Analysing Movie Trailers in terms of Conventions and Iconography

My Sister's Keeper 

Conventions 

• Includes name of the film 
• Includes Credits 
• Includes Production company 
• A climax including visuals and music 
• A strong, effective ending  
• Includes a dialogue from the film that acts as a voice over  

Iconography  

• An emotional love song with an almost dramatic base 
• Scenes of crying/happiness 
• Young, attractive cast  
• Use of bright colours as well as dark, shows contrast of emotion within the drama
  
  
  Charlie st Cloud

Conventions 

• Shows production company  
• Shows actor's name 
• strong ending  
• Includes a dialogue from the film that acts as a voice over  
• Includes name of the film 
• Includes Credits 

Iconography  

• young, attractive cast 
• use of bright colours at the start, then dark after the accident, followed by a mixture towards the end 
• 'normal' day to day clothing worn 
• an emotional soundtrack 
• scenes of happiness/stress/grief
  
  
  Prisoners

Conventions 

• includes credits 
• shows production company 
• shows actor's names 
• Includes dialogue from the movie which acts as a soundtrack 
• strong, dramatic ending 

Iconography 

• Dramatic soundtrack which builds up to a climax at the end  
• No soundtrack at the beginning and just shows dialogue from the movie, making out they're in a normal situation adding emphasis to the fact it could happen to any family, appealing to a wider audience 
• dark colours reflecting the dark storyline 
• wears plain clothing showing they are in no mood to care about appearance
  
  
  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo  

Conventions  

• Use of a voiceover 
• use of text  
• strong effective ending  
• shows credits 
• shows film name 
• graphics match film theme 

Iconography  

• dramatic, tension soundtrack  
• dark, dramatic actions 
• quick cuts present actions 
  
  
  The City Of Bones 

Conventions  

• strong opening/ending 
• use of voice over and text 
• includes credits 
• shows production company  

Iconography 

• tension/dramatic soundtrack 
• use of dark colours 
• young, attractive cast to appeal to their target audience 
• they wear dark clothing to focus on what's happening  

What is Iconography?

Iconography is mainly used in films and TV including trailers for such medias. Iconography is used to add emphasis to a certain genre to make it more recognisable to it's target audience. For example, if there was a new western movie out, we would expect to see scenes consisting of dusty roads and men dressed as cowboys, whereas in a Bollywood movie, bright colours dance sequences are likely to be seen. In some sense, it's similar to mise-en-scene due to the fact it's based on clothing, objects, and set.  

Movie Trailer Examples Presentation

What are the Different types of Music Videos?

Performance Based

This type of video show the artist or band performing the song throughout the video. An advantage of this type of video keeps the promotional tool all about the music and gives fans a sense of what the band/artist is like when they perform on tour, therefore promoting the band as a whole as well as the song itself. This representation is a typical feature in rock videos. 




Narrative Based
Narrative based videos represent the narrative of the song, almost pushing a message forward to the viewer. This is a convention used in many music genres and can present the artist or an actor acting out the video. In Ed Sheeran's example below, which is a pop music video, shows an actress taking lead of the video, with Ed having a small acting part mid way. 



Concept Based
These videos consist of a single concept or idea and is often conventional. Again, this type of video is used across genres. 



Animation
Lots of record labels now use animation to portray their latest releases. This technique makes the video more popular based on word of mouth as audiences generally find them more interesting. The Dance/Club genre use this technique a lot, but it also features in some Pop videos as well as Indie.   

Andrew Goodwin's '6 Points'

While writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992), Andrew Goodwin identified 6 key points in music videos.

1. Genre characteristics - Music videos present references and stereotypes to the genre the song or band are in. For example, a heavy metal video will traditionally  feature a stage performance, where as a pop video may feature a dance routine of some sorts.

2. There is a Relationship between lyrics and visuals - This could be either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.  How does what you hear relate to what you see? Are they dancing in time to the music? Does the editing cut on the beat of the music?

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals - Either illustrative, amplifying, or contradicting 

4. The star image of the artist - The demands of the record label will require lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). Features to determine this include; artist close ups, artists logo or iconography 

5. Voyeurism - There is frequently reference to notion of looking or spying (screens within screens, mirror shot, frame-within-frame, unconscious exhibitionism, private view, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Voyeurism = pleasure gained from watching (ideally when the object is unaware of being watched ). This is similar to gender theory, e.g. Laura Mulvey and the 'male gaze' 

6. Intertextuality - There is often intertextual reference. For example, a reference to a well known image or phrase from another media text. E.g. Madonna's Material Girl/ Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.    

The Four Main Types of Documentaries

Expository Documentaries

Expository documentaries expose a person or a topic. They are well known for having a commentator explaining a story whilst pictures/ videos are being shown, reflecting the same story through visuals.
The main conventions of a expository documentary include:

• The use of facts
• A range of opinions
• Persuasive techniques
• A commentator
• Rhetorical questions

A technique that the commentator, who is arguably the main feature of this type of documentary, uses is talking directly to the audience. This is an attempt to engage the audience and inform them directly to the information given, and is a way of getting them thinking about the topic. These documentaries are often historical, biographical, or inform about a certain event. They include footage of interviews, and exclusive pictures for the documentary itself.

An example of this type of documentary is An Inconvential Truth, as it relies on verbal commentary and argumentative logic to make its strong case for prevention of global warming. 
Please follow the link to a clip from the movie documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMarwAusY4&safe=active


Observational Documentaries
An observational documentary involves a film crew following the person the documentary os based around to capture events in their life. The equipment need can even be a hand held camera to capture the life of the subject. Traditionally, interviews with the subject are not needed and there is no use of a commentator. Usually, synchronous sounds are used and long takes are a common occurrence.

An example of this type of documentary is Teen Cribs, an MTV documentary series which follows teens round their wealthy family homes. Please follow the link to see an example of an episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my4b4Y_iZBU

Although interviews are not conducted, a clip is shown of the teens' parents discussing the subject matter. Other examples include: Big Brothers, 16 and Pregnant, and Jersey Shore 


Reflexive Documentaries
Within a reflexive documentary, the film maker is shown visually and provides a narrative to the documentary. This type of documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries which is where the audience is just as interested in how the film was made. This makes the audience more aware of the problems that the film maker had while they made the film. This type of documentary tends to be more truthful as they often focus on realism and try to avoid editing to show how certain events unfold. 
Please follow the link to an example of a reflexive documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M3ilX1reAQ







Participatory Documentaries
Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of film making to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, there is also a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence. 

Documentaries

What is a Documentary?
A documentary is an informative insight into certain topics. It is an attempt to capture or 'document' reality.
An example of a documentary is a classic, traditional documentary, stereotypically featuring David Attenborough if the genre is nature. These are usually slow paced, narrator-led, featuring an expert presenter, shows authority, features reconstructions, CUs-range of high quality shots, set ups, made by the use of technical kit (IMAX, hi-def) It can also be a documentary series which consist of long filming schedules and are usually expensive to make.

Types of Documentaries

• Nature
• lifestyle
• music
• science
• constructed reality (The Only Way is Essex)
• 'the making of...'
• Expert led
• celebrity led
• drama documentaries
• factual entertainment (My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding)
• Observational Documentary

What Affects the Type of Documentary made?

• Development of technology - more accessible to make and distribute
• range of climates and environments
• Access to people, location and information
• changes in society - liberal/open - more of a range of different types of documentaries and opinions
• more people have a voice
• world events - natural disasters, news events, anniversaries
• budget/talent
• commissioner and buyer - BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Sky

Examples of Music Videos: Jay Z ft Alicia Keys, Empire State of Mind

Release Date: October 30th 2009 (Vevo)
Ownership: Roc Nation

This video, filmed in New York due to the heavy referencing throughout the song, was made famous due to people taking an interest to the fact that it involved two of the biggest names in R&B collaborating together. The video is owned by Jay-Z's own record label, Roc Nation, so it's clear he had full control over what he would like to include in this promo. The video is mainly filmed in black and white to enhance the many aerial shots of New York. Despite this, there are many coloured shots featuring Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, which could reflect their power due to the fact they can change the theme of the music video.
 Mostly still shots are used to produce a slide show format, almost as if it is advertising the city and displaying landmarks. Jay Z came out with an alternative version online which features more of the features of a stereotypical R&B video, including the use of super models. 
However, this video is much more family friendly and shows a piano in a popular New York location being played, and again, making the artists seem successful to be able to play in such a destination. The black and white effect creates an old fashioned feel and gives the impression that New York is timeless. The video was marked groundbreaking due to it's highly anticipated collaboration between the two artists and also to its unusual presentation.  The target audience would be R&B/popular music fans between 12 and 40. Men and women are also represented as equal due to pair singing/rapping in the centre of the city. 

