Analysis of 3 film trailers

By jake thorne

Goodfellas

In the trailer of the ‘gangster’ film Goodfellas, the title of the film is shown three quarters of the way through the trailer & at the end of the trailer, this is so the title is clearly conveyed & so no ambiguity occurs. Also the title being at the end, it means it keeps the viewer watching & add suspense & lets the audience grasp the gangster genre. One of the main anchors of this trailer, is the fact that is shows the name of the director - Martin Scorsese at the beginning of the trailer, this is because he is a very well known director & is highly associated with the gangster genre so, this makes his name at the beginning a unique selling point. Another big selling point is the name of the big actor - Roberto De Niro - who is also highly associated with the gangster genre due to his parts in the Godfather part II so his name in the trailer is also a unique selling point.

The trailer itself shows a man called Henry, doing antisocial ‘gangster’ thing, like starting fires, smashing cars, counting money, burying bodies, with his mum shouting “you look like a gangster” which shows this film is going to have action in it and this man Henry is going to be a culprit.

The music playing in the trailer is 1970’s light hearted cheerful music, which completely contrast with all the blood, violence & crime that’s going on in the trailer, this is done on purpose by Scorsese to fit with the film in an oblique way. The main reason for having these songs, is Scorsese wanted the soundtrack to be of the same time as the film was set, this causes quite an eerie & creepy feeling within the trailer.

There is a voice over with the trailer & this voice is Henry, saying how he wanted to be a gangster, which gives a sense of reality & lets the audience establish a relationship with the character. This voice was chosen as is has undertones of swagger & confidence, which connotes the gangster genre.

The shots used in the trailer are sped up, so the audience, can see some important part and are more likely to be drawn in & want to see what happened due to this. At the end of the trailer this shots are sped up further, to create a montage, which is another convention of this genre.

Notorious

Just as with the Goodfellas trailer, the title of Notorious appears at the end, and this is for the same reasons, so as to keep the audience watching & to add suspense, but with Notorious there is also another reason - so the audience can grasp the storyline & realise that it is a biographical film about Biggie Smalls.

Because the film is a Biopic about Biggie Smalls, this becomes the unique selling point, so there are no names of actors in the trailer, as these are not the selling points.

The trailer focuses on several shots, involving different aspects of his life - not just the music career e.g. selling drugs, running with a gun (lots of crime), performing on stage etc.

The music that plays with the trailer, are some of biggie smalls biggest hits like ‘hypnotize’ this gives a sense of realism as he actually made these song & it shows that the film is about a big star.

The voice over is Biggie Smalls voice, which again represents him & shows that the film is about him, and introduces him so people can relate to his voice, and it also creates an emotional pull towards him as well as making it relative to him, and show it is a biography about him.

The shots are sped up to show different aspects of the film, not just him involved with his music career but more personal aspects like the relationship with his child and his involvement with crime, showing a more broad film and that it is not one dimensional. The speed alters dramatically as the start it shows biggie speaking with slow images appearing on screen, whereas at the end it goes into a quick montage of shots, from him running from police to him performing on stage, showing a broad range of what the film contains. The information in the last scene is the website www.notorious09.com this is so the audience gets a direct link to find out more information about the film. The trailer is more effective as it shows all the different aspects of the film, not just the gangster aspect of crime, but the moral issues of marriage, and it shows a broader view of the film not just one shot. You would expect to see this film before crime programmes like The Wire and the Sopranos as it give a direct insight and relation into the genre.

Rock ‘n’ Roller

This trailer starts off with a very deep voiced for the voice over with a camera angle slowly zooming in on a thing figure with a gun in a dark room which connotes a kind of drug den, whilst the voice over says the words ‘Rock ‘n’ Roller’, the skinny guy pulls out the gun, drug are also heavily involved with the rock scene, so this back up the first connotations of the camera shots. After zooming right up to the skinny mans face rock music immediately cuts in, ad the viewer see’s the trailer become more of a new age but stereotypically Guy Ritchie gangster film, as this is the unique selling point of the film – being directed by Guy Ritchie, as he is very well known for creating great British gangster films. So this would also connote that this film could one day be a classic & will be on the same level as Lock Stock etc. in the next few clip in the trailer, the camera focuses on the ‘Old School’ London gangster & then switches to the ‘New School’ Russian gangsters trying to muscle their way in, which shows that these two group are going to have differences & end up fighting. The trailer also shows another group – ‘The Wild Bunch’ this is a convention of Guy Ritchie films as there is always three main groups in his films, at it is nearly always the outside group that wind and comes off best, so this simple convention shows viewers that this is going to follow the conventions of his previous film, which will please a very large audience as Guy Ritchie films are very popular in Britain, so this will capture the target audience. There are also of long – medium shots in this trailer that zoom into close ups, as well as a lot of close ups on peoples faces from the shoulders up on the big actors I the film, the big actors are nearly all English as well which will appeal to a large target audience, and also shows that this film is aimed at the English market.