Film Trailer Ideas and Concepts

Discussions of Ideas and Concepts

Concept

In the trailer of Static Reality we touch on the ideas of schizophrenia, human conscience, drug use and the ‘groundhog day’ esque style of film where the days repeat themselves from our main character’s point of view.

Essentially it follows the life of a single man, Connor Wright who normally lives a ‘regular’ life, where he goes to work at the accounting office of Willow Pharmaceuticals, but is also a drug addict. He and his friend Ronnie are obsessed with drugs, their lives are going nowhere and this how they prefer to spend their time. At the beginning of the trailer, Connor awakes in a derelict building next to a dead body. A static radio noise plays in the background.  Mysteriously the corpse doesn’t faze him and he knows he has to get rid of the body but is unsure why, as if he’s in fear that if he doesn’t do it bad things will happen. Our character suffers from blackouts, which are sequentially followed by these instances where he awakes in the room. Basically he believes he has a different life purpose on these different days.  However, the character’s memory is erased after these days and he has no knowledge of either day.  Until one day, his boss at work catches on to his mysterious absences; our character looks bewildered at the boss insistent that he never misses a day at work. Following this, he wakes up next to his boss who is dead. The character thinks this is just another body to dispose of, unbeknown to the fact it’s his boss. Waking up on the next day he goes to work to discover his boss is missing, yet there is police involved. He overhears the police enquiring a co-worker, who replies that he hasn’t be seen for 2 weeks. During this scene, the camera focuses on our characters face that increasingly looks confused as to what might have happened. He walks over to his desk to find the radio playing the same static noise. The trailer cuts to several clips of other scenes in the film, an action scene, a clip of our character running etc. while ‘Feel Good Hit of the summer’ by Queens of the Stone Age plays.

LO 1: Analysis of 5 alternative Audio Visual Promos

Weetabix 'Grandpa' Advert


This advert follows two children and their Grandfather creating mayhem in the house while Mum and Dad are out for the day, fueled by the energy that a bowl of Weetabix provides. It tries to promote the product by suggesting it is needed for 'big days' that require a lot of energy. This is convened by a fast paced rock and roll track while the characters in the film switch from activity to activity. The grandpa is used as the primary character because old people are preconceived to be inactive; therefore it plays on the fact that he is given the energy by Weetabix. The advert connotes that Weetabix's audience spans all ages; from kids to grandparents. The genre of this advert is humorous, appealing to young families as they can relate to this situation.

Kyle Baker - Blackpool Weekender


An independent music video, by a small-time singer songwriter about his lad weekend holiday in Blackpool where he met a girl. This low-budget film intends to showcase the talents of the artist and encourage fans of his songs to buy his album.

In terms of content; there are mostly shots retelling the events of his holiday while the music overlays. These are edited simply with just cut transitions. The camera work is purposefully shaky in parts to show that it's like a video diary as well as a music video. There is also alot of 'breaking the fourth wall' where the singer directs his words straight at the audience, looking into the camera. This is typical of these type of independent music videos as they don't tend to be portraying visuals other than the artist. At the beginning of the film there are establishing shots of Blackpool, the location of his video. Lighting for the film is predominantly natural: all shots are captured during the day and mostly outdoors. Costumes in the video are casual wear. Props used include Kyle's guitar; an icon of this artist, Blackpool novelty glasses and a cigarette, reminiscent of this kind independent music video style portraying gritty and local emotion. Kyle baker's audience are young people of either gender. 

Utopia TV Series Trailer

Utopia revolves around the members of an online comic forum who come into possession of a manuscript sequel to a cult graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments both written in the 1970's by a mad scientist. This out of the ordinary tale was theorized to have predicted the worst disasters from the last century, and the manuscript contains a hidden secret of which a shadow organisation known as the Network wants it's hands on to carry on the mad scientists' nefarious plans.
The trailer abruptly reveals Utopia as an action thriller drama; through lightning quick cut camerawork and clips showing explosions, chases, gun shootouts and murder. Over the first 15 seconds of footage, the 1st series is summarised to the second character in scene, who effectively portrays the same sense of shock that audience members may feel the first time they see this trailer. The underlying music builds subtly heightening tension to the point where the disbelief on the characters face is revealed. It gives the audience almost no time to process the facts before the main music begins, reeling off teaser clips for the next series. Utopia is renown for it's surreal soundtrack, filmography, story and incredibly graphic gore, which emerges prominently through this promo. The overload of action and plot teases, such as the possibility of the Network unleashing a 'Nagasaki with a flu virus' which entices fans of the show and newcomers to anticipate the upcoming series. Lighting usage in the video seems somewhat artificial with vivid contrast, reflecting the unique styling of this show. Integral props featured in the promo include anything luminescent yellow or green as they are known to reflect danger throughout the story of Utopia. For example, one of the characters who wears the yellow suit is revered as a mortal antagonist. The main acting gestures portrayed in this trailer resembles desperation and confusion, denoting the action and plot twists the second series will bring.

Travel Channel Ident


The Travel Channel’s Idents give a unique brand to the channel and gives it’s audience a generalized introduction to the type of content they can expect to see. An ident is a short sequence shown on television between programs to identify the channel. They generally consist of few or no spoken words as to focus on the impact from the visuals advertising the channel. The theme of these sequences are outdoor activities and sports and are set in respective locations, for example the 'Paragliding' ident was filmed on top of a mountain. The audio that is juxtaposed with the visuals from the travel channels' ident are natural background sounds such as weather or the crashing of waves like in the 'Surf' Ident. The content of these set of indents’ indicate that the Travel Channel features active, outdoor and ‘travel’ associated programs. This is denoted by the content of programs on the channel, such as Best of the Road which takes viewers on a road trip around the USA finding the most desirable places to visit.

Sub Focus - Tidal Wave Music Video

Content

The music video for Tidal Wave by Sub Focus is set at the coast, as to intentionally capture waves for use in the video. Apart from the ink used to draw waves to add to the meaning of the music video; no props were used for this video as to draw focus to the natural beauty of the set. The actors casted in the video is female vocalist from Alpines and Sub Focus himself; the featured bands who provide the vocals and audio and so are great choices to play the roles. The costumes (and makeup) worn by the two actors in the film are primarily bright summer hues; portraying that the song is supposed to be a summer anthem. Additionally the makeup is very elegant, soft and matches the orange summer scheme; this could signify that she is the embodiment of beauty. This is also reiterated by the use of lighting in this film, prominently natural light and the addition of vibrant artificial key lighting which boosts the emotion of the actors and makes the subject seem almost 'fabricated' and washed out; a recurring feature of music videos by Sub Focus. Tidal Wave is an Electronic Dance track, so audiences of this video are fans of the genre and the artist. The use of shots and lighting is very reminiscent of the electronic genre; it appears futuristic and in one way, psychedelic. The major theme behind the lyrics is Love which influences the ideology and meaning behind the music video; for example the use of mirror edited shots and overlaying clips of smoke and the actors, I believe this encompasses this theme nicely. In my opinion, the diegesis of the video makes reference to the theme behind the lyrics and could be interpreted as a vision of love. The acting gesture of the man in Tidal Wave suggests that he is in deep thought or confused as to why he is here; I interpret that he is one side of the relationship and the idea of a 'wave' is the up and downs of the couple's relationship. The usage of camerawork is effective; stylistic and unique framing of the actors aside the setting.