FILM TRAILERS

 Main Trailer:

Teaser Trailer:

THE BIRTH OF A NATION

• TRAILER HERE

  (CLICK)

• The Birth of a Nation is a biography, drama and history film.

• The trailer begins by showing two awards it has already won at Sundance film festival, immediately  portraying it as successful.

• The non diegetic dramatic, deep, classical piano music as well as the over lap of chains clashing one another quickly informs the audience that this film will not be humorous but serious and informative.

• Throughout the trailer the cameras continue to refer back to Nat Turner, suggesting that the film is about what he has witnessed and how he wants to change the future for him and his fellow slaves. This is extremely empowering  as we often see closeups of his face which shows sadness and fear throughout his story.

• Sound bridges are used throughout the trailer to add emotion and power of the words being spoken. When the white women says to young Nat Turner that someone of 'his kind wouldn't understand the books' and that he should just work hard for her instead, a soundbridge is then used to show Nat Turner in the present day working hard outdoors, connoting that the white, upperclass women's words have stayed with him for so many years, showing how long he has been a slave for and how he has no voice compared to them

• 'Based on a true story' is written while the font is enlarging. This makes the rest of the trailer so much more heartfelt and serious as the audience know this is a real story. By placing this at the start of the trailer, rather than the end, it adds importance and value to everything seen next.

• The soundbridge of Nat Turner talking to his fellow slaves is extremely important to the audience and shows what the slaves have to go through. While Turner tells them to be submit themselves to the masters who are good and considerate but also the ones who are harsh, a video is shown of him being bashed in the face by a gun and him having to accept it and not talk back, showing the harsh reality of their daily lives.

• Shot reverse shot is used often to show Nat's face as well as his master's emotion too. For example, when Nat Turner is smiling and playing with a white little boy, his master whips him. Shot reverse shot is used to show Nat Turner finally standing up for himself and catching the stick as his master tries to hit him with it.

  This is extremely effective as it shows the anger in the white upper class master's face and shows the determination within Turner.

• The raw next clip shows Turner up against a wall being whipped by white man

  
  

  with the sound bridge of "have you learnt your lesson boy" over the top. By only

  
  

  showing a close up of Turner's face during being whipped, we see the fear in his

  
  

  eyes as a tear drops and hear him loudly panting. The diegetic sound of panting

  
  

  here, makes the audience emphasise for Turner as it is such a raw moment.

02.

OVERVIEW

• Half way through the trailer, the non diegetic music changes from being deep and dark (piano) to then turning to a higher pitch and extremely empowering piano piece. It changes to the well known song called Rise Up which could suggest the turning point within Nat Turner's mind, where he now wants to 'rise up' and fight for his rights and everyone else's. The change in song is extremely important in the song as it connotes his change in attitude and that he no longer wants to sit around and do what he is told by his masters.

• Above this song, a voice over of Turner saying "God spoke to me... to rise good against evil" while there is a slow zoom of Turner looking up at the sky suggesting he is looking up at God. This clip shows the moment his attitude changed, as he heard a message from God and wants to make a change. This is extremely uplifting to watch and makes the audience feel extremely emotional

• While Turner is telling his fellow's about his plan, a close up for his face shows him with a smile thinking about their future. This shows how optimistic he is and how determined he is for there to be change, the audience have always been on his side but are now especially excited to see him want to fight for what he deserves.

• Towards the end of the trailer we see the black slave trade community come together and fight against the injustice they have gone through.

• A montage of short clips show the white upperclass community hurting, beating or hitting the slaves followed by Nat Turner's partner lying in bed wiping Nat's tears off his face while she says "you fought for us all". This heartfelt moment is highlighted the the use of the slow zoom into Nat's face showing the tears on his face.

• Extreme close up is used to show a little boy's

  
  

  face (who is a slave) right before it shows the

  
  

  weapons the black community are about to use.

  
  

  This motivated edit shows that even the young

  
  

  children have to go through such awdul experiences 

  
  

  like using a gun at such a young age to fight for

  
  

  equality.

  
  

• Shot reverse shot shows the black community and the white community facing each other as they are about to start a dangerous fight between them.

• Once they start running towards each other, the clip of Nat Turner running was edited to be in slow motion to show the anger in his face and how he is the leader of his pact during the fight.

• The trailer ends with the slow motion running, leaving the audience wanting to

  
  

  know what happened next, making them watch the film. 

AMERICAN SNIPER

• TRAILER HERE (CLICK)

• American Sniper is an action, biography, drama and war film

• The trailer

  begins by using only diegetic sound, with no extra sound added in. 

• A sound bridge starts the trailer off. While displaying the studio and companies used, we here the sound of rifles getting ready to trigger and the sound of someone clearly getting ready to use a gun. This immediately tells the audience what the film will be about and is a motivated technique to alert the audience

  on what they are going to see next. 

• A pan shot tilting upwards is used to show the gun

  
  

  being used to

  then showing who is using it. By having

  
  

  t

  his tilt upwards shot to be

  an extreme closeup helps

  
  

  the audience see the determination in

  Chris Kyle's

  
  

  eyes to make sure he successfully aims at the right target.

• By having no non-diegetic sound added makes the start of the trailer extremely effective and emotive as it makes the audience feel as if they are there and gives a sense of realism and authenticity rather than just a fast pace action war film. This makes it feel different to other films of a similar genre and makes it seem more serious and raw.

• A point of view shot is extremely well done in the trailer. When we see a short clip of Chris Kyle looking through the aimer of his gun, a motivated edit is then used to show what he is seeing through it. Special edits are then used to add the what he sees through the rifle scope like the focal planes. By adding this edit in it shows that Kyle's gun is pointing directly at the centre of the man, showing he may be a suspected target.  

