Teaser Trailer Vs Theatrical Trailer

For our media coursework we were asked to create a promotional package for a film idea that we have come up with.  We had the choce of either creating a teaser trailer or a full theatrical trailer within this promotional package, as well as two individual ancillary tasks.  As a group we have chosen to create a teaser trailer as we feel that we will not have enough time to create a full theatrical trailer and incorporating our time into producing a teaser trailer will result in it being better qaulity therefore more effective and successful.

Film Magazine Front Cover

All the information I have concluded from the questionnaire researching the film poster, I will incorporate into the production of my film magazine front cover as both of these products will need to include similar conventions and detail.

Analysis of Market Research - Audience Response

As a group we created a set of questions to ask a selected few of our target audience to obtain some audience feedback and to collect information to help us create the most suitable and effective teaser trailer in relation to there thoughts and prefereations.

These are the questions that we asked them:

1.What do you think the thriller sub-genre is?

2.Do you think the main character of the film should be male or female?

3.What genre of music do you think would best suit the genre of the film?

4.What makes sci-fi thrillers appealing to you?

5.In a teaser trailer how much of the story line do you think should be revealed?

6.The chosen title of the film is itinerant, do you think this is suitable? If not can you suggest any appropriate titles?

The response from our audience was what we expected.  The overall favourite sub genre was sci-fi thriller.  As a group we predicted that this would be the chosen answer because of the element of the phone and technology.  We predicted that a male would be the desirable main character for the trailer as it is extremely rare that a female character would star as the main role in a film like this one.  The desired music was similar to the music chosen in our online survey therefore we are certain that we should incorporate this into our trailer as our audience feel that it will achieve the most effective sound for the trailer.  We need to ensure that our trailer involves an interesting story line and surprising as our audience finds these aspects of a trailer most appealing.  At the beginning of our audience response interviews we had come up with the film title of ‘Itinerant’.  Although we, as a group knew that the word meant moving from place to place, the audience was clueless and found the title irrelevant.  As a result of this, as a group we have decided to brainstorm different film titles that will be more suitable for the film trailer that we are making and relate to the film more obviously.

Analysis Of Market Research - Teaser Trailer Questionnaire

Question 1

From these results, I can colclude that the majority of our target audience would be interested in a psychological thriller.  This tells us that the genre of our film is suitable for our target audience.

Question 2

This question was to ask the audience their thoughts on the most suitable title.  The obvious favourite was 'Withheld'.  From these results we will ensure that we will incorporate and use these results by calling our film Withheld as that is the title that our target audience percieves to be the most suitable and effective.

Question 3

The results from this question will give us a rough idea of the sounds and instruments that the audience will find most effective when viewing our teaser trailer.  The sounds and instruments chosen are mostly the 'basey' sounding percussion instruments eg. Guitar and Drums.  These instruments will allow us to create a trailer that sounds dramatic and intense. 

Question 4

From these results I can pin point that the presence of the film title and the editing techniques used are deemed the most important factors to creating an effective teaser trailer according to our target audience.  It will be important that we take these results into consideration as we need to ensure that our teaser trailer is effective and appeals to our target audience.

Question 5

These results tell us, as a group, that our target audience think that a black, blank screen at the start of the teaser trailer would be the most effective way of opening the trailer.  The black, blank screen will create the feeling of mystery and will entice the audience to carry on watching the trailer.  As we want out trailer to appeal to our audience we need to ensure that this is taken into account when creating our trailer to ensure it will appeal to our audience.

Analysis Of Online Questionnaires

Question 1

From this response it suggests to me that the colours that I need to incorporate into my film poster are black, grey, white and red.  From this I can conclude that from an audience's point of view, monochrome colours with a contrasting vibrant colour will be most effective to reflect the genre of the film.

Question 2

From the results of this question, according to the target audience, a simple, basic and subtle disign and layout.  I agree with this result as I feel that a subtle, decluttered poster will be more effective than a busy overcrowdede one as it will allow the audience to pinpoint the important information and images on it.

Question 3

The results of this question is fairly varied however I agree with the answer with the highest percentage.  The target audience suggested that a full body silhouette would be most effective to use on a promotional poster.  By using a full silhouette image of the main character will allow the audience to familiarise themselves with the character and gives them an image that they can recognise.  The fact that it is a silhouette keeps the identity of the character a mystery and adds suspense to the fact that the audience will need to go and view the trailer to find out the identity of the character.

Question 4

The results show that font 4 is the most popular choice for the film poster.  An image of all the 4 fonts are displayed below:

Even though the most popular font with the target audience is font 4, I am choosing to ignore these results as I feel this font will potray more of a horror theme than a thriller theme.  Personally I feel that font 3 will be the most relevant font as one of the main objects in the trailer is a mobile phone and the font resembles the font that is used for numbers on a phone.

