Girl Costume Moodboards

For our trailer we wanted three different contrasting characters and I brainstormed different ideas and investigated the target audience as well as codes and convention of characters. I then made a collection of different mood boards to give us a clear insight in to our character options.

Mood board of a boho chic style:

The boho style takes hippy, vintage and Aztec fashion inspiration to create a chic style that gives an impression of a someone who takes pride and time in their appearance but wants to convey that they have a relaxed attitude.

This is a mood board on a girly girl character:

This girly style has different patterns, styles and colours which portray the characters feminine, delicateness and consciousness to impress people. The style is very friendly and approachable giving the impression the person is popular. Most people associated with this style are conventional girls that take fashion as a high priority.

This mood board is on a grunge styled girl:

This grunge styles implies rebelliousness, individuality and confidence. The character is not conforming to society but being themselves showing self assurance. There keen to experiment with different styles, accessories and patterns to show there bold confidence as it shows they are sure of there character and personality and do not need to have other peoples improvement or acceptance.

With this three styles taken in to consideration I made a brief video to show more styles as well as the music element.

Boy Costume Moodboards

We want to have a boy character within our trailer so I explored different styles of boy's that we could include or have to see what would look better with our chosen girl characters and would fit our idea.

A Skater Boy:

This style is very relaxed with jeans and tops being the main aspect it gives the impression the character is easy going and likes to be comfortable with themselves. The style also hints at tattoos, smoking and drinking like in some of the pictures leaving us to be able to explore a wide range of characterisations.

The 'Swag' Moodboard:

This style is a lot more experimental and conveys a vain aspect to the characters as they care about the way they look and impressing people as they take different styles, colours and materials and try to coordinate the outfits to stand out and grab people's attention to them. It shows them as confident and bold as this style is always developing and changing.

The Preppy Style:

This style is different from the other styles as it uses different materials, colours and styles as it wants to imply they are clever and smart. It is a smarter look and shows a sense of pride in dressing well and showing people there interest in looking intelligent and standing out.

Music Video Inspiration

The music video 'I Knew You Were Trouble' by Taylor Swift gives a good insight to one of the the characters we want to portray in our film trailer as the grunge style is also a element of the music video. The character in the music video is represented as misunderstood, confident and bold. 

This music video shows a vulnerable naïve girl trying her best to appear strong, independent and confident. She is conforming to the people around her and what she thinks will keep them around.

As the music video progresses she talks about losing herself  because of her experience with him. The character gave up a lot for him by becoming someone else to impress him. This is something we could explore with in our characterisation as she is so desperate to please people she forgets about who she is. This character is seen as having her innocence taken away and she believes that he's perfect for her but in fact he's just trouble and a bad influence.

The style the character is dressed up in shows an
element of grunge as she's in dark clothes with heavy makeup and pink hair but in earlier shots of her we see her as more feminine, girly and cute. 

The characters emotional development is shown as getting worse as it proceeds as she has lost her confidence and how she's developed into something she's not. It implies that the girl at the end is just a character to hide who she truly is, in case of rejection. The character is conforming to attract the guy and shows how she needs to feel like she belongs somewhere to be able to feel comfortable.



The music video also implies there's an element to him that made her 'lose' herself. This can be interpreted as drug and alcohol taken that he has influenced her to do. The music video shows they go to a bar and a party which is both a place where this are expected so it shows how she's blinded by him to do stuff she wouldn't have done.

 

 The video represents vulnerability, naivety and lose of innocence . The video is summed up in the monologue which concludes the effect it had on her:

'I guess I just lost my balance. I think that the worst part of it all wasn't losing him, it was losing me.'

Music Video Inspiration

For another character option we looked in to other music videos that were different from the other one. 22 came across as a more feminine girl that could be a good character as she could contrast the Grunge character.

 

I researched and found the same artist, Taylor Swift, who portrays an entirely different character, style and concept in this fun, girl and carefree video contrasting brilliantly against the other video. 

In the music video Taylor  is seen as spending a lot of time with her friends and mucking about, dancing, singing and playing with them. The character is seen as carefree and loves spending more time with her friends than boys and just likes to forget everything and just mess about and have fun.

 

The character's outfits are a lot more colourful, fun and friendly as there's splashes of yellow, green, blue and bright patterns. Her makeup is very natural except the bright red lipstick she wears earlier on which is know to be a very sexy feminine colour to wear. This all portrays the character to be very soft caring and ladylike as she's delicate in all her colourful girly patterns and clothes.



 Some shots portray the character as carefree which connects with the grunge character as there both trying to convey to friends, family or acquaintances that there not bothered by anything and there strong, independent and just want to
have fun.

  

The character is lively, bubbly and always seeming to have a good time. Taylor portrays a girl who is well of as she lives in a big house with a pool and massive garden. This parades wealth and materialistic items and the character is seen with different nice clothes, accessories and items that contrast the grunge character who had a minimal amount of stuff and was confided to a small dark places.

The music video inspires a girly girl character who is fun, friendly, bright and carefree who's well off and portrays that's she's problem free and having fun is her priority.

This character also has some elements that connect the two contrasting characters as they both seem to give an attitude of not caring or bothering about what other people think but behind the whole façade there both insecure in some ways and use this 'carefree' attitude to hide behind.

 

This allows us to explore that our two characters may come from different backgrounds but they still share some similarities if that be attitude, insecurities or sense of humour we can explore all this different aspects within our film trailer. There similarities could also lead them to becoming close and connecting eventually.

Here's the music video that I got the gifs and character inspiration from:

Shallow Grave Trailer Analysis

From this we have decided to increase the pace of the shots and decrease the length of the shots as the trailer progresses to build the tension and give the impression of running out of time.
We will also begin the trailer with some mundane simple shots to establish equilibrium as stated in Todorov's narrative theory (for more information see narrative theory)
We will also include snapshots of unexplained dialogue in our trailer as this creates an enigma according to Barthes narrative theory (see narrative theory)

Music Video Inspiration

For our other character we have looked at different music videos that have a different style, story and character that contrast each other. After looking at the girls we wanted to find a boy story that complemented as well as contrasting the girls.

Justin Bieber's 'As Long as You Love Me' music video portrays that kind of character and a captivating story which resembles crime, love and coming of age all elements we wish to include.

The character portrayed in the music video is a young teenage boy who is in love with a girl who makes thinks dangerous for him. This character is seen as strong and sure of what he wants and that he'll do anything to get it.

The character clothes are casual yet fashionable. The character wears jeans, shirts and trainers giving a laidback attitude but he's clothes and jewellery show a vain element as he's trying to appear flash showing that he has money and does care about the way he looks.

 The stand of between the two at the beginning show the young character to show his stubbornness about the situation. This leads us to believe he's not really understanding of how dangerous it is and is focusing on what he imagines in his head for the future. This is a characteristic that we could explore as the character neglects the facts and focuses on what he wants and won't stop till he gets it.

The character shows all different aspects of his personality; we see him as kind, gentle, loving but also strong and stubborn. The characterisation is a gritty portrayal of a boy and he's tragic forbidden love story that's a well loved aspect of romance to watch in films/music videos.

The two characters don't fit together as she's an innocent, pretty and sweet girl but has a very overprotective father where as he is seen to be seeking danger to keep the romance alive and would sacrifice anything for her. This sees the character mature and start to take responsibility and decisions for himself and seems him develop in to a man.

The presence of well know actor Michel Marsden portraying an over protective father gives the music video a crime element. Near the end the character gets brutally beaten and left bruised and  alone. The crime and violent aspect is something we could include in our film trailer.



This is the music video we took inspiration and gifs from: Justin Bieber As Long as you Love Me

Initial Character Ideas

When brainstorming for character ideas we thought of different code and conventions of characters and looked in to the different characterisations of each of them.

We then looked in to different clothes styles and what they implied about the character and how the styles contrast each other and what they all imply.

Overall to create contrast we decided to have a female rich girly girl, linking with our costume and character research and also a female poor girl with grunge style costume also from our costume research

We have decided to have one male 'normal' character to help bridge the gap between the backgrounds of the two females and to act as the character who the audience can most relate to. He will dress in the skater style(as found in the boy costume research) as this is the style that was most popular in our audience research.

Trailer Research - Thor Trailer Analysis



I have explored this film trailer, and analysed typical conventions, uses of sound and lighting, and camera shots. From this research, we now have a greater understanding of film trailers, and their structure and what to include.

Code and Conventions of Characters

Social realism is a genre that refers to filmmakers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. The genre is gritty and explored different issues within society.

The characters in the films are usually from a poor, unprivileged background that have some form of escapism but to break common codes and conventions the characters can sometimes be rich or privileged but have something to escape from or to escape to. I want to investigate the different types of characters that are included in this genre.

The film 4.3.2.1 shows a wide range of contrasting characters who all bring something different to the movie. The characters all have different family life, jobs and interests in life. The main four protagonist stories are shown individually to show the contrast but all remain to be linked throughout.

The character Jo played by Emma Roberts is from America, she is young, female and relatable to the audience. Near the end of her story you see the character growing in confidence which is a common convention of the genre as it shows her development as a character by standing up for herself .

The character Shannon played by Opheila Lovibond is a quiet girl who uses art to escape. The character is not privileged which is a common convention of the genre as well as the struggles she faces.The struggles within her life as her mum leaves, her dad being depressed and losing her baby. The film shows another common code and convention of psychological problems as Shannon struggles to deal with her demons.

The character Cassandra played by Tamsin Egerton is a contrasting characters to the other as she is a very posh character who has a completely different background to the others which is breaking the usual convention of the genre. The character is very naïve and innocent but the character develops to be strong, independent and more determined through the film which is a common convention of the genre.

The final character Kerrys played by Shanika Warren-Markland is again very different from the girls. This character wears skimpy clothes, is confident and strong as she stands up for herself and her friends showing she isn't afraid to get in trouble or a fight. The character is not a common convention as even though she's strong her character does not develop as much as she is already strong, self assured and independent.

The trailer

The film includes a wide range of different codes and conventions of characters within this genre.

Trailer Research - Pulp Fiction Analysis

As Pulp Fiction is a well recognised and popular crime film, I will be analysing the trailer in preparation for producing our own.



Between clips within the film trailer, large text appears with central films of the film such as Loyalty, Crime and Betrayal. The black background and bold red font hints the genre of crime with the red resembling blood, drawing a resemblance to the violent features of the film. The title of the director is also in this style, making the link between him and the feature of violence in his films.

Harsh, bright lighting creates an uncomfortable and threatening scenario, emphasising possible vulnerability of the character and conventions of the genre. A main character is also introduced to the audience, allowing them to make a connection with the actor or character. This scene is juxtaposed with the scene which follows it, with the lighting in the second scene is much darker and warmer.

 The other-the-shoulder shot creates mystery by the revealed identity of the character. In keeping with Barthes' Enigma Code, this entices the audience to see the film. The setting of a bar is frequently found in crime films, therefore the audience can determine what kind of film it is and if it is to their tastes.

Violence is heavily implies by the use of a gun, the special effects also show this by the colour signifying blood. Further answers are left unsolved by the victim of the shooting not being shown. Audiences may recognise the actor and therefore generate interest that way, they can also associate him with previous films and interest is created if they are fans of the genre.

This is directly addressing the audience by speaking to them through the use of the word 'you'. The ellipsis produces more unknown answers and encourages the audience by implying they won't know the facts, till they watch the film. The black background and red lettering makes the statement appear bolder and separates the action.

The trailer concludes with close-ups of each character, with a voice-over stating the actor names. This allows the audience to recognise the actors by face and name, showcasing the famous cast and drawing audience interest that way. The key lighting on the actor's face draws people's attention to him, making him the main focus.

The title dominates the screen, and the bold font colour against the black background makes it stand out. The font is similar to a comic book title and therefore may draw an audience who are fans of comics.