Storyboards

Storyboarding as we know it today was first used by Walt Disney in the early 1930’s, and was created to help the whole production team to visualize scenes and find potential problems with filming before they happen.

Music research

We looked at numerous action trailers and discovered that music plays a vital role in creating the atmosphere and emphasizing the action. For example we watched the trailer for Gamer. The trailer incorporates diegetic sound of sound effects like sirens and music from artists such as “Marilyn Manson.” The first thirty seconds of the trailer rely on the various sound effects and voiceovers. After a brief build up the titles come in and the song “Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson begins playing. At first it is a slow, soft acoustic melody with the titles fading in and out over the top. As soon as the action starts the guitar turns into a heavy fast paced track. As the voiceovers come in explaining the background story the song goes fades slightly and goes back to the slow acoustic riff, but kicks back in with the heavy guitar riff when the action picks up. This method means that the music perfectly compliments the on screen action.

However not all films rely on a song by a famous artist. Inglorious Basterds starts with a non diagetic soundtrack playing softly in the background while diegetic speech can be heard. Sounds effects can be heard to compliment the writing on screen as well. However when the action picks up later in the trailer the musical score adds some upbeat drums and distorted guitar. It seems that many action films featured a soundtrack or score with rock music for example : The matrix, transformers, crank and ironman.As we watched more and more trailers we learnt just how key music is to a film. We knew that any music in our trailer would have to be copyright free music so we looked on the Internet to see what options we had. First of all we looked on www.royaltyfreemusic.com. There were a few songs here that we thought would fit well with our trailer,particularly Final Goal. The problem with the song was that the sponsors kept saying their name over the top of the song every 5 seconds so we quickly disregarded it. It quickly became apparent that this was the case on all song from this website so we decided to try a different website. after trying several other site with no luck we tried www.freeplaymusic.com. This was by far the best website we had tried. The first song we found was called Bouncing. But after all of the group had heard it we decided it wouldn't be suitable for our film. The next three we found were exactly what we were looking for. These were titled "Eliminator", "Mugshot" and "Apocalypse". We then listened to each song as a group and decided which bits from each track would sound good in our trailer and really compliment the piece. These tracks all have the hard rock sound that many action films use, however they didn't really have any softer parts. Another look on Freeplaymusic brought up some tracks that had an almost espionage sound to them which we felt would fit perfectly with our trailer and the rock music we had already found. These tracks were "Only Human" and "On the Trigger."

My film treatment

The films dominant genre is action however it has elements of sci-fi. With technology constantly advancing in the 21^st century the film explores the lengths that technology is used to keep a superpower on top.

The film follows one man attempting to get back to his family, control his new abilities and find out what happened, however the mafia and the military have different ideas for him.

The film begins with A, our main character, waking up in hospital to find his arm replaced and remembering nothing. He shortly finds out that the arm is new nanotechnology, as he looks at it he has a flashback of his first day as a cop revealing his home town on his badge. When he snaps out of his trance he finds himself surrounded by the military who are trying to get him to train to become the ultimate solider. Being a fairly gentle soul he dislikes this and just wants to have a normal life with his family. The military refuse to let him go and a fight kicks out. He successfully escapes and resorts to hiding around town whilst trying to piece together his past and where the airport is. Expecting him to leave town the military place men inside the airport, who spot A on his arrival. A tries to run but the military corner him, as rage takes over his fist turns into a giant hammer like appendage, which he slams into the ground sending the military flying. Confused and distressed A heads for a bar; here he hears an announcement about the military shutting the airport.

In the bar he meets a man named Hector who consoles him and offers to help. Hector apologizes that he must leave and A shortly follows. An intense pain fills A’s body causing him to pass out in a nearby alley. He then has a flashback showing us his family, thus making him more determined to get home. When he comes too he finds himself in the office of mafia boss Don DeVici. Seeing a private plane A asks if DeVici can help him get home, DeVici says he can, if he can take A’s arm. Desperate to see his family and still struggling to come to terms with the strange abilities of his arm, A agrees. He leaves the mafia building only to be surrounded by Devici’s men. They open fire on him as his arm turns into giant shield. Using his skills learnt as a cop he takes them out.

