Here I am looking into the types of characters I would like to include in my piece, by this I mean the personality of the characters, as well as considering the actors in which I wish my characters to look like.
I wish that my Final piece will be able to portray a similar sincerity and emotion as this clip shows us. It shows us the good fun times the two have had as well as the death and emotional time of the funeral giving us a contrast in the emotional reflection shown. However I wish my actor to look more like Adam Brody (below).
However I am not entirely sure whether or not my main character will be male or female so I have looked into a female actress as well as a male to compare the emotion and emphasis on the power of the actors will be able to put across.
I have come to the conclusion that having a male character as the lead will have more of an impact because males are considered the stronger gender and therefore when a man is effected by an event making him upset and able to cry over the matter it then makes the audience uncomfortable to watch and they sympathise for the character.
I have noticed when researching and analysing trailers that the official trailers always have a green screen beforehand saying that the clip has approval from the motion picture association of America to be viewed on youtube.
From researching this I wish to include a green screen before my trailer appropriately so that it will make my trailer look and feel more professional.
It also ends with the title of the film plus other titles including: the productions, who the film is created by (and in this case with ‘War Horse’ it is a Steven Spielberg film), who created the music, the editor, the producers, Director and whether or not it is based on anything (e.g. a novel or a true story). It also includes the institution logo at the end, informing who the people are funding the production of the film.
Today I have been able to complete the results from my questionnaire and I hope to progress with my media work in more of a fluid manor helping me produce an effective blog.
These results will help contribute to my final piece helping me choose specific characters, music and a main theme for my piece. It’s also helpful to know what type of things my audience will enjoy, for I asked the majority of my friends as well as some adults concluding in twenty people answering my questionnaire, giving me a variety of my target audience.
Drama Filmsare serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes have various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre because they include a broad spectrum of films.
Social Problem dramas: ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ (1940), ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976).
Metal Illness: ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975), ‘I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’ (1977).
And there are many other types of dramas including: alcoholism, racial relations and civil rights, courtroom, political, media-related, World War home front, history related, religious, show business, literature related, and many more.
The one I wish to focus on is in relation to metal illness drama for the main character will be traumatised from an accident and is unable to relieve the guilt and grief, and has to have some type of therapeutic action to make things better for themselves.
The story for my film is about a person reflecting upon their past. It will involve an incident which my main character will have trouble supressing in to their subconscious, but by the end of the piece they would have found some type of sanctuary to relieve their pain and suffering. This may be achieved through a person entering their lives and them falling in love interlinking the romantic genre with the drama, or it may be through spiritual reference or some type of accomplishment by the main character which will subdue their emotions.
What I wish to include in my trailer:
·The accident
·A portrayal of grief
·Hope of a brighter future
·Peaceful and heart-warming music (self-created)
·Insight on what the film is about and the genre in which it belongs
Gender: Female Skewed, but may attract a partial male audience.
Race: Any, however it may appeal to a more British/ American audience.
Education: Whether or not they will be able to grasp the concept of the film.
Occupation: They may be able to relate to the characters and there line of work. It also means I need to research the type of work my characters have to make sure it represents the people who actually have that job in a respectable manor.
Current Lifestyle/ Aspirational or desired Lifestyle: They may be able to relate to the emotional rollercoaster involved.
Media Interests: The audience members would probably be interested in similar media’s which are linked to my plot line of the film. So they would be interested in watching things which include drama and makes them feel for the characters as though they are partially responsible.
The reason why I think this about my target audience because I looked into the type of audience ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ brought in – ‘Charlie St. Cloud is a wholesome movie that will appeal mainly to the 10-20 year old female market, but will charm older viewers as well.’ I also looked into the target audience for ‘War Horse’, which seems to be more of a widely ranged target audience but seems to be lenient towards the older generation for they are able to relate to the war references.
I chose to look at ‘Atonement’ because it is situated with the drama genre as well as includes a reference towards the war which is something that I was considering to apply to my piece. ‘Atonement’ is also a film which includes romance and because of this it is a film which is considered to have the majority of females for its target audience. Things which promote this film more towards females are things like having an attractive male main character as well as having a plot which looks at the emotional issues with social class, love and war. It also carries a slight mystery with it making you guess what’s happening to keep you gripped with the story. This piece may lean towards a female audience as well as towards more of the older generation, for they can relate to the having let the ones they loved leave and risk their lives in the war. However it may bring in an older male audience as well because they are also able to relate towards the war and the sacrifices they made, as well as attracting a young adult male audience from the attraction of war and the respect and courage they admire to.
The ‘Atonement’ trailer starts with referencing to the social circles the two main characters are in, telling us that we know they should not fall in love because it is look down upon for ‘He’ is working class and ‘She’ is upper middle class. However it pushes the idea into our heads that we know by the end of the film they will fall in love even though others may not approve. However it then leads into a scene where the woman emerges from the fountain soaking wet and she and the main male character share a look that implies their relationship and pokes you in the correct direction.
The forbidden love is then over seen by the woman’s younger sister, Briony, who mistakes their love for one another as an act of rape and him taking her vulnerability for granted resulting in the male character, Robbie, being arrested for accusation of rape. For the imagination of Briony’s childish mind made everything spin in the wrong direction, making her accuse an innocent man. The attraction of all of this dramatic action makes a person want to look into the real truth behind the story and to understand what happens from the false accusation.
The trailer carries on to reveal Robbie heading into war with thousands of other troops, for he took his choice to be in the war than rot in a jail cell doing nothing. This makes the piece an emotional reverting trailer drawing your attention to the attraction of our past and the war. It also shows the growing love Robbie and Cecilia have for one another even though they were ripped apart by the actions of Brinoy.
Briony then, in her later years during the war and working as a nurse, writes a novel on her life story, as though she is trying to relieve herself of the guilt she has for her past actions and wishes to change it.
It then ends with a type of slow paced collage of shots which seem to sum up the heart wrenching moments in less detail than the film gives. This tells us that this is a film which holds a lot of emotion beneath it portrayed through the dialogue and the music.
All of this helps to bring in its target audience because it includes a huge amount of information which can be overpowering in the 2 minutes 31, therefore leading its audience to want to watch the film to really understand what all of the action is for.
The music is one that provokes emotion from the beginning, for it starts with a piece of calm light-hearted music with the main instrument being a piano. It then leads in to a piece which seems more daring and lustful, ending in a dramatic stop to the music to hear Robbie shout “Briony!”. Turning into a more fast paced upbeat piece implying intensity and a moment of being scared and frightened, yet it is controlled as though there is a sense of arrogance which ends again with a sudden stopping beat and changes into a soft, loving, and sincere score of music, implying his innocence. It then leads on to a more heroic piece of music while the war is referenced, with beating drums and violins as though already we are respecting the dead and all those who sacrificed their lives for our future. It builds to a crescendo ending in a piece which holds the emotion from the characters and the action that lies within the trailer.
As part of the sound included throughout the trailer there are things such as the dialogue, giving us the information about the plot of the story. It also has things like the sound of the type writer included intermittently through the beginning implicating the whole story is just that a story; it is also used for a beat in one of the pieces of music. There is also a voice over included at the end of the trailer telling us the actors involved in the film to promote it further as well as telling us the name of the film.
The unique selling points of this trailer are the actors involved who include: Keira Knightly and James McAvoy, both of which are famous actors who’ve appeared in many well known feature films such as Keira Knightly has appeared in the world famous Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean and James McAvoy has featured in X-Men first class and the series Band of Brothers. The war is also considered as a unique selling point because everyone is interested in the war, wanting to know what it’s like and the connection to our wars we’ve experienced as a country up to this date.
This trailer is an emotionally stimulating dramatic piece relating it to the drama genre. It is a piece which, I think, has no gender preference for its target audience for I think it will draw in an equal amount of females as well as males. I think this because of the contents of the trailer, for it includes the thrill, excitement and violence of the war throughout most of the trailer attracting its male audience, yet brings in the emotional attachment towards the horse and its owner bringing in a female audience. I also think that the age rage would be roughly from 17+ probably mainly aimed towards an older generation so that they are able to relate to the war and the emotional connection they experienced.
The historical context of the war helps draw in its audience because it is something we all feel we can relate to because us as a country were involved in it and throughout education everyone learns about it but, no one is truly able to grasp the experience of war unless they have essentially experienced war themselves. Also the fact that the film is different from others because from the trailer you know the main character isn’t just the boy but the horse and you realise that the film is about their relationship. This is a contrast to a lot of other films for they don’t normally associate the emotions between the boy and an animal, and in this case it is a horse.
The non-diegetic music doesn’t start at the beginning of the trailer instead it starts with the diegetic sound of the war around where the horse is galloping through as though it can’t be affected by the flying bullets and the mines and bombs going off. It’s as though it knows where it wants to in that moment, and is heading there. The music then fades in quietly and calmly and quite simplistic it then goes into a more complicated orchestra piece giving it more depth and emotion to the action and the piece keeps building making it more of dramatic and emotional piece showing the challenges the horse faces during the war and the way that it fights through as though it has a purpose. This music is continuous throughout the trailer giving it consistency; it also expresses the emotion through the use of the orchestral instruments as well as the build up until the end where it declines with a fade, giving a more emotional conclusion to the trailer.
Unique selling points include things such as: it being directed by Steven Spielberg, and the war. The war is a unique selling point because the majority of people feel as if they are able to relate to it. And the reason why Steven Spielberg is a unique selling point is because he is world famous for his films such as: E.T, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Catch Me If You Can, and more recently The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and many more. He is so well know for a wide range of successful films that it draws you in for you know that if he has been involved in creating the film you know it will be quite good and interesting to watch.
