Audience Research Prezi

CM
JL
MT

Audience Survey Questions

These are just a few questions we are going to ask our specified audience in order to gain some valuable information for our particular trailer. It will help us to avoid things which are seen as corny/cliched in our trailer as well as enlightening us concerning which tone and feeling of our trailer we should be looking to emulate, in regards to the below listen films.

1. How often do you go to the cinema?

2. What is your preferred type of cinema?

3. In what ways do you find out about new films?

4. What about film trailers entices you to watch them?

5. Rate these genres in order of preference?

•  Romance
• Comedy
• Horror
• Thriller
• Sci-Fi/Fantasy
• Mystery
• Reality/Drama
• Crime 

6. Which of these films have you seen?

• Hummingbird
• Memento
• Gangster Squad
• Welcome to the Punch
• Eastern Promises
• Shutter Island
• Se7en
• Dark Knight Rises
• Only God Forgives

7. Place the previously mentioned films (that you have seen) in order of preference?

8. What do you like about Crime/Thriller films/Trailers?

9. What do you think has been overdone in the films/Trailers linked with the Crime/Thriller genre?

10. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Thriller film?

MT/JL

Theory: Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes is a narrative theorist who bases his supposition on 5 narrative codes - These are as follows -

Enigma Code - The structure of puzzles in the text and the way in which we are hooked into the narrative by a desire to find the answers
Action Code - The ways in which we identify familiar situations and actions though conventions of language and the use of key phrases and words; we do not need everything spelt out for us, so from words such as "betrayal" and "love" we can decode plot elements
Semic Code - Details concerning individuals in the work which allow us to build up a profile of the character
Symbolic Code - Refers to the way in which themes are developed throuh the use of recurring symbols, usually in order to convey a message
Cultural Code - Details in the narrative that confirm the cultural context, such as its location, when it was taking place and the kinds of moral values, ideas and fashions which are associated with the time

In order to make our trailer appealing to an audience we must include some of the above narrative codes as it creates either a link between the characters in the film and the viewer or an interest in the narrative/characters in the film which must then be followed up by going to watch the film. In our trailer, we are planning on utilizing the Enigma Code, the Action Code and the Semic Code which will have the effect of creating a mystery which the viewer would wish to complete, as well as emphasizing the previously mentioned link through the familiarity of characters and situations to real life/the viewers schema of what certain characters should be like.

Barthes also had a theory concerning Readerly and Writerly texts. The idea is that the readerly text the reader follows easily, while and writerly text makes the audience construct the narrative for themselves. Usually, the first act is completely readerly while the second act introduces a sense of the writerly. In the final act, the montage, there is majorly writerly however the aim of the montage isn't to show narrative but the best shots in the film. We wish to emulate this structure as it will maximize audience interest while maintaining ambiguity in the narrative.

JL

Theory: Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall is a narrative theorist who proposed the encoding/decoding theory, which is split into a four-stage model outlining his views:

He stated that the producer cannot be certain that his product will be perceived by the target audience in the way he had intended because the message is never fixed or determined. The audience members will not view it passively and so he proposed his four-stage model.

Production - This is the encoding part of the process. The producer is creating a message that relies on societies views and ideologies. Societies opinion is very important to this stage as it often determines your target audience.
Circulation - This stage determines how people perceive the products. Hall believes that how something is circulated, strongly influences how the audience members will receive the message and thus apply it.
Use - This is the decoding part of the process. The audience will interpret a message in an active way and thus attempt to understand it.
Reproduction - This takes place after the audience have interpreted the meaning of the particular message in their own way based on what they have experienced. The success of the message is found here.

