Rise of the Footsoldier Analysis

Rise of the Footsoldier is one of Brittain's most shocking and potent true stories gone blockbuster. It is a film that is not recommended for the faint hearted as it contains shocking torture scenes and harrowing violence. Directed by Julian Gilby, this shocking tale of hooligan turned gangster puts a new spin on the overused and sterotyped gangster genre.

The trailer for this film is a very interesting production. As it begins there is no sound other than the main characters(Carlton Leech) dialog and a faint background sound which succeeds fantastically in creating an atnosphere worthy of a 'Stanley Kubrick' classic.

The shot transition is noticably short throughout but what is noticable is that the trailer very much follows the storyline of the film itself. This then results in some of the shots being longer as this then gives an altertion in the pace and this usually occurs where dialog is present. The content of these shots is also noticably intense and this is a more than popular trait of a teaser trailer. As the film contains large amounts of violence, the trailer is no different and is continually referenceing some of the less savoury scenes from the film. It doesn't however, show any of the torture scenes as this may put a large amount of people off due to the raw content and inhuman quality it possesses.

The audience for this film is clearly suggested through the trailer. It is aimed at men of all ages and although it does contain romance it does later show that romance being literally killed. It certainly aims at a more cult following due to the explicit and often disturbing content. I would say that more younger men would watch this as it does rely on an element of immaturity to succed in gaining your enjoyment.

The soundtrack is played through half the trailer but before this there are constant introductions of non diagetic sounds which support what is happening in the scene aswell as continual mood music. This has been done to create the suitable atnosphere. The length of this trailer is relativly long and this goes against the typical 40-60 second length of teaser trailers but it isnt actually noticable due to the intesity of the action.

Having been relatively cheap to make the actual film and both its theatrical and teaser trailers made a good profit and this shows modern day society's thirst for pointless violence, organised crime and drug usage in, their living room. The setting was in the more deprived areas of east London and Essex and the way in which many of the shots are composed is very suggestive of this. The basis on which the costume is pronounced is also clearly indicating a link to deprived criminal activity but it is interesting how as the trailer progresses, the costume changes to more upmarket and expensive looking clothing. This ties in with the story as the main characters start to make money from the crime they are performing.

We plan to borrow some of these techniques and use them in our own teaser trailer. The presence of a narrative alongside a soundtrack is somthin we will definatly be borrowing and we also plan to use a genre change similar to the one in this trailer to engage the audienc and create a sense of humour in an indirect way. We hope that these techniques will help create the effect that they have in this particular trailer.

Costume continued....

We have decided to dress all the characters in similar simple costume. Each will wear a bomber jacket with jeans and white trainers all of differing variety to keep the realism element. The images above are some visual aids and give an good idea of how each character shall be dressed. We have gained these ideas from other films of the same genre and have therefore followed suit.

Dialog

We have decided to use dialog as sound split with the soundtrack. In general the soundtrack will play throughout the production but we will reduce the volume when periods of dialog are introduced. This will result in a more extreme experience for the viewer and it will ultimately make it more intense.

There will be one exception to this technique. At the very beggining of the trailer their will only be dialog as a memorable line from the film will be spoken and we want all the attention on this. The soundtrack will then begin after this and the process mentioned above will comence.

First day of filming

Today we completed the first phase of our teaser trailer production. We managed to film a large amount of quality material and as a result only need to film the connecting shots at some point this week. We ranged the camera shots greatly and at times used established shot purposes in as a contradiction to the rule.

I have not yet manged to complete the soundtrack but we are going to begin the editing process in matter of days. We do still need to include many of the shots involving one of the characters as he was unable to attend the first filming phase but as he is now available this should not pose a problem.

Overall, it was a very producytive day and we managed to achieve more than we had initially expected to.

editing and shot transition

In our previous production we didnt go into much depth in the area of editing the footage. we used all the essential elements such as shot transitions and sound editing but never went any further. In our teaser trailer we plan to use a much broader range of techniques to produce a much more professional and well structured piece of filming. We are certainly going to use the newly installed timestall feature which enables users to speed up and slow down footage in a much more detailed manner than before. We plan to take full advantage of this as it will help us create certain effects that would back up the point the teaser is trying to make at certain points.

