Resident Evil: Afterlife Trailer (2010)
The first film trailer I have chosen to analyse is from the Resident Evil group of films. I chose this film as it has a female lead role which is the main focus of the trailer I plan on making. The plot is also similar to one on my pitch, an illness taking over the planet and the main character's fight for survival. The film was directed by Paul W.S Anderson and is rated as certificate 15. The genre is Action/Horror which is the genre I'm aiming for my trailer. However this particular film was rated 5.9/10 on the IMDb website.
Genre
The genre for this film is action/horror this is shown easily by the pace of the film and frequent jump cuts. The jump cuts help to keep the audience engaged and add suspense. The pace of the trailer often changes, with some scenes even showing in slow motion this helps to keep the audience's attention as everything they see on screen is always changing. The genre does not need to be hinted towards as it is very clear through the use of props. We see many props which are common of action films such as the use of weaponry including guns and swords. This can also be linked to Andrew Sarris' theory on genre 'genre is the idea that it has a recognisable style which draws on an existing audience' This means that through the use of these genre keys such as the pace, tone and lighting of the trailer an audience can recognise them as being horror/action and be engaged. Fans of this sort of film are more likely to be drawn in by this.
Representation
There is a clear representation of Laura Mulvey's theory of 'the male gaze.' In this trailer, the male gaze is that the camera views everything from a male perspective. Women are either seen as mothers or sexual objects, never anything else. I think that this trailer supports this theory because the camera does linger on the breast area of a woman at around 0:46. Also by showing the main character wearing tight fitting leather clothes I think that this could be seen as objectifying her and turning her into a sexual object. However, this trailer also goes against the typical gendered stereotype of a woman playing the damsel in distress character who needs to be saved by a man. Here the main character Alice is clearly a strong character who can definitely look after herself. She seems to be fighting alone mostly without a lot of help. There is also another female character briefly shown fighting showing that Alice isn't the only independent female character in the movie.
Narrative
At the very beginning of the trailer there seems to be calm but the pathetic fallacy of the rain tells us that all is not well in this world and something bad is probably going to happen soon. We are told of an apocalypse destroying the planet which is why the main characters are still trying to survive. The cause of the apocalypse or what actually happened is not explained to the audience. We also see the trailer building up to a battle between Alice and the Umbrella company, we will not find out the outcome of this either. The reason for this is that the film makers want to encourage the audience to watch the film to find out what happens. Throughout this narrative Alice seems to be the most active character taking control in most scenes although she is not introduced at the very beginning. We first see a clip which seems to be in Japan of the 'outbreak' starting, by jumping from this to Alice we see a passage of time.
Audience
The audience for this film will be aged 15 or over due to the age restrictions put forward by the certificate. The film may involve some graphic or violent scenes which are inappropriate for younger viewers. I do think however this film is catered for an audience consisting mostly of young adults.I think this because older audiences do not usually enjoy films as fast paced and Personally I believe this trailer is aimed more at a male audience as an action/horror film with a 'sexy' female lead is stereotypically a film males would enjoy more than females. This particular group of films also has a video game franciese which is also stereotypically aimed towards a male audience. This means that this film would have an existing audience and the trailer is especially aimed towards them. The audience would take an active role in watching this trailer as although there is a voice over explaining the story, they would need to concentrate to see what is happening on screen.
Media Language
Cinematography
-The trailer begins with a simple close up of a woman's red high heeled shoes. There is heavy rain falling to the floor all around them. This then quickly jumps to a birds eye view of the scene, we see a lot of people walking by holding up umbrellas. (This could possibly be linked to the umberella corporation?) The only person without an umbrella is the woman wearing the red shoes. The people on scene all walk either side of the woman showing her standing alone. We then get another jump cut to an over the shoulder shot of the woman, seeming as though we as the audience is stood behind her. This continues to straight cut to a Japanese man who is looking concerned. This works as an eyeline match, we know that the man and woman had a moment of eye contact.
- There is a very brief jump cut to the man's look of horror which then shows the woman seemingly chewing on his throat as people begin to run away. The shot then zooms out at a birds eye view getting further and further away from the scene until it becomes an image of the planet Earth.
-Introducing the main character Alice a close up is used of her face, showing the audience the strange movements of her pupils.
-A long shot is used so that we can see a helicopter flying away but we can also see the people behind the fence who seem to be infected, there is then a brief close up of their arms pushing through the fence. This gives the audience hints towards what will happen in the film.
