The last Song

The film poster I am analysing is the trailer and film poster from the “The Last Song”, a romantic drama that is well represented in both poster and trailer. A film poster is the audience’s first glimpse into the release of the movie and it’s very a very key aspect to determine whether the movie will be successful. Additionally the film poster the first montage of clips from the film and portrays the storyline, the clips are chosen specifically for the trailer in order to generate interest in the plot and engage the audience.

The target audience for this film is aimed mainly at young adults and teenagers, it touches on young love and relationships but also talks about the importance of relationships between family and the strong bonds they hold. Death and heartbreak

appears in this movie, the topic of death, cancer may be relatable, as it is a very serious and sad topic and may connect to others who have been affected by it. Perhaps an older audience from their mid-twenties to middle thirties would also enjoy this movie. A USP of ‘the last song’ is that the movie before produced was originally a book written by Nicholas Sparks. In the past has also written books with a similar meaning and genre, for example ‘Dear John’. Fans of his work may also be interested and this movie may appeal to them, as they are interested in Nicholas Sparks’ work.

The intuition has regulated who will be able to watch the movie by setting an age restriction, the age restriction for the last song is ‘parental guidance (PG)’ this means that it is suitable for around 8 or older with parental guidance. This will open the movie to a larger audience of all ages. The distributer of the film is ‘Touchstone Pictures’ which is owned by ‘The Walt Disney Company’ this company is well known. This means that the audience may recognise the distributer and may recognise similar movies to this genre that they have previously enjoyed.

Film posters are an important part of a promotional campaign as they are one of the first released aspects within the campaign. They establish genre, context and give the audience an idea of what is going on. Within this context the genre is established by the use of colour scheme, lighting and images chosen. The protagonist is gazing off into the distance as if she was daydreaming; the faded

photo of her love interest connotes romance as it’s portrayed as if she is thinking of him. The use of high key lighting in the distance behind the images may suggest the idea of death and going into ‘the light’. The light may also be seen as a sign of hope, which may give the audience hope, and suspense of the plot, which is yet to be seen. You can establish the genre and narrative by the use of colours and images, the images are very soft and the colours are very neutral earthy tones. This may suggest that the movie is very naturalistic and the use of images suggests love and relationships. The protagonists facial expressions may suggest she is looking for something else she also looks quite sad, you can tell this especially by her eyes this might suggest that this character is the main character who is going through something big and is effecting her emotionally which is physically affecting her facial expression. This gives the audience a slight understanding and clue to the narrative and glimpse of the movie from an image prospective.

The camera angles are a medium and long shot. The first two images are medium shots whereas the smaller image on the bottom left is a long shot where it is a whole body shot with the image of a male and female figure walking along the beach together this also connotes themes of friendship bonding and relationships. The use of three separately taken shots is important as they show three different characters and portray different events that come together in the movie.

Features of the poster include “From the author of ‘The notebook’ & ‘A walk to remember’, the use of this is to show the audience who may have previously enjoyed Nicholas sparks work become aware of this upcoming movie which may appeal to them, this may give the film a unique selling point. Additionally the three main characters are also placed on the poster with their names visible on the poster. This can also be seen as celebrity endorsement as these particular actors/actress are recognisable in a larger scale as they have stared and featured in other movies. Furthermore as they are popular actors/actresses they are bringing in their own audience of fans who may admire their work. The celebrity endorsement could also be seen as a unique seeing point as it may draw in audiences of the cast’s fans.

There is also a visible release date, this tells the audience when they are able o watch the movie. This information informs the audience and results in booking tickets to see the movie most likely on the date of release or the opening weekend. In addition to the tagline gives a hint to the narrative of the film and what is to come ‘ a story about family, first loves, second chances…” this gives the audience a big clue of the storyline and for the audiences who enjoy this genre will draw them into booking tickets to see the film when released.

The main film trailer is the first real glimpse the audience receives with clips and extracts from the movie. These give the audience a better understanding of the films storyline and establishes genre further to the audience.

The genre of the film is under ‘romantic drama’. As a trailer it should be able to convey the genre to this specific movie for the audience to have a clearer understanding and engage into it for the desire to watch the movie. This first shot is from the trailer of the official film trailer.

This shot helps to establish the genre as it tells the audience that there is some sort of romance that will progress throughout the film. It’s a medium shot which is slightly raised at an angle looking down on them kissing. The shot of them kissing connotes passion and young love. This may appeal to the audience if they enjoy this genre of film and may entice them to see the film released.

