Audience research survey results and analysis

Audience Research Survey Feedback Presentation 2

Teaser Trailer information

Students in group	Camera operator: Joel Gordon Actors: Brandon, Terrell and Malika Producer: Joel Gordon Director: Pablo Ortiz Editor: Pablo Ortiz and Joel Gordon Researchers: Pablo Ortiz Storyboard creator: Pablo Ortiz Screenwriter: Joel Gordon
Title of film	The Wall
Genre:	Thriller
Synopsis	Two best friends looking for a thrill to end the school year so they join a gang and get more that what they bargained for when things go down hill
Genre conventions	Chasing sequence Wide shots and implications of violence
Target audience	Young adults 15-25
Location(s)	Estate near Clapham Junction
Props and costumes	Hoodies, Gloves, School uniform and casual attire

Finished Storyboard

 

We decided to add a lot of detailed information for each shot (e.g shot angle, lighting, shot duration and audio) because we realised that when we start shooting, this will help each shot to be more focused and organised. For example we know that the first shot will be a high angle shot which will last for 10 seconds with digetic dialogue. However even though each shot is organised we will still experiment with different shot angles because what i learned from my AS course last year is that the more variety shot angles you have the more creative you can be during the editing process.

While creating my storyboard I came across this teaser trailer for The Master which is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson starring Joaquin Phoenix. The second half of this teaser trailer which shows an on going interview between a police officer and Joaquin Phoenix's character hooked my interest in the film for the following days due to the engimatic atmosphere that it created by not revealing too much of the storyline. This inspired and helped me to create my storyboard , I realised that the key to creating a successful teaser trailer is to keep the audience wanting more information about the film by only revealing an interesting part of the film or storyline.

Marvel Avengers Assemble teaser trailer analysis

This is the teaser trailer for Marvels Avengers Assemble directed by Joss Whedon starring Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. This teaser trailer begins with a V.O and an establishing shot of New York followed by some panning shots across the windows of a variety of buildings, the transitions in between shots are fast and wide shots are used to showcase the exploding cars. This creates a chaotic atmosphere, once the V.O ends the soundtrack begins in the background, the transitions in between shots are slower in order to concentrate on the characters and this last for 30-40 seconds. The soundtrack gets louder as the transitions in between scenes get faster creating some momentum, the teaser trailer then ends with the soundtrack fading into the background.

Special effects like exploding cars are used to create a chaotic atmosphere because the target audience are interested with action scenes and this chaotic atmosphere present in the trailer suggests that there are going to be a lot of action scenes throughout the film. This helps to create excitement and a buzz amongst the target audience.

Even though when creating my teaser trailer I won't have the budget big enough to have some of the effects present in this trailer, I think some of the shot angles used were interesting for example the wide shots used because they perfectly showcased the cars exploding. I will definitely incorporate some wide shots in my teaser trailer.

Story pattern for our teaser trailer

In todays lesson we discussed different trailer patterns to use which included Character-driven  (This trailer pattern focuses on the main characters), Plot-driven ( this pattern focuses on the plot throughout the trailer), Trigger-event ( this pattern focuses on the element that changes and theme-centered trailers which focuses on the films theme throughout the trailer.

In my group we decided that we're going to use the character-driven trailer pattern along with plot-driven pattern because in order to make our storyline's twist impactful on the audience we have to spend time on the character development. However one disadvantage with using the character-driven pattern trailer is that if the dialogue isn't engaging enough this could bore the audience. So in order to avoid the audience from losing interest while watching our trailer because of the heavy amount of dialogue we decided that we're also going to use the plot driven pattern because this way it will allow the trailer to gain some momentum while keeping the audiences attention. An example of both these patterns being used in a trailer successfully can be seen in the trailer for the film 'Sightseers' which can be seen below:

Roughly 40-50 seconds of the trailer is a V.O used to introduce both the main characters with some insight into how they behave. However before the audience can sum up the film's storyline a twist is introduced in which a murder takes place which gets the audience of guard, the rest of the trailer focuses on the film's plot.  In my opinion this trailer demonstartes how if used effectively both the character driven and plot driven trailer patterns can compliment each other well resulting in keeping the audience interested on the edge of their seats wanting more.This is why we have decided as a group that we want to emulate this style when making our teaser trailer.  

