How Film Trailers are used to attract an Audience...

 Miss Potter

 (British)

Genre: Biographical 

    "Miss Potter" is a 2006 British-made biographical film which focuses on the life of well known children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. The film was directed by Chris Noonan who is best known for the pioneering live-action films he makes such as Babe which was released in 1995. The film itself was produced by Momentum Pictures which is one of the leading motion picture distributors in the UK releasing 20 theatrical films a year. 

     The voice-over provided for the trailer greatly emphasises what the audience will see within the film; for example, when he says "Beatrix Potter saw the world differently" we as the audience know that we will see the world from the eyes of Beatrix Potter. The non-diegetic sound also reflects on what will be seen within the film, as the soundtrack is being played in the background it tells the audience that there may be some sort of fantasy element which will be seen within the film, this is also provided by how the characters that Beatrix draws on the paper appear to move showing that they have in a way come to life. There appears to be a type of narrative enigma seen within the trailer as the audience will get to see the life of Beatrix and how she spent her life doing what she does which made her into such a well known author. With each clip being linked to the next, it shows the audience how the main character from the person that she was to the person that she now is.

      Due to what is seen within the trailer and the main character's name, the audience will have figured out that it is a biographical film based on the life of that character which is known as the voice-over provides the main content of what the film is about. Symbolic iconographies such as the characters Beatrix draws onto the paper relate to the genre of the film and how the audience may be able to interpret what the film will be about based on what they see within the trailer, it juxtaposes the biographical genre as people who may be familiar with Beatrix's work will instantly know the characters she is drawing which allows the audience to decide for themselves whether they want to see a film based on an author. A connotation of the biographical genre of the film is also represented by the mise-en-scène shown within the trailer, due to the actors' costumes and the different settings shown within the trailer such as the big houses and the publishing factory quickly shown at 0:45 seconds of the trailer, it connotes to the audience that the film has been set in a different period of time to the one they are in now which lets them know that the narrative will perhaps revolve around that specific time and possibly what happened during that time, especially to the main character. 

      As a result of what is seen and heard within the trailer, I would have to say that the film appears to have two target audiences; one being the primary audience and the other being the secondary audience, this is because again due to what is seen and heard within the trailer both types of audiences. The primary audience would most likely be children aged from 7-12 years, reason for being is because  the trailer seems to attract the younger generation of people in a way that it does not attract the older generation, this is due to the parts within the trailer where it shown that Beatrix is drawing the animals on paper such as the rabbit and the duck, children who have probably read Beatrix's books will be familiar with these little characters and therefore will want to know how they were developed. The secondary audience for the film is most likely to be parents as they will obviously have to take their children to watch the film and therefore will be forced to watch it themselves, in comparison to this it is most likely that the film would attract the female gender more than the male gender; this is because shown within the trailer is a romance between Beatrix and Norman Warne, people of this age generation specifically women will want to see how this romance may develop within the film. 

      The trailer shows the audience that this film is worth coming to see mainly due to the voice-over which has been provided for it, people may already be familiar with the stories that Beatrix has bought to their attention which juxtaposes what is said by the voice-over, especially when we hear "the real story will happen off the page", with us being the audience this in a way connotes to us that the film is worth coming to see as we get to see the person behind the pages of which they develop. Heard throughout the trailer is non-diegetic sound which is in the form of a type of backing track for the trailer, again this relates to the reason as to why the trailer will attract the audience to see the film; it is very harmonious and melodic which to the audience will sound a bit fancy and imaginative connoting that the film may have some sort of fantasy element to it, this tells the audience that the film is worth seeing as it sets up some sort of enigma for them as they will try to figure out how the two sounds may relate to each other and how the narrative will develop. 

     The target audience for the film appears to be children from the ages of 7-12, the film itself will probably be rated as U or PG; the reason as to why this may happen is because as you can see within the trailer, there is a romantic attraction between the characters of the protagonist and her co-star, talk of this romance may be a bit to graphic for young children and therefore could possibly be rated as PG so that there would have to be parental guidance if children were to see the film. 

    The representation of the setting of the film is given away within the first few seconds of the trailer, due to the actors' costumes, the audience will be able to know for themselves that the film is set within a specific period of time prior to the one that they are in now. The characters' costumes portray them as being very elegant and sophisticated which as a result the lets the audience know that the film will have a stern but at the same time joyful element to it as the audience are able to see how people in those times dressed. In addition to this is the representation of the protagonist Beatrix Potter, by saying this I mean the person who is portraying her, as shown near the ending of the trailer, we see that she is being played by Renée Zellweger who usually plays the part of the protagonist or a role which is associated with the protagonist within other films she has starred in such as "Bridget Jones' Diary", "Chicago" and "Down With Love". The audience also know that Renée Zellweger will portray the role of the protagonist very well as they are told that she is an Academy Award Winner which shows them that she has won big-time awards for her portrayal of the characters she plays, with knowing this the trailer could possibly urge it's target audience to see the film as they have shown that this new role in which Renée is playing will be portrayed to a good extent. 

      As seen within many trailers are the conventions which are the things of which a person could expect to see within a trailer such as who may be starring in the film and what the age certificate which notifies people of what age a person has to be in order to see the film. Seen within this trailer are many conventions which give people information on what the film is about and what they could expect to see, the trailer only lasts for 1 minute 48 seconds which in that time throughout is heard a voice-over detailing to the audience what the film is about and how the main character's view of the world had inspired many. Different camera shots are also shown throughout the trailer which shows the audience how the characters seem to react towards each other and how they acted within the period of time of when the film was set; this is mostly shown throughout the entire trailer which is provided by the close-up's and long shots displaying to the audience the characters' facial expressions and body language showing that during that time people seemed to react differently to how people now react in today's society .i.e. very elegant and well-dressed. The audience is shown a showcase of the actors and actresses who will be starring in the film which helps to sell the film as the audience may have seen these actors and actresses in films prior to this one and therefore decide for themselves whether they want to see the film or not based on who is starring in it. 

     It is known that in many trailers the title of the film is not shown until the end which occurs within this one as the audience are given clues on what it may be called but are not entirely sure, with the title of the film being "Miss Potter" it indicates to the audience that the film is clearly based on the life of someone and due to it having this type of title the audience will want to know why the film is named after this person and who this person is. The conversation between the characters within the trailer appears to have been reduced to one-liners which mainly focus on how Beatrix sees the world and how the drawings that she done in her room developed into something bigger, there is also some talk about love and marriage which will probably lure the secondary target audience into watching the film as they will want to see how the love between two characters develops within the film. Also shown near the beginning of the trailer is the institutional logo (Momentum Pictures), with the appearance of this it tells the audience who the film has been produced by. In addition to this is the non-diegetic sound in the form of a soundtrack which creates an atmosphere within the trailer giving the audience the impression that there may be some sort of amorous aspect seen within the film between one or more characters.

      The target audience for the film appears to be children from the ages of 7-12, the film itself will probably be rated as U or PG; the reason as to why this may happen is because as you can see within the trailer, there is a romantic attraction between the characters of the protagonist and her co-star, talk of this romance may be a bit to graphic for young children and therefore could possibly be rated as PG so that there would have to be parental guidance if children were to see the film. 

     To conclude, within the trailer is shown the release date at the very end, as the audience we are not told the specific release date of the film, we are only told that it is "Coming Soon" which for us builds up the anticipation for the film to be released as we expect it to be in the cinemas very soon, possibly sooner than we initially expected.