Dylan Peach A2 Media Blog

For our A2 coursework our group decided that we would choose the brief which included, creating a film trailer, a cover for a film magazine and a film poster. Due to this we had to research the conventions of each to enable that we made our product look professional.

Firstly, a main convention of film trailers are the titles, our trailer conforms to this as we have included titles. The variation of titles depends on the genre of film, however most trailers have a conventional set of titles. The titles that we included in our trailer were;

1. Production Companies

2. GreenBand

3. ‘This Summer’

4. ‘From the Director of Decorum’

5. Names

6. Slogan – ‘ When Deaths Clock is Ticking Time Becomes The Enemy’

7. Title

8. ‘Summer 2018’

At the beginning of the trailer the audience ae presented with the production companies, this informs the audience on who has produced the film. Commonly, film productions can display the budget of the film as it can either be a conglomerate company or an independent company. Also, particular companies are known for producing certain genres of film. As our film trailer is a thriller we decided to use ‘Lionsgate’ as this is known for producing thrillers. Aswell, as using a generic production company we also created our own independent company – ‘Vector Productions’, symbolising that an independent company is in partnership with one of the big six’s. Conventionally, most trailers also specify if their trailer as either ‘Greenband’ or ‘Redband’ which alerts the audience to the nature of the trailer/film. Our trailer would be classed as a ‘Greenband’ as it contains no bad language and little violence. Having the trailer rated at ‘Greenband’ allows for more publicity as it can seek an larger audience. Another title that conventionally appears in trailers is the date/ season that the full length film is going to come out. So in our trailer we have stated that it will be released ‘This Summer’, ‘Summer 2018’. Throughout, trailers titles such as; Names of the actors and information about the director is displayed; in our particular trailer we have informed the audience of our names aswell as stating that this film is a sequel to Decorum (Our AS project). We stated ‘From the Director of Decorum’ as the audience are then aware of the type of film its going to be, a rough idea of the story and the directors film style which may attract a particular audience.

Another convention that our trailer conforms to is character introduction. In most trailers, the audience are introduced to the main characters of the film, however, in some instances characters may not be introduced as they could be used as a surprise element in the film as the audience would be unaware of them. However, in our trailer we introduce the 3 main characters including the antagonist and protagonist. We introduce these characters as it allows the audience to get a feel of the nature of the film and an insightful grasp on what to expect from the full film. Although, we have only introduced the characters briefly displaying minor characteristics that entice the audience making them want to find out more meaning they watch the feature film; this is a typical stereotype of trailers.

One of the main conventions of a film trailer, is the title of the film. Without the title of the film being displayed the trailer would have no value to the audience as they don’t know what it is. Diue to this we have included the title of the film hallway through the trailer which somewhat challenges the stereotypes of film trailers as titles are often displayed at the end as it is thought that it makes it more memorable for the audience. However, we decided to put the title of our film in the middle of the trailer after we introduced the characters, we purposely did this as after the title we included a short piece of the torture scene to give the audience a glimpse of what to expect. As this short action scene has a narrative structure (which is unusual for film trailers) we decided to put it after the title as it could be seen as somewhat a sneak peek of the film.

When conducting research during this project we found out that trailers have to be between a certain lengths of time. The motion picture association of America (MPAA) states that all trailers should not be longer than two minutes and thirty seconds. Our trailer conforms to this and would be acceptable as it is just under 2 minutes of length, when producing the trailer we found it hard to believe that people could produce trailers for longer than 2 minutes 30 seconds without revealing to much about the film.

Another convention of film trailers is the use of music, in most trailers some kind of music is used whether this being diegetic or non-diegetic. In our trailer we have both non-diegetic and diegetic music to conform to the conventions of trailers, we used two different non-diegetic soundtracks which were added for numerous reasons such as: conveying the genre, complementing the actions on screen and providing the audience with suspense and tension. We also used diegetic sounds in the trailer when the antagonist punches and stamps on the protagonist; we included this to add emphasis on the violence and action which connotes the genre of the film. Aswell, as including music, voice overs are a genre trope of trailers as they provide the information with information. We used a voiceover at the beginning of the trailer to inform the audience that the protagonist is a student who is going to film their media project in an abandoned barn. Later on in the trailer, another voice over is used as the news reporter informs the audience of the information about the antagonist, this creates both suspense and tension.

