IN WH AT WAYS DO ES YO UR M EDIA PRO DUCT USE,

DEVELO P O R CH ALLENG E FO RM S AND CO NVENTI O NS O F REAL

M EDIA PRO DUCTS?

“THE ARRIVAL”

CONVENTIONS OF TRAILERS

NARRATIVE THEORIES

The narrative of a film and the way it’s portrayed are very important aspects in a trailer as the audience is able

to get a clearer. Through the use of narrative the audience knows what to expect of the film and they can also

be manipulated as they only see a short section it. Overall it means that the audience becomes attached to the

characters and want to find out more about their story

Closed: More often found in films and contain a beginning, middle and an end. The audience is also fully

aware that they are watching a complete story and this enables them to predict an ending. Whilst open

narratives have chronological time sequences, closed narratives are compressed and not linked to any events

in the outside world. There are less characters and they are ranked in order of importance so that the storyline

revolves primarily around only one of them and the audience therefore experiences the film from that

character’s perspective.

This is the type of narrative I’ve used in my trailer.

NARRATIVE THEORIES

Todorov believed that all narratives should begin

with a state of equilibrium where everything is

calm. This should then be followed by some sort

of disruption which is finally resolved and a new

equilibrium is found. This is a very ‘Hollywood’

approach to narrative and would often be found in

romantic comedies.

Levi –Strauss on the other hand believed that any

narrative is formed by the juxtaposition of binary

opposites such as good vs. evil, empowered vs.

victim or domestic vs. alien/ foreign.

I think my trailer conforms more to Levi-Strauss’s theory as my trailer begins with a title ascending containing information about human trafficking and people are walking in the background showing humans as the victims per say the moves onto the main characters Sofia and Aleksandra looking sad, which shows that they are obviously the good people within the story as they’ll be perceived as victims but then moving onto a shady looking man smoking a cigar and already the audience make a connection then later on moving onto the same shady man playing poker with other men and they get more of a feel of the situation. This shows the empowered side and the victim or domestic side of the situation also by using women as well it makes it easier to see the idea of them being victimised.

SOCIAL REALISM

What is social realism?

Social realism is a genre of film that focuses on topical issues alive in a modern society which is

represented by different ideologies. It has different themes such drugs, prostitution, sex, religion,

class, racism etc. The theme I’ll be focusing on in my trailer is prostitution. The forms and

conventions for social realism are usually the use of unknown actors, this supports the social realism

genre because the actors could be anyone which makes it realistic.  Social class is an important form

and convention as most social realism films deal with the working class like ‘Fish Tank’. The

locations of a social realist film are usually set around a council estate or run down areas of different

cities but can be in a nice neighbourhood. Age is important to the forms and conventions of social

realism as most social realist films use teenagers usually from the ages  13-20.

CONVENTIONS OF THE SOCIAL REALISM GENRE

CONVENTIONS OF SOCIAL

REALISM

Location shooting (NO STUDIO)

Wide shots

Non-professional actors

Semi improvised scripts

Humour and seriousness

The erosion of regional identities

Wider social issues explored via

emotional and dramatic individual stories

Triumph over adversity

LOCATION SHOOTINGSocial realist films aren’t filmed in studios instead they are shot on council estates and parks. By using council estates and parks etc this makes the film feel more realistic so that the audience will be engaged.

A good example of this would be Fishtank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7BFZqQ4ruA

Non-professional actorsNon professional actors are used as most social realist films can’t afford a list stars and also using non-famous people makes the audience relate more to the actors.

Humour and SeriousnessSocial realist films consist of everyday problems such as unemployment etc there’s a lot of serious with a pinch of humour.

AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONSWhen beginning to plan my trailer I first researched existing products that were aimed at the same target

market I had selected and were also the same genre –social realism– these trailers I looked at were

‘Trade’ and ‘Human Trafficking’. I chose both of these as they had the same look and feel that I was

aiming for with my product. I specifically chose these two as they both focused on the same subject as I

was which was human trafficking. An element I chose to challenge is the typical placing of the credits at

the end of the trailer. I incorporated the name at the finish as I felt it was a good way of closing the

footage. A particular conformity that I followed was the lack of voice overs overlaid over the footage.

When researching trailers and their conventions I found that social realist films very rarely have voice

overs as this is a feature more commonly found within the romantic/comedy or the spoof genre.

Another key feature that I found was present in most social realist films is the character choice. Mostly,

within social realist films, the plot consists of teenagers who get into trouble with older men or drug

dealers and they end up being sucked into the facade. This feature was found within ‘Trade’ and many

others. In general I found that the person who most commonly either was attacked first or ultimately was

the cowardly reluctant one.

TRADE TRAILER COMPARISON

http://w

ww.youtube.com/watch

?v=aAxp

TxBpQ3o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4n1wy

tCH4U&list=PLAFB70F9633509AEC&in

dex=13

My trailerTrade

trailer

Trade vs. The ArrivalMy inspiration for my trailer was the Trade trailer as it focused on similar things my trailer focused in the terms of conventions and the plot. I thought the way in which it is presented to an audience is particularly unique. By using a lot of wide shots and establishing shots it helped to draw the audience into the film and make them feel involved in the action itself whilst they become attached to the different characters. As the ‘Trade’ trailer follows normal social realist conventions my trailer also follows some but not all conventions of social realist films for example both my trailer and the trade trailer begin with an ident. But my trailer challenges conventions of a normal trailers by not beginning with an establishing shot as most trailers would have and also my both our trailers use titles to let the audience know more about human trafficking by posting statistics by using this method this really shows the audience that human trafficking is a real problem and that they should be more aware this makes them feel more involved but sticking to another convention I used non-famous actors and so did the Trade trailer directors.