TRAILER ANALYSIS
Insidious (2010) Official Trailer
Camera:
The first thing we see on screen is a full body, centre on shot of the main protagonist we also hear a voice coming from behind the camera as if we are seeing from someone's perspective. This first shot gives us an idea of an interview (client/service theme) which later comes into the film. We then see a rapid succession of lots of close up shots which instantly starts to give the viewer a feel of suspense. We then start to get to get many shots that are following the characters or even some that are from the character's POVs. This gives us a very tense mood as it blocks our view enough that we cant see whats around each corner, and the POV shots make you feel like you're in the action yourself. There is a mix smooth camera work and some shots that are more realistic to life. This could be because the smooth (crane/dolly) shots give the sequence a ghostly feel whereas the other shots add to the idea that we are in the shot, making us more sympathetic for the characters.
Editing:
At the start of the scene, we go from shot to shot at a fairly slowly. We then see a metronome be turned on and shots start to pass in time with the metronome. This is very interesting as it is a common effect used in trailers however using a metronome gives a very pulsated feel. At the end of the trailer the shots pass very quickly compared to the rest of the trailer. This could be because it gives a rushing feeling - with an emphasis on action which builds into the climax effectively.
Sound:
One of the main sounds in the trailer is the metronome that effectively breaks up the sound and gives a very rhythmic feel to everything that is happening. It also is effective when the sound is dropped as it leaves a space that was not there before and creates tension. There is also many whirring sounds throughout the trailer which acts as a white noise - to create a ghostly feel. We also get some lines of dialogue that hook the viewer like, 'are you ready' with no context.
Mis - en - Scene:
One of the most interesting props in this scene is the metronome - it gives a contrast to the modern style in the house. It also gives a stable feeling - e.g the editing in time. There is a lot of CGI used in this trailer towards the end to get desired looks of demons and poltergeists. There is also a filter used to dull the colours that gives it a darker feel.
The first thing we see on screen is a full body, centre on shot of the main protagonist we also hear a voice coming from behind the camera as if we are seeing from someone's perspective. This first shot gives us an idea of an interview (client/service theme) which later comes into the film. We then see a rapid succession of lots of close up shots which instantly starts to give the viewer a feel of suspense. We then start to get to get many shots that are following the characters or even some that are from the character's POVs. This gives us a very tense mood as it blocks our view enough that we cant see whats around each corner, and the POV shots make you feel like you're in the action yourself. There is a mix smooth camera work and some shots that are more realistic to life. This could be because the smooth (crane/dolly) shots give the sequence a ghostly feel whereas the other shots add to the idea that we are in the shot, making us more sympathetic for the characters.
Editing:
At the start of the scene, we go from shot to shot at a fairly slowly. We then see a metronome be turned on and shots start to pass in time with the metronome. This is very interesting as it is a common effect used in trailers however using a metronome gives a very pulsated feel. At the end of the trailer the shots pass very quickly compared to the rest of the trailer. This could be because it gives a rushing feeling - with an emphasis on action which builds into the climax effectively.
Sound:
One of the main sounds in the trailer is the metronome that effectively breaks up the sound and gives a very rhythmic feel to everything that is happening. It also is effective when the sound is dropped as it leaves a space that was not there before and creates tension. There is also many whirring sounds throughout the trailer which acts as a white noise - to create a ghostly feel. We also get some lines of dialogue that hook the viewer like, 'are you ready' with no context.
Mis - en - Scene:
One of the most interesting props in this scene is the metronome - it gives a contrast to the modern style in the house. It also gives a stable feeling - e.g the editing in time. There is a lot of CGI used in this trailer towards the end to get desired looks of demons and poltergeists. There is also a filter used to dull the colours that gives it a darker feel.
Diegetic Sound Examples
This scene is a good example of diegetic sound as there are many sound effects that the actors in the scene react to. For example, the doorbell at the start followed by the sound of the door unlocking. There is then the door squeaking and all of these sounds are diegetic as they are all things that the actor's characters can hear in the context of the sequence.
Non-Diegetic Sound Examples
This scene is a good example of non-diegetic sound as accidental music is used throughout. The music is used to build tension in the scene but is not part of the set, as in no one on screen can hear it - it is added in the edit for tension.
Contrapuntal Sound
The beginning of this scene is a good example of contrapuntal sound as the song playing is a complete contrast to Uma Therman's character's overdose on screen.
Parallel Sound Examples
This famous murder scene is a good example of parallel sound as the music goes along with what is happening on screen. The music stays calm and quiet in the opening on the scene and then builds to a huge climax when the murder takes place. This has become a very common effect in horror and thriller films - when the music is written specifically for a scene.
