Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
There are a wide range of concepts and
techniques in the trailer and on the poster that have been used, just to
targeted the poster intended audience. These aspects are used to make the
poster and trailer appealing to audience and make them want to see the movie
being promoted through these two media concepts.
Poster
Narrative- Tagline used on the advertisement ‘A
disgrace to criminals everywhere’. The tagline on the poster tells the audience
a bit about the storyline of the movie. The tagline suggests that there is
going to be crime committed but perhaps at a bad and poor quality. This also
tells us that perhaps the character who are committing the crime aren’t
actually criminals and taking a part in crime isn’t there for take, but due to
something happening the characters had to resort to doing so, which is why they
aren’t so good at committing crime.
On the advertisement there are four
silhouettes intended to be the characters. Where the characters have been
positioned or placed on the poster, four characters on the end of a gun is
seems. This hints a bit of the narrative to audience. It suggests that the
characters may have gotten into some trouble in relations to violence. One of
the characters in the poster is holding a bag of some sort, this could suggest
that the trouble could be resolved by the bag, or perhaps the bag is what got
them in trouble in the first place.
Trailer
There are a few things in the trailer that
convey the storyline to the audience, one of the things is spoken word, there
is a lot of spoken words use to tell the audience the narrative of the movie. Just
from this aspect from watching the trailer I already know that four guys lose
in a card game and end up in a massive amount of debt, which they need to pay
back in three days otherwise their will be violent consequences. Furthermore just
from spoken word I’m clear on the narrative or at least have some idea about
it.
Voiceover; in the trailer there is use of
voiceover which is use towards the end of the trailer. It gives us the audience
a little outline or synopsis if you will of the film. The voice over said ‘ four friends, have three days, two guns for
one shot at greatness’ this is giving us a hint of the storyline, it tells us
that their friends that have gotten into some serious trouble and need to come
up with a solution in three days, which could resort in something violent. And
that this could either turn out badly or turn out as a success.
Conventions: in the trailer there are wide
ranges of conventions used, which are connected to a classic gangster films.
Constantly in the trailer the conventions of weaponry in particular guns. This
tells the audience a bit about the narrative of the film, it tells us that the
film is going to be very violent and that guns are a key factor in the film.
Another convention that pops up in the trailer is gambling; this convention is
used right at the start of the trailer. The use of this convention tells us
that the storyline of the film is the protagonist or protagonists get into
trouble over gambling. Furthermore its
conventional aspect in gangster films, this could suggest that the storyline
follows the conventional narrative, of the protagonist getting him or herself
in to deep. Another convention that was used throughout the trailer is money. This
kept coming up , tell the audience that this has an influence on the storyline,
it tells the audience that the storyline resolves around the money convention,
it something that was lost and needed to be paid back.
Characters
One the poster there are silhouettes of
four figure which tells the audience that these four figures are the main focus
of the film. However the image of the
characters on the poster aren’t very big, the gun is which tells the audience
that they might be the focus of the film but the gun is another main focus.
In the trailer the characters are
portrayed as if they don’t really know what they have gotten themselves into.
Its shown clearly in the trailer that the four protagonists aren’t professional
criminals.
Representation: The primary colours that the advertisement
has used are red, black and white. These are classic gangster genre based film
colours.
The colour red is used on the shot gun;
this could be a connotation of danger, violence and death. Also the gun is the
main focus on the poster which I think is to capture the audience attention and
focus on that. It also is a representation of how violent the film may be, and
that death plays a vital role in the film. The colour white is used on the
silhouettes of the characters, the title and on the finger about the pull the
tiger at the bottom of the advertisement. This colour is bold and very
noticeable against the contrasting black colour. This is to make the audience
not only pay attention to the gun but also to the areas of white. Furthermore I
think the use of the black colour is used to make the red and white elements
stand out to the audience.
The advertisement is aimed at a young male
audience in anchorage to the bold masculine colours, the tagline and title of
the advert. These are all elements that convey a simple message; it is simple
yet effective and gets the audience to want to know more about the film being
promoted.
