Research and Planning: trailer analysis 2

The second trailer I will be analysing is The Lucky One from 2012.  This film was directed by Scott Hicks and was given a 12A certificate. This again will help me understand the narrative to a romance film.  This shows, as well as my first trailer, that there is always something that goes wrong in the storyline when everything seems to be going great in terms of the characters' relationships.

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

This film is a romance with elements of drama as the film's storyline has the ability to make the audience emotional. This film will appeal to a primary audience of 18-40 year old females as they could potentially relate to the narrative in terms of trouble with ex-partners and struggling to fall for someone they think could have a negative impact on their child's life. For women of this age group, the male character will appeal to them as he is seen in the army being near bombs and weapons and this to a woman gives off a strong and powerful feel. However as we hear by the voiceover of the main male character, he needs to find this girl to thank her for saving his life. For the audience this will make them feel emotional as for any woman, for a good looking man to come all that way to find you, and to only thank you, is quite special.

NARRATIVE

By watching the trailer it is clear that Logan the main character is in the army fighting in a foreign country.  We are shown him finding a picture of a girl in the rubble, then seconds later a bomb is dropped, but as he survives the bomb attack, he feels the girl in the picture protected him. So we hear as a voiceover Logan telling us that he is going to find this girl and thank her for saving his life. We see him walking in various shots with his dog, showing us that he's been travelling for a while to find this girl. Then as we see the shot of where he first lays eyes on Beth, the girl in the picture, we see Logan's face look amazed as if he's never seen anything so beautiful before. As he is so amazed by Beth it seems as though he forgot why he was there and ended up getting a job with her instead of telling her the truth. The grandma is shown being nice to Logan by giving him the job whilst Beth is not happy about it. We are shown Logan working hard and doing his job, then the little boy asks questions about Logan and Beth, his mother, seems awkward when speaking about him.  Then when she sees how he is with her son, we see her mood change towards him. Slowly we are shown Beth watching Logan and falling for him when really she doesn't want to.  We are shown soon after an aggressive man, which is Beth's ex and the little boy's dad, being aggressive towards Beth and still wanting to know things about her life.  Beth doesn't want him in her life so she snaps but the ex won't let go of her when she says so, then Logan tells him to listen to her, making Logan look like the knight in shining armour. Logan becomes protective over Beth and this makes her tell the aggressive man straight and Beth and Logan's relationship grows stronger. But then the ex once again ruins things by finding the picture of Beth that Logan found then things between them both go downhill. We hear the ex putting negative thoughts into Beth's head about Logan because he is jealous. But when Beth's mother talks sense to her they can't stay apart much longer so they come to terms with the fact Logan came especially to find her and stay togther.

REPRESENTATION

Logan, the main male character, is portrayed with a soft and sentimental side, as well as protective over Beth and her child. Logan represents young fit men that appeal to the primary audience of this film. Beth's ex is represented as aggressive and possessive over Beth and their child, we can see from the trailer that he does not like Logan acting as a father figure over the child so comes across as potentially violent.  This represents the stereotype of an absent father. Both Beth's ex and Logan have positions of power in the trailer as we see that Logan comes from an army background and Beth's ex is in the police force.

Beth is the stereotype of a single mum trying to do the best for her child, to try and stay strong and independent when raising her son.  However Beth is easily influenced by men showing the conventional emotional side to her. The grandma is also very stereotypical as she is shown to be wise, fair and kind. She is supportive towards Beth's decisions when raising her son and is friendly to Logan when he comes to their farm. Both Beth and the grandma are good with children, strong minded and show importance towards raising the child and making a good home.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Cinematography-  a tilt was used when showing the destruction the bomb made in the war scene. A worm's eye view showed the helicopter flying above, then a low angle shot of Logan's face when he was blown up.  An over the shoulder two shot was used when the dad grabs Beth and swings her around aggressively.

Sound- diagetic sound of the helicopter flying and the bomb exploding. A non-diagetic sound of beeping noise to symbolise a heart monitor created tension when watching the trailer. Two different scores were used during the trailer to emphasise the change in the storyline.
 

Editing- a montage of jump cuts are used to show the time in the storyline move on. Slow motion is used to emphasise the impact of the bomb explosion, more jump cuts were used to show aggression and to tell the story in more detail. Fades were used between most shots to give off the romance genre.
 

Mise-en-scene- the sun setting at the beginning of the trailer shows the romance side, rocks used on Logan's face when the explosion goes off shows the extent of the damage it caused. A modern coloured photograph was used as the main link in the storyline. This shows the modern age of the film. All the props used in the family house make it feel more warm and 'home-like' and finally all of the action in the trailer is mainly focused around that house showing how much it means to their family.