Mind Map of Themes Taken from Interviews

Media interview Number Four

Media Interview Number Three

Media Interview Number Two

Media Interview Number One

Fantasy Films - Low Fantasy

Low Fantasy

 Low fantasy does not refer to the quality of the film, but rather to the scale. Low fantasy films tend to be within the ‘real’ world, and have less emphasis on fantastical elements which high fantasy relies heavily on. These low levels of fantasy elements can swing to one of two ends – horrific or humorous. At the horrific end, you have the supernatural onslaught or comedy made from the nonsensical plots, which comes from the humorous end.

 Low fantasy first came about after the Edwardian era, when the genre fantasy split into high and low fantasy. The main characteristics of low fantasy include personified animals and toys; exaggerated character traits; altered physics; magical powers; supernatural elements and time slips.

Mood Board for Target Audience

Fantasy Films - Sword and Sorcery

Sword and Sorcery

This subgenre is usually categorised by a sword wielding hero who is on a personal quest. Whilst the storylines are typically dramatic, there is not normally the ‘end of the world’ type storyline seen in high fantasy. An element of romance is present as well as magic and the supernatural. Although there it is disputed exactly what constitutes a sword and sorcery film, the main characteristics suggest a fast-paced, action-rich story, set in exotic landscapes with the danger confined to the moment of action and the main protagonist is usually morally compromised. This subgenre is easier to make into sequels and series as the conflict is not world threatening, it makes series more plausible, instead of the repetitive end of the world story. The type of character also makes this more likely – the protagonists are usually bored by the peace after battle, and so go and seek more excitement.

This subgenre usually draws from mythology, classical epics (Homer’s ‘Odyssey’) and even historical fiction under the influence of folklore and myths. There was a boom of the sword and sorcery genre in the 1980s, but was dropped in favour of the high fantasy genre.

Similarly to high fantasy, the main protagonist tends to be male, with the female characters depicted as a ‘damsel in distress’ or the ‘reward’ for the male hero at the end of the tale. There has only recently been a change in this, although any female character that is equal to the male hero is usually relied upon for sex appeal as opposed to an actual storyline.

Fantasy Films - High Fantasy

High Fantasy

In high fantasy films, the story is set in an entirely different world, or ‘secondary world’ to the ‘primary’ or real world.

There are three subtypes of high fantasy:

1. A setting in which the primary world does not exist – ‘The Sword of Truth’
2. The secondary world is entered through some kind of portal from the primary world – ‘Alice in Wonderland’
3. The secondary world in ‘within’ the primary world – the ‘Harry potter’ series

Some say that the ‘Lord of the Ring’ trilogy is set in s secondary world, where the primary world does not exist, Tolkien often denied this as said that it is set in the primary world, but in the past. This raises the question as to whether the trilogy should be categorised as a high fantasy or a historical fantasy, demonstrating the difficulty in which fantasy films are categorised.

High fantasy is usually told from the perspective of a main hero and often revolves around their mysterious nature. The protagonist usually starts as a young person with some kind of special talent for combat or magic. Whilst there is no rule as to what gender the main protagonist has to be, more often then not, they are male.

The story tends to start out with the hero being threatened by some kind of superior, supernatural force. Unlike sword and sorcery fantasy, the hero enjoys ordinary life and is not willing to abandon it, but has no choice as they are pulled into this quest. The hero normally completes the quest and settles back into normal, everyday life by the conclusion of the story. The protagonist gains knowledge of their own past through long-lost relatives or a mentor – who usually knows more about them then the character, knows about themselves. The mentor is usually depicted as a wise old man, such as Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy or Dumbledore in the ‘Harry Potter’ series. Some kind of evil overlord is normally also prominent in the film, in which the main character will eventually have to fight and come up against. This person is normally some kind of powerful wizard, a demon or even an old god.

There is also almost always the theme of good vs. evil in high fantasy films and normally marks some kind of moral struggle. The ‘evil’ character will usually try to do one of three things:

1. The villain is not evil like the protagonist thinks they are
2. The protagonist is the one who is actually evil
3. The ‘mentor’ has been using the protagonist for their own ends and does not care about the protagonist

Genre Theory

Genre Theories

Repertoire of elements:

• Iconography – Visual and sound icons can establish genre. Holsters and saloons are visual icons of a Western. Discordant music is a sound of horror genres.
• Style – sometimes difficult to distinguish from iconography but basically the style is how the icons are presented – camera use, lighting, framing and editing.
• Setting – some genres have particular locations that we associate with them – isolated buildings for horror. Time periods are also important – most westerns are located between 1840-1890.
• Narrative – this refers to story structure and the narrative devices used to tell a story. There is also the ‘narrative of reassurance’ where the audiences are pleased with the ending. Certain genres have particular narratives – melodramas have conflicts; a western can have the sheriff/outlaw conflict. There are usually narrative set pieces which we associate with certain genres – chases and shoot-outs in action film etc.
• Characters – most genres have a hero and villain and some become generic types – the psychopath and the girl victim in some horror films. Some films like to have character pairs, especially in cop films where the two main cops are a team – old/young; male/female; black/white.
• Themes – universal films that we can nearly all identify with and find interesting – romance; anger; bullying etc. binary oppositions (Levi-Strauss) are another way of seeing themes. In westerns, for instance we can often see east vs. west; law vs. crime. There are also discourses – a film can contain a debate or put forward an argument about a topic. Science-fiction is often a discourse about modern technology or science – usually about potential dangers; think about ‘28 Days Later’.

Fantasy Films

Fantasy Films

 There are many different types of fantasy films, although they all have similar elements. They all include some kind of magical element, supernatural event, fantasy creatures or imaginary worlds. As a cinematic genre, it has not been very highly regarded in the past and has only recently begun to gain popularity, with films such as the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and the ‘Harry Potter’ series. After these successes, Hollywood picked up the trend through films such as ‘Eragon’ and Phillip Pullmans ‘The Golden Compass’. It is quite hard to classify a film as a purely fantasy film, as the genre very often over laps with sci-fi, superhero and fairytale genres and animated films are rarely put into the fantasy category, and are instead catalogued into children’s films. As well as this, when magic is primarily used as a comedy tool, such as ‘Freaky Friday’ or ‘It’s a Boy Girl Thing’ are not generally identified as fantasy films.

 Like with many other genres, there are many subgenres to the over branching fantasy genre. The two most common of these subgenres are high fantasy – sometimes known as epic fantasy – and sword and sorcery fantasy. There is also low fantasy – this does not refer to the quality of the film, but rather where the film is set. In the ‘real world’ or a world in which has the same rationality as the real world. This genre often overlaps with contemporary fantasy in which events happen in the real world. Contemporary fantasy is a type of low fantasy. Two genres which are not as common are historical fantasies – which put a supernatural twist on myths or legends and take place prior to the 20^th century - and romantic fantasies – which place a place a particular emphasis on relationships, whether social, political or romantic. There is also a ‘Lost World’ subgenre of both fantasy and sci-fi films which revolves around a world either out of place, out of time or both.

Target Audience

Target Audience

My film trailer will be targeted towards teenagers and young adults (between the ages of 15 and 24 possibly) as it would be easier to find people to give me feedback on drafts and planning ideas. I also know people who would belong to this age group which would aid me in this. As my target audience would be older, I would not have to worry that my content would be too mature for a younger audience, giving me more of a free rein in my movie trailer, although I will have to think about when and where my trailer will be shown.

I also want my trailer to appeal to both males and females, as it would double  my possible audience. However, this may be hard to achieve depending on the genre that I choose for my film trailer as, typically, films such as romantic comedies would appeal more to women, and action films would appeal more to men.


I will ask members of society which will belong to my target audience open ended questions in an interview. These questions are only guidelines, and the conversation may deviate.

1. What do you feel is the most important aspect of a fantasy film and why?
2. What sort of plot would appeal to you in a fantasy film?
3. The music in films has a very important role. What kind of music would you hope to hear in the film?
4. There are different types of film trailers – ones that are short and shown on television and full length ones in the cinema. What would you look for in each of these types of trailers?
5. Do you want the trailer to give away very little of the storyline?