Skyfall poster analysis

The composition of the Skyfall poster see's the main protaganist, Daniel Craig, alone in the centre suggesting that the narrative may concentrate purely in him rather then other character reinforcing his importance to the story. The use of props like the gun suggest that the film will contain some violence, this also suggests that this film poster has decieded to conform to the conventions seen in action film posters. Daniel Craig is wearing a blue suit which contrasts against the white and black background, this helps him to stand out showing how props have been used to reinforce his importance in the film.

What I noticed about this film poster that surprised me is the level of simplicity because it doesn't reveal too much which adds to the mystery around this bond film. The dark background suggests that this bond will be much more darker and serious which is reinforced by the serious expression and gaze on Daniel Craig's face.

I've learnt that by not revealing a lot in the film poster it can engage the audience because it remains an enigma to them which encourages them to watch the trailer to learn more about the film. This shows that by using this method of not revealing alot in the poster it can hook the audience into watching the trailer which makes it a successful poster.   

The Hunger Games teaser trailer analysis

This is the teaser trailer for the film The hunger games directed by Gary Ross starring Jennifer Larence. This teaser trailer begins with a variation of wide shots of a forest that transition slowly for 15 seconds, suddenly the female protaganist appears holding a bow and arrow looking around the forest. The soundtrack is slowly beginning to play in the background. After an extreme close up focused on the eyes of the female protaganists a V.O begins of male character talking to the female protaganist reasuring her that she will survive, the soundtrack begins to get louder and the transitions in between shots become quicker, this successfully creates momentum in the teaser trailer which engages the audience. The teaser trailer ends with the film title being shown against the logo on the film which is set on fire suggesting that there will be some violence in the film.

This teaser trailer has shown me that by switching up the speed of the transitions in between shots from slow in the beginning of the teaser to fast near the very end, it can create some momentum in the trailer that will help to engage an audience. I've also learnt that by having a V.O in the teaser trailer it can help to raise questions in the audiences mind which will increase their interest in the film because the storyline has been left as an enigma for them until they watch the film.  

Taken 2 poster analysis

The composition of the Taken 2 poster sees the main protagonist, Liam Neeson, alone on the left side. This suggest that the narrative may concentrate purely on him rather then other characters reinforcing his importance to the story. The use of props like the gun for example suggests that violence will be present in the film which is a convention of the action movie genre. This suggests that this poster has decided to conform to the conventions seen in action movie posters. The tagline 'First they took his daughter now they're coming for him' increases the element of mystery within the poster because for those who are not familiar with the first Taken, the tagline will raise questions in their minds like 'why did they take his daughter and why are they coming for him?'. This increases the level of interest in the film before it comes out demonstrating how ,if used correctly, a tagline can hook the attention of the audience by raising questions about the film in their minds .The black clothes Liam Neeson's character is wearing makes it easier for him to stand out because theres a contrast between the black clothes and the grey background showing how props have been used to reinforce Liam Neeson's significance in the film.

Analysis of Tron magazine cover

This issue of Empire magazine is promoting the film Tron legacy released by Disney Walt Pictures.Olivia Wilde is featured on the front of the cover gazing straight at the reader; this technique is used to attract the attention of a casual reader by making eye contact. Olivia Wilde's blue eyes have been emphasized with the light blue background to focus all of the attention towards her eyes to insure that eye contact is made. This technique is very effective and I intend to emulate this in my magazine cover. Olivia Wilde has starred in many mainstream movies including Year One and Alpha Dog; through these movies along with many tv appearances (e.g The OC) she has built a fan base. Empire has decided to place her on the front cover to attract her fan base and reach out to many casual readers who aren't familiar with Empire.

The iconic Empire masthead remains the same bright red colour along with the font  demonstrating that this magazine cover hasn't broken any of its own conventions.

Our survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BRVXDH6 Click here to take survey

Survey questions and why they were chosen

1. What was the last teaser trailer you saw?The reason why we have chosen the question above is because it can give us an idea of what current teaser trailers look like and what genres they are and this can help us to decide what genre our teaser can be and how to structure it so that it seems like a real teaser edited by a professional.
2. Will you or did you watch the film after seeing the trailer? The point of this question is to find out if the teaser had an effect on the viewer and what we can add or take away from ours to improve it and make it worth watching.
3. Did you ever feel like a trailer deceived you after watching the film? The point of this question is make sure that our trailer can be as good as the film and not only show the two or three main parts in the film.
4. What film genres do you enjoy?This is to give us an idea of what genres the age group which our film enjoy and how to make it appealing to them
5. How do you watch trailers?This gives us and idea of where which should show the public our teaser  e.g. if most people answered YouTube we would try to advertise it as much as possible on that website.
6. How often do you search the web for trailers? This question is to help us make sure that our teaser is available to public when they are looking for a new film to watch or just looking.
7. What is your favorite film? This also helps to know how we should structure our teaser and how the films chosen teasers were put together.
8. Did you see the trailer? This question is only to help us find out if people actually watch films because of the trailer or because of something they heard.
9. What do you expect to see in a trailer for a film with a thriller genre? This is to give use and idea of what to include in the teaser so that it is eye catching and worth taking up 2 minutes of the viewers lives.
10. How many movie trailers do you see on TV?  This gives us an idea of how many times the teaser trailer should be shown so that it sticks.

Analysis of The Dark Knight Rises Empire cover

This is the Empire cover of The Dark Knight Rises, the composition see's one of the main characters ,Bain, in the middle of the cover reinforcing his importance in the film. The white font used in the bottom left corner to spell out 'The Dark Knight Rises' holds some significance because it helps to immediately capture the interest of a casual magazine reader because due to the black background of the cover the white title instantly stands out.        

Batman Dark Knight Rises Teaser trailer analysis

98274731 in Depth Analysis of the Dark Knight Rises

Ill manors film poster

This film poster is for ill manors, the composition of this film poster sees the film's main protagonist, in the center which suggests that the narrative may concentrate purely on him , reinforcing his importance to the story.. The gun being held by the protagonist demonstrates that this poster uses conventions of a thriller poster because by showing the gun it suggests that the film will have some violent content which demonstrates the genre of the movie,which is a thriller. The clothes that the main character is wearing suggests that this film will revolve around teenagers e.g the hat that the character is wearing is synonymous with teenagers and the trouble they face which is reinforced by the gun.

Our storyboard

We wanted to have clear idea of how long each shot was going to last , so we numbered each shot and then added the details on another sheet. For example for the last shot number 8 we described the type of shot. 

  

We added some dialogue to create some character deveopment however the dialogue might change when we create our script.

My Moodboard

These images above capture the different moods and attitudes that I want to portray in my teaser trailer. For example the first image showing four teenagers in hoodies conceiling their faces holding weapons, has a dark and negative atmosphere in contrast to the five teenagers smiling in the next picture . The Gif signifies the chase scene in my teaser trailer along with the hand-held camera technique we are going to use.

Importance of our surveys

last lesson we analysed our survey questions and dicussed which questions we had to change, in
order to learn more information on our target audience, e.g their likes , dislikes and hobbies. So along with my group we came up with more focused and detailed questions like 'what are your aspirations?' and 'do you think using sterotypes in a film is a good idea and if so why?'. I found this lesson very useful because it helped me understand the significance of our survey, and how by making our survey successful we can gain detailed information about our target audience , which we can use to mold our main characters to make them more relatable.

Adulthood poster analyses

This film poster is for Adulthood , the composition of this film poster sees the film's main protagonist, sam, in the center surrounded by the other characters.This suggests that the narrative may concentrate purely on him rather then the other characters shown surrounding him in the poster. The central location also reinforces his importance to the story. The baseball bat next to the protagonist ,sam, suggests that the film will have some violent content which demonstrates the genre of the movie,which is a thriller. The baseball bat also demonstrates that this poster uses conventions of a thriller poster.The clothes that the main character is wearing suggests that this film will revolve around the struggles that teenagers face which is reinforced by the other characters surrounding sam.

