A2 MEDIA BLOG

Week 1: Ideas, Brainstorming, Research, Role Allocation.

My group consists of two other members, Maheni and Ana.As a group we came up with a shortlist of our favourite fairy tales that we thought we could adapt and create a trailer/short film.Our list included, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Beauty and the Beast. We realised that Snow White, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Beauty and the Beast are already movies that have been explored differently by many other producers, and decided that even though we could maybe make Hansel and Gretel a modern movie, keeping it original and remaining within the stories routes would be much better.

The story of Hansel and Gretel:

Hansel and Gretel were brother and sister. Their poor parents were starving, so they went out in search of food. They took one slice of bread along, which they used to mark a path back to their home by leaving crumbs along the way. After a while, they came upon a little house made of gingerbread. Hansel broke off a piece to eat. Suddenly, the door flew open and an old woman came out and invited them in. She fed them mountains of pancakes and fruit, and then tucked them into bed to sleep. What Hansel and Gretel didn’t realize was that the old woman was fattening them up so she could use them in her favourite dish; roasted children! Now they were prisoners, and the old woman kept feeding them, and when she asked them to stick their fingers out of their cell so she could judge how fat they were getting, Hansel held out a bone instead. Finally, the children escaped and pushed the old woman into the oven. They filled their pockets with jewels and food and used the trail of bread crumbs to find their way back home, where they lived happily ever after.

We thought that keeping the story original would be a better idea since there are people who don't know the actual complete story. However, to make it slightly more interesting, we thought of exaggerating certain scenes. It would be a short film since the fairy tale in itself is rather small, but making a trailer is how most films get the audiences' attention and so that's what we decided on.

There are certain conventions that need to be followed to create a good trailer:They can't last too long, 60 seconds is the length of a usual trailer.They mustn’t spoil the whole storylineMight contain scenes that aren't even in the film. Teasing the audience.Released a long time before the actual movie. Months.The Twilight Saga and Toy Story's were widely promoted due to their funds and popularity of the movies in general.Should include music that attracts the audience.Could introduce some of the main characters (e.g. Alice in Wonderland trailer introduces Alice, The Queen, The Cheshire Cat etc.)Usually in thrillers there are straight cuts rather than fading images. In our trailer, we plan to incorporate some straight cuts so that in can insinuate that there will be trouble. Fast paced music also helps the audience come to this conclusion.