My product uses the elements of crime drama which of which the main element is usually mystery. Crime dramas have to be believable as they allow the audience to relate the story to their own situation. Such as where they live and what they do. My product uses mystery to attract the audience which is necessary for your product to be a success. The Murder of the husband in the trailer allows the audience to relate to this as everyone feels safe in their homes and my trailer plays on this as the murder takes place within the murdered husbands home. Crime Dramas are often filmed from one side of the law e.g. police and villains. In my products case the attempt was to film it from the side of the detective. Crime dramas are mainly a male genre which was visible from the research of the Flawless trailer in which Michael Caine is the main character and Demi Moore plays the supporting role. This is mainly seen in the Shawshank redemption trailer as the whole film is filled with male roles. This is seen in my trailer as the detective and villains are both represented by male actors. This male dominance in the genre was developed further in my trailer from use of the camera work. In the interview scene I used high angle shots on the female character to represent the weakness of the character as a widow would feel funerable after their husband had died. I also used low angle shots on the detective in the scene to show his dominance in the scene. I developed this further with the use of first person shots on the female character again in an attempt to show her funerability. This also adds suspense to the trailer. Concerning the editing of the trailer I decided to use the technique of building up the action and then slowing it down again for the end of the trailer. This was used in the Flawless trailer and I felt that it would work well in my product as well as the pace quickens in the chase scene. I felt that my product followed the codes and conventions of crime drama well in my trailer.
The titles in any trailer are used often to summarise what’s happening in the shots that appear on screen. I felt I used this technique well as I included different titles that represented what was happening on screen. I challenged this technique in the last two titles that appeared on screen as I wrote an emotional line in an attempt to attract an audience, “That will change” and “Everything.”
Overall I believe that I followed and developed many codes used in crime dramas such as mixing fast paced shots with slower scenes and fade outs and the representation of the female character and believe that I created a trailer that accurately showed a crime drama trailer.
I think that my combination of main products and ancillary tasks work well together as I have created a theme which is visible throughout my ancillary and main task. As my production was a crime drama I decided that I would keep the colours on the trailer and ancillary tasks dark in attempt to maintain the mystery and suspense within the whole project. I felt that this also gave good continuity to my production as the ancillary task could be related to each other. I used a similar font in my ancillary tasks as in my main task which also gives good continuity to the entire portfolio. For the image of my poster and front page I took it from the last shot in my production which adds suspense as the shot follows on with the colour scheme as it is a dark shot. This also gives good continuity to the portfolio. Overall I think that the combination of the ancillary tasks and main task give a good idea to the audience what film the tasks represent as one can be related to another.
From my first audience questionnaire I learnt that overall the majority of people were interested in crime dramas which showed that I had made a good decision in the selection of genre. I also learnt that the majority of the people who filled out the questionnaire selected the storyline and the suspense were the main reasons why they watched crime dramas. This led me to attempt to create a trailer that was similar to what the audience suggested that they would like to see in a crime drama.
After the creation of my main task I created another questionnaire which allowed me to judge the success of my main task. Through this I was able to find out what age group my production appealed to which was the age group 16-25. I was able to discover that the majority of rated my trailer well which showed that my trailer was a success and fulfilled the purpose of a trailer as the majority of the audience said that they would go and watch the full picture. The titles in the trailer were also judged as a success because the majority of people stated that they were similar to those in other trailers.
In my initial stages of research I used the internet to get information about the task. To gather information about the task I used the internet through use of search engines such as “google” to get good background knowledge of how film trailers are visually and musically presented. I used “YouTube” to analysis and research sources in order to discover the codes and conventions of crime drama film trailers. I have used the blog website blogger as the website in which my coursework was to be presented.
As part of my research I created a questionnaire which was created using the program “Microsoft “Microsoft Office Word 2010.” After I had received my questionnaires back I used the program “Microsoft Office Excel 2010” which was ideal as the program allows you to create graphs to represent your data which made my results much more easily analysed.
In the planning stage of my coursework I used a camera to take photos of my storyboards as at the time a scanner was not available for use. After I had taken the pictures of my storyboards I used an SD 512mb card to transfer the images over onto a PC. The images were then uploaded onto blogger using its image upload feature.
