Teaser Trailer Analysis #1 - Star Wars: Rogue One

I have done some research on the upcoming 2016 Sci-Fi film, Rogue One: A Star Wars story.

The tone to the Rogue One teaser trailer takes a darker turn than previous Star Wars films. The trailer creates this by using darker music, when compared to an often up-beat music to Star Wars. Another reason why its take a turn for a darker tone is its more human based, only one droid is visible and there are no aliens, unlike the variety present in more light-hearted moments in the original trilogies, such as the Cantina scene or Jar Jar Binks. There are some brutal scenes when the main character was running for her life from an at-at. Also when she kills three Stormtroopers. It’s a very gritty violent scene unlike what you would find in the first five Star Wars films.

The trailer links back to the previous films with the constant use of the word “rebel”, which evokes the main trio of protagonists in the original trilogy. It appears the film will have a diverse cast. In the first six films most of the protagonists were white males (Luke, Obi-Wan, Anakin). This improved slightly with the prequel trilogy, with the debut of Samuel L Jackson’s Mace Windu. However, it was not until the Disney takeover and The Force Awakens that women and people of colour began filling the roles of protagonists (Rey, Finn, Jyn Erso, and Poe Dameron). The main protagonist has more of an anti hero persona which is a bit of a far cry from original star wars protagonists like Luke Skywalker, and Obi Wan Kenobi. She seems to have more of a bad side to her contrast to Rey.

This teaser is longer than your usual teaser because there’s a larger budget and the franchise is very expensive and they need to start building interest now to ensure maximum box office profits in December. The dialogue used in this scene is also effective because it helps establish that this is a war film, a change in tone from the previous installments. The effects this has on the viewer is because the camera is showing the behind of a rebel running, it makes you empathise for them. The final scene shows the rebels running towards a group of ATATs. The low-angle shot adds to the towering threat of the ATAT and lets the audience experience the terror of the rebels. The teaser uses darker colours compared to the previous films. Black is present everywhere, in both the setting and the costumes. They released a 10 second teaser before only showing the title and a very brief clip of a death trooper.