1. Research Task By Shanice Mantey

2. What makes a good trailer? A good trailer is a tiny snippet of the film. So to make it a good trailer it needs to urge the audience to want to watch the film. This involves you thinking about aspects that make a good trailer, for example sound. The score in the trailer created to accompany the film could be a famous song that is worldwide/ a song that many people are fond of. Lets look at the Norbit trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmSZJ17p pEQ

3. The audience expectations The audience’s expectations of this film, due to it being a comedy with a star performer, (Eddie Murphy) would be to laugh. The trailer easily reveals the story line telling them about a man who’s made a “big” mistake by marrying a very “big” and “aggressive” woman, and his life is a misery. The fact that Eddie Murphy is playing both main parts (husband and wife) including other characters within the film, raises the audiences expectations, particularly as he is a high profile actor.

4. Codes and conventions First of all what are the codes and conventions of comedy? You usually find that comedy films follow either two of these paths. You either have a “comedian led film” or the “comedy situation film”. I feel that Norbit followed both parts. It was comedian led (Eddie Murphy, Katt Williams) and also had a comedic situation. The thought of a man marrying a woman 3 times his size but also a terror can be looked at in funny way. The trailer followed the codes and conventions of comedy by allowing the audiences to respond to a comedic situation. The trailer shows the audience a snippet of a narrative comedy, in which, it is the development of relationships between characters, and the social environment that causes the audience to laugh. Social environment Developments of relationships

5. The Target audience This trailer appeals not only to a certain age group, but may be also to a certain class. Some people may not like such graphic comedy especially seeing naked people or large people in bikinis. The target audience of this film is age 12 and above. Clips within this trailer prove that it should be shown to that age and over. Here are some examples. Here, Norbit as a baby has just been thrown out of a car. Now for a younger age group that may look rather disturbing a baby is fragile, to be thrown out of a car at that force would be something a very young age group or even a very elderly age group wouldn’t be able to handle This clip instead of seeing something visually disturbing. You hear diegetic sound of the Chinese man saying “urrghh another black one, and a ugly one, you can’t give this away” this is inappropriate for a younger audience to hear, you wouldn’t want them to want to go and repeat the same thing. When picking the target audience you have to think about what is within the trailer/film that should cause you to pick that particular target audience. Questions could be asked like is the message supposed to apply to a certain age group, or can only a certain age group or gender or race handle this type film. The trailer should show enough to allow the audience to know whether this is the type film they would want to watch and the trailer should also state clear the age allowed to watch.

6. The creative aspects and Techniques used to engage audiences There aren’t really any special effects within the trailer. Rather there are techniques used to engage the audience like the uses of synchronous sound, when Norbit gets punched and thrown out the window you can really feel it, although its painful having these things happen to you, to an audience especially when they look at this particular trailer its funny. The loud synchronous sound effects of Resputia (Norbits wife) leaping on him in the bed is enough to grasp the audiences attention because it is so loud and over the top and once again, funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmSZJ17ppEQ

7. Editing This is another technique used in this trailer which engages the audience. The transitions from clip to clip causes the audience to wonder what is actually going to happen in the film. Because the clips aren’t shown in full they are show in little snippets and don’t finish they straight away lead onto another clip. An example is when Norbit gets thrown out the window. In the trailer that’s all you see. This is a clever way of causing the audience to be engaged and what to know why he was thrown out with such force. Another technique that engages the audience is the Tempo/speed The clips transition from one to another so quickly. This is a good way of keeping the audience engaged because that causes them to want to focus so that they don’t miss anything. By them not missing anything in the trailer, they then have a little insight and this is a great way of causing them to watch the film. The trailer itself it so quick but it is also timed well enough for the audience to grasp the storyline which is the key.

8. Camera shots, angles and movement The close up shots of characters within the trailer allow the audience to see how funny they look. It allows the audience to focus in on certain characters e.g. Resputia, because of her size and appearances. This is usually shown by a medium close up which then the camera movement zooms in on her showing the audience a close up of either her face or assets which come across quite funny. This is something the audience would want to go and watch because of the humour. Link of Images/sound/voiceover When looking at these three elements they all work well together to create this good trailer. The voiceover gives the audience a brief into the narrative. Meanwhile the images and sound are supporting it and showing the humour in it.

9. The trailer temps you to want to watch the film by revealing to you the actors within the film. As soon as you hear the voice over say “Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy” you no there’s going to be some madness within this film. I say this because he is a top performing actor/comedian. From the start of the trailer to the end each clips shows a little disaster. The first clip you see a baby getting thrown out of a car, you then see a chickens head getting cut of and giving to a little child to play with it. You see a large young girl smacking the heads of to bullies together. I would look at this a think of the fact that the film is a comedy and look at it as rather humorous. Clips within the trailer look utterly ridiculous, for example when Resputia goes to the fun park in this. The mise en scene of the costume within the trailer causes me to want to watch the film because it looks hilarious. There is a reason for why the director had the character wear this it looks revolting but it is also humorous. Clips within the trailer show things that in the natural world just are unlikely to happen. The clip in which Resputia leaps on Norbit in the bed, any man would probably get all of his bones crushed. The voice over mentions “huge mistake” again related to his wife. I felt that this was a clever way to tempt me to watch it. Because I wanted to see what goes on in the life of these two. How the film teases and temps you to want to watch it

10. I feel that this trailer is enough to make a person laugh so much. It is over the top obscene and just plain mad throughout the trailer. But then again the narrative is about something that occurs in our world today. There are wives that beat their husbands and make their lives miserable. The elements within the trailer are very effective and due this it makes a good trailer. The voiceover for example is a man with a warm humorous voice he makes the narrative sound very exciting. The non diegetic sound of the music accompanying the film created a sound bridge that went straight through the whole trailer. This created continuity, and due to this I feel that I was engaged when watching it. How effective is the Trailer?