Yesterday was the EXTENDED deadline to finish your blog including EVALUATIONS. Why has this not been done? You have not even completed the planning posts that should have been done months ago and will be penalised for this. If this is not completed immediately you will be in danger of failing this and it is 40% of your marks.

Website

Here is the link to the webiste for our film. http://www.wix.com/eb12media2011/higher

Checking Blogs

You have to have a clear signed progression
from RESEARCH to PLANNING and CONSTRUCTION then EVALUATION tasks.
Check your blogs for errors and omissions –
refer to my previous posts and maintain a coherent appearance; don’t change
fonts and colours for no apparent reason.
Make sure you have appropriate links and
pictures etc. and that they work.
Simply copying and pasting info from elsewhere will
not get you marks: It must be acknowledged and referred to in relation to how
it has affected your thinking, planning and construction.
If your blog is thorough, thoughtful and shows research,
understanding and personal engagement it will get a good mark. If it is sloppy
in presentation, incomplete and doesn’t really analyse, explain, justify or
appear to understand your choices, it won’t.
STILL A LOT TO DO HERE HARRY!

Shot List

1)Bird's eye shot of teenager tied to chair
2)Medium close up of teenager's side profile
3)Overhead shot of teenager sat at desk
4)Close up of teenager writing
5)Long shot of teenager sat at desk with back turned to the camera
6)Side profile of teenager
7)Medium-long shot of teenager swivelling on chair to right
8)Close up of phone vibrating, teenager reaches for phone
9)Over the shoulder shot of teenager looking at the phone
10)Medium close up of teenager speaking on phone
11)Jump cuts of teenager putting coat on
12)Medium close up of teenager speaking on phone
13)Elliptical fade to long shot of teenager walking towards friends
14)Over the shoulder shot of teenager's friend pointing to market stall
15)Medium close up of teenager sat in chair
16)Medium shot of teenager being pushed towards the stall
17)Medium shot of teenager sat in chair
18)Shot of car driving towards camera
19)Medium long shot of teenager stealing clothing
20)Over the shoulder shot of two gangsters in car pointing
21)Shot of teenager looking at car
22)Shot of gangster leaving car
23)Shot of teenager beginning to run
24)Shot of Gangster running across street
25)Tracking shot of teenager and gangster in alleyway
26)ground level shot of second gangster coming and pinning teenager to ground
27)Ground level shot of car approaching gangster and teenager
28)over the shoulder shot of gangster waljing towards teenager putting glove on
29)ground level shot of teenager being dragged into car
30)Medium over the shoulder shot of teenager getting ready in mirror
31)Shot of teenager strapped to chair smoke billowing
32)Two shot of teenager and gangster sat at table
33)Shot of teenager looking at phone

Inception Film Poster Analysis

For A2 media studies I have been studying and analysing the film poster used to advertise Inception, the Hollywood produced wide-release film which was directed and created by Christopher Nolan.

The poster depicts a male character standing in the turmoil of an ever increasingly flooding city, surveying his surroundings as he remains stationary. This is illustrated by the ground being covered completely in deep knee high water and the presence of dark rain clouds, which dominate the skyline. The water that runs along the ground of the unnamed ground appears to be flowing erratically, something which creates a sense of impeding danger and peril for the inhabitants of city, and the character that is situated in the midst of apparent turmoil. The character in question is that of male, and appears to be well groomed, brandishing a formal suit. This creates an impression of authority and professionalism on behalf of the character for the audience and hints upon the characteristics he possesses. The fact he is wearing a suit in conjunction with a well groomed, slicked back hairstyle suggests that he is a wealthy receives a large economical income due to the fact it is stereotypically associated with young American Businessmen, or ‘Yuppies’. The man appears to holding a gun in his right hand. This image connotes a sense of power on behalf of the character to the audience, and potential danger that could be created due to the presence of this weapon. This weapon could also create an impression of unpredictability as to the nature of the character and the motives he has, this is further emphasised by the manner in which he is surveying his surroundings. The presence of this prop also brings to question the nature of the character, and the cause that he is fighting for, it is possible that this character could be a protagonist fighting for good causes or an anti-hero with a volatile personality, that is not necessarily fighting for the most possible cause. It is also notable that the face of the character is not shown in the image. This further enhances and supports the feeling of anonymity towards the character and the motives he possesses. The fact that he is facing away from the camera also suggests that he is possibly ashamed of an event or action that he takes during the film something which creates a sense of mystery.

