Institutions

There are many well-known film institutions such as:

 20^th Century Fox: Avatar, Ice Age














Warner Brothers: Harry Potter, The Matrix













Universal: Mamma Mia, Wild Child
















DreamWorks: Shrek, Madagascar















Walt Disney: Finding Nemo, Pirates Of The Caribbean

·      Paramount: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

    Focus Features: One Day, Eternal Sunshine

These are the most famous film institutions when a trailer is shown the institution comes up before the opening shot. Because our film is of the romance genre, we have to make sure that we pick an appropriate institution to advertise our film for example we would not pick DreamWorks as that is well know for animations and ours is not an animation film therefore would not be our film institution.  So at the beginning of our trailer we will need an institution to advertise and produce it we will use one of the above. We researched further into Paramount we found a sub company called Paramount Vantage who create films that are more artistic and we wanted our film to be really creative so we decided to go with Paramount Vantage as our first institution this will also help us with the distribution of our film, we are also going to use Focus Features as they also create romantic films so this will fit with our conventions. We also decided that we would create our own institution. In order to create our own institution we will have to create an original logo so people will recognize it as our own institution company. We need it to look quite girly and pretty however also simple and professional, as it will only be on the screen for around a second we also don’t want to confuse the audience that it is the title of the film.

This is the institution we have created I think this works really well I really like the image we have used as I think it creates a really clear idea. We chose the name Attachment Productions as we thought this sounded like a company that would create a romantic film. I am really happy with this image as I think it will look really professional and realistic and this will also be shown at the start of our trailer. The institution will help us advertise and promote our film by creating posters and magazines and the trailer, so they will be included in all of these different parts to do with our trailer. To advertise our trailer further we could also advertise it online.   

Our film idea

We decided that most romantic films have a plot that starts of in a calm state of exposition, this is where the two lovers are in love and happy, then the action rises to a climax within the film this is usually the part within the plot where something goes wrong, that tears the two lovers apart, this then leads to the part of the story where it is sad as the lovers are apart and lonely and it is the emotional part of the movie, this is the denouement part of the plot. This then leads to the resolution of the plot, normally it’s a happy ending and they are together again. This is the generic convention for a romance film. 

This is a diagram that explains the plot of most narratives 

When we were producing the idea of the narrative to our film we wanted to create a plot that was similar to the normal convention as we could create a clear storyline of what we wanted in our film trailer. We started by deciding the main characters in our film we decided to use a couple that were already together as we wanted our trailer to look like natural chemistry not false or acted. We are using Georgia White and Jimmy Vick Taylor. So now we had our main characters we decided to start the story with them in love, to portray this in our trailer we decided to start with opening shots of them in love, so the audience get a well-defined idea of that they are the main characters and are together, this would be the exposition of the plot, this would then lead to the conflict within the storyline, then we want this to cut straight to the climax of the narrative. Then we want to see a shot of our main male character in a prison cell this is then where the plot starts the denouement, we then want to use the split screen to show them now separated. We want this to be the emotional and touching part of the film/trailer.  He then gets released from prison and goes back to their house, however he then sees a shot of her with someone else. However in the trailer we don’t see weather there is a happy ending or not.         

Our film idea defiantly fits with the generic conventions of the romance genre. This is why our storyline will work well and I think this will give the audience a chance to understand our idea fully.  This is a diagram of the different shots that we want to use within our trailer, we made a list of as many shots as we could as from our research we could see that we needed a variety of different shots. Within these different shots we are going to make sure they look in love. We think this will really portray our romance idea and make the audience feel emotional. 

We then had to think of what we were going to name our film I think this was the hardest part we spent ages and we wanted it to be really clever and we wanted to include the idea of prison in the title. We thought of many ideas like:

•      Inside
•     Life Bound
•     Sacrifice
•     Convict Of Affection
•     Jail
•     Doing Time
•     Borrowed Time
•     Locked

These were all good names but we felt they didn’t portray our romance idea well, however the jail idea was evident in these titles, but we wanted our idea to be more subtle so it doesn’t give the idea of jail away straight away. So we carried on brainstorming and we thought of the idea on intimate as this is the idea of love and romance, then we saw that this could also be changed into In-Mate, which is what another word for prisoner is. So we thought of ways in which we could show this to the audience and we thought of some good ideas including the letters being in handcuffs or prison bars so we thought if we create the title we could see if our idea would actually work. Here is the first title we created we used the idea od handcuffs around the T and the I in the middle of the word intimate to show the idea of in-mate. To create the title we used Abdobe Photoshop CS3 as this allowed us to create our idea virtually.

