REPRESENTATION IN 'ROCKY BALBOA' TRAILER

The primary target audience is male but will prominently be middle-aged men as the whole storyline is centered around the personal battle of Rocky having to face up to being perceived as 'too old'. Sport action movies generally appeal to younger audiences and this one is more realistic than previous film's where Rocky fights against much weaker opponents.

The narrative follows the clash between hero Rocky and the younger, fitter champion Mason Dixon. This new vs. old generation (Dixon and Rocky are seen below) story adds an emphasis on targeting middle-aged men; specifically those who feel they are getting older and want to relate to those in similar people. Those who have previously watched the Rocky films will feel that they have a connection with the trilogy and may therefore watch the film regardless of how good it is.

The trailer begins by highlighting the dominance of Dixon over Rocky, especially in the physical department where he is shown beating everything that comes before him in the ring. However, as the trailer goes on and Rocky begins to train more, action shots become more prominent, showing the new found power of Balboa. This hints that he may give Dixon more of a fight than first believed. Dixon is shown to be the 'big thing' a contrast to Rocky who is now old and past his physical peak.

EDGAR WRIGHT

Edgar Wright started his career by directing many short films throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. His first two camera's came through a gift and winning a competition on the television programme 'Going Live'. In the early 90s, Wright received an ND in Audio-Visual Design at the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art.

His first feature film debuted in 1994 with the low budget, "independent spoof western", 'A Fistful of Fingers', appearing for a limited time in theatres and on Sky Movies. The film caught the attention of comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams, now well known for their work on 'Little Britain' and 'Come Fly With Me'. He eventually directed the sketch show 'Mash and Peas' written by and starring both Lucas and Williams. During this time he also worked on many BBC productions and

Wright went on to direct TV series Spaced in 1998 and this was his major breakthrough in TV and this eventually led onto film successes including 'Shaun of the Dead' and more recently 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World' which despite not being a box office success, received great acclaim from some critics.

In response to whether the box office failure had a knock on effect on the way he approached movies afterwards Wright responded, "Not really because it was very critically well received. The only thing that would annoy me about it is that people would equate box office with reviews as the same thing."



The clip seen above is taken from the film 'Evil Dead 2', directed by Sam Raimi in 1987, the man who inspired Edgar Wright to pursue a filmmaking career. Wright did a feature article on his idol just last year appearing on 'The Skinny' (click for a link to the article) website.

Wright remembers watching Evil Dead 2 and thinking 'Wow, I didn’t know you could make a film like this!' referring to the culmination of genres the film displayed from horror to comedy. I wonder why most of Edgar Wrights films feature a mix of genres too? (Comedy, horror, sci-fi to name a few)



The film 'Shaun of the Dead' is arguably Wright's biggest success to date and features a very similar filming style to Sam Raimi, showing quick cut editing and what has been called a frantic-zoom style. (see both clips above)

Edgar Wright has inspired me through his skill of combining a mix of genres to create such successful films. I will try and replicate his use of quick-cut editing to add fast movement to my film trailer and this technique should allow me to expand on the variety of camera shots I can use to appeal to the audience.

ANALYSIS OF 'SHAUN OF THE DEAD' TRAILER

Shaun of the Dead is a zombie rom-com film directed by Edgar Wright and stars the popular duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It came out in 2004 and with great acclaim, it was nominated for a BAFTA and received highly respectable reviews on sites like 'Rotten Tomatoes' and 'Metacritic'. Simon Pegg plays 'Shaun' the man who is trying to sort out his life and relationship with his mother, girl-friend and stepfather along with handling a zombie apocalypse. It is still to date one of my favourite films.

The use of codes and conventions is seen immediately in the trailer as we see the logo for 'Universal studios' pop up. This indicates that the film has been backed by a well established and respected studio and therefore that the film is more likely to be a professional effort and hopefully of a high calibre. 

The voiceover is a British man introducing the concept of the film, stated on various posters (like above), and this is intercut with the news announcers that are speaking in the trailer as well. The concept of the zombie apocalypse set in the contemporary Britain of 2004. The audience has a grasp of what the film is about in the first 20 seconds. The music contrasts to the serious beginning of the trailer and hints at the comedic tone that the film will develop. A juxtaposition can be seen. It is playful and upbeat which contrasts to the unattractive features and sluggish movements of the zombies.

