We thought about
using many places for our filming location, we went to Lloyd Park which is
relatively near to where we live and explored the woods in the park to try to
find a good location. We found several patches of woods which would think would
be good to film in.
As this is a public place we do not need to gain any
permission to film here. We went towards sun set and this is the time we are
thinking of filming to give it that eerie but not quite dark look. We had a go
at filming some little segments just on our phones to see how the location
would look on moving camera and were happy with the results.
The only other setting we will be using is my bedroom, for the scenes where Pandora is attacked by the assassin. As this space is within my property, there will be no issues with filming here.
- Probably the MOST important prop we will be needing in order to create our opening sequence is the chest or box we will be using for Pandora's physical box. We have looked online as well as in shops and found this one on Amazon. The measurements meet our requirements and the box is a unique and interesting design as well as looking fairly old, as the box was created by Zeus it would be very old. We may add extra destressing to the box once we have purchased it depending on what we think will look best within the trailer.
COSTUMES
PANDORA
- The character of Pandora will be dress in a "hunter-like" costume which she wears when surviving in the woods. Using the internet I have managed to decide what this will look like. It will consist of trousers, for a legging like material, which will enable her character to move around but be paired with a top which is made of a flowing elegant material to connote her kind and soft nature and the idea that the violence which is often reflected in the trailer is not who she truly is. - She may often be also wearing a black cloak, the black cloak will probably be within scenes where she is being violent or darker scenes. The black is meant to connote the evil which surrounds her, quite literally. I believe on the poster we will use her cloak, the combination of the soft top and the dark cloak is meant to represent she is a very confused and conflicted character who contains elements of both evil and good.
- Although these connotations are very subliminal, I have chosen to encode them so that hopefully they create a preferred reading about the character when the audience watches the trailer and they understand her character slightly more than they would without these hints. SIDE KICK
- Pandora's sidekick will be dressed in a fairly plain outfit, I am thinking of trousers with either a plain black T-shirt or white t-shirt. The idea behind this is we have no idea about his character, and this therefore reveals nothing about his character and leaves the audience wondering if he is really good or bad or what his intentions are.
ASSASSIN
- The assassin which attacks Pandora and tries to steal the box will be dressed in black leather trousers and a black flowing top along which lots of straps tied around her arms to make her look rough. I am thinking of the actress having red hair, the red will connote danger. The black which covers her, especially if it is leather connotes that she is bad as black connotes evil.
OTHER CHARACTERS
- The only other charters within the trailer will be background characters which are involved in fight scenes. I will dress them in very plain costumes often with cloaks which will add to the effect of the fight scene with the material flying everywhere. The plain nature of their costume will make sure that during fight scenes they do not stand out against Pandora as she should always stand out as the centre of attention.
I have researched two popular theories of narrative. These
are theories concerning the structure of the narratives. I wish to use these to
create an interesting narrative for the film which I can reflect within my
trailer as the aim of a trailer is to make it apparent where the narrative is
and to help set up the narrative for the full length movie.
TZVETAN TODOROV’S THEORY – he notices a repeating pattern in
narrative and so came up with the following ideas:
EQUILIBRIUM – An existing state of harmony.
DISEQUILIBRIUM – The equilibrium is disturbed by an event or
“evil” character which leads to a chain of events.
NEW EQUILIBRIUM – The evil is overcome and harmony exists
once more.
The theory is basically stating that narrative is just a
repeating pattern of harmony, disruption and harmony. This theory is true for
most films and therefore we would most probably accept the idea that our film
would follow this situation. The narrative in the trailer will therefore have
to set up at least the first two parts of this theory to show how a disturbance
was caused and the audience wish to see how it will be overcome which will make
them want to watch the rest of the film.
VLADIMIR PROPP’S THEORY – After studying Russian fairy
tales, well known for their narratives dependent on characters to move the
narrative along, he came up with the following ideas:
THE SEVEN SPHERES OF ACTION – What the character does in the
narrative to help it move along.