Question 5

From the results of this question I can conclude that the target audience found relevance in all the aspects of institutional information to be incorporated onto the film poster.  Regarding this I will ensure that I will include the title and tag line of the film as these were the two most voted aspects.  I will also include the production company as it will allow the audience to have a level of expectation of what the qaulity of the film will be and the date of release will allow tell the audience when to expect the film.

Market Research

As part of our market research we conducted two questionnaires on a survey website.  The questionnaires were conducted to reveal what would be the best ideas and conventions to include when filming and editing our teaser trailer.

http://www.sureveymonkey.com/s/HS65WJX

http://www.sureveymonkey/s/LW2XK83

Editing

Different types of edits

Transitions:

·         Fades

·         Dissolve

·         Wipe

·         Spiral

·         Shutter

·         Cut

·         Other digital effects

Cuts:

·         Fast cut

·         Jump cut

·         Cross cutting

·         Action match cut

·         Axial cut – similar to jump cut but moves closer or further away from the subject

What effects the type of editing used?

·         Genre

·         Pace of action

·         Sound used

·         Create illusions e.g. danger

·         Emphasise important objects

Marketing

Editing is used in trailers and TV adverts to advertise the film.  If editing is not used effectively then the audience may perceive the film in a different way to what it should have been therefore attracting the wrong audience.

Sound

Types of sound:

·         Non diagetic – sound you do not expect to hear

·         Diagetic – sound you expect to hear

·         Orchestral – orchestra music

·         Voice over - narrative

·         Dialogue – speech between characters

·         Sound effects – enhanced diagetic sound

·         Music

·         Theme tune

·         Sound bridge – sound between two cuts

What affects type of sound you hear?

·         Genre *

·         Pace of action

·         Location

·         Character

·         Prop

·         Narrative

·         Target audience *

·         Editing

Marketing/ cross promotion:

·         Theme tune

·         Ringtones

·         Quotes/ catchphrase

·         Soundtrack  *

            (* the most important)

Larry Crown:

·         Genre – romantic comedy

·         Target audience – late teens, adults

·         Expected sounds – lots of dialogue between characters, narrative of Larry Crown, diagetic sounds, soft romantic music along with bubbly music to go with comedy parts of the film

Mothers Day:

·         Genre – psychological horror

·         Target audience – late teens, young adults

·         Expected sounds – orchestral music to create jumpy sounds and sound effects to create tension.

Trailer Analysis - Bourne Identity

Inspiration

From analysing the promotional package of trailer, poster and magazine front cover of the film 'Source Code', I have concluded that I will use this film as the main source of inspiratrion for both of my ancillary tasks.

I will use what I have learnt from analysing them to influence how i create and edit my magazine front cover and promotional poster to allow my products to target my chose audience and reflect the genre chosen of action sci-fi.

Trailer Analysis - Source Code

Theatrical trailer analysis source code

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Analysis: Magazine front cover

Analysis: Source Code Poster

Analysis source code poster

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Analysis - Taken trailer

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene used throughout this trailer allows the audience to view the characters and content within the trailer to be realistic.  The use of casual, everyday clothing such as jeans, t-shirts and jumpers gives a sense that the events shown in the trailer can happen in everyday life and this it should be viewed upon as not a fictional storyline but a problem that may occur and what people may have to deal with at some point in their life.  The use of real cities and buildings allows the audience to have some sense of orientation and establish the differences between the cultures of the united kingdom and france.  Interestingly, the two main characters appear to be of similar age as to what the target audience will be.  This allows the audience to relate to the characters that they will be viewing.

Editing

As the storyline of the film needs to be shown in the trailer the majority of the cuts are of medium pace so enoguh is given away to the audience to allow them to come to a decision on their thoughts of what the full film will be like and what content it will contain, however these cuts are not too long as the producer will not want to give away too much of the story line so the audience still remains inquisitive and has an incentive to go and view the full film.  There are moments within the trailer where fast cuts are included.  These are minimal but frequent and occur mostly near the end of the trailer.  The fast cuts are used to add suspense and also give the illusion of fast pace.  The illusion of fast pace will be reflecting the fact that majority of the content within the film is action based e.g. chases between the father and the kidnappers.  The fact that they increase in intensity allows tension and suspense to build as the trailer goes on leaving the audience at the highest level of suspense dramatising the content which will potentially increase their desire to go and view the film or buy products.  Each cut is shown in chronological order in relation to how they will appear in the film.  This not only adds to the realism of the film but also allows another editing technique to be used; fades.  Fades are used between each cut to show the passing of time.  As the cuts are shown in chronological order with fades, or otherwise passing of time, inbetween each cut entices the audience to guess what is going on inbetween the content shown and the reason behind the events. 

