Lost River Trailer Analysis

2. Lost River (2014)
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Genre: Fantasy - Neo Noir
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Director/Producer/Writer: Ryan Gosling (Well know actor)
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Production companies: Bold Films, Marc Platt Productions & Phantasma
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Distributed by Warner Bro
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Budget: $2million
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Box Office: $406,000
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5.8/10 – IMDB
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30% - Rotten Tomatoes
Synopsis:A single mother is swept into a dark underworld while her son discovers
an underwater town

3. Micro-elements: Camera
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The trailer starts with an establishing shot of a seemingly abandoned building, represented as a very mysterious
location, especially as the scene uses low-key lighting. This fits the profile of the stereotypical neo-noir location.
This shot also combines with a tilt angle, as the camera tilts down to show the building – which soon will be
down underwater.
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There is then another establishing shot, that completely juxtaposes the first one. A tracking shot is used to follow
a young boy playing in the over-grown grassy fields. With the beautiful sunset in background, a lens glare is
created on the camera, thus this all creates a positive vibe. Now, positive feels like this are unusual within the
Neo Noir genre, but it's soon understandable. This establishing shot is a part of a flashback where the main
character, a teenage boy called Bones, is in fact the little boy playing the fields, and has no idea of the
destruction of the world around him. (Towns being flooded to make way for a Dam) This is the use of a
flashback, a common feature of the Neo Noir genre narratives, often making them so complex – in particular this
trailer is fairly hard to understand.

There is a wide shot, similar to the establishing shot, of the inside of a destroyed building, probably by the
flooding. The whole room is dark, gloomy with a character's head looking out of a door filled with light, almost
'holy-esque'. This shows that there is still some remaining hope, some sort of life from what used to be a full,
joyful community and is now dominated by the protagonist played by Matt Smith. He fits the profile of a typical
character you'd find in a Neo Noir film.

There is a low-angle shot of Bully (Matt Smith's character), the leader of this new version of the town, a hated
man, that certainly lives up to the name. Although the name choice may seem 'cheesy', you can't argue against
it perfectly summing up his character, who is represented within this trail; to not be liked by the audience. This
low angle shows only half of Bully's face, focusing on his biceps; a sign of strength and power; seemingly the
two main interests of the character.

A similar low-angle shot that cuts out the face of a character, with the help of extremely low-key lighting that
erases the facial features, but yet there is still an eerie presence. This is an example of how the Chiaroscuro
'effect' is used. (a convention of Neo Noir)

There is also a lot of interesting camera positioning that doesn't conform the generic 180 degree rule in Film.
Both characters are positioned far right of the shots, as they alternate through the editing technique eye-line
match, and I'm yet to see something like this in a film trailer that I can recall. This unique characteristic of this
film trailer is what Neo Noir is all about, as it a niche genre with niche techniques.

4. Micro-elements: Editing

There are multiple eye-line match edits along with multiple two-shots to create an early representation
of the relationship between the two(or more) characters in shot, particular a young boy and girl who
seem to flourish despite the nasty world around them. They're the personification of light in a dark
room, a setting repeated throughout the trailer.

Like in the other Neo Noir film trailer there is a small section very fast editing, that classes as a
montage. As I have mentioned before, the trailer is effectively a montage of clips from the film, so this
montage acts as a montage of the trailer. There are a vast amount of clips used, maybe some not
significant enough to warrant more screen time; but the montage symbolises that the film is packed
with content. This montage technique seems to a convention of Neo Noir film trailers.

Another common theme within the Neo Noir film trailers that I have analysed is fade to black, and fade
transitions in general. This trailer has plenty of them, creating a suspense when it fades fully to a black
screen, a colour that symbolises the genre... hence noir=black. The transitions help make the clips
interchange smoothly, slowly building up the momentum

This coincides with the build up in the pace of the editing for this trailer. The pace speeds up, e.g more
clips per few seconds, as the music speeds up/intensifies. This signifies to the audience a matter of
importance is coming up, as well as generally keeping up the interest, as a trailer that is slow paced
throughout can often be boring; though no Neo Noir trailer that I have watched has been boring... as of
yet. This implies that a lot of thought is put into trailer's of this genre, not only to sell the product but to
make it an exceptional piece of art, not just a mix up of clips and dialogue, but an artistic video that has
it's whole own meaning and style. This trailer lives up to that expectation perfectly. Many critics have
said that this is one of the best film trailers they've seen, yet the film was a massive disappointment
However, that is a massive compliment to have well this trailer has been made, using all four micro-
elements and more.

There are also some other clever transitions, such as the end where the film title appears onto the
screen through lots of little fireflies you see hovering above river water. There is then a ripple (of water)
sent through the font of the film title. This creates the ideology of the film by manipulating two different
things into the film title at the very end, something that adds to the artistic value of this trailer.