Nonsimultaneous Sound Examples
When a sound (like a phone message that plays, but is not diegetic as we do not have the source of the message) that is relevant to the plot is played over the top of the sequence to give us some context as to what is happening. (The sound is carrying the narrative). This scene from the Godfather shows the Don being told about a man who we then see on screen (in a different scene) while we still hear him being talked about. This is a smart way for the audience to understand who this man is without being directly told.
Synchronous Sound Examples
Matching sound and sound effects to the vision. (Sound effects are often dubbed on later) e.g. a car engine roaring into life, or a musician playing an instrument. This scene from the 2016 bio-pic of Miles Davis, Miles Ahead, is a good example of synchronous sound as it is likely that the entire orchestra was matched afterwards.
This final scene from Whiplash is also a good example of synchronous sound as the drum solo was dubbed by famous jazz drummer Peter Erskine afterwards. This scene in particular uses lots of close up shots of the main characters and drums as well as fast panning shots to keep the audiences focus on the mayhem of the drum solo and off of how the drums are really being played because the drums are clearly not being played live.
Asynchronous Sound Examples
When you expect to hear a certain sound but instead a -usually similar sound but - distinctly different sound is used instead e.g. A woman who is screaming may instead have a whistling train sound. This effect is used in editing as you can seam shots together more easily.
Post-synchronisation Dubbing (Dubbing) Example
Sound that is added in the editing process to create atmosphere. For example, Star Wars is produced heavily in this way - there are no natural spaceship sound, produced by models used, blasters that actually shoot - everything is added later.
Sound-Bridge Example
When sound from one clip is bridged over to another clip to create a smooth transition between shots. This scene uses this to give flow and more emotion to the speech that Rick is giving. The shot-reverse-shots along with the sound bridges also make us feel more involved with the scene as the POV gives us a better perspective.
The Godfather Motif
The opening theme of this scene, known as a motif for its regular use throughout the film, is played in a variety of ways depending on the desired feel of the film at the given moment. The first time we hear it, it is played by a solo trumpet. This reflects the next scene we see as we see a lonesome man on screen. As the motif is used throughout the film it is built upon and manipulated to accompany what we are seeing on screen.
Narrative Structure
Narratives, in short, have to be about change disturbance, disorder.
Todorov's Model of Narrative:
From these two levels Todorov determines five steps in the linear progression of the narrative:
Little Red Riding Hood Narrative Structure:
Equilibrium - Grandmother is ill, she's going to take her some food.
Disruption - Takes a short cut through the forest and bumps into the wolf.
Recognition - The wolf tries to eat Little Red Riding Hood.
Attempts to Restore - The Lumberjack tries to kill the wolf.
Reinstatement of Equilibrium - Grandmother is saved from the wolf (either in the cupboard or wolf's stomach)
Prison Break Narrative Structure:
Equilibrium - Lincoln is on death row, Michael is out of prison.
Disruption - Michael goes to prison and breaks Lincoln out.
Recognition - The Fox River 8 are on the run from the police.
Attempts to Restore - Michael and Lincoln attempt to find Scilla.
Reinstatement of Equilibrium - The Fox River 8 get pardons, Michael dies (?)
Todorov's Model of Narrative:
- A state of being which is either stable or unstable.
- A casual transformation from one state to another via a chain of event.
From these two levels Todorov determines five steps in the linear progression of the narrative:
- A state of equilibrium.
- A disruption of that equilibrium by some action.
- Recognition of the equilibrium.
- Attempts to restore the equilibrium.
- A reinstatement of the equilibrium.
Little Red Riding Hood Narrative Structure:
Equilibrium - Grandmother is ill, she's going to take her some food.
Disruption - Takes a short cut through the forest and bumps into the wolf.
Recognition - The wolf tries to eat Little Red Riding Hood.
Attempts to Restore - The Lumberjack tries to kill the wolf.
Reinstatement of Equilibrium - Grandmother is saved from the wolf (either in the cupboard or wolf's stomach)
Prison Break Narrative Structure:
Equilibrium - Lincoln is on death row, Michael is out of prison.
Disruption - Michael goes to prison and breaks Lincoln out.
Recognition - The Fox River 8 are on the run from the police.
Attempts to Restore - Michael and Lincoln attempt to find Scilla.
Reinstatement of Equilibrium - The Fox River 8 get pardons, Michael dies (?)
Propp's Narrative Theory
Propp's theory suggests that all narratives have 8 characters types that create the narrative. Those character types are:
Propp's theory suggests that all narratives have 8 characters types that create the narrative. Those character types are:
The villain — an evil character that creates struggles for the hero.
The dispatcher — The character that sends the hero on the quest.
The helper — a character that aids the hero.
The princess/prize - the character who the hero is awarded with, the acquirement character often marks the end of the story.
