Controlled Assessment 1

Dead Man's Shoes Analysis

• Soz - he's the only one who has settled down with a wife and kids suggests he's more mature and got a normal job. He feels bad for what happened to Anthony as he could've prevented it and from his worried face expression when he tell he's wife what happened suggests he's weak and scared of what Anthony's brother Richard might do.

• Anthony is walking behind Richard - suggests that Richard is the superior, more mature one, has more power.
• The flashback to when Richard and Anthony where babies shows that their relationship was very strong and they were inseparable looking after one another. These flashbacks are also the only ones in colour which shows their happiness back then.

• "God will forgive them, he'll forgive them and allow them into heaven... I can't live with that" - Straight away it establishes that it's a revenge film. This immediately gives me an idea of what the tim is going to be about.
• The way Anthony listens to Richard and does what he says suggests that he admires him or depends on him.
• A stereotypical countryside, isolated, old brick houses, rough squats.
• Flashbacks filling in the gaps of the whole story, showing what has happened bit by bit so we find out how the other characters are connected to Anthony and Richard.
• The way Richard is sitting with Anthony in the corner observing the Herbie passing drugs to another man looks like he's a bit shy and strange.
• Richard calls Herbie a c**t - from the reaction he gets it's safe to say he is more powerful and dangerous. 

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• The costumes are simple and are easy to relate to.
• The way Richard comes out of nowhere and shakes Herbie's hand pulling it towards himself suggests he is stronger and more powerful. Also this is a bit strange, so this suggests that it's leading up to something.
• The guys in the flat don't know the meaning of "Alfresco" and the way they talk, their use of language indicates their mental age. - shows them as immature, childlike and uneducated. The way they talk about women in the magazines they're reading and laughing about it shows that they don't have families of their own and haven't grown up yet, that's why they sit around and don't do much.
• Herbie - childlike, uneducated, school drop out, sells drugs.
• Richard - His walk is very straight a bit like marching and so it suggests his soldier habits. It also suggests his strength.

The Importance of Film Trailers in the Film Industry.

               Trailers are considered a part of film advertising and are released weeks or months before the original film itself. Trailers are there to give the audience a taste of what the whole film is going to be about and also to get them excited and curious to see the whole film. Film trailers last for up to two and a half minutes and can’t any longer than that.

               A trailer consists of several different sequences from the original film to give the audience an overall idea about the whole film. A trailer is often accompanied by tense, upbeat, non-diegetic sound, which builds up tension and adds excitement, which results in people wanting to see the film when it’s released in the cinemas. The film trailers are a bit exaggerated on purpose by using different effects to get the audience more amazed. The different sequences put together are chosen purposely and are often in a different order you would see them appear in the whole film, this increases the audience’s interest about the film as it makes them feel amazed by the trailer, so then they would go and see the film when its released.

              Some film trailers have special effects in some scenes, which were not planned to appear in the whole film. This actually works quite well as it increases audience’s curiosity and makes them more willing to see the released film which helps the film become a blockbuster. In modern days the film trailers are being shown through different media channels such as television and the internet to create more awareness for the film. When a trailer is shown in the television it is often shorter than the official trailer, this is quite effective as the sequences then are even more squeezed in and hurried showing the most interesting parts of the film, which becomes very appealing to the audience. Often now there are different film trailers released, which are made even before the whole film has been finished and is in the process of making. This is so that the editors have a go at an unedited smooth version of the original film, this is very helpful because then the editor will know what clips are good to put in the whole film.

              The music sequences in a film trailer are often not a part of the original soundtrack list, which would be used, in the whole film. The music in the trailer is most likely to be more jumpy and louder than usual to make the audience feel the urge to see the whole film.  In some other trailers the sound is more silent and or it starts from the second sequence so that the audience can focus on the speech first and then build up emotions and connect with the film through the sound that can give the audience Goosebumps when they hear it. The credits in a trailer often consist of the production company, the cast and the film crew and the distributors of the film. A trailer is also a form of market research for the film; it allows the film makers to get different views and reactions from the audience. Different people view different situations differently which is why it allows the marketing people to tailor their actions to fulfill the market’s needs.

