Avengers: Age of Ultron Movie Campaign

For my textual analysis, I have chosen to analyse the movie campaign for the recently released ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. Movie campaigns comprise of multiple media fragments. Their purpose is to attract attention of people and build excitement for them when each element of a campaign is slowly released and eventually leads them to wanting to watch the movie when it is released. Campaigns help to make the public aware of the film and build excitement. Campaigns tend to be more recognisable when they are brought together. This is because collectively, the posters, magazine covers, trailers and franchise consist of similarities, be it with the font, colour scheme or layout etc. This is done so that make links between the visual elements of the campaign. As well as helping to promote the movie, this style of advertising helps to create a likeness of a brand attached to the movie. Sometimes, campaigns are unsuccessful in doing this and the film does not sell as well as it could, but most films avoid this. There are usually many teaser posters, each one slightly different in appearance to the others. Teaser posters are often followed by teaser trailers which are usually only about half a minute to a minute long and, once again, there is more than one teaser trailer released prior to the release of an initial and longer full theatrical trailer. There is more than one trailer and then more than one fully developed poster to advertise the movie. There may even be a magazine cover and eventually franchise from the movie to appeal to younger audiences. Movie campaigns have recently started to use social media as a way of promoting their new release. I am going to look at how the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Campaign was successful in promoting its movies release.

Movie Campaign

Film - Avengers: Age of UltronDirector – Joss WehdonYear – 2015Narrative – Avengers: Age of Ultron is the sequel to the Avengers movie. When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong and it's up to Earth's Mightiest Heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Teaser PostersTeaser posters tend to lack information and only give away small, non-specific details hence the word ‘tease’. Below are two teaser posters for the 2016 movie ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron.

These two posters are teaser posters and would have been released before the full length poster and before the film was anywhere near completion. These posters have obvious similarities

Teaser Poster AnalysisThe first teaser poster follows typical conventions of a teaser poster as it includes an imprecise date, main image and main title visible. There is no presence of starring actors. From the main image, we know that the general theme of the film involves Iron man and possibly other superheroes (Avengers). The image is very dull and dreary looking which puts into perspective the films overall mood. The image also uses a colour scheme similar to that of the Iron man colour scheme; the colour scheme can be gathered as dark blues, reds and yellows. Not too much is given away however because it is a sequel to the first Avengers but from the first Avengers movie, we can guess some of the elements that are repeated in this teaser poster. The audience can recognise what film is being advertised. However this is only due to the consistent campaign.

The second teaser poster gives away the similar if not the same information as the first one. Like the last teaser poster, we are given a full title ‘Avengers’, an imprecise date and main image. In this image we do not see any starring actors but we do see that the dark and gloomy image is of the antagonist in the film ‘Ultron’. The dark and metal-like feel of the image allows the audience to get a feel for the bad guys point of view. The poster also sticks to a main colour scheme plus the iconic, metallic look allows the audience to establish a link between the two posters. Also notice how the ‘A’ is written on the title. They are written in the same font and colour. This is a typical aspect used within a campaign and helps the audience to make the links through various similarities.

Full Length PosterAfter the teaser posters are released, eventually a full length poster will be released followed by multiple different versions. To the right is one of the full length posters for Avengers: Age of Ultron. We know that this is a full length poster because it includes all the necessary information that we need in order to gain knowledge on the film including features such as: a full title in the same font and colour scheme as the teaser posters, a less simplistic image to that of the images used on the teaser posters. The full-length poster reveals all of the other characters in the film and with a colour scheme similar to that of the teaser posters. The image works well in terms of empowerment as it is at a slightly low angle suggesting power and strength as the Avengers unite, also we can see multiple iron soldiers that have been created by Ultron. The colour scheme again fits to the previous posters consisting of blue red and yellow but also the most important blue futuristic glow. Again the title is in the same font style and colour as the other posters making them fit together nicely. Also notice how in all three the text is in the same place, the bottom third. All of these aspects show that the campaign is following a typical convention.