It is also notable that the character is captured in a mid shot, on a wide camera lens, which enables the onlooker to see his surroundings and the grand scale of the events occurring around the character. The character is captured in a mid shot to create a feeling of intimacy between the onlooker and the character, and also a sense of empathy for the viewer, as it enables the audience to see the surroundings from the perspective of the main character. The shot is also takes from the perspective of a low angle shot, which creates the image from below the character, and the vast skyscrapers which surrounds the character. This also creates a sense of scale and danger for the audience, and also reinforces the authority of the character which is created.

In addition it is noticeable that the poster takes a dim lighting, using low key, low contrast lighting, which creates a possible sense of misery and depression, something which has been created by the flooding.

Update on Planning!

You have some useful info here but you need to sort out your post order with Research and analysis of trailer conventions 1st THEN Planning ideas and tasks.

You have some useful analysis in Research but you still haven't done what I advised and posted links for ALL your trailers and relevant pics to illustrate points.

At the moment this blog is less thorough, informative and interesting than others and the lack of any attempt to make your blog appear lively and interesting will lower your marks. After your lack of effort on the AS Coursework re-sit its especially important you don't mess this one up Harry!

BLOG

You need to include pics and links to illustrate your analyses and you need a WORKING link to go with your trailer analysis>You need pics of props and locations and a bit more explanation/analysis of your choices and their use. How will you make your final title choice and are you going to do any audience research to find out their appeal? What about your choice of fonts etc?

Soundtrack

We will make the soundtrack on Logic Pro 9 using plugins, effects units and samplers. This allows us to have the freedom of matching the piece perfectly to the trailer, changing it wherever we want. We can also change the key, change chords and add notes whenever in order to correspond with the scenes on screen and level of energy present. This freedom is something that will benefit our trailer on the whole.

Non-Diegetic Sounds

We will make all these sounds ourselves again. We will use Logic Pro 9 to edit sounds, record our own samples and manipulate sounds we use from copyright-free sample packs. We can add reverb, distortion and other effects to make them suit the mood and at the same time provide the desired atmosphere. For example we could add lots of reverb to a pen hitting a cup to give a spacey, eerie feel to the setting,

Diegetic Sounds

We plan to make all the sound for the video ourselves. For the diegetic sounds we will include a use of dialogue in the film and the sound effects present from objects you can see, for example this might be a smashing window or a character panting. We may re-dub some of the sounds in Logic Pro 9 which is advanced music editing software in order to maximise the effect of those sounds.

Location

• Fields for one of our ideas as a large open space has lots of scope to work with

• Rochdale is the hometown of 2/3 of the group and has lots or urban areas, they also live close to rural roads which add a sense of thrill and mystery to the film


• A garage for the hostage scene. This can be a house garage or an open warehouse space which is easy to disguise. By having a scene in a garage it adds reality. Therefore it is more serious and gripping as people can put themselves in their shoes.

• Typical British streets. This allows for our theme and genre to be applied. It will also make the film seem very English as we have very distinctive roads and houses as well as other background objects.

