Character - Grace

W.H.

Character

Character:

We would like two main characters, a female and a male, in a romantic relationship together.

Man - We would like a male main part, Isaac to be rather stereotypical. We want him to be good looking but not in a 'typically attractive' way. Some examples of male main characters we could base our main character on are:
Man - We would like a male main part, Isaac to be rather stereotypical. We want him to be good looking but not in a 'typically attractive' way. Some examples of male main characters we could base our main character on are:

Ryan Gosling - Noah in 'The Notebook'

Anton Yelchin - Jacob in 'Like Crazy'

Robert Pattinson - Tyler in 'Remember Me'

Our friend Harrison is a potential candidate to play Isaac. He has the right sort of look and is good looking but looks as if he is scraggly and grungy. Harrison is 18 and goes to school in London, so filming times could work with our out of school hours.

George is our other potential Isaac, he is 20 and lives in Suffolk, but goes to university in Brighton which is the area we will probably be doing most of our filming in. He looks older than Harrison, so would probably be a better fit for playing Isaac. He also shares a similarly 'grungy' and scatty look to Harrison, and he would wear his own clothes rather than having a costume as it is already what we want our male character to be wearing.

Mark is our final consideration to play Isaac. He is 20 years old and goes to university in London. He has the right sort of look too although he is more groomed than Harrison and George.

Woman - We want the female character, Grace, to be similar to the male character in the way that she should be beautiful but she should not try too hard with make up or clothes to make herself look good, so she has natural beauty and a slightly grungy feel about her. For example:

Emilie De Ravin - Ally in 'Remember Me'

Kristen Stewart - Bella in 'Twilight'

Michelle Williams - Cindy in 'Blue Valentine'

Our first potential girl to play Grace is Holly. She is 21 and lives in Clapham, but goes to university in Brighton. She has a slightly grungy look and style, which could work with playing Cindy. She is also blonde which is similar to Michelle Williams and Emilie De Ravin. However, her blonde hair could perhaps be seen as too generic and 'girl next door'. 

Our next potential Grace is Thea. She is also 21 and lives in Clapham but goes to university in Brighton. Thea would be suitable to use as if we used George to play Isaac she is in a relationship with  George, so their acting would probably look more natural and realistic. She has ginger hair which would also work well as it is different and unusual.

Finally, we may potentially use Ally Whitaker for our female role as she lives locally to us and goes to the same school as us so would be available a lot of the time. Also she has individual hair and is attractive.

We finally chose to use George and Thea, as they are in a real relationship so their acting would look normal and natural. We plan to go down to Brighton for a week to film them on the beach and in a flat or apartment.

B.M.

Narrative

Our finalised narrative for the film that would be created if the trailer was real would be:

- a young couple meets at university

- they carry on dating and move in together after university

- they are sure that they are happy together but don't know if they want to get married/too soon, what if something goes wrong?

- the film mainly begins 3 years down the line of their relationship - the girl is in a job that she does not enjoy whilst the man is perfectly happy in his job but spending more time at his job as a way to avoid seeing her depressed

- she begins to go slightly mad and depressed

- focusses on them trying to work through the problems

- one day it becomes too much and the boyfriend drives away and out of her life

- he has left her pregnant 

- jumps 3 years - they spot each other in the street - he is engaged to another woman who is pregnant. He pretends not to see her and walks on.

In our trailer, we would only choose aspects of the whole narrative to convey. We will show a section of their relationship at the beginning to show that the relationship was once good but focus mainly on the middle few points of narrative - the turning of jobs and the beginning of the problems for the girl and their relationship. We do not want to reveal too much about the narrative otherwise the audience may feel they have seen the film just by watching the trailer and will not actually go and see the film. Therefore, the last 4 bullet points will mainly be portrayed through montage rather than focussing on what is actually happening, leaving the story for the audience to work out. 

W.H. B.M.

