The early 2016 Romantic Comedy release, starring Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson, a recently single Alice, moves to New York City, to live an independent life, but soon realizes she needs help along the way, with work colleague, Robin,'s help, Alice plans to live a fun life single, but cant help making some romantic stumbles along the way.
The trailer opens to the non diegetic soundtrack "Worth it" by Fifth Harmony, which is a song that recently has been featured in the pop charts, this immediately targets the younger population of the receiving audience, the song is upbeat also which casts a joyful and party mood over the picture already, making the audience sense it as light-hearted. The scene then opens to a low angle panning medium shot, showing two girls, one tall with brown hair, who's mise en scene shows her to be fashionable yet a cute girly girl type, Whereas the other curvier girl has blonde hair, and mise en scene shows her wearing all black with a leather top, making her appear more promiscuous and at a complete contrast to the brunette girl, which is proved diegetically, when the brunette (Alice) states that she's going home, and the blonde girl (Robin) says she cannot "waste a night in New York City".
As Robin continues to speak, the editing creates a fade to an establishing shot of the Brooklyn bridge and the city following it, showing that possibly Alice is new to New York, and is getting help through Robin on how to live there. Then cutting to a Birdseye view of the city at night, the chorus in the soundtrack starts with the sound level increasing, showing the audience that this film will show a lot of partying, as we then cut to a medium shot of Robin clinging on to the side of what appears to be a pylon as she grasps a bottle of champagne with the other hand. Conforming to the stereotype that the funnier friend has a bad influence on the nice and quieter main character, this is proven when we see Alice dancing in a large crowd filled shining pink and blue LED lights onto her face both connoting fun and lighthearted times, but also the colour theme of the films poster.
Then cutting to a medium shot of the two girls walking in to a bar, Robin diegetically tells Alice she is going to teach her "how to be single", showing the the films title used within the trailer, showing the audience that Alice is an introvert who Robin is trying to get to break out of her shell and live the drunken single life with her. As Alice tries and fails at trying to get men to buy her and Robin drinks in a shot reverse shot exchange with a large group of business men, this is known due to their smart business attire, we see that Alice is really inexperienced at talking to men, and shows the audience she hasn't been involved in the single life for a while.
We then cut to a high angle wide shot of Robin dancing with a large crowd watching her, Robin's mise en scene shows her wearing a black dress with an electric light up arrow pointing down, confirming that she is a promiscuous character and conforms to the stereotype of a "Ladette", who behaves in a way that the majority of men would. The trailer then focuses on this as we cut to another medium naturalistic style shot of a man in a silk dressing gown as Robin walks around the camera and screams as she sees him causing him to jump, The shot reverse shot exchange shows Robin to be clueless to the fact that she's in someone elses apartment and states she "cant remember" what happened last night, Which again shows the comedic value of her character and shows a lack of seriousness which may prove to wear thin within her and Alice's friendship.
Then cutting to a close up shot of a stereotypical rugged, handsome man telling Alice she's pretty, and that she'll find someone in New York,to which she blushes in another close up shot, showing the audience a possible love interest between the two. This is later come back to within the trailer when we see the two passionately kiss in a medium wide shot.
Robin continues to be portrayed as a bad influence on Alice, as shown in a medium circulating panning shot the two's mise en scene wearing the same clothes as they did the previous night with sunglasses and matted hair, suggesting that they never went home the night before and are hungover, the bewildered two then venture into hurrying across the city to get to work in twenty minutes.
Again targeting a younger audience due to the medium shot reverse shot exchange between Robin and Alice at work, when discussing text messaging, through technological phrases such as "emoji", showing the audience that many relationships are impacted heavily by technology, such as when Robin says she has to wait 4 hours before Alice can reply to a boys text. Most older adults of 40+ probably wouldn't understand the humour of this as much as someone younger would.
