My completed trailer storyboard

Selected scenes for my film's trailer

1) Flashback shots - possible two to give some background into the main character and her relationship. Also to give binary opposites to the person she becomes. Also to give a setting and equilibrium
2) shot of the alien spaceship arriving - lots of chaos and fear to tell the audience what the disruption is.
3) shot of Ben leaving to go the army, to give drama
4) shot of a very scary, ugly looking alien to present the villains. Possible explosions and gunfire in background to show the a-a genre
5) shot of Talia fighting a lot of aliens. This is to show the odds of human survival, and to again represent the a-a genre. The background could have a destroyed NYC scene to show the audience that the film is apocolypic
6) shots of Talia with her children to fortify the idea of her being a mother and present the USP
7)shots of other helpers and donors - John in a typical army uniform with an american flag and a cigar to create a stereotype.
8) some kind of surpring, scary alien shot to shock the audience and appeal to an older TA who may enjoy the idea of aliens and apolypse in a film.

Audience Profile for 2012

This film targets a fairly wide audience of men and women aged 21-40 due to the disaster sub-genre of the film. The trailer uses many shots of a devestated world, which presents the impressive CGI to attract film fans who are interested in the modern technologies of the film. However not much of the main characters are shown; simply their faces and some basic relationships such as his family. By showing scenes of the family, 2012 can also attract families to view the film, as it seems that the film focuses some of its narrative on relationships and emotions, which may appeal more to the female side of the audience. The audience is entertained by the trailer as it shows the film to be exciting and energetic, which may be desired by a-a film fans. Surveillance and information is also given, as the audience are brought into a futuristic world, which represents the Mayan myth of the end of the world.

storyboard for my film's opening sequence

Shotlist for my film's opening sequence

Marketing Campaign for Avatar

I decided to focus my research on Avatar, as it proved a successful campaign, due to the fact that it was heavilty anticipated and talked about, and A LOT of people went to see it.

The budget for Avatar was approximately £200,000,000, and a fair amount of this went into marketing the film. It grossed $2,782,206,970, which shows that it was a successful campaign as it attracted a large audience. The campaign was indeed on an enourmous scale, and consisted of the three main parts that build any campaign: advertising, promotion and publicity. By juggling all three part, awareness of the film was created quickly, and sustained until the film's release.

Advertising:

Several trailers (and TV spots), and very recognizable posters which expressed the "new technology" USP of the film were released. Many of these posters and trailers were globally released which created an international awareness of the film, that connected the many prospecting audiences from around the world. Online marketing also played a key role in advertising the film. Viral marketing on Facebook and Twitter was a huge help in earning the film its massive revenue (Avatar's Fb page had 1,149,471 fans as of 28th Jan 2010).

Promotion:

Avatar and Panasonic were sponsors of each other. The first preview of the film was also shown in Empire to create an early hype and tease film fans who read empire. The Coca-Cola company also collaborated with 20th Century Fox to launch a worldwide campaign to promote the film. By collaborating with big businesses like Coca Cola and Panasonic, Avatar's awareness was spread to a very wide audience who purchase these products.
Also, various other famous films by James Cameron, like Titanic, Alien and Terminator are used to promte the film in the trailer and posters. By mentioning these films, the fans may be attracted to watching Avatar for a similar cinematic experience.

Publicity :

the premier of the film was heavily waited upon, and the film was released on the same day worldwide to create a huge hype all at once. Various interviews were also done with James Cameron, where he explains his thought behind Avatar (like on CNN). This gives the audience an insight into the making of the film, which may interest many film fans.

Audience Interaction:

On the website, the audience is invited to "make your own Avatar" by using an image of yourself. Photos from Facebook can also be used, which makes this viral method more user friendly and reaches a wiser audience, therefore making it more effective. The audience is also able to get involved with various charitable evets, like saving the rainforests. Not only does this make the institutions behind the film seem better and more generous, it also gives the audience an incentive to go on the website and watch the film, as the are helping for a cause.

An Avatar game is also available for purchase on the AppStore (and on consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3), which i got and think is pretty awesome. This allows the Avatar name to be seen by a wider audience (the many people who own Ipods and use the AppStore),  whoc can interact with the film and feel part of the huge fan base. Downloads are also available, like wallpapers and soundtracks, which can be send to different people and creates yet another form of viral marketing.
Merchendise is available from a variety of sources, including Amazon, and allows fans to buy figures, wear T-Shirts and even buy costumes of their favourite characters.

Overall, I think that Avatar's marketing campaign is very, very, very, very successful. In fact, i think it was too successful. Many people (including me), found Avatar to be a good film, but not up to the expectations made by the campaign. Such an amazing campaign suggested that  the film would be one of the best ever, in terms of breaking boundaries and in terms of its narrative. Nonetheless, Avatar's marketing campaign was clearly successful, seeing as how it made the film as popular as it is today. It targets a huge audience, and reached almost everyone i could think of. It created a brand for the film, and made it one of the most anticipated films of that year, which is why i still think it was an amazing campaign. 

This is my moodboard to present how the male and female sexes are represented in AA films. As you can see, the representation fo men is usually more positive, as they are made to seem powerful, dominant and adventurous. In comparison, females are stereotypically represented as the damsel in distress, often being hopeless and being the "princess" that must be saved. However, in many AA films these stereotypes are broken, and men are represented in a different light, where they are not strong and dominant, but are weak and need saving by women. Also, women are unstereotypically represented as strong and violent (like men), however much more clever and empathetic than men are usually represented. overall, men are more stereotypically represented in a positive light, however in a lot of films, the characteristics of the female characters challenge these stereotypes, for example Kill Bill, Chocolate, Kick Ass and Avatar.

Narrative Techniques

Open Narrative - at the end of my film a sequel will be hinted as all the aliens are not killed and another king is created, which suggests that the narrative will continue.

Binary Opposites - good vs evil - humans vs aliens. Also destruction vs intact surroundings. Earth will be completely destroyed, however the alien base will be intact to symbolise how the human race is almost at ethe point of extinction. Also, i will use reds, greys and blacks on Earth, with lots of white and blues in the alien base. This will show how Earth is destroyed, and could represent how the human race has destroyed Earth with the amount of war which has occured.

Ellipses - the beginning will of the film will show how the aliens came to Earth, and the war they had with the humans. Then it will skip to the present day which the film will be set in, which is left ambigious but is in the future. This will create a tense atmosphere as the audience will be not know exactly where and at what time this film is set, which creates insecurity and suspense.

Alterations to Proposal

The things that i could improve on were my marketing, as i had not really thought about it. Also, i could improve on the choice of actors and actresses, and possibly change who would play Sarah Brown. I would probably choose someone younger in order to widen my target audience out more. Any alterations i have made are in RED.
I was also thinking of changing my film title to something more dramatic, as the plot is fairly dark and emotional, and "uninvited guests" doesnt really suggest that (in my point of view).

Marketing

My marketing campaign will follow the generic structure of any other film campaign, in terms of a teaser poster first, followed by a trailer and an actual poster and TV spots nearer to the film's release.

However i will also include a campaign where a certain amount of the money made from the film will be donated to the soldiers who at war. As my target profile is mainly a western audience, particularly American citizens, this could be effective as american citizens are generally very patriotich and support their soldiers.This would hopefully provide a secondary motive, other than the entertainment of the film, for the audience to watch the film, and could bring in more revenue and generate word-of-mouth promotion of the film. Also, i would create a viral marketing campaign where people are able to "alienise" their faces online, and can send the picture made to friends on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This will hopefully generate a viral marketing campaign and spread the film out to the younger section of my target audience

Iconography:
The iconography of the film will connote “Action-Adventure” by the extensive use of guns, bombs, chainsaws, baseball bats and many other weapons. Also, a lot of vehicles will be used, including aeroplanes, off-road vehicles, tanks and old domestic cars. Overall the technology of the alien weapons will be much better and more futuristic than anything of the humans. However, everything that the humans have will be of the 21st century, as they have not been able to advance in technology due to their oppression. Talia and all of the army personnel will be wearing worn out army clothing to portray how they are in the army, however the other helpers and donors will be wearing ordinary clothing which represents their character. For example John will be wearing an army outfit with lots of badges and medals on it, Sarah will be wearing baggy unfeminine clothing which is very worn out and ripped. All the humans will be made to look dirty with the use of smeared makeup. This, with the apocalyptic scene, will present the setting and will show the audience that the world is in danger. The aliens will not be distinguished from the humans in any way using colour, and the typical “blue-red” colours for good and evil will not be used. This will add to the mystery of the film, and will create a dangerous mise-en-scene as the audience cannot tell who is good and who is bad. The fire element will be use to symbolise danger, chaos and the rushed atmosphere that the characters are in.

