MOVIE TRAILERS

As an introduction to this project we started off by watching a number of random film trailers and analysing what we felt worked well in them and what didn't. The three we looked at were Donnie darko, The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug, and The Heist. In this blog post I am going to share my opinions on each trailer according to the lighting and colour, sound, use of camera and the editing. 

Donnie Darko -

Ive never seen the film Donnie Darko so watching the trailer was a true first impression. Firstly I felt the colour and lighting was used extremely well to portray the genre of the film. The titles were written in a medium shade of blue with a glowing and flashing effect, representing a supernatural/sci-fi feel. Another way the trailer represents the genre well is the use of canted angles. The way the camera shots are taken at a canted angle makes it confusing for the audience, portraying the film as a possible psychological horror. I also found interesting the soundtrack used, and it was used for a purpose, to create tension, which was done very well and kept me on edge and engaged with the trailer.  There was one editing technique which really stood out for me and that was the way how one scene was actually sped up in the editing process. I found this interesting as once again it gave a supernatural feel that something was quite unusual with the character and his story.  

The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug-

For this trailer I feel that the most effective area was the use of light and colour. The trailer consisted of one warm coloured shot (inside the mountains using colours such a oranges, yellows and browns) which was then followed by a cold coloured shot (mountain establishing shot, with the use of blues, whites and greys). The use of the contrasting shots portrays the storyline itself to the audience. The warm colours represent the joy and happiness of Bilbo's adventure, however the cold colours are used to represent the danger that lies ahead of them. The use of camera angles was also effective in this trailer as it allows the audience to know who are of importance in the film and who are most likely to be victims, e.g low angle = character of power (looking up at them), high angle = character who is a victim (looking down on them). For editing I feel that the fading to black between many shots was very effective as it gave the trailer a very dramatic feel. 

The Heist-   

The trailer for The Heist consists of many sound effects, for example: gun shots, breaking glass and car wheel screeches. This worked effectively as it portrayed the genre of the film to the audience which I worked out is an action/crime. The lighting and colour was also interesting as it only consisted of cold colours (greys and blues), portraying the emotions and feelings and of the characters as cold and strict.