This poster consists of:• Main image of Iron man• Title in red• Main title in the bottom

third• Special font for ‘A’ letter• Colour scheme (blue,

red, yellow/gold)• Red glow• Non-specific release date

This poster consists of:• Main image of ‘an’ Iron

man• Main title in red, in the

bottom third• Special font for ‘A’ letter• Colour scheme (metallic

blue, yellow/gold, red)• Red glow • Non-specific release date

This poster consists of:• Main image of all of

the Avengers united• Main title in red, in

the bottom third• Special font for the

‘A’ letter • Colour scheme (blue,

red, yellow/gold)• Specific release date

Magazine Cover When looking at big blockbuster movie campaigns they all tend to have a big build up. There are multiple teaser posters released and full length posters, then there are magazine covers to promote the movie further followed by teaser trailers and full length trailers. In terms of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Empire was the magazine for them. Empire follows typical conventions which I have pointed out below but they too have also stuck to the Avengers: Age of Ultron campaign. Typical conventions Campaign conventionsPROMOTIONAL

BANNERMASTHEAD, PRICE AND DATE OF ISSUE

MAIN IMAGEPUG

MAIN COVER LINE

COVER LINES

BANNER AND BARCODE

COLOUR SHCEME; BLUE/YELLOW BACKGROUND, RED COVER LINES, RED/YELLOW

MAIN TITLES IN THE TYPICAL RED FONT

THE MAIN IMAGE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE FILM WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN ON POSTERS

Magazine and PosterLooking at the magazine cover and the full theatrical poster we can again see many similarities occurring, such as:• Main image is of all of the main

characters in the film• Title is in the same place

(bottom third)• The colour scheme is more or

less the same consisting of blue, red and yellow/gold

• Both the magazine and poster have a glow effect added to them, giving them a futuristic feel

It’s obvious that this is key to the campaign. The repeated occurrence of the similarities is what enables the audience to make links and tie all of the teaser posters, full length posters and magazine covers together. Furthermore the text and font used is very similar. The text on the magazine is red as well as the title similar to the text on the poster, the title is also red. The billing block is in white which again is similar to the magazine cover lines. The two link together nicely creating a more clear cut campaign.

Teaser TrailerClick this link to watch the teaser trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFGg3fhYJHQ

I managed to find a teaser trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron on YouTube that is 1:06 long, which is the usual length of an initial teaser trailer. This teaser trailer is very simplistic but contains some similarities that can be linked to the teaser poster visuals.

Teaser trailers are a key part of the campaign and has key conventions of a trailer as well as aspects of the campaign that I have previously highlighted. This trailer shows only a few shots at a fast pace which is a typical convention as it allows a lot of scenes to be aired within a short amount of time. It also helps to identify a thrilling generic style. There is also use of captions, camera angles and soundtracks. Looking at the captions first we can see that they follow the same font used on the posters. This allows, again, the posters and trailer to link together. Also in this trailer there is a similar shot of Ultron’s head armour in a similar position to the teaser poster release, this again allows a clear link to be made. Furthermore this trailer has a warm red colour scheme fitting to the posters and the magazine cover.

Similarities between Trailer and Poster visuals

Teaser Poster Theatrical Poster

Teaser TrailerFull Length Trailer

In the teaser trailer, there is a visual element portraying what looks like the

helmet shell of the movies villain, Ultron.

The colour scheme of the visual in the teaser poster is also the same of that on the teaser poster, metallic with a red glow. Using these similar visuals what enables the audience to tie the

two campaign elements together.

In the full length trailer, there is a visual packed full of action in which we see all of

the avengers together fighting the bad guys. A similar visual to this can be seen on the theatrical poster where all of the

Avengers have ‘assembled’ and are ready to beat the bad guys that loom above their heads. Once again, using these

similar visual elements allows the audience to establish a link within the

campaign.

Full Length Trailerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CieuGZ7TthE

Click this link to watch the full length trailer

The full length trailer has obvious differences to the teaser trailer. This trailer gives away some more information compared to the other as it is much longer. Within this trailer there is use of fast pace cutting , a range of shots and camera techniques, but again there are also aspects of the campaign that connect both the trailers together and again the posters and magazine cover. This trailer has many more shots of action packed scenes that include the soldiers that Ultron created to destroy the Avengers. There are multiple shots that help to make the understanding of the movie clearer but to also intrigue the audience, creating enigma codes such as Tony accidentally creating artificial intelligence. There is also use of the same shot used in the teaser trailer, the shot of the Ultron helmet armour that is also used in the teaser poster that I highlighted in the previous slide. There is also use of the Avengers logo and colour scheme and font that is used in both trailers as you'll see on the next slide. This instantly allows the link to be made between the two trailers. Also the soundtrack is very similar as their is the voiceover of the Avengers discussing what they should do to help humanity. It has the same deep rumble, this being another aspect they have kept the same between the two trailers.

Both TrailersTEASER TRAILER FULL LENGTH

TRAILER

Here are the few similarities I have found within the teaser and full

length trailer. We can see that they are quite similar in

terms of colour scheme and

content as the images appearing

are constantly used throughout the campaign. They

therefore work well in sticking to the

campaign.

The Campaign as a whole

Click the link above to watch the Teaser Trailer again

Click the link above to watch the Full Length Trailer again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFGg3fhYJHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CieuGZ7TthE