Does Netflix provide threat or opportunity to the major Hollywood studios?
Please select the highest HD option before watching.
I mainly created this to show my editing skills and how I love to edit to the music. I created this using Final Cut Pro X and it took me roughly 2 full days to plan and complete.
Hope you enjoy!
Critical Approaches: Cinderella (2015) Trailer Analysis
By Jamey Rowsell - Tuesday, May 09, 2017
Walt Disney, being the producers and distributors for Cinderella, have a well-known wide target market. It can range from 7-year-old children right up to 21-year-old young adults, depending on what the content and the product is. However, for this particular product, Cinderella is aimed at young girls and teenage girls ranging from ages 8-17. Young girls are all connected by the characteristic and trait to believe this film is about true love between a princess and her prince charming, therefore would share the same social category. Teenagers themselves would also be a social category as they are all within a specific age range and share certain characteristics that would be different from younger girls. In terms of the BBFC certificate (British Board of Film Classification), this film is rated U for Universal meaning that it is suitable for all and according to the official website, it should be “suitable for audiences aged four years and over.”
The trailer opens with an establishing shot of a wide field accompanied by blue skies and large green trees, which straight away gives a happy mood to the setting. In the foreground we see a family having a picnic on the grass and enjoying their time together, whilst we can see a manor house in the distance as part of the background. The trees are almost creating a path that opens up towards the house, which could suggest it’s where most of the story takes place and it’s also where they live creating happy memories with each other. In terms of mise en scene, I believe the scenery is quite idealistic and dream like for any family. As soon as the trailer starts playing, we are immediately greeted with some non diegetic sound – a piano instrumental, which was a popular instrument in those old days. As well as this there is a voice over and narrative from who we find out later is Cinderella’s mother, accompanying the shots and instrumental music. It’s also worth noting that the family appear to be sitting in the shade instead of enjoying the sunlight, which could foreshadow dark events that may happen later on. The scene as a whole is very green which all in all symbolises nature, growth and harmony and could perhaps be indicated towards a certain character e.g. Cinderella, as it’s a place where she is growing up in and surrounded by.
The following scene is a medium shot, introducing us to the character of Cinderella’s mother sitting in the field. Instantly I can point out that the setting is extremely colourful and dreamy, she appears extremely angelical and innocent. The main colour standing out is yellow – it being both the colour of her dress and in the majority of the flowers she is arranging – which suggest joy, happiness and an overall burst of energy. We get this confirmation from her facial features and expression as she looks ahead with a huge, carefree smile on her face. Also the fact that she is surrounded by a bed of yellow and lilac flowers indicates she is the source of light and happiness in the family and she holds them all together. The background is particularly dull in comparison – the edges of the grass in the distance almost frame the image and adds a considerable amount of attention to her character. The next shot (which we find out is the reason she was sitting there with a smile on her face) is a low/over the shoulder angle, making us as an audience feel as if we are there in the moment experiencing it with them. We are looking up at a young Cinderella in the arms of her mother, showing her importance to the film. The fact that she is smiling and laughing shows the relationship she has with her mother and how much they love each other. The blue sky in this shot is very bright and again, suggests an idealistic fairy-tale where everything is always bright and happy. 
Now we have a close up shot of Cinderella’s mother (which is shown throughout the course of the trailer) accompanied by a narrative of her speaking wise words to her daughter and giving her lifelong advice. The fact that this clip is shown throughout the trailer and not just once shows the importance of her mother to Cinderella’s life, we know they had a close relationship with each other and could perhaps show why Cinderella is as kind and forgiving as she is. Lighting appears much darker in this scene compared to how we saw her in so much light previously, suggesting something dark and gloomy is about to happen. Although this scene is darker, we can still see an element of light reflecting from her face showing that she will always illuminate such light. We are positioned at a high angle, looking down on her as she speaks and this could show that she is becoming less important to the story and to Cinderella’s life. The next shot incorporates a fading transition as we see Ella as a young girl walking across the field with her father, which then fades into her and her father walking in the same position but with her as a young adult – showing that nothing much has changed with their love for one another or where they once lived. It also suggests that it is just them two and the idealistic family notion is gone, however the brightness of the scene is a sign of hope for them and their future. Interestingly, we can see some of the flowers still planted in the grass from when her mother was arranging them. 
