Trailer Analysis

Rebecca Ainsworth

Purpose of a Trailer

• A film trailer is created to advertise the film before it is released in cinemas, it is a form of marketing which promotes the film to the general public who, should the trailer be successful, come to watch the film when it is realised.

• A trailer doesn’t give away the story, it creates mystery and uncertainty in order to encourage the viewer into finding out what happens within the actual film.

• Different genres sieve to create a different effect on the viewer, for instance a comedy film would want the viewer to laugh whilst watching the trailer, however a horror trailer would use different aspects in order to scare the viewer. The following slides show an example of how a horror film would use a trailer to gain the interest of the public.

• At the end of the trailer we see the title to the film, ‘Annabelle’.

• The title is written in a Serif font in order to show sophistication and establish that the movie will not be light hearted, it will require concentration and a level of complexity.

• The green tint suggests an issue of jealously and envy which is actually shown at the beginning of the trailer where the intruder takes a liking to one of the dolls.

• The writing camouflages with the background which is old fashioned wall paper, this makes you feel like the movie is based inside a house.

• A light in the top right casts a dark shadow against the letters creating an ominous look to the title.

Titles• Throughout the trailer there are

various other titles which help keep the viewer intrigued but also inform the viewer a bit about the film and what it’s about. For example it says, ‘This October discover the secret of what she wants' Which entices the audience to find out what she wants.

• The example shown above reveals ‘Annabelle’ as being a prequel to the well known movie ‘The conjuring'. This would spark the intrest of the audience who enjoyed The Conjuring and already gives the movie a high quality standard.

• The dripping blood on these titles creates a sinsiter atmosphere to the titles.

• Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who analysed 100 Folk Tales in detail. According to Propp each Character has a narrative function as they provide a structure for the text.

• In the following few slides I have analysed each character shown in the trailer and through what we are shown I have categorised each one into the structure of Propp's theory.

Characters

• Mia Gordon – Played by Annabelle Wallis. Horrors are prone to having a ‘damsel in distress/Princess’ type character as according to Propp’s theory, and through watching the trailer we can establish that this character is Mia. She encounters all the strange happenings and this scares her therefore leading her to seek help.

• Annabelle Wallis is a not such a well known actor therefore the movie is not being sold through ‘star’ appeal however she has previously acted in films such as X-men: First class but not as a main character.

Characters

•John Gordon – played by Ward Horton. John also finds himself as a victim to begin with, but we see clips of him fighting the intruder etc, which makes him seem like ‘the hero,’ however in typical thrillers the man never seems to experience ghostly events which is probably why we don’t see him being teased by the doll in any clips later on in the trailer. This is propbably due to the male characters being stereotypically stronger than female characters. Mia is seen as weak and vulnerable whereas John seems strong and a generally tougher character.

•Evelyn – Played by Alfre Woodard. We don’t see much of Evelyn in the trailer but in the short clip that we do see she seems to be offering guidance to Mia and therefore suggesting she is ‘the helper’ or ‘dispatcher’ character according to Propp’s character types.

Characters

• Father Perez – Played by Tony Amendola. This character is seen to help the family throughout the events by trying to deal with the spirits/ doll. I believe he would play either the ‘helper’ role or the ‘donor’.

• Annabelle. Clearly Annabelle is the villain of this movie as she causes pain to the family. However it seems she is only this way due to the entity conjured up by the members of the satanic cult the beginning of the movie.

Locations and mise-en-scene

• The establishing shot for the trailer shows a house, however it doesn’t look like a warm, comforting home due to the low key/ high contrast lighting and the empty dark sky with ominous shadows casting over the setting. This makes the viewer feel cold and unwelcome which instantly sets the horror genre.

• We can also see a red door and the colour red suggests blood and danger. This door is placed to the left of the shot; following the rule of thirds and therefore drawing attention to it, further there is an outdoor light creating the only section of light over the red door.

• In this shot from inside the house we can see a woman in the centre who looks as though she has been stabbed, she is wearing white which contrasts against the blood creating what Claude Levi-Strauss calls a binary opposition of innocence vs corruption.

• To her right there is a blood marking on the wall in the shape of an ‘A’ which we believe as the viewer must stand for Annabelle.

• We can also see the woman cradling the doll and in the next shot we see blood drip from the woman into the doll’s eye. This is obviously an important moment as the doll is now cursed.

Locations and mise-en-scene

• The next location shown is through a long shot of apartments, we see here that the couple are moving in but somehow Annabelle ends up mixed in with the boxes and moves into the new home with them. This shots in this section have a much higher key and lower contrast lighting and perhaps this is to emphasise how the couple think they are now safe. The bright and colourful shots here contrast greatly with the past creepy location in the house, this establishes binary oppositions of bad vs good and light vs dark.

Locations and mise-en-scene

• The last setting that is shown in the trailer is a church. It is not possible to tell if these two shots are of the same church however there is a distinct difference in the atmosphere that each one brings up which further establishes the binary oppositions present within the movie such as good vs evil.

