House at the end of the street.
Analysis of shots and
lighting/colour.
The trailer starts with the main character, played by
Jenifer Lawrence, walking down a deserted street at night. The only light comes
from dim, yellow street lamps that line the road, giving the scene an eerie
effect. The street lamps only illuminate the road leaving the surrounding in
complete darkness. This creates an enigma code as the audience doesn’t know
what could be hiding in the shadows. A wide shot is used to show the character
and her surroundings, emphasising her isolation and the helpless situation she
would be in if something did happen. The next shot is a medium close up of the
character with a car approaching in the background. The shot uses a focus pull
as the character in the foreground is in focus and the car behind her out of
focus. This draws the audience’s attention to the character but also brings the
approaching car into their consciousness, suggesting it might be important to
the scene. Although the cars lights are on they are not bright and do not seem
to light up the scene any more than the dull street lamps, continuing the eerie
atmosphere earlier established. A shot reverse shot sequence uses close up
shots of both the female character and the male character in the car to show
their facial expressions and the way they react to each other. They both appear
quite calm when you look only at their facial expressions but the way the
female character looks over her shoulder repeatedly suggests she may be more
unsure than she is letting on, leaving the audience to wonder what she fears.
When the female character gets in the car, shown by a wide
shot that reminds the audience of the deserted surroundings, and when the two
characters are conversing in the car there are bright shots of white light,
like a flash of lighting, that work to make the audience jump and put them on edge, creating a sense of danger
and uncertainty as well as making them want to know what will happen next. This
also links in with the stormy weather that means the female must take shelter
in the male characters car- emphasising her venerability in the situation.
The establishing shot of the house at the end of the street
is brightly lit and made up of mostly light colours which seems to make it look
non-threatening, however the shot also shows that the house is made up of a
mismatch of colours and designs, this could be used to symbolise a broken home
and the idea of corruption and impurity in the relationship between the
characters that lived there.
The wide shot showing the characters sitting around a table
outside at some sort of dinner party is made up mostly of pastel colours and
the lighting is soft but light. This could suggest that these characters are
not involved in the dark goings on that are shown throughout the rest of the
trailer. In this shot the main female character is wearing a white top which
has connotations of innocence and purity. This may imply that she is the victim
of the situation and is dragged by another from this light world of pastel
colours to the darker place shown in the second half of the trailer.
In the next section of the trailer when the story of the
house is being told by the voice over the general lighting is dark, bathing the
shots in shadows and creating an enigma code and sense of mystery as only part
of the scene is being shown to the audience; leaving them to fill in the gaps
and create the details. This is emphasised by the repeated use of bright white
lightning flashes that reveal part of the scene but are so bright compared with
the darkness of the scene that the audience is almost temporarily blinded and
only sees selected parts of the short, sharp shots so that a sense of fear is
created for the audience. The shots are a mixture of close ups and extreme
close ups that seem disoriented and out of order, suggesting an atmosphere of
panic and chaos. An example is an extreme close of the girls face where all you
can see is a mass of hair and one eye. This shows enough of the character to
scare the audience but so much that it reveals the plot of loses its effect.
Another example is a close up shot showing a police crime scene tape across the
woods in front of the house. This suggests that something terrible has happened
there and accompanied by the voice over helps to tell the audience, in a
general sense, what the film will be about.
A really effective shot used 1:04 into the trailer shows a
point of view shot looking through the trees at the main female character. The
part of woods that the character is walking through appears bright and green in
contrast with the darkness that, it seems,
she is being looked at from. The camera then moves across and it passes
behind the watchers head. All that the audience sees is a silhouetted figure of
a female watching the character, this creates an enigma code and a sense of fear as the audience doesn’t know
who is watching or why.
Overall the use of dark lighting and bright flashes of
lightning create a continuous ominous atmosphere, which is key to the horror
genre and the audience is given a twisted, half hidden view of the dark events
and characters in the film which also has a similar effect and suggests there
is more of the story to be discovered, encouraging the audience to watch the
film, vital for a trailer. The contrasting brightly lit shots containing light colours
emphasise the innocence of the characters victimised and the difference between
the two worlds the protagonist experiences throughout the course of the
film.
