Movies communication

Surfing on the net and particularly on YouTube, I came across something very weird: a trailer which was not the official one of Requiem for a dream. A homemade trailer of which its aim was to make the “unaware” spectator -not to say simple-minded- think that R for aD was a romantic comedy…

Just ask one question: what is the real power of movies communication, especially trailers?

During the entire trailer, pictures (film scenes) and sentences are overlapping.

This trailer tells us the story of a lucky man for who all is alright when suddenly he becomes extra happier when he meets the woman of his life. The trailer-maker chose some details in the film which are totally extra-context with the sentence which follows; he chose the pictures according to what they emit. On his trailer, most of the faces are very smiling; the lights do no appear like hypocritical because we have a light music which gives us a feeling of “all is alright in a wonderful world” and I surprise myself in telling me that Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) could be the perfect home neighbor. Two wonderful scenes of the trailer are to be commented: the first one is when we see the love between Jleto and JConnelly who are at the edge of the sea with a beautiful landscape, ideal for the beginning of a wonderful love!!

In fact, their relationship is totally destructive for the both lovers.

This proves that we can show what we want and not inevitably the truth.

You totally can manipulate who you want with well chosen pictures and sounds and many other things; the message you want to convey in marketing is just a story of knowing how to manage with the senses especially visual and hearing.

You can see this trailer with taping Requiem for a dream trailer Remix on Youtube!!

Because my choice was to share with you the way for the trailers makers to convey the message they want you to record, I wanted to make a comparison between two trailers of the same film. Today with YouTube we find a lot of “homemade” fabulous discovering as funny as weird…

For instance, today we are going to talk about Requiem for a dream, a totally polemic movie about sex drugs…and that’s enough!! Surfing on YouTube, I found the official trailer and a parody which gives you indefinitely not the same feeling than the first.

Therefore we are going to prove that we can easily manipulate the unaware trailer spectator.

Requiem for a dream is really a film of which the stressed atmosphere is palpable. The film shows the progressive decline of Jared Leto, Harry, and his girlfriend Jennifer Connelly -…and the one of Harry’s mother! – by the drugs and maybe just “life sickness”.

The two main characters try to love each other but finally succeed in their own self-destruction. It is not a really optimistic film and it is surely the reason of its success: gross violence and aborted attempts to live… “Who I am where I want to go” etc…

So the trailer has to be attractive to seduce the future spectator.

Here, we are going to talk about the lights in the Requiem for a dream trailer which have a very huge role there. Indeed, we note that during the entire trailer, we are almost always in closed rooms and the light is emphasized on the angles to stress on the fact that the characters are virtually immured. Also, there are two types of lights during the trailer. Or there is no light on the filmed scene or almost none, because all the faces are better shadows than enlightening faces: in several scenes, faces are lightened with a blue shadow side and a pale other side; with very often, one light, very predominant, very blinding like full of hypocrisy.

When there is light, it seems to be superficial and the proof is, this is the television light for instance.

This game has an impact on the spectator who can’t stay insensitive in front of the uneasiness which is provoked. Interested, attracted, the spectator seems the feeling he is going to be frustrated if he does not watch the film!!

Now, let us read the next post which is going to deal with the parody of Requiem for a dream.

We can’t pretend study “movies communication” without studying one kind of the English speaking movie: the blockbuster. You can’t ignore what it is, because those are the most “marketed” kind of movies: it is the one which when you see the trailer on the cinema you tell yourself: “whaouhhhh, if I miss it, I’m totally lost!!” with a little trembling in your voice…

Take the best example of blockbuster: Armageddon and let us concentrate on the voice over because despite the full side of the trailer, it is the voice over which appears to me the most important to focus on.

Throughout the trailer, the voice over’s presence is predominant: it is very wheezy and solemn and has a monotonous tone; it makes us be respectful and attentive and engrosses us in an atmosphere of danger, and without letting us the time to realize, we become the hero and his team, and make us feel the responsibility for the fate of the planet.

The voice over begins the trailer by two sentences: “life is short, love is forever”: how could it be more general and more involved? It continues with the eternal questions about future which are asked by the “unwaited” arrival of an asteroid come to destroy the planet.

The voice focuses our concentration on the fact that with this film the result just can be gorgeous because action, love, humor, betrayal are fulfilled. The spectator tells himself I can’t miss it!! During one hour and half, the spectator is exposed on all these feelings: joy, pain, fear and anxiety, tender… He is totally manipulated by the voice over who really has a dialogue with him and finishes off with him by names he can’t ignore: “a Jerry Bruckheimer production, directed by Michael Bay”, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck Liv Tyler, so many names totally fashioned at that time!! So enjoy…

Let us talk about The Butterfly Effect trailer, a film with Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart  which deals with the chaos theory, according to which if we change one detail of the past we change dangerously the future. So this film asks that essential question: we are going to see if the trailer is at the height. The sounds of the trailers are very interesting. These one settle a stressing atmosphere: consequently the music is very tragic from the beginning with some solemn sounds and melody. We can notice the acceleration  of the rhythm and the pictures until a stop near the end of the trailer which corresponds to a relaxing moment in the movie when the pressure is climbing down …The trailer is about a race against time where the future spectator feel the will to watch the film. Moreover, all the voices of the trailer go to this sense; the man who comments that one has a very strong and dark voice throughout the trailer.

Compared to the speed of the music and pictures, the voice is slow and hoarse and by this way contributes to the dark and stressed atmosphere of the trailer.

Watch it, and enjoy!

My new blog deals with the different ways for the movies producers to promote their films. It can be trailers, posters, or websites for example. My mission is to share with you a marketing point of view about it; far from analyzing the stories, my blog will be dedicated to value the message the trailers makers want to convey; through the music, the sounds, the lights, colors etc…With hope it is going to interest you, and maybe give you the will to see the analyzed movies, I let you see by yourself how cunning the promotion makers are…or not!!

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