Setting:
The film is set in the future, in a post-apocalyptic Earth, set predominantly in America. However the audience are not told when or where exactly the film is set, in order to create a mysterious mise-en-scene and a tense atmosphere for the audience. The characters will travel through a lot of America, and the film will include scenes of New York and Washington in their destroyed state. The predominant colours in the settings will be red, blacks and greys. This will hopefully create a “dangerous” setting, which will look chaotic and apocalyptic. This will make the genre of action-adventure clearer to the audience. Another setting will be the alien base, which will be much cleaner, lighter and not destroyed at all. By using this binary opposite of Earth and the alien base, the extinction of the human race will be made more dramatic. Most of the scenes will be set outdoors on streets, which are completely destroyed and left in carnage.

USP:
A mother must fight for the world and for her family against all the odds. My film is unique as the hero is an old mother who saves the world, which isn’t a convention of most action adventure movies where the main characters and heroes are usually young men.

Audience:
my film will target men and women aged 18-40. I plan to target an older generation using and older selection of actors renowned for their work in action adventure films. Also, the violent action, apocalyptic theme and use of CGI and lots of special effects would appeal to a younger audience and the male audience. Fans of the actors would also be attracted to watching the film, as my film would have a lot of famous actors in it. Women may be attracted to watching the film as the hero and some other main characters will be female, and gender equality will be a strong theme in my film, as the female characters will be shown to be equally strong (mentally and physically) as the men.

Characters:

Hero - Talia Blackford - played by Uma Thurman
 Talia is a mother of two children, and a wife to a husband who has gone to fight against the aliens. She is fairly old, however she is still strong, confident, heroic and courageous. These are all typical characteristics of a male hero, however she also has the characteristics that a female is stereotypically given, such as compassion, caring and intelligent. She has to save her husband...and the world, and must face a lot of challenges throughout the film, which she overcomes with these characteristics.

Princess - Ben Blackford - played by Brad Pitt

Ben is the male princess, and is captured by the aliens and needs rescuing by Talia. He has the typical characteristics of a male characters, however is still the princess. Once he gets captured, he is still able to help get rescued by Talia, as he uses his inteligence and resources to kill many of the aliens and help his rescue his fellow captured humans.

 Helpers - John Doeman - played by Bruce Willis

He is the older, very patriotich, "less agile" war veteran, who is determined to save America and prove that even old men can fight. He has stereotypes the female characters, Talia and particularly Sarah, as useless due to their sex. However he is proved wrong as he needs to be saved several times by both Talia and Sarah. He has got a personal hatred against the aliens, as they killed his wife, and this is shown in the film as he is very angry and violent, and wants to kill everyone one of the aliens.

Sarah Brown - played by Hayden Panettiere
She is the un-stereotypical female character, who only has very masculine traits, and is the "alpha-female", however still looks like a woman. She wants to help Talia as she simply wants to end the end of the human race. She builds a friendly battle between the sexes with John Doeman, and they are constantly trying to prove that their gender is better. Panettiere played Claire in the series "Heroes", where she also played a very strong female character who was determined to help others. The characteristics of her character Claire will be similar to those of Sarah Brown.


 
Donor - Herfred Wood - played by Shia Labeouf
He is the youngest person on Talia's team, and was not allowed to help because he was a lot younger than the other characters. After a lot of pleading,  he was allowed to help as he knows how to infiltrate into the alien base. He possesses a lot of intelligence, and is the "geek" of the team, and isnt strong at all.

Inspiration:

Apocalyptic film about the end of human race due to aliens taking over the world.
The dark, destroyed and chaotic landscape is what i would use in my film, as it is also set in a post apocalyptic setting





This films uses a female hero, who has many stereotypical male characteristics, such as courage, anger, strength and the ability to kill thousands of people without dying. Talia will have similar characteristics, however the fact that she is a female character will be focused on to create a change in the representation of women in action adventure films

This films also uses an apocalyptic narrative, which i would incorporate into my film. The use of CGI and special effects is also very inspiration in this film, as it creates a tense and dangerous atmosphere very effectively.

