Trailer Analysis - Twenty Four Seven

• This film is set in a council estate which suggests that they were not a wealthy area in which they were rather poor and had to scrape by in order to cope or survive in these livings.
• The main characters are shown in a close up shot to make it clear to the audience who is part of the film.
• The shots used are very basic and simple as it just cuts from one shot to another. This is due to the fact that only one camera and one tripod to create most of Shane Meadows' films.
• There is upbeat music used in the film which is done and so it is able to relate to the storyline behind the film.
• The genre of film suggests to be a Drama. It also tells the story of each character which helps to suggests that the genre of the film is a Drama. 
• This film trailer conforms to the stereotypes of teenagers as the characters come across as challenged.
• I would say the target audience would be people aged between 16-25 as the characters are situated around this age and so the audience may be able to relate to it in some way.

Magazine Cover - Mens Health

The masthead is in a bright red colour which makes it stand out against the pale white background. The effect of this is that it stands out and makes it eye catching for the target audience. The first letter of both words is in capitals and the rest of the letters are in lower case letters which suggests that they are trying to still keep it interesting for the target audience without making the whole thing overwhelming for the target audience. The masthead automatically tells us who the target audience is for the magazine and so they would instantly know if it was aimed at them or not.

The font of all of the writing such as the cover lines and the extra lines such as the ‘FREE’ notice above the masthead is all in capital letters to make the whole magazine stand out. Also this will help to prevent the reader from just concentrating on the main image on the magazine cover and so they get to read the writing as well. The idea that they put up ‘FREE MUSCLE GUIDE’ suggests that the audience think they are getting more than what they are paying for the magazine.

The magazine cover does not contain too many puffs as they are very minimal. This suggests to be done to keep the magazine simple for the audience to understand without distracting them too much from what the job of the magazine cover is supposed to do.

This magazine does not contain a barcode on the front cover which is not usual for a magazine cover. This instantly tells us that it is not like all other magazines as they usually have the barcode lined along the bottom of the magazine cover. 

Magazine Cover - Vogue

The masthead is big and bold which makes it the first thing you see when the target audience looks at the magazine. This is effective as this is the main aim for the masthead to do, attract the audiences attention. The colour gold creates a feminine and expensive look which automatically attracts the female audience.

The main image on the from cover is Rihanna who is a famous music artist and so it is effective to have her on the front cover of the magazine as it would make the reader interested in the story about her that is inside. This is important for the creator of the magazine to decide who to place on the magazine cover as you want to attract the right audience to make it more attracting for the audience to read.

The colours that are used in the background are soft and gentle colours which lets the colour lines suggest that they are going to stand out more as they are in black and white writing. The front cover gives of an exotic due to the way Rihanna is dressed and the background in with it together suggests that she is somewhere hot and sunny.

There are only a handful of basic colours used in the background such as brown, red, white, blue and black. This is done to create the idea of a simple magazine but also keep it eye catching but also intriguing for the target audience. the colour of the masthead matches Rihanna as it is similar to her skin tone but also to what she is wearing. This may be done to keep the magazine simplistic for the reader to understand. 

The barcode is positioned at the bottom right of the page, however, usually it is in a rectangular shape but this one is in a square. This suggests that it is different and unique to other magazines and wants to stand out from other magazines. Although this is not something the reader would instantly recognise, it still give the magazine different compared to other magazine front covers. This also has the price of the magazine with the barcode which helps to keep the audience informed about how much the magazine is going to cost them. 

Each cover line and the main sections of the words on the front cover of the magazine are in capital letters and the rest are in lower case letters which makes it stand out and be eye catching for the target audience whilst still keep them intrigued for what the stories are about. 

Magazine Cover - Heat

The masthead is in bright red with a white background which makes it stand out more. The font is in lower case letters which suggests to the reader that it is a less formal magazine. 

