2. MISE EN SCENE
• In the trailer of fight club, one of the stand out bits of mise en scene used
was the use of bandages and plasters covering injuries. This is important
as it lets the viewer know the film will involve a lot of violence without
showing to much blood/gore to a young audience (as the trailer can be
viewed by anyone).
• Another noticeable of mise en scene used was the fact during the short
clips of fights the characters were wearing tattered clothes or were
shirtless. This implies the characters are very masculine and aren’t
bothered about the state of themselves. Them being topless has
connotations to their aggressive nature throughout the film.
• The environments in which the fight clips are filmed were very dark and
dim, the dark lighting has as it connotes to a dangerous environment as it
is harder to see. The dark lighting also gives us the sense of how
secretive the ‘fight club’ is. A famous quote in the film is ‘the first rule of
fight club is: you don’t talk about fight club, the second rule of fight club is:
you DO NOT talk about fight club!’.
3. CAMERA WORK
• One of the early camera shots within the trailer is a birds eye view shot of
the narrator, the angle of the shot gives the audience a sense of power
over the character and because he is positioned below us it makes us see
him as weak and powerless.
• There is a close up to the narrators face, enabling the viewer to see just
how dull and boring the narrator’s face is, this resembles how dull and
boring his life is. He really detests his current job of a recall coordinator of
a major car company and the close up of the characters expression
provides evidence to his boring life.
• A point of view shot in which the narrator is on top of the camera,
punching it, gives the audience a completely opposite view of the narrator
to what was previously shown in the trailer. He is now an aggressive,
masculine and powerful man out of control. The point of view shot makes
it feel like the audience are the victim of the attack and we are now
confused about the narrators character.
4. EDITING
• The slow motion edit of the narrator punching towards the camera shows
us the intensity and power of the punch, the viewer gets more time to
witness the punch which makes them recognise how much of an effect it
could have on the victim.
• The pace of the cut edits picks up the longer the trailer goes on for. At the
beginning the slow paced edits reflect how boring and slow paced the
narrators life is, but as the ‘fight club’ is assembled the fight clips are
briefly shown through quicker cuts, increasing tension and speed of the
whole trailer. The audience only get to see short glimpses of clips after
each other in quick succession, this creates a feeling of confusion and
makes the viewer want to see the film in order to understand what is going
on.
5. SOUND
• “I want you to hit me, as hard as you can.” is a line Tyler Durden says in
the trailer, this diegetic dialogue automatically draws the viewer in as it is
something you wouldn’t usually hear someone say, the audience want to
know why Tyler wants to get hit. It also lets the audience know there will
be violence within the film, backing up the thriller genre of the film.
• “The first rule of fight club is: do not talk about fight club.” is a line
included into the trailer to cause a sense of confusion. The contradictory
sentence makes the viewer want to know why the members cannot talk
about fight club, and what will happen to them if they do.
• A non-diegetic song about losing your mind begins to play over the top of
the trailer, which gives a subliminal hint to what the storyline is about, as
the narrator begins losing his mind throughout the film.