Stuart Hall stated that all texts have preferred meanings, but the decoder will not always read them as they are originally intended by the producer as everyone has a different social and/or cultural background. Texts or films that are meant to communicate hegemony will be encoded so that they are easily interpreted and understood by the mass audiences who attempt to interpret them. The hegemonic position is where the consumer decodes the text/film in the exact way it was encoded, meaning they understood what the director/writer was trying to achieve. However, if in the case of films, the preferred meanings are blurred and the information handed to the audience is not enough for the piece to be decoded then the ratings of particular films can become tricky if not impossible to predict. This is something, which is important to us when thinking about the narrative and most importantly, our audience. The preferred meaning is important to think about when we are encoding the narrative as we would like to restrict our audience to 15 and over. For us to do this, we must ensure that their is no doubt over the preferred meanings themselves and that we follow the BFI guidelines.

MT

Theory: Uses and Gratifications

'A voluntaristic and selective orientation by audiences...media use is motivated by needs and goals that are defined by audience members themselves' - Mark Levy and Sven Windahl

The uses and gratifications theory contradicted and refuted the Hyperdermic needle model that suggested that audiences are passive and receive media images as such.

As uses and gratifications suggests that audiences are more active in consuming media texts, it also suggests that there is more than one reason for doing this, surveillance, correlation, diversion, and interaction being some of the more prevalent:

- Surveillance - Individuals might use a text for information and to formulate ideas
- Correlation - A consumer may seek to relate to characters or situation depicted in media texts, to learn behaviours and values or to feel validated
- Diversion - Escapism is a common reason for popularity in the media, especially with serial dramas
- Interaction - One might seek to form 'relationships' with characters or figures in media texts, and form an emotional bond - one might care about a particularly sympathetic character

All of these ideas go against the idea of a passive audience and as such the generally accepted idea has become that of uses and gratifications theory of an active audience. Cultivation theory, covering how media shapes individual outlooks and worldviews, as well as Social Cognitive theory, which allows for a more personalised application of the uses and gratifications model, stem from the idea of an active audience. A piece of media, especially a piece of advertising media such as our trailer, must be made to engage the audience as much as possible in order to be as effective as we would like it to be. This is useful to us as it gives us an idea of the way in which our trailer might be received and will allow us to cater for the needs of the active media consumer and a wider audience in general.

CM

Targeting Interview

I conducted the above interview with my younger brother, who is a 15 year old boy, and thus a member of our key demographic.

He was showed four trailers; Hummingbird, Welcome To The Punch, Only God Forgives, and Zodiac. He claimed that Only God Forgives was his favourite trailer, although agreed that it was not as effective as others at conveying narrative. This suggests that narrative is less important than style and intrigue to him and by extension his age group. As part of this age group, he goes to the cinema fairly frequently with others his age and prefers a lean towards action over drama, making him part of an appropriate audience for the type of film trailer we are intending on producing. He is influenced by advertising as well as recommendations and so a trailer would be a good way in which to access his age group.

The interview was useful to our planning as it gives us an idea of what sort of trailer appeals to the younger end of our target audience in terms of pacing, style, and narrative/action balance, as well as suggesting that it will be an extremely accessible audience in terms of exposure to, and influence received from, advertising, in particular trailers.

CM

Influences Certification

When considering the certification that the film we are making a trailer for might receive, it is key to look at the certifications given to films that influence ours. The parents guide on films on IMDb is a good way to look at this, as I have done for two films that influence us.

Eastern Promises (BBFC 18)

Welcome To The Punch (BBFC 15)

Our certification would certainly place between these two, with likely violent scenes and profanity, but probably nothing too frightening or discriminatory toward minorities. I would place the film we have proposed in the 15 bracket, as it bears more narrative resemblance to Welcome To The Punch than the grittier and more violent Eastern Promises.

CM

Demographics: Gender

Traditionally, the thriller and crime genres tend to be targeted at a predominantly male audience, however despite this I feel that all genres can be met with approval from all genders.

