Mama trailer recut

This is the original Mama trailer, which I have recut.

Below is my recut trailer for the horror film Mama. I have changed the film genre from a horror to a drama genre, using final cut pro.  I used the same images from the trailer, but changed the music, lighting and cut some of the clips down to look less scary, and more dramatic.

Drama film timeline

I created a timeline of Drama films, using popular films from each decade. I started from the 1920's, when posters for the films were hand drawn and minimal such as those from 'The Crowd'. The film posters have become more advanced as time has gone on, with the most recent film being 'Boyhood', from 2014. The poster from this film shows the main character on the grass, using a high quality image. This research has allowed me to research typical codes and conventions for Drama films, and to see how they have changed over the past 90 years.

Drama film genre

I researched into the Drama genre as this is the genre I have decided to recut a horror trailer into. I researched the codes and conventions, history and hybrids of the genre. I also gave brief case studies on recent films and explained the target audience and any significant changes. The presentation also shows some clips from two drama films- the first being from the 1994 comedy drama Forrest Gump, and the other being from the 2015 romantic drama The Age of Adaline. These two films are contrasting hybrids within the drama genre but similarities are shown between them, which can define the both as drama's.

The Shining trailer analysis

The trailer begins with an establishing birds eye shot which implies that the location is very isolated, which is a typical convention of horror films. As an audience, we also sense this isolation, which makes us feel quite unnerved as it is not a location we are used to being in. This feeling creates the sense that this is a horror film as it is making us uneasy, a reason for watching a horror film for. The dialogue continues over the shots, which adds to the impression that he film is in the horror genre. The dialogue gives hints that the film is a horror, and starts by addressing someone that we, as an audience, can’t see, with the question ‘ i don’t suppose they told you anything in Denver about the..tragedy we had up here?’. This slight pause in the question makes you feel that there is some hidden story which will occur in the film. Hearing that a ‘tragedy’ occurred in the house foreshadows the future events for the audience, and makes it seem like history will repeat itself, which adds to the horror element of the film.

The music used in the trailer adds to the effect of the overall trailer by increasing tension. At 0.25 seconds into the trailer the music reaches a climax, at which point you see a typical icon for horror films- a weapon, in this case an axe. The crescendo up to the revelation of this weapon increases the pace of the film, and as an audience makes us sense that something will happen. At 1.02 seconds into the trailer the music builds up pace and tension, which combined with the church bells gives the impression of a horror trailer. The church bells create a haunting feel, whilst the build up suggests that something terrible is going to happen which adds adrenaline and makes you want to watch the film to find out. Religion was a typical element of old horror films where religious practises were used in order to overcome the demon/possessed person, so by using a religious symbol such as church bells, the music is suggesting that the film is going to be a typical horror from this era.

Slow zooming shots are used often in the trailer, often to focus our attention on either a particular area of the room, or on a particular person. At 0.10 second in, the shot slowly zooms in between 2 walls of the large house, to focus our attention onto the centre of the screen- the desk. This feature makes the audience feel very trapped and closed in, which is similar to the characters of horror films. Another zoom shot is used, around 0.46 seconds into the trailer. The zoom is staggered zoom, where 3 shots, focusing on the same point and getting closer are cut together rapidly. This shot technique is often used in horror films, and can be seen in films like Frankenstein. The technique focuses the viewer's attention to the man’s face, which suggests that he is the main character and is the one that will turn to make the film into a horror. The zoom also disorientates us as an audiences as it is cut so quickly, which makes us feel quite anxious, typical of horror films. The voice over at this point of the film adds to the nauseous feeling created by the zoom, by focusing on the word ‘isolation’. This emphasises our feelings from the establishing shots at the beginning of the trailer, and again gives us the impression that the film is horror due to typical conventions, where being alone often leads to terrible things. This zoom technique is accompanied with sharp stings, followed by a crash of cymbals, which emphasises the voice over even more to create a feeling of a horror film.

