looper trailer analysis

Looper trailer analysis

The genre of this movie is an action sci-fi, the first clear indication that this trailer is going to have an action element to it is the fight scene, roughly 30 seconds into the trailer, and this action carries on throughout the trailer in multiple scenes. The first glimpse of the sci-fi element in the trailer is the establishing shot of a city which appears to have much more advanced features compared to a modern day city, also incorporating time travel with the trailer shows that this movie will not just be set in modern day, proving it to be sci-fi as it will also be set in the future.

The trailer targets an audience from ages 15 to possibly 40 and mainly male. It does this firstly by its genre of action sci-fi which is an attractive genre for the majority of males, but it could possibly push the target audience boundary to the ages of 40 because one of the main characters is played by Bruce Willis, and males of that age could then relate to previous movies he has starred in, which is also one of the films unique selling points.
Another unique selling point this movie has is the original idea for the plot. From what is revealed to the audience in the trailer we can see that the movie will be about a time travelling assassin who is given contracts from people in the future, to assassinate targets who have been sent to the present day to be killed by the assassin, who seems to be our main character. However, the plot seems to have a twist as this character is forced to kill his self from the future, and fails to do so, causing him to hunt his self down in the present day before the person who wants him dead finds out.

The film trailer lasts for 2:30, and has a montage of roughly 86 camera shots all edited together, with a consistency to use fast paced transitions of fade to white, then fade to shot. The first example of this is the conversation and fight in the first scene of the trailer, with most transition being backed by a non-diegetic beat, giving the viewers another hint towards its genre of action.
Non-diegetic sound in this trailer is used mainly when transitioning to another scene, but the non-diegetic, electronic music which begins playing towards the end gives the viewers the feel that the movie is going to be truly action packed. The genre of music at the end appears to be dubstep, of which its popularity is continually growing, with it being featured on many recent movie trailers and video game trailers. The main USP with this genre of music is it attracts the younger half of the target audience, boosting their interest in the trailer, and therefore making them more likely to want to go watch it.

The diegetic sounds in this trailer consist of mainly dialogue of both voice over and conversations, both which explain the narrative to the audience. The voice over does this particularly well, by revealing most of the plot in just one line of speech. “In the future time travel is outlawed, used only in secret and by the largest criminal organisations. When they need someone gone, and want to erase any trace of the target ever existing, they use specialised assassins like me, called loopers. The only rules is never let your target escape, even if the target is you”, this line of speech reveals a lot about the plot and tells the audience that the main character the movie will be focusing on will be the assassin, as the voice over is spoken from his point of view.

The way the trailer represents characters is rather unique compared to most modern films as the two main characters it focuses on are the same person from different time periods. There is immediately a sense of a strange bond between the two as the older character knows everything about the younger and more, and the younger knows a lot about the other also, almost as if they were family, farther and son perhaps. Also they are both shown to be on the run from someone, at least for the time being anyway, as the younger character has to avoid his boss until his target is dead, and the older character needs to avoid both the assassin and the assassin’s boss.

The use of titles in the trailer are shown to firstly advertise the film’s production companies, but they are shown roughly a quarter of the way through the trailer, after the fight scene, they are edited into the transition between this scene and the city establishing shot. The production companies names used are tristar, film district and endgame. ‘this fall’ a trailer will often tell the viewers when the movie will be shown unless it’s a teaser trailer. ‘The only thing to fear’ ‘is yourself’, once again this reveals more about the plot to the viewers.

Here are a few codes and conventions and picked up on while watching the trailer, that enforce its genre of action sci- fi:

·         The trailer includes a fight scene

·         Props such as guns are used to emphasis the action

·         Establishing shot of the location (advanced city)

·         The trailer establishes a problem, and the audience is left to wonder whether that problem is sorted out

·         Voice overs are used to explain the narrative

·         Criminal activity is important to the plot, like a lot of action movies

·         The movie appears to have scenes in the future, giving it the ability to be more flexible with the realism

·         Slow motion is used in some scenes, a lot of action movies do this to create a much more tense moment in the movie