Twilight is an American romantic vampire film which is based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer. The basic plot-line sees the development of the relationship between the two characters Bella Swan, who is an ordinary human teenager and Edward Cullen, who is a vampire. The film focuses on Edward and his family’s efforts to save Bella from an evil coven of vampires. In the Twilight trailer it is revealed that the male protagonist is a vampire and that he and Bella both fall in love, from the moment he saves her from the almost accident involving the van in the car park. As the trailer progresses we see the couple run into trouble with nomadic vampires, where the main antagonist James wants to hunt Bella for sport, being so intrigued by Edward’s protectiveness over her. It is revealed that there is a final death struggle between Edward and James.
The trailer opens with an establishing shot of mountains, with a lake and clouds moving in the sky. The establishing shot is effective in setting the scene of the trailer. Although the initial setting is seen as ordinary, the audience, myself included can feel and see something different about the opening shot, and this can be emphasised through the sound used. The music used is eerie, orchestral music accompanied by a ghostly female choir voice; this then morphs into a futuristic and technological type of song, as the trailer fades into a black screen. Black connotes danger,wealth,power and mystery which are early emotions that are absorbed into the audience before much footage is actually shown on the screen. "November 21st" is then faded into the screen in a blue,futuristic typed font. The blue directly contrasts with the black background helping it stand out more. The date is placed into the trailer just 11 seconds in, which gives the audience a direct indication of when the film is going to be released, making them sub-consciously want to go and watch the film,as the date is then memorised in their brain. Next, we see a long shot of a school, and a young girl placing her bag on top of a truck-like car.The pavement is wet, suggesting that it had been raining at this location, which develops a pathetic fallacy of negativity. The camera then zooms into the girls face, so that the audience can see more in detail of what the girl looks like and what she is doing. We can see that she has headphones in, which suggests to the audience that she is a quiet individual, and blocks herself out from everyone else. Listening to music is a common thing to do for young,teenage girls, which makes her conform to her stereotype. We then see a long shot of a guy (Edward) staring at the girl (Bella) and then through a fade, we are presented with a close up shot of Edward. This editing is the same used when showing Bella- a long shot and then a close up shot. This camera work suggests a relationship between the two, without any dialogue or intimate scenes shown between the two.
Through fades between both of the characters, we are able to see what they are wearing. Bella is dressed in casual attire consisting of minimalistic clothing such as jeans, hooded jumpers, long sleeved tops, converse trainers, typical teenage dress. Her costume mixes elements of tom-boyish items with feminine details, for example she wears a brown duffle coat with a headband in her hair, a brown blouse with white embroidery around the neck and also wears fitted long sleeved tops of neutral tones. This indicates to audiences that she is a sweet, innocent and natured girl, who builds a tough yet feminine exterior. Bella is the type of girl who doesn’t like to be centre of attention; she doesn’t follow the crowd, but simply does her own thing. Edward on the other hand is dressed very differently to Bella. Being a vampire, his skin colour is naturally a lot lighter, which immediately sets the two characters apart.Edward is dressed in formal attire and appears to always be well presented and polished, somewhat resembling the appearance of a gentleman, unlike the typical teenagers in our society today. This assumption demonstrates a lot about the background of Edward’s character, having been changed into a vampire during an era (1918) in which men were accustomed to behave accordingly, treat women with the utmost respect as well as present themselves the best they could. It’s interesting to acknowledge that Edward appears to have carried these morals, values and personality traits from his old life into his new one. He portrays these characteristics and mannerisms in this modern age which causes him to stand out to the target audience, making his character appear classically unique and diverse.
We see Bella innocently walk towards her car, placing her backpack on the bonnet, to only turn around and experience the sight of a van swerving towards her. The camera pans at the same pace that the car is moving, making the audience feel part of the action. The car is moving fast, and if it were to hit Bella, it would have killed her, or been left with fatal injuries, especially at the positioning of her body to the car. Bella’s eyes are wide with disbelief and her mouth drops open in shock. The next scene shows Edward diving in between Bella and the van. He brings the car to a halt with one hand, as he crouches down holding her in his arms. We then see an over-the-shoulder close up shot of Edwards face. As he looks into Bella’s eyes, his expression is completely composed; the emotion communicated is one of sheer desire.
After this, "SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT" is placed onto the screen, which shows the audience that the film is authentic and genuine. The music then changes, from the ghostly female choir voice to a drum beat and electric guitar sound, a more modern and contemporary vibe is introduced into the music, indicating that the trailer is promoting a teen movie with a supernatural twist. As the trailer progresses, the orchestral theme is joined by a tribal beat, which reflects the concept of a predator hunting its prey, and in this case, a vampire hunting a human. We then see a long shot of Bella and Edward on a mountain together, which conjures up emotions of a romantic setting. Bella then states "You're impossibly fast and strong" suggesting that Bella is curious about Edward and intrigued by his diverse appearance and strong ways. Her curious develops in the trailer, when she states “You’ve got to give me some answers”, “I’ve considered radio-active spiders and kryptonite” and “I know what you are. You’re skin is pale white and ice cold. You don’t go out into the sunlight.” After various flashes of Edward jumping from cliff to cliff, and climbing up extremely long trees, it clear that Bella now understands what Edward is, ( A vampire) but doesn't seem to be afraid of him. The trailer continues with romantic close up shots between Bella and Edward, making the audience assume that there is a romantic love story in the film. Next we see a match-on-action which shows Bella and Edward by a lake-side area, the first shot is an extreme long shot, the second a slightly low-angle long shot as the characters filmed from behind. This type of edit and shot is used to show the vast unpolluted landscape, in which they can breathe and be free from their usual suffocating and suppressed surroundings; in this place they are open and free to be themselves.
Overall, i feel that twilight was a successful trailer in engaging the audience into the film. However, i feel that the director shouldn't have revealed what Edward is in the trailer, as it would leave the audience engaged and want to find out more by leaving the film on a cliff hanger.
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