My thoughts in general: Recently, I saw the trailer for the newest Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I have had serious reservations about this film, but after seeing the trailer . . . oh wait, I still have serious reservations. In the trailer, there is one quick scene that seems to have some typical Indiana Jones humor, and there is expectedly Spielberg use of light/shadow. Check it out for yourself:
However, despite some obligatory "Indiana Jones"-ness, it has been 19 years since Last Crusade. In that time, both Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg have made multiple very bad choices in projects. It appears that they left their A-game behind about 15 years ago. Most likely, I will see the film, but I am not as excited as I would have been if the film made 15 years ago...
My thoughts on application: However disappointing this trailer is, I think it can be very useful in terms of pedagogy. Matt would probably have more informed ideas about trailer production, but here are my ideas. First, this trailer could be used to discuss the concept of trailers in general. When discussing media literacy, trailers are a key tool in informing audiences about the basic premise of films and are designed to convince people in 1-2 min. to spend 8-10 dollars (or more) to see the film. This trailer could be used in a classroom to discuss how the intent of the trailer is met/not met. However, with this trailer, the use of footage from previous Indiana Jones films is brought into the discussion. Thus, the question can be posed: how are the previous 3 films used to sell this 4th installment? Additionally, depending on the focus of the lesson, the class could discuss the current string of "late" installments of series that were thought to be done (Rocky Balboa, Live Free or Die Hard, Rambo). There are several points of discussion that could arise from this trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment