I am currently enrolled in Visual Communications course. We
recently had a reading in Visual
Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising by Paul Messaris, 1977, on
how certain advertisements are often pitched toward girls and others are pitched
toward boys, particularly in early Saturday morning commercials aimed at young
children. Researchers Welch, Houston-Stein, Wright, and Phlelal (1979) did a
study on how to deem a commercial for girls vs. for boys? Researchers looked at
the speed or pace of the editing and the nature of the editing transitions. In
particular, the researchers made a distinction between straight cuts, which
create an instant transition from one shot to the next, and dissolves or fades,
both of which entail a more gradual replacement of one shot by another. All of
these aspects of editing are usually considered means of making a scene more or
less exciting, tranquil, and so on. Their conclusion: Commercials aimed at boys
were characterized by faster editing and greater use of straight cuts, whereas
girls’ commercials had a slower editing pace and were more likely to emply
fades or dissolves.
I decided to take this information I learned in my Visual
Comm class and apply it to our class and see if the Hunger Games trailer
appeals more to boys than girls (granted this study was emphasized on 7-11 year
olds, I still believe the main question was the gender distinction instead of
age). The conclusion I came up with is
that the editors of the Hunger Games TV commercials is split about 60-40. I
feel that after looking at this commercial many times it becomes clear that
about 60% of the time there Is softer transitions that fade from one shot to
the next, and around 40% of the time there are straight cuts that are meant
more for boys viewing this ad. I did, also notice that the commercial only had
the fade shots with parts of the commercial that was displaying more emotional
aspects of the movie—Katniss saying goodbye to her family, Peeta on the roof,
Cinna speaking, etc. While the more straight cuts shots come into play in the
action. This can be seen as a deliberate attempt on the editors to grab a
certain genders attention at a more gender specific scene (ex: making straight cuts
in the action scenes so it is more attuned to the males and so forth).
I find this to be a very interesting conclusion, I believe
that certain movie promos are aimed specifically toward a certain gender;
however, the Hunger Games was split almost evenly. For this reason, I commend
the editors in gaining both interest from both genders and helping to make this
movie more successful by a simple editing technique.
Here’s the clip, feel free to check it out and see if you
can understand the straight cut scenes vs. the fade-into shots.
I thought that this trailer does a good job in hyping up the movie. The movie primarily centers around Katniss, sacrificing herself in the Hunger Games for her sister, which evokes sympathy from the audience and puts an emphasis on family relations. This notion mostly appeals to females, whereas, the shots involving training for the Games and the Games itself are more fast paced and is made to be more dramatic through loud sound effects. Scenes involving Prim, Katniss talking about her sister, and when she is telling Gale to take care of her family, contain inspirational music. I also think that music does a great deal in appealing to the audience and adds an element of melodrama to the narrative. As a result, I agree with you that the film editors were careful enough to include scenes that would appeal to both genders, which I thought was interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think the creation of movie trailers is a very interesting field of advertising. There are so many different factors that go into making a trailer that will spark the most interest a movie. Some of the factors that need to be considered are which scenes should be highlighted to draw the attention of the target audience as well as a wider audience, background music to intensify the selected scenes and pace of scene transition that Inez pointed out. In my opinion the Hunger Games trailer, does a great job highlight important aspects of the movie such as Katniss and Prim's relationship and action shots of the games. I particularly like that they included Peeta's quote about not letting them control him and maintaining his identity throughout the games.
ReplyDeleteI agree that certain transitions may be directed toward different genders (softer transitions for females and sharp cuts for males), but I don't think they were necessarily deliberate in this trailer. Sure, the emotional scenes had softer transitions, but that's probably due to the nature of the scene. Also, it seems natural for action scenes to have sharper cuts to add to the tension of the trailer. Overall, I think that the trailer does a fantastic job of attracting drama and hype to the movie, but I'm not sure if I really believe that the director meant for certain parts to be directed toward males and others towards females.
ReplyDeleteLike Tory, I don't believe that these cuts are simply gender-related. I just watched the Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol trailer (chosen at random because it's generally considered to be a manish movie) and it, too, had a mix of sharp cuts and soft transitions. Despite these details, I'm sure 80% of the audience was male. The trailer-creators must have had more than gender in mind. The cuts fall more on the action-packed scenes in the movie while the transitions are more sensual or suspenseful. I believe this could be true of the hunger games as well, since the emotional scenes of Primrose being chosen as tribute (I cried) are also full of sharp cuts.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with everyone in that different transitions serve a purpose. Maybe they do just match the nature of the scene, or maybe they are directed at a specific gender, but to connect to the two, I believe, is an extremely stereotypical way of looking at gender interest. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I will enjoy the emotional, softly transitioned scenes more than the action packed, exciting ones. If this is a real study, backed in fact and evidence, then we should all give up debunking gender stereotype, because it must actually be true that all females enjoy emotional scenes and all males just want action.
ReplyDeleteBased on this trailer, I think that the editors were aware of the appeal of transitions to different genders. I do not think this editing was coincidental, but as people have said above, it is possible that the transitions were created more to fit with the nature of the scenes than with the targeted genders. I also think that the use of varied transitions in movies that are aimed primarily at one gender is an attempt to broaden the audience. In these types of movies where the male audience will already be drawn in by the action and violence, a female audience may be subconsciously attracted by the subtle use of editing as seen in these trailers.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteTo me, the goal of a movie trailer is designed to capture as big of an audience as possible. This then makes sense that different types of editing would be used to catch different people. I believe the kids style cuts would be based on gender, but as an adult I;m not sure it works that way. Saying that slower cuts are for girls and sharp is for boys promotes gender stereotypes. It is playing into the sharp, aggressive men and slower, calmer women. I would say that the goal isn't necessarily gender but personality types. The emotional people and action people. As a female, I love action movies so I can be drawn in just as much by fast paced action cuts. I would believe it is more based on the type of person, not their gender.
DeleteI actually completely agree with you on this! I was blown away at their ability to not only attract males and females, but also to draw in different age groups as well. They incorporate both heartwarming scenes that draw in the emotional movie-watcher as well as violence for the action-packed movie-watcher. There are very few trailors that I have found my dad and I both agree look worthy of spending $12 at a movie theater to see. This one made the cut.
ReplyDelete(I really did appreciate the Hunger Games movie. I don't know if it is because I wasn't very attached to the book and therefore was not upset when they "left things out" or "changed things around," but I thought the producers did a great job of recreating the book in an understandable and exciting rendition)
I think the more important appeal that the editors were going for was the combination of action and drama. These two theme generate very different and distinct audiences, and the ad does a good job combining the two themes without making it seem as though one is more dominant than another. I agree with some of the comments in the sense that dramatic scenes are more likely to be slower and softer transitions, and the action scenes will be more straight cut because the editing should coincide with the emotions that are presented, but I don't think that gender was the focal point that these editors were looking for when creating this ad. Its hard to say that certainly because I don't belong to the advertisement industry of course, but a part of me wants to stray from the idea that girls are more emotional, and boys are action crazed idiots.
ReplyDelete