Trailer Analysis

La La Land 
Audience Appeal
The trailer would appeal to the audience due to the cast. Fans would be excited to see Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, if they had seen their previous films. The trailer also features John Legend, who plays a smaller character in the film, but who will greatly appeal to fans of his music. He is shown playing a guitar in a MS, which highlights to the audience that his musical skills will feature in the film, encouraging them to watch it. The trailer also mentions that the film was directed by the director of Whiplash, which will encourage audience members who have seen that film to watch La La Land. The romance and musical genres of the film will appeal to fans of these genres. The trailer also shows the many 5 star ratings the films has received, to highlight to the audience the popularity of the film, encouraging them to see it.

Genre Signifiers
The film La La Land combines the romance and musical genres. The romance genre is hown through the many shots of the main characters dancing together. The first interaction between the characters shown in the trailer, show the characters kiss in a restaurant in a MS, clearly highlighting the romance genre to the audience, and encouraging fans of this to see the film. This is also done with the musical genre, showing a large ensemble dance and a review claiming that the film is 'a musical masterpiece'.

Character and Representation
The lead characters played by Gosling and Stone are shown to be artists, who are struggling to find success. Stone's character is struggling to get an acting job, while Gosling's character has just been fired from his job. This creates a clear motivation from the characters, the audience know that they will be chasing both their dreams and each other. This situation will appeal to audience members who are struggling to achieve their dreams or secure a good job, leading them to sympathise with the characters and encourage them to see the film.

Branding
The brand the film is trying to create is that of a unusual new film, with a classic Hollywood musical feel. This is done through the upbeat, fast-paced music used throughout the trailer as well as the font used. this is further emphasised through the jobs of the characters and a review claiming that 'they don't make films like this anymore'. this will appeal to audience who want to see a different kind of film to what they usually see in the cinema, or to those who wish to recapture a sense of old Hollywood glamour.

Continuity task evaluation

1. Explain the story of your video.
In our video, two characters who are walking along two corridors collide at a corner when not paying attention to their surroundings. One of the character's phones is broken causing him to become angry at the other.

2. How did you attempt to create 'narrative flow' (continuity)?
In order to create continuity we attempted to begin each of our new shots from exactly where the last left off, attempting to get a match on action, despite the change in camera position. We also ensured that the characters' appearance and the set remained consistent.

3. Did you achieve full continuity? If not, why not?
Overall we were able to achieve this with our video, creating a continuous narrative flow. The use of a storyboard made it easier to achieve this. Other things that helped us tell the story in our video was a strong ELS establishing shot where our first character walks into frame. We then used cross-cutting to show a MS of the second character and following their movement with the use of tracking. A clear sense of motivation is shown as one character is reading notes and the other is on his phone. A master shot is then shown of the characters walking towards each other, which allows the audience to predict what will happen next. This LS two shot then moves into a MCU, taking the audience into the action. The matched cut and logical shot order used here allowed us to achieve continuity. The cut into the phone shows a clear result, which is further emphasised through the reaction of the character, shown in an OTS shot.

4. In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?
There are several things we could have done to improve the narrative flow of our video and tell the story more effectively. In the first shot the character could have moved from left to right, in order to allow the audience to predict the next event and to improve continuity as there would be more chance of an impact. In the second shot, the camera could be mounted on a trolley for a steadier track. The fourth and final shots would tell the story better if the acting was improved. There needed to be more believable reactions both during the collision and when one character is angry at the other. There needed to be more anger in the delivery of the dialogue.

Reflections on Shots

1. Analyse your chosen shot and identify in what way it could be described as signifying your chosen TV Drama genre/subgenre.

Our chosen shot was a still from a mystery TV drama. It shows the character looking nervous as he peers around a corner. He appears to be looking intently at something and his expression connotes that he is observing an event at which he is not comfortable with or not welcome at. The fact that the audience is unable to see what it is that character is looking at is a genre convention of mystery dramas, as the audience has to try and find out what is going on from the character and his reaction. The character appears as though he is trying not to be seen through the way his body is partly hidden behind a wall and the way he seems as though he has just appeared from a darkened corridor.

2. What did you actually do to achieve the effect?

The mystery drama genre is further signified through the shot type and lighting. The LA MS makes the character appear slightly imposing and clearly shows both his facial expression and body language, which allows the audience to connote that he is hiding and viewing something that he finds shocking. It leaves the audience to question what it is the characters is hiding from and what he has seen, which is a signifier of the mystery drama genre. The low-key lighting is used to create shadows on the character, especially around his hands and face, which further heightens the characters fear and emphasizes the idea of him emerging from the shadows. This connotes that he is trying to find information about something which is a common plot-line in mystery dramas.

3. Identify what what is successful about your shot?

The things that I believe make the shot successful are the use of lighting to create shadows and the choice of MS to show the right amount of the character needed to allow the audience to find the meaning the shot is trying to convey. They audience can interpret both the meaning of the show and the genre from these two things.

4. What would you do differently in hindsight?

In hindsight I would make the character more central in the shot so that more attention can be focused on the expression of the character. I would also ensure that the face of the character is focused rather than the wall in the shot for the same reason. I believe this focus would allow the audience to interpret more from the shot.