What is ‘Stryker’?

• Stryker is an action packed cop thriller. It contains lots of violence, yet has quieter, more thought provoking moments which involve detective work.

• The target audience is young/older males.• It would probably be rated ’15’ by the BBFC (British

Board of Film Classification) due to its mature themes along with the violence (and probable bad language) that will be present in the film.

• It would not reach ‘18’ as in ‘15’ certificate films ‘Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury’, which ‘Stryker’ would not do – violent as it is, it is also about the story, not mindless or extreme violence. (www.bbfc.co.uk)

Media Institutions• We would release our film

with our own independent company, as it is a fairly low budget film due to the lack of many special effects.

• The two ‘companies’ who made the film are ‘MP Films’ and ‘Baron Productions’. The film would then be released on ‘Epic Pictures’.

• Most films use a major company like ‘Paramount’ or ‘20th Century Fox’ but we were somewhat constrained as students.

• We designed these logos on Macromedia Fireworks MX and using www.cooltext.com for the ‘Baron’ logo.

Forms and conventions• We researched films of a

similar genre to what we wanted to achieve. We did analyses of the films ‘Cobra’ (with Sylvester Stallone), ‘Sin City’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’.

• We also took influences from films such as ‘Se7en’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’.

• From our research we learned about common conventions in these types of trailer. These include fast cuts and dialogue from the film providing a voiceover. This voiceover gives the audience a taster of what the plot of the film will be.

Forms and conventions (cont)

• We also created a questionnaire for members of our target audience (young/older males), as well as members outside that demographic to see what ideas they had.

• From the questionnaire, we discovered that quantitatively most people find full cinema trailers to be the most effective, so that’s what we decided to make.

• We adhered to Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions, the known vs. unknown divide is clear in that it is unknown who the villain is, and Stryker’s past is somewhat ambiguous. Stryker

Pulp Fiction

Reservoir Dogs

Stryker Stryker

RocknrollaSome notable influences:

We didn’t actually intend to use this shot in our trailer; we took it just to see what it

would look like. When we were editing, however, we thought we would insert it

during the fast cuts to make it seem more action-packed.

Forms and conventions

(cont)• The music for the film has

been chosen to complement the action on screen. The music at the beginning, in the police station, was composed by group member Sam Bowers for the purpose of the trailer, using Cubase SX3 (a music production program). It was written in the style of other films like ‘Cobra’; retaining a suspenseful edge whilst not drawing away from the dialogue.

• When the main action kicks in, a very short montage consisting of images from the film flashed on the screen in time with the drums. This signifies a change in pace for the trailer.

Clip of intro with music (click )

Clip of when action kicks in (click)

Clip where action kicks in (click)

Media Theories

• We used certain elements of Propp’s character model.

• The ‘hero’ of the film is obviously Stryker, as the film is named after him. He also takes the traditional ‘protagonist’ role, as he is a ‘tough guy’. The plot of the story is based around his life.

The Hero

Media Theories

• The role of ‘helper’ is taken by Detective Murphy. The ‘dispatcher’ (person who sends the hero on his ‘quest’) is Lt. Thornton. There is also a ‘villain’, whose identity is unknown; a traditional convention of thrillers. In this sense, the conventions are adhered to.

The Helper

Media Theories

The Dispatcher• The ‘dispatcher’ (person

who sends the hero on his ‘quest’) is Lt. Thornton.

• He takes the traditional role of ‘the cop in charge’ , as he is in his office in a meeting with one of his detectives. This technique is used in other such films such as ‘Dirty Harry’.

The Villain

Much of the ‘evil’ and the ‘mystery’ of our villain is based on Heath Ledger’s ‘Joker’ in The Dark Knight. The shot of him escaping in a van is influenced by the Joker, too.

Media Theories

There is also a ‘villain’, whose identity is unknown; a traditional convention of thrillers. In this sense, the conventions are adhered to.If details are left unknown, the story can seem more suspenseful and scary as anything could happen. This is why the villain’s identity is hidden; it could literally be anyone – which makes the experience more tense.

Production• We used Pinnacle Studio 10

to edit our recorded video and add to music, as it’s the software that our college has and it allows freedom to edit.

• Macromedia Fireworks was used to do the titles, as well as the poster and magazine cover tasks.

• Macromedia Flash was used in order to animate the title, that was created using www.cooltext.com.

