The Media Text itself
The media text is a 1:00 trailer for the new Star Wars Battlefront game. It shows a young man who takes a trip down memory lane as he remembers some of his most cherished childhood moments...
Deconstruction Presentation
Here is my Deconstruction in presentation form
Deconstruction
A new Star Wars Battlefront ad surprised viewers a couple months ago upon watching it for the first time. Instead of just showing guns and explosions, a different more emotional path was taken. This ad struck a lot of fans and caught a lot of them of guard leaving their emotions wide open. The ad was very emotional for a lot of people because almost all star wars fans could relate to at least one of the many flashbacks in the trailer. I will be deconstructing this ad, taking it apart scene by scene completely to be able to gain a better understanding of it as a whole.
Basically, this ad is that its a man who has sudden flash backs to his star wars filled child hood and with battlefront, he can re experience those memories Overall this add wants to make you remember all the good times you had with star wars as a child and wants you to leave the trailer saying thinking that you’ll be able to relive your child hood and experience star wars how you wanted to as a kid. The ad wants you to buy the game so that you can escape your boring day job into the world of star wars.
Throughout the trailer, the same camera shots were used over and over for the same reasons. Full shots are usually used to establish where and when the main character is, medium shots were used while a character was taking action, and the close-ups were used to show emotion in the characters. They also used some POV shots to make it easier for you to relate.
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The first scene starts of with a full shot of a man in an office. The man seem to be in his mid twenties and looks very stressed. With a little research, i found a picture which is what the average american man looks like (on the left) and as you can see, him and the man from the commercial (on the right) have a lot in common, for example, same hairstyle, facial structure, ears, etc. If you look closely, you can also see a picture frame with him and a women who can be his wife or girlfriend which would explain why he’s so stressed because he needs to support a new family. You can see that this character is clearly an innocent man who is just trying to get by in life. The man picks up the famous R2-D2 and begins to see flash back of his chid hood.
In the second scene, we see a medium shot of a small blonde boy sketching an R2-D2 which we assume is the man from the beginning. There is also a boy with frizzy black hair. It was a good choice to give them very different hair styles so that you can tell them apart while they grow up. With a full shot, you see lots of figurines on the floor and an ominous toy AT-AT and TIE fighter in the background. You can also almost see a sketch of darth vader in the background. By doing some calculations, i was found that the kids must have been born in the early 90’s meaning that they are 10 years late for the original trilogy. There parents could have shown them the movies and thats why there is an awesome sketch in the background because the parents are super fans as well.
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The fourth scene is very interesting in that it shows the boys grow at least 5 years older but using the same set. The boys are tricking treating and are dressed up as yoda and darth vader. Their dog has a poorly made ewok costume. Notice how its still light outside and they are accompanied by one of their moms, the caregiver who is seen taking care of both of them throughout the trailer. Then, using the same set with some new props, you see that the boys have grown older. You can tell its them mostly cause of the frizzy haired boy but the blonde boy also looks similar to his younger version. One boy is dressed up as obi wan and the other as chewbacca. You can see that its darker out and that they are no longer accompanied by a parent. The dogs costume is also a lot more detailed compared to last time.
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Scene five shows the boys standing infront of two cakes, one says Max which is presumably the blonde kids name, and the other appears to say Rodrig which could be the frizzy haired kids name. This scene is pretty important because there are some details that show how the two arent brothers. For one, two adult women can be seen, one wearing a blue shirt and the other a red shirt which match with the boys shirts. Both pairs also have the same hair colour so its a pretty safe assumption. A mat with a balloon design is placed on the table which indicates that it could be one of their birthdays or both.
In scene 6, we see the boys have turned their bikes into and x-wing and a TIE-fighter. They are both also wearing make shift uniforms for the planes they are commandeering. The x-wing pilot suit which is orange with the white helmet and the tie fighter pilot suit which is completely black.
The boys seem to be trying to recreate a famous star wars space battle. |
In the last scene, we cut back to the man in the office who snaps out of the flash backs. Then all of the sudden, the ground starts shacking and objects fall off the table. An X-wing rises up and its being driven by his frizzy haired friend. Another x-wing rises up and its empty. The cockpit opens up and R2-D2 greets him. This makes his friend the “Hero” type character because he saves him from his office job. He breaks the office building window and jumps into the x wing. Three TIE fighters fly by and x-wings chase them. During these couple seconds, the x wings attempt to shoot the tie fighters and accidentally shot some buildings. This caused lots of controversy among viewers
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As you can can see, even though it lasted a second in the trailer, many people were offended by this and didn't let it go to easily. The X-wings then fly through a cloud of smoke and end up on a snow planet and end up in the middle of the epic both battle. There are many famous vehicles that can be seen flying around. There are Y-wings, Star Destroyers, and a EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate. There are also AT-AT’s, AT- ST’s, and an Orbital Cannon. Snow troopers can also be seen running around on the ground. An AT-AT falls over and explodes and the words “Greatness Awaits” appear on screen. The words then change to say “PS4”
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In the end, this ad is mainly targeted at people who have very emotional memories of star wars and they want you to be able to imagine your self in the trailer instead of the guy since he is supposed look and be like the average american. It can also be for children who are currently creating those emotional experiences. Many people who have seen the trailer talk about how emotional it can be if you relate to it meaning that the ad was successful.