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