This chart indicates the ratings of the same four films that I looked at in age, but arranged by gender. As is evident, within each film the ratings are extremely close between the genders making gender in terms of targeting less of an issue for us than factors such as age or class. Particularly interesting is that the two films that are, in my opinion, most alike to ours in narrative and style, Hummingbird and Welcome To The Punch, have an gender equal rating and a more favourable rating from women respectively. This is likely to be down in some part to the casting of Jason Statham and James McAvoy, however it remains indicative of the increasingly small gap between genders when it comes to the consumption of crime thriller films.

CM

As part of our audience research we must obviously find out who our target audience, and if applicable, an obvious niche audience who we will be catering towards. In order to gage what sort of certification we should be aiming towards, we should first look at films in a similar genre to ours. On the whole, as the below collage shows, popular films of the genre very much take a norm of the 15 rating. The main exception to this is Eastern Promises, which can be explained by its sub genre as a gangster/mob film with the violent and graphic scenes commonly expected.

The specifications for films attempting to be a 15 are shown at the bottom of the post, and we will very easily be able to have our trailer fit these specifications, however what would differentiate our film from one such as Taken (12A) is that we wish to set our film in darker areas of London, with more emphasis being placed on the psychological. In terms of accessibility, making our film a 12A or 12 would obviously increase the age range of our viewers, however older/more experienced film fans may not be enticed by the idea of a serious crime thriller as a 12A. This would lower our viewing figures in the elder age groups, and with the 15-24 bracket being who we are aiming for this would not be beneficial. Having the film as 15 allows for the guidelines of a 12 to be broken, making the film darker and more sinister while still maximising the age range of audience. It is also well known that people younger than the legal age sneak/are allowed to see 15 films so we could include a niche audience of a younger generation.

There is also the perk of being able to conform/replicate some of the things seen in our trailer inspirations mentioned in a previous post, as these are all 15 rated. If we were inspired by 18, the tone and even some of the things shown would not be able to be replicated and as such we would have to be completely original, not taking inspiration from anywhere. 

15 Film Guidelines -

 

Two of the movies we have looked at (Eastern Promises and Taken) both have different ratings and are each at different ends of the spectrum. 'Eastern Promises' is rated as an 18 by BBFC and 'Taken' is a 12A. The 12A rating in 'Taken' means that children who are 12 are allowed to view the film as long as they are accompanied/advised by an adult. As a young woman is being kidnapped and a victim of drug-trafficking it is quite surprising that the rating is so low but as seen above, if the movie falls into the right categories then the rating should follow accordingly. As seen in the 'Eastern Promises' trailer, there are many more open scenes of crime/drugs/sex and violence, which is why it qualifies for an 18 rating and apparently not suitable for anyone below that age.

Our trailer will be more likely to follow the films we have studied that are rated 15 and so we will have to follow the guidelines of this particular age rating. These guidelines are described in the above photos.

 

MT

JL

Trailer Research - Demographics: Age

Certification will have a significant impact on where and how we target our trailer, as it will remove a certain number of potential consumers. With this in mind, choosing a certification must come before any other research into targeting based on age.

We have chosen to give our film a BBFC 15 rating. This rating gives us room to depict our narrative as we would like it, and allows us to target the film more effectively. We will share this rating with Welcome To The Punch, Hummingbird, Zodiac, Gangster Squad, V For Vendetta, Twelve Monkeys, and many other similar films to ours.



The criteria for the BBFC 15 rating are as follows:

These specifications should not be difficult to meet and will allow us to use many of our influences more effectively as we will be able to emulate parts of them and draw on them for visual and narrative inspiration. If the film was rated BBFC 12 it would be difficult for us to depict or imply a huge amount of violence and some aspects of the world of crime would be closed off to us.

So, our target audience will not be able to be below the age of 15, which gives us at least a starting point.

 These graphs are based on the IMDb ratings given to various films related to ours by different age groups. The general trend places suggests that the younger the audience is the more they enjoy films of the genre. Consistently, the highest rating group is the under 18s, giving us a clear key demographic between 15 and 18. Interestingly, the two London-set crime thrillers Hummingbird and Welcome To The Punch place their second highest rating with the 45+ age group, suggesting that an older audience may be open to targeting from a film akin to ours. The 18-29 section has regularly high ratings whilst the lowest is almost always 30-44. Based on this information, my suggestion would be that we ought to target mainly the 15-29 block market whilst still taking consideration of the 45+ population. In order to do this we would be perhaps wise to keep to our plans to emulate elements of Hummingbird and Welcome To The Punch, although aspects of the darker, more drama and riddle based Zodiac could be useful to us.

CM

Trailer Research - Demographics: Class

The new model of defining class in the UK gives 7 separate classes; Elite, Established Middle, Technical Middle, New Affluent Workers, Emergent Service Workers, Traditional Working, and Precariat. This gives us new criteria for targeting our audience that we must consider.

A general overview of thriller targeting based on class is as follows:

Upper class - Arthouse, high budget mainstream, noir, drama-based
Middle class - Mainstream, both action and drama based (a majority of films are aimed at the middle classes due to their excess time and money)
Lower class - Action based, social realist, crime based

We had intended our film to be crime based, drama based, and fairly mainstream, partly to serve our narrative and partly due to our limitations in budget and equipment. This complicates our targeting in terms of class, even if we go by the traditional (somewhat antiquated) system. The seven class system complicates matters yet further.

Information regarding the class makeup of cinema goers and film consumers is difficult to find, making it quite difficult for us to target the film based on secondary research. In my opinion, our film ought to be targeted between the Established Middle and New Affluent Worker classes (just under half the population), however a final decision on this will come following discussion with the other students and primary research.

CM

New Character

We have decided to include a female character to our trailer, in order to balance the representation of gender and to create more depth within our narrative, thus adhering to the crime/thriller conventions. We decided that we needed to flesh out the narrative in acts 2 & 3 and thus we felt the need to include a character that was a sort of 'side-kick' to our main protagonist. Due to the fact that our main influence for this trailer has been 'Welcome To The Punch', whereby Mcavoy's intelligent and reasonable 'side-kick' character is a woman, we decided to make this character in our trailer, a woman, not only because it balances our gender representation as previously mentioned, but also gives us a chance to broaden our target audience and play with ideas of gender relationships whilst we are in the filming stage. It gives us more opportunity to play with different shot angles and movements in order to show effects, such as power/authority amongst the different gendered characters. We didn't want the gender to be too 'one-sided' in our movie because not only did it not feel 'natural' but it would also be going against many crime/thriller films, who involve female characters and whom are often central to the storylines. This character would be extremely important for us as she is our main protagonists 'voice of reason' throughout the trailer/film. 

MT

Narrative Proposal

There are various aspects of influencing films, genre conventions, and narrative formulae that are important to consider as we come up with our own narrative. With this in mind, my proposed narrative is along the following lines:

A police inspector/detective whose best friend and colleague was murdered by a powerful criminal has been pursuing this criminal to an obsessive extent for many years. New evidence and pointers come in that allow the police to track the killer down and our hero leads the charge. He opens the door expecting some form of retaliation or trap but he instead finds the man he's been pursuing for so many years murdered and lying on the floor. The detective is accused of the murder and must fight to clear his name by finding and exposing the real murderer and in the process makes some startling discoveries involving an underground criminal movement.

This narrative idea can be related to Todorov's Solving of Riddles narrative type, although it could also use features of Redemption or Rise and Fall. If the rest of the group has different ideas in mind I remain flexible in terms of the way the final narrative ends up.



CM

Narrative Structure

Mainstream trailers will generally conform to the three act structure to get narrative across to the audience most effectively.

