Dear John- trailer analysis

Straight away there is an implied action code by Channing Tatum's character, John, as he dives into the sea to rescue the bag belonging to Amanda Seyfried's character, Savannah, of whom appears to fit the character type of a damsel in distress, who's hero is inevitably Channing Tatum. His hero status is encoded to the audience before we even hear him speak in the trailer by the wide shot of him rising back up to the surface of the water with the bag in hand. These frames are edited to emphasise the light blue colour of the sea and his comparable purity. This ideology of character purity is continued as when the actors and directors of the film are shown on film, it is against a slowly rippling blue background. The role of a hero to a damsel in distress is commonly associated to actor Channing Tatum in films such as The Vow, another popular film of the romance genre. Additionally, in the opening frames of the film, a frame shows the audience that Dear John was written by the same author as The Notebook. A hugely popular, and successful romance film with a subplot of the hero being sent off to war whilst letters are exchanged. This would greatly appeal to Rubicam and Young's mainstream classified audiences uses and gratifications as the sense of knowing what will happen next will be rewarded.

Levi Strauss' binary opposition theory is heavily utilised in the trailer as binary oppositions are encoded throughout the plot of the film and it's subplots. It is evident that John and Savannah have a strong, compassionate bond, even from such a distance, whereas John and his father have grave difficulty conveying such emotions at ease despite the close physical distance between the pair. This gives the binary opposition of short v long distance relationships of which an empathetic mainstream audience would entertain and challenge. Another theory within the trailer is Todorov's structural theory. The equilibrium of the lives of the two main characters is shown in a montage of their first dates and their comfortable manner around each other. The disruption of this equilibrium is informed by (Propp's character type deemed) stock character of who seems to not only inform the audience of John's military leave, but Savannah. Whilst this scene is portrayed, the audience positioning is from the PoV camera frame of Savannah, making the feeling of shock correlate to that of hers. The non-diegetic acoustic guitar track that plays throughout the duration of the trailer is commonly associated with the romance genre as it connotes stronger emotions than a pop soundtrack, it also connotes to a acoustic take on a ballad or love song. There is also a short frame of Savannah playing a guitar, which decodes the audience positioning closer to her and her emotions, that that of John and his. Also, it creates the idea of Savannah playing the non-diegetic guitar sound further emphasising the audiences closer connection to the damsel, a common theme of the romance genre, as if the audience was closer to John, the genre of the film would be skewered arguably leading to less appeal, thus, less success.

There is a iconography of letters throughout the trailer, another common theme of the romance genre, for example The Notebook and P.S I Love You. This is conveyed by alternating narration between John an Savannah during a montage of receiving letters (action code), saying simply what number of letters they have exchanged: "letter 8/letter 33" shows that the high frequency in exchanged letters is over a duration of time as shown by the montage, which editing purpose is to portray activity over a long period of time, quoted as "12 months" by Savannah to conclude the trailer.