3. NARRATIVE THEORIES
The narrative of a film and the way it’s portrayed are very important aspects in a trailer as the audience is
able to get a clearer. Through the use of narrative the audience knows what to expect of the film and they can
also be manipulated as they only see a short section it. Overall it means that the audience becomes attached to
the characters and want to find out more about their story
Closed: More often found in films and contain a beginning, middle and an end. The audience is also fully
aware that they are watching a complete story and this enables them to predict an ending. Whilst open
narratives have chronological time sequences, closed narratives are compressed and not linked to any events
in the outside world. There are less characters and they are ranked in order of importance so that the storyline
revolves primarily around only one of them and the audience therefore experiences the film from that
character’s perspective.
This is the type of narrative I’ve used in my trailer.
4. NARRATIVE THEORIES
Todorov believed that all narratives should
begin with a state of equilibrium where
everything is calm. This should then be followed
by some sort of disruption which is finally
resolved and a new equilibrium is found. This is
a very ‘Hollywood’ approach to narrative and
would often be found in romantic comedies.
Levi –Strauss on the other hand believed that
any narrative is formed by the juxtaposition of
binary opposites such as good vs. evil,
empowered vs. victim or domestic vs. alien/
foreign.
I think my trailer conforms more to Levi-
Strauss’s theory as my trailer begins with a title
ascending containing information about human
trafficking and people are walking in the
background showing humans as the victims per
say the moves onto the main characters Sofia and
Aleksandra looking sad, which shows that they
are obviously the good people within the story as
they’ll be perceived as victims but then moving
onto a shady looking man smoking a cigar and
already the audience make a connection then
later on moving onto the same shady man playing
poker with other men and they get more of a feel
of the situation. This shows the empowered side
and the victim or domestic side of the situation
also by using women as well it makes it easier to
see the idea of them being victimised.
5. SOCIAL REALISM
What is social realism?
Social realism is a genre of film that focuses on topical issues alive in a modern society which
is represented by different ideologies. It has different themes such drugs, prostitution, sex,
religion, class, racism etc. The theme I’ll be focusing on in my trailer is prostitution. The
forms and conventions for social realism are usually the use of unknown actors, this supports
the social realism genre because the actors could be anyone which makes it realistic. Social
class is an important form and convention as most social realism films deal with the working
class like ‘Fish Tank’. The locations of a social realist film are usually set around a council
estate or run down areas of different cities but can be in a nice neighbourhood. Age is
important to the forms and conventions of social realism as most social realist films use
teenagers usually from the ages 13-20.
6. CONVENTIONS OF THE
SOCIAL REALISM GENRE
CONVENTIONS OF SOCIAL
REALISM
Location shooting (NO STUDIO)
Wide shots
Non-professional actors
Semi improvised scripts
Humour and seriousness
The erosion of regional identities
Wider social issues explored via
emotional and dramatic individual stories
Triumph over adversity
LOCATION SHOOTING
Social realist films aren’t
filmed in studios instead they
are shot on council estates
and parks. By using council
estates and parks etc this
makes the film feel more
realistic so that the audience
will be engaged.
Non-professional actors
Non professional actors
are used as most social
realist films can’t afford a
list stars and also using
non-famous people makes
the audience relate more
to the actors.
Humour and Seriousness
Social realist films consist of everyday problems such as
unemployment etc there’s a lot of serious with a pinch of humour.
7. AUDIENCE
EXPECTATIONS
When beginning to plan my trailer I first researched existing products that were aimed at the same target
market I had selected and were also the same genre –social realism– these trailers I looked at were ‘Trade’ and
‘Human Trafficking’. I chose both of these as they had the same look and feel that I was aiming for with my
product. I specifically chose these two as they both focused on the same subject as I was which was human
trafficking. An element I chose to challenge is the typical placing of the credits at the end of the trailer. I
incorporated the name at the finish as I felt it was a good way of closing the footage. A particular conformity
that I followed was the lack of voice overs overlaid over the footage. When researching trailers and their
conventions I found that social realist films very rarely have voice overs as this is a feature more commonly
found within the romantic/comedy or the spoof genre.
Another key feature that I found was present in most social realist films is the character choice. Mostly, within
social realist films, the plot consists of teenagers who get into trouble with older men or drug dealers and they
end up being sucked into the facade. This feature was found within ‘Trade’ and many others. In general I found
that the person who most commonly either was attacked first or ultimately was the cowardly reluctant one.
8. TRADE TRAILER
COMPARISON
My
trailerTrade
trailer
Trade vs. The Arrival
My inspiration for my trailer was the Trade trailer as it focused on similar things my trailer focused in the terms of
conventions and the plot. I thought the way in which it is presented to an audience is particularly unique. By using a
lot of wide shots and establishing shots it helped to draw the audience into the film and make them feel involved in
the action itself whilst they become attached to the different characters. As the ‘Trade’ trailer follows normal social
realist conventions my trailer also follows some but not all conventions of social realist films for example both my
trailer and the trade trailer begin with an ident. But my trailer challenges conventions of a normal trailers by not
beginning with an establishing shot as most trailers would have and also my both our trailers use titles to let the
audience know more about human trafficking by posting statistics by using this method this really shows the
audience that human trafficking is a real problem and that they should be more aware this makes them feel more
involved but sticking to another convention I used non-famous actors and so did the Trade trailer directors.
