The Codes And Conventions Of A Trailer

BBFC Rating

Our group has decided that the rating for our movie is going to be a:

Drugs

• Our movie will contain the theme of drugs, however the misuse of drugs will be frequent, and not glamourised or give instructional detail. However there will be Aggressive discriminatory language or behavior which unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.

Discrimination

• As our movie will have a black protagonist there will be an element of racism in the movie. However, racism in our movie will not be presented to an extreme level 

Language

• There may be moderate language. In our movie there will be strong language that is infrequent.

Nudity and Sex

• In our trailer there will be no nudity or sex, but a brief show of outward affection between a couple, may include a kiss.

Threat

• There will moderate threats in our movie, with addition to tense scenes that may be disturbing to some individuals.

Violence

There will be moderate violence but it will not be dwell upon in detail. There will be no emphasizes of blood, but occasional gory moments.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT?

This research acts as a guidelines to help us to keep to the conventions of a 12 rated movie. This research has made us more aware of the criteria that we need to meet in order to fit into the category of a 12 rated movie.

BBFC Research

Appealing to Our Target Audience

To make our trailer appealing to our target audience, our group has come up with numerous ideas to attract our target market. Our target audience is males, between the ages of 15-24 years old, middle class from a urban area.

The main aspects that our group will be focusing on in order to produce a successful trailer that will appeal to our target audience is:

• Casting
• Music
• Storyline

Casting

Our group has decided to cast a male to be the protagonist of our production, this will make our trailer more appealing towards the target audience as they will be able to relate to the life of the protagonist. In fact, our group has decided to cast majority of the characters in our trailer as males. This is because we wanted a variation of characters in which our target audience can relate to, or even look up to and be inspired. We also chose our protagonist to be black. According to the BFI between 2006-2017 out of 1,172 movies only 157 featured a black protagonist. Our group wanted to have a black protagonist in order to include ethnic minorities into our target audience making it more appealing for them to come and watch this movie.

Music

A limitation of targeting a male audience is that our group is a all female group, thus it will be difficult relating to the life of a male. A solution to this problem is to ask questions to males that fit our target audience in order to understand the life of a male and the situations they would face. An example of this is music. Music is an important feature to a trailer as it dictates the entire mood of the production.  Our group did not really understand what kind of music that males most enjoy therefore we conducted a survey and tally the results out of 30 males between the age of 15-24 years old.

Here are the results:

The results show that hiphop and rap was the music that had the most votes. From our primary audience we have concluded that our music is going to be hip hop based  to appeal our target audience to which will make them moire likely to watch the movie.

This is reinforced by the website https://musicmachinery.com/2014/02/13/age-specific-listening/ who creates demographics of age vs genre of music.

On this website our group found this chart:

Th chart signifies what type of artists individuals are listening to based on their age.  If you look in the category of 18-24 you find that majority of the artists on the list is rappers and hip hop based. This shows that hip-hop/ rap is the most suitable type of music to choose for our trailer.  By putting rap/hip-hop we will be appealing to our target audience as we are relating to them based on what they like.





Story-line 

According to the BFI males are more typically going to watch an action film than females. This shows that they like plots that are dynamic and complex that will keep you to the edge of your seat.
This is reinforced by the survey we gave to 30 boys that are between the ages of 15-24 years old.
Here are the results:

The results clearly show that action is the genre that males like the best. However as our group does not have a big budget we were not able to do an action movie as we were not able to get the equipment to film an successful action trailer.  The typical story line for an action movie is based around the discovery of a problem of some kind and the story leads you to the process of its solution. The story-line is sequential, leading you inexorably by the nose to the satisfying answer. Based on this our group has decided to adapt this foundational convention for a action story line and for  a drama movie. Therefore our protagonist will face a problem in which he needs to resolve, however it will be more realistic and reality based compared to an action film because of the genre and our budget. This will make it more appealing to our target audience as our story-line will have features of an action movie in which they would enjoy, but the story-line will also be relatable to the audience as the story-line may reflect some of the issues that our audience have been through.

According to the BFI 2016 statistical yearbook it shows that individuals between the ages of 15-24 years old also prefer movies with action.

Even though the table depicts that most of the movies are science based/ fantasy these movies still contain a lot of action and features that is found in an action movie. This shows that our group needs to look further into the codes and conventions of an action movie to fully understand what features we can adapt and change in order to fit into our drama trailer, which is at the same time affordable. 

BFI statistical year book also shows that Males prefer more action based films than females:

James Bourne is a successful action move which made 415.5 million USD. However there is a significant male audience share at 73% whilst females are at 27 %.  This evidence supports or primary audience and the idea that we need to include elements of an action gener to appeal to our target audience. 

What Have We Learnt?