A low angle/track camera movement is what we see next as a new character is introduced to us. The camera follows the step-mother at a low angle as she steps out of the carriage, we are immediately looking up at the back of her demeanour –
Shot/reverse shot is an editing technique used next between Cinderella and the prince – having just met for the first time in the forest. We see them close up and looking longingly at each other, which could foreshadow a later romance between them both and this is the point where the target audience could possibly understand where the happy ending will come from. The light breaking through the trees in the background could suggest that there is freedom and they will find 
At this point the music appears to be getting faster and louder; showing the significance to the events waiting to happen whilst also adding intensity to the audiences’ mood. The next few shots show Cinderella receiving a magical new gown from her fairy godmother, which confirms the notion of an idealistic story as all of her dreams are coming true. We see the wand
After a few seconds of complete magic, we are now greeted with a high angle/over the shoulder shot of Cinderella looking over at everyone dancing at the ball – showing her sudden significance. The huge sparkly chandeliers show the prominence of the event and light up the whole room; she is back in the light again where she belongs and where she was in her
Disney have a well-known variety of typical codes and conventions that they love to incorporate into each and every one of their films. Some examples may be a plot involving a relationship (true loves first kiss) and/or family conflict, usually a lesson is to be learnt, and there’s typically always a happy ending. These conventions are perfect examples as it’s also what we see in the Cinderella trailer. We see Cinderella interacting with a Prince – stimulating the idea of a later romance and true loves kiss, and we can also tell there is some sort of family conflict between her and her step-mother. She learnt a very valuable lesson from her mother (which we heard at the beginning of the trailer), to “have courage and be kind” and we can see Cinderella applying this to all of her actions. Lastly, a happy ending – which we’re not entirely sure of from the trailer but can guess it happens nevertheless.
All of the points I have made above show significantly how Disney have selected content to meet with their chosen target audience. They have incorporated typical codes and conventions that young girls and teens expect to see from this type of film and apply it effectively, as well as sticking with the theme throughout. Comparing this to another trailer from a different genre – The Avengers: Age of Ultron for example – is interesting as they both grasp the young audiences contrarily. The Avengers have a young target audience, with ages ranging from 8-18, more towards young boys rather than young girls. When watching the trailer, it’s hard to tell what the story is about (everything is sort of a mystery) yet it’s obvious that the conventions of a typical superhero/action film are there. We see comic book strips, characters in costume, superhero style typography and action packed scenes. So although this is a complete different genre to Cinderella, they both capture their audiences in different ways and by using diverse techniques.
Pre-Production
Treatment
The story follows a young woman who goes
travelling, on her own, in the hopes of re-discovering herself after dealing
with a haunting past. In this sense, she becomes a ‘Wildflower’ –
however she later comes to the reality that it follows her no matter where she
goes or what she does.
It’s also later revealed that her past
was very dark – she was involved with the wrong group of people and committed
many crimes including manslaughter and drug dealing.
Typography
 |
Colour Palette |
MOODBOARD
Poster
Idea #1
Poster Idea #2
The opening scene to John Badham’s ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977) focuses solely on introducing the main character of Tony Manero. The film opens with an establishing shot of New York City, starting in Manhattan and then continues to pan over the Brooklyn Bridge into the suburbs of Brooklyn. It’s quite clear that the film will focus on the old and the new of 70s New York, with old being Brooklyn and new being Manhattan. The bridge serves as a metaphor, it being a path to a ‘better life’ as only people with class and money occupy the surroundings of Manhattan and it can also serve as a representation to the Italian-American identity.
The camera focuses primarily on John Travolta’s character as he walks down the busy streets of New York, accompanied by a non-diegetic soundtrack of Stayin’ Alive by The Bee Gees. The sound is particularly synchronous with his footsteps as he makes his prolonged journey to work, in which he buys pizza and finds a ‘dream shirt’ along the way (which he cannot afford). Costume, which is an important aspect of mise en scene as it can determine representational issues within a character’s job, social class and even an aspect of their culture, is interesting in the opening sequence. His clothes contrast against his monotonous surroundings, which signifies his character as quite different, unique, and somewhat prosperous. Even though we see him wearing ‘fancy’ clothing and acting smug with the ladies on the street, we see him holding a paint pot as a prop and this shows to us that he is just an ordinary young man who is part of the working class and has to work his way to get the things he most wants.
Tony’s workplace, which is at a local hardware store, shows that he is apart of the working class community and it proves to be a dead end compared to his dreams of disco dancing. His work group seem to be quite family oriented and relaxed as we see him ask his boss for money earlier than usual in order to buy his ‘dream shirt.’ Though he got denied, he still had the freedom and ability to be able to ask. From the dinner scene with Tony’s family, it becomes obvious that they’re relatively strict and religious (his brother was a priest). We see some traditional Italian cultural values at the dinner table, including spaghetti which is a well-known cliché dish associated with Italian people and his grandmother is also speaking in Italian, which is a huge giveaway.
Development + Pitch
Planning
I have decided to make a channel
specifically for films. With this being the central theme, I decided to
focus my channel on the specific genres of Drama, Comedy, Romance and Family.
It will not be showing any movies relating to the Horror or Thriller genres as
I want my channel to represent and show feel-good movies.
Although my logo is black and gold; the
colour identity for my channel will be very neutral with some blue shades (as
you can tell from my mood board), and so I plan to incorporate this into my ident
somehow.
MOODBOARD
Logo Ideas
My idea was semi-inspired from the new
Sky Cinema Star Wars ident. I will create a compilation of film clips
(that are within the genres of films I’ll be showing on my channel) that I’ll
edit into some of the letters that make up the logo.
