Research and Planning: Analysis of 'The Notebook' Trailer

Genre

This movie trailer is set for the Romance Genre and there are many key features that help the viewer notice that. The trailer focuses on Steve Neal's hypothesis that 'Genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variation', as we can see the typical Romance features of a developing love between Noah and Allie, which then gets destroyed in some way (which in this case being that Allie's parents don't agree with her being with him as they are from a higher class background than he) and then becoming a happy ending, which is conventional of the Romance genre. The Genre is also presented in many ways through the use of Mise-En-Scene, the woman, Allie and her older self are always seen to be wearing bright coloured clothing, mostly red, which is a colour that is strongly associated with the Romance genre.

Representation

Laura Mulvey talked about her theory of 'The Male Gaze', in which she explains her ideas on how the representation of gender is done in a very stereotypical way, where women are 'objectified' and men are 'heroes' and the strong ones. However I think that this theory does not convey much in this trailer as we see that Allie is the one that moves away from Noah, becoming the stronger one of the couple, and she finds new love in another man, whereas in the Trailer we see Noah struggling to cope without her and writing to her every day for a year. This strays away from the stereotypes of gender as women are conventionally seen as the weaker sex. However, there are some parts to the trailer which stay true to Mulvey's theory, as we see the elderly Noah trying to bring Allie back and help her regain her memories, so we see him trying to be the hero of the two, conventionally a strong male character.

Narrative

The trailer strongly follows the couple as they develop love for one another. It follows Todorov's theory of 'equilibrium, disruption, equilibrium restored'. We can see the equilibrium, confirmed by the narrator, when Allie and Noah meet and begin to fall in love, the Trailer follows as he asks her out on a date and they dance together on the road. However we can see the disruption when Allie's parents tell her that she and Noah are 'not right for eachother' this causes the tension between the couple and forces them apart, in the trailer we see lots of low key lighting used and the characters are now wearing dull clothing, telling the audience that there is a developing tension. Later in the trailer we can see Allie moving on from Noah, but then she sees his picture in the paper and goes to see him. This develops the trailer into the equilibrium restored stage as we see them evolve their love for eachother once again. 

Audience

When talking about audience I think that The Notebook's trailer conveys the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory, which means that the audience can get what they want from the trailer. As the Trailer is so specific to Allie and Noah's love and follows conventions of a Romance trailer, the audience is able to watch it easily knowing if they would want to see the film or not. The Notebook is certified to be a 15 film, meaning that only that age and up are able to watch it, this might also appeal to a lot of people as not many Romance films are certified that highly. This means that there might be something never done before in a Romance in this film which would make the audience more likely to want to watch it. It might also appeal to the ages of under 15 as it has this higher certificate, this might make them want to watch it as they would normally not be allowed, making the film appeal to a different range of ages. This presents the reception theory, which suggests how we take different meanings from a text. However as Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling appear in the movie, I think that the audience is based around the 20s as these actors are seen mostly in more mature films, and as they also appear in a lot of Romance genre films, this will appeal to that audience as they know that the characters will be portrayed in the right way.

Media Language 

(Cinematography, Sound, Editing, Mise-En-Scene)

The Trailer begins by automatically telling us the genre of the film by the use of sound, the soft piano music is primarily associated with Romance genres which suggests to the audience what genre the film is going to be. There is also a voice over throughout the trailer, his first words being 'It was a magical summer' which conveys the stereotypical 'Summer love' to the audience. There is also a lot of diegetic sounds at the beginning of the trailer including the ring of a bell on a bike, in which we see a medium shot of four teenagers riding. The connotations of this sound are happy and everyday which relaxes the audience into knowing that the film is not going to stray from the ordinary. The first shot we see is an establishing shot of a lake with thousands of swans in it, this also tells the audience the genre of the film as swans are seen to be very romantic and elegant creatures. Throughout the trailer we can see that a lot of jump cuts are used with no real knowledge of passing time, as there are shots used from all different times of the film, this strays from the slow and moving editing of a normal Romance film. The first shots we see of the characters, is a long shot of Noah sat outside and we can tell from his clothing that he is from a poorer background, whereas when we see Allie there is a medium close up of her laughing, showing that she is happy. And a medium close up is used so that we can see her accessories and gather that she is from a richer background, she is also wearing conventional women clothing, very elegant and pink, with red lipstick, showing that even though she looks young she is very mature for her age. As Kuleshov suggested in his theory, we can see that his idea of 'montage' is evident throughout the trailer, as we follow the voice over's narrative of the two characters, it shows us the correct images to correspond with the voiceover, meaning that when he introduces the characters they are on the screen. This makes it easier and more understandable for the audience and helps them get to know the characters before even watching the film. The lighting throughout the film is very high key, suggesting to the audience that the trailer is happy and uplifting, with the soft music in the background helping the audience along with the narrative. However at the time of the disruption, the lighting is dark and it is night time, but the piano music still plays in the background but on a much quieter scale. There is a lot of close ups on the character's faces which shows their expressions which allows the audience to gather an understanding of what the character is feeling and how the audience should react to this.