The trailer analyzes the film Selma and provides details on its mise-en-scene, costumes, performances, editing, sound, genre, narrative, and representations. Key elements include the settings of the White House, church, and streets of Alabama which reflect the racial tensions of 1950s America. Martin Luther King Jr. is shown trying to persuade officials to help address attacks on black citizens. The trailer uses montage editing and aggressive music to build tension around the civil rights movement and confrontation to come.

1. SELMA teaser trailer analysis
By Tom Quigley

2. Micro features

3. Mise en scene
 Setting- At the beginning of the trailer, the first setting that we are introduced to is the
White House, Washington D.C. Everything seems very to be kept in an orderly fashion
with no evidence of destruction of property or public areas.
 It cuts to a scene of brutal attacking upon a group of people in a dark ally way with brick
buildings and small shops, giving the impression of an suburban area.
 The setting moves to a church which holds a large crowd of people and includes a
organ pipes in the background. The purpose of this setting is to demonstrate the unity
of the black community by showing them all believing in one thing together, which is
there rights as citizens.
 The rest of the trailer moves to the town named Alabama were streets and the town hall
are shown in the majority of shots. The color that is mostly seen in this area is white
with the Confederate States of America being waved suggesting the residents in the
area are racist towards black toned people.

4. costume
 The characters who seem take up the most screen time seem to be wearing suits
(the male characters). This is done to suggest to the audience that these
characters pose significance in the plot of the film. The minor characters seem to
be wearing more ordinary clothing, appropriate to the era that this film is trying to
recreate, 1950s America.

5. performance
 The main character, Martin Luther King, is seen trying to persuade senior figures to
help fight the growing tensions between white and black people in America. In the
trailer, we are given the impression that there is huge opposition to Martin Luther’s
objective to finding equality between white and black people in America. This is
evident as when Mr. King tried to approach the president of America at that time to
help with the attacks upon black people with no help. This occurred at the
beginning of the trailer, setting the tone of the rest of the trailer to be about the
struggles that black people face with the other groups of society. This is reinforced
with short shots of brutal attacking upon groups of African American ethnicities on
the city streets. This montage editing style used for this trailer also includes
reacting shots of ordinary people in there homes watching the horrific acts white
police officers are performing on black ethnic groups.

6. lighting
 The general lighting is dark to reflect on the severity of the film’s theme.

7. Camerawork
 The angle of shots upon the black ethnicity groups in the trailer is held at a high
angle. This is done to portray them being in a vulnerable position and how the
divide between blacks and whites causes people to think less of black people. An
example of this is when one African American women is being wrestled to the
group with the camera point above her making her seem defenseless against the
white police officers.
 When there are violent scenes occurring within the trailer, the camera movement
becomes far more erratic. This is done to emphasize the chaotic behavior that is
occurring within the shot.

8. Editing
montage- The trailer was a montage sequence as it
uses shots from different time frames within the film
and are fitted together to give hints and ideas to the
audience about the plot of the film.
They fade to black at the beginning to give a sense
of the shot passing for a long time, however the
shots gradually transition to a hard cut with the
length of the shots becoming shorter to build to the
climax of the trailer.

9. sound
 The entry of titles is emphasised by loud drums and synths to make the audience
aware of the information that the titles are giving. There is also non-diegetic sound
in the form of a backing track. The genre of this backing track is hip-hop, with side
chaining occurring between the kick drum and main chord pattern. This is
emphasising the sound of the kick drum and gives the trailer a more aggressive
feel to it.
 diegetic voices are usually short as the trailer needs to include as much
information as possible in the small time frame that it has. However non-diegetic
voices can be heard over certain shots and is a technique used to help the
audience understand the meaning of different shots.

10. Macro features

11. Genre
Historical drama

12. Narrative
 At the beginning of the trailer there is a meeting between Martin Luther King and
the president of the United States of America were they discuss the urgent need
for support against racism. There is conflict between the two as the president
refuses to corporate in a situation that requires his power and influence.
 There are scenes of violence between police forces and black citizens which
causes a divide between people who feel they need to help and those who don’t.
These confrontations between the police force and black people are televised
making the events even more apparent to the public eye.
 The trailer leads to a point were Martin Luther King voice speaks about how he
needs to stand up against these attacks, suggesting there will be a big
confrontation later in the film.

13. Representation
 The white ethnicity group is represented as being small minded,
ignorant and a violent class of people. This is done through the way
they speak and act around black groups of people. They become
abusive towards them and think of them as being animalistic.
 Black ethnicities are portrayed as strong, unfairly treated and have
a close sense of community. They are strong as they have chosen
to fight against the discrimination that has been put against them
and fight as a community is mass marches to demonstrate that they
too deserve equality.

14. target audience
The audience for this film is varied. It can target an
older demographic as its a historic drama which
allows for people who lived in or near that time frame
to relate to the topics that arise in the film. However
from the trailer, there seems to be a lot of action
which could appeal to a younger demographic
between 15-24 years.