V For Vendetta
Act 1 (0:00-1:30)
The first act of this trailer is unusually long due to the need for a greater amount of time to establish the premise and setting of dystopian, totalitarian London and the character of V (as well as the more conventional Natalie Portman and John Hurt characters)
Act 2 (1:30-1:46)
Act 2 of the trailer is extremely short, which results in not a huge amount of the films plot being put across. The trailer focuses primarily on setting and character and the small amount of plot we get is either from these aspects or the short second act in which the development of Portman's character and the sinister actions of the government are depicted.
Act 3 (1:46-2:30)
This fairly long montage sequence depicts the high budget and large amount of action in the film, as well as accentuating its graphic novel roots. The soundtrack steadily picks up in pace, matched by the editing, and sound bites of particularly dramatic lines. All of this leads to the large explosions, falling dominoes, and flaming titles of the film, in true action thriller style.

Welcome To The Punch
Act 1 (0:00-0:20)
The basic crime thriller premise is established, as well as the McAvoy and Strong characters and their feud. The style and drama of the film is also established in these first 20 seconds.
Act 2 (0:20-1:07)
The narrative is expanded as Strong's son is wounded and he returns to London. The use of narrative in both Act 1 and 2 allows a fairly complicated story to come across fully in a shorter space of time. The soundtrack in Act 2 also begins to ramp up to Act 3.
Act 3 (1:07-1:50)
The montage even further relays the narrative using soundbites and images, whilst the explosions and gunfire solidify the genre of the film and create a more exciting montage and overall trailer. The convention of a crescendo at the titlecard is adhered to in the third act of the Welcome To The Punch trailer.

Only God Forgives
Act 1 (0:00-0:35)
Gosling's character is established in motives and narrative, as well as the policeman antagonist and Kristen Scott Thomas. The narrative is outlined as a revenge story and the premise, setting and style are established.
Act 2 (0:35-1:00)
A shorter second act takes place, as the key points of the narrative have already been established in Act 1. The antagonist is further fleshed out as a prominent danger and psychopathically violent man. The vibrant style of the trailer is continued.
Act 3 (1:00-1:59)
The longest montage of these three examples, this combines action and excitement with tension and drama. This can be in part attributed to the slower editing and soundtrack, making it a more paced trailer. Despite this, it can still be considered a solidly crime thriller third act, conforming to all necessary conventions.

Thriller Narrative Necessities

Within our genre there are certain narrative necessities for a trailer, which will be important to include in our own creation.

The change of circumstance/moment of conflict
- The normal running order is disrupted by conflict or change of circumstance, affecting the narrative greatly
- This is key to make clear in the trailer as if it is left uncertain the trailer very quickly becomes confusing and loses the audience's engagement
- A change in tone is usually part of the signalling of this moment

The presentation of the hero/antihero
- Due to the diversity of main characters, there are a number of ways in which this can be done
- The hero/antihero is always depicted as such from the outset, and is focused on as the main figure of the trailer and narrative
- In films that have more prominent antagonists than protagonists (eg Gangster Squad), the antagonist is often presented in this manner rather than the hero/antihero

The montage
- This is a convention of trailers as a whole, but is especially important and notable in the Thriller and Crime Thriller genre
- The montage will often build up to the climax of the titlecard, commonly matched with a crescendo or boom in the soundtrack

CM

Narrative Ideas

After watching multiple crime/thriller trailers, it is clear that most of them follow a similar pattern, but each have a different twist or core storyline, which separates them from the others. We would thus have to follow this pattern but slightly change our storyline to make it original. The normal structure most crime/thriller trailers goes as follows:

1. establishing shots and introduces main characters.
2. usually introduces 'antagonist' and shows disruption, which causes eventual conflict.
3. fast-paced montage bringing it together.

'Gangster Squad' is slightly different in that it introduces the 'antagonist' before the protagonists but it nonetheless works in creating a similar effect.

'Memento' is also different in style in that the trailer is more one continuously long act instead of three separate acts. This style worked well in conjunction with the storyline of the film itself and was an interesting influence for us. Pearce's character is off influence to us as we have been looking into this idea of having our main character as one with psychological issues.




