2. The genre of this film is a horror and this appears more obvious roughly half way through
the trailer as the feeling of settling that the music evokes stops and the tone becomes much
more darker.
The trailer targets an audience of male and female from ages 18 to 35. It does this by
including males and females in the trailer all appearing to have equal roles, like the female
working for the army. Also the fact that there are children in this, which must be protected
from the infected helps to target the older half of the audience that perhaps have children.
The trailer lasts for exactly 2:34 minutes, which
is an average length for a film trailer. It consists
of a wide range of camera shots, however
particular shots which stood out to me where,
the establishing shot of the deserted city of
London.
3. The close up of the male, who
appears to be set up on a tall
building in the city, the male is
holding a sniper rifle and says
“welcome to London”, with the gun
in hand, this shows that London
doesn‟t appear to be a safe place at
the moment if it requires
surveillance using gun men on
rooftops.
The long shot of the military base next to
the rail line, while the female at the front of
the train informs the passengers,
“Although district one is completely safe,
outside the security zone, London remains
a waste land”, this shows that district one
will be constantly guarded, if the infection
was out of London, why the large military
force?
4. There are multiple transitions in the trailer and most consist of the common fade to
black, then fade into the next clip, however some shots fade into intertitles of what
stages London has gone through it would appear, for example the first was
„quarantine‟.
Diegetic sound in the trailer appears on focusing explaining the narrative to the
audience mostly, “There are a large amount of bodies which still need to be cleared
from the original outbreak of infection”, this gives the audience the idea that outside
the safe zone, still lies bodies of the dead. A part of dialogue I found interesting was
when the female questions the young boy his age, and he replies 12, she then
continues and believes that Andy may be the youngest person living in the entire
country, this shows the audience just how baron not only London must be, but the
whole of England, and makes you wonder what happened to everyone under that
age, did they get saved, or killed?. The question asked by Andy, “Are you going to tell
us what happened to mum?” cuts straight into a scream, and a hand reaching through
a door, sort of acting as an immediate answer. She was killed, likely by the infected. I
find that cutting to a dramatic scene like this is an effective way of carrying out the
narrative of the film.
Non-diegetic sound is mainly used in the trailer to set the mood, From the beginning
of the trailer, there is sort of a settling tone of music which as the trailer progresses,
gets faster and more upbeat, making the audience expect something to happen. This
music then stops as the child asks his question. After the male says, execute code
red, the sound of siren can be heard which cuts into the very fast paced music clearly
linked to the pace of this half of the trailer.
5. The trailer represents the main characters in the trailer who are the young boy and
the young girl going to meet their dad in London, showing them as a family which has
been split up because of the infection, and also appear to have lost their mother
because of it also makes the audience feel sympathy towards them, making them
interested in these characters.
The intertitles in the trailer help show the narrative, „quarantine‟, „sterilization‟,
„repopulation‟, then the intertitle ‟28 weeks later…‟ comes up and it shows us that
despite trying to rebuild London to its original state, its not going to be as easy as
they had thought. The narrative is also shown through the dialogue of the trailer in
some parts, for example “Execute code red”, after this scene the music cuts to a
siren, so both of these signs are showing us that there is going to be another
outbreak of the infection.
6. The trailer reveals that a brother and sister have come back into London after being
taken away from there for safety because of the infection. The boy and girl then meet up
with their farther and they are trying to rebuild their lives as a family in district 1, in
London. However the city is under constant military surveillance and after a female is
shown with a human bite mark on her wrist, and blood shot eyes, it become obvious
from this that the outbreak of the infection is going to happen again.
Towards the end, the boy and girl are seen with a few other characters and a military
officer who appears to be the sniper who was at the beginning of the trailer. They are
shown to be all trying to escape the city from the infection and the people infected. What
it does not tell us is if they get out of the city, giving us the incentive to go and watch the
film.
7. The intertitles in the trailer communicate with the audience by leaving them questions.
„Its not over‟ – This is an intertitle which stood out to me as it reaches out to the
audience of those returning to the sequel after watching 28 days later, but it also
attracts a new audience, leaving them to think, „What‟s not over?‟
At first the trailer expresses a happy mood, with the boy and girl reuniting with their
father, we expect happiness, especially with the security that they have protecting not
only them but the rest of district one as well.
A few commonly used shots I picked up on were the establishing shots of the city from
different angles, to emphasise how baron the place has become. There are also a lot of
close up shots of people, predominantly the main characters.
There are also a few medium shots of characters, an iconic one for me is the solider at
the end of the trailer pushing the car, then it cuts to a close up of him winking, and it
appears that he‟s letting the people in the car know that they are going to be alright, but
the audience doesn‟t know this for sure.
The setting of the deserted city, and living in
the only safe sector in that city gives this
movie the feel that everyone that lives there
is rather secluded, despite the fact that the
army are protecting them, it is later revealed
that the military napalm the streets, leaving
us to question who the real enemy of this
movie is.
8. Here is a small list of codes and conventions that I picked up whilst analysing
the trailer-
• Voice over, although this trailer uses voice over dialogue which edits into
the scene where the dialogue is used.
• The two main characters who appear to be the boy and the girl, do not have
very famous actors playing them, a lot of horror movies do this, and its an
effective way making the audience not know what too expect.
• The films title does not appear till the end as an advertisement, but the
words ‘28 weeks later..’ Are shown in an intertitle.
• The music plays an important role in creating the right atmosphere.
• A montage of different parts of the film is pieced together to highlight the
most dramatic and important parts of the film.
• Intertitles are used to explain the plot to the audience.