• Cubase SX 3 and 5 were used for the composition of the intro song.

Ancillary Tasks

• This is our magazine cover. It contains images we took for the poster (see next slide). The title has been tilted on one side in order to make the cover more exciting and appealing. The steel background adds to the ‘tough’, ‘manly’ theme that we were going for. It fades to black in order to seem more ominous.

• The three people at the bottom are the Fighter, Lt. Thornton and Det. Murphy respectively. They are there to show some of the people who Stryker has to ‘deal with’ in life, and they are all present on the trailer so no further details are spoiled.

• Names of people involved with the film are shown to attract the readers’ attention. The ‘Also’ box at the bottom shows other films of interest, the first two of which are other groups in our class!

• A barcode is also present to add authenticity.

Magazine

PosterAncillary Tasks

• This is the promotional poster we designed for Stryker. On it, you can see the standard ‘StrYker’ titles, a release date and a tagline: “It’s time for the law to Stryke back” – which is obviously a pun based on the title. The inspiration for the tagline came from a number of other ones from similar films: “Man has made his match ...

now it's his problem.” – Blade Runner

“Man is the warmest place to hide.” – The Thing

“He loved the American Dream. With a Vengeance.” – Scarface

• The black background and red font stick to the style of the film; connoting darkness, mystery, blood and violence. This is why the characters have a red glow. This also separates them from the black, making the images easier on the eyes. The crosshairs in the top-right corner symbolise violence and shooting, something which is prevalent in the film. There is also a ‘motion’ effect on the crosshairs, to make it seem like they are sweeping across the poster, looking for a target. This is similar to a technique used in the poster for ‘The Bourne Identity’.

• The way the three characters are shown is reminiscent of the ‘Star Wars’ poster, as it highlights who the main character is (who the story will follow) but it also shows who his main two companions will be.

• The text at the bottom tells the audience about the cast and crew. It takes the form of how the majority of film posters are set out today. There is a movie website to visit ‘www.strykermovie.co.uk’ (not a real site), the soundtrack information ‘Available on Bowersmusic’ (not a real record label – made up for the sake of the poster) and ‘Read the “Alpha Wolf” graphic novel from Holtbooks’ – a reference to the graphic novel the film is based on. There are also small icons of the various companies involved, made a solid red colour to fit with the red and black ethos.

• We were originally going to include the villain’s eyes staring out at the audience from the top of the poster (á la Darth Vader), but we found that it looked wrong; drawing the main attention away from Stryker and making the poster too ‘busy’. It seemed more suitable to a fantasy film, so we omitted them.

Audience FeedbackFrom our feedback, we gained the following information about what the audience thought about

our trailer. Bold text is the question we asked, followed by the most frequent answer.

1. What imagery did you get from the trailer? Which imagery stood out the most?Costume was good, ‘the law’ was clearly present, action was prevalent.

2. From the trailer, would you say it’s more thriller, action or other? (See chart )We wanted to create an Action Thriller, however the majority of people thoughtit was primarily action. Other peoplethought it was comedic.

3. What was your favourite shot and why?Popular shots included the final punch shot before the title, the fight scene punch with the ‘realistic’ sound effect thanks to the technique of ‘blocking’, the first shot of the ‘bad guy’ stood in front of the clock (with the fade) – see director’s commentary.

4. How effective do you think the titles were?People generally thought the titles were very appropriate and influenced the action of the trailer in a positive way.

Feedback: Main genre of "Stryker"(Total 19 people)

Action

Thriller

Other

5. Do you think the voiceover had a positive impact or not?People generally thought that the voiceover detracted from the action and that it was unnecessary; they would have preferred to simply watch the action rather than listen to a voiceover as well.

6. How well did the music fit in?We received very positive feedback for our music choice. People generally said that it set a suspenseful tone at the start and then built up the action to a dramatic climax.

7. Was the good/evil divide clear? Why?Most people thought it was clear and that the voiceover in fact helped this. Some people were unsure as to who was good and who wasn’t, however.

8. Was the mood and story suitably outlined by the introductory scene or was it, for example, too long?Everyone thought the mood was well set and “though it was a tad long, it was worth it”.

9. How could it be improved?Remove the voiceover, take out ‘comedic’ end shot, more sound effects.

Audience Feedback (cont)