I am going to analyse a theatrical trailer for About a Boy. I have established that it is a theatrical trailer because it contains lots of selling points and is quite detailed, in contrast to a teaser trailer.
It starts by giving us an insight to the life and personality of Will (Hugh Grant). This is done by showing a series of clips of medium close-ups(to show there facial expressions as well to emphasize their opinions) of woman expressing there opinions on him, all of which are negative from angry, hurt women. The last shot is a medium close up of his face, to show his expression which is pretty careless. My first impression of him from this isn't a good one, these women's opinions suggest he is a selfish, pathetic "loser". Next, he gives us his own opinion of himself and we see a range of shots showing his everyday life. They're all medium to long shots and appear to be intruding and watching in on his life, which gives us pretty much the same idea as we got from the women despite him seeing himself differently to how they do. So far, we have basically just been introduced to 'the life of Will'. Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) makes his first appearance next, knocking at his door and immediately from the start, Will is attempting to keep him out of his house which could represent a bigger meaning of shutting him out of his life. This leads to an insight into Marcus' life and personality which starts, again, with someone else's opinion, "everyone thinks your weird". The following clips of his everyday life backs this up. The non-diegetic sound slows down to a sad, depressing song in the background, this brings down the mood and atmosphere. Clearly neither of them appear to fit in. A shot i like, is when Will is walking through a crowd of people in the opposite direction to everyone else which implies he is on his own and different to the rest. As expected, Will and Marcus are end up being different and on their own, together. They appear to have a laugh, look out for each other and finally be happy. By this point, the background music has picked up and is much more lively as shots of them both surrounded by friends and family, giving a clear impression that they are no longer alone. This sums up the story line but still leaves plenty more to see which is important in order to get viewers to actually want to see the film instead of being satisfied with just the trailer. Another way the trailer does this is by focusing on Hugh Grant, like the poster, because he is a well-known, award-winning actor who has starred in many more rom-coms which have been very successful.
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