Trailer Analysis - Suicide Squad
The trailer begins with a pedestal shot moving
downwards inside a prison. Many guards are standing in rows with large weapons
connotes violence throughout the film and is also a genre indicator for an
action/adventure film. As the camera pedestals down, we can hear the
non-diegetic sound of the music in the background. When the music stops playing
for a few seconds, we hear diegetic sounds from within the film. The first
diegetic sound we hear is someone in a prison cell shouting “let me out of
here” as the guard closed the prison door hatch. From this medium shot the
guard, we can tell through mise-en-scène that she’s wearing a lot of protective
gear and is holding a gun in her hands. This shows us that the people in the
prison are very dangerous. The next shot used is a close up shot of Harley
Quinn sitting on her bed drinking from a small cup while reading a book. Then in the next shot we see a medium/long
shot of her in her open prison cell. From mise-en-scène we can tell she’s also
a prisoner due to her orange jumpsuit. Her hair is dyed a creamy white with
pink and blue highlights on either side. This could indicate that she may act
unusual compared to others because of her abnormal hair colour choices her
attitude. All other prisoners seem angry and wanting to get out whereas she is
very calm about being in prison. The shots of Harley Quinn use both diegetic
and non-diegetic sound - the music in the background plays while we also
faintly hear the screaming of the character at the start. Throughout we are
shown different many different shots of the dangerous prisoners and throughout,
we also hear the non-diegetic sound of the screaming man at the beginning. The
very last shot of this sequence shows us a close up of a CCTV feed of the
prisoner screaming into the camera.
From these opening shots, the audience may be able
to determine that the Suicide Squad is made up of these criminals but to make
sure the director, David Ayer, included a shot of a meeting that tells us that
they want to “assemble a task force of the most dangerous people on the
planet”. This task force includes the people at the starting sequence of the
trailer. The two male and female characters in this two shot seem like
extremely important people due to their clothing. Through mise-en-scène we can
deduce that the two characters are wearing formal clothing - the female is
wearing a smart blazer and the male is wearing a suit. On his suit, we can see
several badges suggesting he’s a high rank suggesting he could play an
important role in the film. The trailer opening uses a lot of low key lighting
to make the prison location seem more dangerous and scary because of the
connotations of the dark.
After the institution shots, we see a sequence of
shots of all the different characters in the ‘suicide squad’ being taken out of
their prison cells. This could raise questions/enigmas like ‘where are they coming
to be taken’, ‘After having been shown the sequence of shots of then being
removed from their cells, we can hear a non-diegetic voice over in the
background naming all the characters. For most of the characters, we are shown
a medium or a close up shot of their faces. This gives the audience a little
more information about the characters, and we also get to know more of the
characters and like who plays them. The audience will want to know which actors
are in the films because if the film contains good actors then it may make a
certain audience go see the film, even is it may not be their favourite genre.
During this sequence of shots, much colour scheme to this point a teal and
orange colour schemes. This reoccurring colour scheme is used in many other
films like Man of Steel, Transformers and The Dark Knight because these colours
indicate an action and adventure film. This indicates to the audience that
Suicide Squad is an action and adventure film.
As he’s naming all the characters the non-diegetic
background music is slow and quite calm at this point. This may be unusual for
an action film because we expect it to be fact but then, as soon as the man
starts talking, the music suddenly becomes loud and face paced with electric
guitars and drums. Between the man’s diegetic speech, we hear the non-diegetic
speech of the music. During this non-diegetic singing, we are shown quick
action shots like helicopters shooting and people shooting guns. And when it’s
the diegetic sound of the man speaking, we get a slightly less violent shot
such as a long shot of everyone. This quick back and forth between the
non-diegetic music and voice over of the man is very effective as it draws the
audience’s attention a lot better that if it was one long winded action shot.
At the end of this back and forth sequence of shots, we are brought back to
equilibrium where there is no background music. In this shot, we see an over
the shoulder shot of a person who is being interrogated by the Joker. The words
he says and the things he’s doing to the person makes the audience feel uneasy
and that is what the Joker is known for. During this point of equilibrium, the
audience may start to calm down, thinking the action shots are over but then
the non-diegetic music suddenly starts playing fast and loud. Medium and long
shots of people shooting guns, fast sports cars driving in the streets and lots
of explosions are shown. The use of fast pace editing and the many actions
shots tells the audience that the main genre of this film is action, and there
will be a lot of it in the film. Near the end of the trailer we are once again
brought back to equilibrium with the sound and then the sudden music plays. Throughout
this period, with all the action shots, the video has been edited to cut
between shots as we hear a beat in the music, or the movements of a character
have been synced up with the loud beat. This emphasises their actions, making
it seem like what they’re doing is more powerful and violent. For example, at
time 2mins and 2seconds, we see Will Smith’s character, Deadshot repeatedly
punches a punching bag. As his fist impacts the bag, we hear the loud
non-diegetic beat from the music.
During all the action shots, we are shown 3 words
separately - Worst, Heroes, Ever. This seems a bit ironic because their mission
is to save the world, and having the worst heroes to try saving it may seem
silly. The colours used for all the fonts and title in the trailer are very
similar, using bright/neon colours like pink, yellow, lime and light blue. This
helps create brand identity meaning that is someone were to see these similar
colours on some text, they will think of the Suicide Squad film. In the title
shot, we can see the names of all the main characters at the top. Names such as
Will Smith and Margot Robbie can be a unique selling point for this film
because they are well known actors that have a good reputation in being in
successful films. In the next shot after the title shot, we are shown the month
and year of when the film is being released. The release date is also big and
bold, like the Suicide Squad title, as the directors will want the audience to
know when the film is coming out. Underneath the release date, it says ‘See it
in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D’. This is also a big unique selling point for the film
as these usually make the film more immersive because of the 3D, making people
want to see it in IMAX 3D and RealD 3D.
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