Plot Ideas for our Crime and Gangster Trailer
We discussed possibilities for what we could include in our trailer and came up with a range of different ideas. We contemplated on the character traits that we could be, and resulted with numerous ideas. We decided upon us being the characters, which would go against typical conventions of the crime/gangster genre as the characters portrayed are usually men. Furthermore we would be more reliable to acting as it is our media project. We couldn’t choose between two main ideas for the personas of the characters which were, either working with the police, or being underworld workers against the police. We ultimately chose being against the police, acting as three gangsters, who impose others to do criminal things. We were inspired by the idea of Pulp Fiction, having similarities in our characters to Marsellus, who is top of his gang, which similarly, in our gang, we would have a main leader and sidekicks. We thought of beginning the trailer with a close up shot panning a woman, sitting at a desk, with her legs on the table wearing seductive clothing. The desk idea, we decided, was significant due to it being an iconic image of a potent
Along side this, we needed to come up with a main plot of proceeding with some form of deviancy or criminal act, such as a bank robbery. We found this difficult to consider as it would be complicated to shoot criminal acts, due safety issues, such as having shots of guns in public. A significant shot within the trailer, that we thought of, was abusing a police officer for answers, which again we found difficult continuing with the narrative without it sounding too cliché.
After the beginning parts of our planning, we didn’t feel as though we were comfortable continuing with the crime/gangster genre. This was prominently due to too many difficulties with locations and props etc, such as having realistic looking guns, car chases and drug abuse, we didn’t feel that the trailer would be to the best of our ability, therefore we looked back on our genre planning and chose to do horror.
Our initial ideas and shot types were suggested vaguely, before we changed our idea
• First shot begins with a distribution logo
• This leads to a low key lighting establishing shot of a room, where there is a female character on a chair with her legs on the desk
• This dissolves to black where there is then a close up shot of a gun on a table
• There is then a range of separate shots where there are criminal props. The shot then dissolves to black again.
• We considered the sound to be depicted in these shots, which we thought of either having the shots quiet, and when dissolved to black, have a noise to connote the next shot. We decided on the music picking up tempo as the trailer went on to signify action elements, such as in the shot of abusing the police officer.
Meanwhile searching the action genre, I analysed an action/crime/gangster based trailer.
Crank Trailer Analysis
- The trailer begins with slow tempo music with an establishing shot of the main protagonist, where we hear a voice over introducing us the main character. He is walking down the street as though he is a normal person surrounded by others. The normal imagery is soon defeated when the voice over says ‘’ today’s the day that I died’’, this leads the audience intrigued for more.
- The trailer pauses with a slight zoom in on the character, for a few seconds, which changes to a sepia looking contrast.
- The trailer rewinds itself, maybe suggesting that are a number of events leading to why he ‘’died’’.
- We see a mid shot of the man where he is in a car; we find out what has happened to him when he claims that he was poisoned.
- The camera pans up and out of the car where the contrast changes colour, the different contrasts set different moods to the trailer, which can parallel with the narrative of the film, and, later in the trailer, the indications of him having to maintain a high adrenalin balance.
- There is a close up shot which is again of a sepia effect of the man shouting. The sepia imagery looks un-real, indicating that the man doesn’t live a normal lifestyle.
- There are numerous shots of a car, which highlights the genre of action as car chases are iconic to crime/gangster films.
- The sound begins to builds pace, setting a feel of action. We see a few action shots of a man, either in an argument or fight, signifying confliction between groups or people. This indicates the idea of group rivalry, which is often portrayed within a crime/gangster genre.
- The character tells his partner that he is a hit-man, followed with shots of him with weapons. This again signifies crime and also that there is relationships within the storyline. Relationships can suggest complications or restrictions.
- There is a long shot of a helicopter, which changes to a high angle shot of a city. The shot then changes to a mid shot of Chev fighting with someone on the helicopter, indicating a dangerous edge.
- The music then changes where the credits begin on a yellow background highlighting the main actors and the name of the film.
- The trailer ends with a mid shot of the main character, this then jump cuts to close up shot of the man looking directly at the audience signifying his relevance to the film and also his dominance as his stare creates an uncomfortable feel. The character then repeats back to the beginning where he says ‘’my name is Chev Chelios’’ building a climatic feel to the audience, intrigued to find out more about his character.
- The trailer finally ends with websites, production logos and distribution logos which slide in and off of the screen which may connote an idea of running, highlighting the character, who is a hit-man.
Link to trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEXsOqdzYhE
