Idenity Deconstruction

This is a deconstruction of the film poster Identity, this is very useful to our research because this film like ours is to do with Schizophrenia.

Narrative Theory

Claude Levi- Strauss- Binary Opposition

Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values, which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be good and evil – we understand the concept of good as being the opposite of evil. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. Binary Opposition states that there are a ‘pair of terms or concepts that are theoretical opposites.’ and therefore one cannot be there without another.

Tzvetan Todorov 

Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.

Syd Field- The Paradigm

He came up with the idea of the three act structure, it is the idea that a film must be set up within the first twenty to thirty minutes before the protagonist experiences a 'plot point' that gives the goal that must be achieved. Roughly, half the movie's running time must then be taken up with the character's struggle to achieve the goal: this is the 'Confrontation' period. Field also refers, to the 'Midpoint', a subtler turning point that happens at approximately in Act II, the Confrontation that often has an apparently devastating reversal of the fortune for the main character. The final quarter of the film depicts a climactic struggle by the protagonist to finally achieve the goal and the aftermath of this struggle.

Vladimir Propp- Narrative Theory

He concluded that all characters could be put into 8 character types:

   1. The villain — struggles against the hero, creates narrative disruption.

   2. The dispatcher —character who sends the hero off on the task

   3. The helper — helps the hero in the task to restore equilibrium.

   4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain. Sometimes also seen as a victim, the character most threatened by the villain, and has to be saved in the climax by the hero.

   5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. His role is usually to give the princess away to the hero at the narratives conclusion.

   6. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero something, which helps in the resolution of the narrative.

   7. The hero— Who is usually make, restores the narrative equilibrium by taking on the task, saving the princess and winning her hand. The hero is the protagonist or the central character.

   8. False hero — appears to be good but takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

This theory is based on traditional texts, however these character types are transferable to modern day texts as well. 

Black Swan Trailer Deconstruction

This is a trailer deconstruction of Black Swan, this new way of deconstructing is more interesting and easy to look at when and where things are placed such as fade outs.  We can also see how disequilbrium is important during trailers as this gives more suspense.  Suspense is created throughout this trailer by the orchestral music played with deep violins.   

Time Laspe

From the off, the group has always liked the idea of using time lapse in our trailer - not just because it is a great effect, but because it is unusual in teasers. The effect of time whizzing by is great, and is one we feel would work well in our trailer, in particular, time lapsing the girl writting on the wall, which will show how she has been writing on her wall for a large amount of time. We want it too look smooth, so will film our trailer in 30 f/s and will show between 10 and 20 seconds of time lapse footage, so will need 300-600 photographs for the timpe laspe to flow.

Some inspiration and examples of time laspe are show below:

This is a first draft musical piece we made, the piano we thought needed to start softly to show the innocence of the little girl in our trailer but get built up as we are not shown her face and see what she has written on the wall. One of the limitations of this piece is that it is not long enough for the one minute trailer and it does mostly include the piano as we thought it complements the trailer the most.

Black Swan Website

This is one of our favourite website designs as the layout is simplistic with Natalie Portman (main character) duplicated, the image has an minor effect with it moving slowly side to side.  Clips of the film is playing on top of the main page when you click on the 'Black Swan' title.  Reviews are put on the website (as shown on her back) this entitles the audience to know how the film is and of course the quotes shown will be all positive with one or few powerful words which remain memorable.  A link to another option is created by a fade in transition.  People who visit the website can have a choice either to 'turn on' the music or 'off.' Showing they have the audience in mind.

The main website covers majority of the screen, with a black background and shots of the actual film.  Links to Facebook and Twitter demonstrates the movie likes to have interactivity with their audience, this way, the movie gets to have a greater level of feedback from different sorts of people all over the world. 

This screenshot is illustrating how the film incorportes a short clip of the film with a 'skip intro' tab so it is not compulsory to watch the zoomed in clip.  however it does give a nice insight to what is included in the film.  

Quite long descriptions of the cast and crew is included, this shows how good the actors are within the Black Swan. 

It can also be an attractive trait to audiences to make them watch the movie because they maybe watch films for the actors.  Artistic imagery  

is used as the background to show the elegance of the theme which is all to do with ballet but contrasting with the black to illistrate there is a dark element within Black Swan.    

