Product Analysis - The Dark Knight (2008)

Teaser Trailer

The Dark Knight is the sequel to the Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan. The teaser trailer to this film reflects on the style of film that were made by Christopher Nolan.  

The teaser trailer starts with the green screen as shown. This just indicates to the audience that the teaser trailer has been authorised to be viewed and doesn't contain content that is not wanted. The following shots are the labels of the two production companies that have produced the film. They are Legendary Pictures and Warner Bro. However, to make the teaser trailer for this comic book adaption to stand out as it's own label, the teaser making company have decided to colour coordinate their entire trailer. They have done this by changing the colours of the production company logo's to black and grey, which is colour coordinated with the Batman clothes and symbol. As the production logo's appear, a low, organ type instrument plays in the background as a non-diegetic sound. This gives a gloomy and fierce mood to the teaser which is enforced by the use of only black and grey colours. After the production logos, the teaser becomes completely black and the non-diegetic sound of the soundtrack plays in the background. We then hear a conversation that includes the voice of the films protagonist, Bruce Wayne/Batman. The audience is able to recognise his voice from the previous films. As the conversation gets more intense, the audience is introduced to a bright light which seems to fly over the camera shot. This creates suspense for the audience as the light could symbolise anything in the film and as it is the only movement in the teaser so far, it could indicate that there is something mysterious in the film which may happen. The conversation continues in the background with the non-diegetic sound. The conversation includes a talk between Bruce Wayne and his Butler, Alfred, who talk about a danger to Gotham. This is followed by other characters speaking. The general tone to this film due to this conversation is danger and tension. The audience is hearing there favourite characters 

talking about how they were going to help save the city. This creates suspense and tension as the audience wonder who is creating this problem for Gotham city and why isn't the Batman helping. This then leads to the shot on the left, where the Batman logo slowly appears with the help of more bright lights as shown before. The teaser then increases

the tempo of the non-diegetic sound in the background. The teaser company has done this by adding drum beats to the soundtrack. These two conventions help intensify the fee of an upbeat. This could indicate to the audience that there could be an uprising as the Batman logo appears which is the symbol of the audiences hero. The conversation comes to the end and Alfred says 'some men, just want the world to burn.' At this point, the Batman logo starts to break away as shown. This could indicate a fall to the Batman or that whoever Alfred is talking about has succeeded in defeating Bruce Wayne.

The lights in the background appear more frequently, however, the audience is then introduced to the voice of the opposing gang and the Joker. At this point, the soundtrack stays the same with the emphasis on the upbeat sound in the background made by drums or another percussion instrument. The difference is that bigger peaces of the batman logo break away. This is then ended with one of the pieces turning around and showing a Joker card. This is instigated by the Joker saying, 'I'm a man of my word' which is followed by his unique laugh. For Batman followers, they will recognise that the card is to do with the evil villain which is talked about for a bit in this trailer, however, for those who aren't followers of the film, they are left in suspense and just remember the card as a symbol which is very beneficial for the film and the audience as it creates rhetorical questions for some audiences.

The soundtrack continues and the teaser trailer finishes with two black screens. The first screen shows the name of the film and the second shows the day of release with production companies and sponsors logo's. The dark background could suggest that this film is mysterious and by not actually showing the audience anything from the film, the teaser has left the film in mystery and created suspense.

This teaser is quite conventional. It does tease the audience and creates a lot of suspense and mystery. I believe this is the main targets of the teaser which have been achieved. Although, I believe that the use of no footage is the main idea to take from this and this idea is unconventional.
This teaser trailer would have also been cheap so the producers haven't put the financial backing in this teaser trailer. But this teaser trailer works very well for the film as it hints at themes like danger and struggle which helps keep the audience in suspense.

