Analyzing: Romance Trailers

THE VOW: ANALYZING TRAILER 

The trailer starts off with institution showing and the sound of the car radio playing a song. The establishing shot is the couple in a car talking, this introduces their relationship to the audience. They turn up the radio and start singing and laughing which then automatically tells the audience that they are in love. The scenery outside is dark, cold and cosy. The female is wearing a red coat to represent romance and love as red shows passion. The shots used are close up so that the audience can get to see the characters in detail as soon as the trailer starts. This is a good shot to use for showing the characters for the first time as it can be used as an introduction shot. The audience can see that they are in love by the way they are talking and being around each other. By them laughing and smiling it connotes romance because a smile is an indexical sign as a smile represents love. The next scenes shows an outside view of the car stopping as the couple are about the share a kiss but then the camera shows the audience headlights from a lorry that are about to hit the car until the screen gets to bright and fades out to white. This represents that an accident has occurred as the audience can hear hospital machinery beeps. The next scene fades in and then there are flashing moments of all their happy memories before the crash happened. There are scenes of them laughing, smiling, spending time together and dancing around. A voice over is being narrative of the male character to help the audience grasp the story line clearly as the trailer plays. The narrative is asking indirect questions to the audience so that they think about the story line in their head and it makes them wonder what they would do if it was them in that situation. The scene then goes to reality when the males partner is in hospital from the accident and it goes from a blurred vision to a focused one to represent that she has been in a crash and she cannot remember a thing. It shows that she has now woken up and is trying to remember but cannot as she has been affected badly. An enigma question shows up on a white background to ask the audience and to make them think. It then fades away and a sound track starts to play to show the genre is romance more. It shows todorovs theory as half way through the scene it shows disruption and then how the repair is going to happen. It shows how the male is going to try reinforce the love they had before the accident. A lot of diagetic sound like dialogue is played to show the characters personalities more and how they are feeling. It also helps the audience understand the story line more. The lighting used is very artificial as it is mainly shot in the night time and in the winter season. This represents the dull and dark times the couple are having because of this accident that they were involved in. The date then shows up on white background the tell the audience key information that they will need to know if they want to watch the film and know when it is out. It shows the actors names right after and what other romance movies they have featured in to tell the audience that they have been in other popular romance movies before. This will tell the audience that this film is worth watching and will give them a kind of guarantee that it will be good. Another enigma question comes up with the soundtrack still playing to make the audience remember the story line and to make them keep thinking about it. Finally, the title of the movie comes up at the end because that is the key element the audience want to know the most. It will help them remember it more as it will be the last thing they see in the trailer. The date then fades in after that again, to remind the audience of when it is released and it is followed by the institutions that are on every trailer i have looked at just to show the role and importance of them. The romantic soundtrack is played all the way through the end. 

Camera shots

The establishing shot of the trailer is a close up of both the characters in the car; this is to let the audience know who is starring in the movie ‘The Vow’.  A two shot is used to connote the relationship they have between one another. There is a wide shot of the setting which is showing the weather and showing the explanation of the crash before it happens. There is an extreme close up of the belt to signify the importance of it and how she took it off. It makes the audience want her to keep it on for her safety. The long shot of the lorry going into the car was the explanation of the extreme close of up the belt. There are flashes of mid shots and long shots of the two showing their personalities and showing their connection to the audience. It shows the different settings throughout. A high angle shot is used to show how the women in the hospital is helpless and in shock. A wide shot of a new setting – the hospital – is used. A extreme close up of the wedding right is shown to signify the story line of the movie and represent their marriage. An over the shoulder shot is used to show the perspective from a shoulder of another person.  A long shot is used for the man when he is sitting on the hospital floor. This signifies how scared and alone he is feeling because his wife cannot remember who he is. It shows how strong their relationship of romance is. A long shot is also used to show her surrounding and how she has family and friends to support her with her situation. A extreme long shot is used to show the area and country they are living in to give the audience an idea of how to set the movie scene in their head. Mid shots are then used to give a more detailed overlook on the two main characters in the movie.

Sounds

The trailer is started off with diagetic sound of the radio being played. A romantic love song is played at the start to let the audience know the genre of the film: romance. The characters dialogue is then added in whilst the radio is playing and they start singing with the music. This shows the happiness of their love and by them singing and laughing, they are expressing it. Laughter is a great way to signify contentment. The sound of the belt, which is also diagetic sound, is used to let the audience know that it is an important noise to hear in the trailer. The horn and sound of the crash is shown to particularly show and tell the audience the reason for the whole story line. A flashback is used and non diagetic sound of beeps like a hospital monitor is used to connote her being in the hospital bed because of this accident and because she took her belt off. The main male character in the movie is played as a narrative to show that the trailer shows his feelings more and it shows that the movie is from a first person who is him. Dialogue from the doctors talking is used and soothing non diagetic music is played to show the mood and create an atmosphere. Whenever there is a comedy scene, the moods music stops and fades back in with a sparkle to represent how much he wants to reconnect his love with his wife. A sound track plays when the name of the casts comes on the screen and when the title shows the sound track slowly fades back out. 

Codes and Conventions

Dear John

Technical:

The trailer shows the main characters of the boy and the girl who share a love interest throughout the film first to let the audience know that they are the two that are going to fall in love. They show the male and female character in different angles and then show a close up of their face to tease the audience on letting them know who the main characters are played by.

The camera technique of the two joining together to show the audience their relationship in the film is shown right at the beginning. This is a typical trailer convention as it lets the audience know the genre straight away.

The lighting throughout the film is natural lighting. This signifies the purity and natural effect of their emotions, the weather is usually sunny to represent love and happiness. The face of changing the weather to rain or dullness in the middle shows the disruption of the equilibrium – linking into Todorov’s Theory.

Symbolic:

The setting of the establishing shot somewhere bright and exciting. The colour being used in the trailer need to be bright and joyful as the trailer shows the audience how the couple are falling in love. It shows where the two both live and what their living lifestyles are like. In this particular trailer, they live in America and they are both outgoing as it shows the first shot on the beach. The audience automatically know that the male character has a hobby of surfing which is a typical code and convention in a romance movie.

The body language in the trailer is very emotional and keeps the audience attached. It typically shows the two sharing an intimate moment so represent their relationship in the film. It shows the stereotype of the male character being violent and the female being innocent and compassionate.

There is always a dilemma of something getting in-between the couple’s relationship, whether it is another individual, work or family. In this particular movie, the male character, John, has to go to the army and show his commitments to that. In the trailer it shows which one he has to pick to be his main priority.

Written:

In the trailer, it shows the intuitions that the film has been produced by. It shows that the film also has a book and it shows the author of the book: ‘Nicolas Sparks’ who is a typical writer of romance. It also tells us that the author has written ‘The Notebook’ which is one of the most romantic films out there. This tells the audience that this film will have the same romantic ways as that one as the story line is written by the same author which has a similar style to all this work.

The music is always soft and calming to represent that the genre is a romance and to keep the romance in the film flowing smoothly and raising the audience’s emotions.

The layout of the trailer is telling the audience the film and then showing the actors names to keep the audience watching and wanting to find out more information throughout the film not just at the start. It then show the title of the film near to the very end to tell the audience what the film is actually called, this is done for effect. The colours used are calm and relaxing to go with the style of romance. It also shows the institution and producers of the film so the audience get a better insight. Lastly it tells the audience what it is realised because that element is the element the audience want to know the most so it keeps the suspense.

The uses of quotes from the film are used – mainly the effective ones – to bring out the romance in the film to persuade the audience to want to see it more and to let them know how deep and devoted they both are in their love relationship.