Trailer Analysis - Rush Hour 3

The trailer of Rush Hour 3 lasts for 2minutes and 27 seconds however the last 7 seconds is a marketing appeal with them offering free tickets to the premiere if they are chosen in text game. The film is Brett Ratner and this is the 3rd installment of the Rush Hour film series.

The trailer starts off with the outdoor view of Paris with a man's voice talking over though we know this isn't an narrator but a scene moment in the film. The trailer has written parts to it where it picks out to highlight important facts with the first 'In the heart of Paris' letting the audience know where the film is going to be set. It then shows fast paced action scenes in a slow pace so that the audience can capture everything in. This is as effective as if it was in its original fast pace. The background music builds up sounds so that the audience is kept eager to know what going to happen next. It seems to the audience that something dark and deadly is going to happen but then it suddenly switches to a happy scene with the two main actors being introduced. This is done to mislead the audience which also keeps them entertained as they didn't expect it. This is where all the comedy scenes are brought forward to the audience. The films story-line is not mentioned but we know little bits of what to look forward to. This is done to keep the plot under wraps so that the audience will want to watch it. The ending of the actual trailer finishes off with a funny scene which has you laughing for a while and puts a smile on your facing forcing you to want to watch it.

The last 7 seconds is a market appeal to attract their audience and to also keep them happy as they get a chance to go the premiere.

Personally I found that this trailer was great and in the end I really wanted to watch the film. This is because it has both comedy and action which is a good combination to always keep you entertained with various funny moments.

Trailer Analysis - Pirates of the Caribbean

The next trailer i watch was Pirates of the Caribbean directed by Rob Marshall and lasts for 2minutes and 29seconds. This a an adventure and comedy mixed film which ended up to be very popular and broke box office records when it came out.

The trailer begins with hard hitting sounds and quick scenes flashing up with it then leading on to the main actor talking. Images are shown slowly at a slow pace however they don't last long but enough for the audience to see. It goes straight into the story of the film and then various other characters start to talk and images of the main characters been shown from different parts of the film. We see the main actor who the story evolves around at the end who the audience are looking forward to see. The music is intense yet not too dark and doesn't have a scary effect. Different funny scenes crop up from time to time where they are mostly cheeky remarks done by the main actor. The music in the background is all building up with it always been thew same volume throughout. It then goes on to introduce the characters with their names coming up on the screen one by one with clips of them coming up afterwards. The music then goes quicker and louder with fast shots coming which lasts till the end when the film title shows up and then the date of it's release.

The start of the trailer seemed a bit dull to mean and I didn't really have the urge to watch it but once it got into it and various parts pf the film came up I started to get more appealed to it. By the end of it, I wanted to watch it.

Trailer Analysis - Mirrors

The first trailer I looked at was called Mirrors by Alexandre Aja. Personally I find that this trailer was very eye catching and would easily be able to capture the audience's attention. This is because though overall the whole trailers practically shows what the film is going to be about, it still puts the whole mysterious idea into your heads and pulls you towards watching the film as you want to know what happens and why. The audience knows that the film is about mirrors and that something is wrong with them yet they want to know why they are like that as nothing in the trailer even suggests or hints what is wrong with them or why they are like that.

The trailer starts off with a voice over of man which we can't see first but then a couple of seconds in we see who's voice it is and he is surrounded a woman and kids suggesting the story is about him and that they are his family. Its quite a calm scene which allows the audience to get into the trailer picking up the small things. It then leads on to another scene where we know that he is starting a new job and from there straightaway his first comment is about mirrors which hints that is the main location of where the main plot is going to be taken place. Though its still a calm scene, the background sounds and the whole dark image starts to build up a scary suspense which slowly starts to get more and more scarier. The cuts between these images are at a normal slow pace which is done to build up the suspense. It then goes on to revealing the story-line a little bit and the audience starts to know what they story is about and who is the main actor. They cuts starts to get quicker eventually leading to the scream at the end slowing it down suddenly. The end starts off the same as the beginning at a slow calm pace still revealing the story. It ends with the date of when the film comes out.

I found that this trailer was quite simple to follow though the images of whats happening is quite complex at some points but with the main actor talking in many parts helps in keeping up with it. The building of the suspense was its best feature as it kept the audience guessing and having more of a urge to watch it fully.

Existing products – Trailers

I researched on various different trailers from as many types of genres I could find to get a more detailed insight on how a trailer of a film is produced. I looked at both A-level made trailers and those which have been made to actually air on television. These helped me in more ways than one as it showed to me which genre I would personally find easier to create and how I would go about creating it. Whilst researching up on this, I found different directors which produce the trailers use different kinds of techniques for each genre so that they can catch the audience’s attention however in various parts these techniques overlap. This helped me as I was able to see how they are produced by professional film makers and how can u use those techniques putting my trailer together.

