Trailer Research
Crime / Dystopia
by Munya
Key Conventions – Short key
clips/moments/action from the film, teasing
the audience without giving away crucial
details.
Genre – genre is clearly established to entice
the target audience.
Narrative – reveals hints of the plot and main
characters. Often in a 3 act structure: Part 1
establishes the storyline, Part 2 shows the
dramatic developments and Part 3 hints at the
climax.
What makes a
good Trailer
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Voice-over – anchors the key points of the film.
Often using a powerful, dramatic tone.
Music – sets the mood and may compliment the
soundtrack.
Cast – prominent stars usually feature early in
the trailer helping the audience decide how
appealing it is.
Director/studio – usually mentioned if considered
an ‘auteur’ or successful. ‘From the makers of..’
helps promotion followed by logo.
Title/onscreen text – Title usually appears at the
end to stick in the memory. Text anchors key
meanings (on the beat).
What makes a
good Trailer

Post-Modern Cowboy’ - loner, pushed into action, constant
threat and violence for him (survives against the odds).
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Human survivor group - small group from the pre-apocalyptic
modern world, struggling to survive in the savage new world.
Hero helps them & they remind him of the past modern world
and its humanity (and offer hope for the future)
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The Helper – Often from the alien/infected race who assists
the hero in his quest for resolution.
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Groups/tribes (animal like) who seek to profit from violent
anarchy. Hero encounters these tribes who want to destroy
him. He confronts them on their terms (savage, anarchic
responses)
Typical characters of a typical
postmodern Dystopia trailer
Director :Danny Boyle
About
Four weeks after a mysterious,
incurable virus spreads throughout
the UK, a handful of survivors try
to find sanctuary.
Genre
• Dystopia
• Sci fi
• Thriller
28 Days Later
Part 1 – Dystopic Equilibrium (Hyper-real world
)
(Silent London) Set/ storyline / Protagonist
Part 2- Disruption of the equilibrium , this is
when the realisation of the infection comes and
the protagonist realises he needs to survive.
Part 3- Fast pace developing action/enigmas ,
development of character role. The
protagonist turns from being you average
person into a postmodern cowboy/hero.
Dystopia
28days later (Structure)
Animal activists invade a laboratory with the intention of
releasing chimpanzees that are undergoing
experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes
rage. The naive activists ignore the pleas of a scientist to
keep the cages locked, with disastrous results. Twentyeight days later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a
coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to
seek out anyone else to find London is deserted,
apparently without a living soul. After finding a church,
which had become inhabited by zombie like humans
intent on his demise, he runs for his life. Selena and
Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to
date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London
tore itself apart. This is a tale of survival and ultimately,
heroics, with nice subtext about mankind's savage
nature.
Dystopia
28days later
This is on of the last shot
and it shows what has been
attacking them, it shows
what the infection has done.
Also the colour grading in
this film gives and old
ancient feel to the film.
This is the first shot you see of
the camera zooming closer to this
mans face close up from a birds
eye view angle. This gives a
sense of something attacking
him.
Not only did the director decide to have this long/wide
angled shot , it’s the where he decided to take the shot
that’s add more substance to the shot. Here we see a
car parked in a section of the road where your not
allowed to park your car suggesting something is wrong
or something has happened and the main character
being inside this box shows how his trapped and has
nowhere to go. The fact that its on an intersection
shows confusion in the character as he is isolated from
the world. The expression being at the wrong place at
the wrong time comes to mind as I look at this shot.
A few wide shot are used to
help the audience catch the
concept of the film. They use
these shots to show the
emotions of the main character.
This shot especially shows the
marginalization of the character
and shows the viewer how his
isolated.
Camera shots/ angles
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This film is set in Manchester and they
manages to get the place empty and it
makes the main actor marginalised as his
in this town on his own. They portray the
dystopia genre well by the use of sound.
From the start of the trailer they have
some eerie creaky sounds complimenting
the soundtrack. They use a lot of diegetic
sound however their edited into places
they shouldn’t be making it non diegetic.
Sound/ Setting
Jim Played by Cillian Murphy
Main Actor Jim. Jim is your average
Joe set out to fight for his life in
order to survive. The director
portrays him as someone who is
quite scared and doesn't have a clue
what's going on. However he adapts
the survival instincts and he has to
fight against all odds.
Characters
Selena Played
by
Naomie Harris
Mark Played
by
Noah Huntley
The helpers Selena and Mark advise
him on what's going on and what he
should and shouldn’t do. This is
basically a battle between the
scientist and the activists the activist
release the monkeys that where
being tested on , not knowing they
where infected.
These are the titles used in the trailer and they
have bits of footage to elaborate the concept of
what the titles say in-between each of the Titles.
Notice how the trailer doesn’t tell you what
happens after the 20th day , when the devastation
starts. This could suggest the next 8 days are the
days where all of the action starts.
I also noticed the way in which the titles get more
rigid around the edges as the days go by and by
the 20th day the title looks distorted.
At the end the 28 days later title in red , slowly
zooms in and they keep the same idea of cutting
between some action scenes as it zooms in. I
think this is a very effective technique because
draws you in and leaves the audience wanting to
know more about it.
Titles in the trailer
Director :Olivier Megaton
About
A young woman, after witnessing
her parents' murder as a child in
Bogota, grows up to be a stonecold assassin.