We then cut to a close up shot of Alice smiling, then cut to another close up of a man smiling back at her, showing that Alice has multiple love interests, and therefor get the audience to assume that Alice is changing into another version of Robin, though this does not appear to be a bad thing as she appears to be happy, whilst these shots are seen we can hear Alice non diegetically say "The thing about being single is, you should cherish it", suggesting that she changes her opinion through having help from Robin and others around her.
The trailer then closes on a sequence of the actors as they are credited and clips of them are shown after, then closing on the films title "How to be Single".
Goodfellas (1990), illustrates on three decades of the mafia, with main focus on Henry Hill, who achieves his life long dream of being a gangster at 14 years of age, seeing his crime life, love life and drug life, Goodfellas shows the true representation of what having a role in the mafia brought, with a volatile and aggressive psycho as a best friend, and murdering partner, Henry and the mafia members lives start to unravel.
The trailer starts on a black background, hearing the non diegetic utterance of an american/italian man, stating "Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut", through this immediately the receiving audience can gather that through the term "rat", the film will be covering crime, and also sets dominance on this character instantly, the scene then opens to the male whilst still speaking this quote in a medium close up shot, showing the character "jimmy", with his arm wrapped round a younger boys shoulder as he points near his face, gathering the audience to presume the younger boy as a protege of sorts to this man. As soon as Jimmy finishes speaking a loud low pitch jazz song starts to play as the screen cuts quickly to a black screen with a bold red text appearing stating, " A Martin Scorsese Picture", Martin Scorsese is a well known and critically acclaimed director, due to films such as the 2 time oscar winning Raging bull (1980), and Mean Streets (1973), all of which star Robert De Niro, and all share the same crime theme genre, therefore this being mentioned early on in the trailer would attract and target a certain audience.
The camera then opens to the same teenaged boy using a crowbar to smash the back window of a car in a level medium shot late at night, then cutting to him pouring gasoline into the car in a close up shot, then continuing to throw a match into the car, Over the top of this we hear " as far back as i can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster", to which we cut to the teenaged boy running rapidly from a gated car park, as the whole parking lot explodes behind him in a wide shot. Impacting the audience to believe the older man at the beginning of the trailer as impacted this boy badly to take part in crime that isn't for his benefit.
Then cutting to a medium shot of a door opening to the teenaged boy called "Henry", where he is shown uttering the diegetic sentence "hey mom what do you think ?!", his mise en scene shown him to be in a brown business suit, which connotes what a 1950's american gangster would have worn, showing Henry to be influenced by his surroundings and idolising the gangsters around him and wanting to dress and act like them as a sense of belonging and being cool. Although his mother is shown to have been the one to answer the door in a medium shot reverse shot style, where she looks him up and down disapprovingly telling him " you look like a gangster !". Furthermore, detail to the surroundings both behind Henry and his mother, suggest that they do not live in a particularly friendly or high standard environment, due to the brick stained building and fencing behind Henry, and the stained and chipped door and door frames in his mother's shot. Therefore showing that Henry perhaps idolises the gangsters around him due to the apparent easy money they make without needing jobs, whereas Henry's family perhaps has little money, hence why he turns to crime.
We then cut to a vertical panning medium shot of a male character in a grey "gangster" suit, smoking a cigarette, where we hear the non diegetic narration "By the time I grew up", showing the audience that we will be watching the events of the movie through Henry's once eyes, perhaps to see the mafia and their doings through a more innocent perspective due to Henry's late delve into gang crime. We cut to a high angle medium shot of a man firing a gun through a brown paper bag from the passenger side of a vehicle, which usually is associated with robbery's, showing that Henry has continued this way of life, and seemingly enjoys it due to the following cut to Henry driving the vehicle whilst hysterically laughing.
