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Serendipity film trailer analysis

Serendipity analysis

Serendipity is a romantic drama. It is a love story about how a man and woman once met down to ‘fate’ but how they never saw each other for years afterwards, therefore spend time both looking for each other and chasing one another.

Genre

Serendipity’s genre is romantic drama, this film has a strong sense of romance throughout the film, as it focuses mainly on a man and woman searching for each other, portraying the film as presenting such emotions as love, creating it to be a romantic drama.

Media Language

The media language used in this film trailer indicates it is a romantic drama from the first shot ‘buy me a cup of coffee and they’re yours’ indicating how the ‘couple’ first met. ‘A cup of coffee’ is considered to be seen as a first date, presenting this as a romantic text. Non-digetic sounds are used to present the emotion shown between the ‘couple’ helping the audience to understand what emotions are presented. The text helps the audience to establish that this is a romantic film due to the type of music and shots used.

Representation

Serendipity is represented as a romantic drama due to the events taken place in the film including various twists. The male main character is represented to the audience as handsome also coming across as charming which may flatter many female audience members. The female main character is represented as sweet and innocent, not being taken easily by the male character who tries desperately to go on a date with her, seen as playing ‘hard to get’ leaving a challenge for the male.

Audience

Serendipity is set to attract audience members of any age generally, due to its light-heartedness, although may favour females from the late teenagers and above. Serendipity is rated at a pg13 indicating no child below the age of 13 would be suitable to watch this film. This may be because of the explicit activities which may occur between the couple.

• Opening shot shows the reader how the ‘couple’ first met ‘buy me a cup of coffee’ indicating the male is instantly attempting to win the woman over.
• Light bubbly music indicates happiness in the beginning of the film.
• The female reacts ‘do you really think I’m that easy’ indicating from the start he must fight for her love, creating a love story.
• Shot showing them together, the man is still constantly attempting to win the woman ‘will it get me your phone number?’
• The setting is winter, cold, snowy background this can be seen as a romantic season.
• Shots showing them together smiling, the man constantly attempting to charm the woman.

• Cut to a shot of the ‘couple’ ice skating outdoors at night time, portraying romance due to the glimmering lights surrounding the ice rink. The man asks ‘is this a date yet’ still constantly attempting to win the woman over.
• Long shot showing them together. Showing her asking questions as if getting to know each other, therefore seen as progressing in their relationship.
• Yet again the man is trying to charm the woman by suggesting that moment is one of his favourite moments, attempting to flatter her in order to win her love.
• Shot showing them together again, he again asks for her phone number, eventually gaining the number and winning her over, he then loses the number. Presenting a change in tone between the couple as she believes it was ‘fate’. Following her storming off.
• He chases her, she then gives him her number, although it then skips to a couple of years in the future.
• Shot showing the man picking out a receipt from where they first met. Then trying to gather information from the receipt to try and find the woman again.
• Shows his friend trying to convince him not to search for her, as he has found someone else and is about to get married.
• More shots showing the friend trying to convince the man that the woman is probably ugly and had moved on however the man is determined to carry on searching for her.
• Shots showing her, thinking the exact same thing as the man, and then going on to search for him also.
• Shots showing their past experiences together when she was remembering him.
• Various cut shots showing both the man and woman searching for each other attempting to catch up with each other.
• Shots showing both the man and woman separately, presenting different emotions from happiness to sadness, leaving the audience member puzzled as to what is occurring.
• Final shot showing a wedding reception, with his friend making a speech, which leaves the audience with a laugh as it is a humorous remark. Although the audience is unaware as to who the wedding is for, leaving them wondering whether the ‘couple’ ended up together in the end or not, leaving them wanting to purchase the film and discover the ending.

Various shots used

·         Close up- to present the characters various emotions from happiness to sadness, helping set the mood of the scene.

·         Long shot- to show the ‘couple’ together is showing the surrounding setting as being a romantic background.

·         Mid-shots – used commonly when they are together, showing them as being close.

