Pitch For My Film/Trailer

Pitch for my Film: The Lost Key

Overview

I have always loved the fantasy genre, from the day I read what to this day remains my favourite book: C.S Lewis' The Magician's Nephew I fell in love with the whimsical awe of the stories that could be told in this genre. Growing up I continued to watch and read all the fantasy I could, from BBC's TV series Merlin to Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies. I'd always wanted to make a fantasy film of my own, one that meant as much to other people as others have meant to me.

Beat Sheet

1: Opening- Two old men are ambushed by main antagonist MALUS. He kills one of them whilst the other one mutters a spell that teleports the key wrapped around his neck. Angry, MALUS kills him before demanding to his followers to find it.

2: JUNIPER, our main protaginist. She is at home with her family, her brother CORNELIUS and her father WILLIAM. She leaves the house to go hunting.

3: JUNIPER is in the woods when she all of a sudden notices a flash of light, when she goes to investigate she sees the key hanging from a branch. She recognises it and picks it up.

4: JUNIPER takes the key home and is admiring it when she shows her father. He tells her to show the local mage to see what he thinks.

5: One of MALUS' followers tells him that the key has fallen into the hands of a young girl. MALUS, angry prepares to go and find her and the key. MALUS wants the key to open a chest that would give him the ability to rule over the kingdom.

6: She shows CAPITOUS the mage. He straight away recognises it and tells her the story behind the key and chest. He tells her that the key is sough after by many and that she is in grave danger if she keeps it. It opens a chest that contains a powerful spell that in the wrong hands could be a disaster. She then tells him that her mother wrote of the very same key before she went missing.

7: Longing for answers over their mother, JUNIPER and CORNELIUS plan to find the chest and open it for answers. So they head back to CAPITOUS for help.

8: They get to CAPITOUS' home and ask him for a map to the chest. Reluctantly he hands them a map and then a letter, written by their mother.  He tells them there's something they need to know about her but he is shot with an arrow through the heart before he can say what.

9: The two run from CAPITOUS' home and head to their own, where they take their horses and ride off through the town towards the woods.

10: They shake off their pursuers and rest at the foot of a mountain, where they read the letter and map from CAPITOUS. They gather resources and rest for the night.

11: They start to head east towards the ruins of Crekern Castle, a mythical place that lies on the top of Mount Trianth. We see lots of footage of them on their journey.

12: A few weeks into the journey, they reach a crevice and must find a way to cross. They find a makeshift bridge, however it can only take them and not their horses, so they let them go.

13: JUNIPER makes it across the bridge with ease, but CORNELIUS struggles and gets stuck in the middle. All of a sudden MALUS and his followers appear on the other side and they begin firing arrows at CORNELIUS.

14: MALUS gets up to the end of the bridge and tries to bargain with them, offering to spare their lives for the key. JUNIPER refuses and tells her brother to jump.

15: He does so and MALUS cuts down the bridge as CORNELIUS barely reaches the other side. MALUS warns that this isn't over as the two run off away from the crevice.

16: The two are travelling when they find a farmhouse, they go there to seek refuge and find SUSANA. She tells them about MALUS and why he is after the key. The next morning she sends them off with some supplies and wishes them luck.

17: We cut back to MALUS. He has found another way across the crevice and begins chanting a spell to himself and coming from the crevice there is a deafening roar.

18: JUNIPER and CORNELIUS are talking to each other by the campfire. They are talking about their mother. They get into a big fight and CORNELIUS storms away angry at his sister and unwilling to go on with the quest. He begins to head home.

19: JUNIPER is climbing to the top of a mountain when all of a sudden she sees Mount Trianth and Crekern Castle. She is about to head down when she hears a loud noise behind her.

20: MALUS comes in on the back of a huge dragon, he is holding CORNELIUS in his hand and threatens to drop him if she does not return the key. Defeated, she gives him the key for her brothers's life and asks why he needs the chest. He reveals that it was hidden by his sister who is also their mother. Making him the uncle of the two children.

