Research and planning: trailer analysis 1

The first teaser trailer I will be analysing is Love and Other Drugs from 2010. The film was directed by Edward Zwick and was given an age 15 certificate. Analysing this romance trailer will give me more confidence when thinking of ideas for my own romance film trailer. I can see the way romance trailers flow and incorporate that into my own work.

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

This film is a romance and also includes drama features as well as comedy. It will appeal to a primary audience of 18-40 year old females as the trailer portrays a desirable lifestyle in terms of the male protagonist; tall, dark and handsome. The lifestyle in terms of a career is made to seem desirable to this audience as well as the city in which they live. From the trailer we see the main character, Jamie, slowly turn into the perfect partner, from the 'bad boy' 'player' image he was at the start of the film. We also see a woman come onto the scene that changes him into that perfect man.  Any woman of this aged audience would love the thought of the power of turning a bad boy into that perfect image of a partner. This is why the trailer will appeal to this specific audience I stated earlier.

NARRATIVE

From the trailer it is evident that there is a parallel narrative for the male character Jamie. This is shown through two key themes which are his work life and his personal life in terms of relationships. For the first theme to do with his work life, we are shown that his dad disapproves of him being a pharmaceutical rep, but we are shown in the shots following his dad disapproving, Jamie having success with the new drug and becoming really popular with the ladies. Even though he may be getting success from his work life, during the clips shown we are introduced to his love life changing with the influence of a woman called Maggie, a patient of a doctor he is trying to sell his drug to.  It states on a clip that Jamie has 'met his match' in terms of having a spontaneous love life, and this makes him want Maggie more because she doesn't reciprocate. As Jamie and Maggie grow closer, and Jamie develops more feelings for her that he's not used to, Maggie becomes ill and it rocks Jamie's world.  He realises he loves her and chases after her, this again for the audience is an idyllic thing to happen in their world, so feel more attached to the film.