What does Post Apocalyptic really mean?

“Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of human civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural phenomena, divine judgement, change, resource, ecological collapse, or some other general disaster. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten. Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain. There is a considerable degree of blurring between this form of science fiction and dystopian fiction.

The genre gained popularity after World War II, when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness. However, recognizable apocalyptic novels have existed since the first quarter of the 19th century.” (Source: www.wikipedia.com)

How do you structure a teaser trailer?

This post will show the evaluation of the trailers of which our group watched in order to give us a general idea of the structure of different trailers to attract an audience to watch the film. Below I will provide access of the three main trailers we have used for our research followed with a synopsis, and then my own evaluation of the pieces.

Synopsis

‘Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague -- The Infected -- lurk in the shadows... watching Neville's every move... waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered... and quickly running out of time. Written by Warner Bros. Pictures (Source: www.IMDB.com)

Evaluation

‘I am Legend’ starts of with a voice over ‘This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen’ which immediately tells the audience something has gone wrong. This then goes into a quick sequence of which we find out a little bit about humanity and shots of peoples attempts to try and flee the country. The audience then go to the same bridge in the sequence before, but the next morning which then leads into establishing the locations and the state of which the location is left in. Also at the same time, the trailer establishes the character, by a voice over and the character of which is preparing for the fight ahead. The trailer then is steady and is slowly building up with the heavy breathing from the character which helps build up tension for the audience. It then goes into very quick montage of the film, providing intensity and vision for the audience to understand the narrative to the film.

Synopsis

Animal activists invade a laboratory with the intention of releasing chimpanzees that are undergoing experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes rage. The naive activists ignore the pleas of a scientist to keep the cages locked, with disastrous results. Twenty-eight days later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to seek out anyone else to find London is deserted, apparently without a living soul. After finding a church, which had become inhabited by zombie like humans intent on his demise, he runs for his life. Selena and Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London tore itself apart. This is a tale of survival and ultimately, heroics, with nice subtext about mankind's savage nature. (Source: www.IMDB.com)

Evaluation

The trailer starts of with shaky camerawork which will disorientate an audience as they are unable to see fully what is happening. There is some low key and quite dark lighting which helps add the horror feel to the trailer, which appeals to the audience as they enjoy the thrill of horrors and enjoy being scared as the trailer intends to scare an audience. The length of shot become much slower than they were at the start which help build tension as the pace then begins to increase. It also helps build a sense of panic and fear as the image the trailer is trying to show becomes very unclear and this creates an enigma as the audience to not have a clear vision to what is going on. The use of the character having a hospital patients clothing on, helps tell the audience that there is some sort of disease and this is what has caused dissertation to the city. The use of a creature far into the trailer is used to give the audience a quick fright as they are drawn into the trailer is very effective. The mention of the director is also a good thing as they are building upon a brand, meaning that its not just people that enjoy watching horror films, but it is people who enjoy Danny Boyle’s work that are also watching the film. The use of the sirens which were used during the war also helps show fright and horror, and then the use of an extreme close-up on the creature’s bloody eyes which is then overlaid by the title shows that the character is abnormal and the blood shows that the film is gory. 

Synopsis

28 Weeks Later picks up six months after the Rage Virus has decimated the city of London. The US Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage Virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection and the nightmare begins... again. (Source: www.IMDB.com)

Evaluation

The trailer starts of by establishing the location of which the film will be set. The ways in which the narrative conflict/story has been shown in the trailer is by the way it shows the audience, members of the army with gas masks on, are cleaning the streets of bacterial substances that could kill man kind, throwing things out of houses in to bags with warning signs on, and messages on roofs of houses made by the uninfected specifying ‘I AM HERE’. This helps establish the narrative by a very unique voice over made by a female officer explaining to the uninfected what is happening and what is going to happen. The audience are then introduced to various characters by showing two young children, one boy and one girl, on a train and meeting their father at the train station. The trailer then focuses on them and there struggle for survival. The trailer gives the audience a very focused idea of the theme of the film, the two young children are reunited with the father and taken to a safe location. Something within the compound then goes wrong and the two children and father are lead by the army man at the beginning of the trailer and running from the infected and running for survival. If the trailer is divided into sections they have been arranged in to a specific order to provide tension for the audience. The first section is establishing the locations of which the film will be set. The second section is establishing the infection and what they are doing to stop the infection. The third section is establishing characters and their story. The fourth section is action (their fight for survival).

All three trailers have a common structure to them, they all establish the locations first, they then tell the audience what has happened, then following establishing the characters. It then builds up with fast camera shots that help build tension for the audience and provides how they are battling for survival. I am Legend, however, is different to the 28 days trilogy, as it is one man and his dog, the trilogy includes a group of people, however, there is always a character that understands the depth of the situation they are in, and there is a venerable character. This will be taken into consideration for our teaser trailer when it comes to discussing the synopsis and characters.   

What is a teaser trailer?

A teaser trailer tells you some basic information about the film, which will:

• Make you aware that the film will be opening in the future
• Make you aware of who is in the film
• Make you aware of the genre of the film
• Give you an idea of the story of the film
• The teaser trailer gives you ideas and also awareness about the film

This is then followed up by a Theatrical Trailer as the release date of the film is fast approaching. This will then aware the audience when the film will open, what type of film it is, who is in the film and what other films you have heard or seen these characters in.

The theatrical trailer then gives the audience ideas in the ways a narrative conflict is shown and by the ways in which certain locations and characters are introduced. It can also give some ideas about the themes of the film which will give the audience something to look forward to.

Within the next blog I will analyse some trailers and how they are divided into different sections, how these sections tell the audience about the film and why have the trailers arranged them in a certain order. I will also give a brief analyse of how the characters are represented within the trailers. 

The Start of a long process

This blog has been created to show the process of the advanced portfolio task of which has to be completed for the A2 part of the Media course. This blog will demonstrate the progression and the different stages undertook in the creation of our project. The members of the group that I have been put together with for the advanced production are Alex Mwanza and Callum Augustin. We believe we can strive forward to produce something of which is an outstanding piece of work.

Last year we all knew that we was going to create either a music video or a teaser trailer as part of our portfolio, so my plan was to go away during the summer holidays and think up a few ideas. I was positive I wanted to create a teaser trailer and thought up a few ideas that I could share with the rest of my group.

As a group, we have collectively have chosen to create a teaser trailer. We believe that our skills and personal qualities would be far valuable to us and would be able to put our knowledge of films into one of our own.

In our first lesson, we put pen to paper and thought of which genre of films we watch and enjoyed to watch, as this could potentially rub off onto our production. However we then thought of genre’s that would we would realistically able to create and would be a high-quality and professional teaser trailer.

Here are some of the following genres we came up with:

• Action Adventure
• Horror/Thriller
• Comedy

After more brainstorming and in depth discussion, the three of us came to a decision to create a Post-Apocalyptic Horror/Thriller, of which was one of my ideas and funny enough one of Callum’s. This was a very positive sign as we could put two and two together and have a greatly promising concept to work with in the next few weeks.  We then moved onto the computers to watch professional high budgeted movie trailers, such as I am Legend. It then came to our attention that we won’t be able to create something as big as I am Legend and Zombieland, but we can still incorporate some of the ideas into our trailer. We then began to look at low-budgeted film trailers of which were created by British film companies such as the 28 days later trilogy, Deadman’s Shoes and Trainspotting.  

By the end of the lesson, we then had a good idea of the concept of what to incorporate into the trailer, how to establish characters and settings, and the main structure of a trailer. This enabled us to plan a concept for our trailer and jot down a few ideas that would interest an audience (of which we will decide on later in the process).