Monday, 29 October 2018
Monday, 22 October 2018
Tuesday, 16 October 2018
The Evolution of Trailers.
The Evolution of Trailers
As I mentioned in my history of trailers blog, originally trailers were displayed after the film. However they were soon used before films as it was much more effective from a marketing standpoint, as it drew more people in to watch the film. Most trailers were made by the NSS (National Screen Service) up until late on in the 50's. These trailers were made mostly up of clips from main scenes and were accompanied with loud voices and bold text, usually crediting the actors.
However, the arrival of "New Hollywood", the format for trailers changed. They became more like montages of the film, showing more, shorter clips. This was very popular and much more similar to the trailers that we have today. However many of these still contained voice-overs.
Trailers remained like this for a while, whilst still continuing to adapt slightly with the times. For example, during the 80's and the 90's, ominous or dramatic voice-overs were all the rage and every major blockbuster had one in it's trailer. However, nowadays people would find this cliched and in a modern context would only be used ironically.
Probably the most recent change in trailers is the effort in not revealing spoilers for the film. In the past trailers would often give away the ending of a film, take Castaway by Robert Zemekis. The trailer showed us Tom Hank's character off the island and back home, which straight away ruins the ending of the film. However nowadays, studios will go above and beyond in avoiding spoilers. Some studios go as far as to edit the trailers so they are different to the finished product and do not reveal too much.
Altogether, throughout the last century trailers have changed drastically, and with the increasing use of technology and the internet, they will probably go on to evolve even more.
Tuesday, 9 October 2018
Tuesday, 2 October 2018
Saturday, 29 September 2018
What makes a good trailer? Survey.
Trailer Survey
Many different people have different preferences when it comes to trailers. To decide how I should make mine in order to appeal to most people, I sent a survey out to my media class to see what they think, that way I can see what would be best to do when I come to make mine.
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Media Theory- Narrative
Narrative Theory in Film.
Narrative is the term used in Media Studies to describe the way in which a story is presented to an audience. For the most part different genres of film have the same narrative codes and conventions, however there are some that may be slightly different. Narrative is important as it gives the audience an engaging and enjoyable story.
There is usually a set structure when it comes to narrative, which could be applied to most media texts, but mainly film. Todorov's Narrative Theory is a great example:
Equilibrium
Disruption of equilibrium
Recognition of disruption
Attempt to repair disruption
New equilibrium
Another good theorist for film narrative is French semiologist Roland Barthes. Barthes stated that narrative should use five different codes in order to remain appealing to the audience:
Action
Enigma
Symbolic
Semiotic
Cultural
Binary opposition is another huge factor in media. It is putting two completely opposite factors together and set off against each other. Some examples are: Strong vs weak, old vs young, day vs night, big vs small, hero vs villain etc.
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Example of a teaser trailer- Captain Marvel.
The first teaser for Captain Marvel has dropped, lets break down the codes and conventions we see in it.
Yesterday, the much anticipated trailer for Marvel Studio's Captain Marvel was released globally. It is set to be released on the 8th of March 2019. It is the first film by Marvel Studios that has a female lead and ties in with the continuity of the already established Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.
As we can see, the teaser uses many of the codes and conventions that a teaser trailer should have.
Lets start off with the structure.
A teaser should start off by establishing the setting and characters. As we see here, the first shot is of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel falling from the sky into a Blockbuster Video store.
This establishes the main character, as well as the setting, Captain Marvel crashes into a Blockbuster Video store, meaning that the film is set in the past, the 1990's. We continue to get establishing shots, with dramatic angles and we begin to hear a climactic score build up in the background.
Throughout the beginning of the trailer we hear dialogue from Samuel L Jackson's character, Nick Fury, talking to Captain Marvel and eventually we see them meet. This ties in with the second main convention of a teaser trailer, establishing character relationships. The only characters we hear interacting are these two, however we also see lots of other characters interact and therefore can begin to piece together pieces of the plot, which helps give the audience a clearer understanding of the film.
We are the introduced to these green aliens, the Skrulls, which are set to be the film's antagonists, although very briefly, however it is as Fury is saying "We have no idea what threats are out there" which subliminally shows the audience that they are going to be the main antagonists.
Another convention seen, or rather heard, is the use of a dramatic score a track called Luminous and Unstoppable by Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, which starts off with quiet piano music and throughout the trailer builds up into a grand orchestral climax at the end, this helps build audience hype and anticipation.
Finally, we see the use of the title card at the end of the trailer. This is almost universally used as it also builds up audience hype.
View the teaser here.
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
What is a film trailer?
What is a Film Trailer?
Every major Hollywood film releases trailers before it's release. This is to generate and increase audience anticipation in order to boost box sales.
Trailers fall under two classes, theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. Teaser trailers are released prior to the theatrical trailers. They are shorter and often have climaxes that leave the audience wanting more. Theatrical trailers are similar to teaser trailers and have many of the codes and conventions of a teaser trailer, however they are longer and show more of the film's plot.
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Wednesday, 18 April 2018
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