Today we worked in groups and planned a trailer for 'Bloodshed High’; we recognized conventions of a trailer and applied them to promote the plot, USP and genre of the film to appeal to our target audience. Firstly we discussed the most recognisable conventions of a trailer:
- Highlights the 'best bits' of the film
- Not shown the story in narrative order
- Images stay on screen for only enough time for our mind to realise what we are seeing
- Conversations between characters usually consist of one line each
- Unusual angels used to show events or characters
- Action is interspersed with credits on screen
- Voice-overs used to tell the story
- Music plays an important role in creating atmosphere
- Title does not appear until the end
- Trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
We began by noting our initial thoughts, the title being 'Bloodshed High' immediately suggests the film is going to be set in a school, we decided we were going to challenge audience expectations and set our film on prom night. Initially our plot was going to be middle aged women who went on a rampage and killed students at the prom, yet we found issues with this as there was no relation between the killer and the victims. We then decided it would be a former student who would come to the prom to gain revenge as she faced discrimination when at the school but we could not justify why she would be at the school prom, after decision where made, we came to a conclusion it was going to be the school cleaner who was the murderer. This was one of our USP's as it is an unsuspected person who is the killer. We decided our target audience was going to be teenagers 15-21 and the film would be shown at late night screening hours to target our audience.
To express our synopsis we sketched out the shots our trailer would be showing. The first shot we decided would be our logo, this would be a horror production company which immediately suggests the genre of the film and attracts our target audience. The typography of this will be an old fashioned serif font to allow the genre to be easily recognised. The next shot was an establishing shot; here we would use a medium long shot to establish where the film is set and where the action is going to take place. We would use diagetic sound of wind to enhance the genre and build on audience expectations, this creates an eyrie atmosphere. The music will be introduced here, we decided on using 'linkin park' soundtrack as it appeals to our target audience and highlights the action in our film.
The next shots we would use to show the best bits of the film and build tension, this kept the audience anticipated throughout our trailer. We used the convention of one-line conversations here to show insight into the film but avoid revealing the whole plot.
We then decided to build on the pace and tempo by using a rapid montage of death shots, showing blood and gore, these shots only lasted a few seconds which left the viewer questioning the mystery of the killer. We used enigma codes to enhance this. The pace of the shots speeding left the trailer building to a climax, where it ends.
To end we revealed the director of the film, we decided the director was going to be from 28 Days Later, as this is also a London based horror, one of our USP’s. This allows the audience to recognise the genre further. This feature then leads to the title of our film being exposed to the audience. The title is going to flash up on the screen with the killer cleaning the blood off of our film title, the typography will be an old fashioned serif font, using black, white and red, three typical mysterious colours conveying with symbolic meaning. The blood is pushed to reveal the release date which is our final shot, 'Halloween 2011'. This being exposed in blood highlights the mood and promotes the genre of the film. Being the last shot ensures it will remain in the users mind. We decided on the release date being this time as it recognises our target audience through horror genre and is during out of school time.
From this task I have learnt...
- Trailers are not movies, they simply show the best bits of the film
- Audience expectations are key, production company is vital
- How to engage an audience
- How to apply knowledge and understanding
No comments:
Post a Comment