Analysis of Social Realist Trailers

Fish Tank

Starring: Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael  Fassbender

Director: Andrea Arnold

Producer(s): Nick Laws, Kees Kasander

Production Company: BBC Films

Date of Release: 14 May 2009

The characters and setting in this film particularly had a big influence to Beth and I’s production. The female character appears to be living in difficult circumstances, just like the female role in our idea. Although her costume will be no way similar to the costume worn by the female character in our production, the idea of using a stereotypical costume to portray ideas about the character to the audience works really well and we feel it will be important to do the same in our production. Fish Tank uses the setting of a town with flat blocks often linked to the idea of council housing shows the difficult lifestyle (as seen above). The main female character in our production will live in difficult circumstances too so the setting would be similar in our production. The town setting also contrasts with the love scenes that are set in lakes or surrounded by lots of green. We would like to use this idea in our production as the character begins to fall in love as it is an interesting juxtaposition to show how love can change the life of the character.

The trailer uses titles that match in colour and font and lists award nominations which is a common device of trailers which I may use in our production.

 

Morvern Cellar

 

Starring: Samantha Morton, Katleen McDermott, Doll Wells

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Producer(s): Robyn Slovo, Charles Pattinson, George Faber

Production Company: BBC Films

Date of Release: 1 November 2002

The titles of many British social-realist films I have researched, including Fish Tank and Morvern Cellar, use simple font and text for their trailer’s titles. However, This Is England’s trailer differed in that it had a more creative font style. I have not yet decided whether to conform to the more popular style of simple font or whether to try being more creative with an interesting font style.

Approximately halfway through the trailer of the film, faster-pace shot changes begin to create excitement and suspense. I like this idea and will try to do something similar during the editing process. The trailer includes repition of the main character's name. I like this idea because it makes the name become memerable by the audience which is what a trailer is meant to do. Perhaps this could be done in our film trailer.

 

Skins - Effy

 This character is very similar to the female character in Beth and I's production idea. As seen in the pictures above, you can see the dark Effy and the more prevogative Effy. These two sides to a character will exist in my production. This can be shown through mise-en-scene, with the smudged make up when being darker, and also through the actresses acting ability.