DKR, Avatar, KFP Action trailer analysis

In these three trailers, they all have a common similarity, that the genre is action. In ‘Avatar’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ they all follow the conventions of the action genre by having guns and explosions, which shows that there is evil at work.

These three screenshots all show similar shots of mid/long shots, and dark colouring which makes the characters involved dark and similar to that of a silhouette, in order to hide the identity of who these people are, so that the audience is more involved in the trailer as they want to know whether they are good or bad. Also by hiding the people’s faces, it may encourage the target audience to go and watch the film as they want to find out more about this person.

 



 In ‘Kung Fu Panda’ there is no love interest, which goes against the conventions of an action/adventure because there is generally a love interest in many other films of the genre. In ‘TDKR’ and ‘Avatar’ the trailers clearly display the love interest that will be involved in order to involve the audience more in the characters life, and to raise suspicions that the love interest may be the root cause of all the fighting and explosions that are going to take place. 

 

 In 'Avatar' and 'Kung Fu Panda' there is a use of exotic locations, which could be due to them being animated and CGI being used and these locations made up. The locations are effective as the audience want to see them properly as they are so different, which creates a kind of dream world for the viewers. 'TDKR' was filmed in New York which isn't exotic, but is a familiar place to many people so the buildings and locations are known to the audience. By using a familiar place, the audience are able to relate more to the film as they know where everything is happening, and want to see for themselves.

In all of the three films, there is a hero. The use of a hero is effective in action films as there has to be one person the audience can relate too and feel sorry for. Also by having a hero the audience can learn a part of their story throughout the trailer and want to go and watch the film to find out what else happens in their life. The hero encourages the audience to watch the film as in the trailer they see parts of his life, and what to learn about the rest of it.

In all trailers films there is a villian. In 'The Dark Knight Rises' Bane is the villian, and by showing parts of his destruction, it encourages the audience to watch the film to find out what started it, and to find out more about Bane and why he is how he is and what his plans of destruction are. In 'Avatar' the villian is the humans who want to destroy 'Pandora' and by showing parts of them and what they are doing, the audience want to go and watch the film to find out the end result of if they manage to destory it or get stopped. In 'Kung Fu Panda' the villian is not really shown, but just talked about. The villian is a very effective stereotype of action films as there always has to be a reason all this destruction is happening, and the audience want to see a bad guy that they can take the hero's side over. Also they make the trailers more interesting as you see scary parts that build suspense.