The composition of the Avatar poster sees the film's main protagonist, Jake Sully and his avatar, in the very centre. This suggests that the narrative may concentrate soley on the main protagonist. However Jake Sully is placed aside his avatar to reinforce the epic science fiction genre of the film. Jake Sully is played by Sam Worthington, who was a rising acting talent when this film was released in 2009 and by placing him on the cover it would have attracted his growing fanbase which would have increased the likliness of the films box office success. The color scheme of bright blue and light yellow is a passive colour suggesting that this film will have not have a lot of violent themes. Jake Sully looks like he is in deep thought, suggesting that there will be some type of character conflict in the film.
This poster does not present a clear narrative, instead it is ambigious adding an engigmatic element to the films main protaganist. The text at the top of the poster showcases two critically acclaimed films Titanic and The Terminator made by James Cameron who also directed Avatar, this also may have contributed to the box office success of the film because it attracted James Cameron's fans to watch Avatar.
This teaser trailer is for the third instalment of the Transformers film series. Transformers: Dark Side of the moon is an American science fiction action movie and it was released in 2011. It performed well in the box office and has now grossed $1,123,746,996 however the film was not received well by critics, who panned the film for focusing its attention more on the 3D technology and action sequences, instead of the script. Michael Bay directed all three Transformer films , both his impressive directorial record and experience contributed to the success of all three films. The young cast suggests that a young audience is part of the target audience along with science fiction action movie fans.
What I found the most intriguing about this teaser is the absence of the main protagonist Sam Witwicky played by Shia LaBeouf because it demonstrates that the Paramount Studios have not decided to use him as the unique selling point in this teaser trailer. Instead the teaser trailer focuses more on the narrative, it begins with a montage of the american moon landing. Slow transitions are used to build up tension which increases with the atmospheric soundtrack playing in the background. This lets the viewer know that there might be approaching a pivotal moment in the narrative. The pace of the editing slows down down even more half way through the trailer. The narrative is now diving into some conspiracy themes with the astronauts being told that they have '21 minutes' and 'the mission is a go'. Suddenly there is a shift in the soundtrack to a more up tempo beat which lets the audience know that the pivotal moment in the film has only just begun, this is reinforced through the use of fast fade to black transitions. The screen remains black for 3 seconds leaving the audience in suspense.
The 3 seconds of the black screen along with the shift to a more epic soundtrack is an effective method to build the suspense and toy around with the viewers curiosity because they're left hanging with unanswered questions. The action resumes, after a couple dolly shots of the astronauts walking around a ruined spaceship, one of the astronauts utters the words 'no sir we are not alone'. At this point the audience will feel engaged because they what to know the rationale behind the astronauts statement.
The soundtrack continues to stay up beat to gain momentum. The title credits showcase both Michael Bay's name ( the director) as well as Steven Spielberg's (the executive producer) name, this is the unique selling point of this teaser trailer. Steven Spielberg is a universally acclaimed director and producer, showcasing his name is the perfect opportunity to raise the awareness of Spielberg's massive fan base to watch Transformers: Dark side of the moon. This increased the likelihood that transformers was going to perform well at box office, which it did. Another dolly shot is used at the end of the trailer revealing a big transformer, the camera zooms into his eye and through some animation it reveals the title of the film.
Although trying to emulate some scenes in this teaser would be too ambitious (due to our low budget), I did find the constant shifting of the soundtracks very interesting because it had a profound effect on me while I was watching the teaser trailer, for example when it shifted to a more suspenseful soundtrack It was successful in making me feel that suspense. I will definitely try to incorporate this use of sound to move my audience, making them feel suspense and the other emotions that I want to convey like sadness and shock.
Director J . J. Abrams is back with the new Star Trek sequel Into Darkness. Star Trek Into Darkness is an American science fiction action film. Following the first successful Star Trek film which was both well received by fans and critics ,grossing an impressive $385,494,555 worldwidein 2009, fans of the franchise have been patiently waiting and this teaser trailer does not disappoint. What strikes me the most in this teaser is the attention to detail of every building, uniform, explosion and spacecraft. This not only shows the fans that the Paramount studios haven't compromised their big budget on creating an authentic looking Star Trek universe, it also provides the fans with an immersive experience which will build the anticipation leading to the release of the film. Since this is a sequel the majority of the teaser is dedicated to showcasing the original cast ranging from Spock played by Hero's star Zachary Quinto, to James T.Kirk played by Chris Pine in order not to lose the support of the core audience of Star Trek fans. This proves to be an effective strategy in reinforcing a feeling of familiarity felt by the fans who watched the first film, gaining their interests because they either enjoyed the cast or hated it, either way it could result in a feeling of nostalgia since the first film was released in 2009 and this sequel was released in 2013. This feeling of nostalgia could possibly help to convince a lot of fans to attend their local cinemas to watch Into Darkness because they may want to re live their experience watching the first film. However along with a few familiar faces the fans are also introduced to a new character Khan played by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. Benedict Cumberbatch is a new rising actor and has developed a big fanbase due to his role as Sherlock Holmes in the successful British show Sherlock. The decision to cast Cumberbatch as the villian in this film is a smart move by J. J. Abrams because it takes advantage of Benedict's popularity and big fanbase, increasing the likeliness of box office success. On the other hand though this is Benedict's first major role in a big hollywood blockbuster movie which seems like a risky move. Although you could argue that his lack of experience on the hollywood scene is indeed a risky move, its nice to see Paramount Studios taking risks on a fresh new acting talent instead of playing it safe. This gamble seems to have payed off since Into Darkness grossed $466,978,661 worldwide. Critics and fans also praised Benedict's performance demonstrating his contribution to the films box office success. The combination between fast and slow fade to black transitions in this teaser builds some momentum because it bombards the audience with different images of the characters and the scenery,adding to the immersive experience. The target audience for this film are fans of action sci-fi and die hard Star Trek fans, this is reinforced with the constant establishing shots of a futuristic and advanced city along with a 4 second shot of a spacecraft. This teaser , like many teaser trailers, is ambiguous and leaves the audience wanting more, what makes this a successful teaser however is its ability to display a lot of detail in establishing shots while also showcasing famous actors and special effects. The editing is also slick and smooth. As far as incorporating any elements of this teaser trailer in my own teaser is debatable, I do not have neither the budget or the resources to recreate the special effects or the scenery in this teaser however I could incorporate the slick editing through the use of fast and slow fade to black transitions in my own teaser. I also like the idea of using a V.O to add an element of mystery to who the voice might correspond to and what that character might be like according to what he/she is saying in this V.O, like they did in this teaser trailer.
In todays lesson we discussed different trailer patterns to use which included Character-driven (This trailer pattern focuses on the main characters), Plot-driven ( this pattern focuses on the plot throughout the trailer), Trigger-event ( this pattern focuses on the element that changes and theme-centered trailers which focuses on the films theme throughout the trailer.
In my group we decided that we're going to use the character-driven trailer pattern along with plot-driven pattern because in order to make our storyline's twist impactful on the audience we have to spend time on the character development. However one disadvantage with using the character-driven pattern trailer is that if the dialogue isn't engaging enough this could bore the audience. So in order to avoid the audience from losing interest while watching our trailer because of the heavy amount of dialogue we decided that we're also going to use the plot driven pattern because this way it will allow the trailer to gain some momentum while keeping the audiences attention