Then moving on to fast paced clips back to back, we see Henry at a dinner table in a restaurant, presumably on a date in a level medium shot, where his date asks "what do you do ", where Henry replies " Im in construction", proving to the audience that he is dedicated to what was said to him when he was younger about "keeping his mouth shut" about the life of crime that he earns a living out of. Then suddenly cutting to a fast medium angled shot of Henry in the backseat of a car with three other people as he quickly punches the man next to him in the face, showing him to be deceitful to people who should be important to him, such as his wife, which is shown to be the woman he was on a date with as a slightly high angle shot shows Henry getting married to her.
Another shot shows Henry watching his mentor Jimmy as he wraps a telephone cord around a man neck, as he menacingly strangles him in front of Henry, as Henry is seen smiling and laughing as he does it, it illustrates a sadistic tone to the picture due to the enjoyment of inflicting pain onto others, and perhaps this is in course of Henry's gangster mentor, inciting the humour in violence.
After this we hear Henry state in his non diegetic narrative that "killings came to be accepted", confirming to the audience that blood will be spilt in this movie, this is then shown after Henry says this, as the camera cuts to a wide shot of smoggy scene where a red light in projecting silhouettes digging a hole, most likely to be assumed as a grave, as when the two of the three men make jokes in a shot reverse shot with Henry as he holds his nose, about body parts in a way of meat, it truly shows the lack of fear and guilt to killing an individual, showing the audience that the characters shown within the mafia are evil people. This is accurately shown through the conventional red tones, which are associated with blood, violence and anger.
After extreme close ups of a gun and hearing it being fired, the soundtrack cuts to a more mellow and slow paced piano based track, showing Henry remove wads of cash from the inside of his trousers, showing that he is now having to smuggle money around with him in secret, showing a dangerous turn in the plot to follow, making the audience want to find out as to why Henry is having this problem. But saying in his narrative that " to live any other way was nuts", showing that he perhaps gets thrills out of the dangerous and risky life, because of the outcomes of having money and being treated with a lot of respect by the public due to fear. Though the camera cuts to a scene where just like in the fist shot of the trailer jimmy has his arm around henry as they laugh around a pile of money in a wide shot as the camera pans into them.
The scene then fades to the black background with the films title in a blood red, in bold and thick text to stand off of the screen, connoting the blood and violence that is to take essence in the picture. The camera then cuts to numerous fast paced clips of episodes in Henry's and the mafia's life of high and low moments, such as Henry's wedding day, which is seen in a close up shot of him and his wife dancing, Henry watching his friend in a medium shot as he punches someone hard in the face, Where Henry is warmly greeted by Jimmy with a hug in a medium shot, Henry and two accomplices in a red ambient tone as they looked ambiguously downwards in a low angle medium shot, and where Henry and Jimmy greet and hug each other in a bar. All of these fast clips showing the audience that the film will show the highs and lows of Henry's life. The screen then fades to black displaying the main actors in the films names in a small bold red text, then finally the films title again with a small white sentence underneath written as "three decades of life in the mafia".
Avatar (2009) an action/sci-fi epic, illustrates the true enhancement of technology, with this Sci-Fi's explicit use of detail into creatures from the planet Pandora, Where Paralyzed ex- marine Jake Sully , through the linking of the Na'vi beings(avatars), is then made able to be mobile again through his avatar and through his meeting of a female na'vi called Neytin, forms a connection and finds himself going against the government to save her planet.
The trailer opens to an extreme close up of a man opening his eyes to the non diegetic sound of a man's voice asking/introducing the man opening his eyes as Jake Sully. The man's voice had an American accent, showing this film is most likely set in America. We then cut to another extreme close up of who the audience presumes to be Jake, as a hand grips onto the side of the wheelchair, showing the character to be unfortunate in terms of his abilities, getting the audience to sympathise for the character. The non-diegetic soundtrack plays a slow paced melody that connotes motivation and power, which would subvert from expectations of the main character due to his inability to walk.
The scene then fades to a medium shot of Jake wheeling himself through what seems to be a bar, Through the background, we see the lower halves of the people around him, belittling him and making him appear vulnerable. The non-diegetic sound of the American male voice returns, stating that he wants to talk to Jake about a fresh start in a "new world", immediately confirming that Jake's life has been tough and also that the idea of a "new world", would categorise the film into the science-fiction genre, at this time the screen fades and opens to a wide establishing shot of an area in space, showing the earth. After we are revealed the American male in a close up shot, who's mise en scene showed him wearing a smart business suit, who claims that Jake would be "making a difference".
As the screen flashes to white the tempo in the soundtrack increases, then showing a hovercraft of sorts flying at a high speed, in a wide panning shot. Showing that Jake presumably travels to this "new world", as we are shown a naturalistic movement of the camera as it tracks the course of the hovercraft, showing a jungle type setting covered in smog, showing the audience the conventional idea of a frightening forest, and that the planet is in trouble due to this.
A wide low angle shot then shows, what appears to be an army, running out of the hovercraft, again making the audience feel as if this is an important mission that the army is possibly taking into saving our human race. We again see Jake Sully, wheeling out of the hovercraft with his camouflage army uniform and a clear mask covering his face, suggesting unclean air or toxins within the planet, but also due to Jake exiting the craft on his own shows that he is a lone wolf of sorts, and this could be due to the fact that he's paralysed, and has made him bitter, conforming to the stereotype of disabled people becoming angry with their incapability's. Also in this shot we see a moving and armed robot which towers over Jake, showing that this a futuristic movie set in a time far away from no, or in a parallel universe.
As the trailer continues we see a low angle shot of the planet, this time in a serene and attractive setting with what appears to be waterfalls off of floating mountains, as another futuristic looking hovercraft passes through it disturbing the peaceful scene, showing a down side to being there. Cutting semi quickly through the clips, we hear the non-diegetic narration of who was shown to be the commanding officer, saying that the marines are on planet Pandora, whilst this is said we see a medium shot of an alien creature pouncing aggressively in the woods, showing a dangerous impact of being there, pointing at the possibility of death.
The commanding officer then, in a medium shot talks of the "indigenous population, the na'vi", Following this we see a member of this species, the mise en scene shows the alien to be facially alike humans structurally, but having blue skin and a tail, contrasts the two species immensely, showing the audience the vast difference between them, and through the war paint the na'vi has, sets the idea that the marines and na'vi will enter in a war, this is also proven through the weaponry the alien has, with her bow and arrow. furthermore this shows that the species is undeveloped due to the old style of weaponry.
It is then said through a human involved in the operation that the reason why the army is there is not for the benefit of the plant of Pandora or for the safety for planet earth, but for greed of themselves, with rock from the planet that is worth "20 million a kilo". Making the audience question the side they're on already, then as soon as this is spoken, the soundtrack turns more upbeat and sinister, showing the date of the releases to be December 18th, The trailer takes a turn as they show the idea of the marines mentally transferring themselves into an na'vis body, in order to obtain information to move them away from the expensive rock. The na'vi body's are shown in a large tank in a low angle shot alongside jake sully creating the illusion that we, as the audience are looking at the events from Jake's perspective.
Jake is then seen to being put into a chamber of sorts by scientists, where we see another shot like the opening with an extreme close up of jakes eyes as they shut, We then cut to a distorting digitally created effect, of what appears to a shock rushing through Jake's mind, transporting him into the avatar. This shows the audience the intense and futuristic technology that will be used within the film. We then suddenly cut to the avatar's eyes opening suddenly, showing the audience the main source of danger and tension of the film's plot, showing that Jake will be put into a setting of the na'vi who are against the marines being on their land, and them finding out could result in death for Jake.
We then cut to jake along with a fellow avatar, in a medium shot hanging outside of a helicopter, weaponed with guns and in marine uniform, their mise en scene showing that through theme not being dressed like one of the previous and real na'vi shown, that they are not prepared to be going out in the field, showing that possibly the commanders and hierarchy of the army on Pandora, prove to be only caring for the fortune that lies on it and not their soldiers.
We then are shown Jake as within the na'vi's territory, and over these fast paced shots, we hear the commanding officer's non diegetic narrative, telling jake he needs to "learn information from the inside", Through this plan the audience can learn that this plan backfires as Jake appears to change his appearance as an avatar to fit in with the na'vi, and smiling whilst with a female na'vi, as a possible love interest, showing that Jake through learning the infomation could change sides, and fight with the na'vi, this is confirmed when the officer's diegetic utterance is heard asking Jake if he has forgotten "what team" he's "playing for",
We then see numerous scenes of the planet being destroyed by the robots and marined controlled by the army, with tree's being torn down and fire being shown on numerous occaisons, making the army appear in a negative light, We then see an underdog tone being cast when a female marine states that they're going "against machine guns with bows and arrows", and also confirming that they have indeed changed sides from their planet and country to the planet of pandora. We then close to the movies titles "Avatar" in blue on a black background.
Reservoir Dogs shows a group of "perfect strangers" who venture into stealing precious diamonds, though through the the fear of a rat having told the police of the what the collection of hopeful thieves have planned, the group can't help but let the paranoia allow them to suspect each other of the being the source of information to the police.
The trailer opens to a black screen with the quote "Every Dog Has it's Day", in a bold white text, This effectively shows the seriousness of the film due to the two contrasting plain tones, within the scheme of this screen. Over this we then hear the non-diegetic sound of what sounds like more than one man yelling, then hearing clearly "put the gun down !", immediately suggesting to the receiving audience that there will be a strong sense of violence throughout the film, furthermore suggesting an older audience of around 15+. The trailer then opens to a close up shot of an older man with little hair, whose miss en scene of a smart grey business suit, which portrays him as a smart and powerful individual, which is also due to the setting behind him of a chalk board, which gives his character some what of a teacher's dominance over their students, the older gentleman then utters "heres your names", to which the camera cuts to a close up shot of a middle aged man, wearing a white t-shirt, where we hear the older man's non-diegetic voice utter "Mr white", the camera continues to pan in a close up shot to surrounding younger men where the older gentleman voice is heard sating names, effectively introducing the characters to the audience in an attempt to hook the receiving audience onto the film by getting them to know the characters. Humour is shown through this part of trailer with the character who is branded "mr pink" by the older man, shows to be irritated by this and effectively shows the audience there is a light hearted side to the film.
The clip then cuts to a right angled wide shot of the group wearing all smart black and white suits, walking together in a slow motion effect as the non diegetic sound track plays Stuck in the middle with you by stealers wheel, which is a light hearted song that matches the groups mood of restful times. The group is then shown in a back angled wide shot as the group go onto to gather to a car, effectively showing them in a uniform as such to carry out a group task, although we see one individual dressed in a colourful shell suit jacket, giving the effect of the joker the group. The restful song song is suddenly interrupted as the camera cuts to an extreme close up of the hand of one of the suited men, as they knock the cylinder of a revolver into place, showing the audience the intentions to shoot others.
With the non diegetic sound of a man's voice asking what should happen if "the manger won't give you the diamonds", showing the audience the intention to rob diamonds from a bank, the camera cuts to two of the group in a car to which Mr white responds with "cut off one of his fingers", showing the darker side to the film.
As suddenly as the soundtrack stopped, it restarts showing closeups of the members of the crime ring laughing, showing that they find humour in violence, effectively showing the audience the aspects of a dark comedy. We then cut to three of the members at a medium low angle shot of them opening a car boot, they seem distressed, with the camera seeing as a viewpoint for the audience, this hints at a person being in the boot looking up at the three criminals. Suddenly the soundtrack is interrupted again by someones hand smashing through glass, then showing the criminal character mr blonde in a medium shot as he states the shaking comment " if they'd hadn't done what I told them not to do they'd still be alive", showing that there will be death within the film, showing their plan to go wrong. The music then suddenly starts again and shows mr pink violently pulling a woman by her hair out of her car window in a wide shot, as he fires gun shots at who appear to be the police, showing that their plan is continuing to plummet due to the death of people involved in the job and also the fact that the members are being chased by the police.
Again the music suddenly halts to the sound of someone being punched in the face, as they fall to the floor we see a close up low angle shot of mr white cocking his gun and pointing it downwards to who is revealed to be mr pink pointing his gun back at mr white in a wide shot, showing that the groups dynamic fails as they are seen to be turned against each other. a series of fast clips of the gang making a "bam" gun effects over the top of real gunshots, showing that bullets were planned to be fired. Showing a menacing appearance due to the song now appearing as a sadist tone over the film, and when pain is inflicted it is enjoyed by the group.
The trailer then closes on the films title "reservoir dogs" in a bold red text over a black background, changing from what was once white and connoted pure, to the red which connotes blood and violence, effectively showing that what turns out to be innocent turns for the worse intro a situation where blood is spilt.
- often uses a "stupid" character for humour.
- teen comedies use the typical nerd trying to find his/her place at cool table
- mockumentary comedies , using a unsteady camera shot to show a realistic effect.
- high budget films use plans that go wrong (explosions etc)for comedic effect.
- often uses stereotypes of peoples culture for humour.
-often uses revenge as a source for plot.
- gang films usually use a rivalry against two gangs, competing for the same thing such as power or money.
-often in robbery films, a larger group of characters are used to show how different characters bring different ideas and personality's to the table.
-often set in modern time in a cursed house from past years.
-usually centred around young adults/teens.
-often filmed in a documentary style (paranormal activity)
-usually the "villain" is in the ghost area or possessed.
-often uses explosives and prop guns to show more excitement and drama.
-usually has the hero saving the day on his own starting off stubborn and ending with him/her being in love or making new friends.
-usually you believe that the hero has died at some point but shortly after emerges from the disaster point.
-often has a bad event in the characters life lead to a downfall, which leads them to become a better person.
-shows the tough and difficult time the character has to go through.
-sometimes has a tearjerking effect on the audience,which shows a realistic effect from the film where people can relate or understand.
- Anchor-man , the interview, super bad, dodge ball, Talladega nights, scary movie franchise, the hangover, hot fuzz, forgetting Sarah Marshall,
jackass franchise.
- Scarface, Legend, The godfather franchise, Batman franchise (Christopher Nolan),goodfellas, snatch, gangster squad.
- Sinister, saw franchise, annabelle, the ring, the poltergeist,the conjuring, final destination, scream, the exorcist.
- Die hard , fast and furious franchise, hunger games franchise, mad max:fury road,bat man franchise (Christopher nolan), The matrix. fight club, x-men franchise, the expendables
-the titanic, the descendants, shawshank redemption, green mile,fish tank, forrest gump,12 years a slave, saving private ryan, Django unchained,the social network.
Through my previous AS media course, I have made numerous judgments on how I am going to make improvements through the following course. I see the main improvements needed within the technology and editing area, seeing as within my group I was the main editor, I want to be able to progress within this year to expand in particular effects such as CGI. Last year the group also suffered from not successfully portraying the characters on screen correctly, this was in the terms of mine en scene, with our characters showing some of our characters with different connotations in their dress to their characters intentions.
Another area I see an improvement in the non diegetic sounds, mainly in the sound track sense, seeing as before the soundtrack we had chosen drew connotations closely to a horror, whereas genre was thriller/ drama. With my group now wanting to pursue a different form of genre such as action or comedy, we want to put a lot more thought into the soundtrack of which we will use in what will now be a trailer, for which we are very excited to start planning and filming.
Through the use of technology that we used, we were able to have a high definition, using the Nikon D3200, But in year 13 we want to be able to expand with our camera techniques, with such as the tripod movement, our group wants to be able to attempt a dolly tracking system, or attempt to use more panorama effects within our trailer, to give a more professional look.
