War of the worlds was released in 2005, starring Tom Cruise. The film is a sci-fi thriller centering around the concept of robotic tri-pod like aliens invading the world. the teaser trailer war a highly successful way to engage a wide audience to go and watch the film. The opening of the trailer begins with to cruise in a close up shot talking to the audience. He states diegetically "keep your eyes on me". This dialogue immediately suggests that thee i a sense of danger that is about to erupt. The use of the close up shot is an effective way to engage the audience. It almost cements the idea that the audience is having a close and interpersonal conversion between himself and the audience. The director ( Steven Spielberg) successfully did this in order to create a sense of reliance and dependence on Tom Cruise, making himself be portrayed as a powerful and authoritative individual in the film. We then see a high angle shot of a girl looking upwards towards Tom cruise. This successfully highlights the vulnerability and innocence portrayed by the girl, as it suggests that she is depending on Tom Cruise- or what seems to be her dad. Regarding the MES, she is wearing a pink,fluffy coat and a rucksack. This particular appearance makes her appear to be vulnerable and innocent. The colour pink is commonly associated with girls, and girls are mentally and physically, stereo typically seen as the weaker sex, and the girls representation through MES can be adhered to this stereotype.In addition to this, the girl does not use any dialogue, and therefore remains silent. This would also suggest to the audience that she is scared and frighted about the unknown, and what her dad is telling her to not look at. It is clear that from the first 7 seconds that the audience are engaged and captivated into the film, through the close up shots, dialogue and Mes en scene. The soundtrack in the background is an eery, church like music, which creates an ominous atmosphere amongst the trailer. The music almost subverts to the genre of the thriller, as a thriller film you would expect to have fast paced and a dramatic soundtrack. However, the slow paced music almost captivates the audience as the soundtrack is different to what should be expected. Next, subtitles of "June 29th" are put onto the screen, through a slashed-like transition. The transition creates a sinister and dangerous effect, which invites the audience into the genre of the film. The fact that the date is shown near the beginning of the trailer, automatically makes the audience want to g and see the film. It gives them an indicator of when the film is getting released, so that they can make time to go and see it. We are then presented with a low angle shot of a building with firefighters spraying water at a burning building. There is also many people there, stressing and shouting in despair, suggesting that the are in a panic to escape and be liberated from whatever is causing their town harm. Through a dissolve, it shows the antagonist through a close up shot looking around at his town. The use of the close up shot is effective in showing his facial expressions, in which he appears shocked and scared. This makes the audience feel on edge, and be captivated into that character. Thus, this triggers prevalence within the trailer, as the audience sympathize with him, which will result in them wanting to see the film, to see what happens to the antagonist in the ending.
We are then presented with a montage of fast paced flashes of close up shots of victims. Again, the close up shots are effective in showing the individuals facial expressions. Regarding editing, slow motion is used when the individuals turn around and look upward. This successfully makes the audience feel the tension and suspense within the trailer, as the audience and drawn in, as they would want to find out what is behind the individual and what the characters are looking at. The camera is placed at a low angle too, which suggests that the object/thing/person that the characters are looking at, are dominant,powerful and authoritative. Next, the music dramatically changes, to fast pace and thrilling music. The music corresponds with the footage presented on the trailer,where there are buildings being smashed and ships being capsized in the sea. This footage conforms to the thriller genre, as stereo typically, dramatic and explosive scenes are shown in thrillers to truly captivate the audience, War of the Worlds successfully does this, which keeps the audience on edge and involved in the trailer, which is ultimately what the trailer is initially created to do.
Towards the end of the trailer, we are presented with a medium shot of the girl turning around to look up behind her (much like at the beginning) . At this moment, the music stops. The silence of the soundtrack creates suspense and tension towards the audience which will make them more engaged into the trailer. The trailer does not show what the girl is looking at or why the scene went silent. Leaving the audience on a cliff hanger is an effective way to persuade the audience to go and watch the film, as they are left to find out what is causing the sheer terrifying look on the girls face, and the huge destruction that has happened to the village.
The font of "War of the Worlds" bursts onto the screen towards the end of the film. The background is black and the font is white. The colour black connotes negative aspects such as Death, mystery and evil, whereas the colour white connotes purity and goodness. This suggests that the colours and their meanings juxtapose each other, creating a strong contrast on the screen. The font is large which grips the audience into the name of the film, which will ultimately help them remember it more clearly. The idea of black and white or monochromatic can create the idea of good and evil which are aspects that can be witnessed in the film. This is a subtle way of bringing ideas and conclusions about the film without giving too much away. Having the right colour scheme and fonts in a trailer is just as important as the actual footage shown.
War of the Worlds has a unique selling point due to the director- Steven Spielberg. He has directed some of the worlds most famous movies of all time such as, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Indianna Jones, Transformers and many more. As soon as audiences find out that Spielberg has directed the film, they are more likely to go and watch the film due to his huge success with other films that he has created. However, War of the Worlds was released during 2005, when other major films such as Batman Begins,King Kong, Star wars and The Ring two were released. These huge and successful films made it harder for the film to be marketed and achieve higher box office hits, so having a successful director involved was highly important for the film to be a success. It is evident that the film was a success as it made a whopping $606,836,535 at the box office!
In conclusion, War of the Worlds was a successful trailer, and conforms to the conventions expected of a sci-fi thriller film. The careful use of the tempo of the music and the camera angles shown on screen help to successfully engage the audience into the action that is expected to be shown in the film. The trailer gives a useful taster into the film, without giving too much away which i feel makes the trailer highly effective and conventional.
No comments:
Post a Comment