Evaluation - Audience and Genre

Which of the audience's uses and gratifications does your trailer appeal to? How have you constructed this?
The uses and gratifications model can be applied to our film for certain aspects. The trailer we created suits the requirements of some reasons the audiences read texts as outlined by Blumler and Katz(1970). Our trailer adheres to the idea of entertainment for the audience as it conforms largely to the expectations of the action genre and this allows the audience to be more immersed immediately. Our trailer includes various scenes which suit the idea of entertainment including fight and chase scenes which are conventional of the genre we selected. One of the main features of our trailer was the use of gun props to add to the expectations of the genre, the constant use of guns ensures the audience want to watch the full film as the guns symbolise what to expect within the trailer. The use of enigmas is also prevalent in our trailer as we don't give away too much of the narrative as to keep the audience engaged. We use questions to add this effect including "what happened in London?" to make the trailer more dimensional and dynamic. The trailer allows the audience to identify with the characters and situations through the shots we used, which included a lot of singular closeup shots to highlight the main characters through our narrative of the trailer. The protagonist is often contrasted against shots of the antagonist with the accompaniment of the narration allowing the audience to relate the characters to eachother which emphasises the relationship between the two of them. The beginning of our trailer allows for the protagonist to be relatable as we follow his story throughout the trailer as we are constantly shown shots of him chasing the antagonist through the various locations of our trailer including Iceland, Dubai and London. The enigmas in the trailer also allow for social interaction amongst the audience as they can discuss the narrative of the story as it remains largely unexplored in our trailer. The trailer can also be used to escape from daily troubles. The idea of the good guy vs bag guy film is successful in creating a false world for which people can immerse themselves in. The narrative of the protagonist travelling across the world in an attempt to stop the antagonist. The highly action-orientated style of the trailer allows the audience to become immersed in the trailer with greater ease overall.

How have you appealed to the Male Gaze in your trailer? If you haven't, why did you make this decision?
Laura Mulvey outlined the idea of the Male Gaze as the need to appeal to a predominantly male audience. Our trailer conforms in some ways to this idea. Although our trailer doesn't follow the element of objectifying women as the only female character has a small part in the overall trailer. We did however induce the idea of a male dominated cast. The idea that the protagonist and antagonist are male and fight against eachother with the use of guns and other weapons. This would appeal more to the male audience as they would prefer to follow an action movie narrative with the inclusion of male characters as they can relate more to these characters.

Evaluation - Narration of Trailer

The directors narration was helpful in letting us analyse the product post production and after audience feedback. This lets us have a much more detailed overview of the final product and helps us to reflect more when looking over the project. It is important to remember that this analysis can help someone who has never seen the film understand it a bit more. As far as marketing and distributing goes it can also help sell the product to hear the directors opinion on what is really happening therefore helping expand on ideas which may be implanted into the audiences head and settling a few debatable points if any surface.

Evaluation - Titles Used

During our AS production we found that the titles were generally of lower quality as they were rushed to an extent and so we wanted to focus on making them seem professional in comparison. We decided that we needed to allocate specific time to the creation of the titles as this would allow the trailer to be more immersing to the audience.

The titles we incorporated were all in the same font as we wanted to emphasise the action qualities within our trailer. The previous film credits were placed towards the start of the trailer to engage the audience straight away and the font stands out against the dark background and is eye catching to the audience viewing the trailer. The final title also stands out as it is a similar shiny grey but we ensured that they were animated to add greater effect overall. We animated the titles to include bullet holes to suit the genre of our trailer.

Evaluation - Characters Used

Protagonist: The protagonist generally conforms  to the expectations of our chosen genre. His attire is shown as smart throughout the trailer which highlights his supposed role within the film (a spy for an anti-terrorist organisation). He is shown constantly with a pistol as his main weapon choice which is shown through the action genre e.g. James Bond. The shirt he wears is light in colour as he represents the good side in our trailer. His smart clothing connotes power to the audience but his lack of a proper suit may suggest that he is not the leader of the organisation but rather just an agent. This is stereotypical of this sort of character as he is normally shown to have to stop the 'evil' in the movie at any means necessary.

