3. 500 Days of Summer
• Opening shot plays upbeat music and shows the producer and
distributor. The voice then appears and says “this is not a love
story” subverting the stereotype of a romantic genre through
still using genre special language. It then cuts to an ariel close up
of two hands placed over one another, connoting to the
romantic genre. The ring (prop) is placed on her engagement
finger again suggest romance.
• The lighting has been enhanced slightly to fit this particular
genre. The trailer is filmed in summery conditions hence the title
“summer”. Romantic comedies with dark lighting will look
strange and unfitting.
• A mid-shot from behind the characters is used as an initial
establishing shot and introduces the two characters. This straight
away shows the connection between the two whilst identifying
them; this gives the audience who to look out for. Another
element of a romantic comedy is that it shows the passing of
days so from day to night. This gives the sympathy to the
character because it shows the desire and lust.
• The length of screen time of each main character is equal which
shows they are both as important ad each other. The screen
time switches between the two frequently, this reinforces their
connection between them that was established at the start of
the trailer. At one part, there is a shot that is focus onto a lamp;
the camera has a thin depth of focus which is moved. It moves
to focus on the light; this could symbolise hope and faith within
the movie.
• During the trailer it cuts to the title, they do this to keep the film
in your mind as well as the narrative. The trailer continues to
focus on the relationship between the two characters.
5. Harry Potter
• Harry Potter is a popular series based on the novels written by J.K Rowling
and distributed by Warner Bros. the series contains 8 fantasy films starting
with the Philosopher’s Stone (2001). The film franchise is produced by David
Heyman starring David Radcliffe, Rupert Grant and Emma Watson.
• The trailer is almost 2 minutes long; it includes everything that I would
expect from a fantasy genre. The introduction is very sudden and grabs the
audience in. it attracts the watcher’s attention and the caption goes well
with the dramatic music. The editing also cuts well with the music, giving a
very serious, tense atmosphere.
• There are elements within the trailer that help you identify the genre of the
film. The elements of wands and flying broomsticks give an impression that
the film is an adventure. Also other element such as the fighting throughout
the trailer gives a sense of adventure. The clothing worn by Harry Potter is
quite modern but his clothes appear to be tatty and have holes in them. This
shows the journey he has been through which connotes adventure. Fantasy
is also one of the genre in this film, evidence of this the mythical creatures
and uses of props such as wands.
• During the trailer the actors are not emphasised/ highlighted. The trailer
only contains various amounts of clips that tell the story to the audience. The
trailer doesn’t have any recommendations for any other film.
• The dialogue, music and sound are important in this film trailer. The music
gives the impression that everything within the movie is fast paced and
happening really quickly. The dialogue really emphasises the main part of
the story which only one person can live forever and the epic battle between
Harry Potter and Voldemolt. The tone in which the dialogue is spoke also
emphasises a sense of mystery and darkness. There is not voice over during
this trailer but the dialogue which is spoken through the clips acts as the
voice over.
• An element that always appears in Harry Potter is the Warner Bros sign.
Picture logo which shows who distributed it. Starting as a long shot the logo
gets closer to the screen pulling you in and then it becomes a most close up
shot. The gloomy background blends in with the logo to make it most part of
the film.
• The use of camera angle, mise en scene and editing within the trailer is
important to target the target audience. The editing throughout the clips
varies from slow at the beginning and extremely fast as the music tempo
fastens. This gives me an impression that the film will have a lot of action.
The mise en scene during the clip is extremely god because it fits in with the
genre.
7. •
Inception
The first shot shows the distribution company which is Warner
Bros, this suggest that this will be a big budget film. From the initial
shot you can tell that the movie is dark, the distribution logo has
changed to shades of grey and an unnerving high pitched non
diegetic sounds begins. It cuts to a title shot of the director’s name
suggesting he is well known and has a certain style of films.
Christopher Nolan has written and directed other films such as
Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. This creates a direct appeal to
fans of these movies.
• As the music becomes louder, suspense rises and the trailer shows us
a close up of a spinning object. The fact that the spinning object has
not significant to the audience draws them in and wanted them to
watch more of the trailer. An arial shot of a city creates a setting for
the movie and continuous use of the shade of grey creates a
mysterious atmosphere.
• A close up shot introduces the first character, looking away from the
camera in a direction we can’t see. This creates suspense because
the audience is intrigued because they want to know what the
worried character is looking at.
• A point of view shot shows another character being pulled away from
two men in black suits. Black connotes evil which creates an thrilling
atmosphere. A close up of water tilting in a glass seem to defy the
laws of gravity making the audience intrigued and wanting more. The
clips do not make sense which gives the audience a
puzzled/confusing storyline. This draws the audience in even more.
• The music begins to build up as the trailer continues. The music gets
louder while simultaneously having large/heavy beat at regular
intervals causing the audience to feel anxious.
• At one point there appears to have two men fighting but the room is
turning upside down. The audience looking at this builds even more
confusion and more desperation for them to watch the film.
• The title appears again but within a maze, connotes to the puzzled
feeling the audience is experiencing.
• The caption says “Leonardo Dicapiro”. Leonardo is a very famous
movie star, very famous for ‘’Titanic’. The trailer shows his name to
help promote the movie, showing his name helps people recognize
who’s in it.
9. •
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 3 is supernatural horror film. This is the 3 rd film of the
Paranormal Activity series and serves as a prequel, set 18 years prior to the events.
Released October 2011 and produced by Oren Peli.
