The characters are also introduced by name on the screen, and for each phrase, the trailer showed clips of their lives and gave you information about there backgrounds, which may encourage people to watch the film if they want to find out more. Other effects the trailer had on the audience are that it is a light, happy film because the lighting was bright throughout the piece and also the music is lively and jazzy. The shots were shown at an average speed and the trailer mostly showed the funny parts of the film, which may have been intended to get people to watch. Another part which stood out was when Minnie Driver turns her head very slowly towards the camera. The film was family orientated as it had funny parts and parts about love. The stars names were given in writing on the screen too; they were David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. These were quite well known stars which the director took as a positive thing as the audience can relate to them. Information given at the end, the tagline ‘Straight from the heart’ which is a pun as it shows it’s a romance film but also shows the story behind the film which is that the women has a heart transplant.
The second trailer the ‘Matrix’ showed people individually. The trailer was dark and had flashing lights. From the trailer I understood the genre was sci-fi. The trailer showed short and snappy images of fight scene. The music was like a train travelling on bumpy tracks and getting faster as it went further. The Matrix has lots of special effects, such as when the mirror melted over a characters hand, when the character slows down when the bullet passes him and also a character climbs up a wall. Characters names were given, one being Keanu Reeves and the other Lawrence Fishbourne who are quite well known actors. Keanu Reeves turns very slowly and looks at the camera. The shots were shown very quickly but a lot of different clips were used. In this trailer there was no dialogue which was effective because it made you concentrate on the images. Information was given after the film; the release year ‘1999’, also the tagline was ‘The Matrix will have you.’ Additional information was a website www.whatisthematrix.com which will make the audience intrigued to answer the question “what is The Matrix?”
The effect the trailer had on me was that it made me fascinated and made me want to see the film. The intended effect the director tried to put across was to make the audience excited about the film to make them want to watch it, which I think worked. The short, quick images tantalized the audience. The increasing tempo of the music was really effective because it felt like it was building up to a spectacular ending which would be in the film.
The two trailers were completely different genres so they had many differences; however they also had several effects in common. The similarities between ‘Return to Me’ and ‘Matrix’ were that they both had well known stars. They also had the same effect, in ‘Return to Me’ Minnie Driver turned very slowly to face the camera and in ‘Matrix’, Keanu Reeves also turns very slowly towards the camera. Another similarity was both trailers had a tagline which can be associated with the film.
The two trailers had numerous differences which showed the different genres and audience they were aimed at. The first major differences were the lighting and music. In ‘Return to Me’ the lighting was light throughout and the music was fairly relaxed. In ‘Matrix’ the lighting was very dark and gloomy and the music was of an increasing tempo. The images in the two trailers were extremely different too. ‘Return to Me’ had images of family and friends together and showed funny joke scenes and ‘The Matrix’ had people in individual fight scenes. The family and friends together in ‘Return to Me’ showed me that it was a romantic comedy. On the other hand the fighting and individuals in ‘Matrix’ showed me it was a science fiction, especially with the special effects which ‘Return to Me’ did not have.
New information which was added to the first trailer ‘Return to Me’ was the tagline ‘Straight from the heart’ which kept my opinion the same about the genre. The new information given on the second trailer ‘Matrix’ was the website www.whatisthematrix.com which again kept my opinion of the genre the same as the matrix appears to be fictional.
I think that the intended audience for ‘Return to Me’ is families because it is funny not scary or rude. Also the lighting is bright, music is animated and the scenes are of family and friends so appeals to a family audience.
The ‘Matrix’ I think is for older teenagers and adults because it is harder to follow, has fight scenes and inappropriate special effects for young children. The effect of flashing lights makes the film daunting for youngsters. The trailer for ‘The Matrix’ shows mostly men which is to some extent more appealing to males.
Overall I thought the directors of both films appealed to a certain target group with the different effects and would make them want to watch the film. Personally ‘The Matrix’ was more appealing to me rather than ‘Return to Me’ which also suggests the target audience for ‘The Matrix’ being teenagers.
