Trailer Analysis - War of The Worlds

June 24, 2016 Unknown 0 Comments

After the initial production company shot, we are shown a close up shot of Tom Cruise talking towards the camera, followed by a high angle shot of a little girl. The use of a high angle shot on the little girl indicates that she’s vulnerable and coupled with the low key lighting; it makes the two characters look frightened. This link in with the thriller genre as the trailer starts of my making the audience feel worried for these characters. After another shot of a production company, DreamWorks productions, we are shown a long shot of many people looking off into the distance. This makes the audience wonder that is drawing the attention of all of these people then a sudden flash appears – showing the release date of the film. The release date is placed near the start of the tease trailer because it allows the audience to consider going to see the film as the watch the trailer.

Next we are shown a series of many different shots of hundreds of people crowded in the roads. Fast pace editing is used to show a sense of action. Through mise-en-scène, we can determine that some of the characters are part of the military, indicating to an action related film. The military also connote danger and violence suggesting to the audience that something awful and tragic had happened or will happen. In one of the shots we also see Tom Cruises’ character holding the little girl as he pushes through the dense crowd.

After the pace editing shots, the editing becomes slower and more dramatic – adding to the thriller genre. The non-diegetic music in the background turns to a dramatic choir sound, and then we are shown a medium shot of a boat cursing in the night waters then we are shown a medium shot of the little girl crying. Through mise-en-scène, the lighting in the scene uses a low key lighting which adds to the suspense of the trailer because the audience expect to see a dramatic scene or an action shot. After the shot of the boat and the girl, the trailer then faced to black which adds mystery as these are the connotation of the colour black.

After the shot of the cursing boat, we’re suddenly are shown a close up shot of the girl, while someone shouts her name, then a sudden shot of the boat sinking. The sudden use of fast pace editing here is effective because it catches the audience off guard as previously the editing was slow then a spontaneous sequence of fast paced shots keeps the audience thrilled. In a few of the shots, we see the tall slender legs of the creatures/robots. By not allowing the audience to see the full body of the creature, the audience is left wondering about what this thing is that’s causing havoc. The weird unknown creature in the trailer may also indicate that the film is a science-fiction (Si-Fi) film. This could make the audience more likely to go see the film as they want to know what it is and what happens. During the sequences of pace editing shots, we are shown destruction, explosions, action and people shouting. From these action shots, we can also see that this film contains a lot of adventure as the shots include locations from urban areas, forest, crowded cities and some areas near the oceans.

Near the end we see a credit shot, “A Steven Spielberg Film” and “Tom Cruise”. This is a unique selling point (USP) for the film because if a film is created by a famous well known director, it will entice more people to go and see the film. Generally people will go to see a film from a well-respected director because they know and expect it to be amazing. This is also true for actors, if a film contains several popular actors, people will want to see the film as a good actor or director usually indicates a great film.

After the credit shot we are shown a quick high angle shot and then a long close up shot of Tom Cruise. From his facial expression we can see the fear in his eyes indicating there’s something scary and/or dangerous close to him. We can hear the ambient sound of an alien like creature rumbling in the background. The deep rumble sound effect gives the audience the impression that the creature is huge and most likely dangerous. We are very quickly shown a low angle shot of a weird creature dwarfing the child. The audience is not able to see the creature very well because it is behind some semi-transparent blinds. Know that there is this huge creature there and not being able to clearly make it out in detail creates suspense because we, as the audience, want to know more about this alien creature and what it looks like. This curiosity also makes people want to see the film because they want to know what happens next and what this creature. Throughout this trailer, the creature is never shown fully - the audience only sees small parts of the alien. This may have been enough to leave the audience curious but not enough was shown for the viewers to exactly deduce the creature.

The very last shots included the film title ‘War of the Worlds’, several credit shots and ending with the release date of the film. As the title appears we hear a loud bang sound effect giving the title shot more importance. As we see other text appear, we can hear an eerie wind sound effect which creates suspense and links to the thriller and science-fiction genre. All the text used in the trailer uses the same font and design. They all use a silver metallic serif font on a dark black/blue background. This branding is effective because if anyone sees the metallic text on a dark background they will be able to recognise it as belong related to the film.