Product Research: Analysis of teaser trailer for American Gangster

Directed by Ridley Scott

Poster Analysis This is the official poster for American Gangster. The colours used to represent Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are black and white. The colour black is thought to representing something which is bad or evil and is the colour in which Denzel is shown in, also him holding a gun shows he has bad intentions. The tie which he is wearing shows he is professional in what he does. The white clothing in which Russell is dressed in shows purity and goodness. From how he is dressed with the unbuttoned shirt shows he maybe quite laid back character and his police badge shows he is a person of authority.

The opening scene is a master shot of New Jersey set in late sixties of America. This sets the scene of the film and pans across into the next shot.

From what you can see here from this long shot Denzel Washington who is playing frank Lucas is situated in the middle of the shot surrounded by family and friends. This shows he is of a higher authority then the others also added to the fact that he is wearing a suit while the others are casually dressed. The suit also shows he is very professional in what he does and takes himself and his work seriously.

A mid shot is shown of frank while he is talking about his past, the shot creates significance of frank which makes the viewer concentrate on what he is saying. man I worked for at one of the biggest companies in New York city, he didn't own his own company the white man owned it so they owned him... nobody owns me though.

As previously stated before with the darkness representing evil the fire surronding frank can represent the same thing I believe its a symbol for him bringing hell to others .

A shot of Frank Lucas with his family in a restaurant, he is placed at the head of the table to show he has the power.

Frank Lucas

Richie Roberts

In this shot Frank Lucas starts talking about his business in contrast to this Richie Roberts (Police Officer) talks about the crimes committed by him. In the next couple of slides the contrast of characters is shown through the dialogue used. Frank is surrounded by family and Richie is surrounded by his colleagues.

The most important thing in business is honesty

Bribery

Extortion

Integrity, hard work

Murder, racketeering

Family, never forgetting where we came from

Who is this guy?

You are what you are in this world..

..as either one or two families.

You either somebody..

..Or you ain't nobody

As the music begins at 0:50 a man who is silhouetted, points a gun at what we assume is a human and shoots. This is known as a point of view shot.

And again at 1:46 it continues the shot of the guy shooting a gun but this time him dropping it and walking away. Shot is focused on the gun.

Various shots of money being printed or being collected are shown throughout the trailer which show importance and could suggest money is the route of all evil.

In this mid shot Frank is shown shooting somebody with no remorse as shown by his facial expression, and him not looking interested or phased by what he's doing.

This image of Franks cousin shows how he sees him as a role model and has admiration for him, this can represent how much respect he has from his family members.

As previously mentioned with frank Lucas power over his family members and the community the contrast to this is showing Richie Roberts power over the police force

By the film stating that the two main actors are Academy Award Winner's promotes the film. Also Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are famous actors which boosts a films popularity.

With a hesitate voice Richie Roberts explains to the other male that the person causing all the problems is black

Frank Lucas has seemed to be successful in what he done as this male pictured who's thought to be associated with the police force says with a face of anger no black man has accomplished what the American Mafia hasn't in 100 years. This makes it seem like it is unusual for a black male to have this much power so much he is even more powerful then the mafia

Frank Lucas Frank Lucas in this trailer is shown in two ways through out. In the beginning parts of the trailer his shown as some what of a negative manner but coming toward the end of the trailer he shown more towards a positive light . Positive

Negative

The soundtrack is a song by Jay Z called Ain't No Love, the lyrics repeated throughout the clip are Ain't no love, in the heart of the city which shows significance to the trailer as it shows a lot of violence and controversy.

Overview Trailer Length 1 minute 54 seconds 95 Separate shots including 4 Title shots Sound effects and Digetic sound used Longest shot 5 Seconds Voice Overs of both characters