Time traveller's wife film trailer analysis

Time Travellers wife analysis

The Time Traveler's Wife can be seen as a romantic drama; from the romance between the two characters throughout the film. It is a love story about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences.

Genre

The genre of this film is romantic drama, although could also be classed as science-fiction. It is easily recognised as being romantic because the film focuses mainly on two certain characters throughout, showing their journey together how they progress through tough times in a relationship. Audience would be attracted to this film as it can not only be seen as a romantic drama but also a science-fiction giving it parts of mystery allowing the audience to escape from reality.

Media Language

The text first used in the trailer ‘I have known Henry since I was 6years old’ presents to the audience that this film may be a very personal film from the word ‘I’. By reminiscing on the first time they met continued on from the use of ‘I’ further indicates that this may be a personal romantic film. In this trailer the text will give a brief indication of the films storyline enticing the audience into wanting to see how the storyline pans out forcing them to purchase the film.

Representation

Time traveller’s wife is represented as a romantic drama due to the events taken place during the film. The main male character is seen as a handsome athletic man, with a deep husky voice, this type of character may attract many female audience members as they may be attracted to the actor. The female character is also a beautiful woman; these two together would then create a ‘cute couple’ leading audience members to like both characters together allowing them to be engulfed in the storyline. This represents the film as being ‘hot’ from the characters being seen as ‘hot’ creating a similar effect.

Audience

Time traveller’s wife is set to attract a wide range of various age groups and gender. Time traveller’s wife would specifically focus on attracting females due to its genre of being romantic drama which mainly attracts female audiences. However this can be also seen as a science-fiction which would usually favour male’s interests, therefore you could argue that the time traveller’s wife could attract the majority of age groups and genders, although its rating is above 13 years old.

• Opening shot of male character Seen as handsome, common in romance films to attract female audiences, one reason as to why they enjoy romance films.
• Shows how the couple first meet, under unordinary circumstances. Already showing plots and dramas in the film.
• Both characters talking as a voice over ‘I remember when we first met I was 6years old’ showing how they met at a young age, how it must be love if she remembers from such a long time ago.
• Shows a second meeting between the couple when the woman is much older. How they meet for a second time and she recognises and remembers him instantly.
• Shows him how she has never forgotten him, by showing him records of when they have met.
• Light hearted music indicates happiness between the couple.
• Various different cuts and shots of the couple together seen in a parking, kissing and holding each other close, presenting love and happiness between them.
• Shot showing him proposing, therefore showing the audience that they get married happily.
• Shots and cuts of the wedding presented to the audience portraying their relationship as being happy without any issues occurring leaving the audience feeling happy.
• Although cuts to her alone on the bed, indicating he has ‘disappeared’ due to his condition which the audience is introduced to in the beginning shot.
• Cutting to a shot showing her as being pregnant, presenting more happiness between the couple showing their relationship as progressive.
• Cut in the future to when their child has grown up, showing a shot of the child and father hugging each other as if they haven’t seen each other for a long period of time.
• More shots showing his condition creating him to travel through time and disappear, leaving the woman alone not knowing when or where he will turn up.
• Shots presenting conflict and sadness between the couple due to his constant disappearance leaving it hard on the couple.
• More of a sad tone of music is introduced although is more upbeat, hearing the lyrics of the song indicates there are issues and problems between the couple
• Many shots showing her as being upset. Him constantly disappearing, showing why their marriage is not strong.
• Lyrics of the music ‘I’m still holding on’ indicate the couple does not want to give up on each other, shots of them running and in desperate times together link with the lyrics presenting they are in love.
• More shots of the couple together kissing and holding each other.
• Last shot shows the couple together in a field where the man says ‘I can’t stay’ and then begins to disappear, the woman accepts the fact that he must leave. This leaves the audience unaware of whether he returns and they stay together or whether he doesn’t return, leaving the audience in suspense.

Various shots used

Close-up: to show emotion on the characters face, helping the audience to be aware of what is happening.