By analysing this poster I learnt that by using a simple prop ,like the baseball bat, it can help to demonstrate the genre of the film. I also learnt that , the type of clothes that the characters are wearing in the film poster, will reflect which social class is being represented in the film. This will be useful in the future,when I start creating my own film poster because now I know what techniques I can use to demonstrate the genre of my film along with what type social class will be represented in it.

Development of our main characters

During my last lesson we dicussed collective identity and how the word identity can cover many aspects of an individual, for example we discussed how the details within our passports can identify us as an individual.
This lesson was very effective because it made me think about how I want to present the main characters, for example during the lesson I learnt that clothes can be used to identify a specific type of social group ( e.g the majority of teenagers are associated with hoodies) so after the lesson I started thinking about what type clothes the main characters will wear and what type of identity they may have when wearing these clothes. I also started to think about our main characters gender, ethnicity and occupation. After discussing with my group we decided to make both the main characters white british males because stereotypically men are seen as strong and physical and we are filming in london ( which is why they are british) , violence is present in our plot so it made the most sense to make them male. We decided to make them both students who are 17 because around this age sterotypically teenagers are confused about life which is the message that we are trying to convey in our teaser trailer. Finally we also decided to make them dress smartly because that will present them as normal students which is the look that we\want to project.

Reaction to our film pitch

Last week we presented our film pitch in front of our class , our logline was very successful in capturing their attention and they understood the plot of our teaser trailer when we explained it in more detail, which implies that we succeeded in making our plot simple and therefore easy to understand. This is one of the benefits that we received after doing our film pitch , we also benefited from the questions that were being asked by our classmates, because I noticed that they were very interested in the main characters and how they're going to be presented differently when compared to similar characters in similar films like Adulthood and Bulletboy. This therefore reminded me that in order for our plot and main characters to be presented effectively, our group has to put a lot of thought into how we can make our main characters original and charismatic.

Our Film Pitch

Title:  Against the wall.
Genre: Thriller.
Time period: Contemporary.
Location: UK, London.
Budget: Low to medium.
Target market/Demographic: Young males and females aged 18-25.

LOGLINE:
London, two friends are fascinated by the street life and the adrenline that they get from it however they underestimate how much risk they are placing on their lives,  until one night when they accidently kill the leader of their gang's little brother.

TREATMENT:
In South London two naive male friends from a high class background get bored with their perfect lives , so in search of a trill away from their overprotective parents , they end up hanging around with the wrong people and end up joining a gang. The two friends are fascinated by the street life and the adrenline that they get from it however they underestimate how much risk they are placing on their lives,  until one night when they accidently kill the leader of their gang's little brother. The two friends decide to leave the gang behind but are not allowed to leave by the leader who is determined to find his brother's murderer. The two friends leave anyway and never come back which raises the suspicions of the leader resulting in the two friends getting hunted down leading to a cat and mouse chase between the leader and his gang and the two friends, now the question is will they find a solution to their problem ? or will they run out of places to hide ?.

New idea

Within my group we decided to change the idea for our teaser trailer because we agreed that our original ideas were too ambitious and unrealistic , which is why our new idea is simple and not too complex. Filming will take place in different parts of London and our plot is the following ; In South London two naive male friends from a high class background get bored with their perfect lives , so in search of a trill away from their overprotective parents , they end up hanging around with the wrong people and end up joining a gang. However they underestimate how much risk they are placing on their lives, until one night when they ,by accident, kill the leader of their gang's little brother.  The two friends decide to leave the gang behind but are not allowed to leave by the leader who is determined to find his brother's murderer. The two friends leave anyway and never come back which raises the suspicions of the leader resulting in the two friends getting hunted down leading to a cat and mouse chase between the leader and his gang and the two friends, now the question is will they find a solution to their problem ? or will they run out of places to hide ?. 