In addition the position of the characters
on the advertisement is a representation of how close they are as character.
The silhouette is place very close to each other and also body language is
quite in synch with one another. This is symbolising that they are close
friends and perhaps have known each other for some time.
Compare the technique used convey
genre in the advertising for Scarface- Identify similarities/ differences
between them
There are a lot of connections to the
genre that is being conveyed to the audience, by elements and conventions being
used on the advertisement. In the films ‘Scarface’ and ‘Lock, Stock and Two
smoking barrels’ they had some similarities and differences in the way the
advertisement would convey the genre to the audience.
Similarities
Aspects in the advertisement that both the
films have in common to portray the genre to the audience are the taglines. Both
of the advertisements for these films used taglines as a way to entice and
capture the audience interest through these conventions, by hint and revealing
a minor part of the narrative and plot to the audience. For Scarface the
tagline is ‘He loved the American dream with vengeance’ the tagline doesn’t
give much away but still manage to be both chilling and effective. The tagline
conveys the gangster genre to the film by what it implies to the audience, we
associate the American dreams with, wealth, power and a sense of being well
known, fame is you will. These are all conventional aspects that we expect and
relate to gangster films e.g money, luxurious lifestyle. For Lock, stock and
two smoking barrels’ the tagline is ‘A disgrace to criminals everywhere’ this
tells us that the film will have crime being committed, in other words criminal
tendency and activity which is again something which is associated with the
gangster genre.
Another aspect that the film posters have
in commons are the colours used. Both films used the colours red, white and
black. These colours would convey the genre to the audience, because these
colours are a connotation of blood, violence and death which are normally aspects
in gangster type films. Also these colours are often deployed and associated to
this genre of film.
Difference
Though there are a few similarities in the
techniques used on the advertisements of the two films, there are some
differences.
One of the differences between the two
movie advertisements is for the first film poster that I looked at, ‘Scarface
‘I realised that the poster is red in comparison to the film poster for ‘lock,
stock and two smoking barrels’ which is white. I think that for Scarface the
title is displayed in red is to symbolise and a representation of how violent
the film is. Red is a connotation of blood and death which tells the audience
that the film could potentially be highly violent, which normally plays a part
in gangster based films which hints to the audience the type of genre the film
deploys. In addition ‘Lock, stock and two smoking barrels have displayed their
title in white, which I think is to set it aside from the rest the elements on
the poster. On a regular basis gangster advertisement are always bold in some
aspect, and this poster has done this through the white title.
Another difference between the films is,
in the first advertisement ‘Scarface ‘we see the protagonist which is Tony Montana
holding a weapon which clear that it is gun. Whereas in the second poster
‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel’ we are represented with four silhouettes
placed on top on the gun. In the first poster the fact that the protagonist is
holding the gun shows the audience that he’s in control of the gun and probably
plays a vital role in the violence. Whereas the second poster suggests that the
gun is in control of the characters. In addition the gun used on the
advertisements is a conventional feature that is involved in gangster film
posters so the audience would associate the gun with the genre.
Another feature that the films don’t have
in common is that Scarface uses a short synopsis on the film poster to convey
the storyline to the audience. The text is intent on enticing the audience by
giving them a short taste of the film, but also giving them a sense of what the
genre is of the film.
Last but not least another difference
between the film posters is that in relations to Scarface the main focus of the
advertisement is the protagonist as there isn’t anything else on the poster.
This tells the audience that the film is based on the character shown on the
poster and his life. Whereas in relations to Lock, Stock and two smoking
barrels the focus of the poster is the gun. This tells the audience that the
film is influenced by violence and will endure in this aspect. Though the
poster use two different conventions both, cony the genre of the film they are
promoting. For Scarface it is conventional on a gangster genre film for the
protagonist to be the main focus of a poster, this is something we expect to
see. So is a weapon to be shown on the poster, some gangster posters do
emphasis on the size of the weapon on the poster to hint the genre and the
amount of violence in the film so this is also another conventional convention
explored.
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