Camera Shot/Angles

The majority of the camera shots used in this trailer are mid shots of the main characters; these being, the father and the daughter.  This allows ther audience to become familiar with the characters that will be involved in the majority of the screen time.  With the audience being familiar with the audience allows the audience to recognise any products involved with this film e.g. posters, magazines, screen savers etc.  There are also close ups used to enhace the increasing familiarisation that the audience will have of the characters as it allows the audience to feel connected with their gestures and emotions allowing the audience to feel the same emotions as the characters therefore more involved with the film.  There is also a close up teamed with a zoom on the mobile phoen the daughter uses to talk to her dad.  This close up and zoom is used to signify that the audience should view this prop as having high importance in this film as this phone is the man way of communication between the father and the kidnappers.  There is an establishing shot used along with a pan to allow the audience to be familiarised with the settings and places where the events are occuring.  By establishing the setting will allow the audience to understand the differences in language, bahviour and way of life portrayed in the film.

Sound

The music used for this trailer is minimal.  The majority of the sound is dialogue between the two main characters.  This may be due to the fact that there is no text superimposed onto the screen to explain the storline therefore dialogue is the main way of allowing the audience to understand the content that they are viewing.  The minimal sound that is used is mainly sound effects that compliment the cuts that occur.  These sound effects used are of high pitch and dramatic therefore, along with the fast cuts where they are used, adds to the intensity and enhances the suspense that is building up.  The sound effects used also help to reflect the genre of the film to the audience.

What I Have Learnt

Three things that I havelearnt from analysing this trailer and I will incorporate and consider when constructing my own trailer are;

- Use costumes and clothing that suit the purpose of the character and reflect the realism this needs to be created in my trailer e.g. everyday clothes

- Use fast paced cuts to add tension and suspense, also to portray that the content of the film will be fast action paced

- Use close ups and zooms to signify to the audience that the objects are an important factor within the trailer and film.

Certification

As our target audience is aged between 15-25 we need to ensure that our trailer is edited correctly so it would qaulify to be certified a 15.  I researched the BBFC website for the criteria that we would have to consent to while editing our trailer.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

To make our film suitable for the viewing of people aged 15 we need to ensure that no violent action is shown that could be immitated by the target audience.  We need to consider this as our film is an action film and includes chases we need to ensure that no physical or verbal violence is included.  This should not be a problem in the trailer as we will not be using any diagetic sound.

Genre & Target Audience

Film Poster Analysis - Jumper

The promotional film poster for Jumper is simple but effective.  The image of the two pyramids frame the character and draws the audience's eye to him, also the concept of placing the person on top of the Egyptian Sphynx places him above everyone and most other objects, this signifies his importance aswell as the fact that the Sphynx is a major landmark and a spectacular sculpture that is known all over the world.  The Sphynx is used as it a place that not many people would consider to be and would not be a place where people would commonly be seen, especially on the top of the Sphynx's head.  This supports the film tag line that is included on the poster; 'anywhere is possible'. 
The entire poster is presented in a sepia colour tone.  This not helps tell the audience the location, environment and portrays desert like colours but also helps set a time of day.  The sepia colour tone is an effective way of symbolising the colours of a sunset and strongly shows contrast between light and dark areas creating shadows that we would expect at that time of day.  This gives a sense of realism.  The conditons of the hitorical landmarks shown by the intense shadows revealing detailed cracks, lines and damages signifies the age of the landmarks consequently revealing that the image was concocted recently.  The subtle glow that surrounds the image of the person and the light background contraststhe darkness of the image.  This also aids the portration of his significance and importance he will play in the film.
The white colour used follows the colour theme of the poster but is still slightly contrasting to the darker sepia colours to allow the text to stand out to the audience.  The title of the film is in the biggest and boldest font is this is the first bit of text they should read to let them know what the poster is about.  As the importance of the text decreases so does the font size and severity of boldness.  Other text that is obviously larger than the rest is the two titles of previous films that the director of 'Jumper' has also directed.  This tells the audience the standard of film they should expect.  Other text includes institutional information as well as the films official website.  This entices the audience to research about the film in more depth as the poster does not reveal alot about the film leaving and the darkness of the character leaves the poster seeming mystical and mysterious.  This factor as well as the font and the blont lined images  help portray the genre, being sci-fi thriller, to the audience.
From this analysis I have decided to use some of the techniques displayed when producing my film poster.  I will keep my my promotional poster simple and bold.  There will also be an image of the main character to familiarise the audience with who will be in the film.  A tag will also be used as I feel it is a good way of understanding the poster and relating it to the trailer and film.  It also helps recognise the film. All these techniques will aid me to portray the genre of the film - sci-fi/thriller.

Shutter Island Promotional Package Analysis

Jumper Trailer Analysis

I have chosen to alayse a promotional package for the film 'Jumper'.  My choice is instigated by the relationship between this film and our teaser trailer.  