The trailer shows typical icons of horror films such as weapons, blood and a family being central to the narrative. At the beginning of the trailer, whilst the voice over is describing the events to us, we see the main character walk around the house with an axe. This iconography is seen in many horror films,and gives the audience a visual representation of the fear and terror the narrative is trying to convey. The shot is filmed in low lighting, which adds to the atmosphere created by seeing the weapon, as it creates an ominous feel over the house. The shot proceeds to fade into black, a colour which often symbolises the end of something, posing the question to the audience as to what this is the end of. Black is also a colour of mystery and the unknown, which the audience feels, and by using this fade it intrigues the audience as to what is happening in this time. From the black, shot shows the man hacking down a door with the axe that was shown. This scene is very aggressive, and shows conventions of a typical horror, where somebody is trying to kill something. This scene also increases the significance of the fade into black by adding to the unknown mystery as to why the man would be doing this, and who is he trying to kill.

Another convention of horror films that is shown is through the shot types and editing. The shots show close ups of the protagonists face, which help us to identify him as the central character. It also adds a sinister feel as this is not a natural view we tend to see in real life, and if we did it would be very unusual and uncomfortable. This discomfort makes the genre stand out as being a horror as this is a feeling which is typically associated with horror. The lighting used is often very low lighting, with contrasts of ‘happier’ times in high key lighting. The contrast between the light and dark shots emphasise the darkness of the genre, and help to identify it as being a horror. This is especially seen from the first shots of the house, which is often in very low lighting, adding an eerie feel which is parallel to the shot types and other editing techniques used. The shots used to show the protagonist are often tilt down shots, which gives an evil look to him. The shots make it look as though the character is looking up at us, which combined with the low lighting gives a monster like, sinister appearance.

The final shots of the trailer we see is of the main character laughing, which quickly cuts to a mid shot where we see an axe going through the door and the mother screaming. The contrast between the two shots helps to emphasise the horror of the final shot, to convey that this is a horror film. The lighting within the shots almost seems to be opposite, with the laugh being in low lighting, and the axe through the door being in strong white lighting. The low lighting of the previous shot could foreshadow the darkness of the next section, whilst the bright white light in the last gives a hospital like feel and makes it seem very harsh. The harsh lighting also helps to give an ill appearance to the mother, as her skin looks an off colour, which emphasises the horror she faces and solidifies that this is the genre.

The Matrix trailer analysis

The matrix trailer was released in 1999 and is a hybrid of sci-fi and action, a genre that is conveyed throughout. The opening title first creates this impression, where the Warner Brothers logo is changed from the original gold with a blue sky background, to green with a dark stormy sky. This creates the impression that the film is going to be scary as the dark skies are typical conventions of horror movies. This dark background, combined with the green logo create the impression of a science fiction film, as green is a colour that is typical of the genre. This tends to be due to the mise en scene choices of typical sci-fi films such as aliens or even computer coding.

The first image seen is an establishing shot, which shows the cityscape, including many high rise office buildings. From this you can see that the film is set in an American city, and hints of the film’s narrative are given through the helicopter. The helicopter flying over the city suggests future scenes in which the city is having to be surveyed for any unusual things, typical of action films, which is one genre of this hybrid film. The shot suggests that action will occur, as from research we have found most action movies tend to occur in large cities.

In between each clip of the film text, on a black background, fades in. The text itself gives the impression that the film is sci-fi due to the font and glow. The text is in a font that looks like the font used in computer coding, which creates the image of a sci-fi film as this genre tends to use a lot of computer based technology, both in the mise en scene of the films and in the production/editing. The green glow around the text adds to the effect created by the font type and creates a continuous feel from the opening title throughout the trailer. Green is a colour often associated with sci-fi films, and by putting the glow around the computer text it creates the impression that the film is going to be very technology based. The glow seems to be more effective than if they used plain green text as it adds a more eerie feel to the text as it fades out from the white text to the background. By using the more complex colouring, it creates the impression that the film will be based around advanced technology and thoughts. The text seems to directly address the audience, which immediately engages us into the film and makes us want to watch the trailer.

The music is another element of the film trailer which adds to the overall sci-fi/action feel to the film. The background music at the start is very slow paced, with a strong beat, which immediately gets your heart racing. The music here only uses two instruments, creating a very dramatic score, which is typical of sci-fi films, where dramatic elements are used in conjunction with the science to create an engaging film.

The music is disturbed at 0.35 seconds into the trailer during a crescendo. The interruption is caused by a series of ‘beeps’, similar to that of computers. This gives the sense that the genre is sci-fi as it builds on typical conventions that have been seen in the first part of the trailer. The dying computer sound helps to create the sense that the film is not taking place in the real world, and rather in a parallel world to our own. The sound gives this impression as it symbolises the death of the ‘normal’ looking scenes, to replace them with scenes of high technology and special effects. The main character is shown at the point, using a crane shot and series of white flashes which were edited into the trailer. Neo, the name we find later is for this character, is someone that the target audience can relate to as he is a male in his 20’s. By using him as the main character, it satisfies the audience need according to Blumler and Katz of identification, where we can see ourselves in the characters. This makes the audience want to watch the film even more in order to see if this character will in fact be identifiable and make the decisions we would make. The shot shows the character waking up and in shock at his surrounding, which gives the impression that this is the beginning of the true story to the film. Just after this shot, text showing the words ‘as a slave!’ appears. This engages the audience as they want to find out why the character is a slave, a key element to the storyline.

After this the music begins with a single beat held until the music fully begins with heavy beats. This adds pace to the film and gives the feeling that the film will be full of intriguing scenes. Dialogue follows, using shot reverse shots between the main character and another, asking him ‘have you ever had a dream Neo, that you're so sure was real...what if you were unable to wake from that dream?’. This dialogue adds a sense of mystery to the trailer, and creates the same intrigue that the text does. It suggests that the main character is in two worlds, the normal one, which was seen with the establishing shot, and the parallel world, which follows on. During the pause between the dialogue we see a series of shots from the clip, all showing the large amount of special effects used. The effects should make the story seem unrealistic, but instead continue the sense of verisimilitude that was created at the beginning. Special effects are typical conventions of sci-fi films, and the use of them in the trailer helps us to recognise that this is the genre. A lot of close up shots are used on computer screens, which give the impression that the film is going to focus highly of new technology, another convention of sci-fi films

Other instruments are slowly added into the music to create a score similar to other sci-fi films such as War of the Worlds, where a lot of stings and synthesised beats are used. The shots cut very quickly from this point on in the trailer, which make it hard to establish a real storyline. This is also shown by the fact we seem to be unclear as to who the real villain is. One potential villain says that ‘human beings are a disease’, which would give the impression that he is the alien race, and therefore the villain. However, the use of so many special effects and makeup, along with the element of a parallel world make it hard to distinguish if the story is humans vs aliens, or whether all the characters are non human. The difficulty in establishing a storyline is mainly due to the fact that most trailers are not in chronological order, and are instead a series of snapshots showing the best parts of the film. This technique is particularly effective in the Matrix trailer as it makes you question all that is being said, and encourages you to want to find out and therefore see the film. The sci-fi elements to the film also compliment the discontinuous editing, as this genre is all about tapping into your own imagination and trying to find answers to questions which are unknown.

The music changes again at 2.09 minutes into the trailer, with a slight pause that is parallel to the scene shown. At this points we start so see the extent of the special effects that have been used in the film.Bullet time is used here, which is where the scene is almost detached from the time and space of the camera, with this film being one of the first to use this now common technique. The music continues whilst the image is still frozen, which creates a very odd feeling for the viewer. It makes the audience detach themselves from the trailer to their thoughts, therefore engaging the audience. The frozen image quickly goes back to real time, which can disorientate us as viewers, but also helps to emphasise the special effects used, especially the bullet time.

After this the music becomes more action/adventure based, but is also quieter so we can hear the other sound effects that are used. The new music builds up to a climax, and ends in a similar way to the first set of action/adventure genre music- with the sound of a computer. Instead of the dying sound previously used, this uses that of computer coding, which gives the impression that the elements seen in the film will continue and the way of living in this parallel world is the way to make the world work, as coding is a way to make software on computers work. The computer sounds again add to the effect that this is a sci-fi genre as it gives the sense of advanced technology. The text ‘The matrix’ appears on screen, in the same font and colour scheme as that in the beginning. This reminds the audience that the film is predominantly sci-fi, which is needed after the scenes showing conventions of action films. By using this same theme, it adds continuity to the trailer, which makes it look professional and something of a high quality, appealing to the audience even more.

Genre Research 2

After watching other people's presentations on Genre I compiled my own notes on the main features, history, recent examples, hybrids and significant changes. I also included information about the audience and why we would watch the films.

Action/Adventure Genre Research

To begin my research into film genres we worked together to create a presentation on the Action/Adventure genre. We found information on the main features, history, recent examples, hybrids and significant changes. We also researched how the genre appealed to audiences.