Long-shot: used to show the surroundings usually when the couple is together.

Mid-shot: commonly used shot mainly in conversations.

Film trailer analysis

Dear John Analysis

Dear John is a romantic drama. We chose to analyse this movie trailer as it is very similar to the type of genre and film we wish to create, giving us insights and ideas for our own movie trailer.

Genre

As a literary genre of high culture, romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

Dear John’s genre is romantic drama focusing mainly on romance, as the film is based around a couple who fall in love, showing their ups and downs within the relationship.

Media language

There is text used throughout the film trailer to show various twists and emotions presented to the audience through the couple. Non-digetic music is used through the trailer, this encourages the audience into a certain emotion, showing how the characters are feeling emotionally. The audience will be able to establish that this films genre is romance due to the type music and shots used.

Representation

Dear John is represented as a romantic drama due to the events taken place in the film including various twists. John the male character represents a young athletic handsome man, this will attract many females as a reason females enjoy to watch romantic films is because of the attractive male protagonist. Savannah is a representation of a sweet bubbly and cute girl who falls in love with the protagonist, leading to happiness in the film. Savannah is represented to the audience as being cute, therefore this creates the audience to like her character, showing no real antagonist character in the film.

Audience  

Dear John is set to attract an audience ranged between young teens to moderately middle-aged females mainly, attracting females will enforce the males to ‘be dragged’ to the cinema by their ‘wife, girlfriend’ increasing the range of the audience for the film. Dear John’s rating is a very low age rating, this shows the audience that it is a light hearted romantic film at which they can enjoy without having major suspense or action included, leaving the audience with a sense of light romance, dependant on the ending of the film.

·         Opening shot of male main character. Seen as handsome, common in romance films to attract female audiences, one reason as to why they enjoy romance films.

·         Him diving off the pier to save her bag, portraying him as being special, leading onto how they first met. Showing extreme lengths he would go to for her, early on in the trailer.

·         Lots of cuts, between scenes of them together. Trailer mainly showing the couple together portraying their strong love.

·         Light hearted music, bringing a light hearted mood to the audience showing the trailer has being happy and cheerful whilst they are together.

·         Many more cut and jump shots between them being together, with voice over view of a few of their lines ‘2 weeks, that’s all it took for me to fall for you’ giving audience an insight into the plot of the film showing that they fall in love and are happy together.

·         Many of the shots shown at the beginning of the trailer are showing the couple smiling together indicating they are happy together without any twists or troubles leaving the trailer focusing on their relationship.

·         Audience are introduced to another twist within the trailer how the male is part of the special forces ‘special forces huh, your on leave?’ here we learn there is more to the film than just a happy relationship setting the trailer up for many twists to occur in the relationship, leading onto a stronger plot.

·         Romantic setting the couple under the full moon ‘no matter where you are in the world its never bigger than your thumb’ this is then repeated later in the trailer bringing the romance back into the shot showing how they hadn’t forgotten that moment, leaving an object (the moon) help them remember each other.

·         Cut shot to show the female meeting his dad, indicating to the reader that the relationship begins to get serious after meeting the parents showing the audience that they care a lot and love one another.

·         Audience is shown a different side to the male character portraying him as fighting showing him as not having many friends. However it does not seem to bother her, he is portrayed as a tough guy although states ‘you scare me’ to the female indicating he may never have felt like this with another girl before.

·         Romantic scene in the rain, the couple close, they then kiss showing strong affections to the audience, how they are happy together indicating everything is going well.

·         Cut shot where John must go back to the army and fight, creating a twist in the plot as the audience does not know whether he may survive. Many cut shots of the couple holding each other before he leaves, indicating they care deeply about one another and are distraught to the fact he must leave.

·         Once he has left many cut shots showing the couple not together but always shown as writing a letter to one another indicating they are constantly communicating, portraying strong love between the two.

·         In one letter John mentions ‘the moon’ which was an object they had which would lead them to think of the other, showing their love as never forgetting each other.

