Before creating a website of our own for our trailer we researched existing films and their sites in order to establish ideas, presentation and key features.
Black background, writing made bold by using white and red colouring, thumbnails of multiple pictures to show a variety of shots and scenarios, options to watch trailer, view poster and see tickets and showtimes written on far right hand side with adjoining photos, tagline written under the title, 'now in cinemas'
Grey background with faded title text, film title contrasted with yellow font at the top of the screen, photos of DVD boxes and packaging in order to promote further purchase of the film, trailer to the right in centre screen, release dates written under trailer, links to pages 'watch trailer', 'special features', 'enter site' and 'buy the movie'.
We really liked the dark, eerie nature of this website, with the black base colour and three key images. The face of the main character is illuminated by a flame, with the island image and picture of the DVD placed below it. The photos have blurred edges to highlight the unknown elements within the film, and the colour us is dark and cold, including blues and blacks. The website is easy to navigate with key links and information placed in the centre of the site.
A spotlight shines on a ballerina, dressed in white - showing us that she will soon be established as the main character. the white signifies that she is regarded as pure, a virgin and clean, whilst the ballet pose not only shows what type of performance she is performing, but also that she is incredibly professional, too.
The film has been selected by the Toronto and Venice film festivals, as shown via the use of logos with big, capitalised text which contrasts with the dark, black - bird-like feathered background. we later find this out to be because the main character turns into the Black Swan in the performance. the journey from white to black shows that she is turning from being pure and innocent to being evil, possessed and scary.
In this shot, we see Natalie Portman, who acts the main role, smiling almost with a bit of pain inside her or that she is a bit confused. She has just been given the lead role in Swan Lake and is probably a bit scared, too. Later, we find out that there is some sort of romance between the owner of the play and Natalie Portman's character.
Again, the use of black feathers is slightly unnerving as you still don't know why they're there and what bird they're from. Black-feathered birds are often thought of as crows or ravens, both of whom signify death. so, 'what will happen?' is what you end up asking. the director is also mentioned as the director of past works, The Wrestler and Requiem For a Dream - this could gain extra fans of those movies, if they decided they didn't like it before seeing that a well-acclaimed director would be directing it.
A female character (played by Mila Kunis) appears, dressed in black and declares that she is to be the understudy. This shakes Natalie Portman's character up and eventually it drives her insane, psychologically. It is interesting to know that Mila Kunis' character is dressed in black, almost as if she is bad or evil, yet we learn later in the show that she is normal, with Natalie Portman's mind playing tricks on her.
This love scene seems very forceful from the male character, yet, as we know, he is the owner of the play - so he is using that to his advantage. The lead female character seems reluctant to be romanced and seduced by the man, yet in the film we are told she quite fancies him.
This shot shows the beginning of Natalie Portman's character turning on her, via the use of a mirror, cleverly mimicking her until she stops, back to the mirror, and the reflection turns around and smiles, menacingly, whilst she pants and her eyes are teary. Obviously this shows that she is sad and worried, yet we are not sure if it's psychological or not, despite the mirrored-reflection turning around on her, which isn't possible. It also hints that this could be based on a demon-like side to her.
My favourite shot is of a broken ballerina, almost mocking Natalie Portman's main character as she finally got the role she wanted, yet let her mind get carried away with itself and not focussed on her job. It is certainly a reference to how she may have thrown away everything, with her apparent psychological barriers.
She pulls out a feather out of her skin and looks at it with teary, bloodshot eyes - almost prompting us to think she has a psychological problem, and reminds us of schizophrenia as if it's someone telling her what to do, despite being asked not to scratch her back earlier, by an elderly character, who we know is her mum, from the movie.
As a group we decided what features we wanted to include in our trailer. We took into account that we wanted our characters to contrast as much as possible, with the girl (victim) being represented in light colours and the boy (enemy) being presented in dark colours. Also, when they are together it is a mixture. The features include:
Costumes Mise-en-Scene Sound Lighting
COSTUMES
Girl - Normal clothing, something similar to what girls wear currently both in fashion but quite casual, too. Boy - black trousers, black top, black coat and dark shoes to imply he is mysterious and like a shadow, following her or stalking her.
