MEDIA LANGUAGE
At A2, I made the promotional package for a new film called 2020. This comprised a trailer, a film poster and film magazine cover.
My trailer for 2020 introduced the drama of a post-apocalyptic disaster world in which a teenage survivor thinks himself alone in a ruined world which he explores with growing trepidation and terror. The audience is introduced via scenes of international war with leaders launching missiles and hand-to-hand fighting. Our mise-en-scène needed verisimilitude to make this convincing so sets included a series of abandoned structures, such as warehouse and disused school buildings as well as vast open terrains over which soldiers crawled and fought, depicted in a flashback to set the backstory.
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 discuss when I write about editing); focus on the protagonists (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, director, institutional information, ‘puffs’) and overall should generate a sense of anticipation, drama and excitement.
Our production is part of a promo pack that includes a film poster and film magazine cover, both of which have their own visual language and sets of print conventions regarding layout, framing, typography, colour choices, font sizes, ‘house’ style (for magazines), bar codes, dates & prices, QR code, billing block (posters), social media & website links (posters). The one over-arching, most important part of this 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.
Editing
Our intertitles function as cues to guide the audience through the narrative. Specifically, in 2020 the intertitles provide key narrative anchors about the protagonists and the jeopardy that they face, which increases by the second during our 2-minute trailer, ratcheting up the tension and suspense. For example, the text ‘……’ is intercut with ‘…….’ leading to ‘……..’ with an immediate shift of mise-en-scène from ….. to a drone shot of ….. and culminating in ‘
‘From the producers of…’ is a distribution tactic that inspires audiences by building a relationship with them (Blumler and Katz, uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour).
Camerawork
All of our camerawork (by which I mean camera movements, camera angles, shot types) 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 medical centre to the wild woods where the murder victim will be entrapped. The sets are therefore visual symbols. The murder victim is clearly beyond help as the students have moved beyond the law. Cuttaway shots of…..
Shots of….. are repeated in both my film poster and magazine cover which both feature …….. thus tying in the three elements of the promo package, and through the visual codes, anchoring the messages of sinister danger.
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 minimum 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 that is compelling enough to drive audiences into cinemas. In 2020, the voiceover in the establishing shot is like a diary entry (?) in which ……. shortly after, ‘Are you ready to take the risk?’ The words ‘2020’ are reiterated throughout the trailer as well as on the poster and magazine cover as it is the film title and emphasises the thriller genre.
Diegetic sound is key elsewhere, such as …….
The soundtrack builds tension throughout both by the use of increasingly fast and tense percussive beats, powerful orchestral music and, very importantly in our film work, …….
The sound builds to a crescendo at the climax before going silent as the title RISK is displayed, immediately distorted by electrifying glitches.
Editing at this final point is fast-paced with a series of rapid hard cuts, using specific types of camera angles such as close ups of …….
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 smoothly 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.
Mise-en-scène
If audiences have seen ……., they will be familiar with the use of …… visual codes to suggest danger, as I do in our film as well on both my film magazine and poster. We use a ‘……’ scenario (signalled by the wooden sign ‘out of bounds’), an abandoned shed to imprison the murder victim, white coats and medical equipment to stage the medical facility.
Summary
We have a stylish sophisticated logo of metallic typography, appearing above the earths horizon, thus suggesting the sophistication and seriousness of our film. A low thrumming creates tension and builds anticipation. We have incorporated a small amount of footage from news broadcasts showing missiles being fired from submarines. Accompanied by inter titles ‘over 60m people were killed during WW2’ to situate the narrative. Further hand held footage, and a second infertile brings the story up to date through its reference to ’30m Americans were killed in Nov 2019’. Here the audience is made to understand through inter titles that we are in a futuristic post-apocolpytic world. The third and final inter title states ‘it is unknown how many survived’ bringing the ilm into the present world and helping the audience understand the title 2020.
A transition which uses glitches, functions as the audiences bridge to a diary like voice over in which the protagonist recounts his harrowing story of being a survivor in a ruined world. We chose to start with spectacular: a drone cam shot offers the audience a birds eye view of an isolated abandoned mansion, set in woodland some 20 miles from the city of London. The voice over offers a restrained but shocking account of the dying screams that have now been replaced by silence. We reinforce the emotional decimation through a low angled shot of the protagonist approaching the intimidating steps of the mansion in his search for survivors. We sourced the imposing mise-en-scene very carefully, combining the mansion facade with other abandoned interiors from else where, edited seamlessly to make it look as one. To give substance to the survivors feelings of terror and danger we contrived a series of small disconcerting micro actions within the main frame such as, the unexpected diagetic sound of doors closing behind him. The increased tempo and intensity of the electronic hum is a sound code for his peril. One of our most convincing pieces of camerawork, is the shot of our survivor pictured on an exterior camera, date and time stamped, as he exits the building. This is so convincing as it implies hostile surveillance, thus increasing the tension and anticipation, making the audience want to know who is watching him. This is combined with the voice over saying ‘I fear I am no longer alone’. A second piece of camera work which is extremely effective follows: the drone cam now watches him take his leave down a central path that cuts through the middle of the frame, with deliberate jump cuts, as he becomes an increasingly small figure, alone and vulnerable, facing his uncertain future alone. For Todorov, narrative moves from a state of equilibrium through disequilibrium (the third world war) towards a renewed equilibrium at the end of the film. Our job in making a trailer is to hint at the over-arching narrative, without giving away final outcomes.
The camera always privileges the protagonist in the frame: he is often framed centrally and the many mid shots and the close ups of his concerned but resolute face make the audience engage and sympathise with him. We cast an attractive, appealing young actor, which is the norm for contemporary films of this kind, for example Jason Bourne. The introduction of big orchestral music marks the culmination of this mid section, as tracking shots follow our young hero through his former school. This was filmed with a handheld camera to show the audience the danger which immerses him, it also allows for the quickening of pace, resulting in him finding another survivor.
The final, terrifying third section, kicks off with a low angle POV shot of armed professional soldiers lying low in a corn field holding our young survivors in their rifle sights. Diagetic sounds of military comms build the tension as the boys are now clearly about to be under fire. While earlier sections had highly saturated colour, we colour graded this combat section by using filter which gave it a combat hue. The complexity of our mise-en-scene: real army uniforms, a ruined, derelict, crumbling out building, smoke bombs and replica weapons lend verisimilitude (likeness to life). At this point we have introduced a very different sound track: the vocals and lyrics of the track ‘human’, carry the action with a dynamism vigour and intensity which plunges the viewer immersivly into the experience. The audience is positioned on the side of the two young survivors through a triplet of inter titles, which flash rapidly onto the screen stating, we fight/ for/ our home. The use of ‘we’ and ‘our’ anchor the meaning. For Blumler and Katz, audiences use texts to gratify needs, such as, the desire to have their world view endorsed and to develop sympathetic relationships with on screen characters. Seconds from the end of the trailer, our target audience will be on the edge of their seats, hoping for the survival of the two boys in this nihilistic scenario. The repeated refrain of the lyrics ‘Im only human after all’ reinforce their vulnerability in the face of the terrifying political machine.
After the diagetic sound of gunshot as one of our heroes is on his knees facing the camera, crucial inter titles draw the trailer to its close: the visual language of the typography is very powerful as the numbers 2020 appear like etched metal with bullet traces on the surface.
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