Research

Research and Analysis of Teaser Trailers.
For my research I started by thinking about the generic conventions of teaser trailers. After briefly looking at several teaser trailers to gain an insight into their structure, I decided these were the main features or key conventions.

I then went on to analyse 5 teaser trailers and decided to focus on the horror genre, as I felt this was a genre that appealed to me, one I was interested in and felt I wanted to base my work around.
Please click here to see my analysis of my top 5 teaser trailers.
After analysing the trailers I noticed that they all had common conventions within them. These were:Fast paced editing

• Flashes/quick shots
• Backing tracks edited in time with the shots to build up tension
• Voice-over ( either by an actual character or a professional voice-over person)
• USP's. Each have different USP's but each one has a specific USP to make the film attractive to a target audience for example ' based on a true story'.
  

After identifying the common conventions I decided to use these within my own trailer to make it as effective as possible in attracting my target audience and conforming to the horror genre.
I then decided to construct a series of questions and analyse two more horror trailers in significant details.A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 trailer


Please click here to see my in-depth analysis of 'Nightmare on Elm Street'

Friday the 13th Official Teaser Trailer.
Please click here to see my in-depth analysis of this trailer.
Research and Analysis of Film Posters.
The second part of my research consisted of researching the generic conventions of film posters.
I looked at several film posters and decided the generic conventions of them were:

I then went on to analyse two film posters. I looked at one in the horror genre as this is the genre I want to focus on and then looked at a poster for a romantic film so I could see how the two differed and to see whether I wanted to change my mind from focusing on the horror genre.
Please click here to see my film poster analysis of 'P.S I Love You'
Please click here to see my film poster analysis of ' The Exorcism of Emily Rose'

I decided it would be useful to research into how a film poster was actually constructed and what elements make an effective film poster. A useful piece of research into the construction of film posters for me was provided by a DVD from film education. The DVD looked at the construction of the film poster for the film 'Goal' and included and interview with Lee Jury and Steven Burge who are the marketing and managing directors of BVI UK.
Film websites

Even though the A2 brief does not require us to build a website, I decided it would be useful to still take a look at them, to gain an idea into brand identity. I chose the two trailers that I looked into in specific detail.

Nightmare on Elm Street website

This website is quite simple and has the standard black, white and red colour scheme that is associated with the horror genre and the image in the background is shadowed making it look sinister. This communicates the horror genre to the audience. It is obvious is it aimed at a teen/adult audience as it is quite dark and if it was aimed at children it would be much lighter and use more primary based colours. It isn't targeted towards a specific gender as I think it is more targeted towards an age range.

Friday the 13th website

The Friday the 13th website has a lot more features than the Nightmare on Elm street website. It still has the colour scheme of black, white and red to show the horror genre but has features such a forum that the film can be discussed on. As it has these features I feel that the film is based towards a more adult audience because of the way the website is structured. It encourages debates about the film and is secretive and doesn't give to much away. However it can be argued that this secrecy could drawn in a teenage audience.

Audience Research
In order to gain an insight into what my target audience thinks makes a horror teaser trailer effective, I had to construct a questionnaire asking them a series of questions.
Please click here to see an example questionnaire

After I gathered my results, I compiled them and created charts so I could see what percentage of people chose each option.
Please click here to see my results.

Preliminary Task

The purpose of the pre-lim task was to experiment with the camera we were going to use for our final trailer ( Sony HD 1000 ). A group of students and I filmed a basic horror trailer in lesson time around school and then used Premiere Pro to edit it and come up with the final version which can be seen below.
I found this exercise particularly useful as it gave me more confidence in using the equipment and editing tools.
Please click here to see my analysis of my preliminary task.

Institutional Research

For the next part of my research I decided to research into film studios and distribution companies. I found out that the main studios for film at the moment are:

• Sony-Columbia
• Warner Brothers
• 20th Century Fox
• Universal
• Disney
• Dreamworks
• MGM
• Paramount

I then decided to look into each of these studios individually.
Sony-Columbia
Columbia Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. It is owned by Sony Pictures entertainment which is owned by the big Japanese company Sony. It is one of the major companies in the world and is in the top 'Big 6' of film production companies around the world. It is also in the 'Little 3' of the 8 main film production companies in Hollywood's Golden Age. Columbia Pictures became one of the major motions to do 'screwball comedy'.
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox is owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and is one of the six major American film studios .
Some of it's most well known films include:

• Ice Age
• Garfield
• X-Men
• Planet of the Apes
• Night at the museum
• The chronicles of Narnia ( previously distributed to Walt Disney)
• Star Wars

Fox and 20th century were two separate companies until they merged. before the merge 20th century was most famous for producing the classic film Les Miserables. Fox then announced a subsidiary called Fox STAR studios which was a joint venture with STAR TV which would be the major producer of Bollywood films.
Universal Studios
Universal studios is a subsidary of NBC Universal and is one of the six major movie studios. It is also the second longest-lived studio. In the 1920's Walt Disney worked for the company before making his claim to fame and had an overall influence on the company of Universal Studios. He created the well known character of Mickey Mouse whilst working at Universal Studios.
The studios have a history of having a successful niche of horror films including:

• Frankenstein
  
• Dracula
• The Mummy

The 1931 sheet poster is considered to be the most valuable movie poster in the world, with only one copy known to exist. Universal studios has also had many successful blockbuster movies including:

• Jaws
• E.T The Extra Terrestrial
  
• Back to the Future
• Jurassic Park

Universal teamed up with Paramount Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation, which distributed films by Paramount and Universal worldwide. It was replaced by United International Pictures in 1981 when MGM joined the fold. Then MGM dropped out of the venture allowing 20th Century Fox to distribute it's films instead.
Disney
Walt Disney is known for being one of the most successful Hollywood studios in production of film and is noteworthy for being the only film studio to have three films that have gained past the 1 billion dollar mark. These films were:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ( 2006 )
• Alice in Wonderland (2010)
• Toy Story 3 (2010 )

Disney is also the only studio to have released two films in a year (2010) that have both gain over 1 billion dollar at box office.
Disney has worked with and also has many partners including:

• Caravan Pictures
• Marvel Studios
• Spyglass Entertainment
• Gunn Films

Disney is most well known for the genres of animated movies, children's films and adventure films.

I then decided to research into UK Studios as well as American studios.

BBC Studios
It currently produces around 8 films a year and is paid for by the British public through the 'TV License'.
Some of it's most well known and popular films include:

• Tormented
• The Damned United ( co-production with Columbia Pictures )
• An Education
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
• Billy Elliot ( with Working Title films )

Film 4
Film 4 are a British film company that are owned by the British TV channel 'Channel 4'.
Some of it's most well know and successful films include:

• Slumdog Millionaire ( co-production with Fox Searchlight pictures, Warner Bros, Pathe and Celador Films)
• Trainspotting
• This is England
• East is East

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