Research & Planning The Dictator

Film Trailer 

The Dictator was released June 2nd 2012. Like all of Sacha Boran Cohen's films the genre is Comedy. Sacha is very well known for his lead roles in "Ali G In Da House" and "Borat" The film features another one of Baron Cohen's controversial comedy characters. As expected this film has tongue and cheek humour, and by that I mean it relies on controversial jokes to entertain the audience. Unlike the other films I've analysed this one was much less successful than my others as the film only grossed $58 million when the films budget was $65 million which shows that the studios lost $7 million dollars on this project. The run time for this film was 82mins, which is only 1 hour and 20 mins and incredibly short for a film. The films target audience was 15-20 as it had specific tongue and cheek humour, which only caters to few people, which is probably the reason why the film wasn't very successful.

In the first 30 seconds of the trailer the audience is deceived in a number of ways into believing the film isn't a comedy. Firstly dramatic diegetic sound track is placed over the top of serious scenes to create the impression that the film has a mature tone, but ironically the dramatic music then is being used ironically In addition the trailer uses actual members of the U.N. i.e. Barrack Obama and David Cameron. The music all eventually leads into a sting however and reveals the threat talked about is Sacha's character, whom is a self centred prince from Arabia. Soon after the reveal the music turns into a Bollywood style track, which fits the setting of Arabia.

Another convention the trailer uses to great effect is camera angles, but more specifically panning shots of Arabia and New York during the montage, which ultimately reveals the setting of the audience, which also hints at Levi Strauss binary opposition theory because the two settings Arabia and New York are very different settings contrast and are run in very different ways, which is something thing Sacha's character will need to overcome to survive New York's concrete jungle. Also this relates to Todorov's disequilibrium theory as the main characters world is shaken, and creates this problem he must overcome. In relation to the Mise-en-scene the two contrasting locations have been deliberately been chosen for the narrative as the contrast will create challenges for Cohen's characters and lead to some comedic moments.

A convention that is present at the end of the trailer is the institution credits, despite being used its strange that this convention would be placed at the end of the trailer as they're usually found at the beginning of a trailer, as the institution gives the audience the initial idea of what the film might be because most institutions specialise in a certain film genre. In this case its Paramount Studios, which create multi genre films. Another convention that producer tend to put on the end of their films now days is a caption screen with either the films website or social network icons. This allows and even wider audience to be reached via technological convergence

Overall the trailer seems quite effective in encouraging its target audience, as the audience experience part of the main plot, the main character, and the setting, which is enough for the audience to make a decision, however despite its content. I personally believe that the trailer reveals a little too much and think they should leave the audience guessing what might happen.



Poster:

Here is the official poster for the Dictator movie which was placed in cinemas all across the globe as well as bus shelters and telephone box's. As you can see the main image consists of a close up of Sacha Baron Cohen's character. Mainly focused on his head and the top half of his patented attire. In relation to mise-en-scene his outfit connotates he could be part of the military and may have extremely high authority. Also Sacha's character is wearing sunglasses which has been manipulated by the film studio to reflect the American flag through his shades, thus making him seem that he's heading straight into the U.S.A. like its his playground to do what ever he pleases or to overcome as a challenge. This gives the audience an idea of the setting Another aspect of Mise-en-scene used is Sacha's facial expression is quite serious, which partly misleads the audience into thinking the film may have a serious political tone. This helps reach out to people who may not be fans of  Sacha's previous films. Unlike the other posters I've analysed Sacha is the only character on the poster, which therefore means the image must be adjusted to be bigger to fill in more space, hence why the editors chose to capture Sacha by a close up shot. Unconventionally the subject isn't dead central, which allows more of the background to be seen by the audience further encouraging the audience that the setting of the film is the U.S.A. In relation to the background the audience are presented with blue skies and an urban metropolis, but more specifically New York, as revealed from the Empire state building behind the character. In relation the proportion of the character and the buildings it would seem that Sacha's head has been made to look taller than the sky scrapers, which conotates how egocentric and big headed the Dictator actually is.

In relation to the text the creators of the poster seem to have used a white and blue house style. White text which is similar to what the character is wearing. As expected the title of the film is the biggest text on the page, thus illustrating its importance, however it seems the text they have chosen connotates a serious tone and may not attract Sacha's comedic fan base, thus losing the target audience. Despite the font though the positioning of the title seems conventional as its placed near the top of the poster. Above the title the actors name is clearly highlighted as he's the main star an shares the poster with no other character. Also by the studio highlighting the actors name this prompts audiences who are fans of Sacha and his previous movies. Finally a billing block has been used below the main title of the film to present the studios and companies responsible for the movies creation and release, which is a usual convention used in posters now days.

Strangely the poster doesn't include a tag line like the other trailers I've analysed, this is probably because the film studios didn't want to give too much away to the audience. In addition something I've noticed on most film trailers an age certificate isn't found anywhere, this is probably because its either for all ages or it doesn't want to exclude any audiences because of ages.

In conclusion I believe that because of the addition of the serious pose and mature font. I believe the poster excludes Sacha's usual comedic audience and alienates usual by seeming to head in a different direction. This may be the primary reason why the film didn't do so well as it discouraged usual fans of Sacha's films. If I was in charge of creating this poster I would firstly change the text to bold and yellow connotating fun and exciting. Next I would change the main image to Sacha sitting on a throne in the background watching some crazy event i.e. two monkeys fighting to the death or something along those lines. This would not only attract Sacha's usual fan base but also those who seem interested by the events in the poster.