He runs to Hectors home, where they quickly discuss leaving before Hector sends him off saying it’s not safe here. With the skies opening A takes shelter under a bridge, another flashback occurs, this time of the accident where he lost his arm.

Waking up and remembering about meeting Hector he heads to the meeting point, forgetting that the military are everywhere. He gets spotted and is forced into fighting them, leading away from the meeting point with Hector. The mafia see the news reports and want in on the action.

Cornered by Don Devici and Lt. Kenneth ( who felt his men were failing and so took up the job of destroying A himself) A finds himself in a two on one battle to the death. During the fight Lt. Kenneth reveals why they chose A, who they knew had not only potential but tolerance for the nanotech. Feeling that Don Devici is getting in the way Lt. Kenneth pushes his sword through DeVici’s back before pulling it out and cutting his head off. A turns his arm into a giant blade like weapon and the two fight it out for a while before Lt. Kenneth cuts a deep gash in A’s leg. A falls to the ground in agony, Lt. Kenneth pushes his blade into A’s nanotech shoulder, rendering his arm useless.

Lt. Kenneth tells A he could have been the ultimate solider and would have kept America as the leading super power, currently under pressure from a rapidly advancing China. About to deliver the final blow to A using his gun, Lt. Kenneth has his arm knocked back by Hector, the resulting muzzle flash blinding Lt. Kenneth. Hector then tells A that he has been trying to protect him since the military picked up on A’s unique tolerance to nanotech. The film ends with A returning to home, his arm patched working again and thanks to Hector having a better understanding of how to control it.

Changes in the action genre trailers.

Over the years, Action film trailers have changed dramatically from the early day's of the 1960's.
Trailers of today are very special effect heavy, feature fast paced cuts and short witty one liners. They show a brief snippet ( or some of the parts of the best scenes) to the audience to almost 'wet their appetite' and do not reveal much plotline or character development.
Earlier trailers are much different, as they did not have the budget or technology, so they regularly did the exact opposite, by telling a large portion of the story in order to sell it, and also develop the character so the audiece would want to see the film.
Using the James Bond franchise, we can see how trailers have changed, with the same character and very similar storylines.
'From Russia With Love', released in 1963, has long scenes descrbing large parts of the storyline and Bond's character. There is also minimal action, no car chases or explosions. There is also a lack of non diegetic music used during the trailer. This is possibly due to technology limitations.
'Quantam of Solace' ,released 2008, is of stark contrast however. There is a slow build up of tension, with slow pieces of the film, which then lead into non diegetic music and fast paced action scenes, very synominous to today.The fact that the trailer has less focus on the charcter could be due to the fact that James Bond is now a well known character and franchise.the 'Quantum of Solace' trailer lasts for 02:20 and the from 'Russia with Love' lasts for
The trailer for 'The Italian Job', released 1969, also has an emphasise on story telling and character development. It establishes that Michael Caine is in the film at the beginning of the trailer and features a lot of voiceover from him throughout. Unlike the bond trailer it shows a lot of the stunts and shows the, now iconic, scene of the van blowing up. This shows that the film has humour as well as action. Later in the trailer it has the tag line “Classic Cars” and mentions a football match. Both of these are obviously aimed at the stereotypical male audience that action films are often aimed towards. The remake of the film, released in 2003, also features a lot of story information at the start with voiceovers from a narrator and the characters. It also features a comical scene toward the start like the original. However after establishing the initial story the narrator comes in less frequent. The trailer also features far more action and numerous comical lines. Another difference is that the trailer for the 1969 version is 01:35 and the 2003 version is 02:54.

