Film Title:The Choice Trailer Length: 2:24 Director: Ross Katz Release Date: 1st February 2016 Certificate: 12A Genre: Romance Production Company: The Safron Company & Nicholas Sparks Productions Distribution Company: AMG Entertainment, Lionsgate Budget: $251.8 million Opening Weekend: $6,050,443 Gross: $18,709,066 Budget: $10 million
The trailer begins with an establishing shot to show the location of a house by the lake. Showing the location of a lake shows the rural and peacefulness of the location, a common setting used romance genre film’s. This sense of peacefulness also suggests Todorov’s narrative stage of equilibrium, with no sense of danger or tragedy foreshadowed, which is one of the first differences between the romance and thriller / horror genre. The shot also shows a dove flying over the lake, creating a sense of freedom, possibly representing how the main protagonists feel at the start of the narrative, free and happy, until the equilibrium is disrupted. The dove is also iconic of the romance genre as it symbolizes love and hope, making it clear to audiences that the genre of this film is romance.
During this shot, a voiceover is used, the audience can hear the non-diegetic dialogue ‘Now, pay attention, because I’m about to tell you the secret to life’. This not only engages the audiences into the narrative as it almost creates a narrative hook, whereby audiences continue watching the trailer in order to find out this ‘secret’, creating a narrative enigma. However, the word ‘secret’ may be seen to subvert the genre of the trailer as it is often thriller / horror trailers that create a sense of mystery and unknown, therefore the trailer subverts audiences expectations of the romantic genre. This could have been done intentionally as it offers the film a unique selling point (USP), making audiences possibly decide to watch the film rather than another romantic film as it subverts the typical conventions, making the narrative more interesting and engaging for those audience members who are possibly uninterested with the typical conventions of films controlled by the Big 6, this offers an element of individuality and uniqueness, despite being apart of the Big 6. In addition, the use of a voiceover is a common convention of theatrical trailers and so ‘The Choice’ could be seen to conforming to theatrical trailers.
The trailer then shows the film’s production company, ‘Lionsgate’. This is conventional of a film trailer, to show its production company at the start of the film. It shows the audience the film is of the Big 6, and not an independent film. Again this could form expectations of the audience as they may expect a range of locations, SFX, a – list actors etc, due to assuming it would have a large budget, which would be correct as the film’s budget was $10 million. However, Lionsgate is known to produce action / thriller, and sometimes fantasy and adventure films. The colours within the Lionsgate logo are also blue’s and black’s, with back lighting of a white light shining behind the text. The dark colours again suggest this element of mystery within the film, and so reinforce the previous suggestion of nigma and secrecy within the narrative, possibly foreshadowing a future disruption to this peaceful and happiness, which is shown later in the film through a car accident. Foreshawoding the stage of disruption is conventional of a thriller / horror, and so subverts the rance genre. However, the shining of the light behind the text suggests an element of hope coming through the darkness and mystery, as it shines through the black background and blue text. Again this reinforces the previous connotation within the trailer of the dove, as this also connoted hope and so despite not being the usual production logo for a romance film, and its use of dark colours, the choice of production company may be conventional of the romance genre due to this sense of hope. The battle between the backlighting and text, between hope and mystery / secrecy, could also symbolize binary opposites within the narrative, possibly of happiness and tragedy as the trailer hints at a difficulty within the two protagonists’ relationship, shown due to the event of a car crash.
Later on in the trailer, the use of a dissolved transition is used between the scene in a car, going into the scene in a fair ground. The use of a dissolve makes the transition slow, a common convention of editing within the romance genre. The dissolving of the scene into the fair ground also creates a change in focus, whereby the lights go from blurred to clear. This change could symbolise the female’s emotions within the narrative, as throughout the trailer she is shown indecisive about her true feelings for the male protagonist, explaining at the stat she felt ‘caught up in the moment’ and then denying her true feelings again through diegetic dialogue ‘I don’t love you’. Therefore this change in focus could symbolize her change in emotions. This conforms to female stereotypes of women being uncontrollable of their emotions, too emotionally unstable to support themselves. In addition, this conforms to convention of the romance genre, as they often show the female protagonist in need of the male’s support and guidance, and so showing her emotionally unstable may connote this, suggesting the male is almost a hero (Propps character types), looking after the female.
he film’s release date is then shown, ‘THIS FEBRUARY’. Firstly, it is very conventional for any theatrical trailer to show their release date in the trailer, especially towards the end of the trailer to ensure audience members are less likely to forget after the trailer has ended. However, it is clear this film is of the romance genre as it is on an orange background, connoting warmth and happiness, both of which are commonly associated with romance. The text is also white, again connoting this sense of hope and purity. However, the font is san –serif, and romance genre’s usually use serif font as this stereotypically attracts the female audience, which is again the stereotypical audience of a romance film. In addition, the release date is February, this is the month of valentines day and so further reinforces the sense of love. The film may also therefore be attracting couples as they may decide to watch the film together around valentines day, possibly on valentines day. Releasing a romance film around valentines day may also increase the possible box office ticket sales as couples are more likely to watch a romantic film at this time of year, increasing possible revenue and profit from the film.
The trailer then uses a close up of the male’s hand, stroking his girlfriend’s shoulder in an intimate scene. The use of a close up could connote the couple are in a close, loving relationship and suggests he is supporting his girlfriend, further reinforcing the stereotype that women desire the support and help from the male, possibly unable to support themselves. It also supports Propps Character types of the male being the hero, saving his girlfriend emotionally by this level of support and care of holding her. In addition, the shot uses low key lighting, common lighting used in intimacy scenes of the romance genre as the lighting connotes warmth and love.
At the end of the trailer, the film’s social media links are shown to the audience, the Instagram, Twitter and Facebook logos are shown, as well as the film’s website ‘www.thechoice.movie’ and ‘#TheChoice’. The use of social media involvement in the film offers the audience the chance to engage with the film further, making the film more memorable for audiences, and can be applied to the two step flow theory. Audiences can form an opinion of the film, based from the trailer, and become the opinion leaders. Using the hashtag or social media platforms suggested on the trailer, this opinion then can be shared, whereby their followers / friends can see this, increasing possible audiences for the film and drawing more attention to the film; supporting the conventional aim of a film trailer.