New Chosen Genre

Through the research I have found that I feel my ideas would be most effective if I did a psychological horror film. The way I'm hoping to make mine look and feel different is I am going to do it with an independent feel to it, however I do not want it to look like a re-make of films such as 'Blair Witch Project' or 'Paranormal Activity'. This is due to the fact that I didn't find the films themselves that effective, I felt they had clever trailers yet the films themselves were a dissapointment.

Change in genre.

Whilst doing a lot of the research into Coming of Age films, I have come to the conclusion that even though the genre interests me, I feel I wouldn't be able to do it as effectively to if I kept the Independent feel within another genre. This is due to the fact that most coming of age stories rely strongly on the actors within them and who I use in my trailer won't be as strong enough of an actor as I need for it to really work.
Because of this I have started into into the horror genres and also psychological thrillers as those are another two genres of films that I find interesting to watch personally and feel the best way for me to get a good quality trailer is to do it for a genre that I already have an interest in.

Also as I am changing my genre, I have realised that the song I was planning on using won't fit the new genre I am looking into.

Song.

I have contacted an unsigned artist called Holly Taymar and have been talking with her and she has given me permission to use her song 'went to war' in my teaser trailer.
http://www.myspace.com/hollytaymar - this is a link to her myspace site. I got in contact with her because I felt the words in the song really fitted in with the genre of 'coming of age'

Coming of age trailers

This is a range of trailer for films I believe belong effectively in the 'coming of age' genre.

December Boys - Rod Hardy

An Education - Lone Scherfig


My Girl - Howard Zieff


Stand by me - Rob Reiner

I've looked at these trailers as they fit the genre I am planning on doing for my trailer and they all follow a lot of the conventions associated with trailers. The reasons I believe these trailers belong in the genre of Coming of Age is because of the music used in each of them is uplifting, this mood has been created by each piece of music having a relatively high octave and a quick pace to it.

Coming of age?!

Whilst looking into trailers for Independent films, I learnt that a lot of the most effective independent films revolve around a 'coming of age' storyline. So I have started looking into research onto coming of age so it is as close to a typical independent film/trailer as possible

Whilst researching ideas to fit in with the theme of a 'coming of age story' I came across these websites that I found to be especially helpful. This again helped me as it gave me a range of storylines all within the coming of age genre.

http://www.theskykid.com/movies/moviesreviews/the-ultimate-coming-of-age-movie-list/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Coming-of-age_films
http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/movieGenres/drama/comingOfAge
http://www.moviemobsters.com/2009/06/11/top-ten-coming-of-age-movies/

Guy Ritchie.

As I've thought about not using any talking or having voice over in my trailer; yet I want the audience to know who the characters are; I'm looking at Guy Ritchie as he is known for introducing the characters by freeze framing the shots and putting the character name next to them.

From looking at these Guy Ritchie films it does make it clear that his work is very stylized and rather than introducing the characters during a shot he freeze frames it and makes it clear who he is focusing on. To make this effective I would have to follow on from how Ritchie has done it and zoom into or alter the rest of the image to make it as clear as possible who the character is.

Independent Trailers.

Somer's Town - Shane Meadows.

What I like about this trailer is that how even though it's primarily in black and white; when it introduces a new key character it not only then goes into colour but also has their name written on the screen. Also it shows key elements both happy and sad from the film and has quite a happy sounding song; giving the overall vibe of the film as a happy one.

Amores Perros - Alejandro González Iñárritu

What I like about this film is that it has no dialogue only the words in the song; yet it is able to convey enough about the film from the text it puts up on the screen. The translations of the text are; love is treason, love is anguish, love is sin, love is selfish, love is hope, love is pain, love is death, What is love?, Amores Perros (Title), a film from Alejandro González Iñárritu & coming soon. Also what I find effective about this trailer is that after each of the statements it then has a montage of images from the film relating to that statement.

Shadows - John Cassavetes

what I find effective from this is that the trailer doesn't show much from the film itself; just reviews that it has received and the voice over goes along with that by saying who the reviews are from. The clips it does show are only to reiterate what the voice over is quoting from reviews.

Blair Witch Project - Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez

What I find effective about this trailer is that it starts with stating what the audience can assume the film is about by having the whole shot taken up with text. I also like that it shows footage, assumingly taken from the film with reviews written over the top. Also I feel that having the last sound as a chilling scream from one of the characters gives the audience a lasting impression of what genre this film is.

This trailer starts with the same text on the screen as the first one does only this time is has softer music to make it clear that you’re not just watching the same trailer again. The other technique this trailer uses which is highly effective is setting out as though it is a documentary making it feel more realistic. Also this trailer not only has an identical start to the first one but also ends in the same way; including the same music, this starts from where you see the film’s title to the end of the trailer.

Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola

What I find effective from this trailer is that it is quite unconventional in the sense that it shows bigger blocks of dialogue where as usually you only see one-liners. Also I like how when you see text on the screen, to do with the storyline, they uses similar backgrounds making the audience feel like they are actually seeing it across the lit up buildings.

From looking at these trailers and others, I have learnt that a convention of Independent trailers is that rather than introducing the story it just introduces the characters. Also they all tend to have music in the background that fits the overall mood of the film and they use more text relating to the characters than on the blockbuster films

Article on Independent films in Empire

http://www.empireonline.com/features/50greatestindependent/

Whilst looking into independent films I came across this article from Empire magazines website on their top 50 independent films.

