Finished Products

Focused Analysis - Locations

This film is based on a modern fairytale. The house in which Cinderella lives in accompanied by her Step-Mother and her two Step-Sisters. The colour scheme that is used adds to the sunny lanscape of Los Angeles and the whites and browns go well together. The characters costumes and style contrasts with the hosue and fits in well with the genre of modernised fairytale. The house is shown that the family are a well off family, but compare the house to the size of Cinderella's room and has shown how she is very deprived. The garden includes a swimming pool and a sunbed.

The Cafe where Cinderella works is included in the trailer but not also does it show that she comes from a well off family she still has too work for herself and earn her own living spences. The round tables add a     friendly atomosphere and aswell have the counter running the whole way around the Cafe, this also makes the Cafe look stylish with the tiled floors coloured black and white which is very 80's style. 

Another Main location used in this film is the school. It is used for many things such as: A School (with lessons), A Prom, A Football Match. It is a romantic environment as it is common for teenagers to fall in love at school and meet there one true love. By including this location most of the target audience can relate to the story and engage more to the film. In the school is a shot of the library and how Cinderella spends most of her time in there talking to her 'Prince Charming' Via the computor on an internet site, which adds to the mystery. She is also shot in the library doing her work which shows the audience that she is smart and wants to well later on in life.

Also featured is the batting cage where Cinderella works on her baseball skills. This location is used as her personal space as earlier on in the story we are told that she used to play there with her dad before he was killed. The cage she is in perhaps represents the fact she feels trapped and this is the only place she feels she can let off steam.

Like every fairytale eneding the Princess always gets the Prince. The location is in the ball what we call a prom. The lighting used adds to the romantic feel and the location seems to be well style and fits the narrative well. The colour scheme used in this location adds to the enchanted feel of the ball and also adds a formal appeal to this scene. When the camera moves outside, into the garden, an arch comes into shot decorated with white flowers and beautiful lighting which sets the scene off nicely. The white fencing ties in with the white flowers which compliments the whole scene well. The fairy lights composition seem to get more compact as the camera drops down to reveal a the bottom of the arch. Overall creating a fairy tale like location.

We decided for our film trailer to be based around our school as it would be a familiar setting to our target audience and one in which they can relate to. We did use other locations such as parks and shopping centres but our shots are largly around school. Our main establishing shot was a school corridor, with this we filmed in different corridors around school as we had to make sure the lighting was at the correct levels.

                    

Initial Ideas

This trailer opens with a caption featuring a typical opening of a fairy tale "Once Upon A Time" this is conventional of many fairy tales and adds a classic appeal. The soundtrack will feature an enchanted magical tune which will cut to a more up beat tune when the next shot appears which shows the viewer immediately that this isn't a classic fairy tale that they have come to expect, it in fact has a modern twist to it. The next shot is a medium long shot of an empty school corridor, still with an upbeat tune in the background. This is an establishing shot and shows the viewer that this trailer is indeed set in a modern day school. A close up shot of a school bell ringing to singal the end of second lesson then appears on screen. This again, empahasises the fact that this trailer has got a modern edge to it. A medium long shot of the school corridor then appears again featuring groups of students and a busy corridor appears. This shows the bussling feel of any school. The camera zooms in to three girls, the modern princesses, who appear on screen (played by Ashley Finch,Charlotte Meek and Charlotte Piper ).The camera films as the walk through the corridor, then cuts to various close-ups of the individuals. This is done in order to allow the audience to connect with the characters featured. Another caption then flashes up on screen; "They're The Girls Everyone Want To Be.." again this is presetned on a plain background with a fairytale tune, after this another caption, "Until.." , again with conventional music and a plain background. A close-up of the male lead character (played by Matt Kaal) appaears on screen. He proceeds to walk in slow motion up to the camera past Ashley, Charlotte and Cahrlotte. The next shot is split into a 3 way shot in order to show each character in different locations on the phone in the same camera shot. This is put in, in order to allow the viewer to see the three girls are friends but are all after one boy. Following this, a close up three way shot of each of their lips is included in order to add variety. Yet another caption apears, "This Summer", followed by a tracking shot of Charlotte walking along the corridor towards the prince only to fall over and land on the floor in front of him. Then a close-up shot of the Matt, from Charlotte's point of view, appears with the added effect of being blurry to show that Charlotte fell over and hit the floor hard enough to knock herself out. The camera then changes to Matt's point of view looking down at Charlotte, she then looks up realizing its Matt and shows herself to be very embarrassed. Another caption appears,"They're In It To Win There Prince Charming..", Now, to a different location, outside of school. Medium long shot of car with Matt and Charlotte Meek in pulling up outside of school. Charlotte and Ashley look on-obvious they are not happy about it, shown with a close up of each of them. Camera shoots to a classroom environment with a close up of a hand with scissors featured. Then flashes to Charlotte Piper cutting off Charlotte Meek's hair, over shoulder shot of Charlotte Piper holding the piece of hair. Charlotte then launches herself over the desk, shown in a medium close-up Ashley as she goes to attack Charlotte. The title then flashes up on screen then a final medium close-up of Matt walking in front of the girls, all three looking at him as he walks away, Matt then says, "Let The Games Begin". Final caption pops up containing information such as the release date; "In 2010" then "Who Will Get Their Happy Ever After?".