The dateline is in small font which suggests to the reader that it is not as important and they did not want to distract the reader from the main stories of the magazine. However, this is still relevant as it tells the audience when to buy the magazine. The issue number is placed next to the date which is informative for the reader as it tells them that there are previous issues, suggesting that it is a popular magazine. It is positioned about the masthead which suggests that it is still going to be seen but it is not as important as the masthead.

The main image is a shot of Cheryl but is also surrounded buy other celebrities. Due to the magazine containing stories about celebrities, it shows what type of audience they are aiming for: they want people to buy the magazine as it contains their favourite celebrity on the front. Articles in the magazine are based on popular things that the public are interested at the moment. This shows that they like to keep up to date with the latest news and action which suggests that they are interested in what they public think and what may appeal to them.

The barcode is an essential part of a magazine as it is included on all magazine covers which suggests that it is a selling point for magazines.

The word 'FREE' written in pink with a yellow background suggests to the audience that they are getting more than what they are paying for in a magazine. They are giving away a free poster of a One Direction member which may suggest that the audience of who the magazine is aimed at has changed. Now it may appeal to One Direction fans and that they may only buy the magazine and so they can have the poster out if it.

The word 'EXCLUSIVE' is in bold white writing which will catch the readers eye almost immediately and have them instantly drawn to the magazine. This may appeal for them to buy it as it may eave them wondering what the article is about.
 

Spoken Analysis of Skyfall

We chose to analyse Skyfall as it is a great representation of action which is the same genre that we as a group would like to influence in our work. We would like to do an action film as it is different to what we all focused on last year which was horror. It will therefore give us a chance to challange our skills and techniques to put towards another film genre.  

Empire Magazine Cover

The masthead is in bright red writing which makes it stand out for the audience. This is effective because the text used is clear for the audience to read and so it would catch their eyes easily. 

The dateline is positioned in the same area as the barcode, as it is on a plain white box, makes it easier for the audience to read as sometimes they can change the font, making it harder to understand.  

For the main image, they have used a shot of Jack Sparrow positioned in the center of the magazine cover which helps to promote the film of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’

There are a few cover lines included in the magazine cover which have been distributed around the page but mainly focused on the right hand side of the page to make more of an impact for the reader. 

The colours for the text in the cover lines are yellow and white so they reflect on the background of the main image without distracting the reader from the main story.

The bar code is positioned at the bottom right of the magazine which is very common for most magazines. Although this is a standard barcode that many magazines include.  

Sinister Trailer Analysis

I have chosen to do Sinister to look at. In the trailer of sinister (2012) there are a man and a women walking towards a house together. this might suggest that they are going to be living together as a family. Just before this happens the camera moves towards the front of the house slowly suggesting that the film could be based on the house as it is just on its own in the view of the camera. the next shot quickly moves onto the family around the table having a meal, however,  the light is shining on the table and they are surrounded by darkness. This instantly gives away that this film could be a horror because it has a lot of darkness. The scenes constantly move quite quickly from one scene to another as if the audience is waiting for something to happen. In the shot shown before the trailer starts, the angle of the camera is a close up able to show the expressions on his face. By the look in his eyes, the audience are able to pick up on the fact that he is in fear of what is happening in front of him. Also the way that his mouth sits slightly open suggests to us that he is shocked by what he is seeing. 

Towards the end of the trailer we see that it contains five children that have their faces painted in a creepy way. The effect of this is that it goes against what children are stereo-typically supposed to be which is innocent and cute but instead they are represented as dangerous monsters for human beings. Most the the film is set out in the dark which tells the audience that it is a horror film. This creates a visual image for the audience to understand what they might witness in the film.      

At the beginning of the trailer where there are quick changing shots, the camera continuously goes back to the view of the house. This suggests to the audience that this is where the film is mostly going to be based on as it is given most prevalence during the trailer. The shot changes to a shot of the father packing away boxes. This is showing the stereotypical view of a normal everyday family when the father is out working and being the breadwinner of the family.  The daughter is doing drawings which exposes to the audience what young children enjoy doing. The audience may view her as an innocent sweet young girl which is cliche to what most horror films do. They use young children to be seen as innocent and vulnerable but in the end they are not always viewed like this by the end of the film.  This is conventional for a horror based film as it entices the audience and makes them want to carry on watching it to find out what happens to her at the end.This will then leave them wondering if this is done throughout all/most horror films or if it is done occasionally. 

