover also would help to create excitement around those films and would be likely to increase the amount of people interested in buying the film. For example, chose to use deadpan on the same magazine because marvel fans are known to be very loyal and love to collect anything involving something to do with their franchise. I also added in the social media site names where I believe Total Film would advertise my trailer as part of a product marketing campaign for the film. This would work as synergy between my production company and the magazine as we would both prosper. This is a technique used by many big companies who appear on magazines as they create more sales and in return the magazine publisher promotes the film on social networking sites and in the magazine itself. The recurring red, black and white colors add enigma and are effective at portraying the films emotions and genre effectively. Although the colors themselves somewhat challenge common traits, the rule of three colors that match and work well in a pallet is the same as all magazine covers and any piece of work in the media and so is a use of similar conventions and color styles.
- 10. Finally with the last similarity of the ancillary pieces. With my Film poster, I decided that a crosshair effect would look good and add an effect to the piece. The institutional information along the top and the date at the bottom follows similarities that I have seen in most film posters. I decided to have the date as the same color as the other text, this is because it is the color that stands out best against the background and is one of the most important pieces of information on the poster. This is the same with all posters, they must aim to use text a color than is different and contrasts well with the background otherwise people would struggle to see what it says and that would deem an unsuccessful poster. Having the ‘Staring’ and the actors name larger than the rest of credentials along the bottom is a also a feature that is seen a lot on film posters. This is an important part of film posters as it can help ell the poster to a wider range of audiences, IE loyal fans of an actor or actress would buy the film or go to see it regardless of the genre, just because the actor that is playing a certain role. The font i used for ‘The Vigilante’ is a sans serif block font that is used for a lot of action posters. The simplicity of the font works well with the genre and emphasizes the masculinity and bulkiness of the action genre.
- 11. My products also develop codes and conventions. For example the use of shadows in the poster to add enigma into the release of the film and the story are emphasized all around the page. I used the darkness around the edges fading into shadows and then into the image to crate a sense f enigma, exactly what a good poster should do. I did this because it is important to remember a poster my be released before the trailer and so enigma at this point is important as giving too much away at the earl stage will lead to less excitement and pre release hype around the film which is a negative that is best avoided where possible in the media industry.
- 12. There are not many occasions where spoilers in the marketing campaign have been successful and beneficial around the product. Another development of codes and conventions to do with my poster is the quote above the title and the main actors name on the poster. This is because Cem Yeta in my marketing campaign is an up and coming actor who has won many awards. This is beneficial to put on my poster because, as I mentioned before, fans of his work would buy the film and pre order tickets because he is in it, regardless if they are fans of the action genre or not. Having the quote on the poster is also not very common as some people think it takes away the enigma from the film but i disagree. I think it gives just enough away to make the audience want to watch the film and would make them happy to wait the time until it was released.
- 13. Finally My products also challenge common pieces of similar genre and work. My film poster is different to those of a similar genre and style. Usually I have found while analysis action movie film posters, i.e. the avengers, there is a lot going on in the background. These include broken buildings, explosions, fire, smoke or even dramatic falling rain. Although these are featured in many action movie posters, I have decided to portray enigma instead of full blown action. The enigma that comes from a simple shadowed backdrop gives the film a whole new feel to its genre. This is different from what we usually see with this genre and here I have challenged and started completely away from common genre conventions and traits.
- 14. My magazine cover does not contain a usual tagline for the film as I left this for the movie poster and also it does not have a white base color for the Total Film Logo. The black and red represent the enigma that I have tried hard to portray with the film representing the shadow taking over from the films upcoming release. The red also helps to symbolize danger that is also a huge part about the film although none knows yet what the danger is about, adding even more enigma to the cover. Although these challenge common traits of the coves, I think my idea and justification works well and is very effective at getting its point across.