Persuasive Narrative Reading and Making Trailers

Persuasive NarrativeReading and Making Trailers Matt Poyton Primary Education Officer Film Education

Today • Consider how narrative is established in a film trailer and explore effective editing techniques. Focus on horror/thriller genre. • Film key shots for a trailer based on a given pitch, synopsis and storyboard • Edit your trailer with text, music and sound effects Intro, watch, discuss etc. - 30 mins Filming - 30 mins Editing - up to 1 hour

Not today(but in class) • Watch and discuss lots of different trailers. You can use recent Film Ed CD-ROMs • Choose genre and come up with film pitch, character, synopsis etc. • Plan and storyboard your trailer • Use microphones to add an audio voiceover as well as text.

Trailers and the Primary Framework for Literacy Year 4 Non-fiction - Unit 4 Persuasive Texts “Watch a trailer for a popular children's film. Discuss the purpose of the text and the emotions it is intended to provoke in readers. Discuss how the soundtrack, sound effects, voice-over and moving images were used to persuade children to go and see the film... Plan a trailer to promote a film using key moments from the film. Prepare a written voiceover script to persuade a reader to see a film. Demonstrate how to combine words, music and images to convince the reader”. www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/literacy/planning/Year4/Nonfiction/unit4

Trailers and the Primary Framework for Literacy Year 5 Narrative - Unit 5 Film Narrative “Use key points in a film to discuss features and themes. Explore Approaches made by the film maker to create moods, pace and viewpoint. Develop children's film language by identifying how colour, light, sound and camera angles have been used to tell the narrative... Children work as part of a group to use drama strategies to explore characters in depth. Develop a story board for a narrative by capturing and importing key images into a presentation program. Children write their own version of a narrative, organising writing into paragraphs, and create a multimodal presentation of this version including images, voice-over, soundtrack and written text”. www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/literacy/planning/Year5/Narrativestories/unit5/

Trailers and the Primary Framework for Literacy Year 6 Narrative - Unit 1 Fiction genres Identify features typical of a genre and note narrative structure. Make comparisons and identify typical features of genres. Select a genre and use drama activities to explore typical characters, setting, events. www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/literacy/planning/Year6/Narrativestories/unit1/

Trailers and the Primary Framework for Literacy • Speaking and Listening • Drama • SEAL - social skills, teamwork • Cross-curriculular links (e.g. Design & Technology for creating costumes, props etc.) • ICT www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/literacy/ictapplications/

Generic structure Opening Build Up Problem Events Resolution End Narrative structure of trailers Opening Build Up Problem Events Resolution End Narrative Structure

OpeningEstablishes setting and introduces character

Build UpRelationships established. Development of characters and their world…

ProblemA dilemma or series of complications. Characters are faced with an obstacle to overcome. Often more than one.

EventsA series of events/action as characters try to overcome obstacle, solve problem etc. Further complication may arise in the process.

Watching Trailers Prince Caspian Take note of the following; • Text on screen/voiceover • Transitions between shots • Length of shots at beginning and end • Use of music and sound (and quiet) www.thetrailermash.com - Sleepless In Seattle

Trailer Conventions - Editing Thrillers, horror, action and fantasy • Longer shots to establish character, setting and the ‘problem’ • Fade in and out to black/white, accompanied by SFX • Shorter shots (and quick cuts) of some of the most exciting moments from the film. Not necessarily in chronological order. • Sudden moments of quiet and silence as important as music and SFX

Trailer Conventions - Text On Screen and Voiceover • This Season… • From the people who brought you…(implies genre) • Words that suggest key themes e.g. …experience a new kind of fear …they will find hope where they least expect it • Grand summary of plot, e.g. In a world… One man’s destiny… …will face their biggest challenge …will change their lives, forever! • Based on the unbelievable true story • Based on the bestselling book… • Star Names (actors/director) • Title (often said at the same time so it sticks in viewers’ minds) • Quick flash of credits and official website

Woman Found Living In Closet Justin McCurry in Tokyo. The Guardian, Saturday May 31, 2008 It's fair to say that the people of Kasuya, a sleepy town in western Japan, had never given much thought to Japan's homeless problem. But that all changed this week when one of its residents noticed that food had been mysteriously disappearing from his fridge. Convinced that he was the victim of frequent burglaries, the 57-year-old resident installed security cameras that transmitted images from the inside of his house directly to his mobile phone. The culprit was not, as it turned out, a highly skilled and hungry burglar, but a middle-aged, homeless woman who had been living on the top shelf of his closet for several months. Police arrested the 58-year-old, identified as Tatsuko Horikawa, on suspicion of trespassing after she was captured on film taking advantage of the owner's absence to move from her tiny dwelling to the fridge in search of food. Police had arrived expecting to apprehend a burglar but found the front door securely locked and the windows closed. "We searched the house checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," a local police spokesman told the Associated Press, adding that the woman may have used the residence and other houses in the areas as makeshift sleeping quarters for the past year. "When we slid open the closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side," he said. Police said they had yet to determine how the woman entered the property, where the owner lived alone, or how she managed to live undetected for so long. The owner, who has not been named, would not have been able to sniff out his uninvited guest: the woman took regular showers while he was out and, according to the spokesman, was unusually "neat and clean". www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/31/japan

Your Trailer Synopsis ___ is a reserved man leading a solitary existence. Each day is the same and he avoids communication with others. However, ___’s routine is about to be shaken up when he starts to notice strange occurrences within his flat. Food disappears from his fridge, his phone bills include calls he has never made, and he begins to feel as though he is not alone. Then he makes a shocking discovery. ___'s life is about to change forever… (Name and gender of main character can change)

Task • Sequence the story board. There is no ‘correct’ answer. • Head off to your accommodation and film each shot. - Establishing shots no longer than 5 seconds from ‘Action!’ to ‘Cut!’. - Other shots 1-3 seconds 3. Get back here in 30 mins and import footage into iMovie • Sequence and trim shots • Write and add voiceover text. Give your film a title. • Add transitions (fade in and out, quick cuts etc.) • Add music and sound effects • Tweak editing and keep trailer under 2 mins • Export trailer (click on File) as a QuickTime file at CD-ROM quality.

Taking this back to the classroom • Watch and discuss lots of different trailers. You can use recent Film Ed CD-ROMs • Pupils choose genre and come up with film pitch, character, synopsis etc. • Plan and draw storyboards. Study shot types, camera movement and angles and their effect • Use microphones to add a audio voiceover as well as text • Write a full short story to accompany trailer • Alternatively, adapt a novel studied into a film pitch and trailer.

Persuasive Narrative Reading and Making Trailers