Media Evaluation Q1

2. Overall, our trailer contains a ‘repertoire’ of elements from which various generic descriptions can be
constructed, also the iconography within our trailer contains both visual and audio shots which become
instantly recognisable to our specific teaser. For example, the setting and location of our trailer is based
around the college grounds of Reigate which contains a lot of dispersed land, and greenery. To many films,
the distinct location of the film can often portray the narrative’s genre to the audience.
Similarly, our film contains an underlying theme developing a ‘moral of the story’ idea to the audience.
Hubristic themes are underlined in the Titanic for example whereby the famous boat was built and
advertise as the ‘largest boat ever’ and able to ‘conquer all’ the them of the boat attempting to cheat nature
or God resulted in the awful accident. ‘Closure’ highlights a girl attempting to overcome the government
and the police as an innstitution by setting out to find her boyfriends killer alone.

3. Time/Location-
 After researching into the conventions of a
teen/thriller genre film we were able to find that the
majority of teen thriller films are created at night.
The teaser for 'Gone Girl' which inspired our
narrative was mainly shot at night. Our teaser
trailer challenges this convention due to the time of
the filming slot we were allocated by our college.
 Our teaser features a number of locations around
and within the perimeter of the college allowing our
audience to see a change in ‘mise en scene’ in our
narrative. The trailer of 'Gone Girl' which was filmed
in similar locations such as a house, police station
and community park.
 However, our trailer was not filmed in a
conventional location of a teen thriller such as in a
dark, isolated area as we were only allowed to use
the perimeter around and within the college
grounds.

4. Ident-
The distribution of our trailer’s ident conforms to the stereotypical layout of production ident’s
seen on films alongside one’s we had researched. After thorough research into the ident’s of
film productions, we we are able to find around 4 characteristics that were distinctive on all
ident’s;
 Bold text/font
 Centered on the screen
 Release date of full film featured
 Media networking - (Facebook/Twitter/Website)

5. Title Sequence
• Our trailer does not feature any ongoing title sequences as our voiceovers were the main
function of sound within our trailer. However, the majority of teaser trailers often feature titles
such as; 'From the Director of...' / 'Produced by' / 'From the Makers of’ in order to attract their
audience. This may be through popular actors/actress’s or well-known film director’s.
 However, at the end of our film we included the release date of the full film in order to promote
our fillm’s branding package to our audience.

6. Camerawork-
 Our teaser trailer was edited in the form of a 'Montage sequence' , this editing style is
typical of the teen/thriller genre consisting of fast pace transition's with calm and mellow
music to emphasise the ongoing dramatic action.
 Our trailer opens with the character in a mid-long shot looking out onto the lake. After
researching, we found that teen thriller's generally start with an establishing shot of the
location in the film to introduce the audience. Although we did not begin with an
establishing shot as this is too predictable we were able to create this mid-shot into a
distinctive location for our film. A place where our audience may recognise. Once we
looked into the opening/establishing shots of film’s we were able to find that many teen
thriller’s contain iconic locations that the audience will remember as a imporatant
feature to the film. Insidious for example uses a creepy house as their first shot to
introducing the film whilst Gone Girl uses a line of bold, yellow 'Missing' tape to suggest
the story about to unfold.

7. Editing;
Like most teaser trailers we researched, we decided to develop the conventions and
also use a voiceover to give an insight into the story line. The films ‘Blow Up’ and
‘Gone Girl’ also contain voiceover’s.
We also felt that our voiceover helped the audience to completely understand the
storyline behind our film.

8. Applying ‘Prop’ to our film
Vladmir Prop - came up with the ways of identifying key functions and roles with all narrative stories.
Useful as this allows you to look beyond the narrative and identify the structure of how it is told; these
were known as “Prop’s Character Functions”. By applying Prop to our original plan, we were able to
establish each character in the teaser and their functions to the narrative. Firstly we applied the
functions through well known/popular films and were next able to apply this to our own trailer.
 Hero - seeks and faces challenges - Charlotte seeks a challenge of finding her boyfriend's killer and
bringing them to justice.
 Villian - opposes and faces challenges - Murderer struggles to stay calm and begins to hide in the
shadows of Charlotte. attempting to scare and threaten her.
 Helper- gives support, follows hero - Holly, Charlotte's friend prvides Charlotte with oppourtunities
of relief and rest during her process.
 Donor - provides magic/advice/skill - The Media is able is able to provide Charlotte with new ideas/
theories of the last know whereabouts of her boyfriend before his death etc.
 Dispatcher - sends hero on task - Before the murder of her boyfriend, Charlotte wsa just an average
teenager who went to college and hung around with her friends. The murder transforms her into a
new person, who attempts to seek both revenge and justice.

9. Equilibrium
 Todrov wrote about the structure of narrative in terms of a state of being . Suggests that
fiction begins with a state of Equilibrium (calm), there is a disruption, later forming a new
equilibrium.
 Girl and boyfriend start off happy together, disruption is that he is murdered. New
equilibrium is that she has to move on. In the trailer we see the first equilibrium but the
new equilibrium is not shown (as it is a teaser trailer) we only show a preview of the
equilibrium as we are attempting to sell the film to our audience.