Persuasive Narrative Reading and Making Trailers

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Persuasive NarrativeReading and Making
Trailers

• Matt Poyton
• Primary Education Officer
• Film Education

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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

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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.

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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/literac
  y/planning/Year4/Nonfiction/unit4

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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/literac
  y/planning/Year5/Narrativestories/unit5/

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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/literac
  y/planning/Year6/Narrativestories/unit1/

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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/literac
  y/ictapplications/

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Narrative Structure

• Generic structure
• Opening
• Build Up
• Problem
• Events
• Resolution
• End

• Narrative structure of trailers
• Opening
• Build Up
• Problem
• Events
• Resolution
• End

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Opening Establishes setting and introduces
character

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Build Up Relationships established. Development
of characters and their world
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Problem A dilemma or series of complications.
Characters are faced with an obstacle to
overcome. Often more than one.
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Events A series of events/action as characters
try to overcome obstacle, solve problem etc.
Further complication may arise in the process.
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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

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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

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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 mans 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

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• 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

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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)

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(No Transcript)
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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.

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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.