Dear John

(Amy Liddell)

Audiences and Institutions 

• Length of trailer: 2:26
• Title of Film: Dear John
• Director: Lasse Hallstom
• Year of Release/Release Date: 14th April 2010
• Certificate: 12A
• Top billing: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried
• Awards:  4 Wins, 7 Nominations
• Under what genre do they classify the film? Drama, Romance, war
• Which institution produced the film? Screen Gems (Song BMG subsidiary), Relativity Media, Temple Hill Entertainment
• Which institution released the film? Sony (USA), Paramount Pictures (UK)
• How much money did they gross? $114,977,104 (Worldwide)
• Who was their primary (and secondary) audience? The primary audience would’ve been attracted to the clearly known genre and famous actors. They may have also read the novel and were attracted to watching a film version. The secondary audience may have been attracted to other themes in the film e.g. the war subgenre, or the representation of disability/illness as it is something they could relate to.
• Which platforms did they use to advertise? Posters, trailers, website, social media
• Was their marketing campaign successful? Yes as the film was produced on a relatively low budget and was able to gross a large amount of cash despite being an independent production.

 Texts

• List the text found in the trailer in chronological order

1. Screen Gems
2. Relatively media
3. ‘From best-selling author Nicholas Sparks’
4. ‘Author of the Notebook’
5. ‘Channing Tatum’
6. ‘Amanda Seyfried’
7. ‘Dear John’

• Distribution/Production Company? Logos? The two main production studios are shown at the beginning of the trailer, the first one is the logo for ‘Screen Gems’ and underneath it states that it is a subsidiary of ‘a Sony pictures entertainment company’. The second main logo shown is ‘Relatively Media’. Any other logos were shown on the last title page, these included firms such as Kodak, DTS, Dolby Digital and SDDS.
• Actor/s? Producer? Director? Awards?  The main focus is on actors, this is used for top billing as viewers will see the trailer and associate it with an actor’s previous work. No name of specific producers/director was named however there was also a strong focus on the book, as this will draw in another target audience.
• Narrative structure? Connection with images and voice over/dialogue? Release Date? This trailer is heavily divided, for example there isn’t a very clear structure to it. There is a voice over at the beginning to set the initial time span of ‘two weeks was all it took’, however after this dialogue is used over different sections of footage to explain the narrative. The release date is shown at the end as it was released in ‘February’, this is an ideal time to release a romance film due to it being around near Valentine’s Day.
• Size, colour and style of fonts? Background? The type of text is different for different titles. For example this USP of linking the trailer to the book is in a simpler font over sections of footage that have been blurred. The names of actors and the title of the film are on separate titles and link to the idea of the sea due to a blue background, the sea/beach is a stereotypical location for films of this genre. The size difference between these is also very different, despite both being central, the actors and name of the film are much more visible due to a large font in contrast to the name of the author etc.

 

Macro analysis

Representation

In regards to representation, the male gender is portrayed as weak going against what a viewer would expect. He is shown as weak as his emotions are clearly portrayed throughout the trailer synopsis; one would expect to mainly see the females emotions towards him leaving however the trailer shows both genders equally distressed about the situation. The trailer shows how a person’s career will have a large effect, this links in to the idea of regional identify. The fact that the female lead is from a beach which is beautiful and peaceful, where as the male lead (when you see his dad) seems financially stable and lives under the support of his father as he doesn’t really have a home.

Genre Identification

The genre is very obvious throughout following conventions that one would expect to see in a romantic drama. The typical setting of a beach, fields and the lighting being sunny when equilibrium is stable in contrast to times of sadness where the weather is dark and rainy. The props used e.g. the letters highlight the idea of communication and the difference in location for the ’12 months’ highlights a possible strain on the relationship, highlighting the significance of these letters. The various close ups highlighting emotions and long shots setting the environment of the characters allows you to relate to their lives.

Narrative Theory

The typical ‘boy meets girl’ situation follows the theory of equilibrium which is heavily highlighted in the trailer; this is done to relate to the ‘drama’ genre. The use of binary opposites e.g. locations, lifestyles, jobs and genders; show how despite all the odds of being opposite these two character’s belong together as they cancel each other out, a stereotype that people heavily associate with relationships. Propp’s character types is less used in this as the ‘villain’ is less of a person and more of the job situation with him being in the army, therefore it doesn’t follow the majority of narrative theories one would expect, it however does still follow some.

 

Micro analysis

Camerawork:

• Close ups- all showing emotions, whether this is happy/sad. It allows the viewer to associate their own lives with those of the characters, making them more likely to enjoy the film. Other reasons for close ups is to highlight the narrative, so the use of the letters is made more significant.
• Long shots – these show the positioning between characters, whether it shows John’s violent side or the closeness between him and the female lead, it has the ability to show body language and therefore foreshadow the relationships between characters.
• Establishing shots are used to show locations, more often pans are included on these or tracking in to make the viewer feel like they can see more of the locations. This is due to the human eye looking around when they see somewhere for the first time.

Mise en Scene:

• Clothes/make up- this heavily links to the location it being filmed in America and the idea that when they are in their casual clothes life s simple and the characters are less worried. However this is shown heavily contrasting to John’s military uniform and when the dad is in the suit, both connote the idea of discipline and the fact that someone else is in control; for John this would be his boss in the army and for the dad it would be his lack of control to his illness. Savanna is made more desirable by portraying an ‘innocent look’ through wearing hardly any make up, having simple hair and the natural look makes her attractive to a male audience.
• Lighting- I have spoken about this already however the use of darkness contrasting to the night sky sets of the romantic genre. The use of bright non artificial sunlight gives a sense of tranquility, in contrast to when it rains and the lighting is grey, using the idea of pathetic fallacy.
• Locations- Binary opposites, him being in the army her being at the beach highlights the polar opposites of life and how this will affect their relationship.

Sound:

• As all romantic films, the music starts of slow and as an instrumental. This trailer is slightly different as it has used country guitar sound before the equilibrium in the trailer changes. The use of a singer is used to highlight the ‘drama’ aspect and sets the scene, it makes the audience feel heavily attached to the character’s emotions as the soundtrack is linked to the footage. The use of dialogue explains the story and how their relationship evolves.

Editing:

• There are many bright fades used throughout this trailer due to there being many shots shown for a short amount of time. The use of actions matches sets the scene and shows that there relationship is vulnerable as it is being portrayed from all angles. Crosscutting is used between characters when dialogue takes place to see the reactions between characters.