'The Fear and Desire for the Strange'
In research there were many great influences for our final media products. Many of these used forms and conventions of which we noted as very effective and attempted to mirror in our own products.
Beginning with the trailer...
The most significant element to our trailer was the body-swap element between the main characters Jay and Nina. In research I found crucial methods in showing distortion of individuals without using high-standard technology of which successful film makers would have access to. Therefore by using video editing software such as iMovie, we created a on-screen sensation of Jay and Nina morphing into one another, signifying the swap....
Therefore the under-lying dark and gloomy atmosphere we created in our trailer through a combination of sounds and images- was formed from the greatly successful thriller 'Black Swan', which also focuses on a loss of self-identity through mental issues. Rather than challenging forms used in 'Black Swan' we developed them to suit our own trailer and made them unique in our presentation.
Secondly the basis of the storyline which revolves round 'Body-Swap' was formed by watching with my team members the comedic tale 'Freaky Friday'. This film was fairly light-hearted and aimed at families as it taught vital relationship morals. As the content was humorous it did not like in terms of forms and conventions in the trailer...
A rather conventional element to the story of 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' was its setting within a school and therefore its main characters to be school students. This was intentional in making them relatable to our target audience who would also be at school. A level of empathy is needed in order to make the trailer more effective and captivating- resulting in our choice to cast the two main characters as a girl and boy (and the subordinate characters as two girls).
The final trailer inspiration was from the 1989 film 'Heathers' which was based around a clique of girlfriends at an American High School. Typical of an 80's R rated film it was gritty and shocking- which we wanted to reflect also. The location of a school and a group of friends was developed in our product by modernising the storyline, for example by adding social networking themes (video blogs), sixth form outfits (non-uniform clothes) and a overall 21st century atmosphere.
The presence of violence and alcohol is significant in 'Heathers' however typically of a late 20th century. Films were much more censored in these days and themes of heavy drug abuse was limited, even though the drug-scene rocketed during these years (it was still considered unacceptable on-screen). This form was one we challenged in order to suit our genre of a modern, 21st century, young audience motion picture.
Overall in evaluation our film trailer is a slight development of 'Black Swan', in terms of our body-swapping sequences and has a similar feel in terms of atmosphere due to the combination of images and sounds. Secondly the basic idea was originally formed from 'Freaky Friday', a family based drama film with comedic over-tones. We challenged these forms and conventions as they were too typical of our selected genre and in order to entice our young target audience we needed modern elements of which they could relate to. Lastly the film 'Heather's represents the gritty, urban undertones of which 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' projected in terms of unstable teenage friends with issues. In terms of trailer content and pace, the most influential to our final cut was that of 'Black Swan', as we chose to subtly split the trailer into three sections- an introduction to characters, insight into the storyline and then a climatic end (fast pace)- this was a method shown in the trailer above of 'Black Swan'.
The practice shots were considered quite conventional in retrospect resulting in a more original selection for our final cut. Perhaps the most interesting shot used in our trailer was the birds-eye view of Jay's character in the bath...
It creates the feeling of an unnatural sense of closeness to his deformed facial features, whilst underwater. It shares the suffocating feeling of holding one's breath underwater with the audience as they subconsciously too intake a breath. It is an extremely cleaver and subtle way of linking what is happening on-screen and the audience who are merely watching it- the craft of this shot was to do just that and grip the audiences' attention. Our motive for using this shot was original in motives however the idea arose from a similar scene in 'Black Swan'...
The technique of using a birds-eye view at a close up angle was shared between these two products and although I chose this from seeing 'Black Swan' it gave 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' a wholly original meaning. The most inspirational existing media product of which we used many forms and conventions and developed a few was 'Black Swan'.
(Black Swan)
(The Fear and Desire for the Strange)
This sequence of shots which shown in 'Black Swan' made a huge impact on our teams ideas in showing someone to be mentally shaken and unstable. The intimacy of a character in the bath assists in creating empathy for the audience. The close-up which established their features is essential in revealing the look of horror and shock; revealing the mood of the trailer overall. We used the same techniques in the series of shots in 'Black Swan' and therefore developed them to suit our body-swap drama trailer.
The Film Poster...
The film poster I created was purposely made to look original and reflect a notion of hypnosis. Synthesising the poster and trailer together a clear sense of mental-distortion is revealed- essential in making the film recognisable to the public. I included the necessary conventions of most film posters, such as the credits on the bottom of the poster, which lists the film company (ClockWork Pictures), the actors, the production team, director and unique website. Including a website on the bottom of film posters is a fairly modern, 21st century convention as it acts as a simple yet effective form of additional advertisement. It is important to keep audiences updated and interested in your film to ensure successful ratings when in the cinema. I deemed a website as a very important factor to include as my target audience of 15-19 are the most indulgent users of the online craze, I found numerous other examples of films using a website on their film posters...
(Website shown at the very top- attracting focus.)
This image is very revealing in the dark, twisted themes of which appear in 'Black Swan'. This film completely challenged the accepted convention of the ballet show Swan Lake and truly shocked its audience. The divide in Nina's character is shown by her identical image- one facing downwards and the other upwards. The is a clear contrast in colouring as the first is bright and vibrant of colour and the other black and white. Both show a disturbing element to Natalie Portman's character- the first poster shows a demonic eye, seeping black liquid over her face. The second shows a juxtaposition of the same person- foreshadowing the storyline of a ballerina finding her dark side (the black swan). Both are very simple ideas but very effective in attracting an audience. The films title is also very simple but bold in standing out against the black background through size, font, colour and positioning.
