Genre Theory David Chandler

Types of sub-genre which apply to my trailer would be:

• Action thriller
• Drama
• Suspense
• Crime
• Mystery
• Pyschological
• Disaster

They come under this role as some of these sub genres are generally behind my trailer for example, pyschological. It's the motives and pyschological side of it, "why is he after her?" "what has made him do this?" etc. Other sub genres like Disaster/Crime are just the general side of the plot being bad. It is a disaster in the sence for the girls family who's been taken and how are they coping/feeling.

Genre conventions

Fonts - I used black and white colour within my trailer/magazine cover/poster as it's basic and stands out for the audience. When I say basic I mean it connects to my genre/plot. There is nothing special, fancy, funny about my genre so I used a very basic font style. Usually the font arial was used with the transitions so it was easy for the audience to understand but with the poster I used  a website called 101 fonts and used an example on their.

Editing Techniques - When editing my piece learning from last year it was to keep the pace of the trailer fast and the shots quick and simple instead of them dragging out. The convention was using dark suspence music to fit into the genre and at the important parts (syntagms) the music would either stop or be very quiet. I slowed down some of the shots such as walking to make more emphasis on them but not too much so they look like a western film creating a comedy impact.

Clothing - The conventions of clothing for a action thriller genre was making sure their clothing was completely opposite to each other. I used dark colours such as black, navy very basic colours for the protagonist and for the teenager/female light blues, whites etc. I wanted clean fresh but dull colours nothing to bright to give away the thought that she's a fun confident teenager as my portray of her isn't meant to be that. Using the colours show the differences between good and bad like Levi Straus theory.

Photographs - The genre convention of my photography which I took for my poster/magazine were using models and I used lighting to create more a dynamic effect and edited it so the background was black or white to connect all together. I made sure they wore clothes which represented their personalities and what they wore in the film so it all connected.

Trope - The other type of genre but within my film is how it connects to another different genre. For example in my film a male who is strong, mysterious wearing black or a suit, in a romance could be the person who everyone wants to be or want to be with. Or in another action film it could be seen as the good, smart, tactical person. Or a sign of a house is usually peace, love, family, friends, emotional etc it's all types of emotions and feelings in one setting but in this trailer this is where the person gets taken and all types of connection are broken.

Syntagm and Paradigm

I tried to understand the words Syntagm and Paradigm and apply them to a scene of a film as with language I personally find it a lot easier.

This is a clip from the film Taken when the daughter of the main character (Liam Neeson) is away and watches her friend get taken from her cousins apartment where they are staying. She knows she is next.

The paradigm is that in this scene there are two very different girls - one is very bubbily, confident, not afraid and the other one is more quiet, observed, content. But these two fall under the same category. The males who kidnap them want them both, even though they are completely different types of people they are still going to be apart of this kidnapping and being sold by these people.

As the scenes are always going back and forward to the scene of Kim hiding from the people who are trying to kidnap her and her dad who is sat down listening, helping her, we know that this is the main focus and syntagam the director wanted the audience to know. There could be many connotations to these clips as even though they follow each other and link together the future thoughts are 'will he get her back?' 'what is going to happen her?' this is what the paradigm of the choice of words tell us and make us think as the viewer. As he explains to her shout "eye colour, hair colour, anything you see"

"I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you" this sentence is a syntagam as "look, find" (verb), "kill" (object), "you" (the subject) but the choice of paradigms are used for the film to reflect Liam Neesons peformance of being strong, confident, a hero etc. Other choices of words could of been 'hunt', 'see', 'hurt' but those words wouldn't make as a strong impact as hunt could be seen as hunting with animals, hurt isn't as violent and shocking as kill and using the word 'see' gives the connotations he will definitely see him but as he isn't 100% sure he will see him he uses the word look as it'll make the other person be aware now that is someone is looking for him and there is no escape.

The obvious is that in this scene its the clear divsion of female and male. Identifying the paradigm is the feamle and male. If the roles were changed and it was the male being kidnapped by a female it would have completely different connotations and meanings as usually its females who get taken are sold.

Representation

As I chose my film to be a 15 I think representation is really important.

The representation of gender is really apparent in this film. I used a male protagonist to be the kidnapper as stereotypically that is what happens in the real media. I used certain camera types such as a high angle following him as he is walking to make him seem more intimidating and then with the female: close ups such as on her face to show fear.

Another type of representation is class/social status. My storyline is about tiger kidnapping and he kidnaps for money as he lost everything in a fire. I show this by using transitions throughout the film of facts about tiger kidnapping so the audience know what it's about and get some general knowledge about it.

Music research

I finally picked some music which I liked for my piece. I used the Macs music anyway such as 'dark suspense 1' but I also found on Youtube instrumental pieces.

I downloaded the Taken final fighting scene instrumental as it has some really good drum beats and then a sudden pause which creates a huge amount of suspense and really would make the audience feel 'wow'. I then also downloaded a instrumental piece of a piano song as I was intending to put a sad piece of music in my work but then realised it didn't really connect to the other pieces of music so during the sad points of the trailer I made the music quiet or used a silent piece to cause tension.

I ended up downloading suspense instrumental pieces which I use at the beginning which is a drum beat every 3 seconds, it's great to get the audience intrigued I thought but also during the transitions makes them seem more realistic.

Questions for Myra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sax95YCXQk8

My link for my trailer is ^

Here are some questions Myra I would like you to answer.

1. What do you think of the pace of the editing throughout the film?
   
2. Do any of my shots need to be cut, longer, changed?
   
3. My shots at the end of my trailer in the night time I tried out night vision as it was too dark otherwise. Do you think it was a good idea or does it not fit my genre very well as usually it's for a horror theme.
   
4. Do you think I should do some background information on the kidnapper before he enters the house and takes the teenager or leave it where is he is seen as anonymous?
5. Do you think I could change any of the music or does it fit quite well with the piece such as the drum beat for tension and suspense.
6. I go quite quickly from saying the mum is going out tonight so the teenager is going to be alone to the scene where the kidnapper comes in and takes her... Do you think I could add a bit more information in here so it's not jumped straight away or do you think it is okay and builds the tension up quickly?