Certification

The majority of the films I have looked at are all certificate 12A. These tend to be the films that are focused towards a younger audince with younger, typecast actors such as Channing Tatum, Zac Efron and Rachel McAdams. On the BBFC website, the 12A certification is for films where anyone under the age of 12 has to be accompanied (the A standing for accompanied or advised) but anyone over the age of 12 is allowed to view the film by themselves. 12A is for cinema only, once the film has come out on DVD, it's certification becomes 12. To classify as a 12 cerificate, the film must fulfil the guidelines of the BBFC. In terms of language, strong language must be infrequent and not appear in aggressive context. There must also be no discriminatory language for example, attacks on sexuality, gender and race. Sex may appear infrequently and briefly but verbal sexual references must be suitable for young audiences. Drug misuse is also allowed but only if it is not glamourised and does not provide instructions. This is also the same with violence, where gore is only alllowed with strong contextual justification.

Both 'Blue Valentine' and 'Revolutionary Road' are certificate 15. This differs quite strongly from certificate 12(A) as viewers must be over the age of 15 and younger viewers are not allowed to view it accompanied by an adult in the cinema. This also extends to when the film appears on DVD - no one under the age of 15 is allowed to buy or rent a 15 certificate film. Strong language may be frequent within the film and strong sexual references are also allowed. Scenes of drugs and sex are also more freely allowed as long as there is no strong details or promotion of drugs. Violence is accepted as long as it does not dwell on a gory impact of the victims. However, certificate 15 also follows the same procedure as certificate 12 of not permitting discriminatory language or actions.

It is clear from the trailer that both 'Blue Valentine' and 'Revolutionary Road' portray a lot more violence and sex in the relationships of the new characters, therefore deserving the certificate 15. Our trailer will most likely follow the conduct and narrative of films such as 'The Lucky One' and 'Dear John', therefore we will have to obey the guidelines of 12A as this is what our target audience will most likely consist of.

Audience Research

W.H. B.M.

Possible Narratives

Since it is clear that most of the trailers for mainstream romantic films follow the same pattern, we simply have to base our trailer on others with a different twist in the story. The typical structure of the trailer is:

1. Couple meets/Couple is happy
2. Something goes wrong
3. Dramatic montage to portray their changing relationship

Since both 1. and 3. are almost always the same in all the trailers, it is aspect 2. that we need to come up with.

Examples of 2. in trailers that I have studied:

'Dear John' - John has to go to war
'The Lucky One' - Logan kept a secret from Beth
'The Vow' - Paige loses her memory
'The Notebook' - Ally is forced to move away from Noah
'One Day' - Emma and Dexter's personalities change so much that they can no longer relate to each other

'Remember Me' is slightly different in that stage 2. actually appears before stage 1. However, the audience is still led to believe through the shots of Tyler and Ally's father in the montage, that this could be the main cause of conflict in the film.

Possible ideas for Stage 2.:
- incorporating ideas from 'Dear John', 'One Day' and 'The Notebook' - one of the couple is forced to move away as a career choice/family etc. but their relationship continues through letters and spaced out meetings
- basing ideas from a Romeo & Juliet point of view, also similar to 'The Notebook' - due to a family crisis/feud, the couple is forced apart
- introducing a 3rd character of a similar age to the couple who comes between them - similar to the role of Ally's father in 'Remember Me' or Ally's mother in 'The Notebook.'


For more art house romantic film trailers I have studied, there is a less particular pattern in the trailers. Although 'Like Crazy' does reflect a similar order to mainstream trailer in that they show something going wrong, it is more similar to 'Blue Valentine' and 'Revolutionary Road' where it is clear that the films are more character driven than plot driven - both the trailers seem to only focus on the relationship rather than any external problems that effect it.

This type of trailer is more difficult to approach as a non-professional production as I think it may look like we have simply jumbled up some shots of a couple without much of a storyline. However, we will still incorporate lots of ideas from these trailers as I like the style and mood they create. I would like to recreate something as personal as the song in 'Blue Valentine' or the poem in 'Like Crazy' as I think it really helps the audience identify the extent of the couple's relationship. I also much prefer the montage in 'Revolutionary Road' to other trailers as I think it is much more dramatic and emotional, with a lot more energy.

W.H.

Narrative Necessities

Both subgenres of romantic films, mainstream and arthouse, there are certain key things that appear in all trailers and will be necessary to include in the narrative of our trailer.

- the initial meeting of the couple

This is a very important of the narrative for the audience as it is when they first glimpse the relationship between the couple and so then can begin to understand the path it takes and problems it has to over come in the rest of the trailer. Although some of these trailers start before the couple has actually met, I prefer narratives where the couple is already together and then something causes them problems in their relationship, for example 'Revolutionary Road', 'The Vow' and 'Blue Valentine.'