Final Destination
Analysis of sound
The trailer starts with the main male character, shown in a
mid-shot from behind, in the airport, looking at an aeroplane. From this shot
you could assume that the event the tense sound is building up to is connected
with the image shown-the aeroplane. The
only sound is a non-diegetic drum beat sound effect. The beat is irregular,
which may represent a sense of panic and confusion in the character and an
uncertainty in relation to how events will unfold from the point of view of
both the character and the audience. The
beat also works to create an enigma code as it builds up tension and makes the
audience want to know what will to happen next.
The beat is soon joined by a voice over saying the words, “I
got this feeling, a weird feeling”. The
beat and voice over work as a sound bridge as they both continue as the scene
cuts from inside the airport to inside
the plane. This creates a sense of fear and danger, because the audience know
that something is going to happen soon and the change in scene suggests that it
is coming closer while the continuous sound bridge implies the events are
connected. The sounds working together
builds up even more tension and puts the audience on the edge of their seats.
The voice over continues and describes the scene that the
audience can see. This shows that what is being seen is happening inside the
characters head, rather than in real life. This is also emphasised by the other
sounds being muffled, as if they not happening at the scene despite being
diegetic with the images shown. The muffled sounds include screams from the
people on the plane, which highlights the atmosphere of fear and panic in the
scene and the bang from the explosion which shows the impact that the explosion
has and the damage that it causes. The irregular drumbeat is replaced by
non-diegetic music that sounds similar to an alarm. This has connotations of
danger and suggests the characters are alarmed by what is happening, so filled
with panic and fear.
The music reaches a climax when the character wakes from his
dream like state (shown by a close up of his face), creating a loud and sudden
sound effect which adds drama to the scene and emphasises the transition from
hallucination to reality so that the audience can follow what is happening in
the trailer . This dramatic music continues as people leave the plane in a way
that suggests the danger is not over and the vison could become reality. However
this music is now in the background and there is dialogue and people screaming
in the foreground. This creates a sense
of chaos and when accompanied with the birds eye shot of people running from
the plane implies danger and fear in the characters.
The loud screams and music contrasts with the next scene
which is silent other than the dialogue exchanged between characters shown by a
shot reverse shot sequence of mid-shots. This is effective in the way that it
creates suspense, as the sudden change from contrasting loud scenes to quiet
ones puts the audience on edge and leaves them waiting for the next terrible
thing to happen.
There is then an insert showing the plane flying away, this
is accompanied by only the diegetic sound of the plane, keeping the tense atmosphere
formally accomplished and giving the impression of the calm before the storm.
This quiet is broken by the diegetic sound effects of the explosion from
outside and the windows shattering once the scene returns to the characters in
the airport. This sudden loud noise after a
period of quiet works to make the audience jump and to suggest there is
no telling what will happen next.
Creepy, atmospheric, incidental music is used in the next
section of the trailer. This creates an enigma code and fills the audience with
a sense of fear as the sound suggests there will be morbid and violent events
to come. The first scene in this section is accompanied by a voice over
provided by a female newsreader talking about the deaths from the plane crash.
The voice over is used to inform the reader of events so that the can gather
some form of idea about the story of the film from the trailer and be
encouraged to watch the film. This is a reoccurring
technique used throughout the trailer as voice overs are often used. It is also
effective as it adds to the atmosphere of the trailer by emphasising human
involvement and the actual people in the story so that the audience feel more
emotions and connect more with the narrative.
The trailer ends with dialogue from a male character, shown
in a mid-shot, saying “I’ll see you soon” and then a sudden loud sound effect that
sounds like the movement of something fast through the air. The second shot shows
the main character with a weapon being swung towards his face. It could be interpreted
that the words are being said by death, meaning that death is coming, the
character will die. This creates a sense of fear in the audience and leaves
them wanting to know what will happen.
Overall, the trailer used dramatic music and sound effects
and a contrast between loud and quiet scenes to create tension, fear and a
sense of danger. It also uses dialogue and voice overs in inform the audience
and draw them into the story at a more personal level.
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