And The Film Will Be Titled ... *drumrolls*

(Eagle Image: http://www.wpclipart.com/armed_services/fighting_eagles/Eagle_AF_1.png.html)

Decision Time ...

After analysing the films, we have decided we are going to try our hand at making a trailer that will stay true to the Western genre and the codes and conventions that we identified through the analysis of the films.

We decided to forego the parody idea as we felt that while it might be hard to pull off a Western movie in our modern environment, we wanted to face the challenge and explore our creativity. Also, we felt that for a parody movie trailer, we would have to have the aid of some very abled actors in order to evoke the desired response from our audiences - something that we, realistically, do not have access to.

Ancillary Task: Poster and Film Magazine Cover Analysis

(Under construction)

Film Analysis: Blazing Saddles

BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

Director: Mel Brookes

Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens

Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures, Crossbow Productions

Plot Summary: 'The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar, a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor. Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff in the west. Bart is a sophisticated urbanite who will have some difficulty winning over the townspeople.' - IMBD.com

Here are some of the observations that I made while watching the movie:

Parody?

So, we have chosen to do a trailer on a film of the Western genre ... However, we identify that  trying to convince our audiences that the trailer is a true Western will be a very difficult task with our environment and resources. Therefore, we are considering making the film into a parody movie (similar to the 'Scary Movie' series which mock the Horror genre) which will use the concept of having a 'Western' movie set in themodern environment.

To help make our decision and to help us identify the key codes and conventions of the genre, Megan and I will both be watching and analysing a Western film each. Megan will be watching a typical Western movie ('3:10 to Yuma'), while I will be watching a parody Western movie ('Blazing Saddles') - this should aid us in comparing the different films and identifying which would be more plausible for us to do ...

Location ideas:

These are my location ideas for our production. Below, is a video made by the members of Laredo, it really shows off the location and how realistic - and suitable for us - it is.

Find Laredo here

UPDATE:
I have scince spoken to the owner on the phone and emailed them concerning the possibility of working in Laredo and am currently waiting for a reply.

Costume Ideas

Our genre choice requires us to dress our actors in a very specific way and give them a specific look. To achieve a look that would seem authentic and legit, I recently visited a costume shop near-by - 'Dress to Party'.


(http://www.dress-to-party.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/shop.jpg)

I decided to go to the store to look for any appropriate costumes or accessories that could be of use for our trailer. However, upon searching through the shop, I found that there were no western costumes that would be of use to us. I did, however, find some accessories such as guns and moustaches.

When I talked about it to my group, though, we decided that it would be better if we just used make-up to achieve that 'rough', 'rugged' look that most cowboys wear rather than the fake moustaches that would make it look less realistic. To affirm our decision, we experimented with make-up and decided that make-up indeed would be a better choice.

These are a few looks that we tried out:

For this first look, we tried to create the unshaven look with pencil eye-liner.

Here, we used mascara.

We decided to go with the mascara in the end as the strokes of the mascara brush created an effect that look more realistic than when we used the eye-liner. 

These are the make-up products that we used:

Geogie also went to a costume shop to find any props and costumes that would be of use to us. Contrary to my findings, she found some very good costumes, however, the problem, this time, was the prices. The costumes were out of our budget and we were unable to bargain for a better price. Therefore, we had to settle with having to pull together our own costumes from our own wardrobes.

Here are a few things we came up with for the potential costumes: