The film trailers designed to promote the film Love Actually represent a particular view of modern love and relationships. Explore this idea within a media analysis framework.

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GCSE ENGLISH: MEDIA UNIT

Love Actually Essay

The film trailers designed to promote the film Love Actually represent a particular view of modern love and relationships. Explore this idea within a media analysis framework.

From the makers of Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill, the film Love Actually is a romantic comedy about igniting laughter, wrecking havoc, breaking hearts, daring commitment and forcing choices. The film is of a typical romantic comedy genre, which is targeted at teenagers and adults. The key ingredients of a romantic comedy are that it is optimistic and it has humour combined with love and friendship. Usually, the genre has a universal appeal, which widens the range of target audience. The notions of love and relationships in modern society that the film trailers portray are realistic in some relationships, but the main outcome is not. The film was released in November 2003, which also coincided with the timing of Christmas. The film was probably released at this auspicious time of the year, as it is a time of joy when families get together. The DVD was released on mother's day, which is another significant day of the year.

As part of this media unit, we concentrated on the two commercial film trailers of Love Actually. The main purposes of these trailers were to give an insight into the film and to be used as a promotional tool to attract viewers. Despite the two trailers promoting the same film, they portray a different view of love and target at different age groups and gender. In this essay, I will be discussing the different ways the film trailers are designed to promote the film and the way in which they represent the concept of modern love and relationships. Trailers are the most effective way of advertising a film because they are moving images. This means that they are more attention grabbing as there is more instant information given along with appealing images.

Love and relationships in modern society means a strong positive emotion of regard and affection. In my views, it is an intense affectionate concern or an intense sexual desire for another person. It is a term of endearment and a strong fondness or enthusiasm for something. A stereotypical view of contemporary love exists, which is based principally on gender, social class and race. In Love Actually, Huge Grant, who is the prime minister, falls in love with his secretary; Martine McCutcheon. This contrasts with the stereotype regarding social background, as Huge Grant is of a much higher status than Martine McCutcheon in the film. The title of the film automatically reveals various types of love, with the emphasis on actually. I think this suggests that the views of love and relationships portrayed in the film are the views of contemporary love. In the title of the film, Love Actually, the word ''Love'' is highlighted in bold and is red. Stereotypically, red is the colour of love, which is probably why this colour was used. The soundtracks for both trailers are very different. The first trailer consists of slow and romantic music, which suggests that it is a film targeted at couples or older people. The first three words of the soundtrack, ''Love, love, love...'' instantly show that the film is about romance. In the second trailer the choice of music starts off slow and then the rhythm builds up. Unlike the music of the first trailer, this music appeals to younger audiences and families, as the music is more comedy than romantic.
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The role of most men in the film is of a high status or managerial post, for example, Huge Grant is the prime minister. On the other hand most women have secondary roles such as Martine McCutcheon. In one of the scenes in trailer one, a woman is sitting in a provocative way, but she is empowered by the man. This is seen from the camera perspective. Directly after the title -it's about men- flashes on the screen; the scenes that follow this consist mainly of men. When the title, -it's about women- flashes, there are continuous scenes ...

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