group 89 a2 media practical

Evaluation - First Draft

2009-12-12T08:06:00.001-08:00

This is our first draft of our evaluation, as of yet we haven't divided it up into sections to make the script for our video commentary.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We created a teaser trailer for a film based in the coming of age genre. From our initial brainstorming of the characteristics and past films of this genre, we developed a plot synopsis that is based on the films ‘Elephant’ and ‘The Breakfast Club:’ that due to a high school shooting, a group of four different students, who wouldn’t usually have anything to do with each other, hide together, and try to coexist in hope of survival.

Our teaser trailer challenged one of the forms of this type of media text, its length. Teaser trailers are most commonly in a time frame of thirty seconds to one minute; the length of ours is two minutes and twelve seconds, more than double. The reason for this is that our trailer slowly builds up pace from the point of equilibrium, to the point of disturbance, slowly increasing pace to match the intensity of the dramatic sequences of struggle, and climaxing to a cliff-hanger, whilst featuring as little dialogue as possible. This follows the other conventions of a teaser trailer, such as how much characterization is revealed and the change of pace to encourage audience response, however, our shots are longer, adding to the length of the trailer.

A form of our trailer that does not follow conventions however is the ellipsis; we frequently and consistently used fades to create an idea of events being missed out, and using more fades, in a shorter space of time to increase the pace of the trailer.

We compared our teaser trailers length to that of the James Cameron Science Fiction film ‘Avatar’ (2009), which is also notable for its unusual length. It also retains characteristics of building-pace, and minimal character revelation.

We decided to use codes that would be clearly recognisable to our target audience off the lower tier of 16-25 years. The references, or ‘cliques’ that we used to refer to our characters in the poster; ‘Geek,’ ‘Jock,’ ‘Plastic’ and ‘Rebel’ are colloquial phrases used by the current generation of teenagers, and so could be identified with easily. We matched the clothes with these names, to bolster these stereotyped codes, as well as using props such as cigarettes for the rebel character, and glasses for the geek character.

Following the plot being partially based on the coming-of-age film ‘The Breakfast Club,’ the primary two borrowed elements were the entire setting being in a school, and the character forms, which are archetypes for ours. For example the repressed and violent natured ‘John Bender,’ is the basis for the character ‘Rob,’ and the athletic and protective ‘Andrew Clark,’ is the basis for the character ‘Conor.’

Our promotional poster follows many if not most of the conventions for a marketing poster, which is the inclusion of a title, a tag line, credits and a tentative released date, however it challenges the conventions in ways such as the minimalistic design. A lot of designs often have more detail, whereas ours have block colours and shapes, and there is nothing in terms of critical response. We did this so that the poster appealed more as a teaser poster, and in terms of a marketing view, we would print a more detailed poster in the future.

For our magazine cover, where the dramatic design of the promotional poster draws the audience attention, we preferred to give the characters more of a presence in the magazine cover, making a link with the trailer. Additionally, it was also essential to meet the conventions of our chosen magazines brand identity and house design, which gave us less freedom in our design. With this however, we were still able to make a design based solution, which emphasized the stress of our characters.

A further, and very significant way in which our trailer and plot challenges conventions, is that the films that ours is based on are all American, and it is unusual to see a British Coming-Of-Age film that is entirely set in a school.

The poster also includes an inter-textual reference to ‘The Breakfast Club’ poster, which is the unusually long tag-line, another challenge to the typical, short and eye-catching tag lines featured on most Hollywood blockbuster poster, featuring a more detailed but still vivid idea of the plot, making up for the lack of detail aesthetically.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We tried to keep our teaser trailer and two ancillary texts as relevant and related to each other as we possibly could. The foremost design element that is present in each of the three media texts is the title ‘The Way That We Are,’ which is presented in the same font in all three, to keep the brand identity related and recognisable, however we have made the title larger and bolder where appropriate, such as in the poster, and at the end of the trailer, larger than all the other pieces of text.

The second piece of criteria is the consistency of the themes of ‘disturbance’ and ‘darkness’ through the three media texts: in the trailer, this is shown in the latter scenes, as the characters react to the perpetrators presence and argue with each other. In the magazine cover, this is shown in the distorted image of connor and anneli, whose expressions and body language convey stress, worry and fear. In the promotional poster, the silhoutte of a hooded gunman looks ominous and has connotations with youth violence. A further denotation that is common among the texts is the allusion to, but not direct or clear revelation of the gunman.

The only recognisable issue is the lack of connection between the poster and the magazine cover, which have little relation, besides the title. We originally intended to create a poster, which featured a photographed version of the final shot of the trailer, with each character cowering against a wall, whilst the silhouette of the gunman looms above them at the door. Due to absences of characters, we were do this photo shoot, so we alternatively took a more design based approach, and decided to make the gunman character the central focus. On the other hand, as previously stated, the detailed tagline, which gives a general idea of the main characters, compensates for this, and makes the link between the main storyline about the clique characters and background of the story, about a gunman attacking a school.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From our audience feedback we determined that we needed to add more titles to break up the shots, and even improve the idea of an increased pace to add intensity, which we applied at the beginning middle and end.

Some of our audience feedback remarked a disagreement with some of the long shots we used, although this was an essential element to our trailer: we used these shots predominantly during the shots with the gunman to create a distance from this element of the storyline, and more of a focus of the four main characters.

The audience also thought that the use of fades was too much, however we could not see anyplace’s to remove them, because we needed the fades in all the places where they helped dramatically with continuity.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

From the earliest planning stages, we used new media technologies to help develop our trailer as easily and efficiently as possible.

Most significantly, our primary source of research material was the internet; websites such as wikipedia, imdb and pearl and dean allowing us to research relevant plot-lines, marketing ploys and audience demographics to allows us to effectively prepare how our trailer and ancillary texts would effectively influence target markets.

During the development our plotline, we created an animatic storyboard to help us visually realize how our trailer would flow, and we did so using the slideshow capabilities of Microsoft PowerPoint. We were also able to upload this animatic to our blog.

The construction process provided the most opportunities to use media technology, we used DV Cameras to film our shots, as well the program Apple Final Cut Express to cut together our shots, and transitions, titles amongst other effects to make the trailer flow and improve the continuity that otherwise lacks from a series of cut together shots.

The graphics elements that appear throughout our trailer could not be created by final cut alone as the capabilities were not diverse enough, so we turned to Apple Livetype and Adobe Illustrator, to create more developed and appropriate titles, that matched the story line and aesthetic.

Subsequently to the rough and finished cuts of the trailer, the website Youtube proved a useful tool to preview the trailer to its audience, from which we were able to get feedback.

Designing our ancillary texts, we made extensive use of the programs Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as photography to model our shooter, which we then altered into a vector illustration.

Challenging The Teaser Length - Inspiration

2009-12-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

The final cut of our teaser trailer is considerably longer than the common teaser trailer, which generally lasts between 30 seconds and 1 minute, challenging the convention. The main argument for this is that in our trailer, time is needed to present the characterizations, and their state of separation, and being brought together in the shooting, whilst building up the intensity from the point of equilibrium to the point of disturbance, through to the cliffhanger ending.

Our inspiration for our trailers length is the teaser trailer for the science fiction film Avatar (2009,) which had an unusually lengthy time of approximately two minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYurk_p-4-Q

(Embedding disabled)

The trailer, like ours gives a basic characterization, and spends alot of the time presenting the more dramatic action sequences and the mise-en-scene, which is an important part of the genre.

The most comparable element is the way it slowly increases pace and intensity.

Poster - Final Design

2009-11-30T06:11:00.000-08:00

We decided this was going to be the final design for our poster.

The final design differs to the original idea, which was to use a shot of the main characters against the wall with the silhouette of the gunman in the window. We then decided to change it by taking inspiration from the poster from the film 'choke'. Similarly to ours it features block colours to add a dramatic effect. The poster emphasises the gunman rather than the main characters as his appearances in the trailer are always mysterious and shows the darker side to the film. The minimal effect we used on the poster, by not showing any real shots from the film, lures the audience to want to know more about the film and go to see it.

