My Brief

MY BRIEF
I chose to do 'A promotion package for a new film, including a teaser trailer, together with two of the follwing:
- A film magazine front cover, featuring the film
- A poster for the film

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Film Noir


Film noir is a cinematic term used mainly to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.

The term film noir (French for "black film"), was first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the classic era. Cinema historians and critics defined the noir canon in retrospect; before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas. The question of whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars.

Film noirs encompass a range of plots. Though the noir mode was originally identified among American productions, films now customarily described as noir have been made around the world. From the 1960s onward, many pictures have come out that share attributes with film noirs of the classic period, often treating noir conventions in a self-reflexive manner. Such latter-day works in a noir mode are often referred to as neo-noirs. The tropes of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.

Types of Thrillers

Thriller films have many types of spins on them mainly because they can cover such a wide range of different types of films. There are various different genres that quite often overlap, combining two types together. Thrillers are quite often categorized by frequent action and are usually seen as fast paced and usually have the best storylines to them, usually with the villians getting the punishment. Below are just a few types of thrillers;

  • Action Thriller: Lots of violence, an obvious main character, can include large quantities of guns, explosions and quite often can involve large elaborate sets for the action to take place in. A good example of an Action Thriller would be the latest James Bond film ‘Casino Royale’ where there is again a lot of violence, James Bond acts as the man character and many elaborate sets were used like airports and hotel resorts.
  • Conspiracy Thriller: This is where we see a particular rival faced with a large, powerful group of enemies in which the extent of their danger is only seen by the opponents themselves. JFK directed by Oliver Stone is a prime example of this type of thriller, it following a mixture of fact and speculation surrounding the death of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
  • Drama Thriller: A Drama Thriller is essentially where a drama film and a thriller film meet. These are shown as reasonably slow paced films with little action and involve a lot of character development. An example of this would be the film Chinatown, a 1974 American neo-noir film, directed by Roman Polanski, where a private detective who seems to specialize in matrimonial cases. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray when she suspects her husband Hollis, builder of the city's water supply system, of having an affair.
  • Physiological Thriller: This is the thriller which features hardly any physical conflict between the characters, often broken near the end of the film, as the conflict is very often mental and emotional. Many examples can be given here, Fatal Attraction directed byAdrian Lyne in 1987 about a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end and who becomes obsessed with him. It stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer.

Monday 28 June 2010

Famous Thrillers

This collection of thriller films, are just some of the most famous, popular and well loved films of this genre throughout the years, along with some of their posters. I have chosen the few which I think most stand out to me and help contrib ute to the teaser trailer I will be creating.

Silence of the Lambs
Die Hard
Sin City
Taxi Driver
Jaws
Alien
The Dark Night
Pan's Labyrinth
The Godfather
Taken
When a Stranger Calls
Push

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Film Genres

To begin planning for my teaser trailer, I need to decide on the genre of film I want to focus on. There are many genres to choose from including:
-Action
-Adventure
-Comedy
-Crime
-Documentry
-Drama
-Family
-Fantasy
-Horror
-Musical
-Mystery
-Romance
-Science Fiction
-Sport
-Suspense
-Thriller
-War
-Western

I have chosen to do my teaser trailer on the thriller genre. This is because I feel it will not only be an easy yet productive option whilst planning and filming, I think it is a genre with alot of depth to it and there are alot of choices and various options that I can include compared to all the others; Options that can be successfully produced around this niche that I feel I can best work with and will also work out well and give me great outcome for the trailer.