Final website

http://270349.wix.com/vortexfilms-1

Final trailer

Final Poster

Evaluation Question 1

Using this prezi, I have explored how we used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products in our trailer.

Initial Storyboard

For our film trailer we drew a storyboard to aid the planning process before we went out to film. Since we created this storyboard, we developed it further and since have produced a new storyboard. This is the result of our initial storyboard;

Poster Research - Historic and contemporary examples of film posters

I have researched film posters of the past and present from varied genres, and found these examples. There is a clear evolution of film posters over time, with changes in style and use of colour. Film posters from the years 1930-1970 are presented as more of a spectacle and a theatrical production, however over time, and shown through posters from 1990-2013, posters have become less artistic with them all being photographs, and relying on technology.

A wider range of colours are used in the historic film posters, the posters appear as a piece of art work, with images being drawings, particularly in the case of the 1930's film 'Hell's Angels'. The most recognisable names associated with the film are in the largest fonts, shown in 'On The Waterfront' and 'Citizen Kane', making it an important factor in film promotion, however in more recent posters this is not shown as explicitly.

There are similarities between the two collection of posters, as genre is obvious through the colours used. The poster for 'The English Patient' is clearly a romantic film by the soft light colours, and the images of a man and a woman being joint protagonists, this is also seen in 'Casablanca', showing these features of posters having a constant meaning over time.

Genre Research - Crime film directors

Website Research

Poster Research - Existing Poster Mood Board

I have created a mood board of existing media posters as research for creating our own product. Most of these posters contain an image of the main character or characters in each film and the colour scheme is reflective of the film genre. Tag lines are a feature of many of these posters as a promotional tactic, as well as positive reviews.

Website Research - Existing Website Mood Board

This mood board shows some film websites of the last few years. A common feature of these website home pages is a recognisable picture from the film and also a video of the film trailer. The award nominations and wins are also shown, as well as names of the recognisable cast members increasing publicity.

Problems with iMovie

The project on iMovie became corrupt, this meant that we could not access any of the project to continue with editing it. We tried to put the project onto a memory stick and transfer it onto a new Mac, however had the same problem again with the file being corrupt. Due to this, we had to re-upload all of our raw footage onto the new Mac from the iPhone and start editing again. 

Trailer Research and Planning - Film Festivals

Sundance Independent Film Festival 

• Founded in 1978, now held in Park City, Utah, Sundance is of the largest US independent film festivals. Featured films include A Streetcar Named Desire and Deliverance.
• The chairperson is Robert Redford which adds prestige and eliteness to the festival.
• It highlights the potential of independent films, and acts to increase visibility for filmmaking while presenting a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions.
• The festival also highlights the work of regional filmmakers who work outside of the Hollywood system.
• More than 60 films were screened in its second year, however when the festival was bought to The O2  in 2012 for the first time, 14 films were screened. In 2013 the UK version of the festival was sponsored by Jaguar, suggesting how recognisable the festival is.
• Quentin Tarantino, David O'Russell and Darren Aronofsky are directors who got their big break after their films being premiered at Sundance.
• Films include; Saw, Reservoir Dogs, Little Miss Sunshine, (500) Days of Summer and Napoleon Dynamite.

Venice Film Festival

• First ever major festival which were held in 1932.
• Considered highly prestigious and awards filmmakers such as; Al Pacino, Sylvester Salone and Spike Lee.
• The Golden Lion Award is presented for Best Film, for which previous winners have been The Wrestler and Brokeback Mountain. 
• The festival is international and therefore other recipients are relatively unknown to the Hollywood system.
• A Silver Lion Award for the Best Director and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and Actress are also awarded.

Cannes Film Festival

• Founded 1946 the festival is prestigious and invitation-only.
• Golden Palm prize for best picture, Best Short Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay awards are also given out.
• Best first feature film and Student films are also rewarded.
• Huge media exposure and is a good source of publicity for film producers to launch new films and attract distributors from around the world.
• Previous winners include The Tree of Life in 2011 which adopts experimental elements and The Pianist. Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now from the 1970's are also previous recipients.

Berlin International Film Festival

• The festival was founded in 1951 and has been held annually since 1978.
• Golden Bear award for best film and Silver Bear awards for various acting accolades.
• The Generation section showcases films targets at youths.
• Previous films screened at the festival are; Marley, The Land of Blood and Honey, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and a restored version of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, showing the variety of film the festival showcases. 

Raindance Film Festival

• UK's largest celebration of independent film making, takes place in London in October.
• Founder of the British Independent Film Awards.
• Pulp Fiction debuted at Raindance in 1994, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape 1993, Momento 2000 and Once 2007.
• The festival holds a jury which has previous members such as Lou Reed, Judi Dench and Iggy Pop.

Tribeca Film Festival

• Founded in 2002.
• Festivals mission is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience.
• In 2006 and 2007 it screened 1500 films and featured a variety of documentaries, narrative features and short films.
• Festival draws around 3 million people including elusive celebrities from the industry.

South by Southwest

• Began in 1987, the festival showcases new directing talent in his film section, however in more recent years, mainstream films such as The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Spring Breakers held their premieres there.

London Film Festival

• First held in 1956, it is now held annually by BFI and sponsored by The Times.
• UK's largest film festival screening 300 films and documentaries from around 50 other countries.
• Hosts high-profile awards contenders, public forums, educational lectures and Q&A's with filmmakers and film talent.
• The Sutherland trophy is awarded to the Best film of the year and isn't exclusive to the UK unlike festivals such as the Vancouver Film Festival.

The festivals most suited for our film would be the Raindance Film Festival and the Sundance Independent Film Festival UK. This would be due to the focus on independent films and the fact that they are London based meaning that these are the most likely ones it would be screened at.

Health and Safety

For filming we have a few health and safety concerns which we need to ensure are managed in order to film safely.

Lighting: For one scene,  we are to film in a tunnel which has low lighting, we have one light for filming which will be used to make sure that the actor being filmed is viewable on camera, this is also useful as it will help us see in the tunnel. There are many cars driving reasonably fast as it is a main road, and so extra care needs to be taken which will be able to do with the torch.

Props: In one scene we are showing an actor throwing a bottle at a wall, this requires extra precautions such as ensuring he was standing an appropriate distance away from the wall, as only his hand and the bottle are visible in the shot this should be reasonably easy to do. For a different scene a cricket bat needs to be used, we have arranged the camera angle so that the person filming won't be hurt and no contact is made between the bat and an actor.

Drugs: For obvious reasons the drug-like substance which we are to use is intended to appear like the real thing and the actress simulates the actions of taking drugs without actually doing it, as it is illegal.

Storyboard

Trailer Research - Memento Analysis

The presentation of the film is structured with two timelines, one in colour and one black and white. The film cuts between the two sequences, highlighting their different purposes. The coloured scenes are shown forward, however the events are ordered in reverse, the black and white scenes are shown as events that happened before. The constant difference in time structure keeps the audience engrossed in the film and gives them a further insight into the storyline.

There is a crime aspect to this film, and questions arising through the plot are left unresolved until the ending of the film. This helps generate suspense and intrigue for the audience throughout the film, emphasised by the scenes of action including a car chase and a fight. Despite the protagonist participating in this behaviour, sympathy is still created by his reasoning being vengeance for his murdered wife, and also his condition of losing his memory. 



Here is the trailer for the film, the structure of the film being in reverse creates more suspicion for the audience, the ending of the trailer showing the website name backwards, it shows that although the structure of the film is not shown explicitly throughout the trailer, it is hinted at with this. 

Analysis of Posters

We took different genres of film and there posters and looked at what they all seperately represented and what impression it gave of the type of film, characters and classification.

Trainspotting

Gone with the Wind

Devil wears Prada



Kidulthood

Genre Theorist Research - Carolyn Miller

Carolyn Miller is a genre theorist who suggests that 'the number of genres in any society...depends on the complexity and diversity of society'. She also believes that new media genres develop and formalise quicker than traditional, written genres and therefore genre theory should change for more modern media as the theory no longer applies. Carolyn Miller created a piece of work on the socio-cultural approach to genre theory and argues in her 1984 book that 'rhetorical criticism has not provided firm guidance on what constitutes a genre' and exposed some of the difficulties of applying genre theory to new media.
'rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centred not on the substance or form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish'

Taxi Driver from 1976 shows a character who has a military past, and will therefore appear as a hero to much of the audience. This is however proved incorrect through the subsequent actions of the character, on the other hand, in The Place Beyond the Pines, the main character is depicted as someone who would fit a stereotype for a criminal. The protagonist in Taxi Driver is an honourably discharged U.S Marine so he doesn't appear as an obvious threat to the country however the climax of the film sees him trying to assassinate the President. The Place Beyond the Pines released in 2013 shows two main character, one a working class traveler turned bank robber and the other a police officer who is hailed as a hero. The similarity between the two films is that the characters who have served their country get away with their crimes, however the characters are not of the same background, Taxi Driver shows the person committing the crime go free while the opposite happens in The Place Beyond the Pines, resulting in the characters death.

Genre Research - Research of Crime in other mediums

Crime in British TV typically consists of idyllic countryside setting, before a change in the tone with an unexpected murder. A typical plot can include brutal murders through decapitations, stabbings and burning, this kind of violence is unexpected to the audience initially when they are unfamiliar with the show, and has clearly continued to be enjoyed by audience. Period drama crime shows are also popular, such as Heartbeat which is set in the 1960's and 1970's, this is again set in a remote location in Yorkshire, like Midsomer Murders with the two recurring main characters, Heartbeat has a cast which is led by police officers. They act with authority above the other characters and are seen as bringing peace at the end of every episode, usually as in Midsomer Murders and shown in film with Hot Fuzz, the main characters do not originate from where the series is set, showing a contrast of character within setting. The main characters holding higher ranked jobs also show the lack of competence in the other characters, and potentially an increase in intelligence.

Crime books such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo address more serious themes such as violence against women and bankruptcy and Nazism. The origin of the book comes from a real life circumstance of the author witnessing a rape, this shows how extensively hard hitting the content is, alarming the audience to a greater extent than some crime TV. Due to a book not being visual, the author can get away with more serious topics and incidents as the audience doesn't have to actually see it, the image is less harsh when the reader them-self is creating it. Some of the most famous crime novels are written by Agatha Christie, an example of this is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The publication of the novel in 1926 opened the audience up to new kind of plot with the shocking twist ending, paving the way for future crime authors. Similar to TV shows such as Midsomer Murders and Heartbeat, Christie's novel is set in a fictional countryside village, making a contrast to typical crime in real life. Unlike The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the book contains much less graphic material, addressing how much more modern day books can get away with in terms of violence.

Genre Research - History of Crime Genre

The crime genre in film began in 1900 with the first ever Sherlock Holmes film, this was a thirty second clip of Sherlock discovering an intruder and the mysterious disappearance of a sack of his belongings. Even from this very early, brief film, conventions of crime which we are so familiar with these days are introduced, such as in The Italian Job, with a strong theme of robbery.

The inspector or detective genre became popular with the release of The Maltese Falcon in 1941. The plot entails a detective trying to stop a jewel theft, this again set the trend for this sub-genre of crime film. The introduction of a famous leading actor into the genre began with Humphrey Bogart being cast in the leading role. At a time when films such as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Maltese Falcon brought crime films into mainstream cinema.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 




Crime films can vary from following a character who is trying to stop a crime from happening or finding justice, such as Se7en with main characters such as policemen. However most crime films centre around the main character and their pursuit such as The Next Three Days, in this example his actions are not law-abiding, however his intentions are sincere and heroic, making the audience root for him.

 Another popular crime sub-genre are mob films, the most famous being The Godfather. The reference to real life crime proved popular and led to sequels such as The Godfather Part II and Part III, these also incorporated actual events, the death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal. This theme is continued into modern day films like Catch Me If You Can and I Love You Phillip Morris.

Theory Research - Narrative theory

For our trailer we needed to explore different narrative theories that we could possibly use for our trailer. We took different theorists along with people within our class and looked at all of them to see which ones we could use or relate to in our trailer. Here's the finished product:



We will now apply all of these theories to any trailer analysis' and also have them in mind when creating our initial storyboard.
The theory we are most interested in is Barthes' Enigmas as from the trailers we have watched we have found this to be the most effective technique used to engage the audience.