• The trailer opens up with a technical TV connection problem to give us that sense
of reality feeling; this makes the audience straight away view the movie as a type
of reality scene where we should believe in supernatural/superstitions. A wide
shot is then shown of Katie and Daniel wife Julie playing in the garden, the format
of the camera is set as real life footage so we can identify date and time this took
place. This connotation is again trying to stress that this is reality. A camera faulty
transition is then used to cut to Katie showing a wide angle shot of her playing on
the trampoline with Kristie watching. When the camera zooms in to Katie, Daniel is
asking Katie to wave into the camera, another camera faulty transition is used to
cut into a medium close up of a female in a room with low key lighting. There isn’t
anything in the room so the low key lighting creates a cold darkness feeling. There
a female shown rapidly moving towards the camera with a non-diegetic dramatic
sound effect, the quick change between the scenes from a family enjoying
themselves to a horrific looking woman in a dark room tells the audience that they
should be expecting some type of conflict and jumpy scenes. Fans from the
previous sequel would be able to relate to this.
• The following shot is a close up of Kristi who looks like a troubled little girl, when
Daniel asked her to also wave at the camera the audience straight away get a
different unsettling feel from her when she looks at the camera she gives a shy
mysterious look but also smirking. Another transition puts the audience back into
dis-ease, the setting has low key lighting and the angle is high. This time it shows a
female getting drag across the floor with a supernatural force, a lot of screaming is
used to make the audience uncomfortable. The trailer doesn’t give too much away
which interests the audience. The evil force stays unknown.
• The trailer is on a non-linear order as the audience I left in a state where they
don’t know what’s coming next, this leaves them on the edge of their seats as the
next scene begins the pace of the trailer starts to increase. The transitions and
camera cuts pace increases, connotes that something big is about to happen.
• After the fast cuts it gets to a scene were everything slows down then a big part of
the movie is put in the trailer was the two young girls are in a wide angle shot in
the bathroom looking in the mirror. They turn off the lights and chant “bloody
Mary” three times but on the phone chant non diegetic sounds is used to build up
suspense, she uses the torch light to scare Kristi leaving the audience thinking
that’s the moral of that situation until they run out of the bathroom and the
audience notice that a faint figure is there in the back of the bathroom.
• After looking and analysing the elements that make a trailer, based on what I’ve
noticed is that camera angles and sound are most important for a trailer. The
sound has to match the visual and the camera angles have to be in appropriate
places at the right time. The editing need to be prefect so we don’t see an faults.
11. The Proposal
• The Proposal is almost 3 minutes long. In this movie, the actors are
Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The title is an important aspect
as a selling point of the movie. The title gives the impression that
some sort of marriage will be taking place. The title of the movie
appears at the end of the trailer and the names of the actors are
repeated again during the trailer. The elements throughout the
trailer that make you know what genre it is. The trailer shows a
couple working together to pretend that they are in love to stop
Sandra getting deported. As they pretend they end up falling for
each other. This shows that it is a romance genre.
• The production company was not shown first on the trailer
strangely enough. However, this is still a convention that much
trailer does show the production/distributions.
• The actors in this trailer have been introduced as their characters in
the trailer. During the trailer no one individual has been mention.
The sound, music and dialogue play an important part within the
trailer. The tone of music emphasises that it is going to some
romantic but also funny parts. The dialogue suggests that the
marriage is for Sandra’s benefit and to save her deportation.
• The trailer doesn’t have a voice over which is better because the
clips that have been shown within the trailer tell the audience the
story. However closer to the end of the trailer, an American voice
over appears, this adds to the comedy genre.
• The music changes half way through to Katy Perry – Hot n Cold. The
relationship also starts too swift, this was purposely done together
to emphasise that their feelings has changed for each other. The
voice over makes that obvious for the audience also.
• Evidence of a comedy genre is the naked scene; this gives a sense
that the film is funny and easy going. I thought that was an
appropriate place for that clip because it gives the audience a
chuckle/giggle towards the end of the trailer, making them think
that they enjoyed that trailer and be more willing to see the film.
13. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Transformers is an science fiction action film and is the third
instalment of the Transformers franchise. Transformers is directed
by the Michael Bay, he is prone of directing action films which is a
huge hint of what genre this film will be. It starts off by showing
the distribution which is “Paramount”.
• The trailer shows numerous shots of old real life footage when
humans were first travelling to the moon. This immediately tells
the audience that this film will be a sci-fi genre. After various
shots, it moves to a series of mid shots which show the space shop
arriving on the moon and the astronauts landing. The dialogue “A
Generation greatest Achievement” has confirmed that the
astronauts as landed. There is a close up of an astronaut foot
landing on the moon with the emphasised noise to making it more
dramatic.
• The non-diegetic sound of music starts and the tension rises. The
music included enhanced screeching which most probably by the
robots. These sounds create a feel of unease for the audience and
suspense. The tempo of the music gradually increases then
suddenly stops, putting the audience on the edge. As the
astronauts spots the huge robot, the non-diegetic sounds of
heartbeats starts, this build suspense for the audience. A long shot
is used to show how huge the robot is and creates an increase of
anxiety.
• The astronaut dialogue makes it even tenser “you’re not gonna
believe this”. This doesn’t give anything anyways for the audience
which keeps them intrigued and wanted to carry on watching the
trailer. The camera analyses the robot and goes deep into the
robot’s eye and we see all the gears and parts, this gradually build
into the title ‘Transformers’ which is a great effect.
• Towards the end of the trailer the music progresses and becomes
very loud and constant which increases the tension for the
audience.
• This trailer has not focused on the story or the characters in the
film but focused on its unique selling point which is the robots.
