Juno promotions package synergy.

Synergy in a films promotion package one means common themes that run through the package(poster, website, trailer, magazine covers, cd/dvd covers)

I will now look at the synergy in Juno's promotional package.

The obvious synergy we can see here is the colour scheme of green and orange, with the orange and white stripes to match Juno's teeshirt. Also, Paulie and Juno appear in all of the products becuse they are the main characters and all the products contain photos from the same shoot. Another thing we see throughout the products is this idea of 'hand-drawn' or doodle style font/text boxes. I would think this is because teenagers are known to doodle when distracted and it's as though Juno has drawn these things herself. The orange and green clash massively so stand out against eachother really well. It also shows Juno's bright and colourful life and how she stands out, especially when pregnant but even when not.

I love the idea of the simple stripes, the straight writing with the quirky doodles, because its very simple and normal although her situation is not. I think this shows Juno's cool and calm approach to her situation, taking it in her stride in her walk to adulthood. Another thing we see alot is 'her road to adulthood, with all the BUMPS along the way' this is obviously a pun related to her baby bump but connecting her issues in life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS DUNWOODIE

P.O.V shots

Camera movement
Realism

small amount of camera movement to look real, looser grip
head height, but shaky, not perfect shots look more realistic
hand held camera shots- dont make them OTT

To be able to frame a shot using the 180 degree rule.

Shot reverse shot

Match on action

Continuity

Bascially, always film from the same side so viewers don’t get confused

Shot reverse shot shows which direction characters are heading/going and the reverse two opposite angles.

Shutter Island promotional package

Trailer- Rapid editing towards the end, then cuts back to a slower pace with a jump/cliff hanger large variety of camera shots. builds a lot of interest and intrigue without giving anything away, dark

Magazine cover- misty, links to film location, shot from the film, little clues 'asylum' 'mad house' dark, Red fonts

Film poster- setting looked over by main character, matchstick, tagline links to film, dark, used for the background on website with animation added

Teen Comedy Sub-Genres

Technically Teen comedy is a sub genre of comedy but we do see other themes appearing in teen comedies such as:
Love- A Cinderella Story
Sex- American Pie
Drama- Juno
Friendship- Mean Girls
Travel- The Inbetweeners
Family- Road Trip
Class- She's The Man
Steriotypes- St Trinians

Camera work

In 50% of our lessons we have been looking at how to work cameras and what shots work for certain scenarios.

Successful composition

Composition

Rule of thirds

Back ground

Framing

RULES OF COMPOSITION

1 back ground – keep it simple, not busy or congested, alter the shot to keep the focus on the main subject

2 rule of thirds – cross sections that things fit into two of them, think about the logics of the shot,

3 framing – look for natural frames in your scene, be aware of lines in the frame, like fences and stuff, make them level with the shot, HEAD ROOM not too much or too little.

4 leading lines

5 balance

What is the difference between a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer?

A teaser trailer is a short trailer that is often used to help to advertise an upcoming film or other media form. It can be released months before the due date of the official film to help create anticipation and interest from the target audience. A theatrical trailer is a much more in depth well revised longer trailer which tells us more about the plot of the film and gives us exact dates when it will be out.

A teaser trailer is a lot shorter compared to a theatrical trailer. The teaser trailer’s main purpose is to “tease” the audience with short snippets from the movie and by not revealing too much of the plot. A teaser trailer is normally under two minutes whereas a theatrical trailer is usually much more than this; sometimes up to four or five minutes.

Applying Propp's theory to Teen Comedy trailers.

Scott Pilgrim vs the world trailer:
Villain- This was hard to focus from the trailer as there is a league of evil enemies(exes) and one leader (Gideon)
Donor(prepares hero)- The obvious donor from the trailer would be Wallace, one of Scotts friends
Helper- Stacey, Scotts sister, is seen giving advice to Scott throughout the trailer
Princess/prize- Ramona
Dispatcher- This is also wallace I would suggest, or perhaps even Scott himself.
Hero- Scott Pilgrim

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media, which suggests that there were 7 different characters in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father (usually dies during or before the film/book)
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Looking at Vladimir's theory made me realise that this is likely to be true, but can be difficult when applying to Teen comedy because films under my genre often go against the grain and challenge obvious decisions when making a story.
In my next post I will analyse how teen comedy trailers mark up when using Propp's theory.

Comparison of two teen comedy trailers: American Pie and Mean Girls.

American Pie-

music kicked in at humourous bit. voice over aswell as clips. relatable, yet over the top. shows typical teen boy steriotypes aswell as female but in a lesser way

Mean Girls-

voice over aswell as movie clips, introduces characters, music relates to image, songs keep changing, music cute out at 'dramatic' parts, shows teen steriotypes, more female based compared to american pie

Similarities-

The use of a fast pace was noticable in bothe trailers and the use of music was upbeat, relatable to the images and popular. The use of jump cuts was dominant in both clips to show that the different clips were seperate and from different parts of the film. the use of colour was also quite dominant but more so in Mean Girls as it is more feminine. Both trailers showed teen steriotypes well but American Pie was more male-based and vice versa for Mean Girls. an obvious speed is needed so the audience can relate to the film. it needs to be fast to keep them interested and keep flicking between the humor and the 'drama' of teen life. Another thing noticed was the use of a voice over to help the audience understand what was happening on screen.

Differences-

These were harder to spot but like I previously said, colour was less dominant in American Pie because it's aimed more at male teens where as Mean Girls is aimed at female teens so colour is more dominant and steriotypical, like pink for girls blue for boys etc. The music used was also different, mean girls used pop songs where as american pie had more rocky kind of songs.

Expected genre features of teen comedy

My expectations

Quirky humour

Dark humour

Colour

Sex-related terms/humour

Realistic ‘drama’ of teen life

Relatable

Music (modern/popular to target audience)

Looking at the 'Juno' trailer, were my expectations correct?

Basic first glance things I noticed-
Colour, relatable messy room, no music to show drama, over the top comedy, sound effects to show cliques really fast paced, real life dramas, family relationships, romantic relationships, friend relationships,.

MISE EN SCENE-

Messy room, comedy phone, girly room, more boyish room, middle class living room, humourous living room set in garden, OTT posh house (contrast), ultrasound room(contrast), bean bag, really middle class clothes, super relatable, really bright colours

SOUND-

Music (poppy upbeat and modern) cuts off at 'dramatic' parts, when music does play its for a few seconds and relates to the image on the screen (cheerful at happy moments/slow at sadder moments), all diagetic noises

EDITING-

Fast paced, loads of slides over the screen with information about the film in the film colour (orange) speeds up over the trailer, more fast paced at the end then cuts off with the release date, thiss adds drama and draws people in making them want to knowwhat is being built up. No sfx, just music and diagetic

Introductory post

I am going to produce a film trailer, poster and magazine cover for a teen comedy film.
This blog will present my research and efforts in producing them.