Props

• Baseball bat
• Hire Car
• Car keys
• Cricket bat
• Disco ball/coloured lighting
• Fake gun
• Fog machine
• Golf ball
• Golf club
• Golf tee
• Strobe light
• Smart ‘gangsterish’ clothing

Title Idea 3

‘NORTHERN SOUL’ – This name has lots of connotations and is very fitting for our film. It fits the industry, our location and the characters. We know it is from a retro era so we would make it modernised, but nowadays the idea of ‘Northern Soul’ is very much back to life with clothes shops and music events, therefore many people could relate to it.
Northern soul emerged from the 60’s in a mod era, in the mod era there was lots of conflict between other gangs such as punks, which can relate to the tension between groups of people in our own production.
Northern will clearly be relating to our location of the Northwest.
Soul itself is a very mysterious and eerie word, this gives off negative connotations which gangster life may bring. The soul is seen as the centre of the body so is a prized possession of any human therefore would be something you want to protect, protection is a massive theme with the gangster scene so it can link to our production in that way.

Title Idea 2

‘MANTLE’ – this name began with the idea of crossing over two words and ideas. As our film is going to be British and northern we always had the idea of involving the word ‘Manchester/Madchester’ thus the part ‘Man-‘. When we were generating title ideas we also had the suggestion ‘Metal’, therefore we combined the two to produce ‘MANTLE’. This word, we feel is very fitting because of the way it has been designed and it also has its own connotations.
For example, ‘Mantle’ sounds and looks like ‘Mental’ which is a characteristic of the stereotypical gangster. It also sounds identical to ‘Mantle’ as in the earth’s mantle, this could connote that situations will heat up and there will be fire explosions or fast, sweaty chase scenes.

Title Idea 1

‘HIGHER’ – this is a play on the word ‘hire’ as our film is based around a hire car company. It fits the genre because it is quite inconspicuous and it will be clear to the audience that it has relevance once they watch it. As the word itself has several dictionary definitions, it leaves the reader thinking at a first glance.

After asking several people what they thought about it after first hearing it, they gave us several suggestions as a reply. They guessed that the film would include:
-A hierarchy or characters, one main villain or main ‘gangster’.
This relates to our film as their will actually be a distinctive powerful character which will stand out from the rest.
-Drug related
This also relates to our film as gangsters and crime thrillers usually have drugs as a centre point for storylines so we thought it would be important to involve this, it is also an easy and simple prop to use

Trailer Analysis

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – Analysis

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2274558233/

The titles that appear in the lock stock and two smoking barrels are not what you would expect from a crime thriller, but this is because comedy is also a big part of the film. However, they fit very well as they are heavily edited with things such as shadows and energetic transitions. The titles also fit the era of the film, 1998, as the lettering is not fancy. It is just straight forward bold lettering, which also has British connotations. This can also be seen in similar-era films such as ‘Starsky & Hutch’ and ‘Snatch’. They tell us the film will be serious, and they also hint at the type of comedy to expect. If it was soft, family comedy the letters would most likely be swirly, make some sort of picture or have a certain trademark font such as Shrek, the ‘S’ in particular as it has the Shrek ears.
The simplistic design is also very typical of the director Guy Ritchie, which suggests he would have had some input on the idea, his other films use little colour and are straight to the point such as ‘Rock n Rolla’ and again, ‘Snatch’.

This is the film title as it appears in the trailer. As you can see they are very easy to read, they are bold and stand out and they have the tilt so they connote comedy. The picture to the left is also quite funny as you wouldn’t expect that to be a serious picture of the typical ‘gangster’. They also have reference to Britain as the background of the ‘and’ is a union jack. The black background is also powerful as it something the reader doesn’t notice on screen, allowing them to take in this image fully and allowing the union jack to have a larger effect and not needing to be big to be noticed. The ‘pillar’ the characters appear to be stood on is red which is a connotation of blood and danger, things which are both a big part of the film and very common throughout with gun crime, car crashes and gang rivalry. The characters have also been edited into a silhouette which has comedic effect on the film, as they are just outlines however, they provide us with a sense of mystery and we want to match the characters seen in the trailer to the four seen above, this is a technique used to relate to the audience and make them want to watch it.