5. Micro-elements: Sound

Throughout the majority of the trailer, the non-diegetic incidental music is calm and chilled just
like a lot of the clips, but you can hear the underlying beat slowly getting faster like the editing,
and the intensity of the clips. As the trailer narrative starts to build momentum the still down beat
music intensifies, getting the audience more 'pumped' for the conclusion.

When the conclusion comes, the sound cuts to silence, a very powerful effect that draws the
attention of the audience, if they weren't already some how gripped;. It also centres the attention
of the dialogue that breaks the silence. In this case, the quote was “Now you believe me about
the spell” referring to a story told by a female character earlier in the trailer. This reference point
concludes that that will be a pinnacle part of the overall narrative.

The way in which that quote is spoken also fits with the Neo Noir genre. Everything about this
genre seems to be mysterious, and they way she said it in such a soft tone, creates that
mystery... especially when it makes the audience ask the question; What spell does she mean?
Also, this piece of dialogue is edited over a scene where the two teenagers are swimming in the
dark, mirky waters of the 'lost river', their path only lit up by a single light source; their handheld
torch. This stylistic lightning plus the dialogue creates a perfect sense of mystery that was worth
the cut to silence technique in the sound editing.

Going back to the dialogue, the girl's limited dialogue in this trailer always seems to be
consistently very monotone, there is little emotion in anything she says. This choice indicates to
the audience a negative past experience, thus creating a vital part of her character
development.

Like all the other Neo Noir trailers I have seen, there is a voiceover added to mix of dialogue to
create a good idea of what the narrative is. Because this seems to be such a popular technique,
especially within this genre, I think that when we make our own Neo Noir film trailer that we must
use this technique to our advantage and seems to becoming a key convention of Neo Noir film
trailers.

6. Micro-elements: Mise En Scene

Staying with the female character, her facial expressions seem to match her monotone dialogue,
suggesting she must have many troubles in the area for her to be so forlorn. Both these factors make
her eerie quote so creepy and mysterious like I described before.

The colour scheme of this trailer is the most noticeable outlier compared to a generic Neo Noir film
trailer. Like big Neo Noir film 'Sin City', bright primary colours play a large part in contrasting the dark,
negative atmosphere of the place. The colour alternates between a illuminating pink and purple. For
example, there is a certain scene where there is a completely black and white clip, with one window of
a house emitting a eye-catching purple colour; the bedroom of the girl. Maybe she is the only hope of
the down, hence the only colour in a dark world.

This colour scheme is introduced from the every start,as even the production and distribution
companies at the start have changed to match this colour, creating a blend effect.

Inevitably in a film about a town drowned by a river, there is a scene in this film where the water
obscures and alters the view and perspective of the clip. Illusions created by water is a common
convention of Neo Noir, adding to it's artistic value, especially for this trailer. There seems to be no
other purpose than the fact the technique is ideology of the genre.

The first location we see is a low-key abandoned building, as one of the character risks getting beaten
by bully to steel valuable wire. We next see him walking past walls that look quite the opposite to the
building They are bright colours, yellow, blue and the pink/purple I mentioned before. This recurrence
shows that it is wanted as a colour scheme, especially when at the end the title of the film is the same
colour as our the end credits. They have subtly reinforced that colour as the brand of the film.

7. Micro-elements: Mise En Scene

Staying with the female character, her facial expressions seem to match her monotone dialogue,
suggesting she must have many troubles in the area for her to be so forlorn. Both these factors make
her eerie quote so creepy and mysterious like I described before.

The colour scheme of this trailer is the most noticeable outlier compared to a generic Neo Noir film
trailer. Like big Neo Noir film 'Sin City', bright primary colours play a large part in contrasting the dark,
negative atmosphere of the place. The colour alternates between a illuminating pink and purple. For
example, there is a certain scene where there is a completely black and white clip, with one window of
a house emitting a eye-catching purple colour; the bedroom of the girl. Maybe she is the only hope of
the down, hence the only colour in a dark world.

This colour scheme is introduced from the every start,as even the production and distribution
companies at the start have changed to match this colour, creating a blend effect.

Inevitably in a film about a town drowned by a river, there is a scene in this film where the water
obscures and alters the view and perspective of the clip. Illusions created by water is a common
convention of Neo Noir, adding to it's artistic value, especially for this trailer. There seems to be no
other purpose than the fact the technique is ideology of the genre.

The first location we see is a low-key abandoned building, as one of the character risks getting beaten
by bully to steel valuable wire. We next see him walking past walls that look quite the opposite to the
building They are bright colours, yellow, blue and the pink/purple I mentioned before. This recurrence
shows that it is wanted as a colour scheme, especially when at the end the title of the film is the same
colour as our the end credits. They have subtly reinforced that colour as the brand of the film.