Wednesday 19 September 2012

Trailer Analysis - Graphics


Children of Men


This trailer makes good use of graphics to tell the story - it uses graphic texts to tell the story throughout the trailer, though manages to not overuse them. If I were to mainly use graphics as a means of telling the story, I would, like this trailer, limit myself to two graphic titles per act, and make sure they have a memorable and meaningful pattern with not too much text within them.

Marathon Man



This is a very different trailer to Children of Men, and is of course rather dated given that it is from 1976. I looked at this to show how older trailers have some similar conventions to modern trailers: while graphic text used to tell the story is often centered, acting credits are often put to the side of the frame to demonstrate the actor it is drawing attention to.

Drive


This trailer, like the trailer for Marathon Man, uses graphics mainly to demonstrate the actors involved, and also like the trailer above it puts the text to a side and artfully placed to be at a different side of the frame to the actor. It is clear that having acting credits at a side of the frame, and towards the end of a trailer, is a universal convention of trailers though these two trailers I have chosen to demonstrate this more individually choose to put the actual film title itself to the side of the frame.

Shame


One specific thing I noted about the graphics for this trailer is that when it announces the cast members, their surnames are in bold - this is a subtle yet in my opinion distinctive stylistic choice, as it gives a sense of importance to the actors involved and gives the trailer a highly professional edge. This technique is also used in the poster for the film American Beauty. 

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