The villain – creates the narrative complication
The donor – gives the hero something which helps the
resolution of the narrative
The helper – gives the hero help to resolve the narrative
The princess – has to be saved by the hero, often a romantic
interest
The dispatcher – sends the hero on his task or journey
The hero – saves the day and resolves the narrative,
sometimes he has been on a quest or similar
The false hero – appears to be good but has actually been a “bad
guy” the whole time
This theory is stating that characters are crucial to move
the plot along and therefore these stock characters are vital to create a
successful movie. In our trailer we will only be introducing a few of the
characters, we will however, introduce the ones we think are most crucial for
setting up the narrative and plot.
We will be following the description of Pandora from the original story and artworks which have been created of her. She is normally dark haired and fairly young meaning that our actress will have to fulfil these requirements. She is also known for being pretty and inquisitive as well as fairly wise and physically capable. We have decided to have a young adult/ older teen play her character as this is our target audience which also helps to create a bond between character and audience.
CHOSEN ACRESS: Katie Sexton
GENDER: Female
AGE: 18
HAIR COLOUR: Brown
EYE COLOUR: Light Brown
HEIGHT: 5ft 2
RACE: White British
We have chosen our friend Katie to fulfil the role of Pandora because she fits the requirements of the character. She also lives fairly near to us and has worked with us on media projects in the past which makes her a reliable and easy assessable actress.
CHARACTER: Side kick
Although in the film Pandora's character is alone within the situation she has someone who helps her along the way from time to time. We have decided to have a character who was of a different race so that our film could not be accused of being racist and it also invites a wider range of audience members to view the film as they can connect with the character. The character must be kind looking and acting so that the audience can trust them and know that they are on the side of the hero within our film. We have also decided to have this character as a male so that there is an element of romantic interest and also so that one gender ground is not excluded.
CHOSEN ACRESS: Mufaro
GENDER: Male
AGE: 18
HAIR COLOUR: Dark brown
EYE COLOUR: Dark brown
HEIGHT: 5ft8
RACE: Black
We have chosen Mufaro because he does drama a level and he is a good and reliable friend so filming with him will be calm and relaxed, furthermore he gets long with all of the cast so there shouldn't be any problems. He has also been involved in previous recordings we have done which means he know how we work and how to act when filming professionally.
CHARACTER: Assassin
The assassin character will only appear in a small scene in which she attacks Pandora in order to attempt to steal her box. We have chosen for the character to be a female to challenge the stereotype that the bad characters in films are male.
CHOSEN ACRESS: Becky Ward
GENDER: Female
AGE: 17
HAIR COLOUR: Red
EYE COLOUR: Hazel
HEIGHT: 5ft7
RACE: White
I will be playing the character of the assassin, this makes it easy as I will be present on all of the days we will be filming. I also know the script the best so therefore I will be able to act out the part. I also know the other actors very well and therefore be able to cooperate with them when acting.
As our video does not contain any full scenes; there are only clips of audio taken from different scenes. We have however written out all of the audience we want in our trailer. We have scripted this out as when we are filming we will have the actors mouth out these words and then later go back and re-record so that there was no background noise. This will not only help the actors but also when we are editing the video it will help us line up the audience and video.
PANDORA VOICE OVER:
I’m sure you are familiar with your Greek mythology; there was a girl, named
Pandora, created by the gods from water and earth.
Zeus entrusted her with a box with the instructions of never
to open it as it contained an evil that could destroy the world.
So if I were you I wouldn’t be traveling these parts with
such greed in your hearts, hunting for something you cannot possibly
understand. You might end up dead.
ASSASSIN: Where
is it?
PANDORA: I don’t
know what you’re talking about
PANDORA: This burden it’s too heavy
MALE: You’re
strong, a lot stronger than your realise
Pandora's box is an artifact which existed in Greek mythology. The "box" was actually visualized as a large jar which was given to Pandora and contained all of the evils in the world. The action "to open Pandora's box" now translates to perform an action which may seem small but can have sever consequences. In traditional Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth, she had been created by Hephaestus as instructed by Zeus. The gods blessed her with many gifts Athena clothes her, Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave her musical ability and Hermes gave her speech. Prometheus stole fire from heaven ad so as a punishment, Zeus gave Pandora to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. As a wedding gift Pandora was given a beautiful jar like box and instructed never to open it. However, impelled by curiosity Pandora opened it and all evil contained therein escaped and spread over the Earth. She hastened to close the container, but the whole contents had escaped. All of the evil has released except for what lay at the very bottom which was the Spirit of Hope. Pandora feared Zeus for she believed he would be angry at her for this, however, he was not angry as he knew it would happen.
Here is one of the most famous piece of score music, it is a theme for the character of the shark in the film 'Jaws' written by John Williams. It is most well known for its simplicity and therefore how memorable it is, making it stick into the audience head. It was created to show the presence of the character of the shark. Motifs such as these are use very often in movies to show the presence of a character, the 'Jaws' soundtrack gives a sense of foreboding as the presence of the shark normally means an attack on people and so the audience quickly learns to get edgy whenever they hear this piece of music. The main "shark" theme, a simple alternating pattern of two notes became a classic piece of suspense music, synonymous with approaching danger.
Many other directors have tried to copy this idea within their own movies, to create such a powerful and effective piece of music to place alongside their characters as this soundtrack won many awards for its simplicity but effectiveness. It is because of this the movie is now known as one of the most effective movies of all time. Technically wise the piece comprises of 2 shorts notes in minor going backwards and forwards in continuous rhythm on some kind of base or cello instruments. This creates a dark and mysterious sounding piece. It starts off quite slow and less repetitive and builds in both speed and repetitiveness, which makes it gain tension as the it reflects the shark approaching.
In trailers, there is normally a soundtrack which runs through the clips. The music often gives a sense of genre and is specifically chosen to give a certain effect (for example: an action film will have fast paced intense music to give the effect of constant action).
Before the 30's, all movies were completely silent. Music was
then inserted into a film to make it more interesting sense wise it also adds depth to the image which appeared on the screen. Music was
already a common element within theaters which were the previous form of entertainment before film. The majority of silent films were accompanied by anything from full orchestras to pianists. Many books were published about different types of music to play over a film to add to the mood.
During the 1930's music was established as a vital element within motion pictures as it showed more positive audience feedback. At the beginning, Western Classical Music from the 19th century was used played over films but after this people began to write more modern scores. One of the first original films scores written was for 'King Kong' in 1933. Later in the decade composers began to experiment and develop their own style, including creating hooks for characters and to support plot and story lines.
In the 40's, composers refined their expertise even more. There were many breaks in the barriers and traditions of film music. In the 50's, film music had completely changed with the introduction of jazz music, therefore music was less expensive to make as not too many musicians were not need as an orchestra was no longer needed. This carried on throughout the 1960's. The 70's passed with very little new innovation, things were perfected from the previous decades. Even current score writers, such as John Williams use these techniques.
In the 80's and 90's, the use of synthesized sounds in films became more popular. For the first time, it had become possible to scored a whole film with only one performer, using a synthesizer to produce the sounds of many instruments.
Today, with the development with new technology film composers have the ability to create the perfect score helping move along the movies plot and give characters different pieces of music (for example the sharks hook in jaws), this helps to enhance the film and turn it into an experience. Elements of a Film Score
TEMP TRACKS A temp track is an existing piece of music score which is used during film production during editing as it serves guidance for the mood or atmosphere. Composers for film scores are asked to imitate a specific composer or style present in the temp track. Some directors have become so attached to temp score that they decided to use it and reject the original score written by the film composers.