- obvious change in mood

In the majority of the trailers I have researched, there is always a specific moment where the mood changes and the story picks up. This is usually signified by a change in music, a pause in music, an introduction of a new character or an argument between the two characters.

For example:

'Revolutionary Road' - 0.23 seconds 

This is an example of the music changing to create a different mood and so the story begins to change

'Dear John' - 1.12 minutes

Another example of the music changing to emphasise the change in relationship when John goes off to war

'Remember Me' - 1.00 minutes

This is an example of the introduction of a new character to change the relationship and mood of the main character - in this case it is the arrival of Tyler's 'other half'

'The Vow' - 0.43 - 1.05

This is an example of the pause of music along with arguments and loud noises to start and finish the music

For this change, I would like to use music to show a change in mood, preferably slower to show a more melancholic mood to reflect problems in the relationship of the couple.

- montage

This appears towards the end of every trailer before the title of the film is revealed as a dramatic finale to the narrative. 

To fit this in with our narrative, we will use this as a chance to show distance and problems within the relationship whilst displaying the main characters and the actor's playing them. Looking at the trailers the amount of shots in a montage generally varies between 15 to 20 shots so we will have to film a lot of shots that briefly reflect the character's relationship with each other for the montage.

W.H.

Trailer Narrative Notes

Mainstream Trailers - These trailers generally consist of 3 act narrative to outline the basic story of the whole film for the audience. Examples of the 3 acts in trailers I've studied:

(a) 'The Lucky One'
1. Sets out the main character's background and why he is set on the track of the main narrative. In this trailer, it begins with Logan explaining why he has to go and find Beth - 'I promised myself that if I ever got out I would find that girl and thank her for saving my life.' This act continues with them meeting and the early stages of their relationship.
2. The 2nd act begins when the music first changes and Logan starts the job at the farm - the cheery music suggests things are going well and reflects they're relationship growing.
3. The final act merges with the 2nd act as it leads on from the same song but things progressively get more stressful and conditions worsen - this is shown by lots of different clips of arguments and tears etc. to suggest that the relationship has growing problems. However, this ends on a lighter note to reassure the audience that the whole film is not singularly about problems in the relationship.

(b) 'Dear John' - this runs in a very similar fashion as 'The Lucky One' but just with slightly different editions to the story
1. The first act introduces the two main characters as they first meet and they begin to get to know each other and they are very happy together.
2. The second act becomes more dramatic and melancholic as John chooses to extend his time with the army - however there is still an air of hopefulness and happiness about them due to the narrator explaining that they are working hard to keep the relationship going strong.
3. This act mainly consists of an emotional montage showing the couple facing their individual problems - however like 'The Lucky One' it ends on a more positive note through the narrator.

(c) 'The Notebook'
1. This introduces the two characters and their growing relationship with each other
2. The second act begins to show the problems between Noah and Ally as Ally gets sent away. However, it continues to stay cheerful as she meets another person who she falls in love with but it is clear that Noah also continues to stay in her life.
3. Instead of getting more sad like both 'The Lucky One' and 'Dear John', it simply gets more dramatic with a montage of emotional scenes with the narrator becoming more desperate to discover about the story of Noah and Ally and this also urges the audience to find interest in the story as well. However, it follows the convention of ending on the same positive note through the narrator.

(d) 'The Vow'

1. This is slightly different to the other trailers as it doesn't show the beginning of the couple's relationship but simply fires the audience into their relationship as it is - perfectly happy.
2. The 2nd act turns everything immediately bad rather than showing a slow descent of problems like the previous trailers
3. This act is more similar to other trailers' 2nd act as it is more positive whilst still being aware of the problems within the narrative and the problems the couple has to overcome. This trailer is only slightly different as it follows the exact same type of plot but just slightly flips the order of it.

W.H.

'Little White Lies' Cover Analysis

This is my second Prezi analysing the 2011 September/October edition of 'Little White Lies'. I found this much easier to use as its 2D setting instead of the Sight&Sound analysis I did using a 3D presentation. 

W.H.

