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'Straight Outta Compton' Trailer Analysis

Straight Outta Compton


'Straight Outta Compton' is an American biographical film directed by F. Gary Gray, depicting the career of a gangsta rap group N.W.A's struggles in their troubled and dangerous society. The trailer was produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film was both a commercial and critical success. It made over $200 million against its budget of $50 million. It became the highest grossing music biopic of all time and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The film made use of digital marketing opportunities. In August 2015 Beats by Dre launched a campaign to pre mote the film. People were encouraged to promote their own town as 'everyone is straight outta somewhere', by creating custom memes. The company also created a special edition of the wireless headphones. The #straightouttacompton campaign was the biggest social media campaign of 2015 across all platforms with 11 million website visits, 300 thousand Twitter posts, seven million unique visits and eight million downloads. Many famous people got involved voluntarily, including Ringo Starr, and President Obama used it to make a political comment about Iran.

Interestingly, the names of the stars themselves, not the actors who played them, are billed. This would appeal to the older fans or N.W.A. However, younger fans would be attracted by the iconic cultural significance of Ice Cube and Dr Dre within the hip-hop story. The characters in the trailer are constructed to appeal to a younger audience in a way that they can identify with how they are misunderstood by society, as is shown in the film. The selection of visual codes, of clothing, and expression place the film within the sub-genre of music biopic. The selection of dramatic shots of action within, to highlight the narrative, appeal to the audience and suggest the production values of the film. Audio codes including a voice over establishing aspects of the narrative. The voice over also establishes continuity between the scenes chosen for the trailer and gives promises of pleasure to the audience. There are also sound effects, including police sirens, suggesting tensions with authority and the recognisable sound of hip-hop music. The trailer uses enigma codes, by offering audiences restricted narratives to encourage them to go and watch the film to find out the answers. 

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