The document analyzes the trailer for The Dark Knight and discusses strategies for an effective trailer. It notes that the Dark Knight trailer begins with extreme high angle shots of the city at night to set the urban location. It then cuts to a black screen with a voiceover saying "Where do we begin." The main part of the trailer features a voiceover from the Joker who talks about how much control the police have in the city and that he plans to kill Batman. Key characters like Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent, Alfred, and Rachel are introduced. Bruce and Rachel are in a relationship but she is currently dating Harvey. The trailer shows Batman must confront his own feelings and save the city from the chaos caused by the Joker

1. A2 Media Studies
Trailer Analysis of: The Dark Knight 2008
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Opening: The trailer starts with
extreme high angle shots of the city
allowing for an urban location. The
batman appears to be the brave
protagonist as he jumps from the
building in his cape. The scene is
filmed at night time and plays heavily
on the low key lighting. It then cuts to a
black screen with a voiceover “ Where
do we begin.”
When it comes to creating our
trailer I want to use a black
screen with a voice over because
it’s so simple but it grabs the
attention of the audience
immediately. I have also seen this
in other trailers and have seen
similar effects. I also would like to
have our main character
introduced in the initial few
seconds of the film because it
means that we can follow him
through out the film trailer.
Build up: The main section
of the film is a voice over
from the “Joker” who talks
about how much the police
force have over the crime
in the city. It is revealed
that he is the “Bad guy”
and is talking not the
audience but to the other
criminals he is with. It’s
decided that they should
kill the Batman who is the
saviour of the city. We are
introduced to Harvey
Dent, Bruce Wayne (The
batman), Alfred and
Rachel. We see that Bruce
and Rachel are in love but
she is currently in a
relationship with Harvey.
As an audience we want
the “true” love to develop
further.

2. I really like the idea that the
relationships between
characters already unfold
because we immediately feel
invested in the lives of the
characters. In our trailer I
want to have a lot of focus on
the love between Mark and
Rosette. The camera angles
we use will hopefully have
them mainly in the same
frame and a lot of the time
having physical contact for
example holding hands. We
want the audience to be
rooting for their relationship.
Also the friendship Mark and
Hans have needs to be
highlighted as a key element
of the plot.
Problems: The Batman has
to confront his own feelings
of right and wrong in order
to save the city. There are
shots of him as Bruce
holding the mask with a sad
expression on his face
showing he is feeling low.
The Joker keeps causing
chaos and causing havoc
within the city. He realises
that he needs to save the
city and the people that he
loves but this may cause
harm for himself.