Promo Video Analysis

Promo Video analysis

The ‘Piracy It’s a crime’ video, is a promo video from the early 2000s designed to discourage people from Pirating Videos. The first few short shots show a girl downloading a film from an illegal website from different angles, the first being a mid-shot so the audience can see who it is and the second so we can see what they are doing. The girl we are introduced to seems to be a teenager which identifies the audience as being young teenagers who are more likely to search for these sites not knowing it’s illegal so the video there is to educate why this is wrong. This is reinforced by the very upbeat music which sounds like could be used in a car chase scene in a movie making it fit better with the audience demographic but also is semantic to the audience as like I have previously said is associated with criminal activity to reinforce the idea that it is illegal. Bold capital letters then come up in a scruffy-looking text that says “you wouldn’t steal a car’. The language here is very direct to make the spectator feel accountable. The following long and mid shots are of a man stealing a car from low angle shots to convey that we as the audience are looking down on criminals and to convey to these young viewers that doing illegal activities such as pirating films is degrading. The next text to come up says, “You wouldn’t steal a handbag” and then shows a close up of a woman's handbag in focus while in the background we see someone, not in-depth of field in a black outfit approaching the bag. The persons face is cut off to make the audience feel like this could be them and is equivalent to them if they pirate videos because it’s just as bad in the eyes of the law. It does two more of these and all the colours are very bland and earthy to convey the idea that it’s dirty work and wrong. The last one it shows is “You wouldn’t steal a movie” Then shows a headless figure, with the camera cutting off the identity, walking into a shop, stealing a DVD and hiding it in their jacket. This then rewinds through the previous ‘You wouldn’t steal’ Then one at a time in beat with the music the words in “Downloading pirated films is stealing” all come up on screen once at a time in a bigger font to give a clear and concise message reinforcing everything we just have been shown and you are as bad as these other criminals because you are still stealing. We then go back to the original shots of the girl on the computer from the start of the video and in between close up shots we see the sentence “Stealing is against the law” again to educate these young people watching it that it is wrong. On the computer we see a bar downloading and underneath in red, there is a button that says ‘cancel’ and eventually the girl presses it and leaves to make the audience feel like they have a choice to do the right thing as we see her get up and leave her room. All of the shots from the entire film have several jump cuts to make it feel like CCTV footage which we associate with criminals which also gives the impression that what you do online can be tracked and traced back to you like CCTV footage can trace back to criminals. Overall I think this promo vid did exactly what it set out to do as from my personal experience and others who watched it when it came out as we were children made us scared and therefore deterred us from pirating videos.

The ‘Corrie tram crash’ teaser was made to excite fans for the 50th anniversary of coronation street where there would be a big explosion on the cobbles and a tram crash where fans would see 4 characters axed in the episodes. The teaser starts with a slow-motion shot of Roy and Haley walking off a bus with some shopping and then a close-up shot of each of them. A soft saturated filter is overlayed so the mise-en-scene pops while an old song plays to give the feel of an old classic film. This is all done to make coronation Street as a show feel timeless as it’s 50 years old but still has the same charm as it did when it premiered and this message is reinforced by the fact it is in slow-motion. The shots pan to different characters on the street with jump cuts to speed up the process and make it concise but still continuous so it still has that placid and timeless feeling. Each of the characters is shown in close-ups to convey to the audience that 4 of these beloved characters are being axed in these episodes that all of the characters are at risk and no one is safe. As we see Simon, Leanne and Peter in the same continuous light-hearted shots seemingly happy, the shot then cuts to a fire station where firemen are getting their gear and there is now a diegetic sound of a bell going off disrupts the placid feeling. The shot is no more than 2 seconds which then it cuts back to the placid continuous shots of the street. We see a close-up shot of Leaane looking at Nick and then one of Nick looking back at her with straight faces creating tension as they were having an affair at the time and this indicates to audiences that something to do with this is going to come out in the episodes creating tension for fans. This shot bridges into a tracking shot of Carla and Michelle walking and laughing together. Again we see this cut to a short shot of the fire station where this time we see firemen slide down the poles in a hurry as the bell ringing continues, creating tension as it forbodes that there will be some explosion or fire. This continues as a few shots later we see another shot of an ambulance being loaded where emergency servicemen can be heard shouting in the background which is building more and more tension for audiences. The mise-en-scene in these shots is very desaturated and blue made to feel cold and to contrast with the warm and soft colours so the audience knows this is going to be big and bad. The following shots are of Sally and Molly fussing over Molly's baby Jack which cuts to a mid and then close up shot of Sally's husband Kevin with a troubled look on his face as unbeknown to sally he had an affair with Molly and Jack is actually his son. This indicates that all of this drama will come to a head in the episodes and the truth will come out about the situation to create even more tension and excitement for audiences. These shots continue and the last cut in of the fire station is of the fire trucks leaving and the sirens going off which cuts back to the street Where a shot of Dev and Sunita pans up above the street towards the bridge, indicating the tram crash to create more mystery. We then cut to the title where it says ‘four funerals and a wedding’. To establish that there will be 4 deaths to really build up the tension and keep the audience hooked for the following week of episodes to come. Overall I think this was received as one of the best Soap teaser trailers of all time as a lot of people that weren't regular watchers tuned into these episodes because of the excitement this trailer created.

