Tom Ryall Genre Theory (1978)

Ryall proposes the theory that the types of conventions found in genres can be grouped within the following categories:

Iconographies - Symbolic symbols associated with the genre
Narrative - Structure, open/closed
Representations - Characters/Stereotypes
Ideologies - Beliefs and ideas of the 'ideal' concept, themes

If we recognise the genre of a text it enables us to feel at home and we gain enjoyment from "spotting the conventions" (repetitions) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre.

If a text deviates from the conventions, it can confuse us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken, providing that the film-maker doesn't go too far.

Genre offers audiences a structure enabling us to feel secure in our knowledge.

Audiences like the anticipation of watching for the predictable features.

- Our Teaser Trailer does hold the convention of keeping the story-line a mystery to the viewer, nevertheless Ryall's theory does apply to our trailer. Throughout the trailer, we have applied many Action/Thriller conventions e.g. Located in a built up city, victim and a villain, chase scenes etc, which is ultimately what the audience will be expecting. However, to create an increased element of surprise, we have gone against and contradicted certain conventions to ensure that we keep the viewers entertained throughout.

First Draft Trailer Feedback

Upon finishing the first draft of our trailer, we decided to publish it on YouTube.  This would act as a useful service for receiving constructive criticism from the public, allowing us to improve our product further.  We have also shown our trailer to our media teachers for the same reasons.

After receiving audience feedback and reviewing the draft ourselves, we have created a list of the trailer's strengths and weaknesses to work from.

Strengths

• Sticks to the conventions of a teaser trailer:  1 minute and 24 seconds in length, begins with showing the film’s production companies,  has been created intentionally for marketing/to build anticipation for the film’s release, ‘teases’ the audience with short snippets from the film (establishing the concept and genre of the film but without revealing too much of the plot), ends conventionally by informing the audience of the film’s title and stating that it is 'coming soon' rather than providing a specific date.

• Sticks to the conventions of the 'Action-Thriller' genre: has the concept of a male protagonist fighting for survive, a government body act as an adversary, use of enigmas, striking establishing shots, multiple chase scenes which use tracking/panning shots, urban setting, effective use of both high key and low key lighting, fast paced editing, variety of transitions (mainly jump cuts), dramatic climaxing music, use of a tag line, edgy typography.

Weaknesses 

• The trailer does not contain any reviews or awards it has received, a missing feature which would generate more interest in our impressionable target audience.

• The trailer does not include a 'billing block' of film credits at the end, with only the words 'coming soon' being shown.  This is unconventional for any teaser trailer, as it is often considered an essential feature.   

• The footage used forms too much of a coherent whole, potentially spoiling the film's plot by being too chronological.

Age Rating

Our film will need an age rating that will inform the viewer what to expect, and whether there is anything unsuitable for children. We have looked at the different age ratings below and outlined what each of them means. We will then decide upon our rating based on this, and this information will go on our trailer, poster and website.

 Universal: All ages, nothing unsuitable.

 Parental Guidance: All ages, some scenes may be unsuitable for children.

 12: Nobody younger than 12 can buy or rent - may contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence, sex references and nudity.

 15: Only those over 15 can buy/rent- may contain adult themes, hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail.

 18: Only adults admitted - can contain hard drugs, explicit sex references with detail, strong, gory and/or sadistic violence usually permitted, strong sexual violence.

After looking at these classifications, we believe our film would be a 15. This is due to the occasional violent scenes and strong language.

Alex Gylanders - Actor Photos

These are some photographs of the actor, Alex Gylanders, for our main character, Luke Harris. 

These photos are in relation to our previous blog post, whereby we posted the actor introduction video. The photographs enable us to see what he looks like on camera, and how the lighting appears. 

We then looked back at our questionnaire results, which can be seen here. The results show that the majority of our target audience preferred a broader character. 

Storyboard: Version 1

Below is an image of our completed storyboard (first version), a clear guide as to how we should go about shooting our desired trailer.

Questionnaire Results

We collaborated all of our research up to now to compose a questionnaire.

We conducted a questionnaire and received feedback from 30 of our target audience. We then put these results into a video which can be seen below.

Initial Location Ideas

We got the idea for our location after looking at Conspiracy Thrillers which we found were generally shot in well-known, built-up areas. We also looked into locations on the Moodboard and Examples of Films.

Car Park

Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square

Ice Rink in London

Oxford Street Christmas Lights

The images above show some of our initial location ideas. We will be visiting various locations in the near future to get our own images and ensure we will be able to film there.

MacGuffin

When looking at Examples of Films, we found the work of Alfred Hitchcock was very much relevant to our genre and teaser trailer.
A MacGuffin is a plot device used in films and can be in the form of an object, information, or anything desired. The term was popularised by film director and producer, Alfred Hitchcock. The MacGuffin's identity can be left a mystery at the end of the narrative; it gains the viewers attention and drives the plot.

We watched some videos on YouTube about the MacGuffin which we found useful in fully understanding what it is. These can be seen below. The MacGuffin is an appropriate plot device to look at in terms of our narrative as the top secret file is of little importance to the narrative itself; it simply drives the plot forward to the narratives conclusion.

Narrative Theory

Narrative theory refers to narrative structure and the way our perception is affected according to a narrative. Our film, in length, would follow some of these theories, as described below.
The first is with Levi Strauss' Binary Opposition. This suggests narrative tension based on opposition or conflict; in our film, this will be between the government and the criminals. This also represents the struggle between good and evil. The government are presented as the "good" people and the criminals as the "bad", however we are playing with the idea of a twist that would reverse these roles.

Levi Strauss

Binary Opposition; Good vs Evil

The next theory we are looking at is Barthes' Enigma Code. This suggests that the narrative will establish enigmas or mysteries as it goes on, and solving these mysteries becomes the narratives function. As the narrative goes on, we encounter several potential meanings, and the basis of the narrative itself is almost a mystery. Our film is intended to be "open", so the audience can interpret it in different ways (with the good vs evil) and keep guessing about the mysteries throughout.

Roland Barthes

The last narrative theory that we have taken some influence from is that of Vladimir Propp. It suggests that each narrative has a hero, villain, donor, helper, victim, dispatcher and false hero. Within our narrative, we certainly have a hero, villain, victim and false hero, and some of the other characters could come into play later in plot development.

Vladimir Propp

Codes and Conventions of a Teaser Trailer

After looking at Genre, one of the first things we realised we need to do is to discover the codes and conventions of the very thing we'd be creating. We started out by brainstorming our ideas on what we generally saw in a trailer. It was clear we would need to watch some to further this knowledge, so we watched the likes of Batman, as seen here, The Bourne Identity (here), Collateral (here) and more. This led us to creating the following table, which compares the codes and conventions of a teaser trailer to those of a theatrical trailer.

Teaser Trailer	Theatrical Trailer
Trying to get people interested	More information about the film
Leaves an air of mystery	Voiceover is about the film itself
Voiceovers is speech from a part of the film	More clips from the film
Shorter than Theatrical	Usually shown just before the film is released
Usually start with an establishing shot	Give a lot more information
Build up hype	Reviews and major details
The shots are usually much shorter and faster
Create interest
Long lead time
“Coming soon”, “2013” – vague
Can use symbolism
Do not need footage from the film

We will need to continue to consider these codes and conventions in the production of our own teaser trailer to make it the best it can be.

Iconic image from the Batman teaser trailer

"Coming Soon" - vague release dates are well known in teaser trailers