- Age - depending on what type of film it is, e.g. A Disney would appeal more to younger children, whereas a complex drama would appeal to much older audiences.
- Gender - Which sex was it produced for; more feminine films such as Barbie would appeal to girls, whereas a film about Action Man would appeal to boys rather than girls.
- Race - A film could target a specific race of people, such as a Bollywood film with Indian actors would appeal more to people of an Asian ethnic group.
- Family - A family film is a film genre that, like a children's film, is suitable for young children, but with the difference that a family film has been carefully written, directed, cast and acted so that it will appeal to all members of a typical family
- Social class/Education – Like with race, films can target specific groups of people such as the average teen, chavs, moshers, etc. Or even to people of a different education who enjoy something more `high class`/mature.
All of the points above can be put together to create a trailer, including when and where to market it. The producers could leave a cliff hanger at the end of the film, making you get more information or go and watch it.
In order to understand how film trailers work, I deconstructed an existing popular trailer; Gladiator. I believe costume is presented throughout the film as a powerful object. At first, when Maximus is first shown as a Roman General leading a decisive victory against Germanic barbarians his armour and status is meant to stand out, we immediately know who the main character and hero is. It shows him as a God like figure, a very powerful man, more than the emperor himself. However, later on in the film he is seen as only a slave wearing normal clothes, locked up in a cell. The contrast between these two events stays the same despite his change from `free` to `slave`, from `general` to `prisoner`; he is still presented as the hero and leader of the men
Connotations and denotations play a big part in film culture today. Objects have multiple meanings; the connotation of the name is the attribute or attributes implied by the name. The denotation of the name is any object to which the name applies. For example, a rose is red with a green stem, this is a denotation. The connotation is that is a symbol of passion and love - this is what the rose represents
Task 3. Included, is my storyboard for Hard Justice. I have clearly show what shots are used, what sound/music, narration/typography and what is seen on screen.
Task 4. Overall I was happy with the finalised product. Everything we had planned in the storyboard was put together in the video without error. All characters played their parts well; it was a real success on video. The music soundtrack we added over it worked perfectly, we chose Muse Hysteria, which fit over the different parts throughout the trailer and made it sound great. If we could change a few things, Firstly we would change around a few of the parts in the trailer, it is quiet hard for the viewer to figure out what’s exactly going on and what the story is. We would make it clearer to understand and maybe add more typography. Secondly, we could have used a variety of different angles and shot types in our trailer to make the scenes feel tenser. There would have been a bigger dramatic impact on the viewer watching and would make the genre more of a thriller.
Task 5. Finally, also included is my DVD cover for Hard Justice. We have chosen a black dark theme for the cover to make the suspense/thriller genre of the film stick out and also it was filmed in a dark night environment. The front cover displays a bold white title with a gun over it to tell viewers about the use of Gun Crime in the film. The background picture shows the main character with a gun in hand and the moon in the background. This is an appropriate image as he is the main star and viewers will want to know who he is and what he’s going to do throughout the film. An 18Film certificate tag has also been added to show the age rating as well as a DVD Video image. The spine simply shows the title in a small Times New Roman font with another age rating tag beside it. The back cover shows extra information and a short synopsis of the film. Again, an image of a gun and bullets is used to represent the crime in the film. A short eight line synopsis giving an overview of the film was written in a Arial type font but it has come out as another and is barely readable, the footer shows the cast with the main character written as an academy award winner to make the film seem more interesting.