We originally wanted to use a more violent colour for the background such as red, but this proved to be too harsh and confused the meaning of the film. We decided blue was a much more suitable colour as it reflects struggle and survival. We kept the gunman in black to convey the dark, evil side of the character, also the contrast between the light blue in the background and the dark figure of the character presents the two sides of the film.

Promotional Magazine Cover - Final Design

2009-11-28T10:28:00.000-08:00

This is our final design for our 'Little White Lies,' 'The Way That We Are Issue.' The varying covers of this independent film magazine are stylized in different ways, some incorporating pencil drawing, pop-art, and vector images. So we decided to try and stylize ours in a similar way.

We took a photograph of two of the films main 'clique' characters and put them together, reflecting the final scene of the trailer, in a distressed state, in hiding. When then imported this photograph into photoshop, altering the background to a whitewash.

We then applied varying layers of filters, such as sketch filters to our photograph to add some texture and define the foreground characters.

The focus on the foreground characters and their distressed stance and expressions reflects the darker themes of the film, whilst the light tone reflects the focus on the 'good,' 'moral' and 'heroic' characters of the film.

Promotional Poster - Final Design

2009-11-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is the final design for our promotional poster.

The original design was meant to feature a full-size photograph of each of the four 'clique' characters sitting by the doorway, with the silhoutte of the gunman in the window. Unfortunately due to unavailability of cast members, we altered the design.

This design is a hommage to the poster design for the film 'Choke,' which similarly to ours, features only shapes and solid colours to give allusions to certain ideas. This poster creates an allusion to the gunman character, who in the trailer is not revealed, and is constantly shrouded in someway.

This is more apt as a teaser poster than the original design, as it alludes to the certain themes of the film: 'teen violence,' 'darkness,' 'struggle,' but does not present any overt details of the visuals of the film.

We initially experimented with a red background, to allude to blood and violence, but this proved too harsh, considering the film focusses on the characters that are trying to survive, protect and do good with each other, so we decided a lighter, and less harsh blue would better reflect this plot element.

Other than the background, we decided not to add any colour, to maintain the dark and ominous sense the poster conveys to its audience.

Although the title font 'Comic Sans,' is a very generic font, and appears quite light hearted when the film is about fear and struggles. We felt the font illustrates the ideals that the film portrays, such as social coherence, love and understanding of the main characters. The font, coupled with the image alluding to the gunman combines these two ideas to illustrate the unique concept of our film through the poster. Furthermore, this font is a common one to find used in school documents, as noted by our media technician Simon, and so is apt to include in a film related to events in a school.

Poster Idea

2009-11-27T04:52:00.000-08:00

For the film poster we wanted to do something that captured the most tense moment of the trailer. The idea of this is, so it catches the eye and makes people look and read it. We decided we were going to use one of the last shots in the trailer where all the main characters are lined up against the wall hiding. We thought this is effective as the emotions on the characters' faces states the situation they're all in, and the fact they are in the situation together. We could also incorporate a company logo, release date and star rating.

Little White Lies - Magazine Cover

2009-11-26T01:14:00.000-08:00

Since we have decided to make a 'Little White Lies' magazine cover for our film, I have decided to collect some examples, to explore their unique compositions, which are often minimalistic and rich in colour, creating some sense of pop-art.

The Way That we Are Trailer - Final Cut

2009-11-23T05:06:00.000-08:00

Poster Analysis

2009-11-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

For the poster analysis i decided to look at the film 'Whip It'. I chose this as many of its components are similar to ours; it is a 'coming of age' genre and includes characters approximately the same age.

The poster shows, what we assume, to be the main character of the film in a uniform of some sort. The contrast between the green and the black background makes her stand our signifying that she is a main character. The worried expression on her face shows the dramatic side of the film and reflects the idea we have for our poster, using some of the main characters as well. Another feature that stands out is the text underneath the title of the film 'be your own hero' which gives the audience a vague idea of the story-line.

The poster also features a release date and an internet website where audiences can go to see more information about the film, which introduces a different medium of marketing the film.

Further Marketing Research - Analysing A Magazine Cover

2009-11-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

For further research in preparation for our ancillary texts, I did some research on the designs and conventions of magazine covers. It was quite difficult to do find a cover based on a film related to ours, so I picked an empire cover from a recent of film: The Dark Knight (2008.)

The first apparent element is the aesthetic relations to the film presented. The word 'Joker' is presented in an ominous looking font, and printed in green, layering an equally ominous appearing image of the Joker, which is placed in the foreground, ahead of the title.

The second element is the reference to the film title, although it is small and presented at the top as opposed to the centre, it ties in with the rest of the visuals.

The tone of the cover is generally quite dark, working with the themes of the film and the title.

The recognisable conventions are the reference to other features in smaller type, as well as the magazine title integrated into the design, but still very clear.

We have decided to do a cover for the independent film magazine 'Little White Lies.' The covers for these magazine are predominantly pop art inspired pieces.

Marketing Research - Poster Analysis

2009-11-20T12:44:00.001-08:00

I have done some research on a suitable film marketing poster relating to our film genre, and story concept, in preparation for the creation of our ancillary texts, exploring their conventions, specialist features and the commonalities between them.

This poster is the iconic 'The Breakfast Club' poster, the story-line of which our idea is partly based on.

The poster features the five main characters, the 'cliques,' against a plain backdrop to emphasize their prominence. So one of the first conventions of a film poster, is it should present some form of character.

A further stand-out characteristic of this poster is the text at the top, which give a vague, but compelling explanation of the story-line.

At the bottom, but in a large, bold font is the film title, with the ironic addition of a logo underneath, emphasizing the idea of a 'club,' when 'The Breakfast Club' is not in actuality a club.

At the bottom is a further typical convention for a poster, which is the credits, which state the cast and crew.

Another convention which has not been represented here would be the release date, or tentative period of release. For a teaser trailer, this would unlikely be exact.

Audio Research - Applying A Suitable Soundtrack

2009-11-18T06:16:00.001-08:00

The trailers soundtrack is another essential element to conveying some form of continuity and different moods that are represented in the trailer.

Through using the apple soundtrack software, we applied several different tracks that are suitable for the light mood at the start, through the point of equilibrium to the point of disturbance, and then bringing the trailer to its tense and ominous climax.

We started the trailer with a slowly developing, slow beat guitar track that created the light mood of daily school life for the different characters that generally tend not to associate with each other.

At the first point of disturbance, when rebel character attacks the geek.

After the attack through to the climax, we applied a lowly orchestral track to convey the sense of panic and struggle, combining this with an electro beat to carry the association with youth.

At the end, before the film title appears, we applied a beat that is synonymous of footsteps, to create the notion of the approaching gunman.

Graphics Research - Putting Titles Together

2009-11-18T02:26:00.000-08:00

Graphic Elements such as titles and credits are essential to a trailer, as they aid the continuity and clarity of the story-line, as well as providing key pieces of information to the audience regarding forthcoming marketing and release. We have included in our trailer:

-Our Production company title.

-Mid trailer titles.

-The film name

-The credits.

Since this is only a teaser trailer, we thought it only essential to provide a tentative idea of release, and not give to much away in this respect, therefore, we only featured the words 'This Summer,' in the trailer. Additionally, we have only given a website as means to finding out more, with no other marketing prospects represented.

We decided to do all of our titles on a black background, to maintain the darker themes of the play.

With regards to font, we discussed and concluded that a sharp and distorted font would not be particularly apt, as they are visually associated with horror films. A softer and more rounded font would be more apt for a film about teenagers in a school setting which is usually a scene of normality, so we chose 'comic sans,' and filled the font with a solid blue. However, to convey the darker themes, we applied an effect which made the font violently vibrate.

We also experimented with the speed of the titles appearance, we decided that to slowly increase the speed of the titles throughout the trailer would convey the intensity of the situations presented, such as the running, and the arguing.

