Narrative theory

Narrative is essentially what the media text shows about the story, this is a very important part of  the composition of the trailer. As trailers are intended to be a video representation of the film, it is important that the audience is given a favorable perspective of the story. Our trailer is intended to be slightly different from the general trend among other trailers, but a the same time, to avoid confusion, we have kept the narrative on the same basic structure presented through many different media theories. There are many theories surrounding narrative, these are the main theories which we have tried to include:


Propp's Spheres of Action
Vladamir Propp suggested that most films follow a trend of 7 constant characters. The hero  (the main protagonist, the person who embarks on the quest to get the princess) the princess (the hero's prize for completing said quest) The villain (The antagonist, the person who threatens the hero's ability to rescue the princess) The donor (the person who gives the hero something to complete the quest) The helper (the person who assists the hero on his quest) The dispatcher (the person to send the hero on his quest) and the father (the person who rewards the protagonist the princess). Our trailer is only 2 minutes long and very few characters are represented, however some representations of Propp's theory can be clearly seen within our trailer.

The Hero- Obviously our main protagonist would be Will, as he is the character who has embarked on the quest. Will is relatvely suitable for this role within our genre because of his costume. He is wearing clothes which are very practical but at the same time have a sense of fashion about them. Making the charcter much more eye catching in comparison to the scruffy hoodies and jeans of the other characters.

The Villain- I would be considered the villain within our trailer, primarily because of the attempted murder on the hero. I am the main antagonist and represented in the trailer as a hurdle in which the protagonist has to overcome to complete his quest, with the music turning from calm to loud and fast when I beat up Will. I am well suited to be the main antagonist because of my costume and props, as I am primarily wearing a black, scruffy hoody atop dark jeans. The focus on dark clothing has clear connotations of evil, therefore it is appropriate for the main antagonist to wear this. The gun I use is a silver .44 , this is a very large revolver, meaning that is extremely hard to miss, making it appropriate for the main antagonist. All guns have a sense of subtle menace about them, but the size and grandeur of the gun accentuates this effect.

The Princess- Although we do not have a princess in the conventional sense, we have a clear and desirable goal for our protagonist to achieve: survival. The main theme of our film is the simple need to survive, in everything that the protagonist does; scavenging, hunting and fighting, he always has the ever present goal to survive. This is a relatively common "princess" within our genre, mainly due to it's complete universality among the audience, because no matter what class, gender or sexual preference an audience member may be, there will always be the desire to survive. This universal desirability of the princess makes the hero's quest much more relatable and therefore attract audience members due to sheer empathy

The Helper- the Helper in our film is Muhammed, although he is not working for the hero, he provides the role of helper to the antagonist. Being silent and not shown well, he provides a sense of mass to the antagonist, making him appear much more powerful.

Enigma code
The enigma code refers to any part of the text which is not immediately clear to the viewer, causing confusion and doubt towards the nature of the film. This confusion leads to intrigue as the audience get's much more interested about the events surrounding the trailer, leading to more members of the target audience coming to see the film. This is present in our trailer as most of the details remain shrouded in a certain amount of mystery, only showing some, non descriptive scenes to entice the audience in. This gave us our desired effect of showing without telling, however this could also be considered somewhat counter productive at the same time. Much of the audience feedback complained that the trailer was confusing and hard to understand, which was our desired effect but perhaps we took it slightly too far

Evaluation Activity 2

Evaluation Activity 4

This is the camera that was used for the filming of our trailer, it is a Panasonic HC-V500 hand held camera. It has many features which made it ideal to record our film. For example the image stabilisation feature was extremely useful throughout the production, allowing us to get decent shots even when the camera man had to move especially quick. This ensured that we never missed any fast paced scenes and that the quality never diminished in our film, no matter how complex the shot was. The microphone in the camera was good enough that we could use it for the primary audio recorder, without having to re-record anything. There was some issues with the built in microphone such as wind noise when at Wisely airfield, but this was a one off event and the wind died down for the rest of the days we spend filming. One way which could have resolved the wind noise issues would be to by an external microphone but funds did not allow. The audio is not a major issue, as there was very little dialouge in our trailer, however if we were to do the filming again we would consider renting/buying an external microphone to improve the audio recorded on site. A DSLR camera would have also been a good investment allowing for better quality video (the one used was acceptable) and allowing for depth of field adjustments making the footage look more professional.


This is the tripod we used in production with the camera mounted on top. It is relatively cheap and simple, but as it is a relatively low tech piece of equipment, we didn't need anything too high grade. The tripod we chose did the job well,  allowing for steady stationary shots. The tripod also allowed for the camera to be set up and left on whilst everyone was on set, leaving no one to operate the camera. The tripod was also used when the angle of the shot made it difficult for the camera to be manned, such as when the camera was in a corner or the room was too small.

