2. The Purpose of Trailers
The purpose of a trailer is to promote a film, and advertise it in a way that will
capture the audiences attention and make them want to go to see it. It is a key
component of marketing and a significant amount of money is spent making it.
Within a trailer significant points of interest of the film are highlighted in order to
make it appealing. A trailer only has 2 and a half minutes to complete it’s aims
efficiently.
4. Title Analysis
• The title ‘Black Swan’ appears once as a white, sans serif font, against a dominantly black
background with hints of grey and white, with one word on top of the other. Normally, white
connotes innocence and purity, however these connotations are almost contradicted as the
word ‘black’ is coloured in white. Because white and black represent binary oppositions it
shows that within the film there could be confusion of what is good and bad/sane and
insane.
• The white title against the dark background is seen as a binary opposition. The specific one
being sanity and insanity as the film is a thriller/horror based around a girl suffering with
mental health issues. Binary oppositions are often used to establish the thriller/horror genre
of a film.
• Each word looks as though it has been chopped horizontally in half, and placed back
together slightly off. This signifies the broken state of her mind, and the confusion between
sanity and insanity.
• The dynamic background consists of black and white feathers, blending into each other
creating different shades of grey, black, and hints of white. Again the colours sticking with
the theme of confusion (grey) which represents the main characters’ state of mind, between
sanity (white), and insanity (black).
5. Characters
• Natalie Portman plays Nina, the main character who is mentally
ill. Throughout the trailer her face expresses confusion and she
is portrayed to be naïve, vulnerable and in some ways innocent
to the chaos around her. She could be classed as the Damsel
in distress in accordance to Proppians’ character types which is
a significant character type in the thriller genre. At the beginning
of the trailer she seems content, innocent, and happy,
representing the white swan. In comparison, at the end she is
seen pulling a black feather out of her skin whilst looking
horrified through blood shot eyes, This shows she changed into
the black swan.
Mila Kunis (Lily) is a popular Hollywood actress. Her role in
this film could have been a major selling point for the film
regarding star appeal. Shortly after she is introduced into the
trailer, Nina is shown spinning at a quick pace with a look of
confusion on her face. This shows that Lily plays a big part
in the insanity of Nina. Lily appears to represent the villain in
Proppians’ character types. This challenges expectations of
the villain being a middle aged male.
6. Colours/filters and lightings
• Grey filter, chiaroscuro lighting, black background with spotlight on ballerina
wearing white. – The filter is to create a more sinister atmosphere, dulling out
colours therefore dulling out signifiers of happiness. The spot light on the
ballerina wearing white emphasises that the film will be about ballerinas. And
also shows that ballet may be the only part of happiness, innocence and sanity
in Nina’s life.
• Mainly black and white colours used (including costume and decoration) in the
studio. Shows that it’s an intense/sinister place, or represents an intense/sinister
theme which is ballet.
• Nina seems to wear pale pink often, her bedroom is also a pink colour. Shows
she’s different from the other characters and places as they’re all black, grey
and white.
• A lot of spot lighting – emphasising the main theme of performing ballet. All the
attention in a sole place.
7. Location
• The main location of the trailer is in, and around the ballet studio.
This is fitting as the film is massively about ballet. Mirrors are shown
on the ballet studio wall, the mirrors are a convention of the thriller
as the reflection of the mirrors signify personal reflection.
• The trailer also shows scenes at home, where we see Nina’s pink
bedroom. This shows that her bedroom maybe her safe, innocent
place. A comfort to her throughout the film.
8. Shots and Editing
• There are a lot of medium close ups on the feet of ballerinas, showing them spinning and
showing how the ballerinas stand on their tip toes. This stresses the commitment to the life
style of ballet, as they appear to be in pain.
• Medium close ups of Ninas face show her confused and deranged expressions which
intensify what’s happening.
• The pace of editing starts of slow but as it gets faster there are jump cut edits to more
intense parts of the film building tension. More excitement is happening however the clips
are shorter so that too much isn’t given away.
• There’s a slightly low angle shot at the end of the trailer when she has turned into the black
swan, showing that it’s consumed her. This is a common convention in thrillers to show that
the point of focus is submissive.
9. Sound
• Eerie non diegetic slow music is played initially accompanied by a voice over of Nina talking
about the story of the black swan. As she says ‘then it died’ the music stops. This
emphasizes the ending of the story. It starts off slow and quiet to put emphasis on the voice
over, as what it’s saying is important. Then it builds and builds throughout the trailer, this
accompanied with the quickening pace of editing, builds more and more tension. This hooks
the audience further and draws them in more.
• The eerie music then starts again almost straight away, and again is accompanied by
diegetic conversations.
• The music loudens and intensifies as the editing pace becomes quicker. The diegetic voices
take an angrier more intense tone, shouting and being serious.
• The diegetic noise of the scissor is loudened and emphasized. This can be seen as a
disturbing sound, and helps make the scene more real.
10. Genre
• The trailer uses enigma codes to emphasize the genre of the film as a
thriller. It does this by showing unsolved problems and questions. For
example, when Nina starts growing feathers, this is surreal and confusing,
yet bearing in mind her mental illness, raises questions.
• Binary oppositions are also a main contributor to establishing a genre as a
thriller. In this case, opposing black and white represents sanity and
insanity.
• A convention of a thriller is that the main characters are women. This is the
case in the Black Swan.
• Chiaroscuro lighting is a convention of a thriller which has been used in the
film.
11. Who are the audience?
• Specifically females aged 15-29
• The certificate of this film is a 15 and as the
statistics on IMDb shows, the ratings of the film
lowers at the ages 30+ from the 8.0 onwards to
7.9 and below.
• It is focused on females because firstly that
characters are mainly women which will females
will me more happier and likely to watch it as
they can relate to the characters.
• Statistics show that men under 18 rating this
film the highest may be because of the
homosexual scene between the two main
characters Nina and Lily.
13. Personal Evaluation
• Personally I believe the trailer is effective in it’s purpose to attract the
audience. It uses conventions of thrillers such as chiaroscuro lighting, and
eerie music to attract a suitable audience. It also uses fast pace editing
where it jumps to and from interesting scenes however not giving too much
away. This sparks interest as the fast pace editing doesn’t allow the
audience to know what’s going on, as everything is happening so fast, and
therefore raises questions and interest.