Homework - AA film proposal

A-A film – Extinction  (work in progress)
Narrative –
Equilibrium – not much equilibrium as the characters start off in a post apocalyptic setting, where humans are in hiding from the aliens which have taken over. A family is living underground with several other families in hiding. Talia, the wife and mother, is an ex-soldier, who has retired to look after her children whilst her husband is called to defend the border. They are living as peacefully as they can in their community of many families who help each other.
Disruption – Talia receives a message about her husband, saying that he has been captured and taken by the aliens. She then decides to go after her husband in order to find him. She leaves her children in the care of her best friend, and sets off. However the best friend’s husband insists that he goes along with her to help, as his sister has also been taken.
Resolution – the world army ask Talia and her other people who she has met along the way to help them infiltrate the aliens main base, as she has shown absolute courage and strength. She agrees as her husband may be in the slave camps there. She destroys the enemy base, and the entire alien operation is also destroyed. Most of the aliens are killed, and the alien king who leads the operation was murdered by her. Her husband is found, and returned to her, however the best friend’s husband’s sister is not, and it is expected that she died.
Restoration – The family is re-united, and they are happy again. However Earth is still in its apocalyptic state and the aliens will be back, as not all of them are dead. A sequel is suggested by a shot of the aliens regrouping underground, and a new alien crowned the king.
Possible Actors/Actresses –
Talia – Uma Thurman
Best friend’s Husband – Matt Damon
Talia’s Husband – Brad Pitt
Other members of Talia’s team would include Bruce Willis (the older, very patriotic, yet surprisingly active ex soldier, fighting for USA) and Uma Thurman (the violent, unrelenting woman who wants to prove that females are just as capable as men). Conflict between Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis will be present, as Willis will be more traditional, believing that women should remain at home whilst men fight, whereas Thurman will try to prove him wrong. Eventually, Thurman saves Willis’ life.
Inspiration –
War of the Worlds – the idea of an apocalyptic scene and aliens taking over interested me because it is quite disturbing in terms of it could happen to us
Alien – one of the first films with a female hero/protagonist
Kill Bill – again with a female hero, however she is much more violent and has masculine traits which I plan to incorporate into the female hero Talia.
Cloverfield – lots of CGI to create the look of the aliens, which I would make my aliens look like, but much more scary and monstrous.

BLK comments

Both excellent homeworks Bhavin - very thorough analysis work, well done

NICS analysis of The Matrix

The Matrix
Narrative – follows something along the lines of Todorovs theory. It’s about an ordinary man finding out that he is “the one”, and is destined to save the human race from the robots. It’s an apocalyptical story, with lots of fight and chase scenes with A LOT of gunfire/explosions, making it very conventional in that way. Also a lot of escaping is needed, for example Neo escaping the Agents. Use of sfx to emphasise the action are also used, such as explosion, knife slashes, breaking down doors etc. It is also made to seem as if rebelling and crime is a good thing, in this case, as the humans need to fight back against the robots, which are in charge. Lots of destruction happens along the way, especially to cars, buildings and the urban environment around them, however there are also many casualties on the human side, which makes it seem as if they have little chance of success. Overall it has the very conventional good vs evil, good being the humans, and evil being the robots.
Iconography – clothing is very dark and mysterious, with everyone wearing a lot of black leather when they are in the matrix, and ripped, worn out clothes when they are out of the matrix, which shows a vast binary opposite. The Agents wear their recognisable suits and ear pieces and sunglasses (which never seem to be damaged no matter what they go through!!!), which makes them look like ordinary office workers. Overall the costumes look very cool (for those times), and I think they are used to create a split between the good and evil side. The main props are guns – they are everywhere. Other props include machinery, however there are not that many other props involved.
Lighting varies, often being natural outdoor but also being dark and gloomy. Overall there is a very grey tone to which makes it seem very sinister and serious, creating a tense mise-en-scene. This matches with the buildings and clothing, which are very grey and urbanised. Special effects are used a lot in the film, especially strings and green screen which are used to perform the many stunts and awesome fight scenes in the film.
Characters –
Hero – Neo – this breaks the conventions, as Neo is seen as an ordinary, rather shady character who does some illegal things (being one of the most notorious computer hackers in the world). However he also has is work life, which is very mundane, like many office workers. However he turns out to be destined to save the world, and it taken in by the humans who make him realise that the world is fake. He ends up saving everyone, however the villains (robots) are not destroyed, which isn’t that common in A-A films.
Princess – Trinity – she is a very powerful character, who is brave and outgoing, which breaks the stereotype of female characters always being the damsel in distress and utterly hopeless. She does some pretty awesome stunts, and often saves Neo, which turns the typical hero saving the princess relationship around, and creates a positive representation of women.
Villain – the main villain who are fought would be the Agents, however they work for the robots. They are superior and very hard to defeat, and are feared by everyone, even Neo, the chosen one. They are used to create a tense atmosphere, as the humans are never safe, as anyone can be an Agent.

