Detailed Analysis 1 - Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth is based after the Spanish Civil War, and it reveals the story of young girl and her journey as a mythical princess of a magical underground kingdom. She is the lost princess of legend and for her to be able to return to her underground home she must complete a trio of life threatening tasks.
The film is set in the historical backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The setting of the woods is used a lot in the film trailer, as that is where the Labyrinth is hidden. There are also scenes in the film trailer shown of the inside of the Labyrinth. These different settings are shown in shots clips that last about 1 second each.
The young girl, is clearly shown to be the main character of the story and most of the shots are of her. There are other shots of other characters however there are not a lot of shots which shows the audience that they are not as important as the main girl.
As the film is set at the time of the Spanish Civil War between 1936-1939 the costumes match with the historical era. The main character, the little girl, is mostly wearing period dresses, puffed sleeved with a petticoat and the other important character, the general is wearing a uniform to match the historical event of what was worn during the war by real generals. The audience expects this as the costumes must match with the plot and when it is set to follow the conventions of film and the film trailer itself.
Throughout the trailer slow non diegetic music is played to set an atmosphere for the audience as they watch the trailer. The music continues to play to sustain the atmosphere. At the end of the trailer the music fades out to continue with the eerie atmosphere. This is created so that when it ends it has a big impact on the audience.
At the start of the trailer the company logo fades in and out and only lasts for a couple of seconds. This tells the audience who has made the film. Throughout the film trailer captions frequently appear with a dark blue, ink stained background, a design and colour that suits the atmosphere as it followed through to the end of the trailer. The text within the captions is small to make the audience focus in and to have to concentrated and pay attention to be able to read what is says. The words in the caption themselves 'what happens' also makes the audience thoughtful as the beginning of a question is being asked and almost revealed within the trailer itself, however there is still an element of surprise about the trailer as to make the audience want to see the full film. There is no dialogue throughout the trailer which leaves the audience with their own voice and creates an atmosphere about the trailer. As the trailer progresses the music builds and the pace becomes faster. At the end of the trailer after the title of the film is shown there is a fade into another caption showing the date when the film is released, the website and the company logo to end the trailer and gives the audience information so that the film can gain more publicity.
To sustain the atmosphere and to keep the audience interested the start of the trailer is slow showing four different shots that are then edited to about 1 second each. To follow Freytags theory the trailer starts of slow with the four different shots, two more shots and then a long shot that lasts for 10 seconds, this shows the exposition. After the long 10 second length shot there is a change in the music as one loud drum beat is played and the music quietens for a moment. A caption is then shown before the buildup starts and over twenty shots, lasting one second each are sharply cut in chunks. The pace continues to build and quicken. At the end of the fast chunk of shots there is a long fade into the final shot to show the last caption of the title of the film. This is a convention of a film trailer so that the audience is able to remember the name of the film and will want to see it.

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Freytag's Pyramind

Gustav Freytag was a nineteenth century German novelist who came up with a diagram to illustrate and analyse common patterns in the plots of stories and novels. He used a pyramid shape to show the story’s plot.

1. Exposition – provides the background information needed to properly understand the story, the characters, the basic conflict and the setting.

2. Inciting Incident – sets the remainder of the story into motion and an indication of the beginning of the main conflict. Can also be known as ‘the complication’

3. Rising Action – the basic conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts. The story builds and gets more exciting.

4. Climax – A turning point for better or worse. The moment of high tension the exciting event that the rising action builds to and falling action follows.

5. Falling Action – The moment of reversal after the climax. Antagonist unravels and contains suspense, and we know the story will end soon.

6. Resolution – the character solves the main problem conflict.

7. Denouement - The ending of the story. A turning point where any remaining secrets or questions are answered.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~hartleyg/250/freytag.html

Introduction

Last year for AS media I created a Front page, Contents page and Double page spread of a music magazine. Before I created my magazine I had to analyse popular music magazines such as Q. By doing this it helped me to gain knowledge of target market, design, music genre and the conventions of music magazines. I then brainstormed and drew up my own designs with the help of a questionnaire, which I created myself to get some audience feedback. Overall I felt that my product was very successful.

This year for A2 media I will be creating a promotional package for the release of an album which includes a cover for it’s release as part of a CD package and a magazine advertisement for the release of the album.