Romance film

The Notebook

 The trailer narrates the story of the two lovers and the troubles that come their way during the film. The first few shots are high angle shots of the couple on a boat in a beautiful lake that instantly creates a relaxed and comfortable feel. The white swans in the lake represent the elegance, romance and tranquility. Then an old man's narration comes in describing the characters and their first meeting etc.

Another story emerges as the audience understand that the male voice is the young male actor (Ryan Gosling) as a grown man, describing the story to a woman. This makes the love story feel even more magic as they have been together for such a long time. The romantic story entices the young female audience who see the beautiful relationship that blossoms during the film.  However they face obstacles; Ali's mother- an upper class lady- disapproves of her daughter’s new found love. The non-dietetic music playing in the back changes and becomes colder. The time of the film is fairly old fashioned and therefore the costumes for the characters are suitably matched. Mid way through the film, Noel meets Ali’s family. He is dressed in an old tattered grey shirt that looks fairly lower class and scruffy. This contrasts the upper class look of Ali’s family who are wearing classy dresses and suits. This represents how the time period has a discrimination state where Noel is not accepted as a worthy partner for Ali.

The prevalence is given to the young couple during the film however the audience feel empathy for the young man. He is left alone as Ali gets engaged. There is a shot of a car with Ali inside and Noel chasing the car and the stopping in the middle of the road in the pouring rain. This single shots tells the audience about his emotions and betrayal and instantly pulls sympathy on to him. The rain highlights the atmosphere and feelings and the lighting being grey and dark shows that he is left in a dark place- alone.

The intended target audience for this film would react very positively to the trailer. Women particularly would be very excited when seeing the trailer because of the music used and type of shots used in the cuts shown. The target audience would be predominantly women from a wide range of ages. The trailer would definitely alienate males regardless of what age they are because of it being such a feminine looking movie. Men or young boys right from the outset of the trailer would instantly be put off by the feminine love music; they would rather watch something more masculine. Men are more typically associated with action, comedy or science fiction style movies, movies that are so to speak more macho.

Then at the end of the trailer you hear the tag line “behind every great love is a great story”. This one phrase ultimately represents the entire idea of the movie. This portrays the idea that love is eternal and the story behind true love is beautiful. The last two shots in the play are very cleverly arranged. There is a medium shot of the elderly couple slow dancing in a delicate and slow manner. It is very sweat and innocent and therefore the audience are drawn to the ‘Cuteness’ of the shot. There is there a crossfade to a similar shot of the couple at the age of 20 where Noel holds Ali’s back as she backbends very elegantly. This is beautifully done as the audience can connect the couple and understand that true love never dies.