Action trailers today have clearly becom a thrill ride to pull audiences in, featuring longer snippetts, more affects and longer traielrs in general.

history of action genre trailers

Since the 1970's, the action genre has been a very prominent component to international cinema. One of the very first action trailers was for the film Dirty Harry, 1971, starring Clint Eastwood. This theatrical trailer used roughly 5 very long, 30-45 second clips. Also most of the dialogue was diegetic from the film; however the beginning and end had some non-diegetic narration. Some text was included stating the name of the film and the actors, but not much else. There was a series of cuts between each scene, and there was no non-diegetic music. For me as a modern viewer of trailers, I expect that an action trailer will feature a few big moments of the film packed with explosions and car chases, this however was a stark contrast. The film maker has definitely exploited the popularity of Clint Eastwood at the time the film was made and mentions him repeatedly. The overall impact of the trailer is hit and miss, the action is great but it does seem to ruin the film and tell too much of the story.
This trend is continued into the 80's for the 1983 mafia action film, Scarface. This trailer begins by introducing the character of Antonio Montana, speaking to the police but with the camera focusing on him. It then cuts to text showing the title of the film and main actor which is accompanied by the non-diegetic sound of a voiceover reading what’s on screen. This is very similar to Dirty Harry, as again it relies on the popularity of the actor, this time being Al Pacino who at the time had gained mainstream attention for his role in The Godfather. This is, however, where a lot of similarities end. There are some long scenes, but these are then cut to quick sequences of action and explosions. Also, the narrator is more prominent throughout the whole of the trailer, giving hints of the story but not giving away the whole plotline.
From the trailers we watched action film trailers begin to look more modern at the end of the 1980's, with Die Hard, 1989. It begins with tales of Christmas and a voiceover describing the time, with non-diegetic Christmas music playing. This then quickly changes to show the stereotypical conventions of the action genre, explosions, shoot outs and fights. It has a few long scenes but these are however a lot shorter than those found in the Dirty Harry/Scarface trailer, with a lot of quick cuts between scenes. This trailer also is being voiced over by a narrator, but he doesn't try and use the actor's name to sell the film, as all the action and footage used are showing the audience what's in store.
The final trailer we looked at was Transporter 3, released 2008. This begins quiet, with slow talking and the bad guy describing his job, with some soft non-diegetic music over the top. The music stops as the actor speaks then the action comes in, with lots of quick clips of explosions and fighting sequences. It again slows down, as it explains more of the story briefly before showing more action. This includes a great number of the genres conventions, with fast cars, fighting, guns and explosions. The trailer also aims to capture the male gaze with frequent shots of women and several shots of characters getting intimate. There is minimal voiceover, except from the tagline and the film name. Jason Statham's name isn't mentioned once showing that they are trying to sell the film purely on the action and not it’s all star cast.
The changes in the action genre trailer are very apparent. Modern action trailers now feature a lot more action, with quicker cuts and a heavy emphasis on special effects. This may be because the modern audience is harder to impress and is far more interested in the action then the story, or it could just be that we have come to expect scenes that thrill us and shock us over a well told story. Voiceovers also feature a lot less in modern trailers with an emphasis on flashing up text explaining plot or introducing character, with support from diegetic sound within the film. This is most likely due to the voiceover appearing to spoon feed the audience whereas text is more open for interpretation.

Action conventions

The action movie genre is largely told, not through dialogue, but through physical action. Often because of this Action films are big hits at the box office but lack the critical reception due to less character development (or 2D characters.) The genre is often aimed at a male audience, between the ages of 13 and 35 and often has women solely as objects of attraction. However in modern times directors have tried to stray from this and feature women as the hero, examples of this are Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and Elektra.

The modern day action film largely stems from the popularity created around the original James Bond films. These films introduced many of the action genres conventions like quick cuts, car chases, fist fights and elaborate action sequences. The bond films also created the "resourceful hero” who can dispatch villains with a ready one-liner.

Numerous early action films ( 1960’s/70’s) often featured maverick cops such as classics like “Dirty Harry." This feature is still present today although often in remakes or sequels (Die Hard 4) however the genre often features various Sci-fi elements or just some average everyday hero ( day after tomorrow, war of the worlds.)

The conventions that you'll find in almost any action film are:
Time ticking down
Explosions
Gadgets
Love interest (eye candy)
Blood
Guns/ various weaponry
Close ups
Car chases
And generally fast paced throughout.