FILM TRAILERS

 RESEARCH- ANALYSING AMERICAN SNIPER

The trailer initially begins with a logo, presenting the film company to the audience.

 Following on from this, the establishing shot sets the scene and genre by the props and location. The audience are shown guns and a dry, abandoned environment, showing the audience what’s going on and where they are. The main character furthermore is introduced in an extreme close up shot, which we are easily enabled to identify him as Bradley Cooper, a very well-known actor. As a further actor is introduced through the screen that Bradley Cooper is looking through, we begin to see connections made when he has pressure to shoot. ‘Maybe he’s just calling his old lady,’ his friend suggests, which introduces doubt in the moment of tension as he debates in his head weather to shoot or not. As a quick shot cuts to see a woman and her son, the thud of a heartbeat sounds, replicating Bradley’s own. 

An intertitle is then introduced, showing director power, and playing the non diegetic heart beat along side. Flash backs are shown, contrasting the scene of guns and predicted violence, back to a joyful wedding ceremony, with blue skies and glistening waters. These editing cuts between two locations give the audience an insight in his home life compared with his professional job. 

Additionally, the fact that there is a mother and child in the view of debatably getting shot alarms the audience as well as the actors and engages tension and fear for everyone. The child presents youth and innocence and no one wants to see him get killed. 

The editing followed of a slow motion cut creates pressure and stress and aims to present the actors emotions towards the scene to the audience watching. 

GRAVITY

The establishing shot immediately sets the scene in space, presenting to the audience the film genre. A dramatic crash using diegetic sound is played along side the establishing shot which creates panic within the audience, alongside diegetic heavy breathing which we soon realise is from one of the well known actresses, Sandra Bullock. This is also emphasised by the fact we can see the spaceship breaking up and pieces of metal and material flying around. Furthermore the hand held camera shot helps portray the panic and alarm that the characters are experiencing. By using this chaotic scene right at the beginning, it draws in audiences and puts them on edge, desperate to understand how they ended up like this. 

Following on from this, as the actress is told to undo her belt in a scene of disorder, as soon as she does so her scream is echoed out and she shoots away from the camera into darkness. 

A quick cut then changes to a production logo presenting ‘Warner Pros Pictures’, something every trailer should include. This slow moving logo then fades and a quick cut moves to a series of quick different camera angles which create tension and disarray, with glitching audio playing on top to highlight the mess they’re in. Furthermore, this continues and a slower moving clip showing the actress panicking engages the audiences with more questions and interest in what is going on. 

These tense scenes are a significant way of capturing audiences due to the fact they get viewers asking questions and hooked on the storyline. The camera continues to spin alongside the character to put the audience in her shoes, furthermore accomplishing filling viewers with the same feelings and emotions within the production. The heavy panting showing her stress continues. 

The camera work stops at a black screen multiple times to emphasise fear and the idea of the unknown. This is matched by tense audio to highlight the apprehension. In addition to this, including point of view shots of the scenery spinning captures a more personal idea of what the characters going through, and even more allows the audience to gain understanding of what’s occurring. Seeing the complete darkness reinforces the panic going on and the sense of the unknown, both what will happen next and where in the sky she is. The fact she continues to repeatedly say ‘I can’t breathe’ also represents fear for both characters and viewers watching, showing the deadliness of the situation she is currently battling in, maybe even fighting for her life. 

A close up shot is seen after the camera blacks out, highlighting her emotions full of horror. And then after that an extreme close up is used to this helps to show people watching what she is experiencing and how she’s feeling in a more indepth manner. All these scenes of panic furthermore emphasise the type of film those who choose to watch are going to experience.

 

BIRTH OF A NATION

We are immediately shown the ‘Fox Searchlight Pictures’ logo in black and white, with non-diegetic piano soundtrack alongside, emphasising an emotional and serious feel alongside the trailer. This slowly fades out and then two awards are presented after this logo, once again in a black and white filter, which is something less common, and I personally find this technique less engaging. Once again this fades out and a shot showing a cotton field in an eery, cold atmosphere, with a mans voice talking over is displayed, the camera moving above to show the large scale of the field. 

The camera then is switched to a point of view shot, showing a pair of hands picking cotton, which then gets switched to a close up shot of the man picking the plants. This editing contrasts against the voice over which says ‘you’re a child of god’, ‘you’ve got purpose’, due to the way someone having purpose means they are important, however the man in this shot is acting as a slave working for rich white people, who see him as worthless. 

A following fadeout cuts out to a young child, who’s light has been lit up in darkness by what seems to be a candle, presenting ideas of innocence and youth towards the audience. It then once again fades out and provides the viewers with a conversation between a white American lady, who cradles a black childs face, introducing a theme of racism and inequality, by saying ‘your people’, when referencing black people. This scene switches back to the cotton field to the same man introduced before, lifting a heavy bag onto his shoulder.

A black screen then gets shown, with bold white letters informing the audience the production is based on a true story. This information creates more of a meaningful film, and will engage audiences more by the fact the storyline is related to something that has actually happened. This reinforces the ideas of racism and injustices based off of someones skin tone, and as an audience can have a great effect and create more awareness to the social issue. 

The next scene the workers are once again degraded and labelled ‘slaves’, by white men overlooking them and whipping a whip which creates a sharp diegetic sound, as a way of gaining power over the workers, and making one of the female workers jump from fright as she’s bowed on her knees with the cotton. The filter over these shots have been made to create a cold tone from the viewers perspective, as blue is a tone which can be related to having a negative impact.