Theatrical Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRtXB0_Caws
Pain & Gain is the latest film by Michael Bay, due for release this summer. Famous for his Bad Boys and more notably Transformer series, Bay is a well known and often well-loved director who is used to far bigger-budget blockbusters. Based on true story, Pain & Gain depicts a group of bodybuilders who enter a kidnapping and extortion ring after hatching a plan against a wealthy 'crook' to obtain his assets, when the plan fails, events spiral out of control.
The Theatrical trailer has a length of two and half minutes, which is very common with trailers as that is the limit which is only allowed to be exceeded once a year, so in a bid to show as much footage as possible, many companies make their trailers 150 seconds long. This film fits under the genres of crime/comedy/thriller/action but judging by the trailer and in relation to the 'Save The Cat' genres, it would most likely come under 'The Fool Triumphant' as although whether the main protagonist, Daniel Lugo, is successful or not, he and his partners are clearly established as the underdogs.
Within the first 12 seconds of the trailer, the premise of the film is already established to a generous extent. This is a common feature of trailers, the idea of truly condensing things as much as possible, to feed the audience information to help build interest.
As with a lot of modern trailers, specifically for films that contain action, slow-motion is used to prolong that particular part of the scene, which allows the audience to concentrate on what is happening in that small snippet, where detail would have been missed if played at normal/expected speeds. In this trailer, it also allows for a voice-over to be given by the main character. This is a common feature seen in the codes and conventions of trailers as it immerses the audience immediately, without any out-of-character details as a distraction. The voice-over is reoccurring throughout, broken up by intermittent pieces of dialogue. This is also a common code and convention of this genre, as dialogue from key scenes in the film builds interest and understanding.
The 'turn line' of the this trailer appears around the 1:10 mark as Lugo states 'I got a plan to change that' and the music alters to intensify and build a higher pace of action, that will ultimately lead into a number of jump cuts as scenes progress. The use of jump cuts is a common occurrence for films that contain action scenes as they build tempo and within this trailer, are also used to show the passage of time as events unfold, which is not an uncommon technique for this genre.
As the main characters plan is somewhat foiled, the music alters again, with the transitions and cuts also altering to fit the beat of the song. This adds an element of fluidity as the trailer starts to near its end and more of the plot is revealed, this is a common technique for this genre as a threat to the 'underdog(s)' essentially thickens the plot as well as interest. This could be referred to as 'The Rise' of the trailer, as it acts as a finale just before the ending scenes. However, within this crescendo, there is a pause for a calmer/comedic scene to be delivered. This pause reinforces the comedic side of the film, and a pause midway through the finale is often used in 'comedy' trailers like this as it is when the audience least expects it. Similarly, 'The Button' appears in this trailer as a comedic exchange of dialogue, which references 'going camping' even after all of the destruction of the trailer beforehand.
Large Text appears in the trailer only a hand full of times, to emphasise the most important elements, such as it being based on a true story, and the name of the director, as mentioning that it's made by Michael Bay is guaranteed to sell the film to more people who are fans of his previous work. The text appears at the start and end of the trailer, which is not uncommon in trailers as informs the audience of things such as when the film is released etc.
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