·         After many shots showing letters sent back and fourth, John comes home and shows them meeting once again, running, jumping, hugging and kissing one another showing strong love between the couple indicating they have missed each other greatly.

·         Once they are reunited, John is yet again sent off by the army, leading onto many shots of crying despair between the couple.

·         This has lead to a major twist in the plot as from here onwards sad music is in the background indicating that it is not all happiness anymore as events have occurred. Many cut shots of each character crying each time they receive a letter indicating to the reader it is not positive news.

·         Many shots showing them as being alone, indicating they are upset as they are alone because they are miles away from each other. Creating a sad effect on the audience.

·         We see John visiting his dad in hospital this indicates that whilst he was away he must have been sick, showing a reason for the many cut shots and scenes of crying whilst John is alone.

·         We no longer see the couple together, yet we still see various letters back and fourth.

·         We once again see the moon as an object of remembrance ‘a lot can happen in 12 months John’ this leaves the audience unsure on whether they ended happily together or not, forcing the audience to purchase the film.

Various shots used

·         Over the shoulder shot – used commonly to show their communication with one another constantly being together.

·         Long shot- used regularly to show the couple as being together.

·         Close-ups – used when receiving letters or when not together, to show the characters emotion.

·         Mid-shots – used commonly when they are together, showing them as being close.

Music

Opening shot begins with cheerful music to set the mood as being happy when they first meet, continuing for a while in the trailer whilst they are happy together.

Changes once news is heard of him leaving, music changes to sad although beat begins to speed up when they are constantly in contact and happy.

He once again must leave, this presents sad music once again, this continues through to the end of the trailer, leaving the audience unaware of the ending.

Timeline deadline work dates

Trailer shots and scenes

• Opening shot shows how they first meet in a cafe. She works in there and he goes in to buy a coffee and they look into each others eyes and immediately fall in love.
• Cuts showing them two together, walking through woods. Seen in a shopping area, having a coffee in the winter.
• He tells her how he feels and finds out she feels the same way.
• Cut to him getting his grades AAB and then to his parents saying he has to go to university. They have an argument begin to shout and throw stuff around. He is disappointed that he is going university but parents are overwhelmed.
• Cuts to the couple going for a walk and he tells her along the way, they agree to stay together and say not to worry about it yet. It rains so they both run to the park and hide under the slide. They look at each other and kiss.
• He says he will come and visit but never does, 3-4 months later and he’s back for Christmas. He goes to see her but she is with someone else. The couple meet and he explains that he couldn’t get away as he had so much work to do and that he wanted too and she says she weren’t waiting around for ever. He explains how he tried to contact her everyday.
• He leaves angry and punches the walls and objects on his departure.
• She begins to cry, after sitting and crying runs out of the house.
• Then loads of cuts showing them crying together and not together, showing various different emotions leaving the audience in suspense.

Target audience

Female teenagers

Media institution

Comet Cinema

Todorov's theory

Todorov’s theory

Todorov’s theory is when the tone of the film changes creating

drama in the film storyline. His theory can be seen as the tone as being calm changing to dramatic then back to calm. There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

·         A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)

·        A disruption of that order by an event

·        A recognition that the disorder has occurred

·        An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

What we intend to do

We are going to create a film at which Todorov’s theory applies. We intend to produce a film at which the theory applies successfully, by doing so we intend to begin the film with a calm happy opening tone, which will move onto a more dramatic tone set by the drama created due to the thrilling plot in the storyline. Applying Todorov’s theory the tone would swiftly change back to the calm ending, allowing the audience member to gather and take in the events which have occurred during the film.

How Todorov’s theory is applied

Todorov’s theory is applied in many romantic films, although we do no recognise the theory as easily as in action films.

Films such as ‘Die hard’ make it easy to see Todorov’s theory as the film varies from a calm tone into action packed scenes then at the end finishing with a calm tone again.

