Yesterday, our group met and we discussed out plans for this project and assigned tasks.
Our general conclusions were:
as a group, we must watch more films in this genre to understand better the conventions of plot and technical codes of westerns
as we know many people who would be willing to play parts in our production, casting should not be a problem
in terms of props, as we cannot produce explosions or gunshot special effects, we could use toy guns for comedic effect - for example, the classic gag of 'BANG!' guns, cap guns or other toy guns that could be painted to look more authentic. Similarly with elements of the mise-en-scene such as horses, toys could be used for comedic effect.
we need to build a clearer picture of our target audience and reader profile before beginning filming etc - we must put together a questionnaire, and use the results to form this profile
to help us decide how to film our production, we should gather ideas of locations, props, plots, actors and what we classically associate with westerns - music, mise-en-scene, type of language etc and use these to decide what to include in our trailer
From this, we assigned tasks for each member of the group:
Megan - to create and distribute the questionnaire and use the results to assemble a reader profile
Bhawana - to create a 'mood board' of ideas, conventions and symbols of the genre
Georgie - to begin further research into the genre and scout for locations in which we could film
We also decided that each of us should watch some western films so we are all watching 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' because it considered one of the most classic westerns and then meeting and discussing what we have drawn from it which could be applied to our own work. Additionally, we are each watching a different type of western and choosing a film to analyse so we get a varied and complete feel for the genre and what is associated with it. The films we are individually watching are as follows: Megan - 3:10 to Yuma (modern western)
Bhawana - Blazing Saddles (spoof/comedy)
Georgie - Once Upon a Time in the West (traditional)
After watching these films, we plan to post our own analysis of the chosen scene and talk about how it applies/deviates with the conventions of the genre, any significant elements of the codes, similar plot lines and themes between the three films and how all of this could apply to our own work. From this point, we shall decide out plot, story board and begin filming.
In order to determine what is desired by our audience, I have created a survey which asks questions about the genre of Western. It will help us realise what is expected from such a trailer, in order to follow genre conventions, and possibly what to avoid, to provide that the trailer doesn't become too over the top.
After carrying out research for our individual genres, we unanimously agreed to choose 'Western' as the genre for our trailer. We came to this decision as Megan found that 'Crime' was only a sub-genre and so it was difficult to have a movie that was solely 'Crime' without touching on other genres such as Thrillers, Sci-Fi, Mysteries, Horrors, etc, and I found through my research that Horror/Comedies all seemed to have very common themes. I felt that we would be too tempted to fall into the cliches and would not be able to create original material.
While we acknowledge that 'Western' may be a difficult genre to do, we were enticed by the challenge and the desire to do something unique.
Film choices:
For my research, I chose to look into what is often considered to be one of the films that empitimise the western genre, and a film that parodies all of the classic conventions that it features - A Fistful of Dollars and Blazing Saddles. I chose these films because I felt they truly represented the genre of classic spaghetti western and western spoof respectively.
I did originally plan to study the trailer of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but I felt it's trailer wasn't as respresentative of spaghetti western as A Fistful of Dollars, despite it being considered one of the greatest westerns. I did, however, watch this scene to see the classic genre practices.
A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
Conventions:
Music: The 'sound' of the music used in westerns is hugely identifiable with the genre, perhaps the most so with any film soundtrack. The use of drum beats, whistles and harmonica conjure the atmosphere of the classic western perfectly - the drum beats create the high level of tension while the whistles and harmonica hark to the desolate lonliness of the winds blowing across the desert. In this trailer, the drum beat connotes death or war, reminding the audience of tribal drums for a ritual or battle. This raises the stakes of the showdown before the audience has even seen the film, setting the tone for the feature beyond the trailer. If we were to chose this genre, we would have to ensure our music was the best we could make it because it is such a key identifier to the genre.
Mise-en-scene: The costume, props and setting in this trailer I feel wholly represent the classic image of spaghetti western. The voice-over describing 'this short cigar' 'this long gun' and 'this poncho' talks not only about the character concerned, but details the image of the 'man with no name' that features in so many spaghetti western films - the poncho, boots, hat, gun and holster, cigar, even facial hair. Other features of the mise-en-scene like horses, ramshackle towns and the actions such as spinning the gun after a shot are classic features of this genre but may be difficult to recreate in our production.
Sound : The hyperbolic voice over in this trailer is also used in The Good, The Bad trailer and embodies the image and attitude toward western heroes - they are larger than life figures of mystery and danger and the phrases such 'the man with no name' 'danger fits him like a tight, black glove' and 'he is perhaps the most dangerous man that ever lived' all fit this image and create the sense of tension and danger surrounding the protagonist, a classic trait of this genre.