Mood Board

This is a mood board which shows different examples of images which give a romantic feel to them. They show all images which are taken from rom coms and other 'chick flick' films.

Focused Analysis: 2 - Sound/ Music

A Cinderella Story'

The trailer starts off with fairy tale music to go along with the establishing shot. This has been done in order to introduce this film as a fairy tale, when the twist in this story becomes obvious it is more of a surprise to the audience (Loz Angeles). To go long with the ambient soundtrack there is a voice over the top. This voice tells the story in a traditional way therefore it is adding to the fairy tale theme.
When the camera changes to a shot of Los Angeles, the music changes and its no longer the traditional type instead it changes to a more upbeat sound (which is Hilary Duff singing). this has been done in order to show the change of narrative, to show the viewer that this story line isn't traditional in the sense that this one is based in a modern day setting. Also, just before the music changes, a musical effect has been added in in order to show that the soundtrack is going to change to a different type of sound.

Each shot, generally, seems to include a voice over and the characters speaking. When the shot changes from one to another a sound effect has been added which sounds as if a page is being turned. This has been done to, again add variety to the shot, and also give the impression that this story is being read out of a fairy tale book.

Whilst playing baseball, the main female character whose representing a 'princess', hits the ball really hard sending it over to where the modern 'prince is. The ambient soundtrack goes from gentle quiet background music to a loud dramatic soundtrack to express her victorious hit. This adds the fact that she is skilled at the sport baseball.

At the ball, when the 'Princess' appears in the shot, the music changes to a enchanted soundtrack to express the fact she has developed into a beautiful woman. This is carried on after the voice overs from the characters when the camera shoots to the dancing outside, the fact that for the first time a soundtrack is used which includes lyics. This has been done because there is no voiceovers from this point onwards. The lyrics of this song also link to what is going on in this scene and what is going on overall in the story line.

Focused Analysis: 1 - Characters

For my focused analysis on characters i decided to look at the characters used in popular trailers. I have chosen to look at the 'A Cinderella Story' as i feel this links in well with my chosen genre. Since this film is based on a modern version of a fairy tale, Cinderella, each of the characters have a similar appeal that the original characters have.
The character modeled to be like cinderella, is obvious from the start of this film trailer. She first comes into shot wearing ordinary clothes, nothing that stands out which is how Cinderella starts off in the original fairy tale. Also, the modern cinderella is shown working in a cafe, scrubbing the floor and acting as a waitress which again fits in nicely with the original story where she is a slave to her step-mother, technically she is too in the modern version as the step-mother is the one who owns the cafe. This character also has appearance similarities to that of the original cinderella, for example the blonde hair tied up and out of her face, also her striking blue eyes which conventionally fits in with many fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty.
The female character who plays the step-mother. She has been made to look like a modern American mother with a selfish side which links nicely to the original story. She has been made to seem jealous of the main character, Cinderella, which again fits in with the original fairy tale. Throughout the story she is made to seem as if she is in control and also made to seem as if she is the boss. As well as this, throughout the film, she is made to seem vein which is shown by the fact she gets botox in the film, Thus, following the conventions of a step-mother in many films and fairy tales. Also, the clothes she wears throughout this film, seem to be modern versions of the clothes worn in the fairy tale. This has been done to add a modern feel to this film.
Eventually, Cinderella's happy ending starts to come together when she attends the school prom wearing a prom dress which fits in with the character nicely, and also the conventional characters in fairy tales who always get their happy ending. Also her personality in this film is similar to how Cinderella in the original fairy tales is. She is kind, loving and caring which is conventional of many fairy tale princesses.
Finally, the Prince. He has been portrayed as the 'popular' character with a lot of friends who hang around with the ' right ' people, they guy who has the pick of the girls. His exterior character is portrayed as having everything but as the story goes on the viewer discovers that he is looking for his princess and his happy ending as well. Perhaps unconventional of a fairy tale, is the fact his character has short blonde hair as opposed to long blonde hair which many princes are portrayed to have. This has obviously been done to give this story a modern edge. The clothing he wears in this film is quite simplistic, he has been styled in average dress with a slight edge, i.e rolled up sleeves or jeans with original sneakers. Also, whilst at the fancy dress ball, the 'prince' actually turns up dressed as a prince were as his two friends turn up looking like his henchmen-obviously been done to portray the fact he has turned up to save the princess from her life of misery.

Barthes Theory

Barthe believes that there are 5 action codes that enable and audience to make sense of a narrative.

• HERENEUTIC (narrative turning points) We know where the story will go next.
• PROAIRETIC (Basic narrative actions) E.g. Detective interviews, suspect of femme fatale suduces hero (see Propp's 31 functions)
• CULTURAL (Prior social knowledge) E.g. Our attitude to gender and racial stereotypes.
• SEMIC (Medium - related code) Intertextuality.
•  SYMBOLIC (Themes) Iconography or a theme such a 'image versus reality' (Curtis Hanson)