Examples of Music Videos: Madonna, Vogue

Release: March 29th 1990
Ownership: Sire, Warner Bros 

The video was released just after the initial rise in popularity of the promotional technique. The dance routine within the video helped make it one of the most successful videos of all times, creating a buzz around it and making both the song and video very famous and successful. Madonna was an already known name with countless awards to her name before this particular song, meaning she already had fans which would be interested in viewing this video. 
The video takes stylistic inspiration from  from the 1920-30's era and takes on the looks of many films from Hollywood's golden era. These themes are reflected through the black and white effect throughout the video. There are two versions of the video, one is the regular version shown on television and the other is the longer version which is over 3 minutes longer. 
The use of dolly shots at the start are used to make the audience almost follow until they see Madonna, which builds an anticipation to see Madonna for her fans. The video was shot in Burbank studios, California between 10-11 February. 
Both men and women are presented equally through their styling as they are all dressed in suits ect. However, Madonna being the only woman still shows power over the men as she is the one singing and leading the famous dance routine. This video was essentially aimed at teens/early twenties due to it's modern song and popular artist. The video, however may have attracted an older audience who were intrigued by the old fashioned feel to the video therefore gaining more popularity and sales for the song. 

Examples of Music Videos: One Direction, What Makes you Beautiful

Released: August 19th 2011
Ownership: Syco Records

This was the debut video for the band and is known for being a stereotypical 'boyband' video consisting of the boys running around after girls. This video is interesting as the male gaze isn't so present. Obviously the band are attempting to gain attention from the girls, however, the camera does not follow this as fans of the band are generally girls who are more interested in seeing the boys, hence the topless scene. Interestingly, it was filmed on the same location as Blink 182's video 'All the Small Things' which was a video made to mock stereotypical boy band videos, made over a decade before 'What Makes you Beautiful' The beach film helps give the impression that the band live the desirable life in California (where it was set) making them more appealing to the audience who will then go on to purchase more copies of the song.
Many close ups where used to, again, let the audience see the band which is likely to be the primary reason they are watching the video. This presents how it is a typical boy band video. 
The target audience for this video would be females 17 and under because that is the same fan base for the band, who are almost the theme for the video. 

What is the Male Gaze?

The concept of gaze refers to how an audience is supposed to view the people presented decided by the director. The types of gaze are mostly based on who is doing the looking and who is controlling the gaze. This could either be the director, camera, or lead actor, but they are known as mostly being male. 
Jonathan Schroeder (1998) said 'to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.'
Features of the 'male gaze' include:

•  voyeuristic - pleasure in 'watching' where the camera lingers on the curves of a female) 
• relegates women to the status of objects
• male active/ female passive - where the female viewer experiences the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. 

From a feminist perspective, the 'Male Gaze' can be reduced to:

• How men look at women
• How women look at other women
• How women look at themselves

The History of the Music Video

Music videos, which are also called promotion videos (promos), date back many decades, but did not reach their popularity till the early 80's. Music Television, now more known as MTV, premiered on 1st August 1981 allowing audiences to see many more music videos than before and therefore was a major factor in creating the music videos we know today. MTV didn't have the multiple spin off channels that they now have available so they were forced to air a mixture of music genres, mostly rock/pop.
Thanks to music videos we know today, there are many more music genres available, both on YouTube and specific music channels e.g. 'MTV Rocks' 'MTV Hits' and also allows certain images to be created due to the visuals available through promos. Stereotypes for a music video were also invented based on genre of music alone. Please see my other posts for examples.  





Sources
http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/music-video-a-brief-history
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/when-did-mtv-first-air-286590

Intro - What is a Music Video and What are its Purposes?

A music video follows a short film with a backing of a song throughout, which usually follows a story and is around the length of the song. Music videos are a major investment and essential in the music industry, with channels such as MTV and it's sub channels playing both hits and classics all day. YouTube has made them a global need with the use of comments and view count to detect who are watching particular videos and the general feedback. Despite this modern feature, music videos have been around for a number of decades, becoming popular during the 80's with the launch of MTV.
The purpose of a video is to create a promotion tool for selling singles and downloads of the artist or band.They can also create a story behind the lyrics and may present a different interpretation to a song, which may not come across through just listening to it. Videos also create a reaction and engage the viewer in the artist as well as the song.