The main use of technology was in the construction stages of my portfolio. I used a Sony Handycam to film my trailer as I had good knowledge on how to use this piece of hardware due to my prior use of it to help film the BBC school news report for my school. After filming the footage I captured the footage onto “Adobe Premier Pro” software. The footage was exported onto the PC using a DV cable which captured directly into the software. Using “Premier” I then cut the pieces of footage I needed from the raw footage that had been filmed on the day of filming to create one piece of film that was used in the final creation of the trailer. The software uses different layers of audio and video tracks. My Music was taken from a copyright free CD. The track that I selected was then ripped onto the PC hard drive which allowed me to drag and drop the track onto the audio timeline in Premier. To create the titles within the trailer I used the new title feature in “Premier” which allowed me drop the titles onto the visual timeline which added them to my footage. Using the opacity tool on the timeline I was able to fade in, fade out and cross fade the different pieces of footage on the timeline. In the creation of my main title at the end of the trailer I used the software “Adobe After effects.” This footage allowed me to fade in titles and then use and effect on the title to allow the title to Scatter on screen.
To construct my ancillary tasks I used the software “Serif Page Plus X3” to create a Film Poster and a Film magazine front cover. Used many different tools within “Page Plus” to create my ancillary tasks such as a 3-d title on my front cover. To create the film title that was used on the magazine and poster I used a gradient tool to change the colour of the title from black to white from the top of the text to the bottom. For the image on the ancillary task I used a screenshot from footage that was filmed and add it to both ancillary tasks as the image worked well in a crime drama environment.
I have collected the results from my audience feedback questionnaire below are the results.
Age
How would you rate my trailer?
This information tells me that the trailer was most popular to the age group 16-25 whereas most unpopular with the age group under 16. Both the age groups of 26-40 and 40+ are very similar in their rating of the trailer 26-40 gave two votes over the rating of 7 unlike 40+. This shows me that my trailer is most popular with young adults.
Having watched the trailer would you watch the full film?
This information shows a continuation with the rating of the trailer as the 16-25 age group is again the most positive age group.
Did you find the titles within the trailer to be similar to those in other film trailers?
This shows that the titles in my trailer went well with the audience.
The first stage of editing the footage from my filming was capturing the footage onto Adobe Premier Pro CS5.5. I then cut out the sections of footage that I needed and placed them on the timeline.
For the slow-motion shot during the chase scene I changed the speed of the clip using the clip speed/duration tool and change the pace to 30% of the original footage.
In order to create titles that appear on the screen I created a new title using the new title option on Premier Pro.
At the end title “know” I used Adobe After effects to create a title that was unique to the other titles. I used the effect CC Scaterize to create the title.
The music for my production was added by simply importing the music into Adobe Premier and dragging it onto the audio timeline.
I have decided that i will film the majority of the shots on the same day. This will give good continuity to the trailer and also stop the light from varieting to much on screen.
The storyline behind the trailer is a murder mystery. This is a topic that is used in a lot of crime dramas. A wife returns home to find her husband murdered. However there are no clues at the crime scene of why he died or how he died. This leads a detective to go on a hunt for the killers by trying to find out who had a motive to kill him. This leads him to two men who he then attemps to arrest but they elude him every time he get's close.
The music that i wish to use in my trailer will be a low bass theme that will add suspense to the trailer.
The location of my trailer will be set mainly around the school grounds e.g car parks and classrooms as they can easily be used in a crime drama. Some scenes will be shot in a house as one of the scenes will be a murder scene. The location of a house i feel will add suspense as people feel safe in there houses.
This questionnaire was created to give me background knowledge on what people think about crime dramas. Question 5 gives me the most useful information as it shows what people are most interested in when watching a crime drama film
Like the flawless trailer this trailer begins with a rating by the MPAA. This is then followed by the Warner brother’s company brand. The first shot is again an establishing shot of a courtroom. This is generally the case in most film trailers as establishing shots are used as locations change so the audience can follow the trailer easily. The cuts between the scenes in the courtroom are not very quick at all. The music follows this as the music is slow and has a low bass line. This low bass line creates suspense. As the shots change a loud bas not is heard again creating suspense. The inclusion of the gun in many of the opening scene shows its importance to the opening sequence of shots. As the judge reads out the sentence the camera tracks towards the actor who looks directly at it. The music in the background sounds like a countdown which tells the audience that the scene is about to end as the music increases in drama. The opening dialogue is important to the overall scene as it gives the audience background information about why the man has ended up in prison which is where the majority of the scene will be.
After the court scene there is another establishing shot of a prison. This shows the audience that the man in the first scene has been convicted and is now at the prison. This shot slowly fades in and the music changes but remains slow paced. As the pan reaches its end a voice over can be heard. This is the same as in the Flawless trailer. The shots quicken at this point as the audience gets an impression of the prison and what it’s like. The main characters are revealed as Morgan Freeman and the prison governor have speaking parts in the trailer. The mise-en-scene of the trailer shows that again it is a crime drama not set in the 21st century. A low-angle shot at 1 minute 13 is used to show the vastness of the prison. The music in the opening prison scenes is upbeat and does not create suspense. However some scenes are designed to be intimidating such as the prison guard scene in which guards lock up the prisoners at 1 minute 17.
At 1 minute 23 seconds the music builds up as a pan across the ocean begins. This brings excitement as it is a completely different world than a prison. The lighting in the prison shots are light and do not create suspense. However some scene s like the escape scene are very dramatic in there lighting. The close up on the rock that the actor is holding shows its importance. The trailer then cuts back to the ending of a previous scene as the dialect acts as a voice over for different scenes as the guard checks why the main character is not in his cell the camera tracks backwards. It cuts back to allow the audience to view the people that are speaking over different scenes this increases the speed of the trailer.
As the trailer comes to its close the music begins to build and the titles begin to come up on screen. The names of the main actors come up on screen at the end of the trailer which is the same as the flawless trailer. The last scene of the trailer is extremely dramatic as the camera flies up away from the actor as the mise-en-scene shows that it is dramatic as the actor is standing in a dramatic pose the rain is falling hard and the background noise is that of lightning which adds to the drama of the scene. As the scene ends the music drops for the final title which fades into a billing block.
The music in this trailer does not build up until the last 30 seconds of the trailer but does change dramatically from the courtroom scene to the prison scenes.
The pace of the trailer is slow throughout. There is no one point that is much faster than another.
The titles appear at the end at the end of the trailer unlike the flawless trailer in which the titles are throughout the trailer.
The lighting of the trailer does not change up until the scenes in which the main character escapes the prison in darkness.
The trailer starts with a rating from the MPAA which is the motion picture association of America. This company rates films in terms of their content and how suitable they are to different age groups. In this case the film has been rated a pg-13 which means that “some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.” The trailer begins with music and a fast fade to low angle shot of a building panning up. This makes the building look tall and dominating to the audience. Low angle shots are used for this affect in many circumstances whether it to show a dominant character or just to show how large something is. It is immediately clear what the trailer is about as the building has the word’s “London Diamond corporation” on the side of it. This gives an immediate impression about the film as it pictures wealth which is sometimes the ultimate goal in crime dramas. The opening shot is accompanied by a voice over which adds tension to the trailer. The next shot cross fades with the first shot and another low angle pan up onto the actor Michael Caine which immediately involves him with the story of the film. This shot cuts to medium body shot of Michael Caine although he is not the main subject in this shot as the mise-en-scene in which he is working shows that he is surrounded by wealth again giving the impression that it is a crime drama. The next two shots are a track left while the safe door is opened to a quick cut of photographers walking through the door. The cut to the next shot is timed as the camera flashes. The technique of timing cuts with the sounds in the shots is a technique that is applied in a lot of film trailers in many different genres. The mise-en-scene in this film gives the audience a first suggestion to the time period of this trailer as the camera’s and clothing used by the photographers is that of the 1960’s. This scene is significant as it gives the audience a first view of what the trailer promotes as the items that are to be stolen. The safe scene then cuts to Michael Caine standing outside the safe door again in time with a camera flash. A low angle pan up shows Caine looking at the door which is then cut to a track forward over the shoulder shot of the safe door. He is deliberately made to look small in this shot to show the significance of the safe to the storyline.
The first title of the trailer appears on screen as the music changes. This shows the company involved in the making of the film. This is consistent with film trailers and most contain company names within trailers. In this case magnolia pictures and Pierce/Williams Entertainment feature as the first company names within the trailer. The music changes with the company name introduction making the music faster and upbeat. The music also sounds like music from the 60’s which supports the mise-en-scene of the trailer.
The next shot sets the scene as it is a high angle shot of a busy London Street. This is followed by the introduction of a new character. The screen is then split into 2 sections as the date in which the film is set flies in from the right hand side of the page. The title is clear and is not there for long. Titles are often on the screen for no longer than five seconds in film trailers depending on the speed of the trailer.
The next section of the trailer portrays her role in the film that the women will play. It is clear from the start that the cleaner in the start of the film will work together as they speak to each other in the first shot of the section and then continue to have dialogue between each other in the film. This gives the audience the knowledge that she will play a large part in the film. This section of the trailer gives Demi Moore (main female character) a motive for committing a crime as she feels hard done by. This attracts the audience’s attention as it is an unlikely partnership between a cleaner and business women. The whole section is filled with camera shots that portray her as the outsider. The male extras in the scenes are always shown in groups and she as a female is represented as the loner in the business.
The pace of the trailer changes in the next section as the dramatic planning scenes begin. Again a split screen is used to display a slogan that states items of interest to an audience. This gives the trailer good continuity as this technique is used earlier in the trailer. The shot on the left again shows male dominance as it is a low angle shot looking up at a man. This is followed by different shots of Demi Moore thinking about what the cleaner has said to her. This creates suspense in the trailer. The close up shot of the business men whispering also creates suspense as the audience cannot tell what the characters are saying. This is in my opinion one of the key elements in a crime drama, suspense.
The next shot is a three screen split shot with another slogan to attract attention in the middle of the screen. This is surrounded by the same shot but mirrored on either side of the slogan. This is followed by fast paced cuts between the two main actors as they talk to one another. Their conversation acts as a voice over to the following shots of the trailer which are also fast paced. The falling of the mop handle links into the flash of white into in the next shots which again show the planning of the robbery of the diamonds. This section gives the audience a preview of what is going to happen in the film. It creates suspense as the audience wants to know more about the film. In this scene the female character seems to be agitated by the plans yet the male character remains calm.
The next shot is split into three giving good continuity with the other three split shot. The music changes pace in this section as the shots cut fast between each other increasing the pace of the trailer. Another three split shot is used with another mirror image between the slogan. The close up shot of the Camera shows the importance it plays in the shot and this is emphasised when it is used in the next shot looking down at Demi Moore. Close up shots are used to emphasise the importance of objects such as the close up shot of Caine dropping the diamonds into the hand of Demi Moore and the turning of the safe handle.
The release date for the film is stated at this point in another three split shot. The suspense is heightened at this point due to the discovery that something has been stolen from the safe. The music again changes to a faster pace building on the suspense that has been created throughout the trailer. A detective is thrown into the trailer and the mise-en-scene of this scene is typical of that containing a detective as he is holding a magnifying glass. The tension is heightened when the detective begins asking questions and the previously calm Caine begins to whisper to Demi Moore.
The actors names are then panned onto the screen as the music builds and as the trailers end approaches the time between cuts becomes quicker and the amount of fast moving scenes such as Caine running and the stopwatch scene quicken the pace of the trailer rapidly before a sudden drop in the pace as a dialogue shot is shown then then the music picks up again and the title of the film is flashed on screen. There is then another shot of dialogue then the billing block is shown on screen followed by the release date s.
In summary
Music- the music starts slow then drops into fast paced music. This continues up until the last few scenes as the suspense builds. It reaches its maximum pace at the end of the trailer. The pace of the music is directly related to the speed of the shots.
Pace- The trailer starts slow and then gradually gets faster as the trailer progresses reaching its peak at the end of the trailer. It drops slightly between the speech scenes but speeds up again as the trailer quickens.
Titles-Most of the titles in this trailer appear in the second half of the trailer. But the company names appear in the opening few shots of the trailer and at the very end of the trailer.
Lighting- the lighting in this trailer is generaly extremely bright however it does vary slightly on location.
Codes and conventions are certain methods by which something is done. In film codes and conventions refer to camera methods, lighting of shots, and other technical methods that are used in film. They also refer to the location in which a genre of film shot for example a horror film would be filmed at locations that benefited the Genre. The clothing of characters within the film would also follow codes as certain clothes would be inappropriate for different genre's.
I believe that the codes and conventions for crime dramas are