Use of camera: Low angle shots, close ups, long shots are common in this trailer and the whole genre to make the characters look powerful and intimidating and the intense close-ups create the uncomfortable, strained atmosphere during show-downs and duels etc. Long shots establish the setting and often focus on the protagonist, painting a picture of a isolated character dependent on themselves.
If we were to create a trailer for this genre, we would need to comply with these conventions but try to regulate it so that our production doesn't become cliched. That is, unless we wish to create an over-the-top effect for humour, such as if we do a spoof like Blazing Saddles.
Due to the time the film was made in, the film poster does not feature photography but because this imagery was so prevalent in the advertising for westerns at this time, it has become synonymous with the genre. The drawing style here is rugged and powerful, representing the character it depicts. The quote featured on it is the same as from the voice over of the trailer, an unual feature that do you not usually see now unless it is the tagline for the movie. The typography again indicates the age of the movie, but evokes the genre, time zone it is set in and environment of saloon bars etc of the movie so if effective rather than dated. The lack of fancy effects and over-crowding of the poster sets it apart from modern-day posters and I think that if we were to create a poster for a western in our production we should experiment with this more simplistic approach, using the negative space to create an impact similar to this.
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Blazing Saddles is comedy western spoof or parody. In the trailer, it uses the conventions of western films and trailers as described above but for comedic effect. For example, there is use of voice over to set the tone for a western movie but contrasts it the serious tone of the words with the light-hearted content of the trailer. There is also music, but in this trailer it is of a faster tempo - more upbeat and fun rather than suspenseful. This creates an almost circus-like atmosphere rather than the tension of the Fistful of Dollars trailer. The mise-en-scene is conventional of the genre, featuring guns/horses/saloon bar/ramshackle town but altered to create humour - such as the 'Gucci' bag the sheriff carries and the town's buildings clearly only painted 2D boards for film sets.
If we were to create a spoof trailer of a western film, the techniques used here we could employ to make humour - particularly taking the classic conventions of the genre and turning them on their head and making observations about classic 'spaghetti westerns' (for example, that the sets always looked flimsy and insubstantial) and play on them.
I chose crime as I felt that it would be a good genre to use for our own production piece. It has become clear to me, however, that crime is viewed as a sub genre, and so I had difficulty finding explicit 'crime' films.
As a result, I focused on films that I am familiar with, as I know that they have important crime themes running through them. I chose to look at the popular 2010 film, Inception, due to its underlying crime storyline. Sherlock Holmes is another film I have focused on, as most of the common crime conventions have arisen from its origin.
Sherlock Holmes is an extremely well known crime fiction piece, and is probably one of the most popular detective based texts.
For our A2 Media Studies production, our group has the members Megan Hogben, Bhawana Siwa and Georgie Watts. From our AS productions, we gained various different skills which we can bring together to contribute to this A2 film task. We all have different favourite genres and knowledge of these so we can all bring different ideas to the group to create a diverse collection of thoughts and attitudes.
We all had varying ideas initially so chose three genres (with sub genres) and researched one each. Our plan was to research each individually and then group together and discuss our ideas once we had a more fleshed-out knowledge of our genre. We chose specific films related to these genres to give us an idea of what our film product would be like and studied their trailers to get a feel of the style and conventions that would become part of our own if we chose that genre to use for our production.
Our chosen genres were:
Bhawana - Horror, with the sub genre of comedy-horror with a focus on the films Scream and Scary Movie
Megan - Crime, sub genre thriller - specific films, Inception and Sherlock Holmes.
Georgie - Western, with the sub-genre of spoof, focusing on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Blazing Saddles
We didn't want to choose any genres that could be aimed at our own age range such as teen film, romcom and urban drama because we felt it would not be challenging enough and wouldn't allow us to stand out against other candidates.
We chose these genres because they have classic conventions, especially in their trailers, and allow for us to adjust these for our audience once we decide our audience profile.
By looking at the film posters, we can also think about wat to include in our ancillary tasks, and look at the codes of posters in these genres.
We are Megan, Georgie, and Bhawana and welcome to our A2 Media Production blog! Here we will be posting everything to do with our production so you'll be able to get an insight into all our thought processes and the various stages throughout our journey to realise our task of creating a trailer, a poster and a magazine cover.
The films we are individually watching are as follows:
Megan - 3:10 to Yuma (modern western)
