TRAILERS RESEARCH

RESIDENT EVIL

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWUT4CXWcwQ

This trailer includes the following main focus points:

• voice over - female voice changed and adjusted to sound very robotic. This helps to enhance the sci-fi element of the trailer. The voice over is mainly used to explain the main story and conflict of the film n order to create a better and clearer understanding. It continues throughout the whole trailer as the dialogue takes over at the end. The voice over also contributes to influence focus on the antagonist of the film which appears to be the artificial intelligence named "The Red Queen" which suits the generic expectations and keeps the audience engaged. The voice over also helps to tailor the story; images from the film are taken to represent the written and spoken information into visual information which helps the audience to understand the story better.

• significant props - As the main reason for the conflict created is the idea of the virus, the props that were used in the trailer appeared to be well designed creating a sense of originality that separates it from the other similar genre movies. The spiral tubes appeared to have a lot of focus and a lot of screen time in the trailer suggesting that this is the main focus point of the film.

• focus on specific characters - the trailer mainly focuses on representing two female characters which appear to have the most screen time thus making them very important and a couple of male characters. As the trailer focuses on these characters, it is made clear to the audience that these characters will be the focus in the film. 

• visual effects  - The trailer also seems to focus and represent the visual effects of the film. As the trailer progresses to a more fast pace movement the visual effects representing the zombies, The Red Queen and the different futuristic technologies combined together with the action scenes. The visual effects also appear to be one of the main selling points of the trailer as it is another element other than the story and the characters that attracts more audience. 

• low key, blue lighting - The trailer also appears to focus on the sci-fi and horror theme of the movie by using low key, blue lighting which also helps to fulfil the genre conventions. 

• slow pace to fast pace - Trailer starts slow with explaining the main plot of the story and progresses on a lot of action shots and scenes, explosions, fights. For example the laser scene looks very appealing and it seems to be one of the selling points of the film. 

• No one is immune log line - The log line of the film also appears to be very simple and suitable for the whole look of the trailer and the film which makes it very memorable. 

V FOR VENDETTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_13fFIrhPk

This trailer's main focus is the battle between the protagonist and the government. Although the conflict of a virus is issued, the main conflict appears to be the government's opinion. This is an element that we would like to include in our trailer. However, we do wish to focus on different elements equally, so the idea of the political approach would not be our main focus. 

• Beginning - military and black and red branding. This represents the main focus of the trailer as well as fulfilling genre expectations.
• portray of significant props - Protagonist knives and mask, substance of virus, red and black symbols and branding
• main characters - The main focus appears to be on the protagonist (the person with the mask) who rebels against the government, the female character that appears to have a lot more focus towards the end and the main person that works for the government. In most trailers there appears to be an equal amount of focus on the characters, stunts action and location shots. However, this trailer appears to portray a lot more characters and most of the screen time appears to be focused on them which suggest that this film focuses a lot on characters and their development.
• The trailer appears to be very fast paced as it doesn't follow the same structure like most trailers of beginning with slow pace and speeding up to action shots. Although the trailer has this similar pattern it appears to a lot more fast paced based compared to other trailers which suggests that this trailer seems to sell it self mainly on the action and stunts.
• The main focus appears to be on the characters and the effects of the virus/substance. There are shots of only a few locations presented. The deeper focus seems to land on the fight between the government and the protagonist.
• The trailer also appears to have focus on the virus - it represents unpleasant imagery of the virus by displaying the side effects and symptoms of the disease. This is used in order to shock the audience and create an underline of serious violence which appears to target a much older audience but also the fulfill the generic expectations.
• The trailer also focus on the representing the branding of the whole film. The colours of the trailer and the specific shots appear to portray that. For example, in the beginning of the trailer we see a shot of the military army wearing red against a white background and in the end we see a sequence portraying red dominos on white surface. The trailer helps to focus on the red and colours of the film which helps to create the branding.

CONTAGION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sYSyuuLk5g

The trailer, Contagion has very similar genre connotations to what our trailer wants to portray. Unlike the previous trailer V for Vendetta, this trailer focuses more on the virus itself as well as the characters. This shows how a very similar general idea could develop into different  sub - genres and create a different, unique and original story. 

• Opening sequence - The trailer starts with a slow, tilting location shot portraying a high angle shot of a bridge. This helps to set the opening of the trailer and create a slow pace feel which fits with the voice over and it also follows the pattern of the previous trailers by starting with a slow pace and progressing to faster one. 
• Voice over - Similarly, to the previous trailers, Contagion also appears to have a voice over which helps to tell the story itself as well as create a better understanding of it. Voice overs in these particular genres appear to be very commonly used. Like the trailer, Resident Evil, a voice over was used in the beginning to explain the way the virus works. In this trailer, the same technique was used but instead of the voice being told from the protagonist it was taken from different speeches of dialogue which appears to be more commonly used nowadays compared to the past. 
• Representation of characters- The trailer appears to focus on a story between a wife and a husband where the wife appears to have caught the virus. The main protagonist however, appears to be the male character as he appears throughout the whole trailer compared to the female who seems to die in the middle of the trailer. Although this trailer focuses on the story and emotions between these two characters and other minor characters, it appears that rather than focusing entirely on the characters and using the idea of the virus as a back up story, the main focus is drawn to the virus and its effect and the characters help to build upon that.
• Focus on virus - Unlike the trailer 'V for Vendetta', the main focus of  this trailer appears to be on the virus itself rather than the issues between society and the government. It appears  to mainly focus on the information about the virus, its symptoms and side effects. For example, most of the screen time in the beginning of the trailer appears to be focused on imagery that compliments what the voice over is explaining as well as its background information of what it is, where it came from and how fast it spreads.
• As the trailer progresses however, imagery of the military and conference rooms appear representing the battle between the government and the society. The difference between the way this is represented in this trailer and in the previous one is the fact that the focus on the battle is a lot less than the V for Vendetta trailer.
• As the previous two trailers, Contagion follows the same trailer pattern and begins with a really slow pace and progresses to a faster pace. In order to create energy and tension at the end of the trailer, a serious of imagery fades out and fades in on the trailer really fast. This helps to combine different scenes together but also because some of the shots/scenes are not necessary action filled or fast paced, the really quick flash of imagery helps to speed it up and create the energy that perhaps wasn't in the particular shot. This is a technique that I think would be very useful for our trailer as we are not able to create and achieve action filled shots, explosions or any special effects.

