Camera angles, shots and movements - Video

Pandora's Box (Trailer Idea Research)

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.

Jaws - Soundtrack Analysis

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).

The History/ Elements of Film Scores

The History of Music in Film

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.

Lighting, Editing and Sound - Research

Lighting:

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.

Audience Cinema Research

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. 

Analysis of survey monkey results from rebecky69

Market Overview Research and Analysis of Results

  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.