Trailer Analysis: Quarantine

For the trailer for the film Quarantine, the very start of the trailer starts off with showing the local television reporter who is the primary protagonist of the film, following her as she documents the lives of local fire fighters in California. By showing her in this safe, secure area, the viewers of the trailer are lulled into a false sense of security for what is yet to be revealed in the trailer. This is to scare the viewer when they see the actual reveal of the “infected” characters, after the tension has been ramped up in the trailer after the fire fighters are shown quickly rushing to an apartment building, the television crew following under the pretence that they are going to be shown the fire crew in action, not knowing what is actually going to unfold. The technique has been used in various other horror type films, making the audience feel as though they are witnessing events just as the person apparently making the video witnessed them. The idea that the film is being presented from the point of view that these are secret government files that we are witnessing, heightening the tension as the idea that the government are showing people this video to the public due to them themselves being worried about the “quarantine”. The trailer gives us the information about the premise of the film, still keeping in with the idea that it has come from a government source, with the scrolling type writer style writing, often seen in shows such as “The X-files”, a horror television show. The trailer then changes to its focus to the apparent contains of a camera that is found by various men in hazmat suits searching the building shown in the start of the trailer. The video itself found in the camera often fast forwards throughout the trailer, as though it is only showing key glimpses of the film while fast forwarding through scenes, which will not give away the overall key plot points of the film while focusing more on the horror side of the film, while also connoting the sense of desperation and turmoil with which the characters are in at these chosen moments in the film, sometimes increasing the tension that is given off from the scenes.

When we are given a glimpse of the main title of the film, we see the word “Quarantine” surrounded by green colouring. The green colour connotes the idea of sickness and illness, which is often why real life quarantines take place, to try and stop an illness or disease from spreading into the main population. The quarantine in the film is the main reason why all the main characters in the film are together. The shaking of the word Quarantine comes across as though it is from old footage again, much like when a videotape loads up and blurs the footage. This keeps with the idea of the found footage technique which is the main premise of the film, and still putting across that the footage is “real”.

The film is also set in the state of California, putting across that the events that occur during the film are happening in an ordinary area of the world, making it known that this sort of event could happen anywhere including where they possibly live. The night vision camera shots of the trailer put various shots out of proper focus, making the audience more confused as to what is actually on show from the trailer, and by the shots being not completely focus the audience have to imagine on what is being “shown”, which is known to be a convention in horror films, which heightens the tension of the audience from guessing at the events that are occurring and what the characters are being shown. This disorientation not only shows the characters own disorientation, but also the viewers. The quick cuts that occur throughout the trailer also may disorient the view of what is being shown to the viewer, so that they may be left anxious and wanting to see the film to learn what is actually being shown in the whole context.

The film also swaps between shots quickly of different scenes of panic amongst the various characters, shots of the different characters running along characters, as well as close ups of the various characters faces showing their panic in the scene, most notably shown in the final scene where the main character of the TV presenter in the film being dragged away from the camera. From these various close up shots the audience already early on manage to get an understanding and an emotional connection to the characters, instead of the audience just getting a basic understanding of the characters and no connection.

We are also only shown vague shots of the “infected” characters, and are left to imagine what the actual infected characters look what, once again heightening the tension of the film, making it clear what genre this film is actually in and following suit of other trailers in the genre. The infected characters that are glimpsed in the trailer are similar to the zombie characters seen in films such as “Dawn of the Dead”, and other similar zombie films. The infected appear to be like more aggressive, disorientated humans, except with extra strength. The fact that they are so similar to real humans shows the fear that humans have of seeing how easily it could happen and that it could happen to anyone.

The trailer provides basic information for the characters of the film, showing the main character who appears to be the damsel in distress type character, trapped in the quarantined building and needing to be rescued. The woman is recognisable as a TV news reporter, a character type recognisable due to the fact that most people watch the news and will have seen these reporters at some point on television

The genre of the film is easily distinguishable in the trailer, with the trailer moving from an everyday news report to a scenario where the characters are trapped in the housing apartment block with infected characters. The music in the trailer also connotes the genre, with the orchestral string sounds rising in volume as the shots of the characters panicking in scenes plays. The sounds in the trailer also connote the genre of horror, with computer generated sound effects playing in when the scene is cut to a different one quickly, with the computer generated sounds matching the idea of the video footage being affected.

The audience of the film is young adults around the age of 20, who enjoy horror films. The trailer appeals to this group of people due to the trailer showing the specific genre connotations such as showing tense scenes which would get the audience nervous and keep them gripped, as well as showing just enough information to give the audience the basic information of the film, whilst also leaving enough information out so that the viewer will want to come and see the film, to find out all the information in the film.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3133276441/ - Link to trailer for Quarantine

Trailer Analysis: The Incredible Hulk

The trailer of The Incredible Hulk focuses primarily upon the character of Bruce Banner for the majority of the trailer, due to him being the main character. We see glimpses of Banner at the start of the trailer, as a military operation is conducted to find and bring him back. We are then show clips of the operation going into plan, forcing Banner to flee, and shown shots of Banner travelling away, in between different shots of the military chasing Banner. The early parts of the trailer have a prominent bass behind the guitar playing, the style of the notes playing connoting a sort of Spanish-Mexican influence, possibly giving a hint at the location of Banner at the start of the film. The bass playing underneath the guitar gives the trailer a feel of it building up, the sound becoming more prominent as we see military forces advancing towards the house in which Banner is in, clearly connoting that an action scene is soon to come up, also giving us our first glimpse of the actual Hulk.

