Research and Planning Feedback

You should be evidencing every stage of your planning and work towards production now - but for you to achieve more than your target grade (at least 14/20) for research and planning you need to use more key terminology to analyse a wider range of trailers.  What key shots stand out and how are they intended to make us think or feel about characters and settings?

Preliminary Task

Star Wars: A New Hope Opening Scene Analysis

Star Wars: A New Hope Opening Scene Analysis

The first scene we see is of the introduction of what the film is about - this will leave the audience understanding what is happening and why, we find out from this introduction that an evil galactic empire are trying to retrieve the stolen plans for an 'Ultimate Weapon'. The first shot of the movie is an extreme long shot in which we see a giant space ship hover over the top chasing a smaller ship. We hear the diegetic sound of laser shots which indicates the genre of the film (sci-fi action).

We are then taken to a medium shot inside of the smaller ship, were we are introduced to a few of the main characters in the film, one of these is C3PO, a gold 'droid' who is very pessimistic about situations that he is put through. We are also shown a smaller droid called R2D2, we cannot understand him, however C3PO can and with his answers, we can guess what R2D2 has said.

Soon after we are introduced to the antagonist of the film, Darth Vader. Vader is a typical villain who has a lot of power and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. As he is wearing a mask, the audience are left questioning who this man is, he wear black leather armor and a black helmet and mask - the colour black connotes darkness and death, which shows he is dangerous and also intimidating due to his height. Non diegetic music also comes on which shows his power in the film.

Divergent Analysis

Divergent Opening Scene Analysis

The first scene of Divergent, we are shown a long shot of some kind of wall, the camera then cuts to a close up of the wall and moves up and over it leading to an establishing shot of a city which looks torn apart and isolated. We are then flown through the city with a  bird eye view shot to which we find out what city this is, as at the bottom right area of the shot, there is white text telling the audience the name of the city - this is the city of Chicago in America. As the camera moves throughout the city, we can clearly see some sort of catastrophe has occurred, like a war or some sort of disaster. We are soon drawn to the ground of the city with a medium-long shot of many people walking past, we then however notice that people are wearing certain colours, this will leave the audience questioning why this is the case. Throughout this part of the opening sequence, we hear background music which is calm and slow which may indicate that although this city looks broken, it is still calm and there does not seem to be any problems. It's like a perfect civilization in a broken world.

When the background music fades out, we hear non diegetic sounds of a woman narrating the city, explaining why the people are in the certain colours, telling us that these are factions, who have different duties in the world they live in. We are given a lot of basic information as to why the world is as it is and why there is a giant wall surrounding the city. We are told that everyone knows their place in the city, however soon we are told that she (the narrator) does not know where she fits in society which means that in this 'perfect' world, there is some sort of imperfection which indicates that this small imperfection will cause some sort of outrage in the city which could have serious effects.

The Expendables 2 Analysis

The Expendables 2 Opening Scene Analysis

The very first shot we see is a medium shot of what looks like a hostage being slapped which then quickly cuts to an establishing shot of what looks like a broken town or a base of some sort, we soon see a long shot of multiple military vehicles driving down a hill to the location - due to the expectations of the film from the previous film, the audience assume that this is a mission that 'the expendables' are going on, to maybe save the hostage that we see in the first clip. Throughout the opening sequence, we are not given much information about the characters in the military vehicles, due to the fact the director will assume the audience have seen the first installment of The Expendables and so any large character traits will of been shown throughout the first film. However if a member of the audience has not seen the first film, they will have a rough idea of who the characters are - by using some of the most famous action movie actors and due to the amount of action movie clichés we see, the audience can clearly see that these characters are either mercenaries or part of a military force. The low angle shots that are used on the mercenaries shows that they are powerful and very important in the film. 

The glorious death of hundreds of terrorists being gunned down by heavy machinery just adds to the excitement and action clichés in the opening scene of the film. As the audience, we are quite literally thrown straight into the action, there is little build up as after only one minute there is a shoot out in the broken location. The Mise En Scene is what you would expect from an action film like The Expendables - it has a lot of explosions, fast vehicles, guns, death, soldiers, mercenaries, military related activity, it has it all. Like a lot of action films, they are fairly unrealistic, in the way that about eight mercenaries can take out hundreds of soldiers without really any struggle. This however does give the audience the impression that these characters are very well trained and professionals at what they do. The diegetic sounds take up most of the sounds used in the sequence, as we mainly hear the engines of the vehicles, gun shots and explosions for the most part - and maybe one of the mercenaries shouting at something, the non diegetic sounds like the background music play only a minor part in the scene as it is fairly quiet due to the loud diegetic sounds being used.

Romantic Movie Conventions and Cliches

Romantic Movie Conventions and Cliches

Romantic movies have countless cliches, every romance film is near on the same and we can always tell what's going to happen, these motives have been become very predictable plot line devices, story line twists or just any kiss scene in the rain. There is always that quirky 'BFF' who the audience love, no romantic movie would be complete without the main protagonists offbeat bestfriend, their always there to either sabotage or help the protagonist with the person they love, although as they aren't the central focus of the film, they are able to be as outrageous as possible.

