In depth study of Trailers

Trailers on Prezi

Movie Company Logo

A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, or vanity logo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Production logos are mainly seen at the start of a theatrical movie or video game (an "opening logo"), or at the end of a television program or TV movie. Many production logos have become famous over the years, such as the 20th Century Fox's searchlights, Paramount Pictures mountain, and MGM's Leo the Lion. Unlike logos for most other media, production logos can take advantage of motion and synchronized sound, and almost always do.

Red Band and Green Band

Rating cards appear at the head of trailers in the United States which indicate how closely the trailer adheres to the MPAA's standards. A green band is an all-green screen at the beginning of the trailer. Until April 2009, these cards indicated that they had been approved for "all audiences" and often included the movie's MPAA rating. This shows that the trailer follows to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which include limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise obnoxious imagery. In April 2009, the MPAA began to permit the green band language to say that a trailer had been approved for "appropriate" audiences, meaning that the material would be appropriate for audiences in theaters, based on the content of the film they had come to see. Trailers that do not abide to these guidelines may be issued a red band, which indicates approval for only "restricted" or "mature" audiences. These trailers may only be shown before R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movies (only films that are released in theaters rated R and not in theaters rated PG-13). These trailers may include nudity, profanity or other material deemed inappropriate for children.

Trailer four Savages

This was the final trailer in which I did a deep in depth study of was Savages, the new action thriller, directed by Oliver Stone, who also directed platoon.

Similarly to the other trailers, this trailer uses many of the same methods when looking at camera angles to  highlight the importance of certain aspects of the trailer. For instance the trailer uses a Long shot which brings to attention the surroundings, so the audience will have a better understanding of the whereabouts of the movie setting. Many close ups are also used throughout this trailer, most of which show the characters throughout this film, i personally feel this is used to encourage there target audience to come and watch this movie as famous actors like Benicio Del Toro, (star of the blockbuster Usual suspects) Aaron Taylor-Johnson (star of Kick Ass) and finally Salma Hayek (star in Desperado) star in this movie, and with their fan base people will watch this movie. A mixture of long-shots, close-ups, mid-shots and tracking shots are used throughout this trailer to enforce it genre, for example, most of the trailer consists of many scenes or acts of violence, going from shoot-outs to stabbings, all leading to what target audience this trailer would be aimed at. As a whole the main use for all of the camera angles during this trailer are used to give a deeper perspective into the film, ie characters, setting, violence etc, I also through these camera angle this trailer is very successful in encouraging their target audience to watch this movie.

When looking at the editing in depth I could see many similarities with the other trailers. For example this trailer is full of many fast paced transitions, which would be used to give a brief blurb of this movie, ie the main points of the storyline. This is used highly to show which target audience this trailer would be aimed at and furthermore attract that audience to go and watch this movie. More so this trailer stared in black and white, and taking into context what the character is saying i feel this is used to represent death. As this black and white section end, within the space of around 3 seconds a mixture of many shots are played backwards, although they hard to make out, i feel this represents a recap of someones memory of what has already occurred. For a vast majority of this movie trailer, a voice over is used, i feel this is used so the audience have a more in depth knowledge of the troubles the characters have involved themselves in. The lettering used is of a very simplistic nature, also the colour of red, maybe representing bloodshed or anger. Also when watching the trailer i could see he attempted to do this movie in a very Quentin Tarantino style, which is where humour and very colourful surrounding or objects are used with a very dark storyline, a sort of oxymoron way of directing.

The sound used through out the trailer has a mixture of both Diagetic and Non- diagetic, for instance the sound of the waves was diagetic and the music was Non- diagetic. Also through this trailer the music used highlights the style of the movie. For instance there is a light hearted song played over such a dark storyline, which then moves on to tension building music. This also shows to the target audience what they would expect from this movie, as these show that this movie is and action thriller. At one point a mask is removed from one of the characters, on removal a non diagetic sound of a tiger raw appears, i personally feel that this is used to show authority and power within this character.

The mise-en-scene is also very representational of the type of movie this is, i feel this is used to enhance the style of this movie for instance the guns, masks and clothes all show the violence and authority of this movie, and they also show the surroundings, as they highlight the hot tropical country. All these are used to show the audience this what type of movie they will watch.