STRUCTURE Films often have different themes or motifs for important characters, events, story lines or peaks. These can be played in different styles depending on the situation they represent, scattered among incidental music. For example John Williams' score for the Star Wars saga, characters such as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa have different motifs for different characters.
SCORE MUSIC Most films have around 40 to 120 minutes of music. However, some films have very little or even no music whereas others have music running throughout. This types of music is called "diegetic" music as it is not part of the movie itself it is merely added on top.
HIGH KEY – The lighting is bright and relatively low in
contrast. The majority of our trailer will not be using this apart from scenes
where we wish to emphasise the innocence of our main character. However, as the
film is dark and has elements of horror it will be mostly dark and eerie.
LOW KEY – The lighting has much more pronounced shadows and
dramatic contrasts. We WILL be using this type of lighting for our trailer as
our aim is to create a scary looking setting as there are strong elements of
horror within our trailer. I will create this on the video mostly using
MoviePlus which is the editing software I use for editing, I will be editing
the curvature and apply shadow filters to the already dark light frames.
COLOUR FX – Can include: Clod or blueish lighting (connoting
cold or spookiness). Warm or yellowish (connoting comfort, eg- a beach or
sunset scene), Black and White or Sepia. We may use the blueish lighting on
parts using the effect options on SerifMoviePlus to make the scenes appear
spookier.
Editing:
CONTINUITY EDITING – Film sequences normally follow this
type of editing so that time seems to flow in a natural and believable way.
Cuts will only be used as this gives a real life effect to the movie.
Continuity editing can also include “cross-cutting” which is where a sequence
cuts between two pieces of action happening at the same time. But it still has
to maintain the seamless flow of action. Within a trailer there is a lot of
cross cutting between different scene and therefore a lot of editing will not
follow a continuity structure but instead more of a montage editing structure.
MONTAGE EDITING – Opposite, the cuts are normally noticeable
and do not represent the seamless flow of time. It can use juxtaposition of
images to create contrast and a more artistic feel.
CUT – One image is instantly replaced by another without a
viable transition. We will martially be using these as they are required for continuity
editing.
CROSS-DISSOLVE – One image dissolves into another.
FADE-UP – An image fades in from black, we may be using a
few of these between scenes as one at the beginning and between the production
companies logo’s.
FADE-OUT – Fading out to black, like the previous we may use
a few of these.
WIPE – One image replaces another, where the border between
the image moving across or around the screen.
Sound:
DIEGETIC SOUND – Sound that seems to be part of what is
going on, on the screen. For example, thunder, cars, footsteps. We will be
using for this birds and other forest noises which are part of the direct
action. The biggest part of the diegetic sound will be the dialogue which we
will write a script for.
NON-DIEGETIC SOUND – Sound that is not part of the action or
what is going on, on the screen. For example a soundtrack, we will be using a
soundtrack for out trailer alongside the diegetic sounds.
SOUND BRIDGE – Linking two scenes together by sound. For example
we may use bird noises to link the production logo to the first shot of the forest.
SOIND EFFECTS – Sound which is added on top which is not
dialogue and music. Sound is added during the post-production stage using
Foley.
We created a survey, using Survey Monkey, to find out different factors of audience and what they would want out of a movie. This research is intended to show how effective showing our trailer in a cinema would be and also the age and gender groups this applies to. Typically trailers are shown within cinema along side a film of a similar genre or director. This means that the audience watching the film will also find the films shown in the trailers appealing.
Due to the use of more illegal downloading and streaming, people do not visit the cinema as much and therefore we would more likely promote our trailer through social media such as adverts before youtube videos.
This chart shows the ways in which
audiences of different ages interact or watch the exhibition of films. It is
split into age groups between 16 and over 55.
It shows the difference in the way different age groups interact with
media, there is a definite change in some of the different forms of consumption
as the chart progresses with age.
Teenagers are represented with
about 25% of them consuming with films using online software such as
downloading, streaming or piracy. This slowly decreases along with age until it
only represents a few % of the 55+ age group. This shows that teenagers have
more accessibility to download film, there may be many contributing factors to
this. Teenagers have a lack of money and therefore would be less likely to
spend this money on purchasing films, they also have less time (due to fulltime
education) to go out and watch or record films. Teenagers also have a wider
access and knowledge of the internet and so can easily access streamed movies. This means that trailers alongside films in cinema are no longer as effective and so if a film is aimed at a teenage audience it is more likely to now be advertised using social media such as adverts before YouTube videos or on sites such as Facebook.
This said however a large chunk of
the teenagers (around 20%) in fact go to the cinema, this may be for
socialisation purposes, to hang out with friends as it is a fairly cheep
(around £8 a ticket) form of entertainment. The amount of people who go to the
cinema does not change drastically over the progression of age. This may be
because it is still accepted as an easy form of entertainment for all different
ages of people.
Something else which stays fairly
even throughout the different ages of people is the number of people who
receive DVD’s. This may be down to it being an easy gift to give to people for
their birthdays or Christmas presents for all age groups. Renting and buying
DVD also stays fairly similar which shows that these are fairly regular ways of
viewing film throughout different age groups.
Around 50% of 55+ year olds view films through recorded TV, subscription TV or live TV. This may be to do with the fact that people retire soon after this age and so the majority of their day they have not a lot to do and so end up watching the films that are on day time TV. It is also assumed that they are not as familiar with the internet which is why a very low percentage of these people watch films via online sources. This is important as our target audience interact with media through the internet, this means that our product will have to be accessible on these mediums, as it is very easy to just switch to another film while online compared to watching a movie in a cinema the trailer is specifically important in the success of the film as it shows off the best parts of the film and makes the audience want to watch the whole film.
This chart shows why people tend to
watch films. 76% of people said they watch films for pleasure and similarly 76%
said they watched it for relaxation. This shows that films serve as a purpose
to entertain but also make an audience relaxed. This means that overly
complicated plots are not widely popular as they cannot make the audience relax
whereas a simple movie will allow them to do so. This is something directors
will have to take into account when creating their movie as the more effective
a film is at doing these things increases its overall effectiveness.
Focusing these groups down on
gender and age showed that more females watch films for relaxation and men for
pleasure. This may show that women have more stressful life styles as
stereotypically they have to care for children as well as possibly work whereas
men watch movies for pleasure to entertain them when they might otherwise be
bored.
Throughout age groups the most
popular overall was watching films for pleasure however the age group 55+
watched films for relaxation slightly more than for pleasure. This may also be
down to lifestyle as older people get tired out more easily and therefore need
time to unwind, whereas other age groups of people who are mostly all in
education or work watch movies as a source of entertainment and pleasure.
The next most popular reason why
people watched films was escapism, escaping from everyday life with around 62%
of people agreeing with this. This is also a very good factor of movies to
allow the audience to escape from their reality and enter a world where they no
longer need to worry about their own problems. This is another technique used
by many directors to create an effective film.
It is also proven effective as over half of the people questioned in
this survey said they agreed with this.
The lowest % of people was people
watching films because they were passionate for them with only 40% of people
agreeing with this. In comparison only 18% of people over 55 agreed with this
statement, this may be because they have less connection with modern films, for
example, some people may be passionate for comic book films as they have grown
up reading the comics, people over a certain age loose interest in these
things.
53% of people between 16 and 24
watch movies because they are passionate for them, this may be down to again
the idea that they have grown up with such stories and therefore want to watch
the movies. This is something we will have to take into consideration with our
young audience.
This means that for our trailer we will have to be creating a product that mostly evokes pleasure in the audience. Something they find interesting and entertaining as it will also be used for them to relax and unwind from school or stress from school. We will also be throwing in elements of escapism to really help the audience to escape from school and from the stresses of everyday life. This is especially important for our audience who will be going through exams and therefore need this element of escapism and relaxation. Using a story which is already well known may also evoke passion from the audience as they want to watch the movie adaptation of a timeless story which they will have heard about.
