Sundeep Kahlon - "Final Beat" evaluation

“Final Beat” is a practical production trailer, which explores the art house and gangster genre to create similar themes to “Bullet Boy” (2004) and “City of God” (2002). The genre of he trailer is a hybrid of gangster and art house because we really wanted to challenge the mainstream gangster genre and appeal to a wider audience.

I feel that every one put equal effort into the trailer and that we worked well as a team. At first we started to come up with ideas and a narrative that we all agreed into following, and then created a story board but we all agreed that the storyboard was not final and that things would change.

As our main influence on the trailer, we wanted to link our trailer to “Bullet Boy” (2004) as we felt that we knew most about this movie (having studied it for Module 2) and that the genre and themes raised were similar, also because it is a British movie and it would best reflect our society. We also tried to link our trailer to other movies that would be similar to the genre that we were exploring; “8 Mile” (2002) and “Menace to Society” (1993), for example. We used “BBC Films” as our institution, because they are institution that educated, informs and entertains, showing that this movie has a message to be put across to its audience.

In our trailer, we tried to follow a more anti-narrative structure, which is a typical convention of a trailer overall. However, at the same time we tried to establish identification with the audience and the main characters as well as create a short narrative, to give the audience an idea of what the main themes are. We tried to incorporate Todorov’s narrative theory, equilibrium, dis-equilibrium and new equilibrium to create a story line. However, this is not the case because there is a cliffhanger at the end, which means that the audience do not get to see if the movie will have a new equilibrium. We also tried to create enigmas within the trailer, as Barthe suggested through his enigma code theory; the enigmas create suspense and anxiety through out the trailer, and because the trailer leaves the audience in a cliffhanger at the end, may mean that the audience would be more likely to watch the film; to find out what happens.

The cinematography is very creative in the trailer, I feel that the cinematography is very professional and reinforces the trailers art house themes. We tried to use various shots, as well as playing with a lot of the lighting, to create a certain atmosphere. For example, we used a lot of low-key lighting at various points to create a sinister and ominous feeling, e.g. when a gangster, who fails to receive his loan from the main character, confronts the protagonist. We wanted to really capture the villain’s unstable mind through the lighting. In this scene there is only back lightning and most of his body is in darkness creating a menacing personality for this character and defining his role in the movie; villain as described by Propp.

Perhaps one of the most appealing features of our trailer to our audience would be the soundtracks that we have used. We used a mixture of two songs; one by Eminem and another produced by Raj, a fellow group member. We really wanted the music to reflect the moods and atmosphere of the visual images and representations in the trailer, but at the same time appeal to a teenage “Urbanite” audience, which would be similar to the audiences, that “Bullet Boy” (2004) appeals to. To appeal to the audience, the sound track that Raj had produced had a more “Grimy” feel to it, and the “beat boxing” in the instrumental really captured an urban feel to the trailer, this also allows the audience to relate to the trailer. We also used both non-diegetic and diegetic sound to make the trailer seem more authentic, we also used some dialogue to drive the hero and villain narrative; the binary opposition between the main hero and villain as described by Levis Strauss.

One weakness of our trailer is that the opening shots of the dead body last far too long. Also, some of the speech is unclear because there seems to be a lot of interference with the wind blowing, making it unprofessional, this fault can be heard in the ending scenes when the villain confronts the hero.

However I think that our trailer has many strengths, for example we used a lot of open field and natural shots to create a sense that the main protagonist is trying to break free from the “Urban jungle”, which is demonstrated in the opening shot. However, we didn’t include a lot of these shots in the final edited version because we feel that it doesn’t create an effective identification with our primary audience. We also tried to be creative in the shots that we used to create a more art house feel and to appeal to our secondary audience. For example, there are lots of shots of the inside of the car travelling, which are sped up creating an almost dream like artistic look, but also showing that the main protagonist is getting closer to the end of his journey.

We also tried to appeal to our audience through the quotes that were shown, we used a broadsheet newspaper; “The Guardian” to appeal to our secondary audience who would be a more sophisticated audience, belonging to B and A socio economic groups. We used “HIP.HOP CONNECTION” to appeal to our primary audience.

Finally, I feel that the representation of ethnic minorities is also greatly explored to create an effective identification between the audience and the characters to create “emotional engagement” especially because the audience can relate to some of the life problems faced by the main protagonist; it also reflects issues in our society, e.g. gun crime. Also the fact that there is a lot of ethnic minority in this film trailer, it sends a more positive ideology to the audience and that Britain is a more multicultural society, it also breaks typical stereotypes of many Asian people.
I think that “Final Beat” as a whole is very good and I feel that it fulfils the job of a trailer, persuade the audience into watching the movie and also create enigmas. It also contains many different shots and themes to rein force its art house qualities.

Sundeep Kahlon