We see Banner locked inside a corridor, the diegetic sounds of the locks slamming shut locking Banner inside of the area. We are also given various narrations over the top of the trailer, such as the one by Banner in this scene talking about how he cannot control his anger, connoting that he is soon to turn into the Hulk, the narration taken from a different section of the film, just placed over this scene. As tear gas fills the room, we are shown one last glimpse of Banners arm, shown progressively getting larger before it is enveloped in the smoke filling the room, as the scene fades and cuts to shots of the soldiers faces surrounding the room, all the shots of the faces being close ups, we hear the enhanced diegetic sounds of heartbeats, before the hulk smashes through the wall of the corridor and attacks the soldiers.

The title of the film also carries clear connotations describing the size of Hulk, the term hulk clearly higher bigger than the word “incredible”, showing the size of the Hulk. We are given various shots after our first glimpse of the hulk showing his size, such as the size of the character in comparison to various vehicles he has destroyed, and stood opposite a man who is shown to be the antagonist of the film. The hulks size and strength, shown clearly in the second half of the trailer, is the main draw of the film itself, which is why the trailer focuses heavily on showing the hulk throwing around objects such as cars and tanks. These shots and scenes are normally very short in the trailer itself, keeping the trailer to the point and exciting for the audience to watch. Close to the end of the trailer, the antagonist of the film is shown throwing a car directly towards the camera until it reaches it and causes a black out, a convention which is used often in action films and their trailers.

The Trailer also uses the idea of having various narrative voices, taken from different scenes in the film, to help give the audience an idea of what is going to happen in the film, as well as setting the scene for the film itself. The narratives in the trailer come from the main character of Banner, as well as from his antagonist, and other characters relevant to the main plot of the film.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1726152985/ - Trailer for The Incredible Hulk

Film Trailer Analysis: Batman

It is clear from the film trailer and film poster that this is a very dark film of the action genre. The ‘Bat’ symbol is present throughout the trailer, this is because and fans and even non-fans recognise this symbol as a signifier or the ‘superhero’ Batman. The trailer starts off with Batman stood on top of a building alone, there is a blue tint over the scene, this colour connotes sadness and misery perhaps foreshadowing what is to come.

There is then a shot of Batman looking over Gotham again as if he is “watching over Gotham” reinforcing the expected hero persona. There are then many explosions again with a blue tint, the explosions are obviously a symbol of destruction, they all show the companies that has invested in the film such as Warner Bros and Legendary pictures which are well known companies and have brought out many good films. There is also DC Comics which is well known for creating The Incredible Hulk, Superman and Spiderman. These have all been massive successes and therefore make DC Comics a reliable company.

The Joker then says “Where do we begin?” and shows a birds eye view of Gotham which sets the scene. He then speaks about “Cops and Lawyers” and shows a clip of Gordon, a police officer and Harvey Dent, a lawyer. This shows that these two people are obviously main characters and are probably going to be targeted by the Joker.

The Joker then says “What happened?” and there is a flash of Bruce Wayne, both as Himself and Batman. This gives the impression that it is Batman who is preventing the criminals from committing crime which would be correct, but the Joker wants to change this.

There are then many explosions and a scene of the Joker laughing; this is then broken up by a clip of Harvey Dent saying “Rachel’s told me everything about you” to Bruce Wayne which is followed by “I certainly hope not”. This offers comic relief for the audience which breaks up the seriousness and darkness of the trailer. It’s also dramatic irony because the audience knows that he is Batman but the other characters don’t.

There is then more explosions and destruction, which again is broken up by a scene with medium close up shots of Bruce and Rachel in which Bruce says “When you said we’d be together did you mean it”, this shows the audience that there will be a bit of romance in the film which makes it a little more interesting and more appealing to a female audience.

There is another comedy line in which Harvey asks Albert the butler “Any psychotic boyfriends I should know about?” to which the audience knows that Batman is the answer. This is then confirmed by a shot of Batman jumping on top of a car. The diegetic sound of the glass is very sharp and stands out; this is obviously enhanced by sound effects.

There is then a long blackout in which the Joker’s voice can be heard. The Joker is the main focus of the trailer, and is used as a narrator throughout to comment on the action and what happens, i.e. “Gotham needs a better class of criminal and I’m going to give it to them”.

The line “The night is darkest before the dawn, but I promise, the dawn is coming” spoken by Harvey Dent is a signature line in the trailer. Not only does it refer to The Dark Knight but it also says that Batman will, perhaps, be at his lowest point in this movie but he will get through it because “the dawn is coming”.

There is a small clip of the police force smashing the Batman projector light giving the impression that they have lost all hope.

The Title is capital which stands out to the audience with a black background and the faint outline of the Batman symbol. This is what is left in the heads of the viewer. There is then the words ‘coming soon’ and the website if the viewer wishes to get further information.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UBP2nXtRRo