Rogue One ppt
- 1. Joshua Paice STAR WARS-ROGUE ONE STA ANALYSIS
- 2. • The Rogue One trailer is from the science fiction genre, aiming at families for it’s target audience. The outline of the trailer follows a hero’s journey, which shows a clear linear narrative but is most likely split up into multi-strand storylines to deal with the magnitude of characters and objects shown in this trailer. • The trailer opens with a man interviewing the main female character, due to his amplified asynchronous dialogue we become alienated from him while he asks a series robotic questions, the audience can then immediately connect with the woman, Jyn Erso, assuming that she is the protagonist. From this interview we understand that there is an underlying theme of anger running throughout this trailer. One woman describes our protagonist as ‘reckless and aggressive’, Jyn then follows this up by saying ‘this is a rebellion isn’t it…I rebel’. This shows that she is angry at the state of the empire and wants a change bought upon it. Jyn clearly demonstrates the female power ideology through these lines, further subverting the weak female stereotype but it is clear she has had to resort to this ideology if she wants a successful rebellion. Her female power is further indicated when she walks into the first frame of the trailer, with her hair tied back whilst wearing a leather jacket and army boots, which are items stereotypically worn by a man. In having Jyn wear clothing stereotypical of a male, she is able to effectively embody strong and aggressive personality traits that we associate with the male gender.
- 3. • This creates a strong ‘girl power’ ideology, focusing on her strength rather than showing her off as a sex object throughout the trailer. To add to there is a quick succession of cutaways to show Jyn fighting off some antagonist robots. We know that they are evil characters because they have masks on, hiding their facial expressions, while wearing solid white and black uniforms that have connotations of darkness and aggression. The amplified synchronous sound of a gunshot is amplified during a mid-shot of Jyn. This is to show that she has fired the gun at the troops and is holding the power in the scene. There is a heavy orange colour grade highlighting the fire in the scene, which has connotations of anger and violence. This make the audience question the morals of the protagonist, provoking the ideology that the bad may actually be good. However, a deafening sound of an alarm begins in the middle of the trailer. This is littered with long shots of the Stormtroopers as they escort humans in handcuffs. We immediately call upon them as antagonist, understanding that they are imprisoning our race.
- 4. • There is a running theme of war that acts as the spine motive for majority of the characters in this trailer. The first item of transportation we see in a wide shot is of a large scale warship positioned against a dark background. The shot then jump cuts to the same wide shot that is loosely framed more excessively, revealing part of an even bigger warship against a dark background. Firstly, the dark colours used in these shots create a profoundly wicked mood that seems to provoke fear to the audience. The shots successfully show the immense scale of war while simultaneously antagonising the entire theme. • Edwards, the director of Rogue One, does this through playing a deep toned soundtrack over the shots to highlight the aggression of the antagonists. Similarly, he sound bridges the line ‘we need to know what it is and how to destroy it’ underneath the shots so that we understand the danger this weapon poses and the ultimate goal the protagonist’s have in this narrative. Furthermore, the larger ship is illuminated by a singular light from the left that only manages to light part of it’s surface area. Since we are in space, we assume the light is the sun and this emphasises the shear scale of the ship, provoking even more fear from the audience. An asynchronous sound effect of an amplified alarm then begins to play, alerting the audience of the threat from these ships.
- 5. • There is a clear political imbalance between the protagonist and antagonist forces in this trailer. The antagonists represent the elite’s of society, made clear through them having bigger weapons and more expensive looking uniforms. This shows that they are more economically stable and that the political system is corrupt because evil forces are running the world. In comparison, the protagonist forces tend to have torn clothes and speak in a polite British dialect. Audience members are drawn to the polite language but understand that their hero’s are economically worse off because of the state of their clothes and the lack of visible make-up on their faces. Furthermore, the antagonists provoke an ideology of money bringing power. They have very expensive equipment but use it in unlawful ways. This is clear in the medium close-up of an all black Stormtrooper, positioned in front of a burning village. The black colour of his uniform matches the dark smoke from the burning, indicating that he has ignited the fire behind him. This denotes that economic corruption has lead to evil forces taking control.
- 6. • It remains easy to perceive that the trailer has attempted to experiment with a range of different themes and ideologies that create a very engaging narrative. The preferred denotation of the text would be to view this trailer as a good versus evil fantasy story. However, an aberrant reading of the trailer would connote a struggle for political dominance between two economically imbalanced social classes of people.