Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Location

For our locations, we took inspiration from other romance trailers which included particularly romantic locations. We wanted to suggest that Grace and Isaac were completely happy, displaying the perfect relationship at the beginning of the trailer. Therefore we used lots of outside locations such as the beach and the grass to imply typical romantic dates. Although we used obvious shots of Brighton Pier, we didn’t want to highlight a particular town or city that they specifically lived in, as this would mean that the plot was more applicable to everyone rather than singling out specific locations which may be distracting. We also did not want to suggest that they were living in either Brighton or London because we wanted Isaac’s office to look smart and important without having to highlight where they lived. So that it did not necessarily look like London, we avoided many main streets, only using small, residential areas to film and did not include typical motifs of London, such as the London Eye or black cabs. We noticed that in most romance trailers, they did not highlight where exactly it was set unless it was pivotal to the story, for example in ‘Like Crazy’, the couple live on opposite sides of the world so it was necessary to stress their opposing homes. However, in ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘Dear John’ there is no real reference to where they specifically live, they simply emphasise either their urban background or the couple at the sea.

For our interior shots, we used places that had the typical motifs of what we were trying to suggest. We used a lecture theatre to emphasise they met at university as this is a typical symbol of university and used lots of extras to make it look like they were in a lecture. We also used the library, another symbol of education and university/school in films so that it was completely clear where they met. Similarly, in the office scenes, we made sure we used an office that looked professional enough but at the same time we framed it tightly so that it didn’t look too big. We wanted Isaac to look successful but only as successful as someone beginning their career.

2. Graphics/Studio

Our graphics were heavily influenced by those of ‘Revolutionary Road’, ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘Like Crazy.’ Although we wanted to stick to the convention of very simple fonts and graphics like in ‘Revolutionary Road’, which uses a very simple font throughout the whole trailer, and ‘Blue Valentine’ which changes slightly for the title and awards yet still uses very simply fonts, we also wanted them to be a bit more interesting than simply on a black background. Therefore we took influence from moving backgrounds in trailers such as ‘Dear John’, ‘Remember Me’ and ‘Like Crazy.’ We wanted to imply a similar feel of romance as in the ‘Like Crazy’ trailer so took influence from the moving lights, but also wanted it to look slightly more dangerous and destructive so used red and orange colours as if it was fire. Contrasting to this background, we used Telugu Sangam as our font as it was simple, easy to read but similar to the font used in ‘Revolutionary Road.’ We lifted the font slightly with a glow and outline just to make it easier to read but still managed to keep it as simple as possible.

For our studio ident, we wanted it to be simple as it is a low budget indie film, but at the same time, something with movement and more interesting than just an image. A lot of our inspiration came from the ‘Optimum Releasing’ ident which has a simple symbol followed by classic font. Most big budget idents only use black and white but many idents we researched like BBC Films, Screen Gems and Relativity Media used the blue theme. We also used this to brighten up our ident which we thought looked more interesting than black and white.

3. Sound

All of the romance trailers that we based our trailer on only included one song which worked in telling the story throughout the trailer. Therefore we wanted a song that had lyrics that could fit to the story as we did not have that much dialogue to push the narrative. Our music was heavily influenced by the songs from the Blue Valentine and Revolutionary Road trailer and we included this melancholic tone in our lyrics and melody. As we didn’t want the music to overload the trailer, we also used vital voiceovers of conversations between Grace and Isaac which helped push the narrative along.

 

4. Title

For our title, we used the same graphics as the rest of the trailer, however we changed the font slightly to make the word ‘SEPARATION’ spread apart. This way, it stuck to the conventions of the rest of the trailer but drew more attention, which was important as the role of the title. In choosing our title, we wanted to attract a more mature audience, creating a similar feel to ‘Revolutionary Road’ and ‘Blue Valentine’. We also didn’t want a single word title like our AS coursework, and so looked for a phrase of words that would suggest a breaking down and deterioration in the relationship. We initially worked with the word ‘Degrees’ as we felt we could use it to break up our poster into the degrees of happiness in their relationship. Although we finish the trailer with a more cheerful shot of Grace and Isaac, we wanted to create an enigma for the audience to suggest that they might not actually stay together, and so ‘Separation’ worked well in creating distance and suspense in their relationship.