• For instance, the church on the left is shown in the day time and has high key, low contrast lighting, it looks like a nice place and it is also becomes evident that this is the place where the couple go to seek help therefore suggesting it is a nice and helpful setting.

• However, the church on the right uses chiaroscuro lighting and this makes it seem haunting and dangerous. Furthermore, the expression on the mans face suggests fear and worry. This is obviously not a nice, safe setting.

Locations and mise-en-scene

Shots and edits• To begin with the pace of editing is slow whilst setting the

scene and establishing the equilibrium. During this sequence there is a fade to black between each shot which shows the ellipsis cuts that have been put in for use of the trailer only, but as soon as the intruders make themselves known the pace picks up creating drama and tension.

• Not only this but the bright flashing lights and jump cuts disorientate the viewer. This section is especially interesting because we only see a small amount of clips in a short time therefore creating enigmas and pursuing the viewer to go and watch the full movie to find out what happens

• Another clip shown here is a long shot of Mia sleeping with her baby’s cot in the bottom left corner of the shot. Whilst the camera slow tracks forward we see a woman in a night gown walk past the doorway, we notice that she is the woman from the beginning of the trailer.

• The camera continues the track forward as she now walks across the front of the screen towards the baby, however the shot ends just as she bend over so we don’t find out what she does to the baby and this again creates mystery and therefore entices the viewer to watch the film and find out.

Shots and edits

• The last shot shown and possibly the most dramatic is this shot. We see Mia in the left hand side and a young girl in the opposite room through the doorway.

• As the girl runs towards Mia, the door begins to close and the camera track forward. Suddenly the door is pushed open again the girl is now a the same terrifying woman from before. The woman has a blood stain in the same place as the shot at the beginning of the trailer.

• • This edit has been done very smoothly. The reason the door begins to

close is so that the camera doesn’t pick up the character change and therefore shocks the un-expecting audience. Furthermore, it allows the sequence to be believable to the viewer because if the trailer isn’t believable then the ghostly and unnerving atmosphere will be lost and the viewer will not desire to watch the film.

Shots and edits

Sound• To open the trailer there is no non-diegetic sounds,

just the dialogue between the couple, this gives the essence that they are alone. When John comes running out the house covered in blood we hear a loud non-diegetic bass note which surprises the viewer as instantly creates tension.

• The bass note sparks more non-diegetic music which sounds quite electronic and increases in volume and tempo which in turn rises the tension felt by the viewer.

• As we see a woman holding a doll the non-diegetic sound abruptly cuts off and we here the diegetic voice of the woman, “I like your dolls”. At this point the scene has cut to a black out. At this point if we didn’t already know the viewer realises that the film will be about the dolls.

• During the fast paced edits whilst there is what seems a battle between the couple and the intruders we here a woman screaming which doesn’t quite match with the shots however I do think that the sound is from the actual characters in the film but we can also hear a non-diegetic noise which is fast paced and asynchronous. This diegetic screaming associates the film more with the horror genre, you would not find this type of sound in a romance for instance.

Sound

• About halfway through the trailer it appears that the doll turns on the record player and begins playing an eerie, creepy song. This then becomes the non-diegetic soundtrack for a while within the trailer.

• The song is called, ‘I only have eyes for you’ by The Flamingoes. The lyrics of this song are rather stalker-like which establishes the ghosts and supernatural entities that are living in the house, watching the characters and haunting them.

• The song then fades out as the diegetic sounds of the sewing machine and the cooker fade in and get louder and louder as the pace gets faster which work well together to add tension and make the view feel on edge.

Sound

Genre

• There are various semantic codes that show ‘Annabelle’ is a horror movie, for instance the dark chiaroscuro lighting and loud jumpy music.

• Another aspect that show this movie is a horror is that throughout the trailer enigmas and mystery is created and that is a typical convention of a horror/thriller.

• Not only this but we can tell ‘Annabelle’ is a horror and not a thriller because in a thriller the villain is played by a human and the kind of events that occur in Annabelle could not have possibly been done by a human.

Audience• The trailer doesn’t show any age rating however it is

rated a 15. This means that the movie is directed at an older audience and therefore would be too frightening for a younger viewer.

• There are links with this movie to the film ‘The Conjuring’ and therefore the film will try to lure in fans of The Conjuring and will possibly already have a fan base.

• At the end of the trailer there are links towards Facebook and Youtube with a hashtag #Annabelle. Therefore the film is using synergy to try and attract a wider audience through the internet. Not only this but it allows the distributors to market directly towards someone through their Facebook timeline etc.

• Personally, I believe that this trailer has been successful as it has encouraged me to see the film in the cinema, however as the film has not been released yet I am unable to prove this theory.

• However, looking at the film ‘The Conjuring’ which is a supernatural horror related to ‘Annabelle’ it raised a gross of £25,942,472 in just the opening weekend.

• This means that the initial marketing such as the trailer really helped gain publicity for the movie. Therefore it seems likely that Annabelle will also do well.

Conclusion