This
chart shows the % of people who enjoy watching certain genres of films. As you
can see the most popular film genre given by the people who were interviewed was comedy with
64% of people saying they enjoyed this genre. Although this I the highest, 64%
is still not that high and so shows the massive variation people have in their
favourite genre of films and what they enjoy watching. This is why film
producers narrow down their audience to make it something which appeals for the
people who mostly enjoy this genre. Although a teenage male may like a comedy,
an older lady may not which is why the survey was then concentrated into
different social groups.
This chart shows the concentrated
genres of people who consider different film genres their favourites. The
survey was broken down into males younger than 35, males older than 25, females
younger than 25, females older than 25. Whether they were parents or not as
their social class. Comedy still appears to be the favourite genre of all
different groups of people which means if you were to pick comedy as your genre
of film you would have a difficult time picking a specific audience group to
focus on.
For our genre of fantasy it was
preferred by women who were not parents of a middle class background, this mean
this is the group we will have to focus down on during our own research.
Although this survey states that it is women over 35 who prefer this genre
other surveys we have look at told us that it was younger women who preferred
this genre and therefore we are going to have to look into this a lot more
through focus groups and researching individual people.
As our movie will be dark fantasy
and therefore contain elements associated with horror films we are going to be
looking at horror film audience as well. According to this survey they are most
popular with younger women, this is equally spread out depending on if they
have children or not and they are again mostly middle class. This means we will
be definitely focusing down on this audience as a focus point.
HOW WE WILL USE THIS RESEARCH
This research supports our planning as we now understand fully what our audience would want to see within a successful trailer. It gives us a real incite into what we are dealing with when it comes to audience, how to attract them and interest them enough to make them want to watch the full movie and what they will look for content wise within the movie and therefore what elements of this we should present within our trailer.
The first trailer I have chosen to analyse for part of my research is the film 'Alice in Wonderland' Directed by Tim Burton, Produced by The Walk Disney Studio and released on the 5th of March 2010. I have specifically chosen this trailer as it is a fantasy movie which has been turned into a dark fantasy by the director. Tim Burton is a extremely well known director of surreal thriller movies and this combined with the classic fantasy element of 'Alice in Wonderland' creates a very interesting and unique movie.
The non diegetic soundtrack starts just before the production companies logo appears. The music is upbeat and appears to be written in the style of a classic piece of music played at an old fashioned ball. This shows that although this is a fantasy film, usually without a specific date, it is set in the past. The ball type music also suggests that it is based around a character of, what would be a long time ago, upper class as they would be the only ones attending such an event. This soundtrack music is played over an animated movie logo for the Walt Disney Studios, this animated logo contains fireworks and as they go off they are accompanied with diegetic firework explosion sounds.
The logo then fades to black and there is a cut to the image of what appears to be a grey manor house. There are lots of people walking around outside of it, these people are all clothed in light pastel colours. There doesn't seem to be any type of vibrant colour. This could connote that although the place is safe and calm, expressed by the light bright colours, it lacks excitement which would be shown through bright exciting colours. I have pointed this out because later in the trailer, when she is actually in wonderland, the colours are vibrant which connotes excitement and adventure.
There is then the first shot of the main character, she is walking through an arch into the mess of people. We know this is Alice as she fits the description of the previous 'Alice in Wonderland' cartoon movie. She has blonde hair, pale skin and is wearing a pale blue dress. She has an air of innocence, which is emphasised as blonde hair often connotes a character who is naive and innocent. She doesn't look partially happy which suggests she doesn't want to be at this particular party. There is then a sound bridge of a man saying her name "Alice" which assures the audience that this is Alice.
It then fades to the next clip which is of the man telling her to meet him under a gazebo. The music by this point is quite faint compared to the diegetic dialogue. This makes sure that the dialogue can be clearly heard. This character we are introduced to is dressed in a suit and a ridiculous looking tie, his body language makes it clear that he is looking down his nose at Alice. This suggests that perhaps he is of slightly higher social status. The camera then flicks back to her and she looks at him with quite a disgusted look.
We are then given a medium long shot of them under the gazebo. The man gets down on one knee, which evidently means he is going to propose to her. She is standing with her hands by her side which suggests that she doesn't know or want what is happening to happen. We are then given a close up of his face as he proposes, and then smiles at her. The camera then focuses on Alice as she avoids looking at the man and instead looks to the side trying to come up with an excuse. By this point the non diegetic music stops abruptly, reflecting her shocked mood.
We then have a shot of what she is looking at and it is all the people who were at the party standing in a big huddle watching the proposal. This makes it clear that this is a forced marriage and that these people are expecting her to marry him. There is a faint frog croak in the background, this is often used to show awkward silences within movies and is of no exception here highlighting a slight element of comedy within the film.
She then moves away from the man and we are shown a close up of her speaking to everyone saying 'I need a moment" - As this happens a new piece of non diegetic music starts up, this one is more mysterious sounding and is therefore a conventional piece of music from the genre of fantasy movies. As she runs off of the gazebo all the heads of the people watching follow her. As she runs into an arch formed by a bush the video fades to black.
We are then given as long shot of her running through the wood towards an old, large twisted looking tree. She is framed rather well between the trees which makes her stand out in the frame. Woods are a close connotation of fantasy movies as many films which are of this genre are often set in the woods as they add an element of mystery and unknowing to a film. Many fantasy films are based in earth-like worlds and therefore a wood is something which can be found on earth but supplies dark spooky settings without having to totally create somewhere.
The camera then goes to a low angle shot, almost a worms view shot, of down a hole un a tree root looking up as Alice looks down the whole framing her in the holes entrance. This shows the idea that something is down the hole, and as most of the audience watching will already know the story of 'Alice in Wonderland' acts as an element of foreboding that she is going to fall into the hole. She then crouches down to look into the hole closer, and the music reaches a slight peak and she slips and falls straight into the hole.
There is then a point of view shot of Alice falling looking back up through the hole, her hands reaching forward as if trying to grab onto something to save her from the fall. This type of shot makes the audience feel instantly involved in the action and brings supplies a relationship with the audience as they place themselves in the characters position. We are then given another shot of her falling down, we see around her as she falls, the hold no longer seems normal as within the walls are loads of lights and various other objects such as chairs.
This then fades out to black and fades back in with a close up of her face as she opens a door and we have a shot of her looking at whatever is on the other side of the door. With a peak of the music we are shown what she is looking at which is a castle. The castle shot is of a red and white palace positioned in the shadows, the light looking through the clouds is directed to highlight the castle and make it stand out.
There then starts a non diegetic voice over, we aren't sure at first who's voice it is. It is explaining about Wonderland. This voice over is accompanied with several short clips which are totally unrelated which are separated by cuts to black and back into video. These show some of the main characters such as, tweedle dumb and tweedle dee, the Queen of Hearts, the Chester cat and finally the mad hatter as the voice over says "you have to be mad as a hatter, which luckily I am". This shot shows him looking excitedly at what we are lead to believe is Alice. This is confirmed by him saying "Alice, it's you".
We are then given a front on mid long shot of him walking over the table towards Alice, his behaviour suggests he is extremely excited to see her. Unlike the characters in the manor scenes, the mise en scene is very different, the table is crooked and assorted broken cups and tea pots are placed on the table instead of organised matching ones. His costume is a dark purple with a bright orange band on his hat and a bright purple sash, he also has a very colourful tie on which consists of many different colours, it is as ridiculous as the man before but instead of making him look silly show that this place is exciting and interesting in comparison to the setting Alice was in before.
The non diegetic music now playing is similar to that of a circus, this connotes that the characters here are like people from a circus, funny and entertaining. The Mad Hatter's make up also is very "clown like" which makes him fit into this idea of circus people. He then crouches down to look at a, unusually small Alice, and says "you're back" - this makes the audience question what this means this means, what is she back for? when was she here before? where is she? A rabbit and a mouse and the Chester cat also seem to recognise Alice, this makes the audience realise that everyone here knows who she is for some reason. Leaving a mystery in the audiences mind, into why and how they know her.
There then comes a title screens showing "From Director Tim Burton". The title is placed on a red background with prints of tea pots and tea cups on. The writing is in gold which makes it stand out against this. Music starts up again, which makes the title stand out more as the music catches the audiences attention.
The title then zooms in and though the top of the B in Burton, the next film clip appears. It is of the Queen of Hears throwing open a door, looking very angry. Her characters appears very abnormal, her head is larger than that of a normal person. The director has possibly done this to physically show she is a big headed and selfish person, which automatically makes her a disliked person. She looks angry as her voice says over the next few clips "Alice has returned to Wonderland". This acts as the introduction to the villain of this film.
The Mad Hatter then explains how the Red Queen has taken over all of wonderland, this is accompanied by some shots of her dark blood red castle and of her shouting "FIND HER". This shows that the Queen of Hearts is troubled by Alice's appearance in wonderland. The music keeps picking up more and getting faster and more intense. These are accompanied by shorts of action such as her being chased through the trees by beasts obviously released on her by the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter telling her that he needs her to help save wonderland. These short shots of action are very common within fantasy movies as they show the action element of the film.
The music then abruptly stops with a small comedic part of the trailer with the queen requesting a big for a her feet, and the mad hatter standing laughing at her. The music then starts back up with another title screen, the same lay out as the first but saying "This Spring".
After this there are more action shorts which are separated with cuts and fades in and out from black. It is clear that fastly paced edits between shots of action are a commonly used to show off some of the best action scenes within any film. This allows the director to show off some of the best bits of the film without spoiling any of the plot as there is no context given to the clips and how the tie into the storyline.
The music then dies down a little again and it shows a shot of Alice, now in a suit of armour and then a sound bridge to a shot of the White Queen saying "we have our champion". This shows to the audience that Alice has decided to help wonderland and fight the Red Queen. This reveals a little about the plot of the film without spoiling too much, an important part of movie trailers is revealing just enough to make the audience want to know more but not revealing too much so that there is no longer any point to see the film.
The music then changed again to something more intense with a swooping shot of the castle with the words "Disney Presents" over the top.
We go back to quickly editing action shots, now of fighting from what appears to be a battle between the two sides. It also shows more of the characters doing things and Alice saying "This is impossible". This connotes that the things which are going on within the movie are different from what Alice experienced in the world she was in before. It also connotes that lots of things will be happening that are interesting and exciting. There is then another word credit. This one is different, it has a green background with small hats decorating it, it contains the name "Johnny Depp" who is the actor playing the mad hatter (which possibly suggests the use of the hat design).
Johnny Depp is a very well known Hollywood actor. This means that he has a lot of fans which would watch a movie purely because he is in the film. Many films use big star actors, directors or companies to promote a film and this is no exception. As well as using Johnny Depp to promote the film, the director Tim Burton is also very well known for making successful films and the production company Disney. Disney is an extremely well known media conglomerate and thus has a reputation for creating high quality, family friendly, movies. It not only attracts an audience who have watched other Disney movies and wish to watch this one but it also makes it clear who the target audience of the movie is, a family audience. There are a few more clips placed very fast paced one after the other and then a shot of the Title of the film followed by information about the release date, the fact it is in 3D and finally some shots of the main actors and actresses and other people involved in the production of the movie.