21: The two watch MALUS as he flies towards Crekern Castle in order to open the chest. JUNIPER and CORNELIUS decide that the right thing to do is to follow him and try to stop their uncle at all costs.

22: MALUS searches for the chest in the ruins whilst the children run up to the top. He finds the chest just as JUNIPER reaches him. She tries to reason with him but he refuses. He picks up the chest and unlocks it.

23: Suddenly, CORNELIUS, who was hiding behind him, runs out, knocks him over and the chest goes flying across the floor. It lands at the feet of JUNIPER, and falls open. MALUS, angry stabs CORNELIUS, killing him and desperately tries to catch it and stop her but it's too late.

24: JUNIPER, now endowed with ancient magic has a duel with MALUS.  He tries to put up a fight, but is no match for her. He tries to retreat, and calls out his dragon, which takes him away from the fight.

25: As soon as he's gone, JUNIPER falls to the ground and sees CORNELIUS. He is dead and she begins to mourn with him in her arms. Suddenly she hears her mother's voice. She tells JUNIPER that she could save him, but that she'd have to give up her newfound powers.

26: JUNIPER agrees and with one final enchantment brings her brother back to life. The magic leaves her and goes back into the chest which slams shut. CORNELIUS wakes up and asks what happened, when JUNIPER turns back around their mother is gone.

27: ONE MONTH LATER and the two finally return home. Their father is overjoyed to see them and asks about what happened. They tell him the whole story.

28: JUNIPER heads to the sea and casts the key away on a makeshift raft. It sails over the horizon, never to be found by anyone again.

29: When JUNIPER arrives home she finds a crow on her windowsill, he has a parchment in his mouth that she takes. It is another letter from her mother, and a map with instructions on how to find her.

30: MALUS, is in his lair, watching JUNIPER through a magic cauldron. He smiles to himself and looks at the map, he turns and tells a shadowy figure in the background that they have the location of his sister. Cut to black.

Theory

I tried to include as much theory as I could in my beat sheet. I made sure to apply Todorov's Narrative Theory and follow the chain of: Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition of disruption, Attempt to repair and New Equilibrium. I also took into account some of Propp's Character theory and included characters such as: The hero, the villain, the dispatcher and the helper. e.t.c.

Representation

In terms of representation I thought I'd try to focus on a female main character. Juniper is a teenage girl with a little brother Cornelius. I felt that instead of having a male lead, which is what most films and texts in this genre focus on, I'd have her instead. 

Conclusion

Altogether, I feel that The Lost Key uses many tropes of the fantasy genre, as well as theory and representation. I think that I will have fun when making the trailers and hope to give a production that means a lot, as well as being enjoyable.

What Age Rating Should I Make My Film?

What Age Rating Should My Film Be?

Over the years there have been many fantasy films made, to many different audiences. But if I were to be making a fantasy film I would have to know what my target audience was, the target audience that most Fantasy Films are aimed towards. So I Looked at the BBFC Website to read up on the age ratings and decide which was best.

BBFC Rating: U 

 
A 'U' rating means that the film is suitable for all ages, but mainly aged 4 and over as adults would not know what particular children may find disturbing. In 'U' rated films you would have a very restricted use of threat and violence, which would be poor for my story as I would not be able to show many realistic scenes of danger, making the stakes very low. However, lots of children's media is fantasy based which means I would have a larger target demograph.

BBFC Rating: PG 

'PG' stands for Parental Guidance and it is similar to 'U' in that it is mainly directed towards children. However, this again means I am limited in what I can show in terms of violence and threat as a 'PG' rating gives the parents a choice over weather their child should watch it. However, yet again fantasy is always a popular genre with children so that is also noteworthy.

BBFC Rating 12/ 12A 

'12' and '12A', are ratings for the films that are for a slightly older audience. The difference between a '12' and a '12A' is that the former is used on home videos, whilst the latter is used for films when they're still in theatres. This is probably the best target audience to aim for because it averages between the amount of people who can see it and how much I can show, which is a nice balance to have when making a film.

BBFC Rating 15

A'15' Rating would be perfect if I were planning to do a more mature film. However, the guidelines are more strict when it comes to '15's, as no one younger than this age is allowed to watch one of these films in a cinema. This means the amount of people that can see my film would be greatly restricted. I would be able to up the stakes however, as the threats would be much more serious and realistic.

BBFC Rating 18

Finally we have the '18' rating. This is the highest BBFC age rating that can be shown in commercial cinemas. '18' Films tend to show graphic scenes of a sexual and violent nature, which is not the sort of thing I want my trailer to be focusing on, so I would probably not use this as my target audience as you don't get many fantasy films with '18' ratings.

Conclusion

Altogether I feel that a '12/12A' rating is the best for my trailer as it means I can have a really good balance of what I can show and who can watch it. As another note there have been many famous and popular films that have been made with a '12/12A' rating.

Genre Theory in the Trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I recently made a blog analysing the use of narrative theory in the trailer for the first Lord of the Rings trailer. So I thought it would be fitting to now analyse the first of the prequel films; The Hobbit trilogy. This time however, I did it on genre theory. 

The Hobbit Trailer - Genre Theory

To what extent are trailers accurate to the film?

When it comes to trailers, they can either be misleading of the finished film, or completely spoil it. Both of these tend to lead in disappointed viewers either before or after the film's release. Here are some examples of a trailer that was too misleading of the film and a trailer that spoiled the whole film, and whilst they do not fall under the genre I am studying they are still interesting to analyse.

Misleading Trailer, Godzilla (2014)

Directed by Gareth Edwards and staring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Bryan Cranston. Godzilla was one of the biggest films of 2014, earning over $529 Million which was over three times it's production budget and getting all-round good reviews, kickstarting a franchise with a sequel coming out in 2019. Despite it's success it is notorious for it's misleading trailer. In which it is implied that Godzilla is the one wreaking havoc upon the world and is put forward as an antagonist. However, after watching the film you can see this isn't the case In fact the title character doesn't appear until about 40 minutes in and only has about 10 minutes of screentime in the 2 hour film. The main antagonists of the film were these 'MUTOs' which were a new kind of monster made for the film. The problem is they didn't even appear in the trailers for the film, except maybe for a frame or two. In fact one scene of Godzilla fighting one of them as doors closed on the battle was edited to just show him roaring forbiddingly at the camera. This could be justified however, as Edwards could have just wanted to avoid spoiling the story. Another misleading part was the excessive use of actor Bryan Cranston in the trailers. They set him up to be one of the main characters when in reality he was killed off quite early on, without doing too much for the story. This was a little more deceitful as they most likely did this because Cranston is a popular actor and this would have drawn audiences in.

Spoiler-Filled Trailer 

There have always been criticisms of spoiler filled trailers. They take away the fun from the film and leave no point in watching them. A notorious example of this is 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom which, whilst doing very well at the box office, was critically panned worldwide. Universal released its first trailer in December of 2017, which was not too spoiler heavy, showing us mostly footage from the first half of the film. The second trailer however is where things went south. In just a minute and a half the entire plot of the film was revealed, this made the film less impactfull, for example the plot twist of the main characters being betrayed and left for dead on the island was supposed to be a big moment, but it was ruined by the trailers, meaning it meant nothing for viewers. It also spoiled the second act revealing that the new hybrid "Indoraptor" escapes and wreaks havoc on the manor was also spoiled, leaving most audiences waiting for them to get to that part rather than pay attention to what was going on in the film at that point. However, like the previously mentioned Godzilla, they did do a similar thing with actor Jeff Goldblum, reprising the role of his character Dr Ian Malcom, as they did with Bryan Cranston, implying they were both key players in the film when in reality were in it for hardly any of the film. Although I suppose you could count it as a spoiler as basically all we see of Goldblum in the film was shown in the trailers. 

Altogether I can see, by these trailers what percautions I should take when it comes to making my trailer, granted I'll be doing a different genre and there will not be a completed film to spoil, I should still take into conideration where these ones went wrong.