The genre is definatly a hybrid between Crime, Thriller and Comedy. It has reference to these three genres throughout and they are entwined perfectly. Crime is present with the involvement of weapons, drugs and gang rivalry. It is also a thriller because we are kept on edge as one gang member is caught by the other and held at gun point, and gang members hide in other gang’s houses for example. The comedy part comes across accidently through dopiness and stupidity of other characters. There is a scene where a character with a perm is shot and the bullet goes straight through his hair leaving behind a hole of smoke. As some of the genres are done to look accidental and some are exaggerated it becomes very unique and I think this is why the film is so entertaining and successful as it fits its niche. It relates to other films directed by Guy Ritchie such as ‘Snatch’ with the thriller and crime side which is why I think he found scope to add humour, this is another reason the hybrid genres are very well portrayed.

The film is rated 18 so the audience intended is of that age plus. I think this is very suitable for the film because of everything it includes such as weapons, drugs and sexual content. As well as this point, I think people younger than this age such as 14 or 15 would struggle to understand some of the connotations and struggle to fit the whole storyline together. The film could have to contain these elements in order to be successful so I think the certificate is perfect.
The trailer appeals to these by showing the more violent, yet comedic scenes and clearly hinting that the characters are gangsters and involved with the gangster lifestyle. Stereotypically we know this involves weapons, drugs and sexual content mentioned above so it is clear to the audience that the full version will be rated 18. They do widen the appeal of the film with comedy which could also be a bad thing as younger viewers might be tempted to watch it or secretly download it on the computer without parental consent; I would say this is the only negative connotation of the trailer.

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels had a very unique selling point as it was one of the first successful British gangster crime thrillers at the time it came out in 1998. The fact that comedy and crime had been infused together, but still with its serious tone allowed it to be one of a kind and make it a desirable film to watch. I also think some people would have been able to relate to situations in it throughout or at least hear about the kinds or storylines in everyday conversation, particularly at that time in London as the film also involves lots of modern day issues.
The cast of the film also give it a high reputation and make it very creditable as it includes such actors as Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones. Jason Statham is quite a talented actor so the audience will enjoy watching his performance and he does all his own stunts, another respectable characteristic of an actor. Vinnie Jones is an ex Welsh footballer so he will already have had a largely accumulated fan base through that profession. He is also typically known as a ‘hard man’ so he plays the roll very well. The fact these actors portray the characters perfectly makes this kind of film very successful. In the trailer, the film was regarded as “Fresh, fast and utterly original” by Jonathan Foreman of the New York Post. His compliment will also encourage an audience.

The trailer begins with dialogue from the mouth of Vinnie Jones, he introduces the trailer with “rack them guns up, count the money and put your seat belt on”, this is diegetic sound. As you can see this tackles the issues of weapons, money and is followed by a humorous comment, neutralising and lightening the mood/situation. As this is the first thing you hear from the trailer before any non-spoken sound you can already get an idea of what the film is going to be like. Music then begins as a guitar chord is strung and a rock riff is layered above it. This runs along with a chase scene were Jason Statham is running away from the police and it provides the action seen on screen with a sense of energy.
In terms of non-diegetic sound, an American narrator then begins to say the reviews it has received over the top of the scene and praise how good it is giving it credibility. This is in direct contrast with the actual film as ‘Lock, Stock’ is very British, but I think buy the narrator having an American accent it mixes it up and makes it less confusing; if the narrator was English it wouldn’t work as well as they would all have similar accents and it would seem quite monotone, America is home to a large culture of film so this also adds to its credibility.
The fast tempo rock soundtrack continues to build a crescendo throughout as drums and percussion are layered on top, along with bass guitar. This makes us think it will be action packed, full of energy and chaotic throughout with lots of exciting features and scenes as that would fit the soundtrack we are hearing as do the scenes we are shown in the trailer. We also hear diegetic sounds and sound effects of money flickering, guns being reloaded and characters shouting which reassure the audience of what it will be like. Pauses in the narrative speech allow for characters to be introduced or say a few lines from the film, this is a way to tease the audience and leave them on a cliff-hanger which will make them want to watch the film. Halfway through the trailer the first rock song switches to a Classic Brit Pop song by Oasis, this adds credibility as they are a world famous band and it will be another enjoyable part of the trailer for people. Not only this, but fans of Oasis (which would have been millions of people) will be drawn to the film and may become encouraged to see it simply through this feature.

