Intro to Film Trailers

LESSON OBJECTIVES

• Understand conventions of film trailers
• Start planning own film trailer

SUCCESS CRITERIA

A: The storyboard is CREATIVE and EXTREMELY APPEALING to a SPECIFIC audience. The final product is EXTREMELY APPROPRIATE and PROFESSIONAL and shows an EXCELLENT LEVEL OF TECHNICAL SKILL and KNOWLEDGE of shot sizes, angles, and editing techniques. The audience know EXACTLY WHAT TO EXPECT from the film. MANY CONVENTIONS have been used

B: The storyboard is IMAGINATIVE and MOSTLY APPEALING to a SPECIFIC audience. The final product is VERY APPROPRIATE and MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL, and shows a VERY GOOD LEVEL OF TECHNICAL SKILL and KNOWLEDGE of shot sizes, angles, and editing techniques. The audience have a GOOD IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT from the film. MANY CONVENTIONS have been used.
 
C: The storyboard shows SOME IMAGINATION and has SOME APPEAL to a SPECIFIC audience. The final product is MOSTLY APPROPRIATE and shows a GOOD LEVEL OF TECHNICAL SKILL and KNOWLEDGE of shot sizes, angles, and editing techniques. The audience have SOME IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT from the film. SOME CONVENTIONS have been used.

D: The storyboard shows UNDERSTANDING of trailers and TRIES TO APPEAL to an audience although perhaps unsuccessfully. The final product is QUITE APPROPRIATE and shows a BASIC LEVEL OF TECHNICAL SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE of shot sizes, angles, and editing techniques. The audience have SOME IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT from the film. SOME CONVENTIONS have been used. 

E&F: The storyboard shows SOME UNDERSTANDING of trailers but has LITTLE APPEAL to the audience. The final product is only PARTLY APPROPRIATE and shows LITTLE TECHNICAL SKILL and KNOWLEDGE of shot sizes, angles, and editing techniques. The audience have LITTLE IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT from the film. VERY FEW CONVENTIONS have been used, IF ANY.

STARTER

Play students the You Tube Video of the Trailer for Every Oscar Winning Movie Ever

Students to discuss what are the conventions (common features) of film trailers and why they are made.

MAIN TASK

Play a variety of film trailers to the class. (see trailers below) Students to work in pairs to make notes about the following things:

• what information they find out about the film from the graphics
• What information they find out about the film from the voice over
• How do they know what genre the film is?
• What they liked / didnt like about them

Discuss as class what they found out. Then show students the clip of the Best Intro to a Movie Ever and discuss voice overs.

PLENARY

Students to make a list of the key scenes from their film that will appear in their own film trailer. These scenes should include the following:

• 1 scene that sets the scene's location or genre
• 1-2 scenes that introduce the characters and tell us something about them
• 4-8 scenes of the most exciting things that happen from the film. These scenes should make the genre clear, make the audience want to see the film etc..

Students should also write a script for the voice over man (if they are having one) to go over the top of their images.