This article has helped me as it has given me more independent films to find the trailers of on youtube so that I can see and research into a range of genres within independent films.

Independent

As I knew I wanted to do a teaser trailer with an independent feel to it and I have found that independent films don't tend to have teaser trailers as they don't having the funding to send out numerous trailers as the Hollywood production houses can, and also don't have the funding to be able to send the teasers out whilst the film itself is still being shot.

To solve this issue, I have chosen to analyse a number of teaser trailers I liked, and am researching into a number of trailers for independent films, this also will help me notice the differences between how a Hollywood trailer and Independent trailer are made and the shots used.

Article on teaser trailers

Whilst I was doing the research on teaser trailers I came across a article online that I found highly useful in not only finding out what makes a trailer effective but also in learning codes and conventions for trailers. The article writes about a variety of genres of trailers which has helped me work out which genre I will be able to film more effectively and which ones I won't be able to film well.

Below is a link to the article.

http://www.noisetosignal.org/film/2007/08/top-ten-teaser-trailers.php

Inception trailer analysis

Finished

View more presentations from A2MediaFisher.

I chose to look at this trailer as it is a trailer that really attracted me into wanting to see this film. Also I liked how the clips used aren't very long and want to include this into my own trailer.The other reason I chose to look at this trailer is because the whole promotional package appealed to me, and this was then something I wanted to use; such as creating a character poster.

Teaser ideas.

The initial ideas I have had for my teaser trailer were to try and make it look like an independent film as opposed to a Hollywood style, this is because I feel it would make it easier to make it look realistic within that style as opposed to a Hollywood one as I know I won't be able to make it follow the conventions from Hollywood genres.

Within this I decided I could portray this through keeping it in black & white, having just music in the background (also conventional of teaser trailers), using stills in the trailer (like in This is England) and to try and base my story on a coming of age theme. These ideas have come from watching trailers from Shane Meadows films as he is one of my favourite independent film directors and I found his trailers highly effective.

This is also due to the equipment I have available to me, as I know I won't be able to use CGI or create high budget effects that are in Hollywood films.

Teaser trailers I find effective

I find this teaser trailer effective as it doesn't give away the story line therefore sticking to one of the conventions whilst still being able to introduce the characters and advertise the film. This allows the audience to re-familiarise themselves with the characters as they are already known to the target audience.

The reasons I find this teaser effective are similar to the reasons for the Toy Story 3 trailer; however I find this one more intriguing is that we don't know any of the characters before this trailer and we still don't learn anything about them. The final reason I like this trailer is that the music in the background is quiet and minimal and only increases when important text is placed on the screen.

The reasons I like this trailer is that even though it uses a lot of speech during the film it gives very little of the plot away and just makes the audience question what they're watching. Also the way the speaking being used over the top is effective as it implies explanations of the speech by the shots shown.

The final teaser trailer is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The reason I chose this trailer is because it gives enough information to make the audience want to watch the film without giving away all the details of the plot. Also the use of the dramatic iconic music, builds the tension without taking away from the speech that is laid over the top.

All of these trailers are effective as they all follow different conventions of teaser trailers, matching the information I have recently learnt about trailers.

Teaser Trailers

From research I have found online I have learnt that the basic conventions of teaser trailers are;

• usually between 30 and 60 seconds long.
• They tend to be released up to 18 months before the films cinematic release.
• They are stereotypically only made for big budget films
• Their purpose is to let audiences know that the film is coming out and to create a buzz from early on.
• They are usually released whilst the film is still in production and therefore some include shots that don't eventually make it into the film.
• The teaser trailers don't give away much of the story line but do tend to introduce the characters
• Often voice overs are used to convey important information
• If dialogue from the film is used it is normally one-liners

Structure.

There is usually a structure within a trailer;

Opening: establishes setting and introduces character
Build-up: relationships established; development of characters and their world
Problem: a dilemma or series of complications: characters faced with an obstacle (or several) to overcome. There may be more than one ‘problem’ in the narrative
Events: a series of events as characters try to overcome obstacles and solve problems. Further complications may arise in the process.

This is the main area where trailers and teaser trailers differ as the majority of teaser trailers have non-linear narratives and therefore don't show all these areas within the teaser

Distribution and Exhibition

Teaser trailers have always been an effective way for audiences to find out which new films will be coming out in the next year to two years.

One of the most controversial exhibitions of a teaser trailer was for Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace; this is due to the fact that the first previews of this trailer was before the film 'The Siege' and many Star Wars fans brought tickets to see the film in order to see the teaser and then walked out of the cinema once it had been shown. Also when this teaser was released there were not the facilities like YouTube to be able to see the trailers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6hOlI9cg4o

Another trailer with a lot of controversy is the first Spiderman trailer. The reason this was surrounded by controversy is because the mini story line within it focuses around a bank robbery at the World Trade Centre, Twin Towers. This teaser was then immediately taken out of cinematic release after the terrorist attack; and since hasn't featured on the DVD as an extra like most film trailers do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Foz_QZW3w - Original Spiderman trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtYmWb9FQA - Re-made trailer

A2 Project

For this project we have to create a piece of film work; this can be a music video, a teaser trailer or a short film.

Out of these three mediums the one that most appeals to me is the teaser trailer as I feel it is the one that would most challenge me yet would also be the most interesting to research, plan and film.

However the main reason I am going to create a teaser trailer is that I enjoy watching trailers and already have a small understanding of what I believe makes a good trailer.