2. The trailer opens on a top spinning as the camera's center of focus, having a closeup on this
prop makes it look significant and important. By choosing to make a top significant in the
teaser trailer, they're using it's connotations of being a hypnotic yet pointless object to grab
the audiences curiosity and wonder why it was shown.
The colour of choice for the top was black because it has connotations of negative feelings
and unfortune, this choice is more suitable for a psychological thriller than most over bright
or vibrant colours which wouldn't suit the genre.
3. By the time we have this text screen, the background music has become notably in
synch with the editing and the cuts.The music is very ambient and has sounds closely
resembling fog horns at which the scenes do a straight cut.This makes the teaser trailer
feel fluent and gives it a pace which is really important because some of the shots are
confusing so having a set pace help the audience absorb the information.
Also, this text screen mentions that the director of a fairly successful and big movie is
involved in the production. This use of name recognition is meant to attract regular film
viewers as they most likely have seen "The dark knight" or have heard of the director's
previous works.
4. This is an birds eye view establishing shot that shows off the city which the trailer is
mostly set in, having this at the start of the teaser is important for the viewer to get a
sense of location for the events that are about to happen.
The setting for a thriller film is quite commonly in a big town or city, this establishing
shot reinforces that stereotype while also adding some psychological connotation by
having curvy and complicated roads in the shot signifying complexity.
5. The glass of water is the prop that's the main focus of this shot, the glass is straight
yet the water is starting to ripple and tip to the side.The lighting is unnaturally golden
yellow and reflects off of the water in a strange way.This is very typical of a
psychological film as the perception of objects is usually distorted in a unrealistic
manner.
6. In this shot, the camera is tilted during a fight scene in a long corridor.The long corridor
with repeated props, such as the paintings on the walls all being the same and the lamps
looking identical, is a very unrealistic portrayal of what the inside of a building would look
like.This is showing the audience that there is something strange going on and that
everything isn't normal which is the aim of a psychological film.
Also, the inclusion of a fight scene shows the thriller aspects of the film since it creates a
tense and suspenseful scene.
7. As the scenes became faster and the shot times became shorter, the content of the
shots became more shocking or dramatic. By picking up the pace and showing more
interesting scenes towards the end of the trailer, the teaser is trying to thrill the
audience and show off the action of the film to appeal to them.
Similarly to the previous shots, this is a very unnatural shot since a character is emerging
from a bath tub fully clothed; the confusing events so far leave an enigma with the
viewer making then wonder what all of these events have in common and why is
everything so out of place.
8. At the end of the teaser, the shots become completely surreal and out of this world
which heavily implies either psychological problems, perspective issues or a strange
event linked to the minds of the characters is taking place.This is a perfect narrative
for a psychological thriller because it involves all the main aspects of what makes the
show a thriller (interesting and mysterious events) and adds psychological elements
to it (perspective and perception of objects).
9. The final shot of the trailer is of Leonardo DiCaprio who is a very well known actor and is
used to draw attention to the film from anyone who recognizes the name.
In this scene he is seen waking up which suggest all the previous event were a dream, this
is the film's unique selling point since these dreams seem to be very surreal and eye
catching.
10. Finally, the title shows up just before the trailer cuts out.The font it bold and simple but the
background of it is structured like a maze.This connotes that puzzles and mental skills are
the main themes of the film; this is what an audience looking for a psychological thriller
would want to see which means that the film's genre was strongly conveyed by the trailer.
11. The sequence was 1 minute long and showed off it's psychological thriller genre really well using surreal shots
and suspenseful fighting scenes. It presents an enigma to the audience which is that they have to figure out
how the dreams work and what is the meaning behind them and it's unique selling point is the complexity of
the dreams themselves.
In reference to my own production planning, I'll take into account the effect that the background music has
and how it can be synchronized with the editing to make smooth transitions. I can also try to use similar
camera techniques by having the shots tilted or from birds eye view where appropriate because those shots
work well for emphasizing scenes.
