Saw Trailer analysis

When looking at this trailers structure, the first scene shown is out of context and does little in exposition, but serves to set the tone for the rest of the trailer with low key lighting and a blue filter used to create an eerie atmosphere and an over-the –shoulder shot putting the audience in the place of the character. After this brief scene, the trailer then goes on to show the production companies’ logos, usually done at the beginning of a trailer.

The next segment gives us a little more insight into the story, by showing us two of the main characters as well as the villain, jigsaw.  Voice overs are heard from jigsaw throughout most of the trailer, which is effective because while he doesn’t say much, the deep effect on his voice tells the audience enough they need to know about him, by signifying that this is a character shrouded in mystery. A very effective quick barrage of edits, showing newspaper clippings, also gives the audience an idea of what this character is about without giving too much away.

At about the middle point of the trailer, the music picks up in tempo and begins to increase in intensity, a common convention of horror trailers. At this point the trailer edits between scenes and various texts describing jigsaw, the words ‘killer’, ‘voyeur’, and ‘psychopath’ are all shown in between scenes from the film with more expository dialogue about the killer over the scenes. Also, it should be noted that the edits between the scenes in the film and the text are not simple cuts but fades to black, again emphasising the eerie atmosphere.

Something worth mentioning at this point is the consistent use of colour filters (mostly green) used throughout the trailer at this point, similar to the blue filter at the beginning, adding to the scary atmosphere. Also in the scene scenes shown with the filter is the low lighting, working in conjunction with the filters to create an eerie atmosphere, again, similar to the beginning of the trailer.

At about 1:30 into the trailer, the music greatly intensifies, increases in tempo and volume. The edits also become a lot faster between scenes from the film and text. The first text shown in this last part of the trailer is ‘this falls’, indicating to the audience when the film will be released. The scenes from the film being shown are also seemingly far more dramatic moments than before, coinciding with the increasingly dramatic music. Finally, at the music’s climax, the title is shown as well as one last voice over from jigsaw reinforcing the premise. While he doesn’t ask a rhetorical question, his last voice over has the same effect, saying “live or die, make your choice” which again, isn’t a rhetorical question, but it still leaves the same effects, leaving the audience with a choice.

History of Trailers

Snow White (1937) - Snow White as a film is a milestone in filmmaking as it is the first feature length animated film. However its trailer is far different from those of today. For example, what is most striking about the trailer is the lack of any actual footage from the film; the most we get are the films cels which are there to showcase the production. The trailer also takes an extract from time magazine, showing a positive review. Towards the end of the trailer Walt Disney himself introduces the audience to the characters. So this trailer as previously stated, is radically different from those of today

Cinderella (1950) - The first noticeable difference between this trailer and the previous one is that footage from the film is actually shown in this one. Also in this trailer is super imposed text, which only appeared at the begging of snow white, also the trailer for Cinderella is considerably shorter than snow white

Gone with the wind (1939) – The trailer for gone the wind is much longer than the previous trailer, being 2 minutes 30seconds. This trailer like Cinderella also uses super imposed text, but much more than Cinderella particularly in the beginning and end of the trailer, it also carries on the theme of a voice over throughout. However unlike the previous trailers gone with the winds trailer also includes dialogue extracted from the film. This trailer, unlike the previous two, puts more of an emphasis on advertising the films cast. Finally, what’s also worth mentioning about this trailer is that there are scenes in the trailer that aren’t actually in the film and are for purely promotional purposes.

Psycho (1960)-  Pyscho’s trailer break some of the patterns so far. The trailer consist of no actual footage from the film, but simply of the director, Alfred Hitchcock, touring the set, coincidently similar to the second half of the snow white trailer. Because of this the whole trailer is 6 minutes long, far exceeding any off the other trailers so far. Also unlike all of the other trailers so far, this one is in black and white.

Star Wars (1977) - This trailer is significantly different from the previously examined traditional trailers due to the absence of super imposed text, aside from the iconic title of the film which appears throughout the trailer. This trailer is the first that begins due look the most like modern trailers today, using scenes taken from the film with dialogue from the film giving exposition as well as showcasing action. There is also voice over in this trailer, which still gets used today, but not often for action or sci-fi films, this is the only aspect of the trailer that feels outdated.

Forrest Gump (1994)-  Following the star wars trailer, this trailer looks even more like modern trailer consists of mostly dialogue from the film, the only voice over coming in at the end, mainly to advertise the actors.

Inception (2010)- as an example of a modern trailer, the inception trailer uses no voice over whatsoever and is composed completely of dialogue from the film, even being the first trailer looked at to coin the ‘cover line’, the line in which the dramatically climbing music pauses for. Also interestingly, this trailer is the first in a while to have expository text on the screen, however instead of being super imposed; it is now spliced between the scenes show

 

Trailer Reaserch- Horror

After analysing all of the horror trailers nominated in the golden trailer awards, certain similarities keep cropping up. Most notable to me is a combination of fast editing and fast tempo music towards the end of a lot of the trailers to emphasise the danger and climax found in the film. Many of these fast edits are some of the jump scares in the film, particularly in the trailers for Mama, which conveys all of the scares found in the trailer.