The use of instrumental songs in the background is used to set the scene. This is a typical code and convention, the music helps to provide an insight to the pace of the movie and it’s themes. It also links to a main feature of the movie, which is the element of the piano, and how it has an effect on relationships and the instrumental piano music used hints that the piano has a larger role and plays a part in the storyline of the movie. Additionally the use of voiceovers in the beginning and end of trailer helps to set the scene, it gives the audience an idea of what is happening and suggests ideas that the audience could imagine before the release of the film. The first 40 seconds of the trailer one of the main characters is reading a letter he wrote to his daughter. It helps to explain part of the storyline and before even going through half way of the trailer the audiences are aware of the type of movie they will be watching. Halfway through the trailer the song changes to a song from the soundtrack, which is written and performed by the main actress. This is good celebrity endorsement as it gives the actress and movie more publicity from her fans and interested audiences.

In this movie, just from the trailer you are able to identify that in this movie there are separate plots that lead from one to another and eventually connect. They show this in the trailer with a montage of clips faded with more established shots with music which is noise diegetic. This then has an affect on the

audience as they begin to understand the plot and storyline and can establish the genre with the codes and conventions. Within this trailer there is a variation of lighting, mainly however it is medium and very natural, depending on the time of the day. This suggests the audience that this movie is not forced and is realistic showing a love story, which the audience can relate to. Lighting is an important code and convention in any movie as it helps to set the scene and highlights important features, however it suits the genre of romantic genre as this is the type of lighting found in romantic films, if the film had constant low-key lighting it would not fit with the theme of the genre as they are more stereotypically found in adventure and horror films.

Different types of camera shots are used such as close ups, long shots and track shots. These are used to show different people’s prospective and different views of the images. Examples of these shots are shown in these screenshots, it’s important to show different shots and angles as without the variety the trailer will become boring and the audience may switch off and may not want to watch the film. Choosing the right clips, angles and shots are important within a trailer as it is the first glimpse of the movie the audience will see.

A variety in camera angles are important to captivate the audience and draw them in. the editing is soft and shots fade into another, the soft fade shows the transition and the slow progression within her relationships throughout this movie. Fade editing in movie trailers are a typical code and convention that this movie have followed to try and make this movie as successful as possible, it is also used regularly for trailers in order to merge clips together in smooth transition.

The Mise en scene of this movie is very casual and laid back, as they are in a small quiet southern beach town there is no need for them to have elaborate costumes and props. This casualty also doesn’t take away from the important elements and storyline, whereas in a horror movie or action costumes and Mise en scene may play a bigger role and would add to the movie. Additionally this makes the movie more realistic and relatable, which links back, to the audience and what they look for in a movie depending on the genre.

Throughout the trailer, there are small quotes, phrases and information written on separate slides. This information gives the audience an understanding of what is happening in the story, the time of year the movie is set to release and includes in snippets the tag line which is interwoven into several different overlapped shots. This is effective as the audience become more aware of what is going on and is able to pick up hints, clues and information about the upcoming film.

There is synergy between both the film poster and the trailer; this is shown, as image on the bottom left is taken from a scene in the actual movie, this helps the audience link the film poster to the movie. The synergy helps to keep constancy throughout the promotional campaign. Without synergy the campaign would not flow as the poster trailer and elements such as website would not flow and link, this would make it harder for the audience to make connections and links. Both poster and trailer distributions rely on the promotion of the film by people

spreading the word of the movie which is also known as ‘word of mouth’, this type of promotion is helpful as the word spreads across wider audiences it creates excitement and suspense for the first viewing of the film.

To conclude, both these promotional techniques – film poster and trailer are key elements in helping to make the film successful and grabbing the attention o the suitable audience. Both two different ways are very effective and different however still have the same effects and elements, which come together. The movie trailer tells the plot and narrative in a visual way with more depth included, however it also leaves the audience thinking and wondering what’s next with enough curiosity to watch the movie when released. Whereas the movie poster communicates the narrative to the audience through still images, the Mise en scene help to distinguish the movie and where it’s from, what year and what type of genre it is. The tagline gives the reader a small idea of what this movie is based on and the themes involved.

Both of these techniques are successful and are used for every movie, I think that the film trailer is the best promotional campaign, this is because although a film poster is effective an element with clips, hints and a sneak peak of the movie will appeal more to audiences. This is because they are able to take more away from it and would have a clearer first impression on the movie and have more of an opinion on this.