By analysing other students projects, I hope to increase my knowledge into what works, looks good within a trailer and what doesn't, therefore, hopefully helping myself when I come to create my own.
After viewing many student soap opera trailers on YouTube, I decided to concentrate on these two because they are so different from each other, meaning I could learn about the variety of trailers we could make. When you watch them, you realise that they both share very similar traits, yet go about displaying them in their own individual ways. You notice that both trailers use subtitles throughout to introduce separate story lines that would appear in the actual soap, and the themes that go with these stories.
Trailer 1 uses no diegetic dialogue or non-diegetic voice overs in the entire trailer, instead it uses a non-diegetic soundtrack throughout. In contrast, trailer 2 has diegetic and non-diegtic speech throughout, but has no soundtrack.
I like the idea of presenting a soap opera trailer using lots of headings, as I think it really allows you to display numerous story lines in an effective way.
Trailer 1
Sound
This trailer uses one steady soundtrack throughout, overall I think it really suits the entire trailer. As soon as the trailer begins, I believe the soundtrack could catch your attention and draw you into watching it, I think it would also maintain your attention throughout. I think what is so effective about it, is how it changes very slightly to suit the currant visual side of the trailer, but you don't even notice this change until its actually happens.
The music track starts out gloomy and sinister, but then builds up to an upbeat, lively tune. Throughout the trailer the only piece of diegetic sound, is a gunshot. This being the only noise apart from the music, it makes this point powerful and striking and it is something that the audience would remember from watching the trailer.
They have gone against usual conventions of soap opera trailers by having no voice over at the end to say the trailers name and where and when its on. I think they made the correct decision by not doing this, as if they did, it could have brought a viewer "back down to earth" too quickly, and they could forget about the rest of the dramatic trailer that they've just seen.
As well as opening the trailer well, I think the sound track itself also finishes the whole trailer effectively by the way it nicely fade out.
Mise
Mise seems to be well considered within this trailer. Costumes, for instance helps set the tone of certain parts, in the opening clip. The two boys are wearing black smart clothing. By using costumes of this colour, it conveys a negative mood as black can be linked with death and is the colour symbol for grief. They have also used props to help describe a characters personality. There is a close up of a man smoking a cigarette, this would add to the hard man, villain type they are trying to convey for that character, as smoking is generally considered a bad thing in society. In that particular clip the cigarette really helped build the scene. The main focus is the gun, the person on the floor and the gunshot, but I believe the gunshot would not be as effective without the cigarette being thrown. This had shown me that even small props can add greatly to a short clip. The use of a real fire at the end shows the dedication to props and their settings they had while making their trailer. Using props such as the fire really adds to the overall professional feel of this trailer.
Camera Angles
There are a large variety of shots used throughout this trailer. The establishing shot as the trailer opens is effective as it allows the audience a small amount of time to think about what is to come in the trailer, it also sets the tone for this fist clip.
There are many well thought over shots used in the trailer, including close ups to highlight significant parts. There are many shots such as tilts, low angle and high angle. The camera has been held very steady throughout, there is no shaky shots, this adds to the good finish of the trailer.
Editing and Titles
This trailer uses one steady soundtrack throughout, overall I think it really suits the entire trailer. As soon as the trailer begins, I believe the soundtrack could catch your attention and draw you into watching it, I think it would also maintain your attention throughout. I think what is so effective about it, is how it changes very slightly to suit the currant visual side of the trailer, but you don't even notice this change until its actually happens.
The music track starts out gloomy and sinister, but then builds up to an upbeat, lively tune. Throughout the trailer the only piece of diegetic sound, is a gunshot. This being the only noise apart from the music, it makes this point powerful and striking and it is something that the audience would remember from watching the trailer.
They have gone against usual conventions of soap opera trailers by having no voice over at the end to say the trailers name and where and when its on. I think they made the correct decision by not doing this, as if they did, it could have brought a viewer "back down to earth" too quickly, and they could forget about the rest of the dramatic trailer that they've just seen.
As well as opening the trailer well, I think the sound track itself also finishes the whole trailer effectively by the way it nicely fade out.
Mise
Mise seems to be well considered within this trailer. Costumes, for instance helps set the tone of certain parts, in the opening clip. The two boys are wearing black smart clothing. By using costumes of this colour, it conveys a negative mood as black can be linked with death and is the colour symbol for grief. They have also used props to help describe a characters personality. There is a close up of a man smoking a cigarette, this would add to the hard man, villain type they are trying to convey for that character, as smoking is generally considered a bad thing in society. In that particular clip the cigarette really helped build the scene. The main focus is the gun, the person on the floor and the gunshot, but I believe the gunshot would not be as effective without the cigarette being thrown. This had shown me that even small props can add greatly to a short clip. The use of a real fire at the end shows the dedication to props and their settings they had while making their trailer. Using props such as the fire really adds to the overall professional feel of this trailer.
Camera Angles
There are a large variety of shots used throughout this trailer. The establishing shot as the trailer opens is effective as it allows the audience a small amount of time to think about what is to come in the trailer, it also sets the tone for this fist clip.
There are many well thought over shots used in the trailer, including close ups to highlight significant parts. There are many shots such as tilts, low angle and high angle. The camera has been held very steady throughout, there is no shaky shots, this adds to the good finish of the trailer.
Editing and Titles
Editing throughout the trailer is of a really high standard. It all flows well, all the clips fit perfectly together and the 180 degree rule hasn't been broken.
I really like the way some specific parts are in slow motion, and some parts have been sped up, small touches like these all add to the effectiveness of the trailer.
I really like the way some specific parts are in slow motion, and some parts have been sped up, small touches like these all add to the effectiveness of the trailer.
Following conventions of soap opera trailers, the information for the trailer, this being, the soap name, and where and when it is on, is displayed via text and the end of the trailer.
Trailer 2
Sound
I found the way that they didn't use a non-diegetic soundtrack really interesting, as i had not seen a trailer without one before.
They have a lot of dialogue throughout, which probably could be easily missed if there was a soundtrack above it, yet I still feel that having a soundtrack would only enhance the trailer as a whole.
The trailer feels as if its slow paced, but really most of it uses fast paced editing, I think if you were to add a soundtrack it would pick up the pace. By not using sounds, they have made their trailer individual and original.
This trailer is based around the diegetic dialogue between the characters, by doing this they have gone against conventions of soap opera trailers, which usually include no dialogue. I believe this works in the trailer as they introduce a title, and then display each title using the dialogue in the following scene. Without the titles though, they would have been as risk of their trailer looking more like an actual soap episode, rather than an advert for the show.
Something I think they could have improved on is the speech clarity throughout the trailer, the voice over for the titles is quite muffled, and I think the actors speak too fast at points. Background noises, such as other people speaking and wind, also takes away from the dialogue.
Mise
Something I think they really considered in their trailer was the use of props in each individual section. They seem to have a dominant prop for each heading, which suits the theme, Money for the 'Money trouble' title, a rucksack for the 'Confrontations' parts and a mobile phone for the 'Angry bosses' section.
I think they could have considered costume more though, as for instance, the boys that appear in the first and final section are wearing the same clothing for both, but it seems to me that these two scene would be from two separate days, although I could be wrong. They could also have made their character types more convincing via costumes, for example making the boss wear a suit.
Camera Angles
They use a good amount of camera angles throughout the trailer, these include mid shots, 2 and 3 shots, and many good pans. Some of these shots seem well thought over, such as a high angle shot on the boy during the 'Money trouble' section, showing his vulnerability at that time. Something that I noticed was their effective framing of characters within shots.
Editing and Titles
An editing technique they have used a couple of times in the trailer, is the shot reverse shot. This is effective as it allows the audience to see the initial reactions of characters during conversations. The overall editing of the trailer is quite confusing at times, as at one point you can see there are two separate clips that they have tried to make look as if they are one clip, but it doesn't quite work.
There is also one point where there is a good establishing pan. This pan continues past some characters, then the following shot is of those characters. This makes the combination of the shots seem very strange. If they cut the pan down during editing, it would be much more effective. I think the trailer could benefit from a few transitions, maybe between the heading and the following scene, just to allow the trailer to run more smoothly.
Following conventions of soap opera trailers, all the important information about the soap is shown at the end. I also like the effective reveal of the soaps name at the end of the trailer.
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