From around 1:36 of the trailer, the shots start to be fast paced and dramatic making it exhilarating for the audience to watch. 

Day 1 of filming

On the 13th of October, the sixth form took a trip down to London due to having a boat party. When on the boat, we has noticed how pretty the lights lit up in the evening and so therefore decided to take some shots and use these as practices ready for when we are filming for our final idea. As it is in a well known area, we saw this as a great opportunity to take some shots of the buildings as it would be well recognized if it was used in our film trailer. The first shot that we took was a shot of the millennium wheel, however as we did not have the right equipment and we ended up having to use our phones, the shot did not appear to be very clear and so the image is blurred. However, i think this was a good thing that we decided to do this as although it did not come out clear, it gave us a chance to see how the image will look, the proportion of it and we can also see if the idea would tie in together with our film trailer. This shot is a long shot as so we can practice the shots at different lengths to see which type of shot we think works best to get the better picture.

For this shot, we decided to take an extreme long shot of the bridge as we thought this would be a good background idea. This did not particularly work out as although we wanted to get in the whole of the bridge and so it was recognizable, the audience may have to focus too much before they can make out what the image is. Again, due to us not having a proper camera with a zoom lens or a macro lens, we only had iPhone 5's and so we were not able to get a a clear image without having the dark black background. therefore the image did not work towards our advantage. If we were to do this shot again, we would use a camera with a zoom lens and so we would be able to get a close up image with it still being a clear shot. 

Targets for this year

There are many things that I wish to do differently this year that i did not manage to do last year for this project but I am happy that I get the chance this year to add what I didn't do in last tears years project. One of the big things that I think I need to improve on this year is my organisation and my timing. I found that last year when it came round to actually filming my film, I did not leave myself enough time to get enough clips filmed and edited which resulted in my final film not being the best quality that it could be. And so the target that I set myself for this year's project is to make sure I get my film filmed and edited from near the start and so I have time to go back and add or take out extra clips in order to get my film to a higher standard.

When filming my film lat year, I ended up filming on a camera phone and so the quality of my final film was not the best that it could have been because the camera kept shaking in areas and due to the fact that I did not film enough clips, it resulted in me having to use the clips with the camera shaking. Also the sound in the film clips was not that great in the overall production as to when I had planned it, I was determined to ensure that the audience could hear each footsteps on the leaves without it sounding muffled. Positive that i will do better this year, I went out and brought myself a Nikon video camera which allow me to get better quality clips. 

When making the opening two minutes for my film and watching it back, I realized that it did come across as more of a trailer rather than an opening of a film and so therefore this time I need to make sure I am reading the task over twice and so I am fully aware of what the task is asking me to do. However, last year this is also to do with the fact that I did not film enough clips and so I had to insert more production credits to make the opening of my film longer to meet the target length which is not something that I intended to do for last year but will actually help me this year as we are doing a trailer.

Things that I would do differently this year when doing the film trailer is to just organised myself effectively and plan out my time efficiently and so I am not leaving everything to the last minute. By doing this, it will give me time to go through everything and ensure that it is all at the best standard that I can achieve but also go back and look at areas for improvement.

Specific Targets - 

Mise-en-scene - The target that I would set myself for this year on the setting is to try and use something that not many people would manage to do such as a hospital or a cemetery  if I plan to do another horror genre rather than a woods where most of the class had chosen. This is because it was something that was easy to do and is one of the main settings that are associated with the horror genre. 

Camera Composition -  My target for use of the Camera this year is to add a more varied amounts of different camera shots and so there is more dimension and depth in the final product. By doing this, it will allow the audience to take the film more seriously and it will look more like a film trailer. 