PROPS Girl - phone, make-up, clothes, bag, shoes and iPod similar things to what a girl would have in every day, day-to-day life. Boy - clothes - nothing too excessive so it shows he is there for one reason - to kidnap her.
CAMERA ANGLES
Girl - typically looked down upon, using a high-angle shot, to make her seem weak - linking with Laura Mulvey's audience theory.
Boy - shown from low-angle shots to show strength and power against the helpless girl.
Sound:
Boot slamming - loud so that it over-exaggerates as if it was an echo in the mind of the audience Speech on the phone at the start - calling the police, like most people would if such a situation arose Heavy breathing - to show that the girl is scared
Lighting:
Fairly light to start off with, continuing into darker parts of the film which shows how the equilibrium quickly turns into disequilibrium Light in the scenes when the girl is shopping with her friend, goes into darkness when going outside and when the girl is alone - to show that something is about to happen.
The Kill Bill volumes, both 1 and 2, tell the same storyline, with the first volume being an establishing and beginning section, whilst the second is the end part of the story. Both are directed by Quentin Tarantino and contain the same actors, providing the people in the first weren't killed.
I thought it would be interesting to continue my research and deconstructions of key sound on a sequel. Two films from the 2000s (also a sequel):
KILL BILL (Vol. 1)
-Voiceover - establishes the scene, so that the audiences understand what has happened
-SFX (weaponry or any destruction of set) - as this film is a Quentin Tarantino film, we know he likes gore, so anything weapon-based indicates that there will be action and as there is so much action in the trailer, it's likely to be the same in the film. it's also very comic book-style and subsequently widens the audience to fans of comics, too.
-Dialogue - establishes other characters
-Modern music - links us to the modern world so that it makes us try to imagine if this could happen in the real-world
- Some older music, Spanish-classical guitar - it's quite soothing and calm, meaning that there will be some calm bits, in the film
-High tempo music - returns us to the familiarly fast-paced parts of the movie, shown previously in the trailer
-Classic, catchy line which sticks in your head (closing line of dialogue) - as it sticks in your head, it will more than likely be something you remember and perhaps make you want to go and see it.
-Voiceover - establishes what has happened and where the new movie will go in terms of storyline.
-Music (Spanish classical) - again, it's quite soothing and calm, meaning that there will be some calm bits, in the film
-SFX (weaponry or any destruction of set) - as this film is a Quentin Tarantino film, we know he likes gore, so anything weapon-based indicates that there will be action and as there is so much action in the trailer, it's likely to be the same in the film. it's also very comic book-style and subsequently widens the audience to fans of comics, too.
-Voiceover - this shows who the main enemy is of the main character, played by Uma Thurman - eventhough she appears to have many enemies in both films
-Movie dialogue (played in sync with picture and over pictures as if it was a voiceover)
-Classic, catchy line which sticks in your head (closing line of dialogue) - as it sticks in your head, it will more than likely be something you remember and perhaps make you want to go and see it.
So, in summary, although they are different parts of an elongated film, they both have a very similar format in terms of sound and they both contain almost exactly the same aspects.
In the following films, I will list the key-sound that appears in order from the given film and state then what it does for the audience.
Two films from the 1990s:
SE7EN
-Dialogue - creates a sense of recognition with the audience, so that they know who the main characters are and what the main parts of speech are.
-Voiceover - creates suspense and you initially wonder who is talking until you recognise it to be Morgan Freeman and from previous roles, you know that he is more likely to be a good-guy.
-SFX (weaponry) - this shows it will be an action film, or at least have action as a sub-genre.
-Voiceover on awards - by telling the audience what awards it won, it almost feels like it's boasting but at the same time, it feels like it's someone you know telling you. Thus making the audience more enticed to go and see it, compared to maybe using some film festivals people may or may not have heard about before.
-Three gun shots - to show it's an action film or has action as a sub-genre, but it isn't totally based around the action.
-Fast paced music - creates a sense of no time to dwell on any aspect of the movie - it's going to be thrilling and perhaps adventurous.
-Dialogue - identifies the main characters, but doesn't tell you too much about the film - meaning you have to go and watch it, to see what happens.
-Slower music - shows that it's not going to be fast-paced throughout the movie and suggests the slower-paced parts of the movie may be just as important as the faster-paced ones.
-Quicker music - shows that the movie has picked up pace again and suggests it fluctuates throughout the movie.
-Gunshots - these show that there may be more than one part where there is action, but may be enough if you were an action-lover.
-Music record player needle off
music off - something makes everything come to an abrupt holt and also provides opportunity for dialogue to be heard clearly.
-Music (again) - a good way to end the trailer when fading out, and provides more interest than a plain screen with actors names on it.
-Voice over of actors names - again to boast such a well-acclaimed cast and highlight that to the audience, it also provides fans of the actors with confirmation that their idol is in the film.
-Dialogue - sets the scene and helps the audience to understand what the storyline is about
-Score (Epic, Classical Music) - helps to make the movie seem like a blockbuster (it similarly uses Ben Affleck's roles as both Director and actor as a main selling point)
-SFX (Breaking glass/Chanting) - makes it seem quite tribal, like there is going to be a struggle somewhere, presumably the venture into the unknown (we know that they do, from watching the movie or reading the plot)
-Change to normal music - makes it feel quite modern and this can be seen as a direct appeal to a younger audience as well as the older audience who already know about the true version of the story
-Cuts in time to music - help to change scenes and establish different locations and characters so that you know they may be used in the film - meaning the audience has a wider understanding of all the different areas.
-Cuts in between to writing
(name of film on magazine – the editing is so that there is a fair amount of time taken to show this shot)
-Based on a declassified/true
story - makes you want to find out about the story and see how it develops and whether the movie sticks to the real event, or not
-High tempo music - shows that it could be a fast-paced movie, it also implies that it is a thriller too
-Short Dialogue (often sets the scene or introduces characters)
-Fast paced music (slow originally, quite blues/soul orientated, late night music) - something that builds suspense, with regular pauses in between to create further suspense and show that this film will be a stop-start thrilling, perhaps horror movie
-SFX - to add extra sounds which could be out of shot. where you cant see. In a way it builds suspense as you constantly don't know who or what is following you
-Quite normal, popular music -
something an audience can relate to, with the initial music being a blues/soul piece from approximately the seventies, meaning an older audience might want to watch, too
-Cuts in time to music - shows the pace of the movie, it ends up quite fast to confuse you but show enough of the film so that you want to go and see everything that happens.
-Voiceover (slow, narrating
story/normal -paced for actors names – generally quite calm) - makes the audience feel at ease after watching a trailer with lots of suspense and almost restores equilibrium
These are the questions we asked as part of our survey to help us gather information. The feedback we received helped us to plan and prepare for our trailer.
We interviewed the group 15-25yrs so that we can establish our target audience and help us to confirm an age rating. We are focusing our research on this age range as we wanted our film to have a 15 certificate, widening the audience and controlling the content of our film, ensuring it is not too gory, graphic or extreme.
The questions and results are as follows:
1) How often do you watch Thriller films?
-Regularly
-Rarely
-Occasionally
-Never
-It's all I watch
2) What thriller sub-genre are you most drawn to?
-Psychological
-Horror
-Action
-Sci/Fi
-Crime
-Drama
-Political
3) What do you like about the thriller genre?
-Confusion
-Mystery
-Suspense
-Confrontation
4) What makes you want to see a thriller film?
-Storyline
-Actors/Actresses
-Director
-interesting title
- Good trailer
5) How would you prefer a thriller film to open?
-Chase scene
-Flashback
-Flash-forward
-'Normal' life
-Present time
-Death (murder, suicide, etc)
6) Do you like trailers to:
-Have a cliffhanger
-Establish the storyline
7) Would you prefer to see:
-Actors around your age
-Very young
-Older
-Mixture of ages
8) When seeing a film advertised, what is most likely to persuade you to see it?
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