             The majority of people going to the cinema are between the age of 18 to 25 that’s why it is very important for the trailers to be tailored to their needs and be consisting of what they would expect from a certain film. The quality of the trailer decides on the number of cinema tickets to be sold for the upcoming movie. This is why if the trailer is great then it is most likely that the film will become successful at least from the number of tickets sold. This is all because the impression from the trailer decides on whether or not a person is going to want to pay for a cinema ticket to see the whole film. Demographics of the trailer are the main aspect of a good trailer. The choice of characters, their costumes, the sound, and the way it looks all influence the decision of going to see the film.

              Overall a trailer is one of the most important parts of marketing a film as it creates a worldwide awareness and attract large amounts of audiences which wouldn’t exist if there was no trailers or if they were not made up to a good standard. If there was no trailer before the film then there would be no audience for the film. A trailer has a job of getting people to go to the cinema and watch the film and it does that by controlling the consumers’ emotions. It is important to make a very good trailer as that first impression people get when watching the trailer decides on whether they will go to see the whole film.

ISA - Opening Sequence Report

Opening Sequence Analysis

              The opening sequence starts with a great shot of the whole house of the protagonist; this suggests that the main character or the target is in this house. Then there is a close up inside of the protagonist’s house of him picking up the keys which clearly highlights that he is about to leave his house and is getting ready to do so. After that there is quite a big jump to the protagonist opening the door. Looking at this now I think that the jump is a bit too big and too improve that it might have been a good idea to fade one scene into the other so it would look more like the time has passed since he have walked to the door rather than showing two separate scenes together. When the protagonist is opening the door and walking out of his house there is a nice point of view shot showing the audience what the character is seeing.

               We can see the character, how he looks and how he is dressed from top to bottom as we have several shots to show the protagonist from different angles. Because of the protagonist's costume the bag on his left shoulder it is clear that he is a student, we can see that he is quite geeky and innocent as well from the glasses and his facial expression. As the protagonist walks out of the house, he walks a little further until he reaches into the pocket for his phone. There we have a nice over the shoulder shot so that the viewers can see the message which says ‘Meet me at the fountain.’

 As the protagonist reads the message he starts walking again and as he reaches the gate from his yard he looks around as if he was looking if someone else is there. When he walks towards the little gate there is a point of view shot of the protagonist which has an effect as if someone was watching him. When he turns left and keeps walking there is quite a few tracking shots of him for example birds eye view and the side view. This is where it would make the audience feel like they are the ones following the character looking at him from different angles.

 

When the protagonist turns the first corner we can see straight away two guys talking to each other and when they notice the protagonist they say something to him and push him a little bit which makes him turn around straight away and try to run away. The antagonists chase after him and this is shown from far away with a side view shot. In my opinion it looks a bit like they are chasing him because he stole something or said something as it doesn't look very tense and the music sequence doesn't help as it is a quite happy contrapuntal sound which makes it look more like the scenario where he stole something and they just chased after him. I think that maybe if the sound was a bit more harsh and parallel to what is happening it would look much better as the antagonists chasing the other character are supposed to be bullies and be quite dangerous which doesn't seem that way in the sequence. In the chasing scene the lighting gets darker very quickly which might look to some viewers as if the characters were running all day, however I think that it takes away from the quality of the opening sequence as the chasing in most action films are not usually that long and I don’t think you can ever run a whole day without getting tired or feeling sick. As the lighting gets even darker you start to see the edited parts which made it look lighter, but it also looks a bit fainted and mushy and you can notice that very easily as the lighting looks much more different to the previous scenes in the sequence. Again there is a camera shot from the point of view of the protagonist which seems like he’s looking behind to see how far the antagonists are.

              It was very late when we filmed it so the lighting was a lot darker at the end. We tried to make it a bit lighter which has made that shot look hurried and unclear during the end of the chase scene. 







The end scene is quite good as the fact that we didn't show any scenes leading up to that moment creates enigma so the audience have to look for a logical explanation of how the protagonist has landed on the ground. The lighting here also gets a bit in the way because if the protagonist was going to wake up the next morning it is quite unlikely that the sky would be so bright and shiny. 

 The close up to the eye of the protagonist is very effective as it points out what the audience needs to focus on and we can see something floating in his eye which suggests that something has happened to him overnight. The yellow and blue staff floating in his eye could have been more improved as it looks a bit like a mistake made by the editor because it is not that clear what it’s supposed to be, but then again it also could attract the audience because they might want to get to know the whole story.