Possible ideas for storyline:

• Similar to storyline in 'welcome to the punch' - we could have a detective cop who is after a criminal who has eluded him for years. Something causes the seemingly 'un-catchable' criminal to return and become vulnerable. 
• Similar to 'Hummingbird' - Something in the characters past has caused him trouble. He needs to over-come this but the only way is through crime? An event causes him to enter the world of crime in order to solve his problems? 
• Perhaps a love-interest is kidnapped or murdered and the seemingly normal man tracks down his love-interests killer? Revenge story? (Law Abiding Citizen, Taken). 
• Similar to 'Gangster Squad' - a team is assembled to take down a powerful criminal? perhaps just one 'everyday' man has to take down the powerful 'mob boss'?

Crime/Thriller films in the low-budget section have a less structured trailer in terms of the three act rule. Memento is a good example as aforementioned. As our film will not be high-budget we have been strongly influenced by the lower-budget crime/thriller/psychological movies as well as their higher budget counterparts. The lower-budget films are more character based as seen in 'memento' and rely more on the use of clever shots and interesting locations instead of just guns and expensive cars. We would like to replicate this, but deploy some of the techniques used in higher budget films as they are more available to us, due to the fact that it will be set in London. Location is something we are looking to take full advantage off as their are so many possible filming locations scattered all over the city. We are looking to incorporate techniques from both ends of the spectrum in order to create the desired effect.

MT

Narrative Theory

Todorov suggests that there is a common narrative structure:

The Quest - hero challenges evil, saves the daughter/holy grail (LOTR, The Raid)

*Redemption - character has sinned, tries to redeem self (Hummingbird)

Journey to Another World (Ferris Bueller)

Beast Transformed by Love

*Solving of Riddles (Zodiac, Silence of the Lambs)

The Biter-bit - the oppressed rise and throw off tyrants (V For Vendetta)

The Stranger Saviour (Fistful of Dollars, Django Unchained)

*The Rise and Fall (American Hustle)


This is an aspect to consider in formulating a narrative for our trailer



*Especially relevant to our genre and its conventions

CM

Intertitles Blog

Recently I have come across a blog called Intertitles (intertitles.tumblr.com) which is dedicated to the titlecards of films across various genres and eras of film, I thought some of the examples posted on it could be used as an influence and inspiration for our film.

Some of the more relevant images in terms of boldness and use of colour, include these:

CM

Explore the genre and conventions of your chosen media text. How do you plan to adhere to or develop these conventions?

The influences I have looked at will be extremely useful in formulating our trailer’s style and tone, as well as giving a good idea of conventions in terms of genre and medium. The genre we would like to associate our trailer with is Crime Thriller, which we will set in present day London. We feel like this genre will present us with something of a challenge but will give us an opportunity to produce an effective trailer. The genre has a large set of conventions, being one of the more popular mainstream genres, and these are things that we will have to consider and incorporate or challenge in constructing our trailer.

The construction of characters is one key part of the trailer, one that is prominently done with sound bites and close ups in the genre. Hummingbird and Only God Forgives are particular examples of the use of the close up as a technique for character building, especially in conjunction with dramatic lighting. In general the more ‘boyish’ trailers are the ones that rely more heavily on sound bites, V For Vendetta (‘People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people’) being a prime example, along with my other graphic novel inspired influence; Sin City. Rather than using a voiceover, as a Romance or Comedy film might, our film should convey narrative and character through imagery and sound bites, as it is more effective and the convention of the genre.

