Story Line - LEXUS

The storyline for my trailer is very simple, because for one, I don't have alot of time since I've been working on my own to come up with very elaborate trailer plots like Mean Girls, but this is a blessing in disguise since I didn't want that clinical 'big production' feel to my trailer anyway.

Lexus

My actual film focuses on a girl - the main character, Nancy - and how she lives her life. It shows her living, at first carelessly and only for a good time, but then she meets a girl whilst out one night, and things start to change. She starts to harbour an unhealthy obsession with this new girl, called Lexus, and with this infatuation comes her demise; she is sucked into the darker side of adolescence and starts to dabble in things that will eventually bring her down, like drink and drugs, sex and many other trials it seems most teenagers now go through. Lexus knows how much Nancy looks up to her, and tests the waters with her new sidekick by treating her in a way most girls wouldn't stand for (she takes her boyfriend from her, bullies her into taking drugs and getting loaded etc), but Nancy only sees this as a test of friendship, something unavoidable, and so dives in headfirst. Lexus is manipulative and cruel, but in such a way that we start to find her lovable and fun, just as Nancy. It's only until Nancy starts to drive ahead of her in the 'cool' stakes, where Nancy takes Lexus' crown as the girl everyone wants, that things start to get serious. The girls are thrown into a duel against eachother, but it isn't like the petty fighting in Angus... and Mean Girls. This is where real friendship is put to the test, where the material things are weapons, and where the boy isn't the main goal - though certainly important.

What Nancy doesn't realise is that all of these things she's doing to herself are bringing her down notch by notch, and when she overdoses at a party, it's up to Lexus, who finds her slumped in a toilet, to decided whether Nancy's life is worth being queen bee.

My trailer isn't going to be passive, and it isn't going to give the entire plot line away, like in most teen movies. It will force the viewers into thinking, putting themselves in the position of the protagonists and deciding what path they would take. It will be provocative and cold, and it's this that I want to use to set it aside from other teen drama based films. Whilst most are 'cookie-cutter' and clean and perfect, Lexus will be a film that breaks rules and shows the darker side of life in all its painful glory.


Trailer story line

My trailer will still be as provocative and packed with social realism, like my movie would as a whole, but as storylines go, it doesn't have a set one. I see my trailer more as a sneak preview, not a mini of the film, and so my idea is to show clips of what would, or might, be in the actual movie, but not in any coherent order. Just showing integral parts to Lexus and Nancy's tumultuous relationship, and this will give the trailer an icy demeanour that mimicks that of the film. We get a window into their lives through the trailer, but by no means a story.

I will have it starting with a close-up on Nancy's lips, with smudged lipstick, quietly and slowly smoking a cigarette in the dark, the only light coming from the embers. She will then say the tagline "you can't always blame it on bad luck" through the smoke, and it will then cut to show a party scene, where Nancy first meets Lexus. From then on the editing will be cut fast and quick, with scenes like Nancy taking her first drug, downing a bottle of alcohol with Lexus egging her on, and walking in on Lexus and Nancy's boyfriend. I want these partying scenes to be really quick, so you can't really tell what's going on, much like you would feel at a party. After the party, it will then cut to show Nancy sobbing on her own, slumped in a corner with a cigarette, screaming at nothing in particular. Through this scene I will have words coming up on the screen showing statistics of teenagers who die through peer pressure, drug taking and depression. It will then cut to the final scene, with Lexus and Nancy squaring silently up to eachother, Lexus seeming completely at ease whereas Nancy looks as if she's been on a hard night out, with smudged make up and wild hair, tear streaks on her cheeks etc. As they dive for eachother, like a duel, it cuts to a plain black screen, with smoke swirling the background (if I can work out how to do that!) with the film's title, Lexus, in grey, maybe silver, lettering.

Trailer analysis

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

The trailer for Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging, from a storyline point of view, is very 'child-trying-to-be-adult', it has a sense of desperation to grow up and be a woman, which mirrors exactly how Georgia herself feels. The actual layout of the trailer, what with one problem after the other, is maybe a bit too 'un-real', it doesn't follow how life actually goes. There's never a break to Georgia's problems, and it does seem as if her life was purposefully made to make a movie and to incorporate specific scenes before even focusing upon the character herself. Regarding this, I don't think I'll be taking alot from the trailer as it seems a bit too 'cookie-cutter' perfect, following Todorov's narrative theory to the point where it's spelling it out for you and not allowing you to think. It seems a very passive film, and I want my movie to make people think and show the darker side of being a teenager, whereas in Angus... the biggest problem is 'the girlfriend', when there's so many more problems in life.

On the other hand, there are aspects to it that I like as a viewer, for instance, the notebook and polaroid pictures shooting up between each scene, and the constant voice over telling us exactly what's happening, and though this technique seems a bit too passive for my liking, I can see why other viewers will enjoy it, especially since the audience seems to be aimed at the younger generation of teenagers rather than the older ones, who introduce alot more problems into their life rather than those do at Georgia's age.

Aesthetically, the trailer as a whole is very pleasing to the eye. It's bright and colourful and constantly some form of happy, and though this is what draws in the young teens, it's not active in the slightest, it is merely there to interest people, and because it gives a hell of a lot away in the scenes and the voice over to boot, there's nothing there for the viewer to question. It is immediately clear that Georgia is the typical teenage schoolgirl, has her group of best friends, falls for the forbidden boy, Robbie, who, of course, already has the bitchy girlfriend, and sets out to obtain him through any means at her disposal, generally backfiring with hilarious consequences. Nice, simple narrative; girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, girl just has to have him.

The trailer for Angus... is much like the film, and it is shown as a mini movie in itself, with a coherent story line and nothing left to the imagination of exactly what this film contains. It is quite long, and almost exactly two minutes in length which agains adds to the sense it is a mini movie. It begins with a panoramic shot of the street in which Georgia lives, and then cuts to scenes with her laughing with her friends - mimicking Todorov's 'equilibrium' narrative; this is the beginning, everything's rosey, there is an equilibrium in her life - despite the angst she has towards her parents. This is simply part of life for her, though. She expects to have her parents in her way, being embarrassing and 'old', however, and so it still belongs to Todorov's equilibrium. There are short scenes with Georgia and the mishaps she gets herself into, with notepad flashes coming up with sentences like "how to flaunt it", and then showing her how she really doesn't know how to 'flaunt it', and this adds to the mise en scene of the ideal 'teenage girl's life'. It's very typical. Then, of course, 'the boy' comes into play. She spots a gorgeous new pair of brothers, and this is where the disequilibrium comes from. This part of the trailer features short clips of Georgia basically stalking this guy, Robbie, and therefore worrying even more so about her appearence, and how she looks for him, with a brilliant shot of her inspecting her nose in the back a spoon, which automatically makes your nose look huge anyway. During a scene with a good friend, Dave The Laugh, Georgia enquires what exactly a boy looks for in a girls. When Dave says, with barely a heartbeat for him to think about it, their 'nunga nungas', it snaps to shots of Lindsey, Robbie's girlfriend, with her perfect boobs and the dribbling boys that follow her around with saucer sized eyes. This is exactly where the disequilibrium comes into play, and Lindsey and Georgia battle it out, without Robbie's knowledge. Lindsey knocks Georgia to the ground in a hockey match, enforcing the fact she's Robbie's girlfriend and Georgia will never have because she's more powerful, in the sense she's older, prettier, and has bigger boobs. Another disequilibrium rears its head when Georgia spots Robbie at the local swimming pool; her legs are bright orange from the mishap of applying fake tan. Robbie laughs it off, and it then cuts to the scene of him and his band playing a local gig, with the two sharing a lingering look. The viewer automatically realises, of course girl will get the boy, but Georgia, ever determined to impress Robbie, demands to her parents her birthday party has to be at a hip and happening club, to mimick the one The Stiff Dylans - Robbie's band - played at, and also to out-do Lindsey's birthday. While she's demanding this, her Dad announces he's been offered a job in New Zealand, and Georgia screams "what!?", the scene then morphing into a tumoultuous flicker of snappy, fast clips of the film, mirroring her troubles; how's her Dad going to pay for her awesome birthday now!? The disequilibrium is then completely reinforced by a handful of clips showing Georgia in a darker, more depressing light instead of the technicolour brightness of before; it shows her mumbling to her friends, curled up on her bed in the dark and crying etc. The editing in this proves the disequilibrium of the trailer, as well as the film. And then, all of a sudden, the disequilibrium is fixed, and a new, shinier, better, equilibrium is created, with clips of her amazing party, Robbie leaning in for a kiss, Robbie and Georgia messing around and having a laugh, with beautiful men, wonderful friends etc. The longest clip in this is Robbie admitting to Georgia that he likes her, despite her madness, and thus creating a film, and trailer, that fits Todorov's narrative theory perfectly. The end clip is of Robbie and Georgia shouting from a boat on the beach "thank you, and good night!", again hinting to the viewer that this film is exactly what it says on the tin.

Mean Girls

The trailer for Mean Girls is like a film in its own right. It shows sections of the actual picture, conjoined into a set storyline for the trailer, and this technique definitley works very well on the passive viewers, since, like Angus... it tells audiences exactly what to expect. Unlike Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging though, it doesn't give too much away in the trailer, and it is alot more grown up, obviously because the characters are older, but the way in which it is filmed; the angst and the typical teenage bitchiness is very sneaky and clever. It isn't up front, it's behind the scenes and alot more cold and scientific. Though it still has hilarious results, there are alot of connotations within finding yourself as a person, and not only that, but yourself as a good person.

Regarding influences from this trailer, I think I'll be using Mean Girls' trailer technique in which it focuses slightly on the more adult problems in life, like sex, friendship and surviving "Girl World". Like Angus... Mean Girls is still very catty and high school, whereas my trailer will focus more on personal problems rather than those regarding a social life, as such. Mean Girls is still very passive in the sense that, though it looks at it in a scientific light, the storyline is still girl meets boy. Despite these two films being nothing like what I want my trailer to look like, I still think they're interesting to look at as it shows the life of teenagers perfectly, particularly within school.

Analysing teen drama

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is directed and produced by Ghurinder Chadha (Bride And Prejudice, Bend It Like Beckham), an up and coming British female director who focuses on religious issues and specifically, teen drama, so she's a perfect director for me to look at. It is produced by Paramount and Nickelodeon, and filming took place in Brighton, Eastbourne and London locations, as well as in Ealong studios. I like how this film is just as local as mine would be, and also, its production company, Paramount, also focuses on teen drama just as Ghurinder Chadha does. This film has been coined as a 'Bridget Jones at 14', which really aplies to the sort of film I'd like to make.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging follows Georgia, a fourteen year old girl desperate to grow up. Ghurinder Chadha's very British take on American high school movies, such as Mean Girls and Clueless, is based off of the international best-selling books by Louise Rennison and follows the eccentricity of Georgia as she overcomes the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. Her two main goals in life are to have the best 15th bithday party ever, and steal the 'Sex God', Robbie, from Slaggy Lindsey. Of course, Georgia's plans involving snogging lessons, stalking Slaggy Lindsey and using the 'elastic band' theory to make Robbie jealous, don't exactly go smoothly (Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium is depicted perfectly in this film).

This 'coming of age' film is perfect for what I want to base my own off. Although it won't be aimed at such a younger audience as Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging it will definitely maintain its core ideology of teenagers always having something wrong with them, and the weight of responsibility.

Mean Girls

Mean Girls looks at 'Girl World' hierarchy and the troubles of high school teenage life more as a science than anything else. It spins an interesting take on teen drama, and is alot more grown up than Angus... Mean Girls is sophisticated and complex, just as is their high school hierarchy. Fashion is an integral part of the Mean Girls film and those who aren't wearing the latest trends are automatically shunned. I like how this film is concentrated solely on fashion and all of its facets that make up the 'Girl World' because it gives a substantial look on real life, only exaggerated. Being British, I assume it's exaggerated, but the reality may be that it's not, and so I could quite easily include some of America's high school ideology. I also adore the sense of vengeance and bitchiness in this film. Angus... focuses more on the problems of just one character, but Mean Girls incorporates very clear character biographies within the film itself, and the differences and between these characters, giving the movie many more strains of interest.

Mean Girls follows Cady Heron, raised in the African bush all her life by zoologist parents, and she thinks she knows enough about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole different meaning as she steps across the bridge from 'real world' to 'girl world', and the home-schooled sixteen year old enters public high school for the first time, trying to find her notch within multitudes of cliques, from jocks, mathletes, art freaks and other subcultures. Cady finds herself crossing paths with the meanest of these cliques, the 'Plastics', and the Queen Bee, Regina George, leader of the school's coolest and most fashionable threesome. When Cady starts to fall for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels, the Queen Bee is stung - and so the schemes to destroy eachother's social status begin, with Cady helped by her original friends, Janis Ian and Damien, and Regina with her followers Gretchen and Karen. The more Cady continues to spend undercover time with the Plastics, the more she becomes one of them, forcing her to decide where her loyalties truly lie.