Settings – the main setting is a large, urban city, however its whereabouts are left untold which creates the feeling of unease as we don’t know exactly what’s happening and where. This represents the world as we think it is, which is said to be created to store us. The binary opposite setting is the real world, which is dark, desolate by humans and filled with dangerous robots. This is used to create a tense atmosphere as we start to question what’s real and what isn’t. Overall the settings are exaggerated heavily to make the film seem more dramatic, and these new environments bring us into them.

Narrative and Character analysis on Wall E (awesome film!)

Genre:
The genre of Wall E is mainly animation, as it is animated. It comes from the renowned animators Disney and Pixar, which makes the genre even clearer. However it also fits into the comedy genre, as there are lots of funny scenes within the film, usually occurring because Wall E is very clumsy. For example the scene where his hand gets caught in EVE shows slap stick comedy. Sci-fi is also a genre for this film, as the majority of it is set in outer space. Some conventions of the sci-fi genre are made clear in the film, such as the bright lights, futuristic technology, and the different coloured lycra clothing.
Propp:
Wall E is no exception to Propps theory of key characters in films. The Hero is Wall E, who saves all the humans on the ship and brings them back to Earth. The Princess is EVE, who bonds with the hero, where a relationship is created between them. The Villain is not shown until quite far into the film, and is the machine Auto, that runs the ship. Other villains include the ships “police”, who are controlled by Auto. There are various helpers within the film, including the captain, various humans on the ship, and all of the malfunctioning robots that were captured by the ship’s “police”. The main donor would be EVE, as she gives the plant to Wall E, which is needed for the ship to return back to Earth. However, the Princess’ Father does not seem to show, as EVE is a machine. The closest person to the Princess’ Father would be the captain, as he is the one who tells EVE to find the plant, and moves the story forwards.
Wall E does not fit the typical conventions of a hero, as he is not very strong, wise or courageous. Yet he still manages to save everyone and plays the hero in the end. The main villain, Auto, is first seen as a helper, as he helps the captain control the ship. However the turn rogue and tries to take over, which makes him the villain in the end. EVE plays a dual character, as the Princess and as the main Doner, which is common in many films. She is not the stereotypical “Princess” character, as she is generally cleverer than Wall E, and does most of the hard work and fighting, whereas Wall E seems to get in her way a lot. This breaks the stereotype of female characters being unhelpful and needing saving. Although some of the character challenge the stereotypes of that character, the film still retains its familiarity, and is able to be recognised by the audience in terms of the characters which are used.
Todorovs narrative theory:
The structure of Wall E is fairly conventional, and follows Todorov’s theory on the narrative structure of films.
Equilibrium – Wall E is living a simple, peaceful life on Earth, as he clears up the mess which is left day after day. He is alone, and nothing especially exciting happens as he works, apart from Wall E finding a plant which he keeps.
Disruption – A space ship lands on Earth, and EVE, the “princess”, comes onto Earth in search of something. Wall E falls in love with her, and they begin to bond. However, the thing that EVE was looking for happens to be the plant Wall E shows her, and she unwillingly takes the plant and goes into something I would call “sleep mode”, awaiting a ship to collect her. When the plant is collected by the humans, Auto, the villain, tries to destroy the plant to stop the humans returning to Earth.
Resolution – Wall E and EVE, along with the many helpers and doners, go on an adventure to give the plant to the captain, and return the entire space ship back to Earth. Auto is stopped by Wall E, and the plant is given to the captain.
Restoration – The humans return to Earth, and plant the plant into the ground. Wall E and EVE hold hands and electrically kiss, showing signs of a relationship. The humans are taught to look after plants, and a bright future is suggested as the camera zooms outside the city, showing more signs of plant life.

like ur blog bhavin but it made me laugh that ur favourite thing about action/adventure movies is people getting kicked in the head
i never knew u were so violent ;)