Trailer Review: The Avengers

Joss Whedon's The Avengers (2012) is a film in which incorporates and unites some of Marvel's finest superheroes into one alliance know as The Avengers.

Narrative: The trailer for The Avengers reveals enough narrative to entice viewers with some of the film's most dynamic and attention grabbing scenes, but simultaneously conceals details to leave audience members wanting to watch the whole movie. Through this trailer we can depict the initial story line, but also have many questions as to why things are so. How did these heroes join alliances? Why are they fighting? Who are they fighting against? The trailer successfully creates narrative due to how it attracts audience members into wanting to watch more.

Mis en Scene: Consisting of explosions, fighting, and chaotic scattering, the mis en scene of this trailer emphasizes the action packed nature of the city in which it takes place in. Raging fires, crashing, flipping cars, and crowds dispersing in fear are all evidences to a corrupt city in danger, bringing out the idea that this movie is filled with scenes of action and an incorporation of sci fi. It also gives the plot a sense of back story. With the streets and buildings vastly destroyed along with unknown, futuristic flying robots, viewers know that the main characters aren't your average citizens.        

Cinematography: As demonstrated throughout the trailer, the cinematography glorifies all the action sequences through dynamic tracking shots. Simultaneously, there are numerous close-ups to create a sense of intensity in terms of capturing a characters true emotions whether it being, suspicious, angry, or determined. During intense scenes such as explosions, the cinematographer creates shaky movements to establish a sense that the action is real. There are also a number of skyscraper shots to create a source of establishment in terms of setting and mood.

Edit: As normally exemplified in action movies, there are numerous quick cuts in fighting and running scenes to glorify the action and intensity within the film. One essential factor to editing would be the CGI. Animations of robots, explosions, and weapons are created in the edit to create a sci fi feel. For those of you who are fans of the works of Marvel, the CGI performed in this trailer seems familiar to add to the superhero feel of the narrative.  

Sound Design: The sound design within this trail was executed successfully in terms of musical score, sound effects and dialogue. The sound effects are well done with the sounds of explosions, fighting impacts, and weapon bursts considering the weapons rather appear to be quite futuristic. The dialogue was created so all audio levels were even and able to be audible over musical score, obtain the dramatic intent. In terms of musical score, choice of soundtracks were perfect to preserve the mood of action and intensity. It helped convey the fast paced movement of the trailer along with the character's actions.   

Documentary Preproduction - BayKids

Purpose: The purpose of our documentary is to inform the audience about a world of children who are in intensive care and want to show their creativeness through the art of film making. They are young and their lives are not as easy as it might have been for us all. “BayKids is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of hospitalized children by teaching them a wide range of movie making skills and helping them discover the power of self-expression” and we want to help support them by getting the word out.

Contacts:
415-561-6262  --BayKids
devora@Baykids.org

Interview Questions:
To Adults working at BayKids:
How did BayKids get started?
How do the kids get funding for their projects?
How can others help BayKids improve?
What about your job is the most rewarding?
How has BayKids benefited you?

To Parents (if possible):
How do you feel about BayKids?
How were the first few days of the diagnostics like?
Were there any physical or emotional changes in your son/daughter at BayKids?

To the kids:
Have you made any videos before? If so, what was your favorite and what was it about?
How has film making helped you?
What type of movies do you like?

What do you like best about making videos?

Shot List:
Opening
- LS and ELS of empty streets of SF
- LS of BayKids building

B-Roll
- MS & CU kids with video cameras
- ECU of the eyes of the kids
- kids sitting in bed
- kids going under regular check up (maybe)

Interviews
- MS/CU (don’t know the location yet so it is hard to imagine where everything will be placed)

General Flow:
The documentary will open up with quiet, empty streets. This emphasizes the loss of livelihood missing in the shots. What’s missing are the people and therefore, the children who are facing life threatening conditions in the BayKids hospital. It is very unlikely that the opening will be narrated because we want the interviews to speak for themselves and describe the situation. After the street, the BayKids building will be shown to establish the location and also to show the facility. Most likely, an interviewee’s voice would be heard already and the camera would go to that person describing the location. After an interview with an adult, we will talk to kids and ask their personal opinion on movie making. Relevant B-Roll that we capture will be placed for every interview to illustrate the point even further. The documentary will end with a serious note and most like a text at the end saying that BayKids needs your help.

Scripts:
Questions to ask people we are interviewing, voice overs, musical score, templates for names of people we interview.

Production Schedule:
We will film from the 7-9 of December and dedicate the rest of the week to editing the film to finish by the 14th of December.