British Trailers

Doing research on "300 Rise Of An Empire" I wanted to start looking at trailers for British productions. Currently British actors are having a lot of success within America. Game of Thrones has helped showcase the best of British acting and now because of this some of the cast are now moving into other franchises for example Emilia Clarke will be playing "Sarah Connor" in the rebooting of the Terminator franchise. Then there is Andrew Lincon who is currently playing lead character "Rick Grimes" in The Walking Dead.

One of the things that is great about British productions is that they often rely on the acting more then special effects and make-up.  Watching the trailers for British trailers shows that a lot of them showcase different sub cultures within the UK and a lot of the time deal with a lot of social issues. Films such as "The Full Monty" and "Billy Elliot" are two different types of movies but both deal with closure of the mines during  Thatchers rein as PM which led to hundred of workers losing their jobs.

There are certain trailers which are American influenced such as "Dog Soldiers" but it also has elements from British hit "Zulu" and its great watching how success in the industry has helped boost the quality in films that this country is producing.

The trailer for E4 smash hit "Skins" is one of the first drams I really got into. The trailers for it make it seem like it was just going to be about drug, sex the usually youth culture. But the trailer was deceiving as the more i got into the show the more involved you get with the characters. Each work it deals with a range of issues such as eating disorders, religion, sexuality, peer pressure. As a viewer you feel like you are watching these characters develop from where the trailer where they are so care free. So one thing i have learnt from this is that a trailer doesn't have to give to much away without revealing a plot.

Shane Meadows work are a great at showing the kitchen sink drama within a production of a film. "This is England" is a story of about his own youth and growing up as a skinhead. This too deals with problems during Thatchers Britain (she really is a popular women...) the trailer for the film though only mildly hints at the racism during the film and as viewer watching the trailer it makes the film seem more of a comedy drama coming of age tale. Even the location are a lot more realistic compared to American trailers. Another example of British production like this is "In The Flesh" though it is a drama about zombies the location in Lancaster gives it a more British feel to the show.

Watching some of these trailers has helped my understanding a bit when it comes to producing my trailer. I want to make something a lot more subtle. I will be now thinking about what i want to produce for my small trailer.

Below is an article about how creative industry in the UK is growing
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-celebrates-success-of-growing-creative-industries-in-britain

Start Of My Research (American Trailer)

As I had decided on what I would be researching it was time to look into what needed to be done. I had chosen that I wanted to make a trailer of my own so the first part of my would be looking into what we see in movie trailers. This would mean watching a variety of trailers to give me an idea into what would be needed for me to produce a decent enough video.

To start with I watched the trailers for "300 Rise Of An Empire" as this is one of the best films I have seen in 2014. The first trailer was released in July of last year even though it was going to be in cinemas till March. I feel the reason movies do this is because they want to start generating an interest in the film. Having a trailer come out so early will make viewers become more involved with the film. As a viewer if a trailer appeals to you it will make you become interested with what will come next.

Another thing I have found that with American movie trailers they show a lot of footage from the film. As a viewer I like this because personally I feel with trailers they need to showcase why people should watch these films. But in another sense it can sometimes take something away from a film as there is no element of surprise when it comes to actually watching the film at the big screen.

In the trailer as well the opening seconds show gerrad butler who was the star of the first movie. It slowly builds up the tension until it shows the blood thirsty action. Because 300 is a franchise they want to bring back fans of the first film into watching the film. So by having stars from the first one it creates excitement about the next film. Another factor about these films is that the stories are based on true events and one thing I did was look into the history of the battle of marathon which is in opening sequence in the film. And its brilliant watching great victories come to live on the big screen