 Also common is the low lighting found in not all, but the majority of the trailers. This is clearly to set the tone of the film and build an uncomfortable atmosphere. Due to this slower build of fear the Awakening, in my opinion, is one of the more effective horror trailers. It’s slightly unconventional in that unlike some of the other trailers such as mama, sinister or the possession, there are very few jump scares displayed in the trailer. Instead there is a lot of low lighting and a lot of effective camera angles, particularly a long shot, to give the viewer a better special awareness of the environment, and a close up which shows the characters emotion. In my opinion this is more effective as it builds more of a scary atmosphere than some other trailers.

However to be fair some of the other trailers to a good job of balancing a creepy atmosphere with intense scares, particularly Mama and Sinister. The music used in the trailers is also critical as it can project both of these, as found in a lot of trailers, it dramatically rises during quickly edited scenes, or it can be quite a creepy to build atmosphere. Some trailers even use silence to their advantage as evident multiple times in Mama, as the silence can emphasizes the scare when there is nothing but non-diegetic sound in a scene. Many trailers do this in the very last scene they show right after the climax of the music, such as in the Possession and Mama.

But what is also important in a trailer is how much it shows the audience. Most of the trailers do not show a great deal of whatever is trying to kill the main characters, this is unfortunately were I think the trailer Mama is not so effective. In my opinion, and definitely in comparison to the other trailers, it shows too much of the monster. This is again, why I feel  the Awakening is the more effective trailer, as the ghost is hardly ever shown, yet thought he tension and atmosphere its presence is still felt. Sinister actually also find a clever loophole around this by showing the antagonist, but indirectly, through a film within the trailer

Analysing a film trailer- Man of Steel

Man of Steel is directed by Zach Snyder and produced by Christopher Nolan and is essentially an origin story of the well-known, pre-existing Superman character. In terms of the genres of film outlined in ‘save the cat!’ this film is of the superhero genre (‘superhero’ referring to the structure of the story, not the fact that it is literally about a superhero). There are actually multiple official trailers for this film, but I will mainly focus on trailer 3.

Man of Steels 3^rd trailer is 3 minutes in length, slightly longer than the average max trailer length of 2 minutes 30 seconds. The first thing we see are snippets all from the same scene, presumably near the begging of the film, as well as pieces of expository dialogue, also all taken from the scene, which explain the basic premise of the film. The trailer continues to do so but with different scenes and pieces of dialogue taken from throughout the film until about 2 minutes into the trailer. It should be noted that all the way through the trailer up until this point, a score from the films soundtrack has been playing and slowly been building in intensity, each cue becoming more and more dramatic as more scenes from the film are revealed.

At 2:00 the trailer pace of the trailer changes greatly, the edits become much quicker and the music more dramatic. The scenes being shown are now from the action scenes of the film, not the expository scenes as now the trailer is advertising the action and special effects, as well as the central conflict of the film, as there is voice over dialogue from both the films antagonist and the hero talking about how 'the world may not be ready for him'.

Finally, at 2:35 the music has reached its climax and has now become much less prominent, this brief part of the trailer focusing on the relationship between the two main characters with dialogue (similarly to the first part of the trailer) shown in context with the same scene it’s from, before the trailer ends with a final quick glimpse of action, to advertise that this film will balance both action and character development.

Some of the conventions found within other trailers of this genre is the single extract from the films soundtrack that plays consistently throughout the trailer and increases in tempo with the action being shown, such as in the ‘Iron man 3’ and ‘Thor: the dark world’ trailers, Thor especially is similar to man of steel due to the final scene in the trailer, giving one last look at the characters  after the music’s climax. Secondly is first half of the trailer setting up the premise of the film and the second half showing the action. The trailer I have found follows this most similarly is ‘The Wolverine’ trailer. This convention most likely keeps cropping up because the majority of these films are based on pre-existing characters, therefore some exposition is likely required in the trailer

Some ways that this trailer seems to break convention however, is the previously mentioned, unusual length of 3 minutes, as well as the emphasis on the characters and story in the first half of the trailer (exposited mostly in various pieces of dialogue) throughout the trailer, unlike the previously mentioned trailers which seem to focus on primarily on promoting the action and secondarily on the characters, unlike Man of steel which seems more balanced.

 

Man of Steel trailer 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY

Iron man 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CzoSeClcw0  

Thor: the dark world- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p7rocHEecE

The Wolverine- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmcBOIfhHQY

Questionnaire

This is a link to my Questionnaire that I made to help with the research and planning towards my trailer. I would appreciate it if you filled it out for me. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VlKmdj1EuHae3DGs9qxdyxcrL0693lLI4rzN6b-PDgw/viewform

trailer terminology

Trailer- a short piece of film (no longer than 2:30min) that is created to promote a film and deliver a plot summary. Trailers cannot show too much about a film (like spoilers), as it is designed to entice the audience and leave them wanting to see more of the film.

Teaser-an especially short type of trailer (usually 30sec) released long before the film or trailer that doesn't explain any of the premise or plot but is usually made just to generate hype for the film.

Plot Summary- a three act structure, similar to a film itself, only condensed into a trailer which basically establishes the premise, a climax and a montage of the best moments of the film (often accompanied by an orchestral piece that is signature to the film).

Voice-Over- a common convention of (though not exclusive to) action movies. Which is spoken in a deep voice and serves to explain the premise of the film.

Music-this is often used to set the overall tone of the film, though the music in the trailer is sometimes not from the film itself. The music found in the trailer may be the score of the film or another film, 'Library' music specifically composed for the trailer, or popular well known music from other artists.
Cast- the cast are the stars of the film, often times they warrant mention during a trailer, as do the director or producer if their previous works are well known or acclaimed

Billing block- a list of the cast and crew, often used at the end of trailers and on the movie poster

Sound Mix- Scenes of the trailer that use sound effects or enhance the stereophonic sound are achieved with a multichannel sound mix

Video resolution- the picture qualtity of the trailer. Trailers are distributed in HD with the highest possible quality, up to 1080p

Save the cat genres

Monster in the House- The basis for the Monster in the house genre is that a character, creature or object is thrust into an environment that it doesn't belong in, and its the protagonists job to either eliminate it, or avoid being eliminated by it. e.g.-Prometheus

Golden Fleece- The Golden fleece genre gets its name from Jason and the Argonauts, and this is basically what the genre is about, heroes who must embark on a quest. But what sets this genre is about is that, ironically, it isn't about the 'golden fleece', that is to say the end goal, but the film is mainly about the journey and how it changes the characters, not the prize. e.g.-The Hobbit

Out of the Bottle- There are two sides to the out of the bottle genre. These films are basically What If? scenarios, either a character is given everything they ever wanted and the crux of the film is seeing what the do with it, the other version of the genre is were instead a curse of some kind is placed on a character and they are stripped of something they hold dear, the rest of the film focusing on how they come to terms with it. e.g.-The invention of lying

Dude with a Problem- the basis of this genre is that an ordinary person, the 'dude' is faced with an extraordinary problem. The emphasis of this story is how large the parallel between the ordinary person and the extreme challenge thrust upon him is. The protagonists of these films are often extremely relatable and likable for the audience, as it is to an extent, an everyman story. e.g.-Night at the Museum

Rite of Passage- The hero is forced to go through a change in their life (often a very difficult one), with no option other than to dig deep and find a way to deal with it. The rite of passage is about how the hero will come to terms with the inevitable change in their life which everyone at some point in their life are forced to do, which again, makes the protagonists of this genre easily likable due to their reliability (as long as they don't take too long to accept the change in their life). e.g.-American Pie

Buddy Love- The crux of the Buddy Love movie is that we aren't given one protagonist, but two. The centre of the Buddy love film is the dynamic between the two 'buddies', how their characters bounce of one-another, then you throw the two (usually conflicting personalities) into a variety of interesting or humours situations and see how it plays out. This is why many Buddy Love films are often also 'Road Trip' movies, films that lack an overarching message and simply focus on the characters going through a series of strange encounters and situation throughout the film, the focus being on what the make of everything they come across and not what they find at the end, which is even better when you have two protagonists that who's personalities will bounce of, not only each other, but the unusual situations and characters they come across. e.g.-Dumb and Dumber

Whydunit- As the name implies, the Whydunit delves into what makes a person or a group of people do what they do (usually what they do being something detestable). Though, the questions and answers given in a whydunit aren't meant to be restricted to the characters presented , but are meant to make the audience ask the same questions about themselves. Ultimately, whydunits delve into the human soul and ask why we do some of the dark things we do. e.g.-Minority report

The Fool Triumphant- Essentially this is an underdog story. The focus of the fool triumphant is to see the 'fool', who is an outsider and seemingly inept in everything he does, overcome a larger institution and defy everyone's expectations. e.g.-Rocky

Institutionalized- the institutionalized genre focuses on a more often than not,shady group of people, an exclusive club of sorts, and the story is usually told from the perspective of an outsider who becomes accepted into the group, a new recruit who must learn the inner workings of the group he has joined. While the dynamic between the characters within the group or the groups politics are a central part of the genre, the most important part of this story is whether the outsider is right for the group or not, and if so how it changes them. e.g.-One flew over the cuckoo's nest

Superhero- Fairly self explanatory. The superhero genre is a story in which an extraordinary character must overcome the difficulties that come with living in an ordinary world ( the polar opposite to the dude with a problem story) . A common challenge with this genre is making the protagonist relatable, as they are elevated above everyone around them. This is often achieved by making them sympathetic due to how alienated the hero is to everyone around them. e.g.-Man of Steel

A2 coursework brief

For my A2 media coureswork I will reaserch the film industry, particuarly movie trailers and eventually I will produce a film trailer, poster and front cover of a magazine advertising my film, based on my research and planning.