Legend Poster Analysis

Trailer Analysis - Legend

Representation: Class and Status as well as conventions.

As expected this trailer does stick to a few common conventions such as dim lighting and poor locations in Britain but it also stands out by going against them, showing the positives of British life such as the closeness of family.


Firstly, the trailer opens going straight into giving away the plot of the film, unlike other trailers, by showing us a night club filled with cigarette smoke which tells us this is any time before the 21st century and based on their clothes and lighting,sets this in the late 1950's, early 1960's. This shot really gives us an idea of how upper class people spent their free time and money in Britain compared with today and how it isn't so different.This represents the wealthy as being snobby and highly important separating themselves from the paupers and working class people.

The Trailer introduces the production company after the showing a glimpse of one of the main characters played by a famous actor, who is possibly more well known by the public than the company so he is used to grab the audiences attention as British films commonly don't have very well known production companies. furthermore they are not very important to the narrative and so don't take up more than 4 seconds of screen time.


The aerial view, establishing shot we are presented with uses with it low key, natural lighting to give the audience an idea of where the film is set, which is urban, and by the image composition, specifically the smoke stacks, it tell us that it is set in the mid 1900's. The smog covered sky and red mist in the distance makes it clear that the film takes place in a working class area of Britain which is further reinforced by the chimneys for the factories. Since the geographical layout no longer exists I can only assume it has been computer generated which would have been expensive to produce and this challenges the convention of British films being low budget.







Following the conventions this trailer reveals the names of its main cast members and their roles in this historical British drama but it does so in a distinctive way, setting itself apart from other trailers. The Legend trailer does this by its way of revealing that the two main characters are played by the same actor and divides the reveal into two separate shots. This is both comedic and intriguing to the audience as it hasn't really been done before and it makes them want to see how the film turns out, specifically if both character roles are played equally as well.














The close up of the spinning roulette table shows the common convention of gambling and blood money in British Film Drams ,which makes the audience think of addiction and crime. This represents that the higher your status the more flexible you will be when spending disposable income instead of saving it or spending it on something useful and long lasting. The drink you can see in the bottom left corner of the shot is alcohol which is a common link to gambling.

Furthermore, this medium, long shot presents the convention of the police always having some sort of prescence in British Film Dramas as the crime rates of the areas the films are set in are usually drastically higher than other wealthier areas. Also, police are commonly represnted as the bad guys in this genre of film always causing more problems for the working, lower class.  This shot occur immeadiately after the police metion going after the Krays and a mid shot of one of the Kray brothers beating up members of another gang of criminals. The Non diegetic music is up beat and energetic to match up with what is happening on screen and the beats of the song are at one point synchronous with the punches the brother throws to make them stand out more and seem more powerful.

Throughout the film trailer the Kray twins are represented each in their own way. Reggie Kray represented as more of an emotionally stable person who just wants to look after his family, whereas Ronnie Kray is reprsented as being a lot more needlessly violent and psychotic, attacking people and going on rants that have nothing to do with the situations they get into, as seen in the bar scene.

Looking at How To Carry Out Audience Research

Today in lesson we looked at how to carry out effective audience research which will help us to meet the needs of our target market.

The two main types of research data that can be gathered is known as:

• Quantitative -is statistical data that can be put into charts and graphs and be easily analysed.
• Qualitative - is harder to analyse as it goes into more depth and is mostly opinion based.

Both of these types of data can be collected using a mixture of open and closed questions. The questionnaire must not involve leading questions. For example, "Don't you think"or "Would't you agree". We will not involve these  questions in our questionnaire as we want to know what  our target audience really thinks so we can effectively use their ideas to improve our trailer.

We must consider:

• Psychographics
• Demographics
• Niche v Mass audience
• Uses and gratification
• Actual audience
• Target audience

As well as producing a questionnaire we could also set up a focus group of about 8 people and have a discussion for around 15 minutes. This would entail open ended questions as to keep the conversation moving and show the purpose of the questions, which is to determine:

• what popular culture is
• what values are important to the genre
• where they think there is a gap in the market

In our groups, in lesson we came up with some ideas for questions we could ask, These are: 

• What do you think is currently missing in these types of films?
• What are you sick of seeing?

Research into British Drama Genre Conventions

These are some conventions of a film drama I have found:

• Shows character development
• Presents real life situations
• Uses realistic and relatable characters
• Includes intense social reaction
• Climaxes and anti-climaxes are used to create a range of emotional responses within the audience.
• Dramas commonly have big scenes due to conflict between characters.

Conventions of British film dramas:

• Alcohol - usually the cause of violence which can be physical or verbal. Alcoholic characters usually have ups and downs in theses types of films.
• Violence - this is commonly drug related although it can be related to psychological conditions or for some people a way out of poverty stricken decisions
• lighting - usually shows Britain to be dimly lit, gloomy, low key natural lighting. This somewhat takes away the little bit of happiness left in the poor areas.
• Sexism - women shown as dependent on men's actions and count on them to make a living or to have excitement in their life.
• British actors - 
• Racism - usually shows lower to middle class men being made redundant and blaming immigrants for their loss of work which lead to racially charged riots and groups like EDL.

SWOT Analysis for Decided Coursework Task

We completed a SWOT analysis in class on the different options we could choose and due to the reasons presented we decided to create a film trailer.

Chosen Task and Initial Thoughts

I have chosen to undertake the task of producing a film trailer with James Scott and Sam Warren. The main task will be accompanied by two ancillary tasks and these will be a magazine cover and poster. The main task will be filmed and edited as a group, however we will create each ancillary task independently to show that we are all skilled and experienced enough to create content without the aid of someone else.

I have gained quite a bit of experience from filming and editing my AS coursework last year, so I am well aware of how long filming and editing will take, the different set backs we may encounter, how to overcome these, as well as the features of the editing software. Last year we faced problems with varying weather because of the time of year we chose to film at but this year we wont haver this problem as we have chosen to begin filming earlier. My aim this year is to make the filming sessions a lot less impromptu by creating a time table with the help of my team members as we each have out of school responsibilities. At A level I also do ICT which has provided me with a broad range of skills in design which will be especially useful when it comes to creating a poster.

Our groups chosen genre is British drama as we can easily relate to the genre, all being British, and since most of the films are low budget and set in lower, middle class areas we know a lot of locations where we can film the trailer. A good example of a low budget British drama film is Legend (£25 million) and another is Green Street ($346.830). Here are the trailers of the two films that I previously talked about that have given me some ideas on how I could set up the trailer I am going to help create.