Bridesmaids

• The trailer opens with the universal pictures logoonscreen for less than 2 seconds, with an up-beatsoundtrack playing in the background. Already thissuggests that it is a feel good movie.

• There is then a short blackout and the picture quicklyfades back to a man an establishing shot of a verynice house. It then immediately cuts to a man andwoman in bed – showing that they are in the house.From the position of the people you presume that theman is more dominant as he is lying over her – hethen tells her he wants to leave and all of his dialogueis more or less declaratives or imperatives: “youshould probably get going soon”. This establishes herrelationship with the man. Many of the lines arefunny too and in between the lines the intertitlesdrop down saying “Annie is out of love… out of luck…”The colour of the font is pink, suggesting that maybeit is a chick flick or that it is based around women?

• During the funniest moment so far the music stopsafter building up pace (when she is stuck on the gateand the housekeeper turns up) to emphasise themoment and the humour.

• These first 34 seconds establish the maincharacter, and her basic personality and situation. Italso sets up the genre and the mood of the trailer.

• After the next intertitle “out of her depth” the music picks up pace and there is a second establishing shot of a city scape – giving the audience the location.

• There is then a few very fast paced clips giving us more information on the storyline through dialogue – we are also introduced to the other main character: the bride. “I’m getting engaged… will you be my made of honour?”. The is a two shot of them both on the sofa together – suggesting the characters are close.

• After another intertitle – giving us information on the directors’ past movies (a good selling point) –the audience are introduced to the rest of the cast as they all decide on “ideas for the bachelorette party”. Wide shots are quickly edited together of each of the bridesmaids in their home/ work environment. The background, costume and dialogue of each of the characters lets the audience know a lot about them in a matter of seconds. For example one woman says she has the “need to smell the neck of a man I don’t know”. In the background of her home you can see four young boys – so the audience can presume she is unhappy at home with her family life.

• Every time there is a really funny moment – for example when Megan burps in the wedding shop –the music stops, always to add emphasis to the moment. It then re-starts, giving the impression of lots of things building up – suggesting the stress the main character is under.

• At around 1.36, another intertitle drops down,reading “raise your glasses”. There is then a shortscene on an aeroplane and the pace of the musicpicks up with electric guitar riffs involved too –building up the drama.

• At 1.49 the music stops again, and a man says“you’re like the maid of dishonour” (quite a goodsummary of the movie) another title drops down,and the music returns with lyrics and faster thanever.

• The clips then get shorter and are selectedrandomly from throughout the movie – ratherthan in chronological order. Most of them areaction packed, including a car chase, a sex scene,lots of running and shouting, and dancing. This letsthe audience know that it is not a family movie.

• Over the top of these clips there is a voiceoverfrom one of the clips bleeding over with theprotagonist saying “you’re gonna take this hugestep and I’m gonna be there right next to you.”Which is humorous as it is ironic because all of theclips have shown chaos. The music then stops andthere is then a shot of the bride running across theroad in her wedding dress and the maid of honourstanding and watching.

• The title of the movie is then shown in bold, pinkfont – only for a couple of seconds, to keep thepace up – there is then one last, very funny scene,to keep audience attention, followed by therelease date.

• In the trailer women are represented as quite wild, hysterical, drunk andsex hungry. This goes completely against any stereotypes of women inmainstream media. The trailer goes completely against Mulvey’s malegaze theory too – and in one clip the role is reversed as a womandescribes how she is going to “climb that like a tree” when discussing amale character. This is probably because it is a women’s movie – or atleast a majority of the target audience are. I think the trailer is mainlyaimed at women due to the fact most of the characters are women, it isabout weddings and the colour scheme is pin and white.

• The movie is a comedy and the trailer makes this clear from thebeginning through the up tempo music and the emphasises andregularity of funny moments in the trailer.

• The narrative structure in the trailer conforms to that found in most. Thefirst thirty seconds or so lays out the premise of the story andestablishes setting and introduces the main character, The middle drivesthe story further and usually ends with a dramatic climax. Relationshipsare established further and characters are developed in their world, andthe final minute or so consists of a visual montage of powerful andemotional moments/events of the film

The Perks of

Being a Wallflower

• The trailer begins with an establishing shot ofthe camera panning across a city, with calmmusic. There is then a voice over of a youngboy, beginning “dear friend”. There is then aclose up of a boys face – suggesting to theaudience that it is this boys voice they can hear.There is then a blackout as he says “I reallywant to turn things around this year”.

• The Summit entertainment logo then appearswith a green background (a colour that matchesthe one on the advertising posters – if theyhave seen the posters they will recognise thelink).

• There is then a wide shot zooming out of himsat alone in the canteen. This shot emphasiseshis loneliness and the distance he feelsbetween him and his peers. The dialogue of acharacter calling him a “toad” also suggest thathe doesn’t have many friends at school.

• We then see a title (on the same backgroundcolour) saying “charlie never stood out”. Thelack of proper grammar or punctuation suggestthat it is an easy-going movie or that it is aimedat or about younger people. The words also popup in time with the music – a convention ofmovie trailers. It also informs the audience thatthe boy is charlie.

• The scene then changes to him at a partydancing towards a girl and a boy. This couldrepresent to the audience him becoming closeto them in the movie. The intertitles theninform the audience that they are his “friends”and they “let him in”. This conforms to normalnarrative structure in a trailer, as after beingintroduced to the main character – we arebeing presented with the supporting ones.

• The editing pace then picks up and there isquick transitions between different scenes ofparties and people, changing the mood.

• The intertitles then introduces us to “Patrick”and a clip of him shouting in a football stadiumin a camp manner is shown – suggesting thatmaybe he is femenine and likes sport.

• “Sam” is next and there is a clip of her standingon the back of a pick up truck – suggesting sheis free.

• The trailer then shows a range of clips fromthroughout the movie along with textinforming the audience that it is out in theautumn and that it is from the creators ofJuno. The reference to Juno will target a lot ofyoung people who like coming of age romanticdramas – the same genre/ themes as thismovie.

• Towards the end the text says that it is based onthe “critically acclaimed novel” and many of themost famous quotes are included: “we areinfinite” and “you see things, you understand”.

• The pace of the music and the editing and clipsthen picks up and become more dramatic. Theshots include fight scenes, crying, and laughing –a complete range of emotions. These suggestthat the movie is serious as well as funny andcovers a range of issues.

• Similarly to the Bridesmaids trailer, the musicstops on the most important parts.However, because it isn’t a comedy likeBridesmaids, some of the moments are dramaticrather than funny.

• The final shot is of Charlie standing in the back ofthe pick up truck – suggesting that he is going togo on some kind of journey in the movie andbecome free.

• The names of the movie is the last thing to beshown, before the release date – this is found inmost of the trailers, as the trailer grabs theaudiences attention so even if they only see thelast minute of it they can still see what it iscalled. Under the release date the trailer usessynergy and shows a link to the movie’sFacebook page.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2

• This trailer is slightly different to most others as it is the final instalment of aseries of movies which have been a global success. Therefore the audience willalready know the main characters.

• The trailer opens with the instantly recognisable “Hedwig’s theme” but a versionthat has been significantly slowed down. Any fans of the movie and even peoplewho are not will relate the song to the previous Harry Potter movies. The slowingdown of the song gives it an eery mood – suggesting that this movie will be thesame as the others but much darker.

• The editing in the first 16 seconds is literally in time with the music and everytime a new note plays the shot changes. The final shot in this sequence is anextreme close up of Lord Voldermort’s face as he opens his eyes – suggesting heis waking up.

• The music then stops and a suspense building, drum roll style sound plays. TheWarner Bros logo then appears but is edited onto the background that the HarryPotter title is usually set on, in greys and blacks. This continues with the theme ofdarkness.

• The next sequence follows the conventionsof narrative structure in film trailers, as itintroduces the main character and his story.This is done in the form of a voice over formLord Voldemort, personally addressing Harry.

• As he speaks the images on the screenreference what he is saying. For examplewhen he says “you have allowed your friendsto die” he is seen walking through deadbodies. This is then followed by a shot of thethree main characters looking up, giving theimpression that they are scared of him –having the same effect on the audience.

• There is then text on the screen with therelease date and saying “only one can live”.As these appear there is a sound effect of adrum to add emphasis to what they aresaying.

• Many of the images shown are magical/mystical creatures of special effects,reflecting the genre of the movie. Thecolours in the shots are very dark/ dull,against emphasising the darkness of thisfilm.

• In many of the shots Harry Potter is seendirectly after Voldemort and they are binaryoppositions of each other: good vs. evil.Harry has a voice over after Voldemort’sends - which highlights the contrast betweenthem.

• The music then comes to a dramatic end andthere is a confrontation between Harry andVoldemort. The over the shoulder shot heremake the audience feel very involved.

• The music then restarts more dramatic andfast paced than before, and the editingbecomes faster too, and the images moredark/ violent. There are many shots ofviolence and destruction, with severalrecognisable characters involved.

• The intertitles appear at intervalsthroughout and include words such as “epic”and “phenomenon”. These, paired with themusic and images, give a huge sense ofdrama and volume to the trailer.

• The final images are another face-offbetween the two enemies – the themethroughout the entire series of movies. Thisis followed by the title of the movie and therelease date.

• The genre is very clear in this trailer – the element of fantasy is extremely strong as you can tell be the storyline, characters and the level that special effects play in the trailer.

• The audience is mostly going to be people who have already seen all or most of the Harry Potter movies, as the trailer presume you know some of the details.

• However the protagonist and antagonist’s monologues/ voice overs do explain their relationship and the series of events so far “you have battled…” so if someone hadn’t seen the movies before the trailer would still inform them of the storyline.

• The music is extremely important in action/ fanatasy films as it builds the suspense, tension and drama. The music at the beginning functioned really effectively as it connotes Harry Potter and without even having to look at the screen it is clear that it is a Harry Potter Trailer.