Feedback on my initial ideas

last lesson I received some feedback on my initial ideas , one of my class mates said that i should shoot most of the shots using the hand-held camera technique. I really like this idea because it helps to capture the audiences attention, I decided to watch how this technique has been used in past films like 'Cloverfield' and 'Rec'. My teacher also gave me some feedback and said that I should wake up early to go and shoot the scenes during the holidays which is also a good idea which i will consider taking on board.

Feedback on Questionnaire Questions

During my last lesson i received some feedback from my class mates , on how effective my questions were and what i could do to make those same questions better. For example one of my class mates said that a specific set of questions were placed in the wrong order, and that by correcting the order of these questions, it wouldn't confuse the person filling out the questionnaire which is always a plus so i instantly changed the order of that set of questions. Another class mate suggested that i should make the questions less vague and more specific in order to get more detailed answers, i also took the advice on board and gave the questions a bit of depth. There are many other things that i have embraced from the feedback which made me change my questionnaire in order to make it better.  

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo teaser trailer

 

This is the teaser trailer for the film Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara directed by David Flincher. This teaser trailer is fast paced throughout ,due to the fast transitions between shots , allowing the trailer to gain momentum until the last shot in which we see the camera zooming into a white house which emphasises the importance of that scene with the house. The soundtrack plays in the background throughout the trailer giving the following shots an atmospheric feel , which helps to gain the attention of the audience. There are also many shots of Daniel Craig which also helps to get the audiences attention because he is a well known actor of high status. This teaser trailer in my opinion has done a great job in teasing the audience therefore making it a successful teaser trailer.

Draft Questionnaire Questions

Trailers 

How old are you?

Are you Male or Female?

How many trailers do you view in the following? (You may tick the box more the once according to your answer) 

                                        Per week                          Per month                           Per year

Cinema
Online
On Television

What trailer have you seen recently?

Has it made you want to go see that film?

What about the trailer made you watch the film?

What do you look for in a trailer?

Magazines:

Have you ever purchased a film magazine?

What about that magazine made you purchase it?What do you look for in a film magazine?

Posters

Has a film poster ever got you interested in watching a film?

If you answered yes , what about that Film poster caught your attention?

Skyfall teaser trailer

This teaser trailer for the new James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig directed by Sam Mendes, opens with an establishing shot of London slowly zooming in, with the V.O of a character saying a list of words, this continues for 30 seconds and then stops with a mid shot of Daniel Craig. 41 seconds into the trailer the soundtrack (powerful drums) starts playing in the background while fast transitions in between shots take place, this results in making the teaser trailer now more atmospheric and more fast paced which helps the trailer to gain momentum. The following shots show some of the special effects along with one close up shot of Daniel Craig which emphasises his importance and impact on the film. Then before the trailer ends there's a low angle shot of a character ,who's face is concealed which gives his character the element of mystery, the title of the film is then revealed with a different type of beat giving the end of the teaser trailer added mystery. 

What teaser trailers may contain

yesterday I conducted some research on the conventions of teaser trailers (along with watching a lot of teaser trailers), after my research I noticed that teaser trailers may tend to contain the main actor(s) in order to create a buzz to get people interested in the film. I've also noticed that teaser trailers tend to contain the minimum amount of footage from the film , so it just teases audiences, and the pace usually is fast or starts slow and picks up. From what I have researched this technique of making the trailer slow and then making it gain some momentum, is used because it helps to gain the interest of audiences. All of the above is shown in the teaser trailer below for the movie Hunger Games starring Katniss Everdeen. The link is below.

Early Initial Ideas

I was sitting on the bus (on my way home from sixth form) when I noticed a man in his late 30's, with long grey hair, wearing dark coloured clothes , reading a book on photography. In my opinion at the time this gave him an element of mystery and presence, which made me realise that when used properly, props can make any type of character seem mysterious which helps to capture the audiences attention and therefore this gave me the idea of the type of character that I want to surround my trailer around. An example of props being used to give characters the element of mystery is shown in the video below, the following is a scene from the film Collateral starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox.