Film Analysis: Casino Royale (2006), Gangster Squad (2013) and Suicide Squad (2016)

Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) has 1949 Los Angeles in an iron fist, as he accumulates a fortune from drugs, prostitution and gambling. Cohen has an army of paid goons at his disposal, but he also has certain policemen and politicians in his pocket. It's enough to intimidate even the bravest cop, until Los Angeles Police Department mavericks, Sgts. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), form a secret crew to bring Cohen to justice.

After receiving a license to kill, British Secret Service agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) heads to Madagascar, where he uncovers a link to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a man who finances terrorist organizations. Learning that Le Chiffre plans to raise money in a high-stakes poker game, MI6 sends Bond to play against him, gambling that their newest "00" operative will topple the man's organization.

Figuring they're all expendable, a U.S. intelligence officer decides to assemble a team of dangerous, incarcerated supervillains for a top-secret mission. Now armed with government weapons, Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc and other despicable inmates must learn to work together. Dubbed Task Force X, the criminals unite to battle a mysterious and powerful entity, while the diabolical Joker (Jared Leto) launches an evil agenda of his own.https://g.co/kgs/34U0hK https://g.co/kgs/tJBsyV https://g.co/kgs/rVyA2j

Metro Goldwyn Mayer is a private, American media company, famously known for it’s film and television distribution. It was founded in 1924 by Marcus Loew, making it one of the oldest film studios in the world. The reason or the lion was it was his surname meant lion in German, and because the lion is the official mascot for the Columbian University, so it only made sense. In the logo the words ‘Ars Gratia Artis’ incorporated, which is Latin for ‘Art for Arts Sake”. The first ever film released by them was called ‘Mademoiselle Midnight’ and it’s most recent film ‘Ben-Hur’.

Columbia pictures is an American Film Production founded in 1918, with Sony Pictures Entertainment as it’s parent organization. It is one of the oldest, yet biggest film production studios in the world, making it a member of the ‘Big Six’. Their first feature short film was released back in 1922 called ‘Pal O Mine’. The logo and name is derived from Columbia as it is one of the national personification of the U.S.

Warner Bros. Entertainment is one of the biggest and successful American entertainment company, making them be part of the Big Six. The company have several subsidiary companies such as Warner Bros. Television and owns 50% of the CW Television Network. A very popular film series distributed by his company is The Harry Potter series, where there is in fact a studio located in London where most of the filming is done. Usually, redesigns and edits of this logo are made to compliment the film’s theme, for example in Harry Potter the Warner Bros. Studio is more dark and gloomy than shown here.

Film Production and Distribution companies with the films

The main scene of Casino Royale of the intense poker game is shown briefly in the trailer, showing where and how it is taken place. At this point diegetic and non diegetic sounds play at the same time, with the bridge sounds from voiceovers of characters being played at a higher volume than the non diegetic sound (the bond theme song). This allows characters speech to be more emphasized since the music is being lowered in volume in order for them to speak, perhaps telling the audience to listen carefully during these parts as it gives them the idea of the plot of the film.

The next couple of clips shown later on the trailer shows the action side of the film, with the main theme song being played much louder and going in time with the editing. For example, each beat of the song will have a different clip edited along with it, or whenever the music’s tempo begins to speed up, scenes of guns shooting are shown. As a result, this causes suspense and a mini thrill towards the audience, hoping to make them excited enough to see them film, especially since it is a series of films dating all the back to the early 1960’s.

Although all Bond trailers are mainly action based, they do show more calming, non-violent scenes, to suggest the softer side of Bond. This also creates an ‘escape from reality’ to both the character and the audience, perhaps to ease the action and killing to a more peaceful and relaxing scenario. This furthermore gives the audience an idea that the woman in the film is Bond’s weakness; no matter what his aim is, he will always try to protect the girl at all costs. This usually applies to majority of spy-like films, there will always be some sort of romance to make to add more to the storyline, rather than being it all plain action based.