Through this research our group has learnt what we need to do in order to create a trailer that is appealing to our target audience. The research has allowed to target key elements of our production such as, music, casting and story-line/plot and really think how we can cater these elements to our male audience in order to create a successful trailer that will be appealing to our target audience. 

We also have learnt that action is the genre that our target audience prefers. Therefore we have research into this genre in order to understand why it is so successful with males between the ages of 15-24 years old. Thus our group will be able to know what features we can add to make our trailer appealing towards our target audience. 

Target Audience

Our group has created an audience survey so that we can have a general idea into who will be our target audience for our movie. Our survey was given to 24 people in our year. Through this we can gain a general understanding into who we should aim movie at :

AUDIENCE SURVEY

CIRCLE YOUR ANSWERS

Gender:

Male               Female  

Age:

Under 10                                 11 – 16                                               17– 24                                     

 25+

How often do you watch movies? :

Everyday             Once a week         once a month            Less than once a month  

What is your favourite genre of film? Why?:

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What is your least favourite genre of film? Why?:

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Do you enjoy watching the genre Drama? :

Yes                        No                       Sometimes        

Does a film trailer influence if you watch a film?:

Yes                    No                   Sometimes         

Can you elaborate on your answer? :

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What type of drama movies to you prefer to watch?

Crime Drama          Comedy Drama               Horror Drama            Romantic drama          

Why?

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Where do you find out about new movies?:

TV trailers[   ]     Online trailers   [   ]     Magazines   [   ]     Cinema   [   ]

EXAMPLEX2

RESULTS:

As the survey was only given to students in year 13 all the students were between the ages of  17-24, averaging at the age of 18 years old.

There was 13 females and 11 males that took part in our audience survey. Our group tried our best to have an equal amount of each gender completing this form. 

RESULT: Favorite Genre of film:

• 10 people voted for action.
• 7 people voted for science fiction.
• 6 people voted for drama.
• 1 person voted for romance.

RESULT: Least favorite Genre of film:

• 8 people voted for romance.
• 7 people voted for musicals.
• 5 people voted for horror.
• 4 people voted for documentary

RESULT: Do you enjoy watching the genre drama?

• 20 people voted yes.
• 4 people voted no.

RESULT: Does a film trailer influence if you see a movie.

All participants voted yes. Additionally participants  said it was because in a trailer you get to see clips from the actual movie which determines whether you would be interested in seeing it.

RESULT: What type of drama movie would you prefer to watch?

• 12 people voted for crime drama.
• 10 people voted for comedy drama.
• 1 person voted for horror drama.
• 1 person voted for romance.

RESULTS: Where do you find out about new movies?:

• 12 people said from TV trailers.
• 12 people said from cinemas.

CONCLUSION:

From my primary research I have discovered that by doing a crime drama it will be good to target young people. The reason for this is that drama was the 3rd most popular genre voted for, and crime drama was the most popular sub type of drama voted for, This is shows that there is a market for crime drama movies directed towards young people. However, a limitation of this research is that I was only able to give this survey to students in year 13. As a result I do not have any other research to compare my data to with to see if it is consistent with wider reality. As a consequence our group has decided to research further by using the BFI website which is a certified secured website to gain more of an understanding into who our target audience should be.

According to the BFI, statistical yearbook it shows that in 2016, 15-24 year olds made up the largest proportion of the UK cinema audience, at 29%. This reinforces my earlier point that there would be a market in targeting young people between the ages of 15-25 years old. Furthermore the BFI also states that a  wide range of genres appealed to women, whereas men were drawn to films with a strong action element. Even though our movie trailer does not share some of the same qualities as a  action movie due to budget there will be a lot of action as it is a crime drama trailer. This makes our group question whether our movie is more targeted towards males than females.

The table above shows the top 20 UK films for individuals between the ages of 15-24 years old. However, as you can see majority of the films in this list are action, science fiction or fantasy. This does not reinforce the conclusion of my previous research stating that crime drama is a popular genre among young people (15-24) years old. This further strengthens the argument that my primary research is limited. Nonetheless as our trailer will consist of actors who are within the age boundaries of our target audience might help interest an audience between the ages of 15-24 years old as they may be able to identify with the characters in the movie. 

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Based on all the evidence our group has decided that our target audience should be:

• Boys
• 15-25 years old
• Middle class

The reason why we have chosen top target our movie towards boys than girls is because according to the BFI even though females are more accepting to different genres males tend to like action movies. Even though our movie is not an action movie we believe that that males will enjoy our film more as it is still action packed and because we have a male protagonist so they will be able to identify more with the character as the movie more show some of the circumstances they may have gone through. This may make them more interested to come and see the movie. 

The reason why we have chosen the age group of 15-25 year old is because not just the actors but the whole filming crew is averaging around the age of 18. This makes it easier for us to relate to this specific audience. This is the same reason why we chose to target the middle class as majority of the individuals involved in this project are middle class themselves.

TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILER

Here is an example of a member of our target audience.

NAME: Tyler Maddon

AGE: 17 Years Old

WHERE DO YOU LIVE? : Croydon

HOBBIES: I enjoy playing football and video games with friends. I have an interest in filming and enjoy going to the cinema, and spending time with my family.

The Genre We Have Chosen

The reason why we have chosen  the genre drama is because it relies on the relational development of realistic characters, and on dramatic themes taken from intense real life issues. Thus it is the easiest genre to film out of all the genres that we have researched, as it will be more straightforward choosing costume, props, and locations that relate to the topic of real-life. Furthermore as our group has a small budget we do not have to spend a big budget as we can manipulate the genre to fit our needs.

 As drama is very broad genre we can create a range of plots that fit within in its category. Consequently we can be more creative, as we produce a trailer that is unique, but still remain within the group of drama.

The other contender was romance. The reason why we did not choose romance as our final genre as there is only one main story line that you can follow which is two individuals fall in love with each other. We wanted to be more diverse in our ideas and not be conventional. 

Filming Genres

By identifying the codes and conventions of  the romance, comedy, thriller and drama genres; our group has gained more of an insight into what genre we would like to use for our trailer. Additionally, through the extensive research of these genres, we have been able to gain knowledge and understanding, on what codes and conventions to add into our trailer. This is important as it allows the audience to identify the genre through its specific codes and conventions.

Here are a list of  benefits and limitations of filming each one of these genres.

Romance

Some of the members in our group liked the idea of filming a romantic trailer. The reasons behind this is because not a lot of students use romance as a genre for their trailer. Additionally, as females, we gravitated towards a female targeted genre.The benefit of this is that the members in our group watch a lot of romantic films therefore, it will make it easier to come up with
story lines.

A limitation of filming a romantic trailer is casting. As a group, we have asked various boys to take part in our production to portray a male protagonist but, none of the boys seemed interested in being involved. In fact, they said that they would not join for that specific reason of it being a romantic movie as it is not masculine.

To overcome this problem, our group has decided that if we were going to film a romantic movie, we film a one sided romance in which we would not see the male protagonist and focus mainly on the females point of view and how she views love.


Comedy

The benefits of filming a comedy trailer is that comedy is also another genre that is not used by students also, it will entertaining to film this genre as we will have to come up with funny scenarios and jokes to use in the trailer.

However, a limitation of filming a comedy trailer is that the audience may not find the jokes that we use amusing. Additionally, some of the jokes may not be understood by people of a different culture therefore, we will have to find jokes that universal. If we don't, the trailer may not make sense to certain people.

To overcome this limitation our group will really need to think about the jokes that we would use. We would do a pilot study on a representative audience sample to see if they like and understand the jokes. If the pilot study is success we will keep the trailer as it is if not, we will have to re-film certain scenes of the trailer. Therefore, we have to start filming early so if we have to change anything we still have time.

Thriller

An advantage of filming a thriller movie is that our opening sequence in AS was a thriller therefore, we could use some of the ideas that we had last year to create a narrative and story-line. Another benefit of doing a thriller trailer is that a lot of students use thriller as a genre. Therefore, our group will be able to gain insight on others people perspective on the thriller genre by watching there trailers.

A limitation of doing a thriller genre is that thriller is a easy genre to do hence lots of students use it. Therefore, it may be difficult to come up with an original trailer that is different from others. As a group we want our trailer to be unique and by doing a thriller genre we don't believe that our trailer will be an individual.

To overcome this limitation our group will have ask for advice from the teacher and do surveys to investigate how we could make our trailer more appealing towards the audience and what we could add to make it different
Drama

An advantage of doing the drama genre is that it is the easiest genre to film, as it would not need special effects, or expensive costumes, and we can base our trailer on true stories making it easier in coming up with the story line. Additionally drama is the largest filming genre as it is covers a wide spectrum of topics and plots. Also if we choose to film a dramatic trailer it will allow us to challenge some of the current issues that is occurring in Britain, as our group may be able to include a current debate to make our audience think and to also inform them of the topic. We even can put our own opinion into the trailer putting forward our ideas and beliefs.

However, even though the dramatic genre can be seen to be more diverse, consumers may view it as boring. This may because of the superhero craze that is occurring in the movie industry at the moment. According to the BFI statistical yearbook the top two films in 2016 were Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with takings of £66 million and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with earnings of £55 million. This is a clear example how science fiction and fantasy are the prime genres at the moment, and with our low budget it would be hard to create a fantasy/ science fiction trailer.

Through this research our group has weighed the strengths and the limitations of each genre, and have decided that the film genre that we are going to choose for our trailer is the genre drama. Even though some may find this genre boring our group found it more diverse allowing us to venture into different topics, and plots that we would not have been able to venture into if we picked another genre such as thriller. We found drama more divergent and more suited to our current budget.

