Research (mori)

After a healthy dose of swine flu I decided to get back to work, so over the last few days i have been researching trailers, i firstly looked at trailers normally, watching them and thinking about several different aspects of them, such as music, cinematography, length, actors shown and how much is given away. A trailer that i particularly liked was 'Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen' so i decided to analyse it so that i could see what our trailer would need to be appealing, make someone want to watch the whole film and something which simply isn't boring.

Transformers 2

Michael Bay
This is a trailer for the film transformers 2 which is a sci-fi action film about large metallic aliens coming to earth to settle a feud. This is a trailer which is loud and big pictures, with many stunts and special effects being made use of, for example a transformer turning from an alien into a lorry while it is moving along at ferocious speeds. These special effects show potential audiences that it is going to be a high end production as well as an action packed on the edge of your seat film.

This is the second film in the series and the first Transformers was a great hit at the box office so they do not need to show too much of the storyline in the trailer as people will automatically link the special effects, stunning picture in the trailer and a great first movie with a good storyline in the second one. Also storylines in sequels tend to be fairly terrible in my opinion so they often try and keep the trailer short and show little about the story but more about the high production parts of the film which people loved so much about the first one. Also another bonus of this being the sequel is that people will recognise the stars of the film and remember them from the last film, this then makes it easier for the production company as they just have to show lots of them in the trailer which in turn will secure seats in the cinema, this is something which the Transformers 2 trailer used to great effect they have the two big stars in the film heavily involved in the trailer, one of them being Megan Fox.

In this trailer they do not use a voiceover they use actual dialogue from the film, especially the transformers voices which are very loud deep voices which make a impact on people watching, this also gives the trailer a bit more reality from the film and people get more a of a chance to not only see what it will be like but also hear what the film will be like as well.

Editing in this is very fast, not much is given away and as it gets closer to the end of the trailer the editing speeds up and as each new clips comes onto the screen a loud swoosh sound as if something narrowly missed hitting you is played, this gives the illusion that it is building up to something and adds suspense in that few seconds and then the name of the film appears in big writing by itself imprinting an image of that name in the audiences head.

I then looked at trailers in a slightly different way, i watched many trailers, especially horror trailers without sound. This suddenly made me realise how important the music is to a film. The music makes a horror scary, it makes you sit on the edge of the seat, it makes the tension build to an unbearable level and it means that what you are watching doesn't threaten your senses in more than one way as the only way you are taking in the media is through your sight.

A film which i watched that i really noticed the sound making the biggest impact on the viewing was 'Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind' a film with Jim Carrey and Kate Blanchet. In watching this trailer without the music it suddenly looks as though it is a piece of film done by an amateur because this trailer has a very high tempo like most do and therefore it just looks like a string of clips put next to each other with very fast editing, but when there is music the trailer turns into a brilliant one, it is fast moving the sound tells us that it is a strange but happy film through tempo matching the clips and some slightly strange noises in the music and words said by the characters. I also watched 'Transformers 2' without volume and what i noticed from this is that without the voiceover you cannot tell anything about the storyline. All of this made me realise how crucial a good soundtrack is to the trailer and maybe for certain types of trailers a voiceover is important to tell the potential audience what this film you want them to watch is about.