The film trailer that we produced is for the thriller genre meaning alongside the conventions of a trailer, we also had to meet the conventions of a thriller. This was particularly easy as last year’s coursework was based on thriller openings meaning we already had a broad knowledge on the conventions, however, as it is a trailer not all of the conventions need to be displayed. The main convention of the thriller genre that needs to be considered in trailers is:

Suspense and Tension

Throughout thrillers there is a clear sense of suspense and tension which is displayed in many ways:

1. The music adds suspense and tension to the actions onscreen

2. Camera Angles

a. Close Up

b. High Angle Shot

c. Zoom Out

3. B-Roll Footage – As it is a trailer we used B-Roll footage throughout, some of this footage conveys suspense and tension throughout

a. High Voltage Sign

b. Antagonist walking banging metal rod

c. Barbed Wire

4. Torture Scene – The whole of this scene provides the audience with both suspense and tension

5. Characters – The protagonist is an ordinary person who is affected by unusual events

· Protagonist vs Antagonist

Most thrillers contain an aspect of Protagonist vs Antagonist and this holds most of the storyline/plot. Through our trailer there is a clear distinguish between the antagonist and the protagonist, however, during the trailer it is heavily dominated by the forceful antagonist.

Aswell as creating a film trailer we also created both a film magazine cover and a film poster for our film. This meant that we had to research the conventions of these so we could recreate a professional representation of these. Firstly, the film magazine conformed too many of the conventions of a typical magazine cover. We used a famous magazine as a template ‘Empire’ and followed the conventions and layout of their front covers. We included most aspects that are typically included on the front cover:

· Title of the feature film

· Puff

· Main Image

· Sub Topics

· Barcode

· Main Kicker

This is just some of the conventional features that can be seen on a magazine front cover.

In addition, our film poster also conforms to the stereotypical poster as it contains all the generic features:

· Slogan

· Main Image

· Film Title

· Main Actors

· Credits

Post production was definitely the hardest part of making the film trailer. We went through many different trailers as our ideas varied so I had to keep re-adjusting or changing the video and try and make use of the footage we had got. For the film trailer I used Premiere Pro.

Below I have wrote about how i edited the trailer:

First thing I did to edit the trailer was to split the film into different sequences in Premiere Pro. I had learnt this technique through my work experience with film company, ASA Productions. Basically I split the main parts of the film into different timelines and have one 'master' or 'main' timeline which I put the finished sequences in. This was useful to speed up productivity and make the timeline a little less messy so I could focus on certain parts of the film trailer without interfering with the rest of the film trailer.

Now I will focus on those said sequences in different sections if there is a specific section you want to look at.

Main

'Main' is pretty self explanatory. I added the compilation which I had moved the title opening and barn scene in which I will explain later along with the first clip of the school opening. If you notice I do not have a sequence of the first scene and is just a video I put in the start. That was because I had previously rendered that scene and felt like it didn't need changing so I just imported it in to save time.

The "HD to cinema transparent.png" was the black bars I put on top. I am aware you can just use masks and crops, there are many ways around making the black bars. However this is the way I have always done it. I have no need in the trailer to move the black bars for dramatic effects so I just added it to the top of the main sequence and locked it so I wouldn't accidentally move it when trying to move something else.

Barn

'Barn' sequence is where a lot of editing is straight away noticeable. Even though some of this sequence got cut in the final trailer, I will still go in-depth about it.

When I properly zoom in, which you will see in a screenshot below you can see the audio waves and the cuts I have made in correlation to them. Some of the scenes, and the most noticeable one where Jak's face is first shown has many cuts when the music peaks. This overall adds to a trailer. Through much research the best trailers have cuts which are in sync with the music.

Title Opening

'Title Opening sequence consisted of three main clips. The first was the vector productions logo we already had for the previous film we did. This is our made-up film production company. After that you see a 'Lionsgate' logo. This was slightly sped up to fit with the music. The last clip was the company 'MARV', this was taken from the film 'Kick-ASS 2' I also added hits in the audio when the clips start.

Compilation

The 'compilation' sequence was full of many cuts, probably the most in any of the other sequences.To make the video in sync with the music i went through and made a marker every time there was a loud 'hit' in the song. After doing this I was able to quickly edit the clips so that they were in sync with the song. I believe this worked really well in the trailer as it is a technique used in most action trailers.