Research for Teaser Trailer

I watched and analysed recent teaser trailers, to prepare myself and gather an idea of what is required of me when constructing a trailer. I created a set of questions and answered them when I finished watching the clips.

1.      How are you using media technologies in the planning and research?

2.      Does it have the same element and composer as a teaser trailer?

3.      Does it suit the genre that they stated?

4.      Was the camera angle effective, in terms of creating a mood, making known the protagonist and probably the antagonist of the film?

5.      Were the sound effect, ambience and anchorage effective, did it create an atmosphere to suit the genre?

6.      Did I understand the plot, messages that the text was attempting to display?

I found my clips through a film search engineer called www.youtube.com this website offered my various trailers that I could watch. I used Microsoft words to input my researched data into the document.

A layout of the website used to watch trailers.                                                 The name displayed on the screen, is a British-produced teaser trailer, themed around crime. I gathered from the trailer that the film was aimed at teenagers, I knew this because of the dialogue- a lot of slang’s were used, the representation were mainly teenagers (secondary school & sixth form). Many of the language was based around knife crime, sex, pregnancy, status, bullying. 

The most obvious, was the choice of music (soundtrack) and beats, it was hip-hop like, British rapping as opposed to the typical American choice of hip-hop. The British songs and use of location helped distinguish that this was a British film. From the trailer, I noted the different shades of light, different tones of lightness and darkness created a very bleak and deviant atmosphere. The film is also based around sub-culture: and deals with race and gender, effectively.                                                                      The trailer consisted of straight cuts; almost jump cuts- from one main scene to another. However at the same time it told the story and made the audience aware of the main events, but it didn’t give out too much. Instead it teased it target audience by releasing text that they want to hear, such as, “sex” “drugs”, scenes of drug-use and violence.

Trailer link: -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoKD4gTQ2c

I analysed the trailer for the British film ‘bullet boy’. From the trailer I gathered that the genre was crime. The title itself relates to the context of the teaser trailer, e.g. Bullet.  The composition of a teaser trailer was fast, quick cuts to keep the interest of the reader intact. Bullet boy trailer had scene cuts, ambience and non-digetic sound that worked well together and created an eerie atmosphere. Although there was no narrator the anchorage was a spoken soundtrack, which was layered with the actual dialogue from the film. There was no urban hip-hop music, only the sound effects of a raid in the beginning of the trailer. As the audience we, via the trailer, note that the film focused on the aftermath of going to prison for a crime not primarily based on what caused the character to go prison. This explains the pitiful soundtrack, which represents sorrow, regret, pain and loss.  The location and speech showed that it is a British film, because we are familiar with places such as London Bridge- which is featured in the trailer. The producer of the film is showed in the beginning. The narration is not spoken but written instead, with an urban-type font, font size .12. As we progress to the end, the trailer includes the actors and actresses name and the company who produced the film. And the film cover is placed at the end, which is unusual, because film covers are usually placed at the beginning and the end of a teaser trailer.

     Trailer link: -                         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9HmGBQ9LK8

The teaser trailer for shank starts off with the productions logo. The trailer is upbeat and fast-paced. The use of hip hop music tells the audience that it is based on urban crimes. With pop-pus explaining the trailer. uniquly, the trailer is futuristic based. It is set in 2015 and displays the dystopia of society. And how the producer and director see the country if gangs took over. There is a strong element of fighting and gun crime depicted in the trailer. the teaser trailer is fast-paced and the lighting is dusty, yellow with hint of grey- this shows destruction and dysfunction in society. There are a lot of ruined bulidings which the audience can relate to as a society where the law have been abloished and whats left is fighting against eachother. The focus of a young boy tells the audience that he is the protagonist in the film and also sends a message that, the younger generation are affected by the way society is, presently. However th film is quite universal because we follow the life of gangs rather than individuals. 

Link for Teaser Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfapOIPCRik

Findings concluded: In my researched I found that film trailers often focus on the protagonist of the film, they often capture the main storyline in fast shots, not revealing too much and not concealing to much, this fascinted me on how they get to this yet still engage the audience until the end. Trailers work as a advertising componment for a film, it promotes the film at the same time, it enforces the hypodermic model theory, the idea that media injects consumers with messages and meanings.