Mise En Scene
The mise-en-scene of the film uses realistic locations and costumes.  The film appears to be set in real life locations.  The costumes for the characters reveal their personalities and social status.  This all aids to portray the realism of the film to allow the special effects used and twisting storyline to appear more real life than they actually are.  This is an important factor that we must aim to include in our teaser trailer as we want to give thr perception of a realistic setting, characters and storyline.  The level of realism that we portray will determine how effective our teaser trailer is.


Sound
A vast amount of diagetic sound is used throughout the trailer.The main one is dialogue.  The use of diagetic sound contributes to the realism of the film, settings and actions.  There is also non diagetic sound that is used to add effects and to increase suspense.  Examples of this are the special effects used when the actor is transported to the different places.  This allows the audience to know that something significant is happening.  Also music is used throughout the film to set the pace of action and to also help the audience to detect which location he has been ported to. E.g. Egyptian music to tell the audience that he has been ported to Egypt.   All of this analysis has helped me to conclude that we will need to incorporate these aspects into our teaser trailer.  As the plot of our film is similar to this one and we need to keep the trailer as realistic as possible, then the concepts of diagetic and non diagetic sound used throughout this trailer will be used when we produce ours.

Editing and \camera shots
The editing used is mainly fast and frequent cuts.  This creates the image that the film is going to be fast paced and a vast amount of action will be present throughout the film.  Fades are also used to show the passing of time and that the cuts shown in the trailer are not consecutive to each other.  The cuts are shown in chronological order in reference to the film.  This allows the audience to gather a slight idea of the journey throughout the film and the reasons and consequences of events.  There are establishing shots used to allow the audience to establish the location or setting of the scene.  Close ups of characters faces are also incorporated to show expression and emotions and allows the audience to see how they are feeling and reacting to events.  This allows the audience to relate to the actors in more depth.  Extreme close ups are used to help show the significance of objects. E.g. when there is an extreme close up of his hand to show the significance of the object he is holding.  Our teaser trailer will need to incorporate similar conventions as our trailer will include fast paced action also close ups will be used to symbolise the importance of the mobile phone.

Teaser Trailer Analysis

The teaser trailer is almost like the trailer of the trailer.  It gives the audience a glimpse of what is to come.  Most teaser trailers are filled with extremely fast cuts and the majority of them are close ups or medium shots to show the audience the significant characters and objects in the film.  The official trailer will expand on these giving more of an insight into the journey in the film and the important events that will occur.  The trailer will also feature the production company, release date, title of the film and the different formats that the film is going to be able to be viewed in.  This gives us a rough idea of the things we should include in our trailer and some of the effects that we could use that will be effective.  

This is the teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  The trailer begins with the theme tune of the film that familiarises the audience with the Harry Potter series..  There are numerous fast cuts through out the trailer using a mixture of close ups, mid shots and establishing shots to show important environments and objects.  They use the fast cuts to tell a story of the journey of Harry Potter from beginning to end, aswell as his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.  Fades are used between the cuts to show the passing of time.  There is also superimposed text to tell the audience what the teaser trailer is showing.  It ends as a cliff hanger which entises the audience to go and see the fim so they can find out what happens.  They teaser trailer also includes the title of the film, the release date, what formats the film will be shown in and the production company.  The mise en scene used in the trsiler follows the mise enscene used in all the other Harry Potter films.  The oldy worldy cloaks and dark colours of clothing used complys with the magical environment of Hogwarts.  The colours used for the title and introduction shot are dark and gloomy signifying that the trailer and also the film will be mysterious and that the 'dark side' will be present in the film.  The 'dark side' signifying Lord Voldemort.
For my teaser trailer I will try and mimick the special effects used through out the trailer to allow my trailer to express a sense of supernatural powers but still seem realistic.  

Ideas for Genre of Our Trailer

When we were proposed with the task of creating a promotional package for our A2 media coursework we had to come up with a genre and target audience for our products. \we tackled this by first of all brainstorming films that we, as a group, were interested in. 

As all of these films have follow the genre of action or have an action element to it we dicided that we would design a film trailer that incorporated this genre.  We also decided to follow this genre as we felt that our personal interest in it gave us an insight into what conventions and techniques we sould be using to create a successful trailer.


As we were interested in action films ourselves we decided to choose a target audience of young adults aged ranging from 15 - 25.  As wefitted into our chosen target audience we felt that that would give us some insight into how successfully our products appealed to our target audience.

Introduction

Welcome to my A2 media studies blog.  I have been asked to complete a project that will involve the production of a teaser trailer, a promotional poster and a magazine front cover for a film.   I will first conduct research into the conventions of all of these media formats, then I will begin the planning and production of the project, before evaluating each aspect. All of this will be documented on my blog.