I think this title looks good however I don’t think it gives a clear idea of what the title is actually about I think that people will get confused with what the film title is and what we are trying to portray. I also think that the idea of prison is too obvious. So I think we should create another title using a different idea and develop it.  

This is the second title that we created I prefer this title as I think that the prison element is more subtle and looks more creative, the text also looks really good as I think that it looks romantic. And the hands holding the prison bars on the T and the I portray the idea of violence. I also think that the black works really well as it looks simple but effective, however when we add this to our film poster and magazine we might have to adapt the colour so it doesn’t blend in with the background. We are going to use this title instead of the first one we created.    

Initial Ideas

We looked into the different film genres and decided that we wanted to create a romantic comedy. We decided to look at Rom-Com trailers and see what the conventions are two people that are opposite weather it would be social classes, or completely opposite personality’s or they meet in a sticky situation that brings them together. We decided to look into romantic comedy trailers so we could get more of an idea of what was included.

                                                                    The Ugly Truth 

The ugly truth trailer has a variety of different shots from the beginning including a lot of mid-shots in the opening shots of the trailer; from these shots we can tell that the lady with blonde hair is the main character. Throughout this trailer the comedy is evident and we can see that the two characters do not like each other creating a stereotypical Rom-Com convention. This being the two different personalities. The storyline is clear throughout so the audience understands what the story is about and establishes what is happening. There is also a variety of different music in the trailer it is also very upbeat which is another convention of a Rom-Com trailer. There is also a voice over to establish to the audience the famous characters that are in the film, I really like this trailer I think that it portrays the storyline really well and the audience really understands the trailer, I think this is what needs to come across in our trailer so that it looks effective and the audience don’t get confused when watching our trailer. 

The Proposal 

When we see the opening shot we can already tell what one character is like as we see the alarm clock and he is running through the city showing he is disorganized and scatty. We then see text appear like someone typing on a computer this works really well in establishing the different characters and enforcing the narrative. When we see the next main character we can see that she is more sophisticated and organized with her hair scraped back. So again this is another key convention of the Rom-Com genre with the use of different personalities and social classes. In the trailer we also see the crisis situation, which lands both the characters into the third convention of the sticky situation that is going to bring them together.

Again there are a variety of different shots used and we can see the clear narrative that is included within the trailer the shots help portray them, the audio used within the trailer foreshadows the shots and the action in the trailer for example at the crisis part there is no audio which creates an effect that the audience can listen to what is being said it also creates an awkward silence which is what the characters are experiencing, I think we will have to concentrate a lot in using the music to prefigure the narrative. Again there is also use of a voice over to establish the famous characters within the film.   

After watching these trailers we discuss the ideas of the different storylines we could have. After a long discussion about it we decided that we wouldn’t be able to create the comedy elements within the trailers so we decided to do further research into just the romance side of it to see if we could create this the main conventions of romance is people fall in love but something happens in which everything goes wrong and they cant be together this is the main narrative in romantic films. We then decided to look at just romance trailers.

Like Crazy 

We see the opening shot of her putting a letter on a car of someone’s this starts off the romantic storyline. This then escalates into a series of different shots of them falling in love, this allows the story to get to the point quickly so the audience can understand what the narrative is, we then see a variety of different shots of them in love and happy together. Then the crisis happens and she has to move away this is very clear from the shots used. The music then changes to a slower sadder piano song this also changes the mood of the trailer and the audience automatically start to sympathize with both the characters as they are separated and we want the outcome to be positive we then get a voice over of them enforcing the idea that it isn’t. I noticed throughout this trailer that there were a lot of fading in and out transitions I think that this would be to represent a time lapse so the audience know that when the shot fades back in, it is a different time, place and location. The trailer has a clear narrative and the audience want to find out what happens in the film as you don’t find out if they get together I think it is good to end the trailer on a cliff hanger as this will make the film more intriguing.

As soon as we watched this trailer we felt automatically inspired and wanted to create a trailer like this and of the romance genre so we decided as a group that this would be our genre for our trailer.       

Film poster analyzation

We have researched into film posters and what they represent there are many different representations within film posters that we might not be able to see straight away however if you look deeper into a film poster you may be able to see a stronger message of what it represents. To show this I have analysed 3 different film posters from three different genres to see the different representations between them. 

As you can see there are many different representations in different genres and film posters. There are many different institutions that can advertise your media product for example independent film makers may use sources like YouTube and myspace to advertise there trailers and film, they might also set up a website for the film to generate more publicity and more recognition by the public. Whereas more famous institutions are able to spend more money on the advertising and distribution of films, for example they could use billboards, buses, posters on bus stops, advertising at the cinemas, trailers before a film in the cinema with the same genre as that is likely to be your target audience for the film and a website as the internet is a very powerful source of advertising and promotion.