Trailer Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The trailer for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does a great job of getting the audience interested in the plot of the story. This is done through the trailer's slow exposure of the premise of the film as well as using a soundtrack that creates a sense of mystery, perfectly suited for the genre of the film.

In terms of the editing, shots were chosen that parallel the voice over being used in the trailer. This is done as opposed to trying to tell a narrative that many trailers do in order to introduce the audience to the film's story. For example when the voice-over is revealing the premise of the film, shots of the possible suspects fade in and fade out showing how each of them are labeled by a nickname that they are given. This shot of Colin Firth also lends itself to a discussion on cinematography in the film. Because this shot is the first time the audience is exposed to the suspects, it is important that the subject of the shot is clearly shown. This is done through a very narrow focus that creates blur in the background and bringing into attention Colin Firth's face. The guilty expression on his face helps to communicate to the audience that he is indeed a potential suspect in the film.

The soundtrack is also important in this trailer because it creates the foundation for the atmosphere of the trailer. Right from the beginning, the eerie music creates a sense of uneasiness in the audience. This is important to the rest of the trailer because this is the initial point of suspense. Immediately, the audience is treated to a sense of mystery, which lends itself to a more interesting and captivating trailer.

The use of text in the trailer also helps to create intrigue in the audience by serving as an aid to expose the premise of the film. It helps the audience make sense of the information being presented in the trailer by attaching text to the images shown in the trailer. Bolding the word "eyes" also helps to anchor down the shots being shown by associating a group of images with a single word. The simplicity of the text also helps for the audience to understand the meaning behind the text since the time a trailer has to reveal information is inherently limited.

Also by choosing to show shots that are ambiguous helps to draw in the audience by leaving the audience with more questions than answers. This creates a lasting sense of curiosity with the film which is ideal in order to market a film to an audience. The job of the last shot of the trailer is to ultimately spark interest in the audience. This shot of what seems to be Gary Oldman does a good job of this because it is near impossible to come to a conclusion about the purpose of the shot within the context of the film. Because the goal of a trailer is to get people interested about a film, techniques like this are essential in creating a successful trailer.

Run Lola Run Critique

Our presentation focused on the Ideology aspects of the film Run Lola Run. We also inspected some of the cultural aspects of the film.

We first looked at the cultural aspects of the film. The film reflected a lot of the ideas that were prominent during the New German Cinema era. It was during this era that young directors explored new things and wanted to break away from the visual style of the time. They wanted to explore ideas that were not seen in cinema at the time. Some of these ideas are seen with Twyker's focus on feminism and having Lola be the protagonist. There is a gender switch in the traditional roles of the characters. Manny is seen more as the damsel in distress as opposed to the hero figure. Some of these ideas were also effected by the German youth at the time. The film's upbeat and modern approach was designed to appeal to the youth as opposed to an older audience.

Next we looked at Game Theory and how that was seen in the film. As an ideology, the game theory explores how people's decisions effect each others. This is clearly seen in the different endings of the film. Each time, the characters end up choosing different paths, resulting in different outcomes. This film is almost like a visual presentation of the game theory.

Lastly we looked at Post-Modernism. This is the idea that the values and perspective of the individual is placed higher than the collective perspective. Subjectivity is valued highly in post-modern films as opposed to objectivity. Twyker explores how the world can be meaningless and that it's up to the audience to interpret the film. He presents 3 completely different storylines to help emphasize this. The director is more interested in presenting a compelling film as opposed to making a film that makes sense.

Some of the challenges that we faced was just finding the topics to talk about. We really had no knowledge of these ideas prior to our research. And because we had no knowledge on these topics, made it difficult for us to understand the ideas within the time frame since these ideas were very complex and debated upon.

However I think in the end we gathered a vast amount of information that was relevant to the film. It was actually surprising the see the final product because we explored these ideas thoroughly and in depth. The coherency and the relevancy of the analysis also was surprising because everything fit together well. Also because all of the topics were new, I felt that we succeeded in capturing the audience's attention. This was most relevant on our discussion of the game theory. Michael did a good job with describing the idea and incorporating that with the rest of the film. Jenevieve did a good job exploring the ideas of the german youth especially with how the youth affected the film and the intended audience.