Task 2: Influences From Real Media

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials 

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials is an action film. This trailer in particular caught our attention due to the effective suspense building, sound effects and voiceover. Also as there is already a previous Maze Runner film, we already had a good amount of background knowledge about the characters, the plot of the film and its intentions. One thing in particular that we found very effective throughout was the voiceover, as the trailer begins the voiceover is the enemy portraying that they hold all of the control as they have Thomas and other characters captured in the 'maze' brainwashing them. However, as the trailer progresses and secrets are discovered and revealed causing Thomas and other characters to escape the maze into the scorch Thomas becomes the voiceover implying they are now in control of themselves.

We found the voiceover very effective because even if you hadn't watched the previous film it helps the audience understand the storyline so you have a good understanding of the aim of the film. 

The suspense building in this trailer we found to be very influential as when watching the trailer for the first time we couldn't take our eyes off the screen and was drawn in by the action filled scenes and quick cuts. Throughout the trailer there are so many moments where Thomas or another character has a near death experience but at the very last minute they escape or are saved, this is effective because although they are showing a lot of action in the trailer it isn't too much and as the audience we know that there is still so much unseen action which will be shown in the actual film. 

We feel that the technique of suspense building and voiceovers are key when making a trailer because if your target audience isn't being drawn into your trailer then no one is going to be attracted too see then film when it comes out, causing the film to be a failure. 

Sleeping with other people

Sleeping with other people is a romantic comedy. The reason we have chosen to look at this trailer in more detail is because of the special effects used on it added in the editing process. 

One thing that we really liked about this trailer is the way when the two main characters are introduced the character has a conversation with another character about how they have cheated, the shot freezes, one half of the screen gets blurred out and opening credits are shown of their character names introducing them to the audience. For example 'Jake'.

We really liked the idea of introducing the main characters with a piece of dialogue that describes them then their name to the audience in the trailer as it makes the audience begin to form an opinion of them immediately before even watching the film. If the character is introduced in a good way it will make the audience like the character and therefore take more interest in them and the storyline, this encourages the audience then to watch the film. Both of the two main characters in this film are introduced in a similar way, having the problem of sleeping with other people. Jake gets caught sleeping with his girlfriends best friend and Lainey admits to cheating on her boyfriend.

This immediately draws the two main characters together in a humorous way and the audience can already see that some sort of relationship is going to form between the two. We quite liked the idea of the audience already having an insight of the characters personalities in the trailer and is something we may use in our own. 

Credits are then again used more frequently throughout the trailer to tell the audience small snippets of the main storyline and main theme of the play - two people who have issues sleeping with people. Part of the storyline is revealed through the credits when firstly the two characters are introduced

• 'Jake' 'Cant stop sleeping with other people'
• 'Lainey' 'Cant stop sleeping with other people'
• 'But sleeping with each other..'
• 'Is out of the question'
  

We really liked this idea of the credits almost moving the trailer along and explaining the plot as when we looked at other trailers which had no credits, we found them quite confusing and less effective. This was because instead of concentrating on whats going on on the screen you are trying to figure out whats actually happening in the trailer, or what the main plot could be.

Lastly, this trailer also had a lot of reviews shown such as 'One of the most entertaining and honest love stories of the past 10 years' and 'Show up for the sex jokes then be knocked out by the heart'. Having these reviews on the trailer is really effective as it gives an opinion on the film and also reveals a lot to the audience about the genre and what type of film they are going to see. For example the way one review mentions its a love story, attracts audiences which like a romantic film, but the other review mentioning sex jokes, makes the film appeal to audiences who like to view a comedy. We found the reviews make the trailer look professional and we will defiantly consider using some reviews in our trailer.