5. Character/Actor

We used a largely macro approach – looking at the main focus of character as a whole rather than zooming in on her small characteristics. However, having said this, we do see the emotional side of Grace in the trailer as she is shown a large number of times crying and her body language is somewhat desperate and despairing when we show her and Isaac’s fights and rough times in the relationship, for example in the kitchen and outside. We have deliberately shown Grace as to be always facing and open to Isaac, and Isaac turning away and somewhat rejecting Grace.

Both Grace and Isaac are shown as complex characters that are in a turmoil state in their life, as their relationship is breaking apart. We explored characters from other romances such as Ally from ‘the Notebook’ and Ali from ‘Blue Valentine’ when deciding how we wanted Grace to come across. We wanted her to be less like Ally in the way that she is not cute and cuddly seeming, and does not have an overly romanticized view of what love is. In this respect, she is more like Ali, as Ali has experienced far more harsh realities such as minor domestic violence and having a child with a man who is not her husband and a loveless marriage. We wanted this because, after researching romances, Blue Valentine was our favorite because it is more similar to the gritty low-budget vibe we want to come from our film.

When considering Isaac’s personality, we decided to research into the male lead from ‘Like Crazy’ who was also called Isaac and the male lead in The Notebook called Noah. This was because we wanted a similar character in regards to the way he is mysterious and brooding, but also has the potential to be loving and passionate when he finds somebody he really loves (Grace).

6. USP

The unique selling point of our film was namely the director. This is what we put on the poster and in the trailer as a way to entice the audience and make them want to go and see our film. The reason for this is that other film posters and trailers use this technique. For example the film ‘About Time’ uses the famous director Richard Curtis as the main selling point, because the audience will know that he has directed very famous and successful films in the past such as ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ and ‘Nottinghill’. In our trailer, we showed text, which read ‘from award winning director Willa Marston’. This is to show our audience that the director is successful and known and that they are likely to have directed a film that is worth seeing. We pushed for the name of the director to be seen by the audience rather than the names of the actors because it is the director who is famous and the actors are new and being introduced.

We also used the emotion as a selling point. From research, Willa and I watch trailers for romances, such as Blue Valentine, Dear John and Like Crazy, and we find we thrive on the emotion it provides the viewer to experience when watching it. This was also reflected when we asked people how they felt when they watched our trailer. This is why we tried to make our trailer provoke a feeling of sadness or empathy in the viewer; we are almost selling a feeling the viewer can obtain by watching our film. We do this by combining exactly the right music (melancholic and low) and images of our actors Thea and George looking happy or sad.

7. Narrative

The use of narrative in our trailer was not as important as in some other movie trailers, such as thriller or comedy. This is because the main element of the trailer we wanted to get across to the audience was the romance and the relationship between Isaac and Grace. This technique is used in other trailers such as ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘Like Crazy’. There is less focus on the narrative and somewhat more focus on the style and tone, and introducing the characters to the audience.

In contrast to our AS work, which included a much more specific and followed narrative, our trailer did not include so much attention to the actual storyline, but more to the music and taglines. The taglines were not totally, but partially in place of a distinct narrative and dialogue of other trailers and some film openings. This is because in romance trailers, the audience is predominantly enticed by the actors, the mise en scene or the genre of the film rather than the narrative itself.

Anchoring was also a large focus in our trailer. We wanted to get across the meaning of Grace and Isaac’s relationship in regard to how Isaac made Grace feel, enabling our audience to somehow relate to and interact with the relationship. We want the viewers to feel sad for Grace because her lover is betraying her and wavering when she is desperate and at home, and feel sentimental towards Isaac because he is still very in love with Grace but is a naïve and selfish man.

8. Editing

The editing of our trailer was rather specific and tailored to fit the editing of other romance trailers. This was because we wanted to replicate the signature romantic emotional feel that comes across by combining effects from final cut pro such as ‘fade to color’ with sad or dramatic music to evoke emotion in the viewer.

We took inspiration for our editing style from other romance trailers such as ‘Dear John’ and the montage of fast shots cut closely together in ‘Revolutionary Road’. The idea of a montage is to bring out emotion in the audience, by stylizing the shots in a specific order, speed and fame. For example, when we wanted the audience to feel sentimental at the end of the trailer, and feel sad for the potential threat to Grace and Isaac’s relationship, we put all the shots of them looking happy together and cut them together quite fast with ‘fade to color’ inbetween. This was a look we had seen before, in the trailer for ‘Blue Valentine’, ‘fade to color’ is used throughout, between almost every shot. 

B.M W.H