The donor — a character that prepares the hero or gives the hero something to help them on their quest.
The hero — the character who reacts to the dispatcher and donor characters, thwarts the villain, and gets the prize.
The false hero — a figure who takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to take the prize.
The Rewarder - the person who gives out the prize.
Shot Choice
What shot is chosen can make a massive difference to the emotion or situation suggested in a shot:
Super Close Up - May be used to focus heavily on emotion.
Close Up - Used for emotion and to focus on conversations between characters in a POV style.
Medium Shot - May be used to show a character in a location - or just a general shot.
Wide Shot - To focus on setting.
Long Shot - Used for setting and also special effects like time lapses. Or Establishing Shot.
Angles
Different angles are used depending on atmosphere or mood. A shot of a place from a low angle is generally used to make a place seem menacing. This is because it gives the illusion of looking up at something, like it is towering over us. A shot of a person from a high angle is usually to try a make the person look weak or exposed. The last shot of this final scene from Stephen King's 'The Mist' is a classic example of how a high angle shot can make someone look helpless. This final shot does this very effective as the camera angle gets higher as the character realises how helpless he really is.
This scene from Citizen Kane takes a seemingly normal conversation that could have been shot on a level angle or even a high angle, but the fact that it is shot at a low angle gives it a mood that gives the characters much more power and authority.
Shot-Reverse-Shot
The Shot-reverse-shot technique is where we see a shot of something followed by a different shot (usually from the POV of the first shot) followed by the first shot again. This can be used to show how a character feels about something, or to show what a character is trying to do. For example, if we see a shot of a character looking at someone followed by the person they are looking at, finished with a shot of disgust from the first person - we instantly know how this character feels about the person they are looking at. This use of Shot-Reverse-shot from Spider-Man is very interesting as it is used to show the spilt personality of the character in question, with the reverse shot being the alter ego.
Action Matching
This is when two shots go into each other using an action to give a feeling of flow. A very common example of this is when someone opens a door and then you cut to them opening the door from the over side. Here we see a match on action that is used to keep flow in the scene. We see a shot-reverse-shot of Nick Frost's character considering jumping the fence and then we see two shots from different angles of him running towards the fence - which gives the shot more depth, more continuity and a more seamless edit.
Graphical Matching
A visual element is carried over from one shot to the next.
Graphical matching is where a sequence will change from a shot to a shot that isn't necessarily in the same scene/ or doesn't come next in the sequence in terms of time, but a feeling of continuity is created due to something which is the same in both shots, like an action that happens and the end of shot 1 and start of shot 2 or an object that's in the same place in both shots, which is then editing together in such a way to make it feel seamless. This scene from Shawn of The Dead has a graphical match at about 1:05. This is very well edited and very effective to show time passing between two important shots in a very creative manner.
Graphical matching is where a sequence will change from a shot to a shot that isn't necessarily in the same scene/ or doesn't come next in the sequence in terms of time, but a feeling of continuity is created due to something which is the same in both shots, like an action that happens and the end of shot 1 and start of shot 2 or an object that's in the same place in both shots, which is then editing together in such a way to make it feel seamless. This scene from Shawn of The Dead has a graphical match at about 1:05. This is very well edited and very effective to show time passing between two important shots in a very creative manner.
180 Degree Rule
This is where a 180 degree line is drawn in between two characters in a shot. The camera can go anywhere on one side of the line but cannot every pass the line. This is so the same character always stays on the same side of the shot so that the edit is continuous. This scene from Homeland is a standard use of this rule and also shows how the amount of zoom use can change the amount of focus on each character.
This scene from Batman: The Dark Knight, shows an unconventional use of the 180 degree rule by outright breaking it - this use of the rule shows a couple of things: it firstly represents the madness of The Joker throughout the film and it also represents the sway in control throughout the interrogation.
Media Theories
The Smurfette Principle
This principle had its name first coined by New York Times journalist Katha Pollitt. It is a reference to the fact that there was only one female character in the Smurf universe. The idea of the principle is that there will only be one female cast member in a piece of media that is otherwise entirely made up of a male cast. This creates a male driven narrative and even the single female character will only live in reference to the male cast. One genre of media we can see many examples of this within, is the action genre inparticular Super Hero Films.
This principle had its name first coined by New York Times journalist Katha Pollitt. It is a reference to the fact that there was only one female character in the Smurf universe. The idea of the principle is that there will only be one female cast member in a piece of media that is otherwise entirely made up of a male cast. This creates a male driven narrative and even the single female character will only live in reference to the male cast. One genre of media we can see many examples of this within, is the action genre inparticular Super Hero Films.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a film set throughout the entire galaxy with four of the five main cast members not being human at all, so you would think that all gender tropes would be thrown out the window, considering that the production team can't even justify any sexism with any real world stereotypes. And yet, only one of these characters is female. We can also see that that one female character, Gamora, is also very sexualised; wearing tight leather clothes and in a sexual stance compared to the male characters in the image.
