Deconstruction of 'The Spectacular Now'

The Spectacular Now 

The Spectacular Now (2013) is an American romantic comedy starring Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. It covers teen issues such as alcoholism and growing up. Sutter Keely is a lazy, budding alcoholic with no ambition for his future, Amy Finicky is the opposite, a straight A student with dreams of university. 

Film Poster

• The name of the film takes up a third of the poster. The title is in all capitals, the 'Now' taking up the whole width of the poster, compared to 'The Spectacular' above it. The font is the only white on the poster, making it bold, drawing the audiences' attention.

• The use of the colour yellow conforms to the golden rule. The yellow draws the audiences' attention to the girl's dress, from here their attention is drawn upwards to the review, followed by the top of the poster for the clear indication of genre.

• 'From the writers of (500) Days of Summer' is an indication of genre as people who liked the previous film are likely to enjoy this one.

Film Trailer

The trailer starts with the main character sitting at a computer, introducing himself through voiceover. The voiceover continues as the production company titles begin. The main character Sutter, says through voiceover "I've got everything I need right here, I've got a job, I've got a car, I've got a beautiful girl", during this, the relevant things are shown:

Dance music is played while other clips show the 'typical' teenage life i.e. parties, girls and driving. Different conversations between Sutter and different characters are shown, the same topic arises throughout - "You've got to live in the moment". The scene ends with Sutter driving with his head out the window and it cutting to black.

The trailer starts again with diegetic sounds of birds and a girl saying "hey" in order to wake someone up. Slow, piano music begins, contrasting to the previous music. The colours in this scene are more neutral, which again, contrasts to the dark lighting and bold colours in the previous part of the trailer. The two characters exchange conversations through numerous camera angles - two shot, shot reverse shot and a wide angle.

 

The scene is ends, the music previously playing increases in volume while "From the writers of (500) Days of Summer" is shown through titles. The colours in the titles are similar to those on the film poster. The words come through an O shape which is the same font as the O in Now (in the title). By showing previous films by the same writers, the film will appeal to an audience that enjoyed the previous film.

Throughout the trailer, the same animation is used to show reviews of the film.

The song used in the third 'section' of the trailer is 'Feel Again' by One Republic. It is an upbeat song with claps at the same speed as a heartbeat. The song increases in speed and volume throughout which suits the romantic comedy/teen drama genre and attracts the correct target audience as the song is modern (released in 2012) as well as being 'feel good'.

The lyrics of the song can also be applied to the story represented in the trailer:

 "I'm feeling better ever since you know me,
I was a lonely soul but that's the old me"