We may also edit the setup of some shots to make them appear more detailed or to change the purpose of the shot. I believe this could be a very effective use of the new editing suite and it would certainly improve the quality of our production.

As far as the transition between shots goes we plan to vary it much more than our last piece of filming. We believe this will help to engage the audience better and as the purpose of teaser trailers is to leave the viewer wanting to see more, this would help greatly.

This is a still image of the sound equipment i will use to create any synthetic sound aswell as the soundtrack. I personally choose to use this software as it, in my opinion, creates the best sound and mix quality.

Equipment

After our last film production we found that the sound quality was quite poor in comparison with the picture. We all siscussed the matter and decided that although it would delay us, we would use an external microphone to improve this. We have trailed it and have noticed a clear improvement in the both the pitch and definition.



We have also decide this time to use a more modern brand of camera. We feel that the previous camera didn't always have the best contrast and that when we performed more complex camera shots and movements it was often quite slow to focus and therefore reduced the quality.



We are also considering useing artificial lighting this time as it would really help enphasis some of the ideas we are trying to portray. I have recently managed to obtain some lighting equipment and we can therefore put it to use if we need to.

Some Photographs of our chosen location

The photo's above display the location we plan to set our teaser trailer. We have decide to range our shots between publically well knownplaces and areas that give a projection of the characters backgrounds. The photo's above are all within close distance of each other which should help us access our locations more easily between shots.

Casting For Our Teaser Trailer

The casting for our production took a serious amount of planning and consideration. Due to many of the original cast having other commitments it caused us a large amount of issues trying to get everyone together at the same time. Due to this fall back we eventually decided to change some of the cast as they were constantly letting us down.

This initial problem was however a blessing in disguise as it meant that seond time round we took more precautions and actually auditioned a few drama students for the sixth form. We now have ten actors who are easily able to portray the correct role of their characters and have the abilty to perform in a number of different situations.

I will be playing the main character in this production but the amount of other characters is much greater than last time and it is much more complicated trying to manage ten people rather than three.

Influences For Our Film

We have used some existing films as references for our own trailer. By doing this we have established a clearer understanding of the genre and successful ways of advertising this genre.
Many people have watched and often quote films like 'Football Factory' and 'Mean Machine' and after careful analysis of their teaser trailers and theaterical trailers, a clear pattern can be constructed on successful campaigns of past productions.

Through this research we can clearly see that this genre more often than not promotes violence as glamourous. We plan t show violence as a clear negative as this will go against the typical connotations of men only enjoying the 'cool' violent character. This will hopefully also then mean we can possibly broaden the audience for this film and maybe even appeal to areas of the female market.

Should we follow the typical male orientated football fight film we would ver much be limiting ourselves to a niche market and therefore would have to make it suitable for a cult following.

Due to extreme weather

Due to the high levels of snow fall it has been impossible to continue the initial stages of our production work. We have had to delay this for a week as the icey conditions have prevented us not only getting to the location but being able to film the location due to it being inappropriate in the transition with other shots previously filmed.

This however, means that the current weather conditons are now perfect for this transition and means the realisic element we are trying to achieve can be met.

Filming (planning and research)

The filming process is well underway and we are about half way through our film. We have a range of characters and are including many different types of shot making it look sharp, and proffessional. The weather has however prevented us from effective filming recently as we do not want one shot to include snow and the next to be in sunshine. This would destroy the realism that we are trying to create, so we are using this time to develop and enhance the ideas we have. We must now start to edit what we have and select which shots are going to be in our teaser trailer.

Location and Setting

The location of this film was something we had to pay close attention to. We wanted to ensure people locally could engage with and still wanted the setting to suit the genre and purpose. Creating both of these effects is a difficult task and it took us a long while considering it. However, we did eventaully come up with a number of possibilities and eventually decided to set in and around the local housing estate. This meant we had to conider the realism of the mise-en-scene and ensure that whilst the characters looked appropriate in costume the audience are still under the impression that it is a real life situation.

We have also managed to gain permission from people in local community to use their property in our production as this will help ensure the trailer looks professional as well as enabling us to us a much wider range of camera shots. We are however going to ensure that no shot uses the same location twice as this will help to promote the film as an exciting prospect and hopefully appeal to a wider audience as a result.

In terms of the props we are going to use, there will be the use of mobile phones and cigerette lighters but other than this it will mainly just be the dialog and location that we are going to use to promote the film. I have seen this uded in many very successful advertising campaigns for films and more often than not it results in the film becoming very popular in cinemas and in merchandiseing.

Mise -en -scene (planning and research)

Location is a key part of a film's success. Therefor whether gritty or exotic we had to get it right. Due to the working class nature of the film's narrative, we chsoe to film the basis of it on a local housing estate. We hope to capture a genuine image of what life on the terraces is really like for young hooligans. Other scenes shall be shot in the park, and we are going to use a range of indoor and outdoor shots to show movement through time suring the trailer. This shall give a realistic edge to the film and reflect the genre of the film. Most of the shots shall be shot in the day and we are considering to take some at night. Although the lighting will be an obvious issue it may be beneficial in creating the right mood and ambience suited to the film.



To enable this realism we must pay close attention to mise-en-scene. We want every detail to be perfect in order to establish a believable teaser trailer. The characters shall be fitted in jeans, hoodies and trainers appropriate to the role. The richer characters shall wear finer clothes with more highly reguared brands such as 'Abercrombie' and also expensive looking jewellery, etc. Those looking to escape the troubled world of the housing estate can aspire to these characters and it also poses as a dramatic contrast in class that exists in modern day London.



Props such as cars, and weapons shall be used and drug usage shall be implied through several shots to give an idea of the culture the main character is hoping to escape.

The Music Poll

The soundtrack we use is a very key element in defining the purpose of the film. Due to this i created a number of base tracks and used random sampling to find which appealed to the most people and which, after they were informed about the genre, suited the film best. The overall result showed that most prefered the more aggresive track and they all believed it would suit the purpose of the production best. Therefore, the track we have chosen will be published later once it is finished as will the other unsuccessful versions.

Some key information in terms of audience

Female Audience
Most females when asked about the soundtrack responed with quite offended expressions and opinions. They suggested, in general, that theyproberbly would not watch this film just from the music choice alone.

Male Audience
Most males when asked to complete the poll were very postive. They reacted i a manner that suggested they would enjoy the music and some voiced praise for the idea and suggested they would go and see the film.

Family Audience
Most people who were questioned from families suggested that they felt the music and film content was not appropriate for their children and said they wouldn't want thier children exposed to it.

OAP Audience
None of the people we asked in this catagory reccomended any form of music and suggested the film was not for their age group

Planning of Teaser Trailer (planning and research)

A great deal of thought has gone into how we are going to make our trailer effective and attract the target audience. Whilst we have gone for a niche market with the narrrative, we are also going to include other shots that include wider aspects of the film which will interest a range of people.

We have decided to start the film with slow black and white shots with little background music and a narrative voice to help explain the prologue. This shall last about 10 second and act as an introduction. Then there shall be a key quote from the film, a rememberal line in an iconic shot, and the backing music shall drop. After this a quick colour motage shall prevail in which the narrative of the film becomes clearer whilst still provoking curiosity from the audience. We hope to increase the momentum and pace of the music and shots until it ends with a longer shot from the film. This shall not prove to be an overview but a discreet insight into the film.

We shall end with a date of the movies release, the title and the actors names in the credits. Though this is typical of many teaser trailers, we feel it shall be effective in leaving an impression on the audiences memory.

West 10 Reloaded- An Overview

Our choice of coursework submission this year comes in the form of a teaser trailer for a film that is meant to provoke emotion and raise awareness of what really happens, in what some would call 'The Ghetto'.

The storyline is based around the gang culture and is made to raise awareness not crime rates. When the murders of two friends and gang members occur after a pub brawl with a rival gang, Danny Price seeks vengence. Blood must be repaid by blood and as the story progresses there is a definate genre shift from the youth crime side of things to the more gangster orientated path.

We believe that after the huge sucsess of films like 'Shank' and 'Adulthood', a film of this genre will be a popular choice for our target audience. We also firmly believe in including a number of differing personalities in the production as it will engage further interest in the films outcome.

As with our last filming production, we plan to use well known sights from the local community in an attemt to gain a following from local people as this will be the main market for the film. The soundtrack will again be produced by myself as this will mean i can create a perfect background sound to suit the films genre and audience.

The majority of the shots we shall use are to be outside as this is where the bulk of the action is to take place and will therefore display the more attractive elements of the film on the teaser trailer.