Trailer analysis: 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon'

‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ (2011) is an American science fiction action film and is the third instalment of the ‘Transformers’ franchise. The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Tyrese Gibson. This trailer is set in space when humans arrived at the moon for the first time. It shows two astronauts making a discovery and finding a huge robot buried under the surface of the moon. The visual’s shown is a combination of old real life footage and filmed shots for the movie.

This trailer starts off quite slow and shows numerous shots of old real life footage when humans were first travelling to the moon. This immediately tells the audience that this film will be a sci-fi movie. After the various shots of archive footage it then moves to a series of mid shots which show the space ship arriving on the moon and the astronauts landing on the moon. The non-diegetic sound of music starts and the tension is initiated. The music includes enhanced screeching sounds produced using a string instrument perhaps a violin. These sounds create a feeling of unease for the audience and increase the tension and suspense. The tempo and volume of the music gradually increases then suddenly stops which gets the audience on edge. As the astronauts spot the huge robot on the moon, non- diegetic sounds of heartbeats starts and builds up the suspense and anxiety for the audience. A long shot is used to show how huge the robot is in comparison with the two astronauts’ and this then creates an increased sense of worry and anxiety. Towards the end of the trailer the music becomes very loud and constant which increase the tension for the audience. The speed of shots also increase which adds to the tension.

This trailer would appeal to male between the ages of 12-25 due to the sci-fi action genre. The trailers include robots and spaceships which would most probably appeal to men more than women. Furthermore, the Transformers franchise is about fighting robots which again would appeal more to the young male audience. This trailer has not focused very much on the story or the main characters in the film but has focused on its unique selling point which is the robots from space. The younger audience will probably not really focus on the character development or the story which also tells you that the target audience will most probably be younger as they have included neither in this trailer.