Research: Primary (Superman Analysis)

Superman
Teaser Trailer

The non-diegetic music is a key aspect of this teaser trailer. This is partly because the trailer lacks visual film content. The non-diegetic music begins as quite mysterious and builds up gradually to a powerful national anthem sounding music. This would create an interest for the audience as the music is very mighty and powerful. There is then an explosion sound close the end followed by a twinkling sound, which could arouse mystery.
The cutting rhythm used in this teaser trailer is regular with a cutting speed of five seconds.
The mise-en-scene used in this teaser trailer shows a sunrise/sunset and space.
The camera angle used in this clip is tracking as it is tracking the sunrise/sunset.
No characters or locations are introduced, just names across the screen. The names are useful because some people might decide that they want to see the film because they recognise the name of the actor/actress/director/producer. Having no characters or locations presented to the audience throughout the clip places more of a key role on the sound.
The title of the film ‘Superman’ may also play a role I attracting the audience as they would wonder why the man is super.
Another role played in attracting the audiences attention is the audience’s prior knowledge to the comic book of Superman and DC Comics. This is because Superman was created in the 1930s and became very iconic, with his ‘S’ logo and some people would recognise it. This could create excitement and worry as people would want to know whether or not the film is as good as the comic.

Magazine

The main image on the front cover of the magazine shows a mid shot of the main character, taken from the film. It has been edited so that the head of the character comes out of the photograph frame. The image also appears to have been edited slightly to lighten the light areas and darken the shadowed areas.
There is a main title text which says: “EMPIRE” with a text that reads: “The 500 Greatest Movies of all Time” placed above it. There is then a sub-title that reads: “Superman The Movie”. The main title text is pink and very large. The text above the title is of a much smaller size and is shadowed in the same pink. It is also places at a slight angle. With the main title text being largest it allows the audience to recognise what magazine they are looking at. The sub-title is in a cream colour, making it stand out from the other titles.
There is a colour scheme of this magazine. The background is black, but the main title texts and box outlines are in pink. By using black as the background the magazine has allowed itself the used of bright colours in contrast. It uses a shade of pink that is close to red as Superman’s main colour is red and by not using a bold colour such as red it is not taking the attention away from the main image. The makes the audiences eye drawn to the character, Superman, on the right hand side of the image.

Poster

The image on this poster is set just below the centre of the of image’s frame. The background of the image shows clouds or smoke in white, grey, different shades of blue and black. There is a diagonal line that cuts through the clouds/smoke which contains the primary colours (red, yellow and blue). The image just below the centre is a silver/white colour and illustrates and ‘S’ shape inside a pentagon (which is now known as the Superman logo). At the time the audience would be interested and curious as to what the letter ‘S’ stood for. Some of the audience may recognise the logo 'S' from the DC Comics and already have an idea as to what the poster is hinting (the character of Superman) therefore a sense of excitement could be present as well as worry as people would be worried that the film cannot be better than the comic book.
Curiosity is also drawn in by the poster’s slogan: “You’ll believe a man can fly”. This will create interest amongst the audience as they will be left wondering if a man can actually fly and whether or not the film will prove it. This is the only text on the poster apart from the credits and it is very small and far down the page. It has been written in capitals and is in white, which stands out from the background, although because it is so small I think that these points are insignificant.The bordering around the image is black and it is black at the bottom of the poster where the film credits are. The black bordering also helps in making the image stand out as well as creating a slight sense of mystery as the image contains a contrast between light and dark which creates an eerie feeling and gives the audience a sense that something either bad or out of the ordinary is going to happen.

Representation

In the teaser trailer there are not any actors or characters present. On the front cover of the magazine is a male character. He is represented stereotypically as strong through posture. He has a stern stare which also adds to the strong and powerful way that the character is represented. There are no characters represented in the poster.

Collective Identity

Although there are no people in the teaser trailer or the poster on the magazine front cover is the image of the main character. From this image you get the impression that all Americans are big, strong and super (from the title 'Super Man'.

Audience
Rating: PG in America, PG in United Kingdom
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated: 7.3/10 by 42, 639 people

Overall
Not a lot is given away in these texts. The point of focus in advertising for this film is the ‘S’ logo. The use of the logo would be to create a sense of branding. The audience would become familiar with the logo, which becomes the object to recognise ‘Superman’ by. The logo appears in the teaser trailer, is on the character’s outfit on the magazine and is in the centre of the poster. At the time this may have created a sense of curiosity with the audience as they would want to know what the ‘S’ stood for. This is because ‘Superman’ would not have been as iconic as comic books being transformed into films was not popular at the time of release.