Setting is a key part of our current plans, and the utilisation of a London setting is something seen done very differently in Welcome To The Punch, Hummingbird, and V For Vendetta. Establishing shots are used in the two modern day settings, however Hummingbird uses a lower angle, something that is essential to us due to our lack of access to a helicopter, thus the mood that Hummingbird's establishing shot creates should be closer to our trailer than Welcome To The Punch. In order to continue this tone, our trailer should be more in the style of V For Vendetta, Hummingbird, or even non-London set trailers such as Sin City or Gangster Squad, in terms of presenting setting. This will involve lower camera angles and more depiction of poorer areas of London, whilst still keeping the location fairly central. An interesting point to make is that in the Sin City and V For Vendetta examples here, the figures tend to blend into the city setting, which is a clever technique in suggesting the nature of both the characters and the city and is a quick way to characterise aspects of the film.

Being limited as we are to setting our trailer in the present day, it stands to reason that we ought to adopt the lighting and mise en scene that fits with this. A certain realism will be required that distances us in some aspects from films such as V For Vendetta and moves us towards more realistic but still stylized films, such as Drive and Only God Forgives. Both of these films were directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, whose personal style of cinematography is not as 'in your face' as Tim Burton's or Bryan Fuller's, but is still distinctive and dramatically effective. Neither Drive nor Only God Forgives are set in London, however both use the lighting opportunities of a city interestingly and fairly unconventionally. The use of lighting in a trailer in the thriller genre can differentiate it from the many other action/crime/thriller films. The use of colour in the Only God Forgives trailer is particularly interesting to me, the use of reds, pinks and yellows giving an air of danger and associating this with the exotic setting. As a colour scheme it is vibrant and distinctive and allows for subtlety and atmosphere in close up shots, a bold titlecard, and an overarching sense of danger throughout the trailer. The starker blues used in the trailer are something that is used in some of our other influences, mostly to show a strip-lit or neon, bleak setting – often in conjunction with a redder or darker lit scene in order to produce contrast and dynamism. This dramatic mastery of colour in some of these trailers, especially Hummingbird, Only God Forgives, and Welcome To The Punch, is something we would very much like to emulate to produce a powerful and dramatic trailer of our own.

Imagery and iconography will be extremely important to our trailer, as the thriller genre comes with a large amount of it. Images of weapons, cars, explosions, suits, and cigarettes are prevalent in the genre and present in our influencing trailers. Sin City exemplifies the trademarks of the Noir subgenre, Welcome To The Punch of high class Crime Thriller, Gangster Squad of Gangster films, and Drive of modern Crime. Strong editing and camerawork, along with visually stimulating imagery produces icons that conform with the genre, some of which we will inevitably have to indulge in.

One of the most important aspects of a trailer is it's presentation of the title. In many films, especially more dramatic pieces (including thrillers) a black or dark backdrop is used with lighter text. This can be done in a wide range of ways; the neon effect used by Only God Forgives fits the film's specific style, Gangster Squad's art deco iconography and font adheres to it's subgenre, V For Vendetta's firey logo is aptly dramatic and graphic novel-esque, and Welcome To The Punch uses a blue backdrop which makes its bright blue text stand out. Simplicity is the common factor and is key to the creation of a bold and effective titlecard.

In conclusion, the Crime Thriller genre we have chosen to adhere to has a great many conventions and variations on these conventions, whilst still allowing flexibility and creativity in construction. Some of the key aspects that might signal our trailer out as part of the genre is iconography, pace, tone, use of setting, and sound. This leaves us to experiment with lighting and camera techniques to create an effective and original trailer with a style of its own that may differentiate it from other films in the wide genre and subgenre.

CM

Influences: Only God Forgives

The trailer for 'Only God Forgives' is perhaps not the most effective at conveying narrative, but makes up for what it loses in that area in its imagery and distinctive colouring.


The trailer uses a lot of close ups, as well as symmetry and action shots, to give a bold and highly finished image. A range of interior and exterior shots serve especially to characterize the dead-eyed antagonist of the piece, which is one of the strong points of the trailer. This is something that may be useful, as bold imagery paired with effective characterization allows pleasing visuals and a strong narrative for our trailer.

