The Firm - Trailer Analysis

This is the trailer for the film, 'The Firm'. As a group we are looking at trailers for which we can relate to our genre we have picked, 'Crime/Gangster'.

When researching through for these types of trailers we came across this particular one for which we can pick out the qualities of what makes a good crime, gangster trailer.

The qualities we picked out are the, language (cockney rhyming london slang.) Costume, ( Early 90s, Tracksuits) and also the settings, (London, Council Estates.)

From here we then can look on these qualities to help for when planning our trailer and remember to add these into our work.

Looking at different trailers we also have to understand that we need these main points, Language, Costume and Settings, for our trailer so that the viewers can understand and also for our trailer to be a success.

From the trailer the textual input of, characters are shown a stereotype of a typical gang of young london men, street youths. The audience that this film trailer would be shone towards would be the age range of teenage boy, the film is rated as a 18, so older teenage boys, 18+. Mainly for the male genre as it fits into, football, humour and voilence.

This Trailer show different cut clips of a varation of up close camera angles to show the main characters towards the audience. Within the trailer it also shows the film distrubutions, Vertigo films and Universal.

-Karis Hammond

Ideas and Research

Having decided on a genre, we next need to start looking at ideas for our trailer.

We decided on the "crime/gangster" genre as it is easy to relate too for the youth of today and is a growing issue in todays society. 

Setting

To help decide on a setting and era of which our gangster film would take place, a questionairre was handed out around the class to see what they would like to see. The questions were:

What do you think of gangster films based in an 'older' era such as the 1930's (Godfather, Goodfellas for example)?

- I prefer gangster films to be based in an 'older' era
- I prefer gangster films when they are based in a more modern era
- I dont mind

If a gangster film was to be based in London, what era would you prefer it to take place within?

- Older
- Modern

If a gangster film was to be based in America, what era would you prefer it to take place within?

- Older
- Modern

On average, the most popular results were:

- I dont mind (what era they are based in)
- American films taking place in an older era
- London films taking place in a modern era

From the feedback I recieved, we have concluded that the best possible setting for our film will be East London, in the modern era. One reason being that people seem to prefer london based gangster films to take place within a modern era, while they prefered American based films to take place in an 'older' era. I assume this is because many gangster films from America are based in the 1930's, reason being 'The Great Depression' was taking place where everyone was at a struggle for wealth, power and money. Enland/London on the other hand doesnt have this kind of history to benefit from in this kind of genre. Hence why we see more gangster films based in London taking place in modern day.

Another reason is that modern day is easy to relate to and being in an area close to it, it is easily accessible.

by Will Leighton

Ideas

The reason I chose the trailer for Road to Perdition as my starter trailer is due to it being a crime drama. This means even in the trailer you have the same effects as a stereotypical crime drama. Notice its dark lighting and themes. The characters are shown in an array of different angles to give the trailer a sinister nature. The music is poignant and adds an edge to the trailer, making it more elaborate and in depth.

 

We feel this is a great example of using music to express something more in detail. The music in this case serves as a juxtaposition between what is glorious and what is dark.

 

The trailer is also effective in how lighting is used. Notice it is dark around a title character, yet they are seemingly glowing. This could be used to represent the nature and intentions of the characters involved in our trailer. The characters who the trailer show to be villainous in nature are shown to have dark throughout and at times shown to be the opposite of the heroes, they have a dark light on them constantly and at times, it is light around them whereas they appear dark adding to the audience perception, making it easy for them.

I have chosen this trailer as it is the best at exciting the audience, it doesn't give the whole of the film away. Instead it uses brief clips and compiles them to give a small indication of what the film is about without giving too much away

Harry Mountier

Introduction

For our task we have decided that producing a teaser trailer would be the option on which we could express ourselves more creatively. it is an option which we can be more innovative and the results would be more interesting and higher quality then if we simply recorded a short film. 

We will be delving into the crime drama genre. This is a popular genre amongst our age group and something which we reguarly watch. We hope that by having this experience of being entertained by this category of film, we are in the best position to replicate its thrills and help us to find a formula which results in a interesting concept.

As well as a trailer, we will also have to produce a website home page featuring the film. This could be interesting and versatile as we can possible venture into being creative on the website, possible giving it features and giving the audience a more in depth analysis about the film.

finally, we will also have to create a poster for the film advertising it. We will have to think hard about what images will be used as this has a lasting impression on the viewer. We will give it text and will try to make it as realistic as we possibly can.

We will obviously have to work hard to ensure that all three forms of promotion interwind with one another, thus resulting in one experience and promote the film in the best possible manner.

Harry Mountier