Research for production - Features of Multimodal texts

In class today we were asked to look at two trailers (in my case Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Hell and Back Again) and we were then given sheets and asked to write down the features of these two trailers in terms of written text on screen, spoken language, moving images, sound effects and music. We had to write down the description of all these features found in the trailers we looked at and then analyze how and what sort of impact this would have on a audience.

One feature that the trailer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows focused on a lot was music and the way they could combine music with the moving images on screen. They did this successfully by finding a cohesion between the two and used the music to dictate the pace and the contrast of the shots used, with both ultimately building to a climax at the end of the trailer reflecting the finality of the film it self to audiences.


One feature that 'Hell and Back Again' used really well was its use of the spoken language to reveal the plot and theme of the movie to audiences. They smartly used different moments of dialogue from the actual film itself to reveal different things about the plot of the movie to a audience so then audiences will then know what to expect when going to watch the film.

WHAT I LEARNED

From this task I was able to learn the different multimodal features of trailers in greater depth than I already knew which allowed me to expand on my knowledge. For example this task allowed me to see the importance of the use of a montage of quick moving images and music in a trailer and what sort of effect it has on a audience. Learning this allows me to then apply the knowledge learned into my own trailer and also means I can analyse future work in further detail.