MEDIA LANGUAGE
At A2, I made the promotional package for a new film called 'RISK'. This comprised a trailer, a film poster and film magazine cover.
My trailer for 'RISK' introduced a dramatic psychological thriller in which a group of students take part in a risky medical trial which subjects them to mind-altering substances injected into their blood stream, designed to test the science behind min-control. The young people find themselves swept into dangerous behaviors that verge on the criminal (including murder), exposing themselves to involuntary self-destruction when their when their doctor find them expendable (such as stepping into oncoming traffic)
Trailers, as a genre, have a set of conventions such as inter-titles, ellipsis,
motivated edits and fast paced editing with hard cuts (which I will
discus when I write about editing), focus on the protagonist (to
establish key players for audiences who need to pick up very quickly the
bare bones of the narrative); tracking shots to link narrative
sequences; emotive sound that establishes mood and anchors visuals; text
that offers key information (release dates, stars , directors,
institutional information, 'puffs' ) and overall should generate a sense
of anticipation, drama and excitement.
Our production is part of a promotional package that includes a film poster and a film magazine cover, both of which have their own visual language and sets of print conventions regarding layout, framing, typography, colour, font sizes, 'house' style (for magazines), bar codes, dates & prices, QR code, billing block (posters), social media & website links (posters). The most over-arching important part of media 'language', however, is that the promo pack as a whole delivers a cohesive, integrated visual package that creates a visual synergy in making the production (the film) memorable
- Camera work
Camera movement, angle and shot types
Topic sentence: All our camera work was designed to serve the overall aim of the production, which is to generate intense interest in the trailer as a means of persuading audiences to see the film itself. One of our most effective sequences uses a drone cam to take the audience from the apparent safety of the mediacal centre to the wild woods where the murder victim will be entrapped. the sets are therefore visual symbols. The murder victim is clearly beyond hep as the students have moved beyond the law. Similar to this, there is a POV shot from inside the car that is coming upto one of the students as if they are going to get ran over which is part of their risks involve with the trial. This relates to my poster which involves the car in my poster so therefore, people who see my promotional package on the film will be able to link the two together.
- Mise-en-scene
If audiences have seen 'Ghost in the shell' they will be familiar with the disconcerting use of neon colours and electronic visual codes to suggest danger, as I do in our film as well on both my film poster and magazine which involves bright neon colours of purple in the background
- Sound
In common with most trailers, there is highly selective diegetic sound and few uses made of dialogue as the genre requires maximum impact with minimal information, thus a great deal of information is conveyed visually through action codes and through non-diegetic sounds that sets the emotional temperature, building up to a climax which is compelling enough to drive audiences into cinemas. In RISK, the voiceover in the establishing shot is dialogue in which the doctor addresses the guinea pigs: "Welcome to the trial" and shortly after "Are you ready to take the risk?" The word "RISK" is reiterated throughout the trailer as well as on the poster and magazine cover as it is the film title and emphasis the thriller genre. The sound track build tension throughout both by the use of increasingly fast and tense percussive beats and, very importantly in our film work, electronic 'noises' that signify the way that the students brain waves are being controlled. the visual representation of thse 'noises' is also key: visuals that look like glitches or electronic static, represented by distorted lines and neon colours that create a sense of disorientation for the audience and herald the dangerous finale of the trial that drives them to commit murder. This links with editing, where at this point in the trailer is fast-paced with a series of rapid hard cuts, using specific types of camera angles such as CU's (Close up) of a long blade hidden behind the back of one of the students approaching a screaming girl who has been boxed into a corner by the group. This creates unbearable tension for the audience, leaving them on the edge of their seats in anticipation. Unlike conventional Hollywood editing, a trailer should not move smoothy through the narrative explaining every detail, but through ellipsis, it should sketch the narrative arc and leave enough enigma to draw audiences into the cinema.
- Editing
Our inter-titles function as cues to guide the audience through the narrative. Specifically, in RISK the inter-titles provide key narrative anchors about the protagonists and the jeopardy that they face, which increases by the second during out 2-minute trailer, ratcheting up the tension and suspense. For example, the text "Three test students" is inter-cut with "That take the risk" leading into a series of messages that pop up on their phone saying "Will you take the risk?" where it follows into saying "Only one can be cured" with an immediate shift of mese-en-scene from a medical facility to a drone shot of woodland and culminating in a title saying "From the producers of Focus" is a distraction tactic that inspires audiences by building a relationship with them (Blumler and Katz, uses and gratification model of audience behaviour).
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