Film trailers play an important role in selling a film to it’s audience, they help them choose a film that they think they will like but also the film featured in the trailer. Film companies can use other methods to sell a film, such a having a new or controversial subject, but by far the most common and effective way of getting a film noticed is it’s trailer. I am going to analyse three film trailers, Mission Impossible 2, Chicken Run and X-men. Each uses different selling points, but some similarities run through all of them.
Mission Impossible 2, or MI:2. It is an action adventure film, generally this genre mainly appeals to a male audience due to its speedy car chases and violent fighting scenes. However, MI:2 appeals to a female audience as well, as it stars Tom Cruise, a very good-looking actor. He is the first character to be reviled to us in the trailer and his name appears following an explosion in flame emblazoned writing that takes up the main part of the screen, the name of the film appears soon after in a similar fashion. The fiery colours represent a hot, dangerous, action packed film, as red means danger, in both nature and the modern world.
X-men is also an action film, but has a sci-fi twist to it. This is the first point an audience would get from this trailer as the first clip of the film is of two women dressed in what we would consider to be futuristic clothes, silver in colour to represent something, new, cold and mechanical. They appear to be startled by something, even fearful, we do not know what they are afraid of; this adds a sense of suspense and interest as the audience would want to find out what that something is, this is a good way to entice a potential viewer to see the film.
It differs from MI:2 as it does not show who stars in the film using text, however the actors featured would be well known to the genre of people the film is aimed at. Such as Patrick Stewart who is recognized by sci-fi buffs as “Jean-Luc Picard” captain of star trek.
The film Chicken Run is different to both other films as it is not an action film, but is a children’s animated comedy that has some aspects that appeal to an older audience, it has, in every sense of the phrase, “something for everyone.” Similarly to MI:2 the names of the actors doing the voices of the characters appear written on screen in big bold text, but they are also spoken by a voice over. They are actors whom the adults watching would immediately recognise, Mel Gibson, Julia Swahla, Jane Horraks and Miranda Richardson.
Similarly to MI:2, the stars are named before the name of the film is given, The name Chicken Run is at shown at the end of the trailer whereas The name Mission Impossible is given halfway through, but still after the actors were named.
A similarity in all three film trailers, perhaps in all film trailers is that the name of the company that produced the film is revealed first. A difference in three film trailers I chose is that they all have different companies, and the logos are shown in different manners, MI:2 was produced Paramount, X-men was produced by Twentieth Century Fox and Chicken Run was produced by Path�.
The logo for paramount is usually a two dimensional globe with the name Paramount surrounding it, but in the trailer for MI:2 it is three dimensional and the camera zooms in and pans around the logo accompanied to a pulsating drum rhythm. All this combined gives the logo a modern, hi-tech almost alive ambience. This reflects the fact that the film is edgy and there are a lot of gadgets and the like featured.
Similarly to MI:2, the logo for X-men has been slightly modified to reflect the film, as the usual logo is like a cinema building, it has been emphasised with the searchlights you sometimes see outside cinemas when blockbusters are showing in some American cities. This makes an audience imagine viewing the film in this setting, and so encourages them to go and see the film.
The logo for Path� in Chicken Run has also been modified to reflect the film; this is similar to both of the other films. The name Path� is shown against a plain background hanging as if from a child’s mobile, then the shadow of a rooster appears. Path� is the oldest film company out of the three and originally produced newsreels before television became a commodity, this helps people of an older generation relate to the film.