Genre
• Action
• Crime
• Drama
Colombiana
Femme Fatale seeking revenge.
The film trailer starts with the equilibrium calm
two officers getting lunch. Seconds into it the
disruption comes as Cataleya (Protagonist)
Crushes the car into the police car. This is very
interesting as the protagonists are usually trying
to be peaceful and resolve situations she does
the exact opposite as she's drunk and in a state.
This is shown by the iconography of the bottle
that drops out of the car when she opens the
door.
CRIME
Colombiana
(Characterization)
The characterization in this
goes from the Girls being a
typical party girl into this
serious stone cold killer. This
is very postmodern because
previous femme fatales used
to be cheeky and smart this
has just been remade in a
different context.
Here on this image on the left is the scene where she’s taken
in to prison custody for drink driving and smashing into a
police car. Her dressing sets the scene very well as we’re left
to think of her as a irresponsible teenage drunk. However as
she gets inside closer to her enemy she gets changed into a
black suit , this iconography is also seen in cat woman , it
showed a sense of power as if she’s on a mission.
Crime
Colombiana
(Costume & props )
Low angle blurred shot to show her
drunken state. This really helps get the
point across.
Looking at her from this angle allows the
audience to connect with the character
through her emotional state.
Camera Shots
Mid Close-up of Cataleya and her dad.
This shot tells a story, instead of her
dad standing up telling her what he
has to say he gets down to the same
eye level showing a sense of mutual
power in the shot. This shows the
young girl is just as important as her
dad despite the age difference.
Placing you subject directly in the middle
of the shot gives the subject a sense of
power and rises the levels of seriousness.
There are a lot of diegetic sound used, for instance the very
first scene you hear the police radio in the background ,
then you hear the car sound rapidly getting louder until she
crushes into the police car. You also hear the bottle
dropping from her car and they enhanced her speech as a
voice over when she shouts “No Sir !” some of her laugh
where edited in to make her seem a bit sinister. There is
other non diegetic sounds added like the flat line heart
monitor sound. This conveys the sense of trouble or death
which is what this Femme Fatale is seeking.
Voice overs are used a lot in this trailer, they provide some
substance to the trailer and the one line her dad said to her
“never forget where you came from” is repeated quite a lot in
this trailer. The is also the mission impossible type of up beat
music switching into the theatrical orchestra piece of music
played at the end building up the suspense and action.
Sound
Lennie James- plays
Special Agent James
Ross
False Hero
Crime
Colombiana
(Charachters)
Zoe Saldana - plays
Cataleya
Protagonist
Cliff Curtis-plays Emilio
Restrepo
The Uncle/helper
Jordi Mollà – plays ‘Marco’
Antagonist
Directors :
Frank Miller
Robert Rodriguez
Quentin Tarantino (special
guest director)
Genre:
• Crime
• Thriller
• Action
About: A film that explores the dark and
miserable town, Basin City, and tells the story
of three different people, all caught up in
violent corruption.
Crime
Sin City
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401792/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Femme
Fatales
Action
Martial arts
Crime
Thriller
Hybrid Genre
Romance
Low angle shots
These shot show a sense of power and a intimidation
on the left you have Bruce Willis
Wearing a black coat holding a gun showing that he is
about to engage in a gun fight and on the right you
have the girl jumping with two samurai swords ready
to kill, these shots are important when establishing the
power within characters.
Close up’s
Birds eye view
This shot is the opposite to
the one above it show
vulnerability and less power
the fact that the character
is laying curled up in a bowl
and caged up conveys the
sense of helplessness.
Close ups can be used in several
ways the common reason is to show
emotion, in this shot this close up is
telling you about this character's
personality.
Camera Shots/Angles
The used a variety of well
known actors in one film.
This makes it appeal to
the audience a lot more
another film that can
relate to it is the
Expendables. In this they
carefully chose the best
action/martial arts film
stars and made one film.
The narrative structure of
this makes it harder for
you to follow who is who
and what is going on
which is a postmodern
idea of mixing around the
narrative conventions.
Enticing the audience
Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and
Clive Owen play the three main
characters in Sin City. The film
takes you through each of these
characters point of view. These
screen shots are taken from the film
trailer and as you can see they have
adapted film noir conventions and
made their characters freeze frame
in an anime setting. This is similar
to Tarantino’s in kill Bill , Django
etc. The fonts used in this Trailer
make is seem like a comic which is
basically what the film is based on.
Through out the film the producers
have shown comic iconographies
from the characterization to the
production of it. They have created
a surreal world and you almost
wonder if it’s a film of a kids comic
documentary. This is done with the
voice overs of the characters as
they take you through their journey.
Sin City (Characters)
The knife and the fact that this
character is wearing this
costume which has been colour
selected out of the black and
white shows that there is
something significant about this
character. It shows that this
character is an antagonist.
However in Sin City the
protagonists are also bad
themselves therefore the
directors really played around
the fact that the protagonists
sometimes act as antagonists. In
this image at the bottom they
used iconography to play around
this idea making the audience
think deeper as this antagonist
looks like Harry Potter and
through out the film this
character looks as if he’s happy
even when he gets killed he is
still smiling.
Sin City
Setting/ iconography/ costume