I looked up on the A-level media trailers because I wanted to see how other students in the same position as me have been able to produce their trailers. I’ve been looking up on what kinds of techniques they are using such as the different camera angles, the kind of music/sounds they are using, any other sort of effects they have put in. This is because I will be able to use this information to my advantage as I can put all these different types of factors into my filming/editing process which will allow me to produce the trailer to the best of my ability.

Whilst doing this, I found that A-level students who have produced trailers have opted to go for the horror based genre and the professionals have produced trailers for all the genres there are.  

I also compared the trailers that were made by A-level students and those who were produced by professional film directors.

Hood in Da Wood - Magazine Cover

This is our final piece of the magazine cover. 

Creating the magazine cover

Once all my research on the magazine covers, the next step was producing my own magazine cover with our film to be on the front. Me and my partner sat down and talked about the different ways we could create the cover and in which ways we could make it appealing to our customers. We first looked in to the magazine title which should be standing out the most. We noticed that majority of the film magazines are mixed genres that have different movies from all genre categories. We wanted to be unique and decided to focus on the genre of our film which is horror so that we could really get our film to stand out as the next scariest film releasing. To emphasize on this, we wanted the name of the magazine to relate and highlight the horror behind it. We looked on the internet to find the different horror titles and played and mixed around the words. In the end we decided to go with 'Gore-Mania'.

To make it look realistic, we had to add some writing. We came up with different ideas which we would put in the actual film if we had to create it and made up little quotes and subheadings to put on the cover. Though on many magazine covers, they only have one main image we wanted to highlight that it was horror based magazine and so wanted to added more images that would pin point this. We found some images on the internet and manipulated it on Photoshop to look more bolder and so that it would go with the rest of the magazine.

Magazine Cover Analysis - Empire

Empire is a magazine produced monthly in Britain. The first issue came out in 1989 and it the biggest film magazine seller. It is also published in other countries such as Australia and Turkey. They also host there own awards. Empire is known for its unique approach to film articles and in every issue they always include a scripted scene from the latest film so that their customer's can get an idea of what there will be in a film. Its not as serious as various other film magazines and even their criticism in film reviews are brought forward in a humorous way.

• Empire also have their own title font and color which is kept the same on every cover. Their color is red which was chosen as they found that it was the best color to capture their audience's attention as its bright and bold. The size of the title is always kept the same.

• The title is always kept at the top of the page and varies between if its in front of the image or behind. 

• They also have full image of a character from a movie however they also pick their actors/actresses by interviews which are you can read in the magazine. 

• They use different colors on the magazine to highlight and attract the customers so that it isn't the same color which would put of their customers. 

• Subheadings are also put on the cover to show what is inside the magazine and only write a few words that would interest their customers so they are encouraged to by the magazine.

• Every issue has a bar code at the bottom of the page in the same place every time. 

Magazine Cover Analysis - Total Film

Total Film is a film magazine produced in Britain and is published every 4 weeks in total producing 13 magazines a year. The magazine is the second biggest seller in the UK in the film magazines.The film magazine consists of the latest movie updates that will be coming out, reviews of films and it also allows their audience there chance to win certain films.

• The title of the magazine 'Total Film' appears in every magazine the same font and the same font size. This is because this is their title logo and is how their audience can recognize it from anywhere. The color of it is most of the time white however from time to time they change the color to something else such as red or blue. 

• On every cover there is an image which is from a movie which is most of the time being the latest release out. This is done to bring the audience's attention to this film but also as they usually have a big story inside about it. The image usually covers the whole magazine however at times they create it a bit smaller so that they can fit other mini pictures on. 

• There is small quotes or subheadings on the front to highlight the main stories which are going to be inside. They pick the story pieces which they think that will attract their customers the most. 

• As they always to keep attracting customers, they try different market techniques and the best known one they use is certain offers they have on films which are splattered around the page somewhere. These offers are in bright and bold colors to really catch the customers eye but they don't want to emphasize too much on it as this encourages the customers to read the actual magazine.

Ancillary Task - Magazine Cover

For our second ancillary task, we have to create a front cover of a magazine.

To get a better insight of what is on magazine covers and what techniques are used to appeal to their target audience, I will be researching up and analyzing different magazine covers. As I will be producing a magazine cover for films, I will only look at film magazines rather than all of them as this narrows it down and makes it easier for me to acknowledge the different features on the covers.