The website is very easy to navigate from page to page as you don't have reload the whole webpage.  We would like to incorporate this style into our own website as well as how the image is shown- whereby it covers the majority of the screen.  This way, it will be more eye-catching to audiences, keeping them more focused and interested.

Editing Techniques

These are some of the techniques we are looking to use in our trailer.

CUT

A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another.

DISSOLVE 

A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

FADE 

A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.

JUMP CUT 

A cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

ERRORS OF CONTINUITY

Disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as a failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.

Questionnaire

Please can you fill in our questionnaire on Schizophrenia which is our theme for our teaser trailer.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QTHTSYQ 

Thanks :)

What Makes An Effective Teaser Trailer? - Symbolism

Exactly, what DOES make an effective teaser? A good trailer - regardless of genre or media type has to be remembered. Teasers do exactly what they say, the tease the audience in an attempt to get them to find out more, and to get them to watch the film. Unlike a theatrical trailer, teaser trailers do not give much away about the film in an obvious way, you have to really dig deep to find meanings. Looking at the video game trailer of 'Hitman Absolution' we see symbolism used greatly, as this 5th feature in the series, fans (the people likely to see the trailer) will be able to distinguish the meanings.  Firstly, we see a shadowed man , putting a silencer on his gun. In the next scene we see a handgun, know by fans to be 'ballers' with the agency logo displayed. The gun is surrounded by a snake, which represents danger, but also stealth and silence, the qualities of an assassin. Finally we are shown the most effective symbol, and also the most recognisable, the trademark barcode, ending in 47 (shown red), this instantly tells the audience that the trailer is about Agent 47. Although only three clips have been shown, the audience is engaged, and left wanting more. The audience will then go to the web address displayed.

The Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer is also a good example of symbolism in teasers. After the idents are show, we hear and see memorable extracts from the first film, along with 'Every journey has a beginning', shortly followed by 'Every journey has an end'. This immediately has the audience engaged, and they then hit us with 'From director Chistopher Nolan', which tells the audience that this film will be just as spectacular as the last two. The loud motorbike is then contrasted with new footage of commisioner Gordon, in hospital murmuring. You then see the camera ascend, followed with Gordon mutter the word 'rises' and a man climbing out of a hole. this is a symbol of what is to come in the film; batman rising over evil to inevitably defeat it. Images are then flashed periodically of Bane, the villain of the film, followed by the camera rising upwards toward the Batman logo, which could be perceived as Bane rising to face batman, as a clip of a large shadowed figure (Bane) facing batman is shown, which ends the trailer with the title 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Photography

We also researched into another form art, photography. We found the documentary photographer Kris Allan who spent several years shadowing musician, actor and charity founder Devon, who has Schizophrenia.


Devon preparing for and receiving his all important his fortnightly injection of Depixol from his community psychiatric nurse, at home.

                    Devon walks the corridors of Springfield hospital.

The local chiropodist treats Devon's feet.

Devon prepares to have his injured arm examined at the hospital.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

We thought that it was important to research into literature that would be relevant to Schizophrenia and 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the novel that we felt linked very well to our story line. This novel was first published in 1886 and Dr. Jekyll believes good and evil exist in everyone and experiments reveal his evil side, named Mr Hyde. This novel is great inspiration for our film trailer, because it clearly represents the inner conflicts of humanities sense of good and evil and the duality of human life. It also links the psychologist, Freud and the Freudian theory that the thoughts and desires banished to the unconscious mind motivates the behaviour of the conscious mind. A bible quote that was linked to this novel is, “Now if I do what I do not want to do it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me that does.” This quote really inspired us for our trailer, because we thought that it could really represent the idea Schizophrenia, and that the actions that the character makes aren’t of her own choice. This quote will be shown in the trailer to demonstrate this to the audience. There have also been many film adaptations of this novel, 1931 directed by Rouben Mamoulian, 1941 by Victor Fleming and lastly, the 2008 version by Paolo Barzman.

'A Beautiful Mind ' Website Deconstruction

A Beautiful Mind  is interactive as you are going through links which is entertaining for the audience.  You are able to play games which test your mind - links in with theme of the film.   Even though the film is not horror related we like the features created on the page.  This gives us a clear indication of what tabs to put on our own webpage. 

Website Deconstruction

We've done deconstructions of High Tension and A Beautiful Mind - the websites.  We thought High Tension isn't as interactive as we would have liked because the image is very striking and effective however the features aren't great. 

Draft Storyboard