Ideas

With these pointers and a general idea of the direction of our trailer we devised some ideas.

IDEA 1:
Main gang: group of middle aged teen kids.
One of the teens gets dared to smash a car window
He gets caught as there is an unseen person inside
The driver chases the boy down through streets and traffic and catches him
The driver (gangster) gets the teen involved into the gangster lifestyle and he grows up as the runt who turned out to be a stereotypical British gangster

IDEA 2:
A man hires a car from a car hiring showroom
That car was previously used to store, transport illegal drugs
The drugs were left side and the agency collected the car
The gangster’s lose their goods and set out to retrieve them
The new driver is just an innocent man who is unaware of the cars inviolvement
The gangsters track him down and give him trouble as they think he is playing dumb, he is simply confused and unaware
The hire car owner has retrieved the goods and they eventually track them back to him
The victim takes some sort of revenge

Ideas

First we did a brain storm of potential scenes we could include in our production, they didn’t have to be in a particular chronological order but they helped us to distinguish a genre and to gain a starting point for our production.
This is what we wrote down:

1) 90’s 4x4 parked up at traffic lights or at the roadside
2) We see the silhouette/full picture of a character coming towards the rear window (from the inside) with a baseball bat, swinging towards the rear window.
3) The window is smashed/attempted to be smashed in ‘slo-mo’
4) Blackout transitions to hostage scenes with strobe lighting
5) Light filters and strobes over dry ice
6) Tied up characters in a garage setting
7) Speedy, smooth camera movements
8) Characters in typical shell-suits or smart suits
9) Drug dealers
10) Car hire garage to make a link between gang and victim
11) Intricate camera positioning and movements
12) Effects in the editing process such as glare, blur and fading to black

This block like font is a bit more design heavy as it involves a heavy use of shadowing and tilt on the lettering. This makes it slightly tricky to understand but a few simple editing processes could eradicate this problem. As it is very simple however, there is lots of scope for a design and particular, recognisable design to be used on it. For example ‘Layer Cake” is spelt like “L4YER CAK3”. The digits relate to a feature of the film as they are car registration digits. It is now recognisable and that font idea reminds people of that particular film.

This sans serif font is quite interesting as it is similar, and influenced by the computer game “Grand Theft Auto”. The game itself has a storyline which involves drugs, crime, police and car chases. all of these are connotations of productions we have looked at and we intend to use some of them in our own production. The fact that this neutral looking font is so fitting for that game, it will be fitting for our own production. We could further edit it in Photoshop to give it a unique and distinctive font, relating to, and reminding people of our own production. The font is also very edgy and we intend to produce some edgy, thrilling scenes.

This sans serif font is quite interesting as it uses a minimal, mysterious looking design to fill the letters. It looks very ‘crime’ and is very modern. It relates to simplicity of other films similar to our genre such as ‘Snatch’. Some letters, however are a bit tricky to see we would further edit and enhance the lettering in Photoshop when designing the full title if we were to use this font, but I think it could be very effective as it looks very similar. You would never see a font like this used on a chick flick for example.

This font has a simple, but very effective design in terms of what we are trying to portray. It is quite neutral in terms of connotations but it has a retro, 80’s/90’s vibe to it. The extra lines add depth to it which makes it stand out and be that little bit more distinctive than others. I would say this font would relate to other films such as ‘Starsky and Hutch’ which is also a crime thriller. Therefore it suggests and shows where some of our influence has come from. ‘Lock Stock has a straight forward text but lightens it up by slanting it, this is straight forward but lightens it up with the extra lines and design.