To end the trailer, we coincided the appearance of the films title 'The Way That We Are,' with an iconic sound-effect, the gunshot, to make it clear that this title is a significant title for the audience to remember.

The film title was followed with a minimal amount of film credits to reveal some of the cast, and the films website, but no further details, to match the teaser trailer form.

Rough Cut

2009-11-17T05:59:00.001-08:00

This is beginning to really come together and looks very promising indeed

Good points - soundtrack / dialogue mix; continuity/ montage mix; voiceover will be added which you have already recorded - this will aid clarity

You are aware of what needs to be done -

Tighten up :

some sound issues, particularly where ambient sound is used

editing will be more precise I am sure

Start work on ancillary texts

Questionnaire Feedback

2009-11-12T02:08:00.000-08:00

To find out what our trailer was missing and how we could improve it we devised a questionnaire to hand out around the class, they answered a few short questions after watching the trailer.

Questionnaire

1.) Does the acting affect the quality of the trailer?

2.) Do you think our film could be a success? Why?

3.) What do you think was the best aspect of our trailer?

4.) Do you think the soundtrack complimented the trailer?

5.) Was the trailer long enough? Why?

6.) Did you like the effects used? Why?

7.) Were there a good range of camera shots and angles?

8.) Was the trailer consistent?

9.) Would you go to see the film?

10.) What could be done to improve it?

From these questions we established that the acting was an important aspect of the trailer. The audience felt that the quality of the acting sold the film. The feedback showed that all viewers thought the film would be a success if it was to be release because of the strong story line. The best feature on the trailer was the opening with the individual introduction of the characters. The soundtrack received mixed views showing that music in the middle of the trailer didn't reflect what was happening on screen. The audience found that the trailer was long enough and kept their attention all the way through, also they were impressed with the effects used and it varied the shots. The majority of the audience thought the range of shots were good however some disagreed with the use of some of the long shots, we have planned to adjust this by mixing them in with the close ups. The last amendment that needs to be done are removing some of the fades as it is too much.

Pearl & Dean - Market Research

2009-11-12T01:19:00.000-08:00

We did some research on the Pearl & Dean website, gathering information of audience demographics, in relation to a film of an appropriate genre, similar to our own trailers. We chose the film 'Elephant,' directed by Gus Van Sant and released through 'Optimum.' The narrative is set in a school, and is based around a school shooting, with some elements of developing relationships and overcoming teenage issues, that would be expected of a 'coming of age' genre.

It is notable here that for the comparable profiled, 2003 Michael Moore documentary 'Bowling For Columbine,' more than 70% of the audience was male, and more than 60% of the audience was under 34. This creates some idea of a modern audience identifying with the issues raised in the film.

The BBFC Certificate for the film was a 15, which largely attributes to violence, whereas an 18 certificate would attribute to drug use, as well a graphic sexual scenes.

Comparable Profile
Bowling for Columbine
age gender
4-6 0% male 72%
7-11 0% female 28%
12-14 0% class
15-24 31% AB 59%
25-34 30% C1 28%
35-44 8% C2 7%
45+ 31% DE 6%

Elephant
release date: 30th January 2004
price: D
estimated box office: £1,000,000
genre(s): Drama
director(s): Gus Van Sant
film cast: Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, John Robinson, Matt Malloy
certificate: 15
distributor: Optimum Rel.

Winner of the 2003 Golden Palm and Best Director prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, "ELEPHANT" is a fictionalized account of a Columbine-like shooting spree at a high school in Portland, Oregon. The film was written, directed, and edited by Gus ("FINDING FORRESTER") Van Sant, his first film since "GERRY," released earlier in 2003. The students are all played by local Portland area teens.

Feedback

2009-11-10T04:03:00.000-08:00

Rob/ Anneli/ Tanuja/ Conor

Rough cut looks great - you create a genuine tension

Be interested to see focus group reaction
Anneli/ Tanuja/ Conor
To do
No action from last feedback which means you have stuff to do before next interim report to avoid getting a 2

The Way That we Are - Trailer Rough Cut

2009-11-09T04:41:00.000-08:00

This is the rough cut for our film trailer 'The Way That We Are.' It features a rough cut of the main continuity, where certain elements will be tweaked. It also features transitions, basic titles and a tentative soundtrack, matching with mood and themes.