The ‘Nintendo 3DS: Promo Trailer’ was a trailer demonstrating how the new 3Ds work and the first time it was shown during the 2010 E3 event to get members of the press and video game developers talking. It starts off with the iconic Nintendo logo that stands out against the black screen as Nintendo are one of the mainstream company and have an identifiable brand so knowing that this product is associated with Nintendo proves assurance and excitement for the audience as their gaming consoles keep improving. We then see a man walk onto the bare white screen and sit on a white stool, he picks up the 3D DS and then the most iconic Nintendo character Mario made from CGI comes out of the screen. This is done because the main aspect of this device and selling point was the fact it had the 3D feature which got a lot of people excited in the item as it set it apart from the market. Mario puts a moustache on the man and then he gets sucked into the Ds screen through animation. This conveys to the audience the idea that this device gives a whole nother type of escapism and immersion as on the screen the character is literally being sucked into another world reinforced by the basic and bland mise-en-scene on screen. We then see a close up of the Ds to display its metallic and sleek design to the audience. Another man then walks on screen and picks up the DS as he hears a dog barking noise coming from it. We see a close up of the man holding the DS as a dog paw comes out of the screen to shake the man's hand and soon enough the entire dog jumps out making the man happy. This once again is done to highlight the fact it has the 3D feature making you feel more a part of the game you are playing. He too gets sucked into the device and the shot pans into the DS that is shaking and opening the screen by itself as dog bark sound effects are projected from the device to convey to the audience that the device is so immersive that it feels like it is a dog. Lots of Iconic Nintendo items like coins, shells, banana peels and barrels shoot out of the screen highlighting landing on screen and adding colour to the blank screen symbolising that this device makes your life better and brighter. This is reinforced when a third man walks on screen looking at all these Nintendo game items and reacts smiling at them. A few more items shoot out of the DS screen so the man picks it up and we see a reaction shot of him laughing at something happening on the device screen that we as the audience can’t see yet. This creates a mystery to what he is laughing at which conveys to the audience that if you don’t buy this device you will be missing out and feel left out. We then see the 2 men on the game running from Browser which highlights the fact that this devices multiplayer aspects have been improved for both online and local play and is, therefore, fun to play with friends. Browser then comes out of the screen and then the ad ends with some simple upbeat music and the devices name on screen so the audience understands this device does all of this. Overall, this promo does a good job of exciting the audience about the new feature to the DS proven because it sold very well especially since the main reason people bought it was for this feature but then ended up getting bored with it very quickly to the point where they removed the feature with the 2D DS.

The ‘Start Streaming Now | Disney+’ teaser is a promotional video made to encourage people to buy a subscription for the release of the Disney+ streaming service. The teaser starts with Kermit the Frog entering the screen and diegetically saying in a mid-shot, “Okay everybody, let’s take it from the top.” And then cuts to the Disney plus logo. This immediately tells spectators who the target audience is as the Muppets are typically associated with the family genre and have been around for several decades which sets up the teaser in a very lighthearted way. We begin to see a compilation of some of the characters from the studios that Disney owns like Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. This seems like a good directive choice because upon hearing about the streaming service, many responses were that it wouldn’t have a lot of content compared to other services like Prime Video and Netflix because Disney is typically just associated with their original animation studio and the films that that studio produced. This reminds and lets audiences know that Disney owns the rights to many companies and studios and the service, therefore, has a lot more to offer than what some initially think.