Welcome to my Film Presentation Analysis

BY Emmanuella Hagan

Hello and my name is Emmanuella Hagan an A2 student from CTK St Mary’s. This is my presentation on Trailer analysis; the trailers that I will be analyzing will be the Pact and House at the end of the street which are both Horror Thriller, and Madagascar 3 which is Animation, Adventure and Comedy.

The first thing you see on the trailer

From the first shot for each movie except for the Pact the first shot is the audience certificate mentioning the age rating and where the preview is coming from. The beginning of the Pact the starting starts with the company logo (Eone) then going straight into the trailer. HATES after the audience certificate it transacts straight into the action without the show of the company or anything else then the company logo in reverse to match with the effect of the movie (R Media and FilmNation)And for Madagascar 3 after the audience certificate, it then shows the company of which it is made from (Dreamworks).

Purpose of a Trailer

• The purpose the trailer is to allow the audience to see the story of the movie coming out is about and to entice the audience to go and watch the film.

Certificate?The view of the certificate is a basic convention in most trailers that are shown from either America or other countries and Britain by their own film rating companies in their country. This is done to provide the audience with institutional information of who is able to watch the trailer and also this is provided by the BBFC to rate the trailer and set the age boundary of who is allowed and who is not allowed to watch the trailer.

Madagascar 3 rating

House at the End of the Street rating

Genre?The genre for the first trailer I will analyse is the Pact which is a Horror Thriller Mystery.The second is HATES the genre is Horror ThrillerAnd Madagascar 3 which is an Animation Adventure Comedy as my last, so I will be able to know the difference between the different convention they hold comparing it to the Horror genre trailers.

How do you know it is this genre?How I know the genre from just watching the trailer/ clip is by the codes and conventions that are visible. For comedy the music should be jumpy, dialogue should be used, the set and setting should be bright, and funny sections of the clip should be used, long cuts and introduction of the characters should be present and the situation or story that is evolved around it.

How..?For the Horror Thriller the sound is a 50/50 share of diegetic and non-diegetic sound, the music normally has a lot of tension presence in it and cliffy, quick flashes and black outs, balance between good and bad, dark setting and quick editing and cuts are all present in this genre.

IconographyThe iconography in terms of horror thriller there are dangerous weapons that are not to be used on people afflicted on them, there should a ghost or some sort of creature after characters, graveyards are also possible, an old house is common or on a road trip and getting stuck up there, there are many different locations overall. Torn dirty clothing and wet is also an icon. As for sound there should be thumps, dragging and sounds that usually go well with the scene making it more effective.

IconographyFor comedy action adventure there should be a bright locations, the sense of a journey, sounds that change up to enhance the scene, mostly this is 70:30 with diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound, there would be a sense of hate/evil and good, there would be chases, mistaken identity of characters and action.

Does the typography used in the trailer link to any

codes and conventions?

For the horror movies the typography of it links in with the code and convention because it has the characteristics, the dark, capital lettered, white, yellow lettered on a dark background and vice versa.

For the comedy movie the typography of it links in with the code and conventions because the text is bright, bubbly, in front of a bright screen, illustrative for the understanding of the audience. Looking at other trailers like Tangled and The Lorax they also confirm this convention as it blends in with their trailers and the theme of it.

Madagascar 3 >>

What part do SFX/Special effects play in the trailer in relation to establishing genre

and narrative?

For Horror

There are jumping cuts, fast movement from the characters, flashes, dark and light contrast the text layout and effects that should signify the genre of the movie.

For Comedy

The special effect are all throughout because it is CGI animation and is also hand drawn but only once. Unlike original cut drawings like Disney who draw out different sketches of every movement even though they also used SFX effects.

Typography

• How is text used to link together the narrative? Eg does the title font reflect the genre and/or narrative?

For the Pact The writing is white and transparent and has a ghosty feel to it, this reflect the narrative, the story of the movie about what is going to happen, House at the end of the Street writing is brown-white with the movement of some disfigured letter (crimpled) it giving the same reflection of the narration of the movie. They both also reflect the genre using CAPITAL letters to show the narration of the movie, in this it helps to convey the feeling mood and setting of the movie.

For Madagascar the writing reflect the bright and technological section of the movie, the GPS or tracking effect of the text make sit more fun and mysterious, this shows the narrative of the movie, it reflects it perfectly to relate to the trailer. Usually for the genre as a whole, the titles always reflect greatly the style, fun and emotion of the movie.

Discuss the way titles may be superimposed over images to

establish and lead the narrative

For HATES the titles are superimposed across a wall with drawings, deep hand prints, torn wallpapers in which the wood of the building is shown and also the trail of hands smudged across this helps lead the narrative in a way that it reflects the story and what the audience have already seen. For the Pact the titles superimposed across a mostly blacked out wall with only a small amount of light which shows an old and worn out wall which is partially cracked up.

• For Madagascar the titles are not superimposed over images but are over a background that fit or reflect the style and emotion of the movie

When do titles appear? Why?

For Madagascar 3 titles appear at the beginning and all the way throughout from the beginning to the end. As Madagascar is a known quantity, in the trailer it shows that the have been other movies about Madagascar before by saying “six years ago they disappear without a trace” it illustrates the story to those who have not seen or know Madagascar. The titles illustrate and help the audience understand what the movie is about too.

• For HATES the titles illustrate the story of what the movie will be about and how the main lead role will or has ended up in that situation and what the main character has to face however applying it to the audience this gives tension and makes the audience think.

• Web 2.0 has been also added to the trailer to allow the audience to be able use it to discuss the movie on Twitter.

For the Pact at the beginning the titles show who and what has happened to the character and who has been involved however after this the titles shown have got to do with the story but the reviews of famous newspapers and known commentators.