Analysing Warm Bodies Marketing

During this post I will analyse the title and trailer of a film to identify it's success as well as what it reveals to the audience which views them.




The film I will be analysing is "Warm Bodies"

Title

"Warm Bodies" is a modern Zombie film which plays off the "normal" stereotype of the genre but adds a unique romantic and soft side  which before had little presence or belonging in the genre. The film puts a Romeo and Juliet style relationship into a apocalyptic world, challenging not only the characters but the world they live on.

The title "Warm Bodies" reveals a lot about the film itself, from the genre to potential audiences.

The word "Warm" is often thought of as comforting or pleasant, the use of such a word in this title helps to show the softer side of the film and how it defers from the normal zombie flick, this shows that the audience may also differ from the male orientated audience of zombie films, it gives the possibility of larger female viewers.

"Bodies" can clearly be related to the Zombie aspect of the film but can also point towards a mystery/horror element within the film.

The overall title of the film suggests that although it keeps to the unwritten "Rules" of a zombie film it still can attract a large audience of mixed age and genre, I feel mainly however the film is aged at 18 to 25 year olds of mixed gender and tastes.

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07s-cNFffDM


I feel that the trailer (#1) of "Warm Bodies" further pushes the ideas I presented in analysing the title and this proves that the title was designed to provide the audience with a basic understanding of the films intent and genre.

Camera Work

Throughout the trailer, which is non liner, they use a range of basic but telling camera techniques to further the viewers understanding of the plot. For example the strong use of close up and two shots used to display "R", the male lead, and "Julie" ,the female lead, show how they are growing closer and have a connection, this shows the romantic and sometimes humours side of the film, Were as the long shots and long pans helping to show the hordes stick to the conventions of a horror zombie film.

Sound

The use of Dialogue in the form of a commentary takes up the largest section of the trailer, this technique is seen in other successful comedy zombie films such as "Zombieland" and I feel viewers subconsciously connect these similarities.

Other techniques using sound include the action-like music which is common in many zombie movies.

Editing

The fast pace cuts and shots help to conform to the stereotype of zombie horror film allowing fans (Mainly male fans) to identify it is still a zombie based film but the few slow, extended shots help viewers to see the romantic connection between the main characters.

Mise-En-Scene

Although the costumes of the characters are much like what is seen in most horror zombie films, the use of bright colours like "R's" red hoodie brings "Life" to the zombies, which is the main plot.

lighting and setting are both extremely heavily used in the trailer as it shows the dark and close spaced areas we all remember from zombie films in the past.

The Overall Trailer

I think that the trailer really focuses on attracting the large young adolescent consumers as not only does it push stereotype zombie movie to attract the male viewers but it also shows the comic and romantic side for the female viewers. Also the trailer heavily reveals its USP's in it being a almost new twist on a once thought to be completely horror genre film.

The USP's

There are many USP's shown within the trailer but all, I feel, are used to attract both male and female viewers, and id successful it could gross larger viewing figures.

Some of the USP's are:

- New Genre "Romantic Horror?"

- strong use of colour for genre

- Unique adaption of old plot (Romeo & Juliet)