The current reasoning behind its 1 minute , 40 seconds length is to build the tension from the point of equilibrium, to the point of disturbance, before the trailer climaxes.

The Way That We Are Shooting - Risk Assessment

2009-11-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

This is our devised risk assessment form for our trailer shoot. Since all of our filming was completed in college, there were few risks, as permission was granted and we would be filming during periods where there would be low volumes of students out of lessons.

Feedback

2009-10-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Animatic looks great and your ideas are terrific - look forward to seeing the rough cut
Rob - excellent research
Anneli - good - need to add analysis of Fame trailer
Tanuja - very good work on researching a campaign in your exercise book needs to be uploaded on to blog - I know you have done it but the moderator will want to see evidence here
Conor - Target was to upload research by interim report - nothing here?

Planning documentation needed - see list at
http://reigatea2media.blogspot.com/
Especially risk assessment
These need to be uploaded by 6th Nov

Trailer Scenes Script

2009-10-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

We wrote a script for the dialogue that would be in the scenes of the film featured in the trailer. This is mostly based around the exchanges between the four main characters trapped in the college.

The Way That We Are - Storyboard Analysis

2009-10-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

The Way That We Are - Storyboards

View more presentations from reigatemedia.

Coming Of Age Genre - Timeline

2009-10-16T09:01:00.001-07:00

This is my timeline based on our chosen genre of 'Coming Of Age.' It reflects films we are using as a basis for our ideas.

Poster Concept

2009-10-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

For our poster, we could take a photograph of this shot from the end of 'The Way That We Are' trailer. This features the three characters sitting against the wall, two to each side of the classroom door, with the silhouette of a man that we suppose is the gunman behind. We could add a tag-line such as 'This is the way we are' into the poster, and a release date. Also featured could be the production company logos.

The Way That we Are - Animatic StoryBoard

2009-10-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

This is our Animatic Storyboard for our trailer sequence.

Feedback

2009-10-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

Robert - great research- could you add poster analysis
Anneli - good - add more detail: teaser trailer/ poster analysis
Tanuja/ Conor - upload work on campaigns

How was Sorority Row marketed?

2009-10-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

Sorority Row was released September 2009 and distributed by Summit Entertainment and E1 Entertainment. The film had a budget of $12'500'500 and has gross revenue $14,871,421. Sorority Row was based on the slasher horror " The House on Sorority Row"1983.
The feedback of the film was very double sided as some thought the film was a sucess and others saw it as a bad remake with the plot and storyline very obvious.
An offical Movie Site was set up for fans and poasters and cuts outs where around cinemas and theatres around the time of release.
The cast wern't every well known but Briana Evigan-" Step Up 2: The Streets", Leah Pipes from Disney's-"Pixel Perfect" and Rumer Willis- "The House Bunny" 2008 also the daughter of Blockbuster Movie stars Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.
Sorority Row entered pre-production in January 2008. Principle Photography began on October 16, 2008 in the Pittsburgh area. Although set in Anytown, producers of the film wanted to take advantage of Pennsylvania state tax credits and the strength of local film crews. The film was mostly shot at night in Munhall, one block from the Carnegie Library of Homestead, where about 10 houses were dressed to resemble a sorority row.

Sorority Row 2009

2009-10-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Sorority Row is the teen horror about a group of sorority girls of Theta Pi that play a prank that goes wrong. The first shot of the trailer is introducing the scenery of it being a university sorority house and showing how teen life is there it being, the opposite sex, alcohol and parties.

The film scene is set at a Theta Pi Party where the sorority girls have decided to play a prank on a cheating boyfriend Garrett, they are out for revenge to scare him into thinking Megan's dead. The Sorority girls take Megan's body to a mine shaft with Garrett who still thinks Megan is dead. Panic strikes when Garrett notices that Megan is breathing and in shock and panic he stabs her with a tire iron and all is revealed that Megan is now really dead and the girls begin to have to think how to get rid of the body, They result in throwing the corpse down a well with the murder weapon.