Poster

This is the poster for the Dark Knight. The poster composes the protagonist in the centre of the poster. This shows that the Batman is the man in control and as he is shown from a low angle shot, it could mean that he is superior and has power over whatever villain he faces. The poster has a cloudy background which creates a gloomy and dull mood. This indicates that the city is in trouble or that the citizens are not happy. There is a tall building which is breaking away. This could indicate that the city has fallen. The gloomy and unhappy tone created by this poster shows a contrast by the bright red Batman logo standing out above of everything on the tower. The logo is made out of fire and it could indicate to the audience that above all the trouble and danger caused, the Batman will be there to fight it. The title is composed beneath the Batman with the batman logo in the middle of the title. This is to increase the use of the key symbol that followers of the film can recognise. Above this, there are the name of the actors who play the characters in the film. This is a key selling point of the film which helps branch out to other audiences that aren't familiar with the batman theme. The final part of the poster is the bottom part which has the production company and sponsors and the date of the films release. In this poster, the villain is not portrayed. This may have been done by the artist to create suspense and to not give a lot away about the film.

The general theme of the poster is that the Batman faces danger and with the audience unaware of his opponent, they are left to speculate on whether he wins his battle which they know is going to happen due to the dark colours and the use of red which are commonly related to war, the audience are left to believe that there will be a fight or war in this film.

Magazine Covers

This is the magazine cover by Empire magazine for this film. The headmast is unconventional from the usual magazine cover headmast. This is because the title colour is usually red but, due to the theme's in the Dark Knight and the colours of the Batman, Empire magazine have decided to change the title colour to suit the theme of the film which helps audiences recognise the film. The magazine also has a sell line which helps attract readers to buy the magazine. There is also a coverline on this magazine cover with a barcode on the right hand side at the bottom. The picture of the Batman is a close up of his face and the image is composed in the centre of the magazine cover. The image shows no expressions. This could indicate that the Batman has something serious to do in the film and as it is a close up of him, he can't hide from it. The main colours used in this magazine cover are black, blue and white. This could suggest that the film has a dangerous and mysterious theme to the film. This magazine cover follows the Z-pattern which most magazines have. This shows that this particular magazine is conventional apart from the headmast.
The headmast also states that there are 2 covers to collect. This is for collectors.

This is the second magazine cover for the same issue. Everything on the magazine covers are the same but the colour and the image. The image for this magazine looks a lot more sinister. This may be to do with the fact that this character is a villain and because he has a very sinister part in the film. The image is composed in the same fashion as the first magazine cover. The colour scheme on this poster is black, white and green. These colours could suggest an evil and a slimy character. Both of these magazine covers have the common theme of mystery. This is mainly due to there is only one character on each magazine cover which keeps the mystery of the film as they are the only two characters shown.

Comparison

The genre of this film is Action-Thriller. All these products have the common theme of mystery and suspense. This is created by the dark colour scheme and the common themes of danger and evil conveyed by most of these products.

However, the teaser and the poster don't show the villain to the film which helped create suspense to what the Joker or villain looked like. The magazine does show this. Empire may have decided to do this to try to get more people buying the magazine for the film. Apart from the magazines, the products show or have the Batman logo. This  logo is a symbol comic fans attract to and it is a symbol that symbolises something to first time viewers of the film, which could be used to create suspense for those audiences.

These products all show a common theme. My group could use these connections because we have a similar genre to this film. We could use the same colour scheme throughout all of our products which we will be producing. The colour scheme will help us in conveying a mysterious and tense theme in our products. We could also use the idea of creating a symbol or logo for our audience to help create suspense as the logo does for these Batman films.

Finally, I think that these products all help the film project which has helped make this film successful. The main idea that we will be taking is that there is nothing being shown from the film in the teaser trailer. This will help us to create suspense in our teaser trailer and will then help us with our other products.

Time period and Industrial effect

The production company may have chosen to pick Christopher Nolan as the director based on his previous work. This has helped in transforming Batman from previous Joel Schumacher Batman (which was a bit camp and had many bright colours), into this Batman which is more serious and dark. This shows a change of time periods and shows what people have grown to like in film.

Also, Batman was never a cheerful or entirely successful vigilante which what this new production company is trying to convey. They are showing the side of Batman which they believe to be right for the enjoyment of the comic book audience.

The industrial effect is caused many due to the production company wanting to make money and satisfy its audience.