The lighting and colouring of the trailer is extremely eye catching and dramatic, especially the use of chiaroscuro in interior shots, contrasted with brightly lit shots both interior and exterior. The colouring varies greatly across different scenes, creating an extraordnarily vibrant and dramatic trailer, as dark moves to light and vice versa.

The text in the trailer is done extremely cleverly and blends well with the vibrant, South East Asian, metropolitan, theme. Its bright colour is particularly effective against its black backdrop and the font is dramatic but not over the top. In terms of our trailer, the boldness of the neon pinky-red on black is very effective in my opinion, and is a potential colour scheme, depending on our final decision regarding setting and narrative.

CM

Influences: Drive

Through the use of fast pacing, this trailer establishes and develops the film's premise, whilst including scenes of action and strong imagery.

The trailer uses shots with fairly natural lighting, relying more heavily on camerawork and imagery for its visual impact. Although dramatic lighting is seen at night, it never appears unrealistic and is relatively subtle. The use of natural lighting for atmosphere is a useful skill for us to employ, allowing us to rely less heavily on lighting equipment and colour editing.

The camerawork in the trailer is extremely effective, low angles on figures make them look impressive and characterize them very quickly, whilst symmetry and eye level shots produce strong images that stick in the mind of the audience. Strong imagery in particular is something that I would like us to have as a strong point of our trailer.

This is fairly understated as a trailer, excluding the fast driving scenes, there is substantial dialogue and the narrative is strong. This is something that is important to include in our trailer as too much focus on bold imagery rather than actual narrative could be our downfall.

The type used in the trailer is extremely simple, and transitions quietly in and out of the shot. Despite this however, it is very bold and catches the eye against the dark cityscapes and backdrops it appears on, making it an effective yet easy to achieve form of titling

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Influences: Gangster Squad

This trailer showcases Gangster Squad as an action movie in a different setting, and does so with fast pacing and era appropriate style brought into the 21st century.

The most obvious exemplifier of this is the titlecard, which uses a genre typical typeface over an art deco design, and yet still appears to be modern, new and exciting through the use of high quality resolution, design, and editing.

A range of familiar images and techniques are used, but the lighting and quality of these give them a fresh new feel. The story and images are not particularly original, but the film still is able to feel fresh and exciting. This ability to make a trailer feel new and engaging is something that would be invaluable to us in our trailer creation.

The lighting in the trailer is very interesting as it often has a lot of contrast between light and dark, giving the scenes a modern, glossy look, along with more saturated colours than natural. This is paired with brightly coloured shots such as the roulette wheel or the bar.

Establishing shots are a real strength of the trailer, and the Los Angeles setting is used to its full advantage, the bright city lights causing the trailer to feel even more modern, whilst retaining a sense of setting and time period throughout.

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Influences: V For Vendetta

This trailer is somewhat off genre for our purposes, however it uses editing and lighting very effectively and in a manner it could be interesting to try and incorporate.

One of the more useful parts of this trailer is its setting in London. As opposed to films like Welcome To The Punch and Hummingbird, V For Vendetta depicts a London that is closer to Edwardian, Victorian, or early 20th Century than modern (despite the futuristic elements). This utilization of older areas of the city is certainly something to consider in choosing our locations for filming.

Colour is used fairly sparingly in the trailer, however when it is present it is bold and distinct, always adding something to the image rather than being unnecessary. This allows an effective use of chiaroscuro and creation of mood, as well as an interesting and involved assembly of each shot in the trailer, something we will undoubtedly have to consider.

The camerawork in the trailer mixes symmetry to focus on a central image (jail cell, rally), with off centre images to produce striking scenes (exploding spire, alleyway). Not only this, but dynamic fast cuts are made, which allow the trailer to move between many bold images quickly to create a striking spectacle of a trailer that excites and engages the audience. This use of pace in the trailer would be something we could, with relative ease, use in our trailer.

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