Graduation Day approaches and the girls are still living with the secret but know the group appear to be split with one of the girls staying to herself as she didn't agree with keeping Megan's death a secret. The sorority Girls start to receive Picture messages of the tire iron that was used to kill Megan and begin to think was Megan actually alive and was she seeking revenge on all of them.

Coming Of Age - Trailer Research

2009-10-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

For our project we have decided to make a 'Coming Of Age' teaser trailer. A 'Coming Of Age' film explores the transition from childhood to adulthood and generally contains a young adult cast. Famous examples of this genre are; The Breakfast Club, American Pie, Bring It On and Clueless.

In order to find out more about how films are marketed i researched the new re-make of the film 'Fame', directed by Kevin Tancharoen and produced by Lakeshore Entertainment Group. It uses mediums such as iTunes and YouTube to show teaser and theatrical trailers. This starts to generate word of mouth as people start talking about the film, consequently its popularity begins to grow. There are also HTML embedding codes where people can paste them onto their Facebook or Myspace profiles which makes the trailer more widespread. Then, trailers and adverts get released to television, radio and newspaper.

Merchandising includes the film soundtrack, competitions and a variety of photographs and posters available to buy.

Fame was released in Cinema's on September 25th 2009.

Fame Teaser Trailer

The trailer begins with a girl sitting playing a piano and singing at the same time, establishing the genre of the film within the first couple of seconds. It slowly builds up speed as it reveals more about the film. The trailer is approximately a minute long which is effective as it gives the audience a taste of what the film is like but doesn't give away too much. It successfully lures audiences to go and watch the film.

The Coming Of Age Genre - Research And Understanding

2009-10-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

In preparation for this project, and having made the decision to commit to a Coming Of Age Film. We had to research this genre to get a better understanding of the types of characteristics they usually hold.

In initial reflection, I would classify 'Coming Of Age' films as those featuring a cast largely of young adults, and which are based around a singular event which those characters together experience, and which affects their growth into adulthood.

Famous examples of these types of film are:

The Breakfast Club - Directed by John Hughes, a pioneer of the genre and arguably his most famous production, it features five high school 'cliques' who are brought together during a saturday detention, and struggle to coexist together.

The Virgin Suicides - Adapted from the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, and directed by Sofia Coppola, it is narrated by a group of teenage boys, who become fascinated by a group of five beautiful sisters who live in the local neighbourhood, and their eventual suicides.

American Pie - Directed by Chris Weitz before the turn of the century, it centres around a group of american high school boys, who make a pact to lose their virginities before they graduate from high school.

With the aim of discovering more about how such films are marketed in the modern film industry, I decided to research an upcoming 'Coming Of Age' film, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore: Whip-It.

Whip-It Synopsis: Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) stars as a teenager whose mother (Marcia-Gay Harden) aspires for her to excel in beauty pagents, frustrated by this, Bliss decides to join a roller derby.

The films initial trailer was released onto I-Tunes, and later uploaded to You Tube. In this it could be embedded and circulates through social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space (Word Of Mouth).

An online interactive website was created, based within foxsearchlight.com, featuring competitions, the trailer, and photographs.

Merchandising followed with a competition to win t-shirts and the soundtrack is available on I-Tunes. Posters are also available to buy on e-bay.

A fact about the movie that would help drive word of mouth is that the film is Drew Barrymores directorial debut.

Whip-It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 13th 2009.

Whip-It Poster

http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/08/26/whip-it-poster.jpg

New Project - Teaser Trailer - Coming Of Age / Thriller

2009-10-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

The students of Ridgedale High go about their regular activities of bullying, drugtaking, slacking, sports and studies. Little do they know, a disgruntled 15 year old middle class boy has chosen this day, October 2nd 2009, to send a message to the world and change the lives of his classmates forever, and four unlikely and different high school cliques: a geek, a jock, a plastic and a rebel; must come together to protect each other and emerge from the chaos with a new perspective.