Zoolander
The trailer of Zoolander lasts for two minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The trailer starts with an establishing shot of a city, which could be assumed as being New York, this brings connotations of a party lifestyle, which is instantly reinforced by an image of a club. There is a voiceover throughout the trailer that sounds very typical of an advertising voice, which makes the trailer feel very exaggerated in order to mimic real life. The music at the beginning is at a normal pace and resembles a ‘James Bond’ theme, which implies the protagonists association with an action lifestyle. As the trailer is clearly not a serious action film, it instantly shows a comical side to the film as it is using a contrasting role of stereotypical characters for the protagonist action hero. Instead of a sophisticated, intelligent and smooth character we are instead faced with a dim, vain male model. This also shows the conventions of comedy by portraying stereotypes in reverse roles. The party lifestyle is also reinforced by the use of celebrities within the trailer, such as Paris Hilton who all praise him, which shows his high status within the film.
The music changes when the title of the film is announced and once again when Zoolander’s secret life as a ‘man of action’ is revealed. As the secret life is revealed the pace quickens as the plot is being revealed in an intense exciting way to keep the audience entertained. The pace also needs to be increased as it shows the action in the film and builds up the hero in the film by showing what he might have to entail. The irony in this trailer is shown after the build up of action and then a voiceover explaining their hope to stop an assassination and then Ben Stiller shows his characters stupidity. This is ironic as the person who is meant to save a life has little intelligence, which brings a sense of doom over the character and gives the impression that things will go wrong for this character. This line is said with no music in the background to emphasise this trait. This is then the running theme as there are many shots of Zoolander banging his head, in a child’s room and performing break-dance fighting. This is also a stereotype of male models as they are seen to have little intelligence.
These stills show the exaggerated mise-en-scene, which represents the exaggerated characters to ensure that the audience can identify with the stereotypes.
Pineapple Express
The trailer of pineapple express is two minutes and twenty four seconds long. The trailer starts with a caption of a mans name and a time, this is then repeated slightly later with a different man and a different time. This suggests they both lead different lives but yet they merge together because of their love for cannabis. The issue of cannabis and drugs is a taboo issue and fits in very well with the alternative comedy genre. This issue is introduced in the first couple of seconds as Dale is seen smoking cannabis saying, ‘that is good weed’ and becoming weary of policemen, which you can see in the still below.
The drug dealer is portrayed with little intelligence and makes humorous comments throughout the trailer, when he doesn’t understand statements. In this trailer there is no voiceover but only captions, which suggests it has a more serious plot than other comedy films such as Zoolander.
The music in the trailer changes multiple times to create a calm atmosphere and also to help focus on what is being said. The language is also very crude and shocking such as lines like ‘it smells like god’s vagina’. When a humorous line is delivered the music stops to help emphasise the joke and focus our attention. There is also a build up of action in this trailer, which is created by short shots with fade, the slow motion aspect is also adding to the genre of comedy as it is mimicking action movies that use this affect.
Superbad
The trailer of Superbad lasts for two minutes and fifty-one seconds. The trailer starts with an image of two friends in their car talking to their mum. It instantly introduces the plot of two high school boys in their last year of A levels. The sarcastic and crude humour of this film is also introduced as the mum goes away and the friends comment about each other’s parents’ genital area, as a way of annoying each other.
The mise-en-scene in the still below portrays the stereotypical look of a ‘geek’, which is what the movie is all about. This is seen in alternative comedy when the geeks try to get a popular girl but the social conventions stand in the way. There is a line in which he says ‘We could be that mistake’, which shows he is eager for sexual activity and wants to be accepted among his peers.
In wanting to be accepted they created a fake ID to get their friends alcohol, which is also a typical issue within this genre as it is against the law and the audience can relate to it. There is also another issue of stupidity within trying to look cool as the fake ID has the name ‘McLovin’, which is not a real name.
This trailer also used captions instead of a voiceover and uses many different types of music. As in previous film trailers the music cuts out when a humorous line is delivered in order to create a bigger impact.
Within the trailer there is also an issue of corrupt cops as you can see in the still that the policemen are drinking. This creates a relaxed feeling, and goes against stereotypes, which is more comical.
Overall I have found many similar techniques used in trailers of this genre. These are:
- o Using Stereotypes
- o Changing the music multiple times
- o Stopping the music when a key line is being said
- o A ‘stupid’ character
- o Taboo issues
- o Exaggerated mise-en-scene
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