21 and Over Documentary Review
Link: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/21andover/
I watched a film trailer for a movie called 21 and Over which is coming soon to theaters. The narrative involves a college student whose father has arranged for a mandatory job interview at a business firm the next day. The trailer begins with a chase sequence and then the rest of it tells the story of what happened 13 hours earlier. The guy, named Jeff Chang, whose buddies surprise him by coming over the morning of his 21st birthday. The dad tells him that he must sleep well and be rested the following morning and not to embarrass him. This causes the barrier which will become the conflict for the rest of the film. The friends convince him to have a beer with them and this turns into a Hangover-like plot sequence. The protagonist is finally a man on this birthday and his friends want to make sure they celebrate correctly. They have an entire journey, filled with girls, drinks, cars, and buffalo not to mention tons of chaos and trouble-making in the process. The image above shows the catastrophe caused by this adventure.
The Mise En Scene aspect of the shots of the trailer are very interesting. The shots are very well thought out and the things inside them help the overall flow of the movie. An example is this screenshot of the film above. It shows Jeff Chang being carried by his two friends, Casey and Miller. They have just experienced the adventures in a nightclub and have partied really hard. Jeff throw up and ends up unconscious by the end of it. Now his friends must find a way to get him home but they don't know where he lives. This rising action helps to propel the plot. The shot shows the entrance to the club and the neon signs on the window. It also shows that it has gotten dark since the time they entered the bar. The streets are empty and the darkness is a reference or indication of their situation because the characters face many challenges at this point. There is also a raccoon crossing the road which shows this emptiness and lack of resources to find a way home.
The cinematography of the trailer is brilliantly done. The camera movements in the film trailer are very fast paced and this causes a lot of suspense and the feeling of adventure throughout it. The cinematographer uses panning in this clip which shows Jeff Chang running through his college campus naked with th exception of a bra and a teddy bear taped to where his private male parts are to be found. There is great acting and the man has a priceless expression on his face while he is running around like a crazy man yelling “Free OJ”. The location is perfect because they use an actual college campus. There are students walking around and there is lighting that is to the left and right of the actor in this shot. The light to the left, probably a filaments or LED light is used to show the actors body and this causes shadows as well. to the right there is use of a practical light, being the lampposts on the campus where there is no need to add more intentional lights. There is no use of the depth of field other than the walkway and changes of focus aren’t used in this particular shot but are in other parts of the trailer. The cinematographer uses primarily a wide angle lens for the majority of his shots.
The edit of the trailer is extremely professional. It is a Hollywood-made movie so this is expected. The events are linked together perfectly by dialogue, music, and titles. The shots start and end at the perfect timings, music is changed and stopped and the actions are also conducted by the tone in music. The dialogue from the actual film is used to show what the characters think and do and this tells the basic story or narrative. There are also sound effects used when funny things happen such as the strict and controlling father of Jeff Chang beats the children in his household so they leave. Every single part of the trailer is precisely edited.
The sound design of this piece was very cool. It was action packet itself and very intense which helped to show the true nature of the film. This was used in the bar and clubbing scenes where the characters go wild and crazy and learn how to live a little because the protagonist is finally 21. The crowd in this shot is heard screaming and cheering because the boys, or men I should say, have just taken shots and won a game of intense beer pong against another group. Also, the tone changes of the film are very well conducted. The dialogue is so clear and perfect and when there is music and dialogue there are no problems with that either and it seems perfectly intertwined together.