Huge Change!

I've decided to proceed with my coursework on my own, rather than in a group. Since I'd find it a tad unethical to still use the storyline my former group has, I'm coming up with something completely new, and, incidentally, completely different.

I've decided to focus on teen drama rather than horror, because I can connect to it more and feel that area of cinema would be easier for me to recreate. I've always loved the genre anyway, especially British teen drama, such as Skins (even though it's not a film), and movies such as Bend It Like Beckham and Tormented. The conventions of this genre are easy for me to pick apart (since I'm a teen, obviously), and it tends to hold alot of sarcastic humour, superficial romance, narcotics, religious issues, everything a person has to go through. I tend to focus on the teen dramas based upon romance and parties, but films like Bend It Like Beckham really open up the genre and question it, with more serious topics such as sexuality, religion, and loyalty to your family. In my trailer, I'd like to incorporate both sides of Brit teen drama, the serious aspect and the superficial aspect.

Film Pitch

This is our film pitch we did quite a while ago. We've changed and altered alot of ideas, particularly the main story line and scenes in the trailer, but our film will still possess the qualities we expressed a love for, for instance Hitchcock's use of black and white, and Tarantino's use of particular colouring. We've eventually settled on using a sepia tone in the flashbacks of Frank, our main character, to hint at the dream-like quality of them, and the fact they are technically in the past, simply because Tarantino's stark black and white, and drops of colour, would be pretty difficult to replicate given our tools. And even if we were able to mimick it, I'd still like to use sepia because I think it will work really well.

We're still focusing alot on Sin City's trailer, simply because we love it so much. It draws you in and captivates you with so many quick cuts of different characters and their stories, and I like the mismatched, clumsy feel to a trailer that, overall, is pretty sleek and shiny. It focuses alot on the character's facial expressions rather than speech and storyline, which I like alot; it's as if the trailer gives all the different characters a vigniette each.

Film Magazine and Research

Film Magazine and Research

Considering our film is obviously going to be British, low budget with non-actors and involving no special effects, we know already what type of magazine we need it to be featured in, one that is as independent as the film itself.

The audience for our magazine is dependent on the audience of our film. Although we are aiming our film and trailer towards the younger generation, perhaps 18-25, we need to reach out to a lot more through the magazine, especially when most independent magazines are read by artsy, older people, possibly 25-40. The style may mimic other magazines within the artsy, more independent scope, for instance Electric Sheep. Electric Sheep also promotes quite a few independent, smaller-budget, horror movies, so we may look into that particular magazine.


Electric Sheep – a self proclaimed deviant view of cinema.

Electric Sheep is a quarterly magazine published by Wallflower Press at the price of £3.75. Each issue explores a different theme from the dark cinematic basement beneath mainstream film. They take pride in reviewing ‘weird, wild, and wonderful’ films. Electric Sheep is a magazine that doesn’t ‘toe the line’, it deals only in independent, off-beat and left field cinema, and they celebrate the celluloid visions of the most outlandish, visionary and provocative directors, the transgressive and marginal, and overlooked and overrated. Every month this magazine offers uncompromising reviews of the new best in film and DVD, and they take another look at forgotten works and interview the mavericks and fantasists of the film world.

I really like the sound of Electric Sheep. It tends to deal primarily in horror and thriller movies, films that challenge the norms and delve into the unconventional, which is perfect for our film. Seeing as we’re organizing our trailer, and thus our story, around the horror genre, Electric Sheep would be ideal if we were hoping to get a review of our film in a magazine. Its text is very informal and friendly, and I love the intimacy of it.

Narrative

Tvetzan Todorov - Bulgarian structuralist linguist.

Todorov's theorized that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo, where any potentially opposing forces are at balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in motion a chain of sub-events, causing a disequilibrium. Problems are solved so that order can be restored, and a new equilibrium takes place.


Vladimir Propp - Russian critic who examined hundreds of folk tales in search of a recurring pattern.

Propp identified eight characters and a plethora of narrative functions. The eight character roles are...

- The villain(s)
- The hero
- The doner (who provides an object with some power or influence)
- The helper (who aids the hero)
- The 'princess' or sought after person (reward of the hero and object of the villian's schemes)
- The princess' father (who rewards the hero)
- The dispatcher (who sends the hero on his quest)
- The false hero

The character roles and functions identified by Propp can be applied to all kinds of narrative, for example, TV news programmes


Using narrative to build suspense...

Restricted narrative can be used to surprise an audience, for example, when neither the audience or characters know what is round the corner or what is about to happen. Then again, a degree of unrestricted narrative can be used to build suspense when the audience knows exactly what’s happening and the characters do not.

For example, suppose there are two characters sitting at a table, having a perfectly ordinary conversation. Nothing happens, and then out of the blue, a bomb planted underneath the table explodes, the audience is surprised but prior to this surprise, it had been a completely ordinary scene of no special consequence.

If we turn this scene on its head and tell the audience the bomb is under the table, maybe even show the anarchist place it there. In these conditions this innocuous situation becomes a lot more interesting and fascinating because the audience participates with the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen.

In the first situation we give the audience fifteen seconds of surprise, but with the second, we give them fifteen minutes of suspense. In conclusion of this, it appears to be alot more affective to let the audience in on the gag.
- adapted from Francois Tuffaut's theory.


As a viewer watches a film they generally participate in the movie; they pick up cues, anticipate what will follow and recall information, and the film, in turn, shapes particular expectations by summoning suspense, curiosity and surprise. The viewer also develops specific ideas about the outcome of plots and sub-plots, and these developments may control our expectations right up to the end.

Horror

Horror genre – conventions and characteristics…

A horror film possesses certain particular traits that educe the emotions of horror, terror and fear in the viewer, the plots frequently involving themes of death or supernatural.
Early horror movies are largely based on classic Gothic literature, for instance Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but in contrast, modern horror often draws from the insecurities of society or the taboo, which in turn has created three sub-genres from the original of ‘horror’ – horror-of-personality (Psycho), horror-of-Armageddon (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers), and horror-of-the-demonic (The Exorcist).

Coming from personal experience, I personally believe the key purpose of a horror movie is to scare you, to make you feel unsafe or vulnerable and to feel empathy towards the hero or heroine whilst watching them go through hell. In order to do this, a director has to consider everything from lighting to music; a scene where a heroine is hiding from her attacker wouldn't be as affective if it wasn't for an ominous soundtrack and dim lighting.

Key characteristics...

• Non-diegetic sounds that have been amplified i.e ragged breathing, floorboards squeaking, knives or weapons being used, blood dropping etc.
• Close-up shots of characters at crucial moments in the plot of either the attacker or the victim – being chased, being the chaser, hiding, etc, particularly in the trailer.
• Most horrors have that eerie blue-ish light with deep shadows and bright contrast (editing).
• Fast-paced editing can mirror a pounding heart, therefore building tension and fear.
• On the other hand, long, drawn out shots can also build tension in the same way, by making the viewer wait for the fear.

The trailer for the first Saw movie has many of these characteristics. For example, at the very start it shows one character in a dark room, using the flash from his professional camera in order to see, as he’s just been developing photographs, and the whirr from the camera coupled with the blinding flash of light and then sudden darkness instantly instills fear into the viewer; you know there's someone there, because he knows there's someone there, and you're almost begging him to just turn on the light instead. After this mini opening sequence it uses a diegetic sound of a beating heart, which I really like as it automatically shows how the character's blood is pounding, how they're utterly frightened, and it then uses fast paced cuts, only showing us clips of the scene behind the heartbeat throughout the entire trailer, so you never really clearly see what is happening, you just hear it. This technique works brilliantly when you think about how frightening it is to lose the ability to see. Never knowing what is happening is the most frightening thing in any horror movie, and the Saw trailer depicts this perfectly.

Similarly, The Ring trailer uses this flashing, fast-paced editing in order to confuse the viewer, with the same blue-ish tint to the air and using the same technique as Saw when you can hear, but you can’t understand. It differs from Saw however, because it has a tinkling, ominous piece of piano as the soundtrack, the type of music that once may have been sweet and innocent but is now horrifically creepy, which could mirror how Samara, who at first look is a normal little girl, brings about the death of people around her by getting them to watch this video tape.