Font ideas

This font is very modern and simple so it relates to our production as we want am modern take on an old idea. It also relates to older films of the similar genre, for example films such as ‘Snatch’, ‘Layer cake’ and ‘Lock, Stock’ have very straight forward sans-serif fonts. We were influenced by this as you can see by the lettering. The flickers that the font has give it an arty and creative edge and looks like smoke. Smoke comes from fire, cigarettes and other burning objects so it relates to fire and danger, another reason why it is appropriate for our genre.

Video Editing Ideas

This is where we have stored ideas we have thought of along the way that we might use when we edit the video. We will be using Pinnacle Studio which has lots of built in effects, transitions, sound effects and titles but there are websites where you can download and make custom ones which we may use.

-Fast transitions
-Fade to black
-Fade to white
-High contrast lighting effects
-Colour filter effects
-Slow motion on certain clips, points in clips or scenes
-Animated Titles
-Split screen editing
-Tracking shots sped up

Cast & Characters.

We will be using our friends as the cast members. Several of our close friends have experience in the acting industry and have featured as extras on hit dramas on national television which credits our production very well. As they are close friends we can trust them and they will be reliable, which is an important factor when filming as they will listen to us, be on time and follow instructions as well as giving their own input.

We will be casting:
3-4 Gangster characters
1-2 Hire car company owners
1 Victim

We then have a relatively large amount of people we can use as extras if needed.
As a group we will be getting involved as characters, editors, cameramen and directors.

Costume

In terms of costume we planned out two ideas for the two different concepts we came up with, one modern and one ‘retro’ and ‘old-skool’.

Modern:
-‘Gangster’ will wear smart suits with maybe the add accessory such as chain or watch
-Hire car owner will have a casual, but representative work outfit
-Victim will be a smart casual male in a pair of jeans and t-shirt with jumper or coat to make it realistic.

‘Retro/Old-Skool’
-‘Gangsters’ will be identifiable with retro style tracksuits and large logos on t-shirts, bright colours will also be apparent in trainers and maybe on some of the clothing detail. They will still have an essence of smartness and wealth about them.
-Hire car owner will just be in casual attire, light blue jeans and a home-made t-shirt or a shirt.
-Victim will be in jeans and a shirt or retro styled coat/jacket.
-Fake facial hair to comply with the 90’s cop image.

Planning Ideas

The genre of our film is an action crime thriller. This will also include influences of the ‘geezer’ image.

Our film will be shown in cinemas and through other forms of media such as sky box office.

Our production will be aimed at people aged 15 or 18 and above. The reason behind this is that it will include scenes of violence, drugs and other adult connotations so it could definitely not be certified any younger than that. Films alike including, Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels are certified 18+ which provided a guide for us.

We will include key elements of action, thriller and geezer films. This could be things such as the cockney accent (or similar regional accent) and two rival gangs. Special effects and filming techniques are also key features of these genres so they will also be present in our production.

The key focus of our trailer will be ‘gangsters/crooks/criminals. This is the type of character our film will revolve around.

A film company which would distribute our film would be Miramax if it was to a big hit with a big budget. If the film was more independent and British, with a lower budget then it would be a company like Summit Entertainment who produced Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels.
If we were to invent our own studio it would be very similar. We would like to produce similar gritty films, but we would also produce comedies. In our planning stage we had ideas of including comedy, so our company would be unique in this way.

The characters would be a selling point of our film but the unique storyline would draw in the most attention. It is a Mancunion based modern gangster film which has never been made so it is a niche already. The props and special effects will help the film to look professional and realistic which is another way to sell a film.

