Trailer for a british film-this is England

In this theatrical trailer for this is England britain in the 80s, British skinhead culture and the british people on a whole are given specific representations. The trailer starts with the name of the director Shane Meadows, this is because he is a well know director and has a fan base among independent film fans, meaning that when people see his name they will automatically anticipate that the film will be good. The film then shows several clips, including Margaret thatcher, Charles and Diana and a child playing with a rub-ix cube. This instantly distinguishes the place and time in which the film is set to the viewer, allowing the audience to know that the film is set in England during the 1980s. The next shot is of a young boy riding a bike. The fact that he is the first actual character shown, as well as the fact that he is in the centre of the screen in the shot tell the viewer that this is the main protagonist.

Comparing a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer

Teaser trailer

 

A teaser trailer, or teaser is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series.

Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name “teaser” is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to “tease” the audience.

 

Theatrical trailer

 

Definition

Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by theaters. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.^[6]

 

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Media Language

A set of terms used specifically in the media industry to describe certain aspects of the media industry.

Media ownership- issues of how companies work

Convergence-hardware and software coming together across media, and companies coming together.

synergy-Interconnected marketing and distribution of media products across a range of platforms.

Cross media- using more than one media platform.

Proliferation- spread of new technology

research- primary and secondary, establishing patterns

audience

Audiences are at the heart of any study on media, as each media product is made for a specific audience. An audience can be defined by certain attributes, such as socio-economic status, gender, age, race or nationality.  An audience is, in simple terms, a specific group of people who are the consumers of a a particular media product.

representation

Every media product represents a certain person or group of people in a certain way, through how they are portrayed in the product. For example a TV show might portray an old person as more wise than the young by showing them holding a baby i.e. they are providing care for it. Often the director will not consciously try to form  a certain representation, however every decision they make(camera shots, clothing the characters wear etc.)  does form a representation to the audience.

Narrative

The story told in every media product, how it is constructed and how it conveys meaning to the audience.

Genre

The term genre is used to define a specific type of media product, according to the codes and conventions it follows. i.e. We can tell if a film is a horror film as it adheres to the codes and conventions of the horror genre(dark lighting, creepy music etc).

using conventions from real media texts

When we designed our film, the last judgement, it was important to include established codes and conventions of the horror genre in our film in order to make sure that it would be correctly read as a horror film.  In order to achieve this we were required to watch clips from other horror films(the grudge, the descent), and observe the conventions they used (dark lighting, eerie music etc.)in order to include them in our own film.

Post-production

Post production refers to any changes made to a product after it has been produced. In terms of producing a film, post production is the stage that comes after both the planning and research stage, and the production stage. It usually involves editing, as well as the distribution and consumption of the the product.

Research and planning

Prior to the production of a media product planning and research must be done to ensure that the product will appeal to the correct target audience and give the correct reading to the audience. The following areas are included within the research and planning process:

- Target audience

- techniques within the genre

-the codes and conventions of the proposed genre

-the processes of manufacture and distribution

-technology and equipment to be used during production and post-production