THE CRAZIES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7w9uWFIMBs

• Opening sequence - The trailer begins with a location shot of a large field followed by a series of other location imagery which helps to portray the setting of the film. Shots of the main characters are also portrayed in the very beginning of the trailer. Compared to the previous trailers that I have analysed, the opening sequence of this trailer is presented in a series of fast fade in and out shots that help to quickly show the location and the main characters and set a base for the story of the trailer. The main conflict appears to be issued in the beginning of the trailer. As the trailer shows scenes of a happy town where everything seems to be okay in the beginning the peace is interrupted by a character at the baseball field that appears to be very different from the rest of the people in that society. The choice of costume for that character helps to portray him as the conflict or issue that arises in the beginning of the trailer as he contrasts with the colours and choice of the costumes of the other characters in the scene. 

• Fast pace shots -  As the trailer progresses more conflict is presented. We see more people looking for help and more people getting sick from the virus that is spreading quickly. After we are addressed to a conflict in the beginning section of the trailer and see it resolve, the next scenes appear to follow even more chaos and conflict each time getting harder to resolve it. In order to represent this conflict successfully a series of imagery flashes quickly that also matches a fast drilling sound in the background which follows a slower scene. This helps to build up energy and speed in order to prepare the audience for a fast pace, action filled scenes following. 

• Fade in and fade out -  After the trailer progresses in order to create more tension and energy a build up follows with fade in and fade out effect as the scenes change. This technique helps to create energy by using transition effects. It is also very often used to prepare the audience for a jump scare. Much like in this trailer it appears to be separated into parts each containing a build up and ending with a jump scare. As the trailers progresses the build ups seem to intensify where they follow to the end of the trailer that leaves the audience with a sense of destruction or a mystery in order to engage the audience into further watching the film.

• Ending - As the trailer progresses from a slow paced beginning to a much more action filled middle, the ending leaves us with the last outburst of horrific, unpleasant imagery of violence and gore. This helps to build up the energy and tension for the ending of the trailer and leave the audience with a strong emotional response. However, in order not to overdue and overuse horror, terror and fear emotions too deeply on the audience the soundtrack appears to play a slow, sad emotional piano music that contradicts with the visual images and in a way helps to calm the audience and make the unpleasant imagery more acceptable and easier to watch. 

28 DAYS LATER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ynwAgQlDQ

The trailer 28 Days Later appears to be separated into three main sections - a pattern that many other trailers appear to follow. The first section always appear to star slow, following the second section where more of the story plot is revealed, action scenes and small builds ups are included in order to prepare the audience for the third section where most violence and action is presented to the audience from the build up of the other two sections.

• 1st Section - The first section of the trailer portrays a serious of images followed by titles to help give the audience a general idea and theme of the trailer as well as to represent the title of the film successfully. The images represent the development of the disease and how with each day it appears to be growing without it being able to be stopped. This helps to shock and terrify the audience, create an overall theme and mood for the trailer and prepare the audience for the following sections. 

• 2nd Section - After the slow build of unpleasant imagery and violence, the second section starts slowly by presenting the main character in the isolated London. This helps the audience to calm and relax after a build up but also to further emphasise on the danger that lays in the world. The chosen locations of London also help to create a sense of shock and surprise as locations as such are have always been to be busy and crowded and to see them isolated creates a strong emotional response in the audience. The isolated locations combined with very little use of sound prepares the audience for a jump scare that would further build upon more faced paced and energy build scenes. A voice over is also used that consists of extractions from a dialogue between the main character. This helps to further develop the explanation of the narrative of the trailer. The voice over also appears to match with the visual imagery of the trailer in order to create a more clear and consistent view of the trailer with the intention to connect more strongly with the audience. Once the story is explained more action and fast pace shots and scenes follow entering the final section of the trailer.

• 3rd Section - The third section of the trailer consists of action and fast pace shots.

starts slow - isolated London - most of the shots - little jumpscare then titles

voice over - explenation developed - visaul imagery matches voice over-  once story explain action begins

3 sections - slow, story, action

voice over becomes urgent - energy increased - more gore and violence, more imagery of the zombies 

end - violin - calm music, silent leading to a jumpscare where the trailer ends