Maximus (Russell Crowe) is on the poster. Also with all his armour on you will assume they are showing us that Russell Crowe is a gladiator. With his sword you will also assume that he has been fighting or he is going to fight to rise from hell to heaven as this what I imagine the colours show in the poster. Also with the gladiator in the centre it informs the audience who the main focus of the film is based around.
Besides the gladiator being the central image the smoke around him is also effective as it indicates him rising, which again links with the caption. The murky effect behind him has a big impact on the person itself as it makes him look more mysterious.
Moreover the coliseum on the poster gives it a Roman effect. With the coliseum higher than the gladiator it implicated that it is some how related to the gladiator. Also it links the two together in the poster, as the two seem to be merging within each others shadows. This could implicate that the gladiator will rise from within the Colleseum This also gives the audience an idea on the genre of the film. With the coliseum being in place at the time of the roman emperor is also gives the audience an idea on where the setting of this film is. The sepia effect on the poster gives it an old aged feel. This is effective because it gives the audience an idea that it was set in the past age. This also links to the genre of the film as it shows that it is set in the past and is a historical film.
The website that they have put on the poster is another form of advertising media. Additional to the poster this could help build advanced significance in the movie as it has all the fundamental information needed for the audience. Surfing the website also makes the audience feel actively involved as they are actually doing something rather than just watching the trailer on television. The website is also useful for the producers as well as the audience. This is that the producers can gain more money, as well as an audience.
The additional information on the poster contains the website and the film makers. The two most successful production company’s names are on the poster, DreamWorks and Universal Pictures. With these on the poster it would interest people as they are the most thriving company in film making.
Trailers are another form of advertising a film. Trailers are normally chosen shots from the film. As the purpose of the trailer is to catch the attention of an audience to the film being advertised, they usually obtain the most exhilarating, hilarious, or the most striking parts of the film they do this in a summarized structure which does not spoil the film for the audience as it just gives a taster /snapshot of the film.
Throughout the Gladiator trailer the words on screen explain Russell Crowe’s life, what has happened, and what is going to happen. After each set of words on screen, there is a set of images which show you what the words mean. This is a very interesting and effective way of encouraging people to go and see the film as it is giving the target audience a basic outline of the film.
The trailer starts with military drums, which makes you think of a battle, also when they show the shots there is a sound of swords which also gives the audience and idea that it is action packed. They do this the same time as they are showing us the close up shots of the production companies. Again they show the production company which again shows the audience that this film is going to be excellent as its production companies are two thriving companies whose movies have always been top. Then the words on screen start, they begin with 'The General'
This is then faded in to a clip of the general (Russell Crowe) walking towards the camera looking around at his army. This makes the audience contemplate what is he doing? , Where is he? As the clips are changing to the caption there is a sound of two swords clashing together which gives the audience an idea that he will fight. This is repeated after every clip. This is effective because it gives a rhythm to the trailer.
The clip then fades to the caption saying 'Who Became a Slave'
Then it shows a shot of slaves in a line with him at the end. This links in with the poster which shows that he is in the dark shaded section at the bottom. As they get to him in the line of slaves the camera fades into the next caption which is, 'The Slave'
While these words are still fading in there is a picture of him from the previous shot. Subsequently it shows him walking into an arena this shows us that he is in the middle he is going to fight to ‘rise’. They show a close up of him entering the arena from the back. As the gladiator is entering the arena you can hear the crowd chanting something in the background over the top of the drumming and the clashing of swords. The chanting is carried on to the next caption 'Who Became a Gladiator?'
This fades in to a shot of him walking around the arena still there is the chanting in the crowd. Now that he is in the arena there is more than one person this links with the first clip as they all wearing armour and is walking around. This shows the audience that he is ‘rising’. The shot that is used is a wide angle shot. Once the clip is faded out the next caption fades in. it states, 'The gladiator'
Once the caption has faded out the next clip shows the gladiator close up. The gladiator stares towards the camera in an aggressive way. This makes the audience wonder why he is in an angry mood. Straight after that the next caption appears which quotes, 'Who Defied an Empire?'
After it says the caption it shows a shot of the Emperor, this makes the audience, think is he going to defy the emperor? Also it makes the audience want to know more. Then they show lots of action shots where he is fighting in the coliseum It then shows a picture of the coliseum, this links in with the poster when he was standing in the coliseum. This is effective because they are showing us that he do something dreadful in the coliseum as he defies an emperor also on the poster he is on the dark shaded part and with how the picture was set with him in the dark coliseum shows that this will be his sinister side of his life. Then he states boldly, ‘In this life or the next I will have my vengeance’
When he says this quote we would suggest that he will have two lives or two different parts of this life, this is effective because from the poster we know that he may have a dark sinister life and a bright superior life, when he says in this life or the next this makes the audience wonder what sort of character is he going to be, also the audience will be more involved as they will be asking themselves “what two lives does he have?” , “are they actual life’s or are they just two parts of his life?”
They then show more scenes of him fighting. He then fights with a lion. They show him pointing at someone or something. They then do a close shot of the emperor lifting his head up to look at the camera. They then show some more shots of the gladiator fighting .then the emperor bellows in this women’s ear, ‘Am I not merciful?’
When he says this makes the audience wonder why he is asking that. It also makes the audience “why is he shouting in this women’s ear?”, “why is he so eager to find out?” Besides that it gives the audience an idea of how insulting and wicked he is with the emperor shouting the woman’s ear saying am I not merciful shows that he is short tempered. Also with the gladiator defying him shows that he will fight back as he is wicked and short tempered.
And on a black background and still in white writing is says ‘This summer’
They show ceasor and then the narrator says, ‘Ceasor represents amius Maximus’
They then show gladiator lifting his hat to the crowd to show that he has got there to the top. It also shows the gladiator jumping through fire this makes the caption ‘A hero will rise’,
come true because he is eager to get to the top and he ‘will’ so he will leave the fire of hell and enter heaven, this links to the colours of the poster that goes from light to dark .also at the end they show the caption from the poster to remind the audience that he ‘will rise’. This is effective because t they have put this at the end as this is where people are the most interested in the actual trailer as they have seen some exciting and
Adventurous clips they would like to see more.
They also show the gladiator kissing another woman this shows that there will be romance in the film. With the fighting I suggest there will be action and adventure because with fighting you would suggest blood, dieing, swords and riots.
They have also put in the date ‘summer 2000 A.D’ just like on the poster this is to give the film an old roman feel. They also have put in the director Ridley Scott at the right end as it is not that important.
In my opinion I believe that altogether this trailer is very appealing as it makes the audience want to know a lot of answers. Also the drum beats work very well as the film is an action film. The drumbeats get louder and faster throughout the film. Especially when he is fighting. This is showing the anger of the gladiator. In my opinion the drumbeats sound like the heartbeat of the gladiator because in the most tensor position he gets the more louder and faster the beats get. I believe that if any other music is put in the background it will change the entire feel of the film.
I believe that they work together because the trailer is the more enthralling way of getting the same message across with the poster. Also in the poster the colour scheme gets the genre across to the audience and in the trailer the clips give the genre away to the audience. I believe this worked well as the people who don’t really like looking at posters and would rather watch the trailer would actually get the general idea of the film.
