Analysis of Trailer of Saw 5

The trailer initially begins with fast past pace jump cut shots of scenes of violence from the film. This automatically grabs the audience’s attention, and excites them. They can instantly tell that the film is with in the genre of horror due to the violent scenes shown. There is the narration of a distinctive voice, that is the main man who commits these murders. Previous viewers would automatically recognise this voice, as he has been the same through out the series of films, therefore they are appealing to an existing target audience. By starting the trailer fast pace they have already captured the audience’s attention. This automatically skips the a caption saying ‘This Halloween’, after a shocking series of clips this then surprises the audience and instantly informs them of the release date, this means that they will be more likely to remember the dates at they will have a lasting impact. After that again you hear screams of one of the victims the word saw flashes with the Roman numeral 5. The next scene is an image of a man with a box on his head, the audience will be confused about the purpose of this and the relevance of this to the film. By confusing the audience they are ensuring that the are thinking about their film and therefore are more likely to want to go see it.

They have used high angled shots to show how inferior his captures are. There is low key lighting, which makes it appear sinister and scary. The close up allows us to see the emotion on the characters face, but also the setting in which he is. We can see he is in pain, again relating to the genre of the film. The closing shot shows the release date and website. By providing a website they are appealing to a technologically aware audiences. Once visiting the website I discovered that they have games and use colloquial language to describe some of their applications, this therefore reflects that they are appealing to a young target audience. The voice over begins by saying ‘hello, I am the man you call jigsaw’- this is again appealing to their existing audience as people who have watched the other films will recognise this name and know what they are talking about.

They have slowly zoomed in from a long shot to a close up. By doing this it has enabled the audience to see the setting of this scene and show the vast emptiness around the character. It also allows the audience to see the close up of his facial expressions and emotions, which is key as he begins to panic whilst inside the box.

Webpage anaylsis for Saw 5

http://www.saw5.com/agegate.html

The design of this webpage is very simplistic, this shows that they are not trying to attract new audiences through this webpage, but to appeal and cater for their existing audience. The white is an unusual colour to be used for the background image for a horror film. Usually the colour theme is quite dark. The whiteness portrays a clinical theme, suiting the genre of the film as the main character and character that sets the murders up is an ex surgeon who carries out clinically orientated procedures.

The greyness of the characters skin gives the audience the impression of death, relating the image back to the genre of the film. The use of the mask implies the story line features deception. The text on the webpage fits around the face of the character, as it does not go over his face it shows the audience that he is of importance.

The use of the word ‘mash up’ reflects that their target audience is young people due to the use of colloquial language. There is minimal information on the screen, and the picture is placed off centre. The image would have been more impacting if he was looking straight down the lens towards the audience, but this leads us to believe that they didn’t do this for a specific reason. The fact the character is facing away from the camera again reinforces the feeling of something being hidden.

They are appealing to both American and British audiences by including an British version of the website. By including interactive applications on their webpage, they are again appealing to a younger teenage audience or young adults as these are the ages in which people are most interested in interactive gaming applications.

The fact that this man is on screen shows the audience he is a key character in the film. The use of a mask adds a weird feel and may slightly scare the audience already. This is appropriate, as the genre of Saw is a horror film. Although the main feature of the film is the extreme gore used, there is none shown on this page, this is due to the fact it has been made to suit all audiences. There is a section where 18’s and over’s can enter to see the uncut webpage. To ensure only 18’s enter the restricted zone there is an information box that is required to be filled in. The information given has to be correct else the viewer cannot enter.

Here is a link to the Saw 5 website that I analysed as part of my research. To create this hyperlink I found the website, I then copied the URL by highlighting it and right clicking on the selection and then selecting copy. I then came back to the blog website and pasted my selection where I wanted my hyperlink to be. I then selected the URL address and clicked on the icon 'link' (6th icon in from the left), I then pasted the link into the URL block and pressed 'ok'.

Conventions of genre in trailers

For my presentation I decided to focus on the genre Horror. We began by deciding what we felt where the conventions of trailers that belonged to the genre horror and decided the trailers in which we would analyse which were 'The Orphan', and 'The Last House On the Left'. We created a list of conventions that we felt horror trailers had and then we would then compare our 2 trailers to and discuss the extent to which these trailers fitted these conventions. We watched each trailer, and then took still from each trailer. We analysed mise en scene, use of editing and the use of sound for each still (3 for each trailer). We focused on target audience at the end we evaluated the effectiveness of the trailer and how it appeals to their audience, we compared each trailer to the list of conventions that we assigned to horror and discussed how well it fulfilled these conventions.
Here are my notes from my presentation:

Slide 2: Low Lighting – to create a dark atmosphere, with restricted lighting brings more fear as you can’t see what’s happening as it makes you more vulnerable. Captions- used to give reviews or information. There is normally good characters versus bad characters and this is normally reflected through the choice of hair colour or the colouring and or style of their clothes. There is often a use of close ups to show emotion and terror on characters faces. There is often fast pace music and editing to add suspense and fear to the audience whilst they watch the trailer. This is suited for the target audience as it is directly linked to the genre of the film. Horror films often use jump cuts to frighten viewers, therefore if used in trailers it portrays the genre of the film well. Jump cuts are often used again to add suspense and make the audience jump, the music is often sinister and this therefore adds tension and sets the scene of the genre.

Slide 4: The centre image suggests that the woman in central to the film. The mid shot allows you to see the panic and desperation on her face and still see the window to which she is confined to. The brick wall shows that it is extremely hard to escape, yet the torture is that she can see how to escape. It also leaves the audience questioning is she looking and wanting to get in or is she trying to get out.

Slide 5: The woman on the left is standing up and has a higher position than the woman on the right which suggests she has more authority. This is also backed up by the woman's action of dragging the other woman. The close up allows you to see the distraught expression on the woman's face and the blood, which is closely associated with pain. The background of a forest shows that the setting is secluded, which makes the viewer anticipate more problems. The setting appears eerie and scary.

Slide 6: This shot is an aerial shot, which allows the viewer to see the vast amount of water surrounding her. The aerial shot also makes the girl seem inferior and small in comparison to the water. The position that she is lying in makes the viewer think that she is dead. The low lighting also connotes a dark action or emotion. The washed out colour also emphasises form and makes it appear sinister.

Slide 7: This film trailer fits the conventions of horror as a lot of the shots are filmed with low key lighting. Often the shots are shot with a tint of blue colour to them, almost in black and white, enhancing the sinister aspect of the film and focusing on form. Close ups have shown. Initially the film starts off very simple, showing an ordinary family and then it gradually becomes more frightening, as the trailer progresses it gradually introduces eerie music as well as the audience begin to realise the impact of the storyline

Slide 9: Use of caption. They have used a typewriter font, this often associated with horror films due to its relation to older texts and possibly Gothic styles of writing.

Slide 10: The use of an over the shoulder style shot allows the audience to see the connection between the two characters. The girl is wearing a white dress this makes her stand out from the dark setting, the white connotes angelic qualities and innocence, but the low angles shot and her facial expression contradicts this as this makes her ghost appear to be powerful. Other possibilities is that the looming figure could be a ghost. The gown also appears to be quite dated possibly making it appear more like.

Slide 11: Unusually High angles shot makes her appear inferior or a victim, again there is a use of a blue tinge to make it appear alien like and strange. This scene is of a girl acting violently in the toilet to herself, this shocks the audience as she is young, we can tell this by her school uniform. The confined space looks small, they have reflected this by using a high angled shot, it also shows her movement well as well. Again there is a use of no colour making the audience focus on movement and form.

Slide 12: The trailer again speeds up through out the trailer, and the jump cuts become more frequent. There is the use of symbols crashing and a drum bang, which again adds suspense and makes the audience jump. It also enhances the key points of the trailer, ensuring that the audience picks up on them. There again is the use of washed out colours to ensure audience is focusing on form rather and movement rather than the colour, it also gives the trailer and alien or strange quality to it.

Individual groups were asked to feed back their research to the class so that we could share what we have learnt about our specific genres. The information I have learnt through this experience will help me ensure that I ensure that my trailer fits the conventions of what people expect and therefore ensuring that I capture my target audience’s attention and fulfil their needs.

During our research of the genre of horror in movie trailers, we used two trailers, 'The Orphan' and 'The Last House On The Left' to demonstrate the conventions found in the genre.

Trailers are a brilliant form of advertising for the movie and are often the most effective method of communicating to the target audience. It is also often replayed and only lasts for a short while, which is more likely to keep the image in your brain.

The trailers used many similar techniques such as cuts, fades, music, voice-overs, text and low lighting, which helped to portray the genre of horror and give an overview of the plot.

The trailer should entice the target audience and give them enough information so that they know the plot, but yet don't give show any spoilers otherwise the audience will know the whole plot and will not need to see it. Some trailers will also use celebrities names and directors names and previous work to entice an audience that those names might already have. This also gives the film more credibility, as it is attached to a reputation.

The purpose of a Trailer

A trailer is an advertisement for an up and coming film that will be shown in the cinemas in the near future. They are often played in the cinema, so the audience is watching the trailer on the screen in which the film will eventually be played. Alternatively they can be shown on the TV and are either watched at homes or in public places with access to TV/ TV advertisements, or people can view them on the Internet. Initially trailers where played at the end of a film, this is where the name of them derived from. Due to viewers walking out at the end of the film and not actually watching the trailers, companies then began to play trailers before the film begins, to capture the audience’s attention.

A trailer is part of the campaign in which the film distributor creates. The campaign is made up of print and media elements, print including posters, leaflets, banners etc. and media elements including games, trailers, advertisements on WebPages etc. As the purpose of the film is to attract the audience, normally the funniest/ exciting/ noteworthy parts of the film are used and this is why normally the scenes of a trailer don’t fit chronologically together. The maximum length of a trailer is 2 and a half minutes (this is the time limit theatres have set) therefore the trailer has to capture the audiences attention and sell them the film in this time. Each film distributor or studio is allowed to exceed this limit once a year if they feel that the film is worthy of it.

For American companies they often create the trailer before they create the film, this is why you often see scenes and actors in the trailers that don’t occur in the actual film. This is different to the way in which British and European countries make their campaign as normally they begin the campaign after they have made the film and therefore use actual shots from the film in the trailer. Some trailers also use 'Special Footage' which is footage that is made purely for advertising and does not actually feature in the film.

Production logos often feature at the beginning of the trailer. These include the distributors and the production companies logo.

Teaser trailers are similar to trailers, but they do have some differences. The most obvious difference is the length, teaser trailers are shorter than trailers. They also include less footage and information about the film itself, or the footage is shot specifically for the preview. Teasers sometimes are created before the initial filming begins. Trailers mostly feature clips from the film itself, it usually gives a outline to what the film is about, and are often created at the end of filming when editing is about to be completed. Teasers are released 4-12 months prior to the film being released, but on average they are released between 8-12 months prior to the film being released. Trailers are generally released generally 2 months prior to the film release date.