 

This is the main piece of software that was used during the editing of the trailer, it is Adobe Premiere Pro. The main reason why this software was chosen for the editing was the fact its become an industry standard, along with Final Cut only available on OSX. This is a very versatile piece of software which allows for advanced video editing such as colour correction and other effects to be added, as well as title animation. Not only does this software allow for video editing, it also allows for basic audio editing such as adding fades and mixing all of the levels. Some audio EQ is also available, but we used dedicated software for creating an editing the soundtrack. During the editing process many of the available features offered by Premiere Pro were used, we thought that of we are going to use the best software, why not use as many of the features as possible, within reason of course. The actual editing process went very smoothly due to the software's well thought out and laid out design, the timeline at the bottom, a preview screen to view the changes made to the trailer and the effects window where all the effects are changed and managed. The software also features a mixer window for the audio. As this was the same software that the opening two minutes was edited on we were very familiar with the software and did not have to learn it like when we made the opening two minutes which as a result, cut down the editing time considerably and also an improvement on the final product.
Although this software is very versatile, the trailer could not have been produced without the use of other software.


This is the other dedicated video editing software used in the production of our trailer, Adobe After Effects. This software was also chosen as it is also an industry standard for special effects video editing. Although not as extensively used as last year, it was still an essential piece of software that was vital to the trailers production. This software was only used to add the muzzle flashes to the fight scene, a small detail but one that makes a huge difference. As this was also used last year, even more than this year, adding the muzzle flashes this year was easy, unlike last year which took forever. This software is not as simple to use as Premiere Pro which makes it more of a professional use only software as they are the only ones that can use it effectively, but I feel that we did well considering we have only used the software once before. The software features a timeline like most other video software but from then on it gets more complicated and there is no audio editing functionality, which means that this software has to be used in conjunction with other video editing software such as Premiere. Although this is a very powerful piece of software, it is useless without the effects to add into it. For this we used Action Essentials 2 Pack which includes lots of muzzle flash effects and audio sounds, such as the gun shot sounds.


This is Logic Pro, the software used to record the soundtrack.

Photoshop was used to create both the poster and the Empire magazine cover. Photoshop is a widley used software for creating images in not only the film industry, but also in many other creative industries such as in photography for professtional use. The main reason why we used Photoshop by Adobe was because of its ease of use and diversity of the software. during the creation of the magazine and poster we used many of the features of the software to enhance the look of the productions. To name a few of the features used in the production, they include color grading and brightness and contrast editing, title and text features, as well as many of the croping tools to cut and move things around in the image. A good example of when we sued this feature specifically was when we were creating the poster, the main image is not one image, but the charcacter was cut from a different image and put onto the background image, this is a common occourence in many professional posters. As for the other effects used, it is quite obvious where they were used, adding text and changing the colours in the image.

Evaluation activity 3

Our audience feedback was relatively positive overall, Our media class of 6 people were our sample audience all well within are intended age rating of 15-30 year olds. All in all, the general consensus of the group was that our trailer was overall, very effective for the post apocalyptic action genre, with most of the themes, mise en scene and settings conforming to the general trend. The music was considered to be a good fit for the trailer due to its rising tempo and pace until the crescendo moment where the music and tempo gets louder, as this is relatively commonly used so it was instantly recognisable as an action movie.

In terms of criticism, many people thought that it was very hard to understand, an effect which we were trying to make but we might have overdone it to the extent that it becomes a little bit confusing. Another criticism is the overuse of jump cuts, this is not a major problem but it was common among this audience and others who we have asked.

All in all, I am quite happy with the feedback which we have received. The general sounding from our sample audience was positive, with no major criticisms. The criticisms we did receive was nothing we didn't already expect to hear and are mainly just our style of filming/editing therefore we do not need to deal with them

Evaluation activity 1

Title of the film+ font and style of title
 The title of our film comes at the very end of our trailer, this conforms to the general trend for film trailers, as it ensures that the title of the film carries a certain amount of weight, as the viewer has just seen some of the best parts of the film and has already formed an opinion on whether they like it or not. This effect is also supplemented by the last scene which was shown before the title, it is a tense standoff between the protagonist and the main antagonist. The sudden appearance of the title after this tension has a good effect as it releases the built up tension of the moment in a sudden explosion of activity, it also puts the audience in suspense as the outcome of the standoff isn't revealed, therefore the audience is left unaware of what happens next and would want to know more, making the sudden appearance of the title much more useful (as there will be a sudden desire to see the film) The colour of the title is bright white, this makes the words standout and "pop" from the background, giving a much more eye catching look to it. This pairs quite effectively with the timing of the title, as it appears suddenly at the very end of the trailer, in bright white atop a black screen, it immediately grabs the attention of the audience. The font style is a somewhat dirty, weathered look to the words, this is somewhat of a salute to the genre, as weathered, run down structures are associated with the apocalyptic setting.

Setting of the film
The setting of our film is briefly touched upon within the trailer, less of a focus than most of the other aspects to the trailer. This is relatively unconventional for trailers, as most films generally have many scenic shots of their setting, to make it completely clear to the audience. This is especially apparent in our chosen genre, as post-apocalyptic films feed off of their unique interpretations of urban decay. We have chosen not to focus on the setting too much in the trailer, even though our setting is a large part of it, instead of the typical panoramic shot of the location that most trailers use, we have decided to have shots of the main actor with the location in the background. This makes the audience much more curious about the setting, as it is not explored in depth but a few reasonably effective clues are given as to the nature of the film. The setting itself is a perfect indictment to the mood of the main character, as well as the general themes of the film: the lonely wasteland scarred by the remnants of humanity, it personifies the nature of the character and his hopeless situation


Costumes/Props
The props and costumes for our film greatly represent the style in which we attempt to create our film in. We have not tried to make any aspect of our film flashy or particularly nice looking, we have simply gone for the rough, gritty look to everything. For example the weapons are all extremely low tech: a hunting rifle and 3 pistols. This is mainly for realism, as the film is set in the UK, guns cannot be realistically included if they could not be scavenged from the house of some rural farmer or urban drug dealer. The costumes are all relatively scruffy, functional clothes, the type that ordinary people would wear for practicality rather than style. Our props and costumes all display this unpolished atmosphere to the audience, in a way that is both subtle and obvious at the same time. I believe, in this sense, we have subverted the normal conventions of trailers, as many films in this day and age value the visual feel of the film over any actual realism, in this sense I think our subversion is an attractive aspect to our trailer, as many people would be intrigued by the originality of this effect













Camera work and editing
Throughout or trailer we have tried to include a plethora of different types of shots conveying different emotions in each, however I feel this shot happens to be the most appropriate choice to annotate. For example, this shot is an over the shoulder shot using a free hand camera, rather than a tripod. The shakiness of the camera works well to convey the tension of the moment, as well as the over the shoulder shot, limiting the field of view. This high tension shot fits in well with the rest of the scene, creating a suitable atmosphere of confusion and danger. This shot (as well as most of the other shots in our film) conforms to the general trend among action films.

Story
I feel that this shot works quite well to sum up the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. It comes at the very end for a split second before the title appears. This already sets the stage for a large conflict between the two characters throughout the film. The amount of emphasis in this scene by the ensuing tension of Will approaching makes it clear that the film will revolve around this rivalry. Although this scene (nor do any other) reveal anything substantial about the film, it gives enough for the viewer to gather what is happening and become intrigued. This effect is practically universal among film trailers, giving enough story to lure the audience, but not enough for them to know exactly what is happening.



Special Effects
The special effects in our film are very limited, we agreed to keep it this way in order to sustain the gritty, realistic look. The only actual special effect in our film are the gunshots, to which we kept limited. The use of special effects were somewhat justified in this case, as we had no better alternative to it without blank firing guns.


Genre
Our genre was post apocalyptic action/drama , we have many hints throughout the trailer, for example the rock music transitioning from slow to fast is a relatively widely used concept of action/drama films. Another example would be our setting, the audience gets many views of the setting of urban decay, but without actually saying anything about what happened. This heavily hints that the genre will be post apocalyptic, but the audience won't know anything about some of the key points of the story, creating an enigma code over why the world is in ruins. However I have chosen this screen shot because it represents the most obvious indicator to the genre: the mise en scene. The main character and antagonists all carry guns, referring to the action nature of the genre. Also the Main character is often seen scavenging in the wreckage for supplies, a typical theme of the post apocalyptic genre.

Characters
This shot is a good representation of the two characters, as the antagonist is bearing over the protagonist, it displays inequity of the situation, that the antagonist is in control of the situation and the protagonist is at his mercy, it sets up a small hierachy within the minds of the audience. The act of the sudden violence within the trailer helps to display the antagonist's mental instability and unpredictable nature. As the protagonist does not attempt to fight back, it shows a sign of weakness that proves the protagonist is not some airbrushed marine who kills everyone, he is just a normal man with the skills any competant, prepared human being could have.

Evaluation Targets

You have worked so well this year and now, albeit in the busiest part of the calendar, you need to push yourself to achieve as many of the twenty marks available to you before the end of this term. Complete the activities set as well including director's commentaries and interviews with each other. Comment on your findings from your target audience and evaluate your progress. Analyse every techincal aspect of your promotional campaign and set future targets for yourself.

Trailer draft 1