Ill Manors trailer analysis

1. What are the typical codes and conventions of film trailers - what information is usually provided? - The aim of a film trailer is usually to advertise and promote an upcoming film and give the audience enough information about it to persuade them to see it, without giving the ending away. In a trailer, you would normally expect to see names of the cast members, the director (along with names of films previously directed by the same person), scenes from the film crucial to the narrative e.g. backstory of the protagonist and the problems they'll be facing in the film.They usually also include music from the film's soundtrack to give the audience further insight into the genre and what the mood of the film will be like.
2. How are trailers usually distributed? - Trailers are distributed in many ways including: in the cinema before a film of the same/similar genre is shown e.g. in the screening of a Tarantino film (Pulp Fiction,1994), the trailers that would be shown beforehand would most likely be films of the same genre to that of Tarantino's work (Se7en, 1995). Trailers are also distributed on TV along with regular TV adverts, and similarly to the cinema, they are distributed with DVDs of the same genre to the trailers e.g. the DVD of this year's Beauty and the Beast will most likely have trailers for future live-action Disney films.
3. How does the Ill Manors trailer use film trailer conventions? - One of the most noticeable conventions of this trailer is the music which, beginning at 0:56 is the song of the same name released simultaneously with the film. The music before the song starts however, includes a short excerpt from Saint-Saens' 'Aquarium' from 'The Carnival of the Animals'. I thought this was interesting because on its own, it's such a therapeutic piece of music so to use it to advertise a film as intense and brutal as Ill Manors and play modern music over the top of it could suggest to an audience that the film they are about to watch could be about the corruption of something good and innocent. This could be further emphasised by the fact that while that music is playing, we see clips of young children and the adults that they turn out to be. Another convention of trailers that this trailer uses is reviews. At just over half way through the trailer, two reviews appear on the screen and these can be a crucial element to a trailer because reviews allow the audience to see the positive things that have been said about the film and could potentially convince them to go and see it.
4. Watch the trailer carefully and discuss how it might attract an audience. Firstly, think about who the target audience for Ill Manors might include. Does it have a unique selling point or use particular techniques to appeal to the audience? Consider the way the scenes are edited together – does the trailer give away any clues about the narrative? Are the main stars visible in the trailer? Is there information about the director of the film? Is there information about the release date? Is a narrator’s voice-over used? Why? - Right from the beginning of the trailer, we can immediately assume that the target audience are older teenagers/adults, most likely 18-30. This is because we are shown short clips of the different issues that are going to be portrayed in the film e.g. drugs, violence, crime - things that would not be suitable for a younger audience. Based on the trailer alone, I'd say that in terms of social class this film would be more aimed at the psychographic group D because I think the issues raised in the trailer are more relatable to the people of those psychographic groups. In terms of gender I think that due to the largely male cast and violent, intense nature of the trailer I think that the film would be targeted more at males than females. I think one of the conventions of this trailer that would probably be most attractive to the audience is the fast paced editing that shows you enough about the film to make you excited about it, but not enough to reveal the ending. Unlike a lot of trailers, it doesn't really give many hints about the narrative at all, it just shows us the issues that the characters will be faced with but not necessarily the circumstances the characters are in when those issues arise. This is effective in encouraging an audience to want to see the film because they become intrigued by the plot and want to find out more. The main stars are visible in the trailer but we don't really find out much about them, again creating more intrigue for the audience watching the trailer. Apart from the brief moment at the end when the credits appear in small print, there is only one other moment where information is given about the director but there is none at all about the cast and I think this could be to create the first sense of realism and to allow the audience to become as immersed in it as possible, without being distracted by text on screen. Also, I think another reason behind this could be so that after watching the trailer and feeling intrigued by its exciting tone, they feel compelled to do their own research into finding out about the cast and the release date which was also not mentioned.
5. How has the genre of the film been represented through characters, settings, lighting, colour, music/dialogue, camera shots/movements/angles and editing? - In terms of characters, one thing that could be noted is that apart from Kirby, it's very unlikely that any of the other characters are over 30 so this could indicate that the narrative is going to revolve strongly around the lives of young people and given that the majority of settings in the trailer appear to be run-down estates, the streets, alleyways, small houses etc. and that a lot of it takes place at night, we can assume that all these things contribute to the crime drama genre that this film falls under. Regarding camera shots and editing a huge amount of the shots in the trailer were close up and the editing was extremely fast-paced all the way through and I think the aim behind this in terms of representing the genre was to show the emotions on all the characters' faces at various points during the film and to convey how fast-paced and intense the film itself will be - this is done so the audience gets a clear idea of what to expect when they watch it.