Music for the beginning of the trailer

For our trailer we decided that before our main music and our montage starts. I found three pieces of trailer music that we maybe able to use. In our music for the beginning we are looking for a piece that is soft and has a nostalgic effect on our audience but also includes a sense of determination (a quality of our protagonist).

This is the first piece. I think that this piece could be used in our trailer because its not too soft and soppy. I think that the note that is repeated played at every first count makes an impact that can add the emotion that the beginning of the trailer needs. This is definitely a piece of music that could be used in our trailer.

As for our second piece I think although it is a beautiful piece of music I'm not sure if it would work for our trailer. We need something soft that provoke nostalgia but with a kick of something a bit more gritty and 'urban like' which this piece does not have. So this piece of music would not be right for our trailer.

Our third piece is my favourite of the pieces I have shortlisted. The piece is slow with a sense of nostalgia but also has a sense of frustration and determination which is brought in by the underlying drone of the violins. This is the piece is the one out of the three that we will use for the beginning of our trailer as it portrays all the qualities we wanted in our music.

Voice over analysis

In our trailer we decided to have the voiceover saying ' When you're stuck between a rock and a hard place the ends is the only place you can turn to'. when reviewing this after recording shay we felt this was unclear in regard to what we wanted to portray and so we decided to change it to 'When you're stuck between a rock and the ends can give you the only answer'. 

First we recorded shay saying the tagline in the recording studio using Logic Pro 6. Once he had said the line I wasn't sure if his voice was right for what we were looking for. So i added EQ and compression plus the Male Ambient effect. After playing around with this for a while we decided as a group that his voice just didn't sound right. We then found Ernest who we felt had the perfect voice we wanted for our trailer. 

This is how I created the voiceover

First i made a channel strip in audio to be able to make the recording.

I then chose the channel setting as Male Ambient Lead to give it a more gritty urban background noise.

I then recorded Ernest saying our voice over.

After this I changed the EQ, compression and ambience to make the recording sound like Ernest is in the room with you. 

This is our final piece which we will be using in our trailer. 

Overall I think the recording went really well and will sound really good over our trailer. The voice sounds perfect as it sounds 'urban' and 'street' which is what we had been looking for from the start. I think having this voice over will link our trailer together giving it added detail while also conforming to conventions of urban drama trailers.

4, 3, 2, 1 Trailer - music deconstruction

By watching the trailer of adulthood it's I a evident that the music is a key part of creating a sense of the genre and location on the film. Throughout the trailer there is a sense of grime R&B being shown by the rap music in the background and the dialect shown. For example: 'you get me' and 'blud'.

The trailer starts with diegetic dialogue between two character lying in a bed. This is underlined with a very quiet instrumental R&B track. This is the first indication to the audience that the film is going to be if urban genre.

At 0.16 the beat of the main track drops but is muted underneath more speaking which makes the drop less significant and so the impact is decreased.

After this the words of the track are introduced. Throughout the trailer there are certain lines which are made very poignant. For example 

0.33 - it's a lot till you get shot

0.38 - when you get out you can't get a job

0.49 - welcome to adulthood 

At 0.51 a beat in the music becomes simultaneous with the footage being shown and so when a punch is thrown it is thrown on the beat. This links both the music and footage together.

Another part of footage and sound that links is the credits and a swipe sound. This adds a bit if texture to the montages and overall trailer.

From 1.00 to 1.12 a low pitch drone pedal is introduced which becomes increasingly higher pitched as the speed of the shots become rapidly faster paced. These shots climax with the breaking of the car window. The music also climaxes at this point which also adds suspense to this part in the trailer. As a group we would like to recreate something similar to this montage in our media trailer. 

There is then a cue at 1.21 for a smooth transition into the next track which is a slower grime R&B track. The cue is 'This is about me' this shows the audience that the film is most probably character orientated.

At 1.36 the music become gradually louder and then abruptly stops.  The character we met earlier in the trailer then say 'you thought I'd forget about you blad?' This sets the dialect of the film and makes it clear to the audience it will be set in urban London.

The trailer the ends as the title appears on the screen and a sort of whistling wind sound is played.

Trailer Music Deconstruction

The trailer does not start with music instead it starts with diegetic shouts from the police. A slow and simple guitar track is then faded in. An overlay grime track is then added to the this track to add texture to the piece. There is constant talking over this newly formed track showing us that at this point in the trailer the music is not the main focus.

At 0.40 the music becomes more upbeat and adds a sense of 'street' by adding a more exaggerated bass beat. A grime like rap is then added to the track and replaces the dialogue meaning that the audience focuses on the words of the song. Towards the end of the trailer the words become more prominent and phrases like 'The press say I cause gun crime' stick out and stay in the audiences mind.

The reason the first half has no words in the music and just uses diegetic sound is because the first half is designed to concentrate on the drama and characters of the film whereas the second half is based around developing the crime culture of the film and so has music appropriate to the place where the film is set.