The expendables was produced in 2010 and gained a good rating of 6.5/10 from IMDB. It budgeted $80 million and mad a net profit of almost $200 million which sows that it was quite successful. I felt as if the movie was very exciting and packed with action plus at the time, it was highly anticipated due to all the recognized stars that played in this film. Suprisingly, Django Unchained had a higher budget than this and yet this had more action packed into it plus it used different locations. This may mean that Django spent more on advertising and thus was more successful. Overall, Django spent $100 million which is $20 million more than the expendables and the Expendables have more stars in it.
The trailer starts off very dark and it is filmed at night which gives this specific trailer the sense of mysteriousness. This is supported with the non-diegetic sound in the background which also adds to this. We see fade shots of the motorcycles followed by an extreme close up of a specific motorcycle which has the logo of the expendables. The reason it first shows a number of motorcycles is to tell the audience that the expendables is a group of people.
This Trailer consists of a narrative which is a voice-over. The only other trailer that I have analysed which also has a voice over was grown ups. A film such as Grown ups having a narrative is understandable as it's target is a family audience so a voice over will make it more understandable to all ages. Whereas, I believe that a voice over is used in the expendables to give an old fashioned film as older trailers would tend to have voice overs in comparison with the modern era so the expendables wanted to show that they have a rather historic line-up and they did so by using a voice-over.
I believe that this movie trailer really shuns its unique selling point more than any other movie. This movie consists of some legends of the action genre who can all be seen in the trail. It's got actors such as Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarznegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone among many more. Having watched the movie, I know that both Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarznegger play very mediocre roles yet they are given as much time as some of the other expendables members. The reason I feel they wanted to include these characters in their trailer is because they are huge so it will attract additional interest in the movie.
Action is almost introduced straight after you get a quick glimpse of each characters. They are introduced via quick fades and only half of their face is showing which adds to their dark and mysterious theme. you see explosions and gun shots constantly which just shows how action orientated they want this movie to seem.
A typical theme that I have identified from these action trailers is that the storyline or plot actually begins after the film institution name. The action movies tend to show action before the storyline to gain the audiences attention. This is also shown in the Expendables as we see the explosion but we do also get introduced to the characters as well.
The use of sound is consistent but I believe that the sudden pieces of text which comes in such as " A job that nobody wanted" really helps sell the movie to the audience showing that it will be a difficult mission which is what the second part of the trailer is trying to emphasise.
The use of camera shots is much more evident in the second trailer as opposed to the first. We first have an establishing shot of the Island in question which tells the audience where the majority of the movie will be set. This is followed by a quick snapshot of the money which they will achieve if the succeed in this mission. The effect on the money suddenly changes to Black and White which gives a lot of prevalence to the money. This is the shot which really gives an indication of the job roles of these expendable members and the first time I have seen this trailer, I got the impression that they were hired assassins. There is also a very simple shot/reverse/shot used when Stallone is talking to Schwarznegger in the church and this suggests that they are rivals. This was a really clever section to include because it would make the audience believe that they will face each other in the movie and that's why the shot/reverse/shot was so successful but obviously I know that Schwarznegger didn't appear again in this expendables movie. This really tells me a bit about the way in which trailers try to sell their movies and can be seen as misleading information but it is ultimately there to make films successful. A movie which did this and one that I've analysed was the Devil Inside but their trailer was highly successful.
The target audience for this trailer is very much drawn in by the unique selling point which is the huge quantity of stars that are previewed but also the number of action scenes within a short trailer will definitely gain the audiences attention. Furthermore the trailer tends to play on the lighting a fair bit which is also complemented by the sudden sound of gun shots and explosions which are ultimately a means of gaining their target audiences attention.
We witness the title "Expendables" for a very short period of around 2 seconds. Despite this; the title still leaves a lasting expression as due to the way it stands out. This trailer stick with the "Dark" concept more or less throughout the trailer with a few exceptions where this is one of them. The light in the background really does leave a lasting expression but the screen is black just before and after the title which emphasises the title and is something that I am thinking of doing in my trailer.
Overall, I believe that this trailer has taught me a lot on how to sell a trailer to the audience. This is by feeding potential ideas to the audience which will ultimately gain the interest of the audience. Furthermore, the way in which they tried to sell their unique selling point really showed me that for our trailer, we should try to show off our unique selling point as quickly as possible. There has been a lot to write about this trailer yet I feel as if other trailers offered more information about the movie but that is one of the benefits of producing a action trailer.
Here is the Empire magazine front cover for the Expendables. It was released in 2010 and the genre of this movie is action. Straight away we see the Unique Selling Point which is the star studied acting line-up. The magazine consists of 3 characters as the central image and all three of these actors have become a success as individuals and so each character will gain their own audience to gain an interest in this movie.
The background is completely full whereby no white is visible. There is an explosion behind the characters which really emphasises the genre of the movie itself and really makes the magazine stand out. Furthermore, there is the usage of props whereby the most evident being the gun which also shows the genre of the movie. The fact that Stallone is smoking a Cigar shows that he isn't scared of explosions or guns which can make the audience have a slight idea of the storyline and the fact that they are hired assassins.
The three characters are all wearing as well as their props which are also black. I feel that this is the case to make these expendables characters look secretive but also gives nothing away. I believe that they are also wearing black to make the background stand out.
There is a little but effective effect on the logo whereby there are orange sparks from the fire overlapping it which makes the magazine feel more real and almost 3-D like. Furthermore, The three characters are looking directly at the audience with a serious look telling the audience that they are fighting for something. The prop in Bruce Lee's hand emphasise the fact that this movie is of an action genre.
This magazine cover surprisingly has a lot going on in regards to text and what's included in the magazine. I feel that this particular magazine cover can get away with it though as the explosion in the background really makes the centralised image stand out more than any other magazine cover that I have analysed and so they can afford to insert additional information and attempt to sell the magazine even more.
The target audience will be drawn into this magazine front cover of the unique selling point which is how famous the actors on the cover are and also the explosion in the background which will ultimately make this magazine shine out next to all the other magazine covers. The target audience will also gain interest because of how secretive the characters seem and this will make the go and research the movie.
When looking at the characteristics of these three characters, is seems like Stallone; who is in the middle seems the most mysterious as he has the most props consisting of a watch, glasses and a cigar which means that he is giving away no facial expressions and thus the audience can't really take much from him. Despite this, he is given most prevalence as he is at the front, middle and looks the biggest out of the three. When looking at Jet Li (On the Left); he looks the weakest as he is carrying the gun. This is supported as he looks the smallest in comparison to the other two. Jason Statham on the right gives nothing away but he looks rather strong.
Overall, this Magazine front cover has taught me how to differentiate our magazine covers from others through the explosion and how two colours can make the cover stand out. Furthermore I have learnt that making people wanting to know more is the objective of these covers and so putting minimal information such as expendables facial expressions makes the audience want to search around for more information about the movie. This cover also shows how to offer levels of prevalence if you have more than one important character and how I can use props to make one character seem stronger or weaker than the other.
Here is the Poster of the Expendables movie which is very much similar to the magazine cover but a lot more simplistic in the sense that its sole purpose is to promote its movie whereas the magazine front cover had a lot of information around it which reduced the reverence of that front cover for that specific film. This is one similarity that I have noticed in all of my posters; that text is kept to a minimum as posters are more of a collectors item that can be hung up in your house. The size of the font of the title on the poster is considerably smaller in comparison with the magazine front cover which supports the fact that text should be kept at a minimum and cover as little space a possible within the poster. I believe that the cover had such a big title so the audiences attention would be firmly fixed of the expendables as opposed to the other movies that empire was trying to promote along the bottom of the magazine front cover.
This poster really shuns off its unique selling point which is its famous line up of stars as it shows seven actors who have won awards whether it be in Hollywood or UFC all around the world. The font of these actors names are in black which really makes them stand out thanks to the explosion in the background. Although it may be one of the smallest pieces of text within this poster, it will be amongst the first pies of information to be identified by the audience and this really shows how imperative it is to set your text in the right area to gain the audiences attention.
There is a sub-title on the top of the poster which helps tell the target audience and the genre of the move. Firstly, the genre is shown quite simply as the word "Action" is used. This will re-enforce to the audience that the movie is going to be an action film which they would have guessed if they had seen the cast. Moreover the target audience will get attracted via the use of the word "Awesome." This word is mainly used by teenagers and young adults thus this poster will appeal to those two groups. Also this word can be seen as to be part of popular culture as you probably wouldn't see someone from high culture saying the word awesome. This then tells me that they are aiming this move for the upper/lower middle classes.
I have already stated the age range of the target audience and now I will state the gender that this movie will side to thanks to the poster. I believe that this movie is predominantly aimed at a male audience. This is because the centralised image on this poster consists of three serious looking men. Some could argue that this will attract more of a female audience but their target audience is of a considerably younger age than these three men. Furthermore the use of props such as guns and cigars are ones which are associated with males through the media along with the explosion in the background which finalises the fact that this poster and the movie itself is aimed at mainly a male audience..
Overall this poster has taught me how to aim my poster and trailer not only to a specific age, but a gender as well. Furthermore how the use of sub-titles can really attract your target audience whereby the use of language can be a clinical factor. Moreover, how the use of language can also attract a certain class. As my movie will be based around a lower class boxing area in England, the language that will be used is going to be rather Lower Class with a hint of a Cockney accent and so if I can incorporate a Cockney word within our poster, then it will clearly tell the audience who our movie will be aimed for. Also, how the use of colours can make some items stand out more than others which is on factor that I will really have to think long and hard about for our film poster.
Comparison between Trailer, Magazine Cover and Poster.
The first point of comparison which I have identified between all three is the common theme of not giving much away. this is done in the trailer as the lighting is dark for the majority of the trailer. The Magazine front cover and poster use the same technique to follow this theme. This is done from the plain facial expressions given by the three characters in the central image I which they give off as little information as possible.
Another point of comparison is that the unique selling point is vital for this movie and is shunned out in all of the three types of advertising. The unique selling point is how famous the main characters are which they try to sell in similar ways but it shows me how powerful a unique selling point can actually be and makes me think about the unique selling point that we should have in our movie as I feel that a unique selling point is one of the crucial factors that leads to how successful the movie is ultimately going to be and helps differentiate the movie in question to any other movie on the market.
The magazine front cover and poster have exactly the same centralised image yet I feel that they are giving away a lot of information that differs from each other. For example, I have learnt that the poster is normally aimed at just the one movie whereas a magazine cover promotes a number of movies but gives one more prevalence. That being said, it seems to me that that a magazine front cove is more important than a film poster as a magazine front cover will attract a wider audience as it offers a lot of information. Despite this, the trailer is probably most important for a movie success as it will be shown on television and thus be watched by a huge audience. This is why Trailers are probably the most expensive method of advertising. All three though have their own purpose and this analysis has taught me a lot.
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