Thursday 10 December 2009

RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Comparing the ‘Up’ Teaser Trailer to the Theatrical Trailer


The contrasts between a teaser and theatrical trailer are a teaser trailer gives no hint away about the film’s narrative. They are simply shown to gain awareness of the film which is being released in the near future, and create curiosity from the audience to investigate more into this film. All trailers are designed to get their target audience into the cinema to watch their films, so they generate a profit. Teaser trailers are usually approximately 30 seconds long, whereas theatrical trailers tend to be in between 2-3 minutes.

Theatrical trailers show the exciting or humorous clips from their film to interest the consumers into going to the cinema. They show a range of clips which can appeal to a wide audience, even if they do have a specific genre and audience. From attracting a large audience, the producers can gain higher views and more profit.

I have already analysed the teaser trailer for ‘Up’ and now I will compare that to the 2.31 minutes long theatrical trailer.

It starts with a close up of the door with the sound of the doorbell ringing. This use of diagetic sound involves the audience to get them interested. An old man suddenly opens the creaky door, as he looks down, the camera shot jumps to an over the shoulder shot, to see a small boy scout reading from his hand guide, very carefully, reciting it word for word. This creates a comic feel, as with a close up of the old man, his face expressions very bored and fed up says ‘no’ in a very dull voice.

It then cuts to a fade to black, to show who the film is produced by, with a caption saying, ‘From the creators of ‘Toy Story’, attracting the same audience who enjoyed the Toy Story films. The kid continues to ask the old man questions creating a sound bridge between each scene. There is a close up of the kid’s hopeful face as he smiles, after being rejected once, so he continues. There is another fade to black, and another caption of ‘Finding Nemo’ logo. It cuts back to the kid, continuing his requests. With the use of shot reverse shots, the old man dully repeats ‘No’, and it cuts to show ‘Cars’ logo. The kid continues suggesting ways in which he can help the man and then he suddenly shuts the door, only for the kid to put his foot in the way, as shown with a medium shot. Throughout that sequence there is quiet, jumpy music playing in the background, creating a feeling for humour at the present situation the characters are in and give the film a relaxed feel for a family to enjoy. The music suddenly stops when the kid’s foot is in the door as he says ‘owwh’.

It cuts to the Walt Disney Pictures iconic castle image, and then a Pixar Animations Studio. This shows which companies are producing this film. The brand recognition could encourage the audience to see this film if they have enjoyed previous Disney and Pixar films. As it is animated it shows it is a children’s film to be enjoyed and as always it caters for adults as well, who enjoy the jokes in the film.

The music changes into a parody feel, as the old man sits on his chairlift slowly sliding down his stairs. As well as this non-diagetic soundtrack playing in the background, there is diagetic sound of the chairlift moving. And on top of this, is more non-diagetic sound of a narrator’s voice, telling the audience about this character. The music suddenly builds up to when the action starts with a tracking reverse shot of the old mans house and it starting to leave the ground. The music matches the voice over, when her says ‘his adventure is about to take off’ and the music relates to the actions in this clip.

There is a low angle shot of the house leaving the ground, with thousands of balloons, all different colours, opening up out from under a cover. The music becomes very dramatic, defining the action taking place. There is a low angle, two shot of two men looking in confusion at the house taking off from the ground, rising up into the air. The camera tilts up following the movement of the small, yellow house. The camera then cuts to a medium close up of the old man leaning out of his window yelling ‘Farrar boys.’ He then blows raspberries at them. This shows his happiness of leaving his town.

There is a bird eye view of a lawn, with ‘From Disney Pixar’ mown out in it, as the music changes into a happy, waltz mood. Next is an extreme long shot of the house flying in the sky, over the village, with birds flying next to the house. There is diagetic sound, of the old man reeling out masts made out of old sheets, out of his windows. A low angle shot of the bottom of the house with a caption saying ‘and the directors of Monsters Inc.’ Another extreme long shot of it flying through the sky at a fast speed, then the old man is enjoying resting in his old armchair. However, all of a sudden, his peace is interrupted by an unexpected knock on the door. The music stops to show his disbelief that his is flying high in the sky and someone is outside on his porch, knocking on his door. There is a long shot of him opening the door. The lighting goes dark in this clip to show the suspicion abut who is outside the door. He opens the door and is very shocked to see the little Boy Scout on his porch, clinging to the side saying ‘Please let me in.’ Again, the man refuses him. After a few seconds of nothing but the boy staying where he is and the sound of the wind whistling, the door opens again and the man lets him in.

It cuts to the house in the midst of a thunder storm, wit the music dramatic matching the atmosphere created, with the man yelling as the door swings open, and his belongings are smashing and flying out of the door. Again, to create the suspense, the lighting is very dark. It then cuts to a calm picture of a waterfall, with the music easing off, and a close up of the old man saying ‘where are we?’ His face expression confused. There is a long shot of him and the boy carrying the house through a deserted rocky landscape, then cutting to them meeting a talking dog. The shot is a three shot, which shows the characters shock when the dog starts talking to them. As the dog talks to them he introduces how his collar enables him to communicate with the humans. A funny clip of his spotting a squirrel is shown, which is a way off showing the film is funny and light-hearted.

It cuts to a map of the world with the house flying across it and the caption, ‘This summer,’ to show when the film is being released. It cuts to a close up shot of an exotic bird squawking in the old man’s face and his reaction to this. There is a clip of it playing with the little boy, throwing him up into the air and catching him. A long shot of the old man trying to shoe the bird away, with it simply mimicking his actions. This is another comic clip from the movie, which would encourage people to go see it if they enjoy humour. Another shot of the world, with a caption saying ‘the adventure of a lifetime.’ This tells the audience that this film is an adventure film.

There is then the montage of quick shots of action which occur in the film, with an upbeat tempo soundtrack creating the exciting action tension. There is then yet another caption placed on top of the map, which breaks up the action, and then more quick shots of even more exciting action are quickly edited. There is the dialogue from a character saying ‘does anybody know where they are?’ and all of a sudden the music stops and there is the sound of the boy being wiped across the windows of a ship creating another comic moment. The music starts again with clips of the house flying through the storm, the cuts to shots of the boy and the old man having fun together on their journey. As the boy quotes ‘with my wilderness explorer GPS we’ll never be lost’ he chucks it out of the window. There is an extreme long shot of the house floating in the clouds, with no sound but a whistle of the GPS falling through the sky. As they both look out of the window the boy says ‘oops’ it cuts to a picture of the sky with the caption ‘Disney Pixar’ in small and ‘Up’ underneath. The voice over also announces this title of the film so the audience know what it is called so they can find out more details about it if they wanted to. It cuts to a clip of the boy playing with the dog’s collar changing it into different languages, and then cuts to the date the film is released and its website. IT also shows that this film is released in 3D.

Here is the Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sGjILATANg

By Nikki Stock

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