• A similar edit is used to show that Kyle has seen a women and

  
  

  child through his rifle scope. Here, non diegetic sound of a loud

  
  

  heartbeat is added over the top, connoting that Kyle knows he may

  
  

  have to shoot them, but he does not want to because one is just a

  
  

  young boy and the other is presumably  the mother. The added

  
  

  heartbeat adds tension, making the audience wonder what he will

  
  

  do next.

• While Kyle is watching them carefully with the dramatic heart beat sound as well as now a intense soundtrack in the background, we as the audience see the flashbacks Kylie is having. The flashbacks include his wedding, his wife giving birth and him playing with his daughter. By placing these flashbacks between him watching the mother and son, it shows that he does not want to shoot them if they are innocent as he himself has a wife and child so feels immense pressure to not mess up.

• The motivated edits of the flashbacks shows that his mind is being flooded with thoughts and gives the audience an insight of his life showing he has a family too

• We hear Kyle say through his walkie talkie that she is carrying a grenade and passing it to the little boy while his eyes are not moving from the target and we can see from the closeup that he is focused on watching them

• When somone on the other end of the walkie talkie says it is Kyle's call, we hear him take a huge deep breath as his partner next to him says "they fire you if you're wrong. This shows what pressure Kyle is under as he doesn't want to kill a women and a child but equally if he doesn't, him and the army's lives may be at risk

• The music and heart beat now gets louder and louder, faster and faster, connoting that Kyle's heart is racing and that he feels a huge amount of stress and pressure to make the right choice.

• A shot shows the young boy running with the grenade in his hand, followed by a motivated edit of Kyle's daughter having fun. This juxtaposition between children creates emotion for the audience as the daughter lives a happy, fun life while the boy is in danger, making us sympathise to him.The two kids are similar ages

  
  

  connoting that the decision Kyle makes will stay with him for

  
  

  the rest of his life as he doesnt want to kill a young child

  
  

  because he himself has one.

• An extreme closeup of a finger slowly pressing down on the

  
  

  trigger is shown with shot reverse shot going back to Kyle's

  
  

  face where we can see how nervous and afraid he is.

  
  

• A black screen is then shown followed by the movie name 'American Sniper' being shown next.

• By ending the trailer with a cliff hanger, it makes the audience want to watch the film to see what decision Kyle made and if he ended up pulling the trigger on the little boy or not. 

  
  

• Mise-en-scene is used to show the genre of the film

  
  

  clearly. Having the men dress in military clothing.

  This

  
  

  is also a stereotype as it is just men being shown,

  
  

  suggesting it is a job that men should be doing.

GRAVITY

GRAVITY

• TRAILER HERE (CLICK)

• Gravity is a drama, sci-fi and thriller film

  
  

• The trailer begins by stating some facts about space in an inter title, immediately implying to viewers that the film will be in the genre of sci-fi

• When stating the facts, it is completely silent and

  
  

  the text is written on a black screen. This goes

  
  

  hand in hand and compliments the facts given.

  
  

  'No sound', 'No air pressure'. The deafening silence

  
  

  here compliments the fact that there is no sound

  
  

  in space and the use of having a black screen and

  
  

  no sound almost makes you believe that what you

  
  

  read is happening right now, almost making it harder

  
  

  to catch a breath, which is extremely clever

• It then cuts from silence to extremely loud noise of one of the astronauts yelling and screaming which immediately  grabs the audiences attention as it is such a contrast from the silence we just heard

• There is a voice over used of a man saying "explorers have been hit, explorers have been hit". This instantly suggests to the viewers that the astronaut that is being thrown around space is in a lot of danger, drawing the audience in and keeping them engaged

• An orbit shot is used when showing the astronaut, the camera is spinning around her while she herself is spinning too, adding to the chaos and showing how much trouble she really is in. Buy the camera spinning very quickly it intensifies what we see and makes us sympathise for Ryan Stone (played by Sandra Bullock) a lot more

• A sound bridge voice over is used to make the audience aware that Stone is no longer seen by others she works with and that she is lost. By telling us this through speech rather than visuals to start with, when we do see her next it excentuates what we heard and  makes us sympahtise for her as she is missing. By having this shot as a mid shot, it allows us to see she is floating around in pitch  black, occasionly seeing Earth in the far distance. These visuals connote to us she is no where near the space ship and is all alone in the darkness of space.

• When someone on the walkie talker with her asks what she can see, a point of view shot is used to show the audience that all she can see is pitch black darkness. This POV shot is extremely effective as it allows us feel as if we are there and see what she  sees, making it very sense and sides the audience with Stone  in the hope she returns to safety

  
  

• Intense music is playing in the background  to exaggerate  what we are watching and make the moment even more tense

• The diegetic dialogue of her breathing heavily and fast throughout connotes fear for herself and shows how scared she is, making the viewers scared and hoping she finds her way back somehow

• An extreme closeup is used to show only Stone's eyes

  
  

  moving from left to right constantly, this suggests that

  she is looking

  
  

  around to find something to show where

  she is and also shows how fearful

  
  

  she is for being in the

  unknown. It is very effective to only show her eyes

  
  

  here,

  as eyes give away a lot of feeling and emotion

• Fast paced montage is then used to match her breathing that is used as a soundbridge over the top. 

  The voice over of Stone speaking in the past, matches what we see. When she shares that she has a daughter we see a closeup of a photo frame with her and her daughter, making the audience symphathise more as we don't want the daughter to lose her mother

• The trailer then ends with ultimate silence again as it shares the title but the viewers are still unaware whether Stone made it or not, making them want to watch the film

• The trailer ensures to include its talent within the trailer, showing the names of well known actors like Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, both of which are unique selling points for the film

• Cuaron was already well known to audiences before Gravity (2013) as the director of critically acclaimed films like Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of God, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban