Research: Film Trailers
For my promotional film package, the main thing I will be making is a trailer, so in order to get a better perspective of how trailers work and use things such as sound and mise-en-scene to portray the storyline in a way that will attract the audience and also show the genre. The genre I have chosen for my film idea is drama, so I have chosen two films to use for each area of research, a modern film The Fault In Our Stars and an older film Titanic. Both are popular drama films. The third drama film I chose was Boyhood.
The Fault In Our Stars:
The Fault In Our Stars is drama-romance about the story of two cancer ridden teenagers who against all odds, find love with each other. The trailer works to show both the romance side of the tale whilst also referring back to the drama side through the reminders of their cancer. This is mostly done through mise-en-scene. Such as through the particular shot shown below. In this mid-long, wide shot of one of the main characters, Gus, what is shown in the background is very important. This being the poster for 'St Paul's Cancer Support' on display next to him. This not only establishes where the characters are that the present point in the trailer, but also clearly reads the word 'cancer'. This shows off the genre as this medical condition is a theme used in the genre for Drama.
Other ways in which the trailer suggests that the genre of the film is a drama is through such dramatic scenes as midway through the trailer when the main categories of its hospitalised. In this scene there is a shot of the mother rushes into Hazels bedroom in slow motion whilst accompanied by dramatic organ playing. The trailer then cuts to a scene showing parents in a hospital looking sad, then straight after we see the other main character, Gus, standing on his own also looking solemn. The setting being a hospital hints at the drama as it has connotations of sadness, illness and even death. The combination of their expressions and the setting gives off a negative vibe of something bad and serious happening which is typical for drama films.
A key component of all trailers is sound. The trailer uses the music around the entire duration. Over this music differs in depends on the scenes been shown to the audience. The music used throughout the trailer could also be interpreted as hopeful which complements the storyline perfectly, as being hopeful is usually something are so shared with cancer patients as they always hopeful to be cured and live long healthy lives. This then links to genre being a drama. Another thing sound is used for is to build up to certain lines. Such as the music will be happy and playful then all of a sudden stop for a specific scene as to out emphasis on it.
The pace of the trailer is something that goes well with the music used. Such as the trailer starts off at a normal pace which is complemented by normal piano music. Then when the pace starts to quicken after a dramatic scene happens, the music complies to this and and changes to dramatic organ playing. Music then changes to an upbeat song when the pace of the trailer gets quicker through the use of short snippets of scenes and the quick transitions between these. The pace for the film changes throughout; it doesn't stay consistant. It starts of normal with the getting to know each other scenes, and then midway through it slows down for the dramatic scene of the main character, Hazel, getting taken into hospital, as the let the seriousness sink in to the audience. The pace stays slow for the romantic declaration of their love scene then soon after picks up rapidly as we are shown multiple different, short scenes in succession. Then at the very end, it slows down for the last scene to almost close the trailer off so there isn't a sudden ending.
A key element of this trailer is the voice-overs used. The trailer begins with the scene of the main character lying down looking at the camera and then speaking a monologue, The trailer then shows other scenes whilst the character is still speaking, turning it into a voice over. Monologue she's talking about how to tell sad stories immediately the mental stats sad stories into a pyjama being a drama seeing as sad stories is usually is a theme within dramas. The monologue ends with a black screen and the line reading it's just not the truth. The combination of the line and the black screen is another hint at the drama seeing as this combination is very dramatic. The movie also ends with the same close-up of the character lying down, except instead of having a long monologue, she merely says the one word 'okay'. This is significant because in the film and book, the two main characters pick up a catchphrase in which they always say to each other which is the word 'okay'. This is been included at the very end because it is what the audience and the readers of the book were anticipating about the film as it is a scene they want to see, but it has been left to the last scene of the trailer to build up anticipation and then finally give in.
The trailer also uses many titles throughout. It uses a 5 during the trailer and then four at the end. The titles used throughout tell us that it was based on a book and it is a 20th century movie. It also reads out a tagline for the film, as shown in the two screenshots below. The mention of life not being perfect is a hint at the genre, as it means there is something negative in their lives that is addressed in the movie, and this is a typical thing for a drama film to do. The next part mentions love which is an indication of the other genre which is romance.
The title of the film itself isn't shown until the very end as the start of a string of informational screens. The screen on which shows the title, shown above, has used the same font name as used for the cover of the book to make it distinctive so the audience can connect it to the book.
It is then followed by screen showing the producers; and then another one which showns such information as who directed the film, who wrote the screenplay, and that the film is based upon a book by John Green.
This is followed by another screen, the final screen, which reads 'June', which is used to tell the audience when the film is coming out. Underneath this is the website for the film 'TheFaultInOurStarsMovie.com' and underneath that is the hashtag for the film which is '#TFIOS'. At the very bottom of the screen, there is a small text which reads the copyright for 20th Century Fox and includes the logo. All of these screens have a black background and white text except for the title in which includes blue text so that it stays in likeness with the book, and also the website and hashtag have been placed in blue, as shown below. This is as to make the word 'June' stand out more as white text is more visible than the blue against the black background. The reason behind making this word stand out more is to evoke excitement into the audience first, as release dates are usually there to give the audience a specific time to look forward to.
The target audience is teenagers and this is made clear to the viewers though a few things. Such as the cast consisting of mostly teenagers. In fact the main characters themselves are both teenagers, and another character who appears more often than others, who plays their friend Isaac, is again a teenager. There are also scenes in the film to make this clear and the trailer has included one of the main scenes that shows of the target audience. In this scene the two main characters Hazel and Augustus are joined with their friend Isaac and are shown to be throwing eggs at a bright green car. This being an activity associated with teenagers as it is a well-known prank to throw eggs at something. Also the car being of fluorescent green colour shows that it belongs to a younger person as the colour of the car has connotations of youth.
This trailer doesn't tell the audience who the actors that are starring in the film are, as the actors aren't well-known actors and also aren't main attraction or even a large portion of the abstraction of the film. In fact, the main attraction about this film is the book it was based upon. This fact means the film already has it's target audience as it will coincide with the the book readers, which are known to be mostly teenagers. This target audience is a huge factor when making a film as it affects everything, including the trailer. Such as the fonts, the music, the props, the clothing, the actors, all have been influenced by the teenage target audience as look young and modern to appeal to them. Another thing it will affect is where the trailer will be shown. This trailer would be shown before other films with similar genres that appeal to a similar audience as they will have already attracted a similar audience and by showing the trailer to them, it is more likely they will be interested and want to go see the film. This also applies to television; the trailer will be shown before certain TV shows that attract the same audience as the target audience for the film, such as teen programmes like 90210, Skins, Glee, etc.
Titanic:
This trailer is for the film Titanic, a romantic drama. The film itself stays true to the drama genre by including an abundance of dramatic scenes. This trailer differs to most trailers due to the length of it. - it is 4 minutes long. This is because the actual film itself is 3 hours long which is longer that a typical film. The length is due to the film being split into two parts. The beginning being the present day in a documentary style looking back on the sunken ship, but introduces the main character Rose in her present old age. Then the audience is transported into the past to relive Rose's dramatic love story aboard this ship before it sunk.
The trailer, being used to show off the film and attract an audience to watch the film itself has included the main dramatics events that happen during the movie, but then cuts off just before the ship has actually sunk, leaving it on a cliffhanger. This encourages the audience to go and watch the film in cinema or on DVD, etc, in order to find out the ending. The last scene in the trailer is of the two main characters leading on the barrier on the edge of the ship whilst it is going down. The shot used is interesting as it is a Dutch angle but also upside down. This helps the audience align with the disorientation the characters are experiencing in this scene.
Another thing to make the audience want to see the film is the actors and actresses that star in the film. The main actor and actress were already movie stars before the film was released. Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the main male role, was famous before this film as he starred in other films such as Romeo and Juliet as Romeo. Kate Winslet was also a known star for her supporting role in Sense and Sensibility. However both stars weren't internationally well-known, in fact it was through this film itself that both actors became massive movie stars known internationally. But as this film stars two known actors, the trailer includes the actor and actresses name in titles and also the directors name as he is also well known. They are shown near the end when the trailer is previewing some of the more dramatic scenes. This is when the audience are most likely to have their full attention on the trailer so will pay more attention to the names.
A lot goes on auditory wise in this trailer. When the trailer starts to go into the actual film set in the past, the music changes to fit. It begins to play soft, almost heaven-like string music to connote the happiness of all the people getting onto the boat. It then continues in this fashion until we get to the scene of Rose unhappy. The most dramatic sound change start when a man sees the incoming iceberg. It begins with a man ringing a bell as shown in the screenshot below, and then yelling, informing the boat of the iceberg. Then the panic starts to spread amongst the boat. Many different sound effects are used, including lots of diegetic sound such a screaming, crying and running and also water rushing into the boat and the boat beginning to break, etc. There is already dramatic non-diegetic music playing in the background from the previous dramatic scene, but for this scene it increases and gets more intense. This all continues throughout to the end of the trailer, taking up almost half. However, the sound does stop for the end titles and gets replaced with simple strings, much quieter than the previous sound. This is to let all the drama that previously happened sink in to the audience.
One of the dramatic scenes in this trailer is of Rose about to commit suicide. She is seen on the wrong side of the barrier, gripping onto it, staring down. The four elements come together to use dramatic conventions to enhance the seriousness of the short preview of the scene. The mise-en-scen is used in this shot to have a stormy, dark weather - use of pathetic fallacy - and a windy sea, rushing quickly past the boat, looking dark and threatening. The editing is used to increase the pase, as it seems to give the viewers time to look down at the sea with her and note how badly this could end but then quickly moves on when she sees Jack and is saved. The sound is an important part of this scene as it uses both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The diegetic sound goes along with the mis-en-scene to show off the bad weather as we can hear the loud water rushing by and the storm going on. The non-diegetic sound is of strings in which they build up in the scene until the moment Rose first sees Jack, then there is a loud bang to highlight the importance of this moment of the two main characters meeting. The cinematography in this scene has been used wisely. The two main shots in this scene are a birds-eye view and low shot. The birds-eye view is used to show both the character and her POV. This helps the audience connect with her and see what she sees to get an insight to the character.
The low shot is used looking up at her hanging off the edge of the boat but is positioned far down, near the sea, so the audience can get a perspective of how far down the water really is.
The end of this trailer begins with a shot of the sunken and decaying boat called Titanic from the film with the name of the film in bold, large font in the middle of the screen and increases in size until the next shot. The font remains consistent with the same font used in the poster but a different colour.
The next two and last screens consists of black backgrounds overlaid with white text. On the first, the text being the film studio name, the production company, the director and various other names of people who helped make the film.Underneath, the website for the film is included.
The next an very last screen showed consists text of other important names and also an advertisement for the soundtrack. The website is again include underneath all of the text in the same place as before. This screen also includes three logos for the studios and production companies
Boyhood:
The film Boyhood is a drama that shows the life journey of character Mason from the age of 6 to 18. However this film is unique as it was filmed over the duration of 12 years and uses the same actor to play Mason at each age as he grows up. This idea is presented in the trailer through the use of title screens near the beginning. These use a black background with white text overlaid to be clear for the audience to read. It almost mentions the directors/writers name.
The pace for this trailer varies. At the beginning when it's trying to portray the plot, it goes fast and shows lots of quick clips in sequence to show the character growing up to accompany the titles shown in the screen-prints above. The rest of the trailer continues in a similar fashion by showing lots of short clips of real-life events and activities making the pace of the trailer quite fast.
Other titles that are included in this trailer are reviews on the film. These help attract the audience and sell the idea that the movie is good because critic's reviews say they are. These are shown on the same black background with white text to remain consistent.
The title of the movie doesn't show until the end and is accompanied by the cast names for the main characters.
These end titles remain consistent with the rest of the titles through the same use of colour and font. The first title of the end screen contains lots of information including names of people involved with the film. It also includes four logos of various film company's and another aspect is the inclusion of social media: there is a Facebook logo and the Facebook page name. The website is also included next to this.
The final title scene is more simple and contains less information. This is due to the title of the film being included here. To overcrowd this title screen with endless information would attract too much attention away from the title and confuse the viewers. The information that has been included on this screen are the main actor names and the director/writers name.
The sound used throughout the trailer is mostly made from guitar sounds. It begins off quiet and soft and then picks up the pace towards the middle of the trailer. At this point, singing comes in also. Then it drifts off towards the end when the footage slows also. This music track is constant through the whole trailer; even when dialogue is heard, the music is still playing in the background but has been quietened. This is very typical for a drama to use instrument foregrounded music throughout the whole trailer that fits according to the footage, pace and emotions portrayed in the trailer.
The target audience for this trailer would consist mostly of teenagers. This would be because they can relate to the main character and the story-line as the main character ranges from 12-18 like the target audience themselves and also the story-line is of a boy growing up and experiencing life issues and events that the audience are likely to be experiencing themselves.
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