In the film itself the atmospheric music ('The Blue Wrath' by I Monster) is heavily inspired by the music heard in John Carpenter’s films, most noticeably Ennio Morricone's music for 'The Thing' (1982). Despite the jaunty tone of the majority of the trailer, the film itself does play with more atmospheric sounds, abiding with the dark and suspenseful conventions of the horror genre.



The film title is seen at the end of the trailer and this is done in the hope that the audiences' attention would have been captured and that they would be intrigued to know what the film is called. It is a very bold and dark film title that doesn't really display the comedy value in the film itself but rather the zombie features in the film.

There is no use of social media in the trailer as sites like Twitter and Facebook were very new in 2004 or hadn't even been created (Twitter, 2006). Despite this, the film was still very popular and now generates more interest through the development of the web and social media sites. Occasionally, Edgar Wright will tweet references to the film and this encourages his followers to watch Shaun of the Dead.

The main characters are shown to give the audience an idea of who is featuring and to boost the interest in the film. Actors like Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (seen below in the film trailer) are associated with comedy films and TV series and this allows the trailer to show the serious side as well as the comedy. There are few women seen in the film trailer and this could be because the target audience for the film has been identified as a male, 15-40 and middle class type of audience. This audience can relate to Shaun and his struggles and this makes it more appealing to go and watch the film.

The time length of the trailer is 1 minute and 40 seconds. This is the perfect amount of time as it doesn't give much away but introduces the concept and some of the good clips in the film in order to appeal to the wide audience. Arguably, film trailers can give too much away, relying on showing their punchlines to attract an audience. But from watching the film it is clear that Edgar Wright and the producers were not overly concerned about 

No name captions are seen as well and this could be because the actors in the film were not as popular as they are now and the use of name captions was not seen as often as it is now. This could be from the increase in consumers of film over time and increase in 'fanboys' through social media pages etc.

No release date is shown but 'Coming Soon' is displayed at the end of the trailer to build the hype and intrigue the viewers as to when it comes out.

It is clear the genre features horror and comedy and this is through the use of the main characters (above), several funny clips and the zombies shown. It is not clear that romance is a sub genre as we only see a few seconds of Shaun and Liz in the same frame.

Edgar Wright, the director, uses a very choppy filming approach in his films and this is to create fast and sharp movements in the film, it speeds up the continuity and grabs the attention of the audience. Here is an example of a typical Edgar Wright filming style from the film (not the trailer).

For more on his style, see my post on Edgar Wright.



In the trailer the speed of editing is faster than the content in the actual film and this is because there is a montage of clips seen in the trailer and flashes of as much as possible. The film producers want to entice the audience into going to see the film and appeal to as many people as possible, this results in a culmination of popular clips and less focus on the narrative.

I feel that the trailer is more effective in making me want to see the film as it elaborates on the concept and has some funny moments that foreshadow more funny moments to be seen in the film.

I would expect to see this trailer in the breaks of TV programmes on channels like Dave, E4 and Channel 4 as their audiences are similar to who would be interested in Shaun of the Dead. In addition, the TV series 'Spaced' that starred a whole host of the actors in Shaun of the Dead, also directed by Edgar Wright, aired on Channel 4 and so this audience will obviously be interested in a similar production. In fact, almost every actor from 'Spaced' has a part in the film. On top of this, Film 4 provided some of the funding to cover the production costs of the film.

Click here to watch the trailer for 'Shaun of the Dead'

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF FILM TRAILERS

PRODUCTION COMPANIES LOGO

- Symbolises the budget of the film and who has made it (i.e. if it is Warner Bros it is likely to be a big budget film).
- Some logos may give an indication to the genre of the film, as they are sometimes changed to look like the chosen genre. (E.g. Warner Bros original logo and another type of logo used in films like Harry Potter is shown below).
- If people see the DreamWorks logo they will know that the film has a big budget and that the film will be family friendly.

FILM TITLES

- Film titles are almost always seen in film trailers typically at the beginning and at the end of it in order for the audience to remember it and ultimately increase the likelihood they are going to see the film.

- The font, colouring and backdrop can also suggest the genre of the film and the examples below show how a comedy like 'We're The Millers' differs in title style to a Horror film like 'The Conjuring'.

AGE CERTIFICATION

- Any film that is being shown in the UK is awarded an age certification by the British Board of Film Classification and this age is shown at the end of the trailer to the audience. The age certification gives the audience an idea of the type of film it is. For example, if the film is rated 'U', then it is going to be family friendly and suitable for children to see. If it is a '15' then the audience can assume that there will be some swearing, sexual references and perhaps violence throughout the film.

SOCIAL MEDIA

- As a result of changing consumer habits and the digital revolution, films are now generating a lot of their interest through social media sites. In most film trailers, there will be website URL's, twitter hashtag's and instructions to like their Facebook page etc.

- This new convention has enabled film companies to market their films for free and let their audience create hype for the film and generate interest amongst millions of other people. It has become a huge feature for films to try and generate a large audience and we can see this through the example below (it is seen at the end of the trailer for a solid 10 seconds).

MUSIC AND VOICEOVERS

- Music is also a big feature in film trailers and tend to signal the genre of the film, budget and pace of the film. The producers of the film will tend to have their own soundtrack for the film and with a big budget, they can attract artists to make a soundtrack that is relevant to the genre or even specific to the storyline. For example, an upcoming artist like 'Lorde' was asked to make a song for the recent Hunger Games film and with this opportunity she can promote herself as well as help the film be a success.

- Voiceovers are often heard in trailers and they guide the audience through the plot and characters. A good example of a voiceover is in the 'Hot Fuzz' trailer where Sergeant Angel's (Simon Pegg) re-assignment from being an expert policeman in London to the 'safest village in the country' is introduced by a deep-voiced american man.

CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS

- This is a prominent part of a film trailer and whether the actors are Hollywood stars or not, the audience gains pleasure from relating and connecting to them. If there is a starring young female character then those who are young and female are more likely to go and watch the film.

- An actor's reputation may also help the film to generate an audience and they may have enjoyed their previous film or are general fans of their work. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as well as director Edgar Wright have all worked together before Hot Fuzz, creating successes like 'Shaun of the Dead' and the TV series, 'Spaced'. 

TIME LENGTH

- Most films will have more than one trailer with different sections of the film edited together. There is always an official trailer that lasts between 1 minute and 2 minutes but teaser trailers are very commonly seen to create hype and leaving the audience wanting to know more. Horror, action and thriller films will use teaser trailers to build hype and sometimes don't even show the film title.

RELEASE DATE

- The release date is essential for attracting a large audience to the film on its opening night. The release date will come out a few weeks before the film is released to give the wider audience the chance to view the trailer and give enough time for people to plan to see the film and not forget about it.

- The release date is almost always seen at the end of a trailer as the people's attention is captured and to make sure the release date is the last thing the audience sees and hopefully remembers. If the release date is too far away then 'coming soon' or something similar will be used to build the excitement of the audience instead.

NAME CAPTIONS

- These are seen in every official trailer and it can be the actor's, producers or directors names that are used to capture the audiences interest. If they are fans of the actor or director then they are more likely to see the film. Even if they are not fans, directors like Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright have different filming styles and this will encourage different audiences to see the film.

- Captions can also be deceiving though and trailers may say something like 'endorsed by Tarantino' and the audience may misread and flock to the cinema's unaware that he did not make the film, only enjoyed it. Films can gain a large audience through the feedback of popular actors and directors even if they do not feature in their own film. 

-Furthermore, this might not even be in the trailer but on social media sites where popular people may tweet their enjoyment in watching the film or express their excitement in wanting to watch it, tweeting to their millions of followers.

SHORT FILM ANALYSIS- 'WASP'

Wasp is a short film (26 minutes) written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Released in 2003, it stars Natalie Press as a struggling single mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the pursuit of rekindling a relationship with an old ex-boyfriend Danny Dyer.

Camerawork

Andrea Arnold has a very naturalistic approach to her filming, displaying verisimilitude and vivid realism throughout the production of 'Wasp.' The handheld shots are particularly prominent in the film and this results in the film adopting a fairly docudrama style. The free flowing production draws the audience into this impoverished and deprived world, where we are sympathetic for the mother in her desperate situation.

Mise En Scene

The clothing in 'Wasp' encapsulates the vivid realism that Andrea Arnold has generated in the film and the audience can see the dirt, poverty and struggle that surrounds the characters (picture seen below). The lighting is natural to correspond with the natural themes Andrea is trying to show as well as a location that suits the storyline and representation of characters in a deprived way.

Sound

All sound in 'Wasp' is diegetic and consists of mostly dialogue with slang and rude words being spoken fairly prominently by some of the characters. Several tones of voice are heard and they capture and draw the audience into the desperate and frustrated feelings expressed by the characters. For example, the word 'cow' is used in an argument to describe the main characters neighbour and this word is most likely one that Andrea Arnold would have been associated with in her early life and heard it around her hometown.

Click here to watch the short film of 'Wasp'