Things I noticed about the trailer – contributing factors: –
change in pace, starts fairly quick, slows down and then builds up, I like that it’s not just building up the whole time because this way it’s a little bit disjointed but doesn’t seem out of place because the story is partly realistic and normal but partly imagination and fantasy and the pace subtly conveys that glitch in normality and what we’re used to. This could work in my trailer because then I can include a large number of shots and experiment with ideas that way and it gives me a challenge when I come to edit my filming – rather than just having a teaser trailer made up of one scene like some are which wouldnt be difficult to edit.
there’s no voice over but writing, I really like this because having a voice over can change a mood or atmosphere, this way there’s no human dialogue so it creates a gap in socialisation, almost how the little girl in the film is supposed to feel. Also, if you heard a voice over instead of reading the screen it’s like someone is telling you about the film rather than you participating in the film, the screens with text are there so the audience can read almost feel more involved with it. What I really like about these ‘text screens’ in Pan’s labyrinth is that they keep a common theme, the colour, background and font is the same throughout but each time a shadow like figure occurs, almost growing or explanding in the background and I like this effect, it’s usually in the shape of the insect faerie or a plant meant to represent the tree on the poster. Ths is definitely an aspect I want in my trailer, to keep that atmosphere quite creepy but I think it breaks up the trailer a bit so it’s not all just shots and scenes, it makes it easier to watch and to order when editing.
there’s changes in music which is mostly non diegetic,the scene where mood changes there is some diegetic sound – the wings of the faerie, the wind and the creaking of the surroundings and when the pace build up again the sound of the key in the lock is heard and when she slams the book shut it lands on a beat in the non – diegetic music , same with the frog croak and the blade slicing the air/mirror – these adding to the building up creating a weird tension. I also just noticed that in the beginning of the trailer before it starts to build up and before most of the diegetic sounds are included theres a clip where the music is quite and the pace and slowed and you can hear the rustling of the faerie’s wings this adds a little bit of excitement because it starts to reveal that this film is fantasy by adding weird little sounds – this also conveys eeryness because a child would find weird sounds in the dark a scary concept, as would most people actually so it’s about the unknown which adds the darkness to this ‘adult’ fairytale.
music builds up throughout trailer – starts quiter and simple, ends loud and epic – ends on a climax, ending on a climax I think is a very good idea, the audiences feelings are subconciously linked to to the feel of what they are watching, if the trailer built up to a climax and then slowed down again to a mediocre ending then the audience wouldn’t be as interested in the film, it didn’t keep them fixed, whereas this trailer builds up and ends on the climax, keeping them hanging on that note of excitement at what they’ve just seen and what is to come. The image to the left is the final shot of film in the trailer, it’s an climatic shot with the bright light flowing in from behind her so you can see almost only a slihouette and shes walking into this dark place, it’s also shot slightly low angle to make her figure seem bigger and more powerful reflecting the big, powerful ending. This mixed with the music which is loud and full, the ending of the trailer doesn’t disappoint.
when the pace quickens the scene just jump cut from one to the other but when it slows – mainly when the ‘text screens’ appear – they use transitions like fades, fading to and from the next and fading from to and from black, like in the image to the right. The occasional fade is used in the ending sequence, this adds as a break between an amount of cuts because if it just used an ordinary cut to and from each scene for the rest of the trailer then there would be no variety, it would all be very similar and boring and not very easy to watch. The cuts get quicker and quicker and the final scene is there for longer and slowly fades into the ‘title text screen’
what I notcied first of all and I think I will use in my trailer is that it doesn’t reveal the plot, it shows lots of different clips from the film but it doesn’t piece together a story, the tagline which is shown in different ‘title scenes’ reads: ‘What happens when make believe believes it’s real?’ this is intriguing but again doesn’t reveal the plot even though it’s relevant to the story line. This is an excellent idea, it leaves the audience wandering what it’s about and persuades them to go and see it.
This is terrific stuff. Just the ticket. You might want to draw out a few bullet points from this of ‘ideas to develop in my own work’. It’s really important that you try to link your analysis to the development of your own ideas.