The ending of the trailer, to me, is cleverly made. It begins with the title of the film, but with the O’s in the shape of the number zero and aligned in a way where the letters disappear to then leave it to 007 – Bond’s codename. Not only is the visually appealing but also shows how much effort was put into this film, again grabbing attention of audiences to wanting to see the film. Finally the trailer ends with the 7 edited into the date in which the film was set to release, with all credits, studios, social media etc. appearing to instantly tell people how to find more information about the film before it’s release date. Something simple yet creative like this really brings the trailer together as it ends so smoothly, rather than to end with just ‘Casino Royale’ – this would be too boring.

Heineken poster ad

AdvertisementHeineken sponsored the film before and during it’s release, this is the use of synergy as it uses a brand and a popular film to promote each other. To add to this, since Heineken is a beer, it also gives an idea of what target audience the film is aimed at, so in this case would be young men and older.

Billboards were also used to help advertise the film in busy, commuted areas, such as motorways, where there is constantly an ongoing traffic. However this is why billboard ads are made more simple and less complex, since drivers for example would not have enough time to read properly. This is why it is important to make the poster for this as big, simple but gets to the point as straight as possible, usually just having the main character, title of film and date of release.

Casino Royale Billboard Ad

The trailer begins with a pan of what appears to be a hill overlooking a city – In this case Los Angeles. Though there is subtle non diegetic sound played at the back, the voiceovers and bridge sounds of characters speech overlapping then cutting into scene to they were talking in. This effect though editing quickly gives the audience an idea of what the film is going to be about, without giving too much away. In this case we know that the plot of the film will involve the government determined to stop the antagonist (Mickey Cohen). Commonly with plots like this, there is always some sort of group involved formed, or already existing, to help stop the antagonist/s, but with a main protagonist. Following the first couple scenes, Ryan Gosling (character played called Jerry Wooters) is shown several times throughout the trailer.

Since he is shown the most this then suggests to the audience that he is the main protagonist and Sean Paul (Mickey) is the main antagonist, and I think this trailer was able to show this clearly. When talking about forming a group, a clip of what looks like Jerry and a partner/member-to-be shows them discussing something, with the bridge sound of “wanting to form a group of 5 or 6 men” played over, gives an idea that this plan is well thought about and serious, which also gives a good impression of the film since this tells us that a lot of action and determination will be involved.

As the talk of forming a group is being said, clips of the actual group are then quickly shown with them in action, possibly to give an idea of what the character is visualizing the group to look like for the audience to also see, creating perhaps a bond with the audience for the group which draws more attention and brings the audience like they are in the film in a way. Coming towards the end of the trailer, the music begins to play louder and faster, but even before this the several clips used in the first half of the trailer edits along to the sound of guns, again making the audience be more aware and grabs their attention which is important to persuade people to watch the film even more.

As with almost every action/spy based film, there is usually a love interest involved with the main, or another, character. In the trailer shows Jerry flirting with a very attractive girl dressed in red, perhaps foreshadowing that she may actually be associated with the antagonist since the

colour red is normally symbolized with alarm and danger, could be Jerry’s guilty pleasure and weakness? However similar to Casino Royale there are more calming, happy scenes to separate relaxation with the action, showing the soft side to Jerry. The filter of the scenes are also edited, comparing these scenes to ones where shooting is involved, it is much more bright and vibrant than dark and gloomy, but having said this this editing is used to create a mood for the watching audience. It would not be as dramatic, or feel right, to have a killing scene in broad daylight, for example.

To bring even more attention and favor to the film, the trailer then shows for a quick second that the entire storyline was based on a true story, giving the look that the film was really well thought of and was put into effort through interest. The word ‘inspired’ is big enough to engage an audience, but also targeting a specific market in the film industry, which for this instance would be people who enjoy action/trill/spy – based films. It also tells the audience that an event similar to this happened once upon a time, and most likely might still do to this day even though the film is set in the early 1960’s. Adding to this, we can also see that the film is not set during modern days simply by the mise en scene; women would usually wear dresses and men would wear suits in the city to show wealth and status.

The end of the trailer then ends with it’s title, with a design of the city hall incorporated with it, showing where the film and what type of people would be involved in the storyline (the government, L.A City etc.) The font colour isn’t pure white which helps ease on the ease, but also makes it stand out against the black background. Then the month ‘January’ appears, saying to us that the film will release sometime in that month of 2013. Below, similar to the end of Casino Royale trailer, shows any social media that people can check with the film production/studios involved in the making of the film, followed by credits at the end.

To promote and advertise the film, the marketing department of their film company in the industry have decided to put several billboards up with different designs. Since billboards are usually located in ongoing traffic areas, the design of the posters involve the main characters involve with the title big and bold. Simple, yet gives the message out to the public that this film is about to release. Furthermore there is also a website within the Warner Bros. website made specifically for the film. Here contains information about the film, gallery, and the option to buy and download the film as a physicall copy or by streaming.

The trailer starts of with a quick pan of a jail with several armed police, quickly telling us that the plot involves characters from a cell. The song bohemian rhapsody plays throughout the trailer, even at the very start, which I personally believe that it was an excellent song choice for the trailer, which I will further talk about it later on. As the music plays, a man screaming to get out in anger is heard about 3 times and each time it plays, the music is paused to emphasize on the shouting. The lyrics of the song (is this the real life or fantasy) at this point also matches not only the screaming but also showing some of the characters personality (i.e Harley Quinn not caring whereas Flloyd/Will Smith appearing to wanting to escape. Also contradicts since it is almost saying that them being in jail, they wonder if it’s just a fantasy, even though the whole storyline is fictional.

Following above, the trailer then moves to what looks like the government discussing about assembling a group of these super villains in the hope that they would stop a dangerous black ops mission (possibly set by the Joker, the antagonist of the film) in exchange for their freedom. Just like gangster squad, this involves a similar plot line of having a group formed in order to execute the ‘villains’ of the film, however this is more set in a fantasy, comic book-based scenario than a real life one set back in early 1960’s. What’s interesting is how this modern/futuristic film uses a song which was released way back in 1975, whereas Gangster Squad uses a Jay Z song titled ‘Oh My God’ which was released in 2006, despite the scenario of the film being set in early 1960’s/

After showing the characters starring in the film, the Joker is the last character shown, to tell us that he is the antagonist of the film since his role in batman is the villain, so it would make sense. The editing of the trailer matches the song almost perfectly, going along with the beat with either gun shots, helicopter gun shots, punching, or even simply by cutting into the next clip al at a fast pace. This creates an exciting thrill almost to the audience, as the song and trailer is played smoothly and well put together, making them more engaged. Moving onto mise en scene, this storyline is a mixture of both reality and fiction (since it is based on comic). The visual affects of superpowers such as fire, a ‘crocodile man’ and Harley Quinn's child-like costume would not be seen if the film was based in a non-fictional scenario. But because it’s not, the characters are all dressed in bizarre costumes, even though the settings would be seen in real life, thus giving that superhero form comic book – feeling.

Furthermore with sound, this also creates a more visual appealing sense when watching the trailer, as, for example, if the clips used did not go in time with the music, it would have quite an unpleasant feel and look to it, causing to be a turn off for people interested in the film but with a trailer that ruins their mood. For my trailer I aim to avoid this, and choose suitable music with edited clips that flow together. Also, the sounds of gunshots are played much louder even if filmed from far away, so perhaps artificial sounds were added along with visual effects of gunshots/explosions to really make the audience feel as if they are close to the action. Again I would learn how to do this for my trailer so that the music does not play too loud over the video, and vice versa.

As usual the end of the trailer ends with the title of the film, in this one both the title along with the main actors/actresses in the film are placed above the trailer. Followed by this is the release date of the film, whilst also informing us that it can be seen in real 3D and IMAX 3D, allowing various ways for different preferences of people to how they would like to view the film, spreading out their film more into the market by giving 2D and 3D options. Credits come after, with the film productions, studios etc. underneath. The trailer then finally ends with social media that the audiences can find more information on, I would like to incorporate this to my trailer since social media is the fastest way where information about anything can be passed on, so by using more, essentially the better in promoting the film without having to spend more on billboard ads, leaflets etc.

Since the film is one of the biggest and much awaited, it was important that advertisement was invested on but wisely yet suitably. Here the magazine Empire featured the film as their front cover, informing both readers of the magazine and customers passing by to be able to know that the film is going to be released soon. The front cover is also vibrant and colourful, so it is eye catching to even younger children (perhaps also a way of having them inform their parent/career/older siblings about the film, a way of word of mouth?). Street art, building posters, billboards and their own websites were made to promote as much as possible.