Here is another exmaple of The Smurfette principle: The Avengers Assemble. Once more we have a main cast of 7 with only 1 woman cast member. We see a trend start to emerge as in this film we again see Black Widow wearing provocative clothes just as Gamora did in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Arguments Against The Smurfette Principle
Although there is a clear trend in modern media as to why The Smurfette Principle is important to consider, I also think there are some flaws in the theory. For example, both Guardians of The Galaxy and The Avengers Assemble are both based on, and using the same characters as, comic books that were first released in the 60s when society in general was much more patriarchal. Although that in itself was a problem in media at the time, if modern media was to add more female characters to both of these films, that would be to change the original story which would likely upset many die hard fans (not necessarily because of more female characters but because of the change in general).
That brings me to my next point that perhaps the Smurfette principle doesn't just exist because of the film industry but because of the attitude of the general public as the film industry will make films whatever way we want them as they only really care about making money.
Another argument against the theory, is that many films that can be used as examples for the Principle wouldn't make sense with more female characters. For example, I was watching a video talking about The Smurfette Principle that was using the film Shawshank Redemption as an example. However, the film is set in a male prison in the 1940s when woman could even work in male prisons.
I believe that some films and even, in general, entire genre of films work much better if they don't have more female characters: war films, gangster films, films set in the wild west or any other style of film that is set in a patriarchal society.
Also, just as there is so many examples of films for the Smurfette Principle, there are just as many examples of films that do have a female lead cast: The Man in The High Castle, Homeland, even Prison Break (which is set in a male Prison), Blue is The Warmest Colour, The Help, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Brave, Tangled, Kill Bill - all films from different genres with different audiences.
The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel Test is a theory that was created in a cartoon called 'The Rule' by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, although she credits it to a friend - Liz Wallace.
The idea of the Bechdel Test is that many films in modern media do not feature two talking female characters that exist for any reason other than the male characters. Films from just the year 2016 that do not pass the test include:
- Deadpool
- The Accountant
- Batman V Superman
- Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders
- Batman: The Killing Joke
- Doctor Strange
- Eddie The Eagle
- Jason Bourne
- Jungle Book
- Kung Fu Panda 3
- Tarzan
- Now You See Me 2
- Sully
- Swiss Army Man
- Sing Street
The Male Gaze Theory
The Male Gaze Theory is the idea that media is presented through the eyes of a hetrosexual man, often presenting woman as objects meant for men's pleasure. The term, 'Male Gaze', was coined by feminist film critic, Laura Mulvey, in 1975. She said that the theory consists of three perspectives:
The Male Gaze Theory is the idea that media is presented through the eyes of a hetrosexual man, often presenting woman as objects meant for men's pleasure. The term, 'Male Gaze', was coined by feminist film critic, Laura Mulvey, in 1975. She said that the theory consists of three perspectives:
- The perspective of the camera operator/director/producer - these are people who know that a large percentage of their audience will be hetrosexual males and they are going to play to this.
- The perspective of the characters within the piece of media - in media, minorities are very poorly represented and as such a very large proportion of main characters are white male heterosexuals and, as such, it is a perspective we see a lot in media.
- The perspective of the audience - In modern media, audiences are very accustomed to the male gaze perspective and this type of media portrayal is expected.
This scene from Grown Ups, although clearly a parody of the male gaze theory, is a good example of the male gaze from all three perspectives. First we see the reaction of the male characters in the scene - who instantly sexualise the female character. Then we get the perspective of the cameraman/director as the slow motion air blowing on her. We also get the perspective of the audience with the appear of the female character who appears as a classic blond, sexualised American teenager/young adult. This all comes alongside a classic soundtrack about love.
We have a very similar scene here from Transformers. We see another young woman being sexualised whilst doing a masculine job. We first see the reaction of Shia Labeouf's character; which is one of almost amazement and then we have the camerawork that has a very high focus on Megan Fox's chest - alongside this is a soundtrack that sounds like it would be associated with something holy, as if they are representing Megan Fox's character as some kind of goddess. This suggests to me that one aspect of the male gaze is that the heterosexual male likes to see the 'sexy' woman doing usual masculine jobs.
Although the male gaze is very apparent throughout modern media, there is also many scenes that we could consider 'female gaze'. For example, this scene from Casino Royale which is clearly objectifying Daniel Craig's character. Although this scene was created to reflect the sexism of the male gaze, does female objectivity make male objectivity okay when feminists want both gender equality and the end to 'male gaze' portrayal of the media?