(Looper, 2012, Dir. Rian Johnson)
As for the trailer, the style of editing and cinematography is what I am taking inspiration from, the trailer opens with exposition via voice-over explaining the world they live in, as well as explaining the job and role that our lead character "Young Joe" and how he lives a good live (equilibrium). It then introduces the disequilibrium, Young Joe is hired to kill his future self, however before he gets the chance, Old Joe escapes. Directly after, it instantly cuts to the chase, where now both Joes are being hunted by the criminal gang that hired Young Joe. Following this is a montage of actions scenes consisting of explosions, car crashes and gun fire, with techno music playing in the background (helping enforce the futuristic setting); occasionally cutting away to names of cast & crew.
Although I won' t be following this trailer specifically, it does have a lot of elements that I will be using, mostly through the editing and pacing of the trailer, how it starts of slow to explain the basic plot and then as soon as the disruption enters, it's nothing but fast paced action with action music playing in the background, then ending on a joke "this time travel crap just fries your brain like an egg.". As well as this, the music would also be similar, as the two are sci-fi movies so they would have a similar tone in order to follow conventions.
The connotations of this trailer and film show that this future is slightly dystopian apart from the Loopers, while everyone else seems to be living in poverty with abandoned buildings covered in graffiti. Within recent years this has become a convention of sci-fi films, whenever they are representing the future, it is usually a dystopian setting (e.g. Avatar, 12 Monkeys, Elysium). However, a way how this film goes against connotations is by making it look more realistic. Even though it is set in the year 2044, people still wear normal clothes instead of jumpsuits, drive vehicles with wheels and have regular guns rather than lasers; while most movies set 30 years in the future (e.g. Back to the Future II, Terminator) technology is far more advanced.
The audience for Looper is a more mature audience, as the film is rated 15 and uses a lot of graphic content (blood, sex and drug use) and is a more gritty film. It is also aimed at a more male demographic as all speaking roles in the trailer are men, and the film itself has a very limited female cast who barely appear in the trailer. As well as explosions, guns and violence, which usually appeal more to the male demographic. My film as well will appeal more to a more mature and male audience, the same way how Looper does.
In terms of Sound, this trailer uses the effect of having a character (in this case, the protagonist) do a voice-over giving exposition for the film, explaining the diegesis of the film and the protagonist's purpose as well as setting up the main story of the film. A recurring motif used within the trailer is the sound of the protagonist's (Joe) pocketwatch ticking, which is also iconographic seeing as this is a time travel film. Finally the music of the trailer which is a mixture of rock and dubstep. This is in relation to the genre which is a mixture of action and sci-fi, so while rock music is commonly associated with action and dubstep is related to science-fiction, so combining the two lets the audience know that this film isn't just one genre but a mixture of genres.
For Mise-en-Scene, the enviorments tell us that this is a dystopian future as already mentioned, as a lot of the buildings shown within the film are covered in graffiti which connotates that they are run down, bad neighbourhoods. Also the use of guns on multiple occassions within this trailer enforcing the action genre of the film, but there isn't really that much that enforces the sci-fi genre. In fact watching this trailer with no sound, it would be difficult to realise that it is a sci-fi. The only elements that connotate science-fiction are a hoverbike, which appears on screen for a second so people might just miss that. And the other element is the lighting of the shots and the use of lens flare, which is a common motif used in sci-fi's (E.g. Star Trek) to make things seem more futuristic. However this convention seems out of place here, even if it is a sci-fi, lens flare is normally used in enviorments that are more clean and sterile, rather than a dystopia.
In terms of editing, the trailer follows basic conventions, starts of slow in order to explain the diegesis and then use a montage near the end, usually to show the action in the film. However there is one interesting technique used in this trailer, and that is the shot-reverse-shot and extreme close-ups when introducing old joe and young joe. This creates an interesting juxtaposition as we have already been introduced to the concept of time travel, and the use of this editing means before they even explain, the audience already knows that these two are the same characters. There is also a use of match-on action during this trailer, normally whenever there is a gunshot or a punch, the scene then changes to another. The effect of this is that it makes the film feel even more action packed, as if every scene has action in it, even at times when there is none. For example the trailer ends with Young Joe pretending to fire a gun, yet the sound effect is still there.
As for cinematography, an interesting choice is that the trailer starts off with a close-up of Young Joe's pocketwatch, the reason why this is interesting is because usually films as well as trailers would start off with an establashing shot that is a long-shot, normally to show the location and setting of the film. However seeing as this film takes place in multiple locations, it could be seen as unnecessary. Another interesting thing is that even though this is a time travel movie set in the future, the pocketwatch (which as I said in Mise-En-Scene is a motif in the trailer/film) is very old fashioned, and even when the camera does cut to a long shot, it's in the middle of a corn field. So there is nothing within the opening of the trailer to indicate to the audience that this is a sci-fi film set in the future; so this could be to alter audience expectations of the tone and style of the film. Otherwise if they went in with the basic knowledge "it's a time travel movie set in the future" then they might have a very different idea of what the film would come across as, and those opening two shots instantly change what the audeince would be expecting.
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