My Final Ident
Filming
The filming process for my production project has now been completed after filming on 3 separate occasions; I used my Nikon D5100 DSLR with a Nikon 50mm lens. Notably, I did have some troubles with finding the right time for me, and my model, to be available for a full day of filming, and there were a various number of cases where it had to be rescheduled for another day. In terms of location, it was very easy access for us both and didn’t take much time at all. Travelling on the central line to Bond Street takes only 15 minutes and costs a very little £1.20 at off-peak (which is the time we chose to go every time). Additionally, all of the locations I filmed at were extremely close to each other and all at a walking distance e.g. Oxford Street and Carnaby Street. We did catch a bus a few times when the walking back and forth got a bit too much, and because of our 16+ oyster cards we get free bus travel which is a huge plus.
My original plan was to film only 1 interview for my video as I thought it would fit in better with the amount of clips I have. However I managed to film 2 at last minute from another friend. The filming was extremely easy and took a total of 10 minutes for them both to be completed. However I did attempt to film an interview outside on my iPhone (as my camera ran out of battery), but when importing it onto Premiere Pro the quality was very bad and the audio was inaudible. The second time filming as I said was extremely successful. As most of my filming took place outside in Central London, I didn’t need to use the green screen or studio facilities at college. Whilst it could be very useful and professional looking, I didn’t feel it necessary to include it just for the sake of doing it.
Audio
The production of audio has also been completed as it was done together with the filming process. In terms of equipment, I didn’t use any professional microphones or boom poles to enhance my audio. Instead I used the manual microphone that came built in with my Nikon D5100. Audio didn’t take as much time as filming as I didn’t need to capture any particular noises or background noises. When importing my clips into Premiere Pro, I deleted the audio anyway as I’m using background music instead. I did overcome some problems with audio, as mentioned before, when filming my interview. I had to temporarily use my iPhone 6 but later found out the audio was terrible and the quality was below what I expected. In order to capture clear and crisp audio, I would suggest purchasing or borrowing a professional microphone that can be clipped onto the camera.
In terms of voiceovers, I didn’t require any to be filmed so that made the audio process much easier. However if I were to record any I would definitely use a microphone to achieve that clear and distinct recording.
Sound
The development of sound is still in progress as I’ve had troubles with trying to find the right background music to use for my video. I took it upon myself to research different fashion movies and took a look at the soundtracks, and found one that could be suitable from The Devil Wears Prada, which is Vogue by Madonna. This song is hugely related to fashion and is quite upbeat. However I also found an instrumental track from The Holiday (not a fashion movie), called Maestro by Hans Zimmer. I feel like having an instrumental track is more favourable as it’s not distracting from the clips and also provides something to listen to. When editing, I had the idea to use the audio from my interviews as sound and overlap it over some of my other clips. So it almost serves as a voiceover but is in fact background audio.
Sound effects won’t be necessary for my video, as I will only be using audio from my interviews and simple background music to accompany the clips. However sound effects could be useful when changing from clip to interview or vice versa. It just adds something extra to my video whilst also incorporating an additional asset from the background music. On another note, I could even use two different tracks for my video. Instead of just using an instrumental song I could also include a song with words, adding more life to my video.
Other
In terms of the development on all other assets including stills, photographs, graphics, and video clips; I would say they’re still in the process of completion also. I have taken quite a few photographs of Central London in general that could be useful when designing my interface, and I have also taken various still images of shops. I don’t think these will be making an appearance in my video however they could still be useful in some other way e.g. pre production pack when talking about my location. I haven’t designed or created any graphics – nevertheless I might choose to do so during the Easter holidays as it would be good to incorporate one.
Digital Video Production for Interactive Media: Title Sequence
By Jamey Rowsell - Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Treatment
For my 30 second title sequence, I am
planning to create movie-like content that represents shopping. More
specifically, I will be focusing on places like Covent Garden, Carnaby Street
and Oxford Street which are all in the same area –
however this won’t be made obvious in the title sequence as I
want it to look as if it were a real movie. I came up with the idea to follow
my friend around whilst she visits each destination
as
she ‘shops’, whilst showing different angles of the interior. I will be
including a range of high street shops like Urban Outfitters, Brandy Melville
and Topshop (as well as some shots on the street). The main purpose of this
title sequence video is to show shopping from a different perspective and show
the kind of things that are available in shops in London.
My idea for this sequence will hopefully
interest my target audience, who are mainly tourists and people who love/enjoy
shopping in general, and will make them want to carry on watching. I’ve decided
to go with the classic movie title sequence – bold
white text that presents each of the names clearly, as well as including a
black border that is incorporated into nearly every single movie (the whole
screen is never covered). A plus
to using Final Cut Pro X as my editing software is that it includes many
special effects and also allows for me to use certain plug-ins and green
screens. I will also be using an instrumental track by music composer Hans
Zimmer as I
personally love his work and I feel
having no lyrics works best for an opening title sequence. Especially when the
pace is intended to be quite slow and not as fast.