Antagonist: The antagonist is generally shown in dark casual attire to emphasise the evil style of his character as he acts as the rogue agent working for the terrorist organisation in our trailer. He is constantly shown with a weapon which highlights his violent nature and possible danger to the protagonist. The main role of the antagonist is to mirror the protagonist in any way possible. He acts to contrast the good nature of the protagonist throughout the trailer and is evident on the poster and magazine cover. This is conventional of the character as he is shown as the 'evil' which needs to be defeated by the protagonist and so is usually shown as the darker character.

Protagonists Boss: The boss serves to inform the audience of the plot of the story as he is the one who originally sets the protagonist on his mission. The boss is incorporated in the narration as it continues into dialogue between him and the protagonist, which suggests some sort of working relation. His smart attire helps connote power to the audience as he is constantly shown to be high up in terms of power status. This is conventional in the genre within action thrillers and spy thrillers in particular as there is normally a boss of the organisation whom sets the story to the audience.

Evaluation - Production Credits Used

to make the production credits we used Adobe Photoshop to enhance the images we had selected. We were able to roughly animate them so that they would run smoothly with the pace of our trailer though the use of a fade and flash. We decided on Photoshop as we had some knowledge on how it worked already in term of enhancing the colour or quality of the image and animating it. The software was relatively easy to use and we used relevant tutorials t help if we didn't know exactly what to do.

For our A2 production we decided on creating two production credits as we generally saw that there were two in the films we had researched of the genre. We decided on making both simple as that best represented the genre in our opinion. Triptic Films was designed to suit the locations we were using. with the picture of London being the main feature, this would serve to inform the audience of the companies location and the font helps emphasise the genre of the film.

IFM Studios (Independent Film Making Studios) was created to make it seem professional to the audience as we incorporated a fade and slight flash between the two to make it more engaging to the audience. The use of a wolf connoted danger to us and so we thought that it would be a good logo to highlight the action genre

Evaluation - Settings Used

London - We decided that we needed to include London as it was relatively local at around 40 minutes away by train so we wanted to ensure that we included a setting which is recognisable to the audience. This is conventional in an action movie as it makes it seem high budget and professional. We decided that London could be the major location within the trailer as it is a stereotypical location for spy agencies as shown in the James Bond series for example. We ensured that the scenes involving London were largely used at the beginning of the trailer to signpost to the audience of what genre film it it.

Dubai - We were able to acquire some shots in Dubai as a couple of us were able to get out there for familial reasons and this was hugely important in our trailer as it contrasted London with somewhere which is considered exotic to fit in with our idea of a global terrorist organisation. We mainly used shots of Dubai towards the end of the trailer as we didn't have an extensive amount of footage available. We had the chase scene in the desert involving cars and we thought that that was best within our montage at the end.

Iceland - We were also able to get shots from Iceland which helps contrast the hot climate of Dubai and once again showcased the idea of the movie being high budget. We used the shots of Iceland in the middle of the trailer as they were generally slower in pace and so built up tension before the music intensified. The shots were largely used to showcase the idea of the organisation going all round the world.

Scouthut - We got many shots in the Scouthut as it was the most accessible location to us when needed be. It was also away from any public interference (a problem in our AS production) which enabled us to have an extensive shots involving guns. This was prevalent with both the protagonist and antagonist. The shots were used throughout as it reminded the audience of the genre they were watching and added effect to the action qualities of our trailer.

Esher Common - We also got many shots in Esher common as it was local to us as well. It was much like the scouthut as it didn't have much interference and so we also acquired shots involving the props here. It was also used to contrast the indoor styling of the scouthut so it emphasises the plot of the story more to the audience.

Conor's House - We got some shots in Conor's house as it allowed us to have shots involving gun fights. This included the attack on a character and the break in which add to the action qualities of the film. The shots were used in the middle and in the montage as they were dynamic and so brought a sense of urgency to the trailer which accompanies the increasing pace of the music nicely.

Evaluation - Trailer with Annotations