The most popular time for going to see films is in the summer. This is because many children are on summer holiday from school. Going to see films is a form of escape for everyone; the cinema is reasonable priced and can be universally enjoyed. To ensure a film’s success as a summer blockbuster, film promoters use a number of techniques to appeal to their target audience and attract cinema goers. Films are promoted by many different forms of advertisement. Promoters use movie trailers or teasers to attract their target audience to gain interest and make the target audience really want to see the films when it is released.
Movie trailers or teasers can be seen on television through advertisement and also can been seen on the internet. Films are also advertised by poster and through radio. This summer a number of big blockbuster films are about to hit the screens. Due for general release this summer are films like G-Force, Aliens in the attic, Harry Potter and the half blood prince, Ice age 3, Bandslam and Transformers 2. In the following essay, I intend to explore the way the film, Ice age 3: Dawn of the dinosaurs is promoted using posters and trailers.
The poster for the film, Ice age 3, shows a picture of the characters Sid who is a male sloth, Diego who is a male saber-tooth tiger and a new character called Scratte who is a female saber-toothed squirrel. Sid, Diego and Scratte are on the right hand side of the poster appearing out of the forest. Sid and Diego facial expressions seem to show that they are scared of something. Scratte facial expression shows she is being flirty. On the left hand side of the poster is Manny who is a male mammoth and Ellie who is a female mammoth. Manny and Ellie are also appearing out of the forest.
Manny’s facial expression seems to show that he is also scared of something. Ellie’s facial expression shows she is curious. In the middle of the poster is scrat who is a male saber-toothed squirrel, he is holding on with both arms to a dinosaur mouth and holding on to an acorn with one of his feet. In the background of all the characters you can see mountains, sea and land. You can see the characters are high up in the mountain, above ground. You can also see three birdie dinosaurs flying in the air. At the top of the poster you have five actors or actress names to tell you who are playing some of the main characters.
At the bottom of the poster you can see the title of the film so you know what it is called. Colour is used to attract the viewer’s attention. A successful film poster will accomplish attracting the target audience and persuade them to come and watch the film. Camera angles are used to position the viewer so that they can understand the relationships between the characters. These are very important for shaping meaning in the film as well as in other visual texts. The genre of the film is implied by animation. The violence depicted in this animation is very discreetly implied with a light tone and a very low sense of threat or menace.
Also, the humorous tone and stylised nature of the animation serve to lessen the impact of those scenes that contain violence. Audience interest is generated by identifying and appealing to the target audience is often integral to the content, style and genre of the film. I think the poster is effective because it targets the audience they want to attract to come see the film. They have used backgrounds and colour effectively and also used graphics for impact. The film trailer shows at first who produced the film which is 20th Century Fox.
The trailer shows you some scenes from the film with a narrator at the beginning describing and promoting the film to make it interesting and giving the movie edge. Then the characters take over, and say their lines in the scene. It is implied that the film will be animated. The viewer is made to anticipate the illusion that he or she is physically present in the animated world, a witness to the events and characters involved in that world. It is the film’s narration that dictates what the viewers see, how they see it and when. Humor in the film viewer is a response to this predicament.
It has been proposed that interest is the central emotion in film viewing. Interest is the urge to watch and actively anticipate further developments in the expectation of a reward. The film’s control of the viewers’ perceptions of events imposes on them special attitudes towards those events and characters. The events themselves together with the attitudes coloring them determine the viewers’ emotions. Sound is used in trailers to great effect because it helps us tell some of the story. Not only does sound give us a sense of direction, but it also gives us a sort of equilibrium and depth to our environment.
Even in a quiet room there is still some sound. We always expect to hear something in the film. The people who create trailers often begin their work while the movie is still being shot. The trailer may be created at agencies while the movie itself is being cut together at the studio. Thus, the trailer may contain footage that is not in the final movie, or the trailer editor and the movie editor may use different takes of a particular shot. I think the trailer is effective because it attracts viewers to come see the film when it is released by showing snip its out of the film.
Ice Age 3 is also available to be seen in 3-D at selected cinemas. In film, the term 3D is used to describe any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the illusion of depth as seen by the viewer. The technique usually involves filming two images simultaneously, with two cameras positioned side by side, generally facing each other and filming at a 90 degree angle via mirrors, in perfect synchronization and with identical technical characteristics.
When viewed in such a way that each eye sees its photographed counterpart, the viewer’s visual cortex will interpret the pair of images as a single three-dimensional image. New techniques are currently being developed in interactive movies; introduce an extra dimension into the experience of viewing movies, by allowing the viewer to change the course of the movie. In traditional linear movies, the author can carefully construct the plot, roles, and characters to achieve a specific effect on the audience.
Interactivity, however, introduces non-linearity into the movie, such that the author no longer has complete control over the story, but must now share control with the viewer. There is an inevitable trade-off between the desire of the viewer for freedom to experience the movie in different ways, and the desire of the author to employ specialized techniques to control the presentation of the story. Computer technology is required to create the illusion of freedom for the viewer, while providing familiar, as well as, new cinematic techniques to the author.