Here are some existing media products of which were some form of inspiration for my own...
My film poster was aimed to intrigue and appear minimalistic, similar to that of the existing examples above. The design of a black and white spiral is most commonly associated with hypnosis and therefore a mutation of mentality- showing our storyline rather subtly.
Similarly to the examples above it is clear that a bold font and colour is needed to make the title of the film stand out...
The red is a contrasting colour against the black and white background. The placement of each word is intentional to symbolise a swirl of thoughts and feelings, as the hypnosis spiral would essentially spin the words around and digest them (similar to a black hole). The encoder of this would expect the target audience to 'decode' this message of distortion and mental 'out-of-control' feelings.
This tag line is situated at the very top of the film poster- making it a eye-catching and important area of the whole product. Like many film posters (in the past and currently) the names of the main actors in the film are listed in order to credit them and attract audiences (give the film credibility and high expectations). It also is a philosophical question many people face when growing up. Finding one's true identity is a struggle for most people, particularly during the teenage years of your life- relating to our characters and also my target audience! The sentence is addressing the decoder and makes them question it- engaging their interest effectively.
Secondly effective posters that exist create a tag-line to give identity to the film and make the audience want to know what the film is about, for example...
This 2010 film uses synergy to make the audience question the content of the film by- 'who is salt?' (meaning they want to find out the answer) and link it to the incredibly successful Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie. (Referring back to my previous analysis of the use of websites, this also applies here).
The Magazine Cover...
This magazine cover for 'Film First' (a company I created) is a 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' edition. I used a method of synergy by linking the trailer and magazine cover together by using our leading actress of the character 'Nina'. Making a clear link between products, of which many film producers use in order to create a brand image. It is a conventional technique in establishing both the film and the actress and visually links them together. The 'plug' articles I included are all purposely aimed at my teenage target audience, for example- 'Spring Breakers Review, Win Tickets to VidCon' etc.
Also as expected from an exclusive magazine edition, which focusses mainly on a upcoming film, many articles included are related to 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' franchise. (Harriet Barry on-set secrets, World exclusive sneak peak... Laurie Denman Interview, Top 10 Body-Swap films). Significantly I am establishing the genre of film- even though the content essentially challenges the expected forms and conventions of body-swap films. The language I used also is intentional in appealing to a teenage audience- in other words I avoided a formal, mature tone and went for a informal more conversational choice of words and structure- 'Give-Away'
The articles which do not directly relate to my film is purposely in a less dominant colour on the magazine cover- so the articles which are, over-power the audiences attention. They are also positioned at the bottom (for a lasting effect) and are slightly bigger in font.
A perhaps subtle development/ challenge to usual magazine covers is my choice to include the film distributor company name on the magazine cover next to the film title, in order to credit them and authenticate them ('ClockWork Pictures...') This is not a very common attribute to magazine covers and in my research I found little evidence for this ever occurring, making me question whether this is a gap in the market for a subtle form of extra advertising. As for many companies making a public image is all about presenting yourself in as many positive ways as possible. Therefore by making it clear who is producing the film it gives a bold, important message about 'ClockWork Pictures' and would make it easier to authenticate films in the futures.
The main focus is clearly on the magazines name (masthead), the sub-heading (tag line) 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' Exclusive and the main cover image. These are the most significant areas of any magazine issue! The font and colour of 'Film First' is extremely large and bold to fill the top section of the cover and to identity the company. The main image is of the 'well-known' actress of who people will associate with the film, I purposely avoided a colour background in order to make the image stand-out along with the articles. The font used for the mast-head is a cinematic/ digital style- relating to the online usage my target audience would empathise with and also gives a new and fresh feel to the cover. It also subtly links to the theme of YouTube video blogs of which are used in my film trailer.
The price and issue number were included after audience feedback suggested that to make the cover more professional and conventional to other covers, I should include one. I situated it at the top as the price is appealing (not expensive) as if a price is hard to find on a magazine, people are less likely to take time to find it and then decide whether or not to buy it.
It is clear that I used current forms and conventions of existing products in my final magazine cover, here are some examples of inspiration for my cover...
All these examples use a female main cover image, a bold title (masthead) and a small amount of articles. Similar language is used, such as 'ultimate, exclusive, explosive, special...' creating a superior feel for the magazine, making the public want to purchase it.
In comparison to my other two media products, my magazine cover does not challenge many current forms and conventions- rather it uses and develops existing methods as explained above.
In terms of drafting a basic storyline we decided not to follow the conventional route that many A-Level media students make- in creating a horror teaser trailer. We felt that this had been done to death and we wanted to be more original. This is where our body-swap theme developed from. By all three of us being huge American school-drama film fans we did some research into the most famous examples. Perhaps the most well-known Lindsey Lohan film, second to 'Mean Girls' which is similar, is 'Freaky Friday'.
This is a family targeted comedy film which follows the body-swap of a Mother and Daughter. We thought this idea was a great one, however we had our own unique ideas as to how to portray our interpretation. Instead of following the same route of a comedy of which numerous other body-swap films take, we decided to focus on the mental confusion and deterioration of identity which we thought would be present if it actually happened to someone. Therefore we challenged the usual forms of a comedy by making dramatic and emotion shots of a character in turmoil, and the resort to drugs sequence in order to deal with the ordeal.
The sound used also added to the 'thriller/ dark' mood to the trailer. This included the dramatic narrative of Jay expressing how he can't 'explain what's happening'.
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