Institutional information
Dear John is a romantic drama with elements of war, and it was released on February 2th 2010. The film was directed by Lasse Wallström and was previously written as a book by Nicholas Sparks, the same author who wrote The Notebook; a notoriously popular romance film. It stars Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried and Richard Jenkins. With a budget of $25,000,000, the film made $80,014,842 just two months after release; it has a rating of 6.3 stars out of 10 on the IMDb website. It is rated a 13, and was produced by Screen Gems, Relativity Media and Temple Hill Entertainment.
Target audience
The target audience for Dear John would be aimed towards females aged 15 - 30, as steroetypically romance films are marketed towards women; this film as a rating of PG13, hence the lowest age of around 15. This film isn't a typical teenager romance, and so this leaves opportunity for older people to watch aswell. Some of the content of the film is based around the war and conflict, therefore there may be a secondary target audience of males the same age.Narrative
This film is based on a man, John, who enlists in the army and is on a two-week leave when he meets Savannah. They fall in love and Savannah agrees to wait for him until he returns; only he is forced to re-enlist to go back on tour, and they write letters to each other. Savannah eventually falls out of love with him but he is still in love.
This film follows a linear narrative and is based over the time that their relationship develops and also as it unravels. The first example of the equilibrium is at the start of the film, where Savannah first meets John - this is followed by a montage of the two characters falling in love, showing the together in every clip. The equilibrium gradually fades and we see this through the introduction of the disruption, with the scene of John telling her that he has to return on tour. At this point the trailer features more conflict shots of him in the Army, an example of this is at 1.18, with a long shot of John exiting an army aircraft. This
not only connotes the danger that John is in, but could also reflect the danger that their relationship is in; with his absence their love begins to fade and in hope they write to each other in order to hold on to their relationship. The trailer then switches between the two situations of John in a war zone and Savannah at home, while she is reading out extracts of their letters to each other. We see a glimpse of a second minor disruption within the major disruption, with a long shot of Johns father in a hospital bed.
Due to the number of montaging sections in the trailer, it is difficult to tell whether the clips that are shown are put into a chronological sequence, however the tone of the individual clips flows the narrative structure.
The titles of the film are left until the end of the trailer, which is a convention of all trailers, and the background to these titles are blue; a connotation of calm and relaxation, but alos linking in with the opening scene of the male surfing, as the sea is also blue.
This film follows a linear narrative and is based over the time that their relationship develops and also as it unravels. The first example of the equilibrium is at the start of the film, where Savannah first meets John - this is followed by a montage of the two characters falling in love, showing the together in every clip. The equilibrium gradually fades and we see this through the introduction of the disruption, with the scene of John telling her that he has to return on tour. At this point the trailer features more conflict shots of him in the Army, an example of this is at 1.18, with a long shot of John exiting an army aircraft. This
not only connotes the danger that John is in, but could also reflect the danger that their relationship is in; with his absence their love begins to fade and in hope they write to each other in order to hold on to their relationship. The trailer then switches between the two situations of John in a war zone and Savannah at home, while she is reading out extracts of their letters to each other. We see a glimpse of a second minor disruption within the major disruption, with a long shot of Johns father in a hospital bed.
Due to the number of montaging sections in the trailer, it is difficult to tell whether the clips that are shown are put into a chronological sequence, however the tone of the individual clips flows the narrative structure.The titles of the film are left until the end of the trailer, which is a convention of all trailers, and the background to these titles are blue; a connotation of calm and relaxation, but alos linking in with the opening scene of the male surfing, as the sea is also blue.
Mise en scene
The opening of the film begins with the ident of 'Screen Gems', the production company who created and distributed the film. This helps to advertise the production company to the audience watching the trailer, as well as informing them who produced the film. Putting an ident at the start if a trailer will also allow the audience to identify the company so that they can relate them to other films they may have watched that were produced by the same company. 
attractive and appealing to the target audience
(stereotypically women), so by showing him with no shirt will be appealing to the target audience. The following shot on the right shows the first introduction of a woman on the beach; as the beach is stereotypically romantic setting because it is perceived as beautiful and
peaceful which are both associated with the romance genre, it connotes that the woman is potentially the love interest in the film.
In the scene where the male and female characters meet, as shown in the picture above, the female is wearing a white dress top. Stereotypically the colour white connotes innocence and purity, and in most conventional romance films, the female is seen wearing white as a sign of their purity in a relationship. This is done because conventionally in romance films the male is the character who causes issues in a relationship and therefore hurts the woman. This forebodes what could happen in the film, and is what is shown to happen later in the trailer.
Further into the trailer, the male protagonist is seen wearing combat clothing with a camouflage pattern; from this it connotes that he is in the American Army. The long shot shows the female holding the male's arm, in what looks like a protective way, which combined with the location that looks like an airport signifies that he is going away. Following the stereotypes of romance films, it suggests that this is the disruption in the film, an element of Todorov's theory. There are mainly dull colours (for example beige, grey and the dark green of his uniform) in this shot which also connotes that the mood has changed from the beginning of the film trailer.
The close up shot of the female protagonist on the right that shows emotion in her face. The close up allows the audience to see that she has tears in her eyes, and following the conventions of romance films, this connotes that she is upset over the male protagonist. Stereotypically romance films are emotional and therefore aimed at a female target audience; this scene will appeal to this target audience and allow them to become emotionally invested in the film and create a relationship with the character.
Dear John presents a number of different editing techniques that help to create a visually strong romance trailer. One of the techniques that is used is fading from one shot to another; this is done at the start of the trailer where the male protagonist is introduced while he is surfing. It helps to create a smooth transition between shots and camera angles while staying in the same scene or keeping attention on a specific object. The combination of shots, as shown on the right, creates an almost dream effect, which represents that romance feels the same as a dream.
The majority of the trailer is shown shots being combined though a montage; this is where shots are juxtaposed in an often fast-paced fashion that compresses time and conveys a lot of information in a relatively short period. This is an ideal type of edit to use in a film trailer because it trying to include as much information as possible in limited time, but without revealing too much of the plot. There are select shots in the trailer that represent the tone and mood at that point in the film - the sequence is put together chronologically with the disruption at the end of the trailer so as not to reveal the end of the plot away. The shot change within the montage is accompanied by fade to blacks and fade to shot, which allows the audience to understand that it is a change of scene or time. There are also a number of jump cuts either within the montage or during a chronological sequence of shots, and this occurs to help keep the flow of a scene where just the angle or positioning of the camera has changed. They also differentiate themselves from part of the montage so the audience know that it is a continuous scene and not a jump in time or place.
Other shots that are used includes a shot reverse shot, which shows the interaction between the two characters and their emotions when they are talking to each other.
peaceful which are both associated with the romance genre, it connotes that the woman is potentially the love interest in the film.
In the scene where the male and female characters meet, as shown in the picture above, the female is wearing a white dress top. Stereotypically the colour white connotes innocence and purity, and in most conventional romance films, the female is seen wearing white as a sign of their purity in a relationship. This is done because conventionally in romance films the male is the character who causes issues in a relationship and therefore hurts the woman. This forebodes what could happen in the film, and is what is shown to happen later in the trailer.
The close up shot of the female protagonist on the right that shows emotion in her face. The close up allows the audience to see that she has tears in her eyes, and following the conventions of romance films, this connotes that she is upset over the male protagonist. Stereotypically romance films are emotional and therefore aimed at a female target audience; this scene will appeal to this target audience and allow them to become emotionally invested in the film and create a relationship with the character.Editing
Dear John presents a number of different editing techniques that help to create a visually strong romance trailer. One of the techniques that is used is fading from one shot to another; this is done at the start of the trailer where the male protagonist is introduced while he is surfing. It helps to create a smooth transition between shots and camera angles while staying in the same scene or keeping attention on a specific object. The combination of shots, as shown on the right, creates an almost dream effect, which represents that romance feels the same as a dream. 
The majority of the trailer is shown shots being combined though a montage; this is where shots are juxtaposed in an often fast-paced fashion that compresses time and conveys a lot of information in a relatively short period. This is an ideal type of edit to use in a film trailer because it trying to include as much information as possible in limited time, but without revealing too much of the plot. There are select shots in the trailer that represent the tone and mood at that point in the film - the sequence is put together chronologically with the disruption at the end of the trailer so as not to reveal the end of the plot away. The shot change within the montage is accompanied by fade to blacks and fade to shot, which allows the audience to understand that it is a change of scene or time. There are also a number of jump cuts either within the montage or during a chronological sequence of shots, and this occurs to help keep the flow of a scene where just the angle or positioning of the camera has changed. They also differentiate themselves from part of the montage so the audience know that it is a continuous scene and not a jump in time or place. 
Camera angles
There are a variety of camera angles in the Dear John film trailer, one of them being a long shot which shows the location to be a beach. With beaches stereotypically being associated with romance, this shot immediately informs the audience that the film is a romance, and that the two characters stood together are the main male and female protagonists. This shot is also accompanied by a shot that tracks out into a high angle shot and pans left.
Other shots that are used includes a shot reverse shot, which shows the interaction between the two characters and their emotions when they are talking to each other.
This close up shot on the right shows the male and female protagonist together very close in proximity. The closeness of them suggests that they are at the point of a relationship, as the way in which they are looking at each other suggests that they have feelings for one another.
Sound
The trailer begins with a combination of diegetic and non diegetic sounds; there is an upbeat background song alongside the diegetic sound of the sea and waves. The soundtrack is heavily acoustic based, which has a calming and romantic feeling to it, and this is similar to the diegetic sea sounds. This is followed by a diegetic conversation between the male and female protagonists when they first meet. Much of the trailer is narrated by the two protagonists. with speech from other scenes that aren't shown in the trailer, with dialogue explaining how they are feeling about a situation or each other. Towards the end of the trailer the speech is put into a montage effect, with what sounds like extracts from letters being read out. This alternates between the characters, almost like a conversation only through letters instead, which signifies the narrative to the audience - that the male leaves and they write letters to each other to continue their long distance relationship. The background music begins to increase in volume and tempo at the end, where the scene of the female crying is shown; alongside the use of symbols, it connotes that something negative is going to happen.
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