Target Audience

Our Trailer is advertising a Gangster film set in England and as with any other genre this has a target audience. The target audience in our will most likely be males in the age range of 15-35. This is due to the themes which involve violence and criminal activities which, in films, interest men more and due to the violence only people above a certain age will be permitted by the BBFC’s age restrictions. The Audience would also be people who like previous films like Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla. Using the website IMDB for research I discovered that 127,700 males watched and reviewed Long Stock and Two Smoking Barrels whereas only 13,530 females did the same this is because more males watched it and also the male score is slighter high than the one from females and also males aged 18-29 rated the film 8.4 but males 30-44 rated it 8.4. Long, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a film similar to ours so our target audience should be similar.

THE CONVENTIONS AND PURPOSE OF A TRAILER

Trailers come in two forms of trailers a teaser and a theatrical trailer. A teaser trailer is a shorter trailer that is shown at the early stages of promotion and is used to entice the viewer and make them want to see more and also establishes genre, characters and the plot briefly whilst setting the scene. A viewer can instantly tell that the film The Inbetweeners is a comedy by showing the characters and a few jokes from the film. It also helps as this has an established fan-base and will immediately get a lot of attention just from the title. A theatrical trailer is a much longer trailer that appears in cinemas and on the internet a few months before release. An example of a good theatrical trailer is 'The Dark Knight' from which we can clearly see an action film. It has special effects, star actors, explosions car chases and it establishes the main characters and their story lines. A theatrical trailer is used to get the audience to know watching the film will be an experience they will enjoy.
Trailers are also effective as they get people talking to one another about the film. Using this they inform and enthuse people into seeing the film. Films trailers are always targeted at a certain demographic. For example 'The Dark Knight' is targeted at males 12+ and so it is marketed in a way that these people can see it such as using video games and on the internet.
You can expect to see certain things from a trailer these are its conventions. The best bits from a film will be shown. For example if it is and action film the trailer will show the biggest explosions and the highest intensity moments whereas in a comedy it will show all the funniest jokes. Trailers will often have moments the viewer won’t fully understand and this will make them want to see the film to find out for example In the Dark Knight trailer when a lorry flips over. A film with big name stars will often want to flaunt that to the audience so their names will sometimes appear onscreen as its own shot. A film trailer will usually have a voice over the majority of a time from someone not in the film like a voice actor with a famous voice for example Phil Lafontaine but sometimes from a character using dialogue from a film in the film. Music is used in almost every trailer it is a very good indicator of the mood and pace of the film and sometimes a trailer with good music is enough to make someone want to see it. The title of a film will usually appear at the end on its own in large font so it sticks in your mind called the title plate like in the dark knight when they appear dramatically on the screen.
A huge factor in the success of a film’s release is many forms of promotion. Trailers are usually at the forefront of this campaign but they are followed by posters, billboards, standees and TV spots that most people may see every day. Special offers are also used to get audience members such as free tickets in newspapers. Websites are extremely important and interviews with cast and crew. Many films even have a TV show dedicated to them for example on t4 for example “t4 on set of ….”
Sometimes films with barely any promotion can be a huge success for example 'The Blair Witch Project' which made hundreds of millions from a tiny budget. Word of mouth is seen as free advertising as if a person sees a film and tells all their friends it will make more money as the viewer is provided with social interaction an example of how we use the media for our own gratification. With the use of social networking sites a film can be spread around very quickly and hundreds of people can be made aware of it every second. This is true of Paranormal Activity which managed to make millions on an incredibly tiny budget of $15,000 due to the word of mouth from fans of the film and has now gone on to be an incredibly successful franchise.
Horizontal integration is the idea of one company owning a variety of media interests which they can then use for the promotion of a film. For example Sony with the Spiderman series uses video games and its own soundtrack to promote films using its own companies. Owning various types of media outlets is called a synergy. A prime example of a synergy is Disney.

Introduction.

Hello my name is Harry Coldman and I am a Media Studies student at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School. This is the blog for my A2 media coursework which in which I will be makeing my own film trailer.