Editing - The main target that I am setting myself for this year is to make sure that I have filmed enough clips whether they are good or bad and so I have enough clips to edit in and out of my film trailer. By doing this, I would have enough clips to play around with and practice different editing techniques such at cutting from one clip to another to see which one would work best for my film trailer. 

Sound -  When doing the sound for my film this year, I need to give myself enough time to create my own soundtrack for the film trailer as it was something that I had planned to do last year but unfortunately did not work out. By doing this, I could hopefully pick up a few marks but also, the whole of the film trailer would be original. 

Total Film Magazine Cover

The masthead is in big bold writing, taking up a whole line on the front cover which makes it clear to the audience what magazine they are reading.  The points of some of the letters are pointy which backs into the background as there is danger of fire.

The dateline is positioned under the m’ of the magazine title. It has the date of the magazine, the issue number but also a website where you can look at the magazine online. This is helpful as people may not want to buy paper copies that they are going to throw away but they would rather just have a look at it online and save their money.

 

For the main image, there is a single shot of the hunger games actress, Jennifer Lawrence. It is used in a direct way and so she is positioned to be looking right at the reader. Behind her is a big flame of bright orange fire to tie in what film she is promoting which would be part of ‘The Hunger Games’.

There are a few cover lines included in the magazine cover which have been distributed around the page to make more of an impact for the reader. The colours for the text in the cover lines are yellow and so they reflect on the background of the main image without distracting the reader from the main story.

The bar code is positioned at the bottom right of the magazine which is very common for most magazines. Although this is a standard barcode that many magazines include, it has its own logo positioned to the left of the barcode. 

Initial Ideas - Action

For our film trailer, our group have decided to base it on the genre of action which has been built up on many reasons. Although the Horror genre can be made to look realistic and effective for the audience, I found from doing this last year that it is hard to create a trailer that is different and stands out from all the other films in the same genre category. Another reason why we have decided to do an action genre film trailer is that even though we may not be able to add in most things that are expected in an action film such as explosions, we are going to be able to mirror some of the shots taken at the different angles and use influence of the settings and surrounding to use in our final trailer. I would be happy to use the influence from the 2013 film ‘The Tower’ as the use of the explosions and disasters; it makes it more exciting for the audience to watch. However, I would be focusing more of the camera and the way the angles vary such as looking down on the disaster from a high angle shot or getting a low angle shot to make a specific scene more dramatic for the audience. 

For our idea, we are planning on basing our film trailer on a boat in London. We are going on a boat on October 13th and so would be a great opportunity to get some shots of the buildings. The reason why we have chosen to set our film in London is that it is a well known place and so the audience would be familiar with the setting of the trailer.

The Visit Trailer Analysis - Horror

Right at the start of the film trailer, it uses a range of different shots such as a long shot which shows the setting from the driver in the cars point of view, a close up shot of a child’s mouth which is showing what a typical kid may be like in reality. The camera then moves to a low angle shot of the car which was also the same shot that was shown before the close up shot of the little child. The effect of this is that it builds up tension for the target audience. The camera moves to another low angle shot showing the parent bent down on the floor. This has been done to express the emotion of the characters which the audience are able to be aware of. The camera then moves quickly to a medium shot of a train as the camera pans along with the character that is running along with the train. These shots are continuously fast passed as it makes the scenes more dramatic for the target audience. This helps the audience to recognize what the genre of the film is going to be which helps them to understand what they make expect from this genre of film. 

The camera then quickly moves onto a range of wide shots showing the setting of where the film is going to be based. They also take this opportunity to introduce new characters to the film without it being overwhelming for the target audience. As the scenes go on, the camera moves to a close up of an old rail hand and a little child’s hand. This expresses the mood of the scene and the particular emotion that they may be feeling which is love. The camera then quickly changes to an over the shoulder shot of two characters and so the audience are able to see what is on the screen inform the characters which suggests that they want the audience to focus on this particular object. When it gets to the scene of the sky, the camera uses a fade transition to enhance the genre of the film and make it more dramatic for the target audience. The camera shows a high angle shot of one character in the scene which suggests that at that moment in time, it is this character that is the most important. The camera quickly moves to a fast paced wide panning shot to show the emptiness of their surroundings.

