15. Storyline and trailer development

After completing extensive research into audiences, Genre and other trailers we decided to create a general storyline on which to base our trailer.

After researching other genres we concluded that most crime films have a catalystic event i.e the event that changes the mood of the film or that begins its storyline such as a death. Here are some examples of films that use this as a convention:

In KiDULTHOOD, the suicide of a school mate leads to a day off school which brings the film into the hard-hitting issues the film portrays such as drug use, violence, teenage pregnancy etc. Reflecting the slogan "Before Adulthood comes KiDULTHOOD" showing a representation of the transition between childhood and adulthood within one day.

In Harry Brown, the gang murder of a close friend of the main character is the last straw which leads him to commit of series of murders within the gang as an attempt to clear up the streets, which reflects the slogan of "every man has his breaking point" Showing the importance of the catalystic event within the film; the death of his friend was the "breaking point".

Another film that follows this convention is 'Kill Bill,' the film opens with the main character covered in blood and gasping for breath and is then shot in the side of the head. This is the catalystic event and causes the main character to want revenge and ultimately "kill Bill" showing the importance of the event as the whole series of the films is based around revenge.

Therefore we decided we wanted to include this in our storyline.

A strong beginning means that you quickly capture audience attention and draw them into your film.

To leave a good impression with your audience the storyline must also have a satisfying ending.  The ending of the trailer is important because this is the impression that the audience will leave the theater with—and think about when (and if) they recommend the film to others.

The basic storyline goes as follows:

Opening:

Equilibrium: Nice working class boy age 16 (hero) in a rough area, good relationship with single Mother (stereotype of the working class) and Brother aged 18. The area is run by gangs and violence and neither of the Brothers are involved with the gangs (villains) but are regularly taunted by them at school.

Catalystic event/disruption in equilibrium: looses brother to a gang murder.

Recognition of disruption and sets goals to restore this: The Brother was innocent and avoided getting involved in the gang but was still killed. This causes the younger brother to break and feels that he wants justice for his brother, there for gets involved with rival gang (helpers)

Characters attempts to restore equilibrium: Wants revenge turns to rival gang, gets involved in drugs, violence etc.

Ending: Instead of following Propps theory we felt it would be more effective to break the convention of restoring equilibrium and choose it not to be restored. The ending comes to our hero is killed by rival gang like the brother (villains).

After we considered potential actors we could use for our trailer, we realised it would not be practical for us to use a male as our main character. We struggled to find a male who would have the time to film with us and who matched the looks criteria we wanted. Therefore we decided to use a female as our main character. Although we are challenging the codes of conventions of the film trailers we have analysed we still think that using a female with have the same effect. The story line will still be very similar just with some slight changes. The third series of SKINS, featured the main character as female and was the most successful series. This shows that it is still possible to engage with the target audience although the main character is female. This may be due to females identification with another female and male attraction to the opposite sex.

New story line:  

Equilibrium: Nice working class girl age 17. (hero) in a rough area, good relationship with single Mother (stereotype of the working class) and Brother aged 18. The area is run by gangs and violence and neither of the siblings are involved with the gangs (villains) but are regularly taunted by them at school.

Catalystic event/disruption in equilibrium: looses brother to a gang murder.

Recognition of disruption and sets goals to restore this: The Brother was innocent and avoided getting involved in the gang but was still killed. This causes the younger sister to break and feels that he wants justice for his brother, there for is out to get the girlfriend of the gang leader who killed her brother.

Characters attempts to restore equilibrium: Deals with grief through partying drugs, violence, alchohol. And feels she wants to get revenge to make the gang leader feel the pain she is feeling.

Ending: Following Propps theory we felt it would be  effective to follow the convention of restoring equilibrium. The ending comes to our hero kills the rival gang leaders girlfriend and it ends when shes charged with murder.(villains) And although she feels equilibrium is restored and she has revenge, she doesnt because shes in prison. 

After we researched the length of trailers we discovered there are two types; a tv spot and a full length trailer. Tv trailers are short, lasting anything from 30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds whereas a film trailer lasts for on average about 3 minutes. We have decided to create a tv spot trailer as we feel that this is a more achievable task.

We then based our trailer on this basic storyline and created our story board (as shown below):