The trailer for Rogue One follows the hero's journey of Jyn Erso as she rebels against the Empire. Jyn is established as the angry female protagonist through an interview at the beginning of the trailer. Several scenes then show Jyn fighting antagonistic robots and Stormtroopers, establishing her strength and defiance against the Empire. There is an overarching theme of war, shown through shots of large Imperial warships and the goals of the protagonists to learn about a dangerous weapon and destroy it. Political and economic imbalances are also suggested, with the wealthy Empire represented by expensive uniforms and weapons, while the rebels appear in torn clothes.

1. Joshua Paice
STAR WARS-ROGUE ONE
STA ANALYSIS

2. • The Rogue One trailer is from the science fiction genre, aiming at
families for it’s target audience. The outline of the trailer follows a
hero’s journey, which shows a clear linear narrative but is most likely
split up into multi-strand storylines to deal with the magnitude of
characters and objects shown in this trailer.
• The trailer opens with a man interviewing the main female character,
due to his amplified asynchronous dialogue we become alienated
from him while he asks a series robotic questions, the audience can
then immediately connect with the woman, Jyn Erso, assuming that
she is the protagonist. From this interview we understand that there is
an underlying theme of anger running throughout this trailer. One
woman describes our protagonist as ‘reckless and aggressive’, Jyn
then follows this up by saying ‘this is a rebellion isn’t it…I rebel’. This
shows that she is angry at the state of the empire and wants a
change bought upon it. Jyn clearly demonstrates the female power
ideology through these lines, further subverting the weak female
stereotype but it is clear she has had to resort to this ideology if she
wants a successful rebellion. Her female power is further indicated
when she walks into the first frame of the trailer, with her hair tied
back whilst wearing a leather jacket and army boots, which are items
stereotypically worn by a man. In having Jyn wear clothing
stereotypical of a male, she is able to effectively embody strong and
aggressive personality traits that we associate with the male gender.

3. • This creates a strong ‘girl power’ ideology, focusing on her strength rather than showing
her off as a sex object throughout the trailer. To add to there is a quick succession of
cutaways to show Jyn fighting off some antagonist robots. We know that they are evil
characters because they have masks on, hiding their facial expressions, while wearing
solid white and black uniforms that have connotations of darkness and aggression. The
amplified synchronous sound of a gunshot is amplified during a mid-shot of Jyn. This is to
show that she has fired the gun at the troops and is holding the power in the scene. There
is a heavy orange colour grade highlighting the fire in the scene, which has connotations
of anger and violence. This make the audience question the morals of the protagonist,
provoking the ideology that the bad may actually be good. However, a deafening sound of
an alarm begins in the middle of the trailer. This is littered with long shots of the
Stormtroopers as they escort humans in handcuffs. We immediately call upon them as
antagonist, understanding that they are imprisoning our race.

4. • There is a running theme of war that acts as the spine motive for majority
of the characters in this trailer. The first item of transportation we see in a
wide shot is of a large scale warship positioned against a dark background.
The shot then jump cuts to the same wide shot that is loosely framed more
excessively, revealing part of an even bigger warship against a dark
background. Firstly, the dark colours used in these shots create a
profoundly wicked mood that seems to provoke fear to the audience. The
shots successfully show the immense scale of war while simultaneously
antagonising the entire theme.
• Edwards, the director of Rogue One, does this through playing a deep
toned soundtrack over the shots to highlight the aggression of the
antagonists. Similarly, he sound bridges the line ‘we need to know what it
is and how to destroy it’ underneath the shots so that we understand the
danger this weapon poses and the ultimate goal the protagonist’s have in
this narrative. Furthermore, the larger ship is illuminated by a singular light
from the left that only manages to light part of it’s surface area. Since we
are in space, we assume the light is the sun and this emphasises the shear
scale of the ship, provoking even more fear from the audience. An
asynchronous sound effect of an amplified alarm then begins to play,
alerting the audience of the threat from these ships.

5. • There is a clear political imbalance between the protagonist and antagonist forces in this
trailer. The antagonists represent the elite’s of society, made clear through them having
bigger weapons and more expensive looking uniforms. This shows that they are more
economically stable and that the political system is corrupt because evil forces are
running the world. In comparison, the protagonist forces tend to have torn clothes and
speak in a polite British dialect. Audience members are drawn to the polite language but
understand that their hero’s are economically worse off because of the state of their
clothes and the lack of visible make-up on their faces. Furthermore, the antagonists
provoke an ideology of money bringing power. They have very expensive equipment but
use it in unlawful ways. This is clear in the medium close-up of an all black Stormtrooper,
positioned in front of a burning village. The black colour of his uniform matches the dark
smoke from the burning, indicating that he has ignited the fire behind him. This denotes
that economic corruption has lead to evil forces taking control.

6. • It remains easy to perceive that the trailer has attempted to experiment with a range of
different themes and ideologies that create a very engaging narrative. The preferred
denotation of the text would be to view this trailer as a good versus evil fantasy story.
However, an aberrant reading of the trailer would connote a struggle for political
dominance between two economically imbalanced social classes of people.