Trailer Conventions Essay

Explore the genre and conventions of your chosen media text. How do you plan to adhere to or develop these conventions?

For my coursework to create a trailer, I will be looking to follow the genre of romance and have looked at a number of trailers of typical romantic films to obtain an idea of the standard conventions that are included in romantic trailers that will be necessary to include in my own original trailer. I looked specifically at two types of romantic trailers, mainstream, big budget productions that are mainly targeted at teenage audiences like ‘One Day’, ‘The Notebook’,‘Dear John’ and ‘The Lucky One’, and then a set of more depressing and serious, arthouse productions, such as ‘Blue Valentine’, ‘Like Crazy’, ‘Remember Me’ and ‘Revolutionary Road.’

The differentiating factor between these two subgenres tended to be the types of characters introduced in the trailers. In the mainstream set of trailers, 3 out of 4 of them were written by the same author, Nicholas Sparks, who is showcased first in each of the trailers as this immediately makes it clear to the target audience that if you enjoyed one of these films, you probably will be likely to enjoy the rest.

'The Notebook'

'Dear John'

'The Lucky One'

With this labelling of the type of books these come from, it also becomes extremely clear what the characters and their situations are like. For example, a running theme that the audience picks up from in these four trailers is that all of the main couples have a strong and passionate connection even though each of them have long distance or broken up relationships where the male characters have to leave (both John (‘Dear John’) and Logan (‘The Lucky One’) are at war whilst Noah (‘The Notebook’) is forced away by Ally’s mother) or, for example in ‘One Day’, Dexter and Emma specifically only see each other once a year. The male characters in films like ‘The Lucky One’ and ‘Dear John’ are played by similar actors in every film, so much so that they become typecast – Zac Efron (Logan in ‘The Lucky One’) appears in a number of similar romance films playing pretty much the same character like ‘Charlie St. Cloud’, after appearing first as the heartthrob, Troy, in ‘High School Musical’ meaning that he is typically seen as the attractive male lead in romances. Channing Tatum is also of a similar position (John in ‘Dear John’) as he also appears in a number of romances such as ‘She’s The Man’, ‘Step Up’ and ‘The Vow’ and so is also typecast as the attractive male lead. This scopes out a target audience of teenage girls who will be instantly attracted to seeing the film because they know exactly what they are getting when a specific actor is playing the lead role.

'The Lucky One'

'Dear John'

Since it is impossible for us to use huge stars like Zac Efron and Channing Tatum, we will need to approach a different target audience as these actors are one of the main selling points of the film. This is why I will be looking to use some of the conventions of the mainstream romantic trailers but focussing to replicate as a whole, something similar to the darker, more realistic romances like ‘Revolutionary Road’ and ‘Blue Valentine.’ Although both of these films use huge actors as well like Ryan Gosling, who is also famously known for his romantic roles in ‘The Notebook’ and ‘Crazy Stupid Love’, he is not solely typecast as this role and so is able to embrace roles like the character of Dean in ‘Blue Valentine’, without specifically targeting the teenage girl audience. However, Gosling is still a major selling point for ‘Blue Valentine’ along with Michelle Williams, so I will need to target what else makes this trailer successful, to create something that works without the need of A-list stars.

Although music is always hugely important in trailers, it is especially key in trailers like ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘Like Crazy’ where there is not much dialogue used and music is the main propeller for the trailer. By choosing an original song or cover as the main selling point for the trailer, it becomes its own advertisement of the film itself, and many people will remember the song by itself after seeing the trailer on the tv, internet etc. and so will be reminded of the film and are encouraged to see it. Both ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘Like Crazy’ used covers of famous old songs throughout the whole trailer, which are instantly recognisable but with a twist of a new voice which people relate to the film – for example, the ‘theme’ song for the trailer in ‘Like Crazy’ was a cover of Elvis Presley’s ‘I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You’ by Ingrid Michaelson. In ‘Blue Valentine’, what made it even more memorable was that Ryan Gosling did a cover of ‘You Always Hurt The Ones You Love’ by the Mills Brothers, himself actually in the film and this is what starts off the trailer. The style of the music is also an obvious signpost to the mood of the film, as both use very slow paced and emotional music, suggesting the narrative may be quite dark and depressing. However, it works well to create quite a relaxed atmosphere as the pace works well with the montage of shots of the couple’s relationship and so builds a relationship with the audience. This also appears in the trailers for ‘Revolutionary Road’ and ‘Remember Me’ though on a smaller scale as they are more used as a background and mood setter than as a separate point of advertisement for the film.

            However, in modern mainstream romance trailers, there is a very specific routine of music that is followed. Whilst the characters are introduced, soft romantic music, usually piano is used to create a calm and cheerful atmosphere and then once the narrative becomes clear in the trailer, typically saddening and emotional music from bands like ‘The Fray’ and ‘Snow Patrol’ is used to create drama and make the audience feel more involved. Since this may be difficult to actually create original music like these songs, it may be more accessable to create a non-mainstream romantic trailer which only uses one song, or solely use the soft romantic music throughout the whole trailer like in ‘The Notebook.’ However, to fully use this convention, we would need to set back the time to fit the mood, so I think recreating the music similar to trailers like ‘Revolutionary Road’, ‘Like Crazy’ and ‘Blue Valentine’ would be more successful and also look more professional.

Voiceovers and credits dictating the narrative are hugely important in both subgenres I have studied. Although some of the mainstream trailers include voiceovers from the characters speaking from the film, a lot of them also use graphics to help further the narrative for the audience without using a outside narrator. In the trailer for ‘One Day’, an American voiceover is used which heavily contrasts against the English accents within the film. As I feel this doesn’t particularly make it look successful, I will not be following the convention of using an outside voiceover, but possibly considering using one of the character’s voices to dictate as this brings the audience closer to the character’s moods and relationships. This technique is used in many of the other trailers, such as ‘The Lucky One’, ‘Dear John’ and ‘The Notebook’ so seems to be a mainstream convention rather than a film like ‘Blue Valentine’ where there is basically no dialogue in the trailer. This means that I will only be adopting this technique of character voiceovers if I plan to replicate a mainstream trailer rather than a low budget one. However, a theme that appears in both ‘One Day’ and ‘Revolutionary Road’ is that the trailer is heavily dictated by snippets of dialogue and sound bridges solely between the two main characters. I think this works very well as the audience becomes drawn to the character’s relationship and so is encouraged to go and see what happens next. Since this appears in both a targeted teenage romance trailer and also a more mature romance trailer, this means I will be able to adopt it in either circumstance.

            Another trait that appears in both subgenres is the use of graphics to further the narrative even more for the audience. In ‘One Day’, the voice over is used at the beginning to simply introduce the characters but towards the end, text is used instead to express the story so that dialogue can still be used throughout the montage. This also appears in a different form in the trailer for ‘Remember Me.’ This has a voiceover of the character of Tyler at the beginning and then throughout the whole trailer, it is pushed along by short taglines expressing each step of the story for the audience, for example ‘he had lost his way’ and ‘he let someone in’ and this makes the film’s narrative easier for the audience to comprehend so they will be encouraged to go and see the film.

                                                                               

  'Remember Me'

'One Day'

This is similarly applied in the trailer for ‘Revolutionary Road.’ Since this seems to be a popular and successful technique used in romance trailers, I will apply this to my trailer in an end montage. Not only does this clarify the narrative for the audience but it is also an interesting and easy way to lead into the credits of the main stars. These always appear at the end inbetween shots of a montage of the main couple whilst there is more dramatic music playing and I will replicate this in my own trailer as I believe it is a good end to the trailer and fully clarifies to the audience that this is a dramatic romance.

The credits also allow opportunities for the film to show off any nominations or awards it has won and this of course is a key selling point for the audience as good reviews will mean that more people will definitely be encouraged to see it. The majority of the trailers I have studied, only mention nominations or awards at the end with the names, for example in ‘Like Crazy’, it says ‘Academy Award Nominee Jennifer Lawrence’ so it showcases the stars even further. However, ‘Like Crazy’, also credits awards from the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the trailer in-between shots and this similarly happens in ‘Blue Valentine’ whilst the song begins before the shots actually appear. I especially like the way they did this in ‘Blue Valentine’ and would like to adopt this into my trailer as I think it means you have the audience’s full attention from the beginning, especially if there are no shots surrounding it.

'Like Crazy'

'Blue Valentine'

W.H.