This is the name of our film. We chose this as it directly reflects the theme of our film. Our film has a BBFC of 15.
The plot/synopsis of our film. This is the basic outline of what our film entails.
From trailer research we believe these are the most important trailer conventions, these are conventions which we are going to persue and use in our trailer. Thriller trailers especially tend to use montages which are full of action and pace, it creates suspense and gets the audience excited which is exactly what a thriller intends to do. By having a fast paced trailer it maintains the flow and curiousity, it does not get boring which means the audience carry on watching it and getting interested in the film. Parallel music would be used to reflect the drama, emotion and action that we intend to include in our trailer, if we proposed a thriller drama genre trailer but used a classical sound track in the background it would completely ruin the effect of what is being shown as it is such a huge contrast which isnt going to entice anyone. A variety of shots keeps it interesting, keeps us entertained, audiences are not going to want to see a trailer where close ups are constantly used as this does not really tell the audience what the films about. Using a slight cliff hanger at the end of the trailer is the perfect way to get your audience to go and see the film, by not giving away what happens you have got your audiences compelete attention. We will use the production logo to give a sense of familiarity, we will also use 'in association with Noose Productions' whom which we made a film under before. Laslty we will use miminal text, words such as 'revenge' and 'justice', words which have huge associations with our film, and words with powerful meanings which the audience can then question and ask themselves questions such as 'who's getting revenge?' or 'why do they want justice?'
We wanted to choose a hybrid genre and one that was complimentary to each other,
I have decided to analyse the trailer and film poster of 'Taken 2' because it comes under the genre thriller drama, with conventions of action and crime. By analysing films that have the same or similar genre to ours it will give us the inspiration we need and ensure that we are including the best conventions of this genre to make our film/teaser trailer as successful as possible.
Who directed it? Olivier Megaton
When was it released? 2012
Are there any big stars in it? Liam Neeson with Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace (reoccurring stars)
What conventions of the genre are included? Adrenaline, action, emotion, death, fear, the unknown and emotion.
This is one of many main film posters for this film, I specifically chose this one to analyse because the image really captured me. The way half of Liam Neeson is covered by this type of black silhouette creates a really intriguing affect, it contrasts with the light side of him which slightly reflects him as a character. Due to this contrast in colours causes the audience start to believe that there is this unpredictable dark side to him but it is softened and justified by the other side of him which is caring and produces a explanation for his actions. Also the way he is sat with the gun in his hands indicates that he knows what he is doing and therefore he may not actually be the antagonist, it is this which will start to intrigue the audience. He is looking away from the camera with a very concentrated, serious expression which causes the audience to believe he has a plan and he will not be defeated. Shells off bullets are on the floor which highlights the gun has been used and more importantly someone might be dead. This is when questions start to arise such as who has he shot? why has he shot them? are they alive? The bullets also hint towards the narrative, they suggest that an obstacle is going to arise, this obstacle somehow will need to be worked around so restoration can be achieved. Dark colours such as grey and black have been used, the connotations of these colours fit right in with the genre as they connote mystery, the unknown, fear and also denote strength and authority which is the type of traits they want to reflect for Liam Neeson's character. The font of the title is big, bold and red, using red for the title of the film has made it stand out against the black, again the connotations fit in with the genre of the film as red connotes blood, death and emotion all features of a thriller drama production. Also Liam Neeson's name is written in a large font too as he is a huge attraction and selling point, the audience will notice he is in this film and with their previous knowledge of his talent will immediately be drawn in to see this one too now that they know he is starring in it. Lastly the tag line 'First they took his daughter, now they're coming for him' is capitalised like the rest of the text so it is noticeable, it reminds the audience of previous action that has occurred slightly exciting them for the action that is left to follow.
Taken 2 analysis- to take ideas and incorporate them into
our own.
1.Production logo of 21st Century Fox.
2.Establishing shot of antagonist’s territory.
3.Low camera angle of antagonist- shows Liam
Neeson’s opposition, already creating excitement. It causes the audience to
start judging the antagonist, summing up whether or not Liam Neeson will be
able to stand up against him.
4.Dialog used from antagonist, utterances such as ‘we
will find him, we will have our revenge’ this is all being said while a montage
flash back is being used of what Liam Neeson did in the previous film. Diegetic
sounds such as gun shots and screaming and shouting are used to run parallel with
the action that is being displayed in the flashback. This quickly entices the
audience, it is reminding them of the success of the last film by using
previous footage but it is also creating a narrative for the new film, building
tension.
5.Establishing shot of the new location is then
used, this begins the new narrative for the new film. Non diegetic music is
used, it runs parallel as its just like a soft guitar playing in the
background.
6.Medium shot of family talking, this displays an
equilibrium. Slowly strong beats of the drum are used every time a new straight
cut occurs displaying a new piece of footage, slowly building the narrative.
7.Lots of straight black cuts are used, then Liam
Neeson tells his daughter that his mother is going to be taken.
8.After he puts the phone down a montage is used,
lots of iconography- guns/explosions/chases- all typical conventions, excites
the viewer. Diegetic sounds are used creating suspense, as the gun shots and
shouts make it seem much more realistic. A non diegetic track is also used in
the background, slowly getting faster and faster creating more and more
tension. There are constant action codes such as bullets, guns, fire all the
iconography needed for a successful action film.
9.Suddenly the screen goes black, then Liam Neeson’s
daughter appears on the screen. She is knelt on the floor, while a man is
standing above her pointing a gun at her head. This quickly highlights the
difference in power between the two characters, it immediately causes the
audience to believe that she has no hope and there is no escape. A good point
to make is that after this shot of her, she does not appear in the trailer
again, they do not give away whether she made it out alive or not.
10.Fade transitions are then used between the
protagonist and antagonist as they are having a conversation on the phone, this
creates suspense as you want to know which one is going to be defeated.
11.You know then see a medium shot of Liam Neeson,
it is close enough to see his facial expression, which is determined and
fearless but far enough back to see that he is entering a building. A high
pitched non diegetic sound is used and then the screen suddenly black before
the audience get to see what is inside, this is an excellent way to draw the
audience in, making them want to know what is in there, who is in there and
what he is going to find.
12.Taken 2 then appears on screen, followed by coming
soon. Its left the audience at a cliff hanger, really making them want to know
more. The trailer has effectively enticed their audience, the perfect reason
for them to go and watch the film.
I have decided to analyse the trailer and film poster of 'The Grey' because it is labelled under the drama genre, along with being an action adventure thriller.
Who directed it? Joe Carnahan
When was it released? 2011
Are there any well known stars in it? Liam Neeson is definitely the main attraction, it also stars Dermot Mulroney.
What kind of conventions does it include?
It is based around conventions such as fear, emotion, survival and death, these conventions in themselves create the action and tension needed for it to be a successful drama, action, adventure thriller.
Straight away from looking at this film poster you can see the big bold font used for the title of the film, 'The Grey' this quickly hints to the action thriller genre. This font is then used again for the main star of the film, Liam Neeson, they have done this because Liam Neeson is a very talented popular actor especially in the action/thriller type genre so by placing his name right at the top in this simple eye catching font it will already attract the correct type of audience for the film. Moving onto the tagline, in the same font as the rest of the text, it states 'Live or die on this day' this cleverly includes a binary opposition which gets the audience to think which will it be, 'Live or Die' and it also has connotations of violence, death and adrenaline, everything the drama action adventure thriller genre should include. The main image which is a close up of Liam Neeson's serious stern face with a large bloody cut on it connotes action, danger and excitement all conventions which are going to attract their audience. By using a close up we see the emotion Liam Neeson is portraying, we see the determination in his eyes. By making direct eye contact with the viewer he has created intimacy causing the audience to be immediately connected and feel safe. This image draws the audience in making them want to know more like 'why has he got blood on his face?' 'why is he so serious' and 'what is the reason behind it all? By making the audience ask questions it is going to cause them to go and see it so they can be answered.
Shane meadows is best known for films such as Dead Mans Shoes, This is England, Once upon a time in the Midlands and Twenty Four Seven.
Meadows, from the area of Staffordshire had a slightly rough childhood as he was bullied at school. He left shortly before his GCSE's working on a market selling fruit and veg. Around the age of 20 he had made around 30 short films, however he could not showcase them anywhere as there was no such events like film festivals so it was his friends that set one up at a local cinema.
Several of his films have won awards at film festivals, including the Douglas Hickox award, Best screen play award and British Independent Film Awards 2006. He has also been nominated for a BAFTA and then later went on to win one for his film This is England.
Our film is called Redemption. As the genre of our film is a thriller/drama genre hybrid, we thought the best type of font for our film would be big and bold. We thought that the best colours for our title were either red or black as these have the best connotations. Red connotes anger, blood and emotion where as black connotes mystery, the unknown and death.
This is the font we first started with, which is big and block capital letters. Personally I thought this red was a bit too royal and bright for the type of genre we was going for.
So then we then thought we would try another option which had the similar big block features but just with a change of colour. We quite liked this but it still did not have the edge we was looking for, we wanted something more slick and straight so it stood out, grabbing the audiences attention.
Going back to red we fount a font we really liked on Font Space, its big, bold and straight and screams thriller/drama. This red was a much better shade however we still felt something was missing.
Lastly searching on Font Space we found our chosen font. We think this is perfect as the white connotes innocence and purity while the black background connotes danger and death. These are the main features in our film and connotations which also represent our the contradictory characters.
For our production name we decided to have 'THRILL'ER CLOCK PRODUCTIONS'. We chose this because we want to excite our audience and by using the word thrill reflects what kind of production label we are. It enhances the fact that we want to provide our audience nail-biting products which they will really enjoy. Also the use of the 'ER' slightly represents 'o'clock' so when you say the production name in one go it sounds like thrill o'clock, we thought this was a good idea as its catchy and kind of makes the audience think 'what time is it?' 'its thrill o'clock time!'.
By starting on the website 'fontspace.com' we chose a suitable font called 'Nova solid', we chose this font because originally we was going to put an image of a clock in the circle. However even though we decided not to put a clock in the 'o' we still liked the font and decided to keep it for our production logo.
We then used an image of a clock- By using this image, our selected font and adobe photoshop we were able to make our production logo.
This is the first production logo josh created, but we then realised that originally we had planned to have productions underneath.
So with some tricky editing on photoshop, Josh came up with this as our final production logo which we are all very pleased with.
This is our audience profile mood board for the target audience of our film 'Redemption'. We decided that the target audience for our film would mainly be males who are around 15-24 years old. We chose this specific target audience firstly because our audience research results highlighted that the male population were more likely to watch thriller dramas and secondly because the characters in the film are males around that same age category so they will have something to relate to. However we have not completely moved away from directing our film at females too as we know that especially in this age category females often go along with their boyfriends to the cinema so we feel that females could still be targeted too.
