G324 Advanced Portfolio in Media. Brief and LIIAR.

For my media portfolio, main task, i have chosen to produce a film trailer. I will research the history of film trailers and analyse existing ones to help me look at the conventions and features that appear in film trailers. After i have done all my reasearch and planning i will start my production and evalutation. I will also complete two ancillary texts that will link and help promote my main product. I will follow a set brief:

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

To help me develop my ideas and look at how the media concepts can be applied to a film trailer I am going to use the acronym “LIIAR”; language, institution, ideology, audience and representation.

Language- The language of my film trailer will be a key factor. It is very important that I get the language right, in order for it to be received by my target audience, and address them in the correct way. The language I use will include things such as a voice over to help set the equilibrium, or sometimes captions come up to help set the story. Ideas about the disruption and quest are given also, sometimes again with the help of a voice over or visual language, such as a montage of clips from the film. A trailer is there to introduce the audience to the film and tell them what the story is about but without giving away the resolution.

Institution- The production company of my initial film will be the institution. Some examples of film production companies are; Fox Entertainment, Paramount Motion Pictures, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner, Walt Disney Motion Pictures. Each of these major film companies consist of many subsidiary film companies. For example some of Walt Disney Motion Pictures subsidiary companies are; Pixar Animation Studios, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Spyglass Entertainment and many more.

Ideology- The ideology is a set of ideas, morals and values within the trailer. The ideology of my trailer will depend on the genre of the film. A horror film will have different ideology to a romantic comedy because they will have a different target audience. However they will all have similar ideas, for example, all film trailers are created to intrigue the target audience and make them want to watch the film. Other things in the ideology will include conventions that are used within trailers such as the names of famous actors that appear in the film, production company, release date etc. All of these conventions will help inform the audience about the film and make them want to go and see it.

Audience- The audience depends very much on the genre of the film trailer. For example horror films are aimed at both males and females but perhaps more at males. They also tend to have a higher certification because of the content put in them, such as violence and gore. Therefore their target audience is usually older teenagers and adults. Romantic comedies are aimed at females aged from around 15 years upwards. The audience for my film trailer will therefore depend entirely on what genre my film is.

Representation- Like audience, the representation in my trailer will depend on the genre of my trailer and who my target audience are. The issues in the storyline and characters in my product must represent the genre of my trailer. For example in horror films there are stereotypical characters such as a scary villain, a victim or group of victims who usually end up walking straight into the traps of the villain. By having stereotypical characters, locations, such as a dark and haunted house, and storylines represent the genre, and audiences know immediately what genre the film is.