The lonely montage - Those solitary walks and not having fun with friends, just to make sure the audience know the protagonist is alone, upset and torn up. This montage tells the audience that something life changing will happen - like the protagonist finally realises that they love this person. However, there's another thing, there's also 'the other one' - that other guy who also loves the girl and usually is a bit of a douche, he's cocky, thinks that the girl is going to go for them. They aren't always like this but it helps if the audience is supposed to be hoping for the two main protagonists pair up.

Mission Impossible 2 Opening Scene Analysis

Mission Impossible 2 Opening Scene Analysis

In the opening minutes of Mission Impossible 2, the first scene we have an establishing shot, this shows us where this scene is located, in this case it is in the Dead Horse Point in Utah, this particular location connotes lonesomeness of the character, of whom we soon see as the camera zooms through the setting to see a medium shot of Tom Cruise, free climbing up one of the giant rocks. The camera  then stays zoomed in on him for a while until it zooms back out to show the audience how high up he is, he sits back with his knees held in the rocks and the look on his face shows peacefulness but also shows that he is tired. He then proceeds to fall down until somehow, he latches onto one of the rocks below with his hand, this short part creates tension and the sense of danger - this is a obvious genre indicator indicating that a lot of death defying stunts will be included in the film. In this scene you can hear the diegetic sound combination of wind blowing and Tom Cruise heavily breathing. We also hear the non-diegetic sound of fast paced music building up (getting louder) which creates excitement for the audience leaving them on the edge of their seat waiting for something to happen.

Shortly after this, we see Tom Cruise make it to the top of the rock. The camera shot here is of a birds eye view - they have very cleverly done this, as we see a helicopter fly by Tom Cruise with a man in a suit holding what appears to be a rocket of some sort, this creates tension as the audience don't really know what to expect. As he shoots it we are not sure why this is happening or what is going to happen - the audience will assume this will detonate and cause destruction, although we soon find out that this is actually a package for Tom Cruise. The reason why the camera editing is clever in this scene is because they have effectively used the helicopter in the scene for the birds eye view shots as well as the clear input in the scene. As the rocket is shot, the music in the background soon stops indicating this is an important part of some sort - however different music begins to play after we see a close up of Tom Cruises face, this is the famous soundtrack of the Mission Impossible series, apart from this, this song is also a genre indicator as the music helps the audience realise this is going to be an action packed movie.

Action Movie Conventions and Cliches

Action Movie Conventions and Cliches

Cliches:

Every single action films will have explosions in - it's like a tradition, but what else does your typical action film consist of? Well you'll usually see fight sequences every 10 minutes of the film or the protagonist climbing a building in the big city or rocks in the deserts of Utah, like in mission impossible. Films like "The Expendables" and "Mission Impossible" seem to of crammed in almost every action movie cliche and convention possible. In your typical action movie, the protagonists are usually ex-military/mercenaries who assemble to pull of what seems to be a suicidal mission to hunt down and kill some crazed Russian or an eastern European in which they end up in an intense car chase in the big city and end up causing massive destruction, the police get involved, but are run down by the antagonists army, both sides have high tech gear but even each other out and it's normally down to who has the biggest guns will win the battle.

Other times in action movies it is in fact only one main protagonist and antagonist who normally has a sidekick who has no mercy and their duty is to basically kill the protagonist so they can rule whatever it is their trying to rule, and because their to lazy to do it themselves, it's usually a country or something they are trying to rule and in these films the police somehow have no power whatsoever. There always seems to be a motive as to killing the good guy or the bad guy in these films, whether it's because their a danger to society, which it usually is, or because ones crazed with power and need to take out anyone who stands in their way.

The background music is always fast and upbeat just to keep the feel of excitement, although, action films have become so repetitive that we can almost always tell what is going to happen next - when there is a quiet scene, a load of guys with sub machine guns blasts through the windows and another battle commences.

Conventions:

The action genre is a very popular genre which primarily appeals to the young male audience. In these action films we'd expect to see certain things - guns, violence, dangerous missions and of course, a lot of explosions. Like a lot of genres we will also expect the films to have a main protagonist(s) and Antagonist, whether it is a war or someone trying to take over the world we will always expect there to be a battle between good and evil. 

Fans of the genre often become very loyal to franchises like Iron Man and (Sci-Fi Action) Star Wars and the reason for this is because they will almost always leave a cliffhanger at the end or introduce us to a new threat which will leave viewers hooked and hyped for the next film to come out. These films also manage to keep the audience entertained throughout the films by making sure there are no 'dull' moments in the films and as the audience we will expect (especially from an action film) for there to be a lot of action, and never a dull moment, something always has to be happening, there is always a build up to something and that is what keeps us all entertained for hours.

Another way in which Action films are able to keep a strong following, is by using unique selling points like huge action films stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Liam Neeson, these actors are very popular in the Action/Thriller genres and would be a huge selling point for any hardcore action film fan.

In the opening two minutes of an action film you would expect to see the main protagonist and sometimes even the antagonist but that rarely happens, but you would expect to see the protagonist either on a solo mission or with other people, however this is depending on the time setting of the film, if it is set in past ages like Gladiator, you may expect to see warriors preparing for battle or being seen in the aftermath of a battle.