Romantic films such as Romeo and Juliet apply Todorov’s theory by it being calm before they meet then change of tone introducing drama into the scenes then changing back to calm after all of the drama is finished, ending the film in a calm tone. Showing how Todorov’s theory is applied in romantic films as well as action packed films even if it is not as easy to see the theory it is still applied.

Propp’s theory

As well as Todorov’s theory, Vladimir Propp’s theory is used in many films he discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a sphere of action. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today. Propp’s theory basically states how many films are easily predicted today, meaning nothing can be seen as original nowadays, as storylines seem to have the same events leaving every film predictable. Propp’s theory shows that the audience now has an expectation of those specific events to occur during the film as they are traditionally seen similarly in every film.

Why people enjoy Romantic films

Why people enjoy Romantic films

Romantic movies are seen upon as being a highly popular genre throughout the public eye. Romantic films tend to have a happy ending, this allows the audience members to leave the theatre with a happy feeling, providing them with a sense of a happiness when the story ended with the guy getting the girl in the end and living happily ever after which is seen as more of a fairy tale ending. This creates romance to be popular as people enjoy watching light hearted films which end happily; allowing the audience member to escape from their reality by getting lost within what is seen as a fairytale storyline.

Another type of romantic film is more of a tragedy romance, people tend to enjoy watching tragedy romance films as it enables them to relate to the film, seeing as many people have had some form of tragedy in their life such as; lost love, sudden death this allows the audience to feel apart of the film as they feel the story line can relate to their past or present experiences. Furthermore if they are currently dealing with a similar situation which is occurring in the film, the audience member may gain some advice or help from the film. Some people may enjoy watching romantic films as they do not have any romance within their lives, therefore romantic films create a sense of romance for that audience member which has little romance currently in their life, providing an escape from reality where they can be with their ‘dream man’ giving them a sense of happiness from the film.

To sum up, people enjoy watching romantic films for various different reasons, it allows them to escape from their reality, they may be dealing with a lot of stress and a simple romantic film gives them a sense of happiness therefore relieving them from current stress. Romantic films also give people the opportunity to relate to the film if it is seen as more of a tragedy, they may feel lonely and alone whilst going through the current tragedy therefore a romantic tragedy provides them with comfort showing how they are not alone, that the tragedy may be occurring with various other people, therefore supporting them through a tough period, presenting romantic films as being popular throughout the public.

Jake Bourke A2 Media studies

My name is Jake Bourke and this year in A2 media studies I will be making a film trailer.

The film trailer genre I have chosen is romantic drama. I will be completing this task with Joshua Dowsett. We have chosen to create a romantic drama trailer as it will offer a new type of story. The trailer involves two people meeting each other, where courtly love occurs creating the couple to instantly seen as falling in love. The trailer will show various shots of the happy couple laughing and having fun in each others company. However university gets in the way of the couple, when the male comes back after months, he finds her with another man. This will successfully attract audience members as the film allows the audience members to relate to the events occurring within the film therefore mirroring it with their own personal past issues.

Target audience

We are aiming our film to be a 12+ aiming the plot from 17-22 year old females; this is because the characters in our film are roughly the same age as this peer group, allowing them to relate easily to the film. The film will relate many happy emotions with the couple together, whilst still creating an interesting plot with various twists.

Plot

Man meets a woman, become a happy couple gradually becoming very close, man is forced to go to university far away, she never hears from him since, months later he comes back to find her with someone else, he fights for her back, man travels his way back to university after seeing the woman, leaving the audience unaware whether it ends happily or sadly.

Twist

The selling point of this film, is how the storyline is a plot at which the audience is able to relate, easily drawing the audience member into the plot due to the young nature of the characters, also the everyday scenery and events occurring, leaving the film being very surreal for the audience member.

Film institution

Comet cinema is a new and upcoming film production company who specialise in romance mainly, which was founded in 2011 by Jake Bourke and Joshua Dowsett. This will help create a good new image for our film showing the audience a new type of romantic drama, connecting the audience with the characters creating a bond between them.