RESOURCES

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-statistical-yearbook-2017.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/RyanBogle2/a2-media-genre-research

https://study.com/academy/lesson/romance-genre-definition-history-characteristics.html

https://www.slideshare.net/LewisTowse7/advantages-and-disadvantages-of

https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/

Codes and Conventions of a Thriller Movie

Codes And Conventions Of Comedy

Codes And Conventions Of A Romance Film

Codes And Conventions Of A Dramatic Movie

Research Into Potential Genres

The purpose of this research is to allow our group to begin our investigation into what genre we would like to base our film trailer on. By researching successful movies for each genre we were able analyse some of their trailers, allowing us to understand what to include and to disregard to complete a fashionable  movie trailer. Additionally by understanding the definition of each genre our group was able to have a clear idea to what each genre means. So if I decided to go into the genre for example, romance I distinctly know what would be the meaning of my trailer. 

The most important thing that I have learnt through this research is that it is important for the consumers to identify with the genre when watching a movie, or trailer. For this to happen we have to follow the set of cinematic rules that creates the atmosphere that the audience is able to identify to a specific genre. For example, if you are filming a horror you are most likely going to use low key lighting to create a tense and dark atmosphere for the audience; so they can identify that they are watching a horror movie.

Additionally, from this research and looking at the successful movies for each genre we found that it is easier to film a drama, or romance trailer over a science fiction trailer. This is because our budget is low and it would be hard replicating the science fiction genre, as it would need special effects to make it effective, and due to our low budget this will not be able to happen. Our group also decided that we do not want to choose the genre horror because it is the most easiest to film, and we want to challenge ourselves. Furthermore when looking at other examples of students work the top performed genre is horror, so our group decided to choose another genre as we want our trailer to be different and easily remembered by the examiner.

Group Planning

Job Roles

As there are only 2 members in my group including myself,  Ellie and I thought that it would be beneficial to do some research into job roles in order to understand the full capacity of the roles that we have to undertake. Through this research we were able to sit down and distribute the roles equally according to each individuals strength. As our group is quite small we wanted to make sure that we are fulfilling all the roles necessary in order to make a successful trailer, poster and magazine.

The Brief

A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media is a coursework unit candidates will produce: 

• A media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts;
• A presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in digital format(s). 

These two points will be based on a  promotional package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options: 

• A website homepage for the film; 

• A film magazine front cover, featuring the film; 

• A poster for the film.

We will be doing the film magazine cover featuring the film and the film poster

Four targets for my A2 Media Course

• The first target that I would like to achieve in my A2 coursework is to stay on track and meet targets. By doing this we will be able to stick to deadlines and get feedback from our teacher on time. Furthermore, by doing the work and getting the feedback on time, our group will be able to make the appropriate corrections before our work gets set off to the examiner. 

• The second target that I would like to set for myself is to be organised and plan effectively. The reason for this is because last year we were not very organised and did our plans on scrap pieces of paper, so we were not able to apply our thoughts and ideas effectively to the trailer. I believe that planning is very important as it will allow our group to know precisely what we want to achieve for our film trailer. By planning effectively it allows us to know what ideas and messages we want convey and how the audience will receive them. 

• The third target is to include everyone's idea in our production. Everyone in our group has their own ideas and beliefs that they think that should be included in the final production. Some of these ideas not everybody will agree on so it is important that we compromise so that everyone in the groups ideas will be conveyed in our final task.

• The fourth target is to enjoy my coursework and put 100% effort into it, so I can get the best grade I can possibly get.

What went well in AS Media

• In year 12 we were able to finish all the work. Even though our group did rush towards the end of the course we were able to complete all the work that we planned to do.

• Another thing that went well last year is that everyone in our group pulled their weight. The work was evenly distributed and everyone knew what they had to do. 

• Additionally our group had the motivation complete the work to the best of their ability. As a result we were able to present high level work. 

What didn't go well in AS Media

• In year 12 one thing that are group struggled with is planning. When we planned our film opening sequence it was not in depth and usually written at the back of a scrap piece of paper, therefore our thoughts and ideas was not carefully constructed and applied effectively to our trailer. 

• Additionally, even though we started our coursework early we were not attentive and were not able to keep up to speed with our blogging. We got a little bit lazy, and this is a challenge for us as we were more pressured towards the end of the course to finish. 

• Our last point is that our group didn't do as much research into the genes of our opening sequence. We picked the gender thriller/horror because it was the easiest thing to do and everybody in our class was doing it so it was easier to share ideas. Therefore our final task lacked individuality/ originality. Therefore this year we have to make sure that our research thorough, which will help us create a successful trailer.