Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voiceover artist famous for recording more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers. His nicknames included "Thunder Throat" and "The Voice of God". Some notable trailers which LaFontaine highlighted in the intro on his official website include: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Shrek, Friday the 13th, Law & Order and Batman Returns.
Target Audience: Cricket lovers, particularly males because of the racial violence shown
Voice Over: Clips from news readers and real people who were affected in the racial hate
Lighting: Is all natural to add to the realism of the film for the audience, however some black and white clips and distorted clips are shown, to make it clear that these are recorded clips from back in the day.
Soundtrack/music: Artists like Bob Marley and Big Youth, who represent the afro carribean culture, all fits in with the theme of the film.
Camera Shots: Mid shots, close ups and establishing shots to give us a brief idea of the films culture and locations. Camera like snapshots used.
Editing: Slow motion used to build suspense for the audience. Pace of editing gradually got faster as the climax built up, which for the audience creates tension as we are clueless to the ending. Fades in and out where used to create a invisible switch over from clip to clip, it also made a smooth change over to the written facts and reviews that were shown to hook you into watching it (these written bits of text use the rastafarian colours red, green and yellow to match with the race in the film. Written/Spoken text is made in a larger and bolder font to grab audiences attention and hook them into storyline.
Emotive Language: 'The true story of the greatest sporting team in the world' 'It is history that you'll never forget' Review- "Uplifting.. Triumphant!" emotive words used to express how exciting and compelling the story is and the fact it is based on a true story adds to the hype of it all.
Mise-en-scene: Cricket whites, bold colours to show the afro carribean culture to be exciting and daring, red, green and yellow used to symbolise their colours.
Plot/Narrative devices: Real television footage and quotes/expressions people involved have said.
Age of Heroes
Genre: World war 2 style, indicated by their uniforms, nazi badges, british flag, gunshots, explosions, bombs etc. Target Audience: Males age 15-45 Music/Soundtrack: Triumphant, pacey music, parrallel to action being shown so keeps the action snappy and in your face. Sound Effects: Explosions, bangs, gunshots, glass shattering, army marching- shows genre to be an action/thriller because it is pacey and quick with transition from clip to clip Voice over: Speeches and quotes from the script said by the commandor or top officers.
Lighting: Natural Camera shots: Mid shots, close up, crane shot, establishing shots to clearly show us the genre and so you can understand the main structure of the film and want to see it more. Enigma codes/action codes: Build of suspense with the gun shots and explosions as we dont know who is dying or injured, so we are left uncertain and on a cliffhanger, commandors language also creates a build of tension as at first he is giving fighting talk, and gradually becomes weary of his troops. Editing: Pacey editing, to make it snappy and realistic, also it's an action film so the audience have to feel as though they are lost in the journey too. Fades in and out are used to give a brief montage of the film without giving too much information away. Emotive language: Like 'Fire in Babylon' it is based on a true story which immediately plays with our emotions and feelings for the film and the characters suddenly play a big part in our heads. It also makes you more eager to watch it as you know it actually happened to real people and is not just made up. Heroic words and phrases are used 'elite smash and grab team' Mise-en-scene: War/army releated uniforms, fire arm, bombs, flags, commandor shouting, army marching, grotty-dirty base camps.
- A promotion package for a new film to include a short film, together with; 1. A film magazine front cover, featuring the film 2. A poster for the film
The production element and presentation of research, planning and evaluation may be individual or group work.
Teaser Trailers
Unlike typical theatrical trailers, teaser trailers are usual 30-60 seconds of pre-film footage that usually contains little if any, actual footage from the final film.These types of trailers are particularly made for big budget or popular themed movies e.g. Harry Potter and Star Wars. Teaser trailers are produced to let the audience know that the film is coming up in the near future and to build to the hype of the upcoming release. They are usually produced whilst the film is still in production or in the process of being edited, and as a result they may feature scenes or alternative version of scenes that may not be included in the finished film. Pixar films often use specific clips/scenes that have specifically been made for the use of the teaser trailer only, to hook audiences into watching the film when it is released. Some teaser trailers can up to be 3 years late prior to how quickly the movie production is taking place, but usually they are shown a year or so in advance so not to give too much away too early.
Theatrical Trailers
Are multimodel texts that make meaning through a powerful combination of different modes:
Written text on screen
Spoken language
Moving images
Music
Sound effects
They usually last up to 3 minutes long and consist of a montage of the most exciting and entertaining parts of the film, so that they hook audiences coming to see the film itself. Theatrical trailers are released in cinemas 4-6 months before the films actual release date. Movie trailers are specifically shown in cinemas, however it is becoming increasingly popular to see them advertised on social networking sites and on youtube, not forgetting through tv ad breaks. Theatrical trailers need to have an awareness of who the target audience is, by doing this they can then use the appropiate sounds, langauage and iconography that would be suitable for the age classified.
Television Spot
Like the teaser trailer it is a brief 60 seconds- 2minute clip that shows a rough picture of what is to come in the film without giving too much away. With a television spot ad producers are able to include any clips that aren't in the film, if they wish to make this trailer completely different to their theatrical. Only big blockbuster film with huge budgets use this method of advertising as they want to promote their film as much as possible so that it rises to the audience sizes they are hoping for, also it is fairly expensive to take a television spot as you are paying the channel to show your trailer. Short FilmsA short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. Short films can be professional or ametuer productions. They are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and are often made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all, and in rare cases big budgets. Short films are usually funded by film grants, non profit organizations, sponsor, or out of pocket funds. These films are used by indy filmmakers to prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or film studios. They do qualify for Academy Awards if screened in Los Angeles.A few animated shorts continue within mainstream commercial distribution. For instance, Pixar has screened a short along each of its feature films during its initial theatrical run since 1995.
Pixar Shorts- Luxo Jr.
Pixar Shorts- Fly the birds
Pixar Shorts- Day & Night
Since Disney acquired Pixar in 2005, Disney has also produced animated shorts since 2007 with the Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater and produced a series of live action ones featuring The Muppets for viewing on YouTube as viral videos to promote the 2011 feature film of the same name.
Disney Shorts- How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre
Dreamworks Animation often produces a short sequel to include in the special edition video releases of major features, and are typically of a sufficient length to be broadcast as a television special.
Dreamworks Short- Madagasca Dance Party
However, short films generally rely on festival exhibition to reach an audience. Such films can also be distributed via the Internet. Certain websites which encourage the submission of user-created short films, such as YouTube and Vimeohave attracted large communities of artists and viewers. Sites like FILMSshort and the BBC Film Network focus on showcasing curated shorts.
Short films are a typical first stage for new professional filmmakers. However, professional actors and crews still choose to create short films as alternative form of expression. Short film making is growing in popularity as equipment becomes cheaper and more amateurs are making films
