James bond trailer analysis

My expectations for the design of the film poster

My First expectation of the poster is to have the main character looking dominant in the center of the poster, and then having some other characters off the each side such as the antagonist and other villains or protagonists from the film. I then planned to have a city skyline as the background with the tile of the film and its credits below them. I drew up a draft of what this might look like;

However after researching more into the different styles and techniques photographers use when thinking about the positioning of their focus I came across the thirds rule, which is a relatively basic principle for those studying photography, and decided to apply it to my poster. The rule of thirds states that when framing a picture to have the most important item in one of the 3 thirds, this then lays more of the focus upon the main characters. So by applying this rule I moved the protagonist to the left of the page and had the extra characters off to the right of him. Then I had the title in the right third along with the credits.

After showing an audience my draft film the feel and style of the film seemed to collide with the content of the poster, I found myself wanting to have a more timeless feel to it. So the city skyline would put to must of a time stamp on the film. So the background needs a new image, I thought about having a treeline because you can’t put a time on a forest, since they have always been around.

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A descussion about the choise in music

Music discussion:

I wanted the film to have an epic kind of feel to it, so the music I decided to think about choosing is orchestra music which I feel will give the film an epic and serious tone. My choice of orchestra is two steps from hell; they have lots of different styles of music for example they have fast passed dynamic music or soft calm music. I want to have a track that has a slow start for the intro and then picks up in the middle to show how the film evolves. I started my search by looking at their most successful tracks, ones that have been used in other trailers, and I came across ‘heart of courage’ which has been used quite extensively in other trailers or films. However after talking about how much it has been used I thought about being more original. So I looked at more of their tracks but none of the ones I listened to came close to fitting in as heart of courage did. So in the end I decided to use it anyway. However I am still keeping in mind that a newer original track would be more preferable.

Audience feedback to our film and new shots that are going ot be added

The shots I filmed for the finishing of the draft ended up to be not what I wanted. Responses from the audience revealed that the shots we added in were not in the same style as the rest of the film. The start of the film resonated a timeless and mysterious feel, “the setting used doesn’t give me any time zone to judge the film by, which makes me want to find out more” this quote from one of our audience shows that we had the right idea for the start of the film but it fell down after that. So new shots are needed to fill in the rest of the trailer, at the moment we still only have about 30 seconds of film we are using. Some of the new shots I am adding to the list are;

·          Character waking up
·          Hints of the past
·          Use of mirrors
·          Defending him self
·          Packing a bag
·          Jumping
·          Voiceovers – investigating, he’s gone, let’s go, I gave them everything/they took everything
·          Axe hitting a tree
·          Gun
·          Running through a River

I want to keep the mysterious style of the film so by looking at similar styled films, like the Bourne film, I came up with a list of different shots to use by looking at the actions that go on throughout the trailers.

In addition the audience said they felt alienated from the film because we weren’t going to show the protagonist’s face in the trailer we did this to give him more of a mysterious presence in the film; however after looking into our feedback we decided that it would not give him much of an impact in the film, thus not making him much of a main character. So to change this we are showing his face but keeping the mystery around him with other methods, such as speech like “how is he” or “we need to find him”.

poster discussion

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Music for Trailer

We have found the music for our trailer, Gods gunna cut you down by Johnny Cash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bwfm7-uNS4

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Poster Analysis

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Poster Analysis

The background of this movie poster is dark, misty and eerie, thus establishes the genre of the film as being horror and also this shows the film to be very secretive as it is set in darkness and fog which is a common stereotype within films of a similar genre. Within this poster there are many examples of mise-en-scene including clothing, as the man is seen to be wearing a top hat and an old style black suit. This could tell us that this man is of importance and is the main character within this film as the clothing he is wearing represents smartness and importance. However the clothing the man is wearing is also completely black, which has representations of death and evilness. This fits in with the film’s title of “Vampire Hunter” which could tell us that this man who we see on this poster is in fact the Vampire Hunter which the film is about.

Also within the poster the man’s face is seen to be blacked out by a shadow, this is done so the identity of the main character is kept secret so people do not know what he looks like. This is done to try and make people want to watch the film more as they will want to know who this man is. This also makes the man look very mysterious and also dangerous which fits in with what he is wearing and the fact that he is the Vampire Hunter featured within the films title.

Within this poster we also see many examples of mise-en-scene including a full moon, woods and an axe, these are also common stereotypes within horror films, this establishes the genre of the film to us.

Law Abiding Citizen Trailer Analysis

Law Abiding Citizen Trailer Analysis

The trailer begins with a high angle shot looking out over the city of Philadelphia. We then see a close up of a man, he is seen to be a family man as he is seen with wife and daughter, during this shot we hear slow paced and peaceful non diegetic music. This tells us that this man lives a peaceful and happy life with his family. However his peaceful life is soon disrupted as a group of criminals break into his house and murder his wife and daughter. There are many examples of mise-en-scene with these criminals, for example they are seen to have tattoos, wearing black clothing, holding baseball bats, wearing hats and are seen to be unshaven. One of the men is also seen to be wearing a white vest. These are all stereotypes often associated with criminals, as the colour black has connotations of evilness and bad, while the baseball bat has connotations of pain and violence and the tattoos are often associated with toughness and criminal activity. As these men enter the house the non-diegetic music then gets loud and faster, this represents his life from going from peaceful and happy to sadness and anger. We then are shown a close up of the man tied up and taped at the mouth; he is seen to be angry as he watches what is going on before him.  This shot then fades to the titles of “Overtune Films” the fact that the editing used is a fade could show that his hope and also his life are fading away as a result of what has just happened.

We then see an over the shoulder shot of a man wearing a suit, the fact that he is wearing a suit could tell us that this man is of importance. He is heard saying the diegetic dialogue of “Some justice is better than no justice at all” this tells us that the men have got away with the murder of the man’s wife and daughter, this then begins to tell us the plot of the film. We then see the high angle shot of the city of Philadelphia that we saw at the start of the trailer again. This shows us that there could be something significant about this shot, such as a building. We then see a long shot of the man looking on in the distance following one of the criminals getting away for the murder. This shot an example of deep focus as we can clearly see the man in the background but not the people who are stood near him, who are slightly obscuring him. The fact that the people around him are obscuring him shows us that he is seen to not be important and not noticed. This shot then zooms into a close up of the man showing him to be both angry and confused following the verdict of the trial.

We then see an example of shallow focus in the shape of a long shot of a prison looking through a barbed wire fence. The barbed wire fence could represent the man looking through and monitoring what is going on with the criminals in the prison and that he will never be able to move on from the events that have happened and he will never forgive both the criminals who killed his family and the justice system for letting him down.  The man is then seen to get revenge on the men who murdered his family but murdering them. He is seen ruthlessly torturing one of them; this shows him to be a completely changed man from the family man we see at the start.

We then see a long shot of the man talking to the man in the suit from earlier in the trailer, who is a lawyer.  The two are seen to be talking within a cage, this could show that both are in fact criminals for their actions, the man for the killing the men who murdered his family and the lawyer for letting the men go free. Further on into the trailer we see a close up of the man and he is heard to say the diegetic dialogue of “I kill everyone” this shows how much this man has changed going from the kind family man to the serious, determined and evil murderer. We then see a low angle shot looking up at the man as he is being escorted away by armed Police officers. The fact that a low angle shot is used could show us that despite being in prison and surrounded by armed Police he is still dominant and in control within the film. We then see a number of explosions in a car park surrounding the lawyer and leaving him fearing for his life. The trailer ends with a long shot of the man standing with his back towards the camera as flames appear in the background with him looking towards them. These flames could represent the man as possibly being the devil or going to hell.

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magazine font discussion

This is a discussion about the different fonts used by movie magazines and the ways they effect the style of the magazine.

Empire magazine has a similar font to EF Kaffeesatz Schwarz and Bernhard Gothic Heavy SG, it is bold and the bottom half of the letters have been shortened. To me the M in empire resembles the huge flood lights used outside movie premieres, this links the magazine to how it reviews movies. in addition the colour is nearly always red, exceptions for when it is necessary to user a different colour, like for when the background and red dose not match up.

Premier magazine on the other hand uses a verity of different colour instead of sticking to a usual one. A common trend is for their background to be white, i suggest this is to have more focus on the main image than the title. The font of their title is thin and tall, opposite of what empire magazine has. I think that this is for the same reason that the background is always white, to get more focus on the main image. the font they use is called ELDORADO.

Total film is allot like empire, its M has the same meaning and representation and the font overall is very similar as well. they too seem to try to stick to one colour, white, for their title colour. the purpose of this would seem to be to build familiarity for its reader. making it easier to see off a shelf so that you think to buy it and just like empire they make exceptions to this, for example a special review.

Unlike the more well known magazines i looked at before, box office magazine does not have a general font that it uses, it changes to be appropriate for the front cover article. i think this is because it does not have the renown that empire and total film has it has to make itself more unique to grab attention away from the more popular brands.