The setting of this film is set in a popular surrounding of an old house in the middle of nowhere. This alerts the audience straight away what the genre of the film may be which is horror. However this is built up as the trailer goes on as it starts in a small town where there are not that many people around. When we as the audience get to the main setting of the film, the first impression that you get is a warm welcoming home, however, as the film trailer progresses we see that it is not as we as the audience first thought. This builds up tension for the audience as they are playing on the genre of the film. 

The setting of the film which is a house appears to be over sized for the two old people that live there, which may suggest to the audience that as it is an old built up house, it is not going to be like a straight forward home that you would expect to be in for two old people. Two of the main characters are old and so the audience would expect to see them in their stereotypical way which would be frail and vulnerable. Although, we do get to see this slightly when the camera is at a close up shot of the lady holding hands with a little girl, this dramatically changes as she is then portrayed as someone much more evil to fit her character. Around 0:30 seconds, the camera is at a slightly higher angle shot showing the two grandparents at the table with the little boy and so they are presenting the grandparents just to be typical warming people, however, we see in a couple of clips further on in the trailer around 1:0 seconds, the old lady is scratching at the door which is unrealistic action for a grandmother to be doing. At 1:50 seconds, we do see the grandfather holding an axe. Although this may be a normal action for someone to do when they are surrounded by trees, it’s the way the shot quickly changes to the grandmother standing on her own in the trees and the screen quickly turns pitch black which suggests danger and that something unexpected is going to happen, making it exciting for the audience to watch.  

Genre analysis of Action Films

Characters - The characters that are usually involved in an action film are usually a protagonists and antagonists. The protagonists are the good person throughout the film and the antagonist is usually the bad person in the film. There are also females on both sides that end up fighting each other while the protagonist and the antagonist end up fighting throughout the film. The protagonist usually tries to protect someone or people and so they very rarely get hurt and injured whereas the antagonist is usually the one to get injured or possibly die.

Setting - The setting for an action can usually be set in big cities where there are lots of people and so a lot of people will be affected by the drama that is going on around them. The setting can also be at great heights up in the sky where the drama such as explosions would take place up above people where is could affect them when they do not know it is coming. It can sometimes be exaggerated when doing an action film to let the audience know that the explosions and car chases are all associated with the genre of action.

Camera - The angles in an action film are usually taken at a birds eye view and so the audience can see what is happen at a height. This would also help to exaggerate what is happen and this would make an impact on the audience of why that has been done. The camera usually quickly moves into a close up if there is a car chase as it wants the audience to capture the essence of what is going on in the film. Usually the camera will be a close up of the protagonist as they want to make it clear on who is the good person and who is trying to look out and protect the other people around them. When doing an action film they usually put in extreme close up of the antagonist to show the emotion that they are feeling when they are committing their crimes.

Audience - The target audience for an action film is usually boys as they are the gender that are more interested in things like cars, chases and explosions and so they can recognize the target audience from when it starts. The age range for an action film is aged 14-20 as it is the age that they start to know what they like and they can relate to those types of things.

Action films have a tremendous impact, continuous high energy throughout the film, they contain lots of physical stunts that are complicated for many people to do, and many extender car chases, battles and rescues. These are the types of things that people expect to see in an action film which is why they would pay a lot of money to go and see a film like this in the cinema, because it is living up to their expectations of what makes a good action film.

Expectations for a Horror

The codes and conventions of a horror film are set out like rules that must be applied in order to get a successful film. There are many people that can be presented as the villain in horror films such as supernatural things like the exorcist. Even though this is unrealistic, it makes it entertaining for the target audience. Usually in horror films, they tend to  show the people living a normal life before anything strange or abnormal happens to them. This is effective as it sets the scene and the mood for the target audience and also lets them get to know the characters and their personalities before they all start changing. 

Horror films are based towards teenagers and older audiences aged 15+ and so it is typical for the main victim in a horror film to be a teenager or a female as they are stereo-typically the weak and vulnerable ones. Horror films are made to be unsettling and are made to frighten people and so this is effective as they want to panic the audience and make them question'what is going to happen next?'. 

The weather is usually wet and stormy which is better for a horror film as this is done to reflect the mood of a particular scene, creating a more realistic and terrifying atmosphere for the target audience. 

Conventions of an action film

• Weapons - Guns and Knives
• Fights
• Mission that is waiting to be completed
• There is always a motive of what the characters are going to do 
• There is usually always big machinery 
• Upbeat and nerve racking music 
• Killings and deaths for the main characters loved ones
• Explosions and crashes - car chases, motorbikes. 

With action films, the explosions and chases usually are set to be more dramatic and exciting for the target audience than the one before. They usually do this and so the audience are always expecting something that is full of energy which makes them want to continue to watch the film.
Usually actions films are rated at the age 15 certificate as there is high explosions and occasionally minimal offensive language used to create more of an impact to the characters words and emotions. 

The characters in an action film tend to be quite believable even though the the film itself is unrealistic. However, the main protagonist tends to be the 'normal' person that discovers the hidden power or talent. Also the location of an action film can be set in busy places such as the fast and furious film being set in LA which is typical as it is busy and there is a lot of people around. Also, the buildings are easily recognizable.

Romance codes and conventions

Audience - The target audience is mainly aimed at women because they become more interested and fascinated by the fact of being in love and someone actually being there to look after them. Romance films is usually about the female wanting attention from the male which relates to reality and how women want to be noticed by men. The target audience is usually recognizable from when the film starts and who is involved in with the film. 

Characters - The characters that are usually in a romance film is a really pretty girl and a good looking man. They then happen to fall in love but they have to overcome many problems and 

dispute that might come across in the relationship. there is often the case of the man that falls in love with another women is usually married or they have a relationship with another women. This may be done to throw the female off guard and see how powerful her love for the man is and so if she is still seeing him and wants a relationship then you know that she is generally in love with him and so would do anything to be with him. 

Sound - The sounds that are involved in a romance film can vary depending on the scenario of the film. The diegetic sound in most romance films is dialogue of the characters speaking or music which can usually be a piano or a violin playing soft gental music to show that it is a 'love' film and that it is a delicate situation. there can be a lot of non-diegetic sounds which very often is the narrator telling the target audience what the characters are thinking and how they feel and sometimes it is just telling the audience the story so far. The narrator usually mentions that it is a romance love film when they start talking at the start and sometimes say things that influence the target audience to believe that the film is going to be based on romance. the opening scenes of romance films stereo-typically can start with a guitar as well and the strings are played gently to give off a fragile sound.

Setting - The setting of a romance film is usually somewhere busy but has beautiful scenes and views such as a city like New York. this is done to resemble the fact that there is going to be something happening at a pretty place. In the film 'Holiday' , there was another setting where it was a man and a women in the car together in some sort of city. This also tells the target audience that this could come across and a romance film because of the way that they are looking at each other but also the fact that it is just those two in the car on their own and they are looking happy together. At the start of the film, the setting is sometimes shown behind the characters or will be shown to the audience through the uses of establishing shots. This would make it recognizable to the target audience. 

Camera Angles - The camera angles in a romance film usually consists of a lot of close ups of the characters face to express the facial expressions showing the audience how the characters feel without them speaking. There are also a lot of two shots which involve two of the characters in a shot at the same time. This is usually the female and the male lovers in one shot showing that most of the film is about them but also shows the relationship between them. Long shots are used the show the full setting of the film in one shot to show the target audience where the film is going to be set and how it links in with the romance story. 

Certificate - The certificate for a romance film is usually aged within 12-15 years of age. This maximizes the target audience. The typical romance genre would include sexuality, gender and status which may not be wanted to be exposed to younger children.