Hollywood and British film industry

The British film Industry:

These are usually independent.
Funding usually comes from companies such as the British Film Council, BBC films, Film 4 and studio canal.
Distributor is needed to publicize the film to the target audience.
Social network sites and film festivals play a huge part in publicizing British films.
They have low production costs.
British films are more theme based then having a specific clear genre.
They are horizontally integrated.

There are working title films which are British but actually use big stars as they work with universal.

Hollywood:
They have 6 major studios:
1. Universal
2. Warner Brothers
3. 20th Century Fox
4. Columbia
5. Paramount
6. Disney

They contain dominant messages and values.
They have a classical narrative structure. (beginning/middle/end)
They are usually about entitlement or the 'American Dream'.
They have high production values, consisting of stars that are dominating.
They have a clear genre.
They act collectively to the good of American values.
They are vertically integrated, development, pre-production, production, post production, sales and distribution is all done under one roof.
If the films produced are not as successful as expected they go the studios channel so profit is still made.


British Films:

 

 

 

 

Hollywood Films:

 

 

Magazine front covers

For our film magazine front cover we have looked at examples of existing film magazine front covers such as 'Empire' and 'Total Film'. We have looked at the conventions of film magazine front covers to use in our own, such as a large magazine masthead at the top of the page and a strap line at the very top of the front cover. Also, the price, a bar code and a main image.

                            

Empire magazine front cover:

The main image- The image is large and placed on the centre of the cover showcasing a dominant male who is looking away from the camera. However he has a determined expression on his face rather than threatening which causes the audience to think he is the protagonist. He is dressed in a smart black suit which symbolizes confidence, self control and resilience and denotes strength and authority. He is also holding a gun which is more iconography, it connotes action and violence which then gives the audience a clue to the ‘action’ genre the film inception is associated with. The background consists of lots of buildings built round a 3D which hints that location is very important. By using images of the location effectively along with selective iconography it entices the reader. The film magazine also mentions other up and coming films such as Batman, Thor and Predators, these are all films which have conventions of action in them.  They have chosen to advertise other films with similar genres in the hope that the reader will be interested in them too. The colour scheme of the magazine front cover is blue, black, white and red, the red is a really contrasting colour but surprisingly works well against the other colours. This connotes danger and fear, conventions which look like they might be associated with the film. ‘Empire’ is written in the largest text, calling your magazine ‘Empire’ which has associations such as supreme power and domination reflects the kind of magazine it is, it is a ruling film magazine. By placing it in a large font attracts the reader, Empire is a well known film magazine which means as soon as they attract their target reader they should want to buy it straight away. The second largest text is the featuring film ‘Inception’, this has been specifically done to also catch the audience’s attention, their target audience will be into the latest films so by clearly placing the title of the film right in the centre of the magazine it will catch the reader’s attention, intriguing them, making them want to know more! The anchorage text states ‘The Matrix meets 007 “on steroids”’ by using this combination to describe the new film ‘Inception’ it immediately gets the reader excited as the Matrix and Bond films are extremely popular and successful so by comparing Inception to a mixture of these films plus steroids makes it very enticing. Lastly other text such as the price has been printed very small and slightly blended into the background; this has purposefully been done so that the reader is not put off by the price. If the reader was to see the price first they may not even pick it up so by catching their attention with the features first the magazine company has already caused them to want the magazine so the price will then not seem so extortionate.

                      

Total Film:

The main image- The main image is large and placed centrally just like Empire magazine. Again it shows a dominant male, Daniel Craig, staring straight at the camera wearing a black smart suit and holding a gun. Simply from the expression on his face and his very direct stare it indicates he is a very powerful man who is ready to achieve anything. He has immediately created intimacy with the reader causing them to realise that he is most likely to be the protagonist, drawing them into the plot of the film. Bond is dressed in a smart black suit which connotes power and strength and is a very prestigious colour reflecting the type of character Daniel Craig must play in the film. The gun he is holding is part of the iconography of the film, it instantly gives away the main genre of the film which is action. By using props which are associated with the genre it causes the reader to get excited and causes them to create scenarios in their head of what he might have to use it for. It also reassures the reader that Sky Fall lives up to its expectations of being a successful action as they have included the relevant iconography. The anchorage text states ‘Inside Bond’s toughest mission yet... Complete global access to 007... SKYFALL... Unseen pics!’. Firstly by using ‘inside Bond’s toughest mission yet’ causes the reader to feel privileged as they feel they have been let in on something others do not know, it causes them to become eager to find out more. Again with the text ‘Complete global access to 007’ they feel honoured that they’ve been allowed to access a variety of thrilling information to do with the new film. Lastly saying ‘unseen’ pictures they feel special, they feel the magazine has a lot to offer them, as the pictures are unseen the only way to see them would be buying the magazine so it is a good way to draw the reader in. Sell lines include numerous other famous actors who the readers will recognise which will be another reason for the reader to buy the magazine, as the magazine is associated with such high profile stars the reader knows that it is worth its value and they will not be let down. The  magazine makes a few references to the ‘world’ such as ‘world exclusive’ and ‘world’s best movie review’ the magazine is stating that it is a world dominating magazine, something that will be very appealing to the reader. The colour scheme of the magazine is mainly grey, yellow and white with the odd splash of red. This colour scheme works really well, grey connotes maturity, intelligence and reliability, characteristics they would expect a protagonist to have which is why they have used this colour in a issue based on Daniel Craig. The yellow gives the magazine the slight bit of colour it needs to be attractive and eye catching but compliments the grey and white really well so it looks effective. Just like Empire magazine the price is very small compared to the rest of the text which has been done so that the reader is not put off by the price.

Trailer Analysis

Before creating our own film trailer, I decided that it might be a good idea to start looking at the reasons behind trailers, what makes them successful and other trailers from films with  a similar genre to ours.

So, what actually is a trailer?
A trailer is an advertisement for a feature film that is most likely going to be exhibited in a cinema. It consists of purposely selected sections of the film that are put into a sequence which will entice people to go and see the film. They are multi-modal as they are made up of images, sound, text and video.

And the reason they are made?
Well, they are made so that the selected targeted audience will be interested in the film and want to go and see it or even buy it, paying their good money.

Who are they for?
Film trailers are for anyone, mainly for their target audience but they do not exclude anyone.

Lastly where do we see them?
Well the thing about trailers is that they are purposely showcased in certain places at certain times of the day. For example, a trailer for a horror film with a target audience between 15-24 is mostly likely to be shown on TV, quite late into the evening on a channel like E4 because that's typically the channel that their selected target audience would be watching. Moreover a trailer for a children's film displayed at the cinema would be displayed in a viewing that was for children, E.G Finding Nemo, rather than advertising it in a film showing that has a BBFC of 18. However there is also the internet which is a huge source for advertising trailers such as feature websites and Youtube.

The best ingredients to make an effective trailer?!
Trailers should show an awareness of who their target audience is, they should use iconography, enigma codes, sound/music, themes and symbols which are appropriate to the film, genre and audience, they should also include the production logo, the name of the film and a USP.



 

What we have decided to do..

For our media project this year, Chloe, Jamie, Josh and I have decided to do a teaser trailer based on a thriller drama genre. We chose this hybrid genre because its unusual yet exciting as bringing elements from both genres such as suspense, tension and pace from the thriller genre and the idea of realistic life situations containing emotions from the drama genre could work really well.

Film poster process

These images are from a photo shoot we did today, we tried to use a variety of lighting, backgrounds and poses so that we had a variety of images to choose from for our film poster.

Jamie (Jake) is holding Josh's (Stuart's) glasses in this shot above, we thought this could be a good idea as it gives a sense of iconography, it represents his dead brother.

 

This is another idea we tried, Jamie is clenching his fists in this shot which reflects the anger, pain and upset he feels. It represents the character is going to become to get redemption. By looking away from the camera it shows distance, he cannot directly look at the audience as he is so ashamed by what he has done.

We then changed background colour and went for a white background as it there was more of a contrast between Jamie's black costume and the white.

We have kept Jamie's hood up in all these shots because it represents his character, in the trailer you see Jamie walk into the house with his hood down (this is all before he realizes that his step brother is dead) and as soon as he finds him on the floor you see a shot of Jamie putting his hood up. We used this transition because even though its simple, once his hood is up all the action begins, it is the start of his journey for redemption.

          

Character profiling