-High angle shots of mountains and trees show that the plane has travelled a considerable distance throughout its flight.
-A low angle shot is used as Alice bends down to look at the woman lay on the floor, this could show her as a strong character with power or it could be literal from the deceased girls perspective. A mid-shot of the woman on the floor then acts as an eyeline match for Alice. All scenes towards the beginning where we see either female lead role, they are shot from a low angle, making them seem important and powerful.
-At 0.49 we see a close up of a man's face, this shows him as playing a crucial part in this trailer, he could possibly be the villain character. The is confirmed by the next mid-shot/ birds eye view of him where we see him shoot a man without seeing any provoking.
-There are often tracks of planes and over air vehicles, showing that our attention as an audience should be there, possibly because the main characters are on that plane.
-There is a long shot of a whole group of people including Alice, as they are all positioned closely together in the frame we assume that they are allies. Alice and the villain are never framed together in the same shot, this helps the audience see the separation between the two sides.
-There is a long shot of Alice throwing shurikuns towards the camera making it seem like we are watching this from the enemies perspective.
-There is one scene in which a man and Alice are framed together in a mid shot and he is taking the most active role, this could possibly suggest a romance or friendship.
Editing
-Editing plays a crucial role in this trailer as it relies a lot on speed to make an impression on its audience. The trailer begins with a slow motion scene of rain and shoes, this becomes normal paced for a second as it switches to a birds eye view. This could be because the slow motion will pull the attention of the audience straight to the woman wearing the red shoes. It also creates tension and tells us that something is going to happen. As the woman attacks the man we see a quick flash of what is happening which fades into her eating him. This is done at a very fast pace, highlighting how quick and severe the attack was.
-The use of dissolves, cut down the time it would take to watch a whole scene, it makes a jump cut less harsh. They are used to show a passage of time. One is used as the camera zooms from the city to the Earth, the dissolve helps the audience to understand that these two things, the city and the Earth are linked.
-The cut the black which comes next is harsh and grabs the audiences attention they did not expect this as usually a film trailer will flow smoothly. This then fades into the image of Alice, by doing this we see that time has passed between these things happening.
-Many jump cuts are used to show snippets of the film and story, these are usually fast paced to keep the audience's interest. A specifficly interesting example of this occurs in black and white, this has been done to show that it is not linear to everything else we see, it could be a flashback. The heavy use of jump cuts tells the audience that a lot happens in this film and they will be kept entertained.
-The editing only slows down to build up to another fast action packed montage, this may have been done to break up all of the fast paced events. If a trailer is all the same pace it could be very hard to keep the audiences interest.
Mise en Scene:
-The use of location is key to both a horror and an action film, by using a seemingly bustling city in the beginning we get a sense of 'normality' and then the change to a destroyed smoking city gives us a feel of change and fear. The lighting is very low key here giving the audience a sense that something sinister has definitely happened. Low key lighting is a key aspect to all horror films mirroring the dark themes which often occur in these films. Even in daylight there is a slight brown filter over the scenes to tone down the brightness and keep the low key lighting running through.
-It is interesting that around 1:28 the lighting suddenly gets much brighter in a room that is mostly white. White is a colour that represents purity and innocence however a man dressed in all black sits on a chair in this room showing a large contrast. He is thought to be the 'bad guy' or the villain of the film, the use of black and white makes this very clear to the audience. It almost looks like he does not belong in that chair, it is ironic that he sit's in a room representing innocence. However, interestingly all characters we see in these scenes seem to be dressed in black. This could suggest Alice is a form of Anti Hero.
-In terms of facial expression we never see anybody smiling, this highlights the serious tone of the trailer and the seriousness of the actions that are taking place. We do however see expressions of both fear and pain. This again, confirms that the genre of this film is definitely horror as well as action.
-The costumes we see in this trailer are mostly made of leather or metallic materials and are tight fitting, this paired with what we see including high tech cctv cameras and computer equipment tells us that this film is almost certainly set in a futuristic world. Interestingly however, the planes we see used early on are quite old in design and style and they do not appear very futuristic at all. It could be that the people underground are the only people who have these futuristic things. At the very beginning of the trailer the use of the red high heeled shoes contrasts highly with what otherwise seems to be a grayscale scene. This pulls the focus of the audience straight away.
Sound
-Throughout this trailer we hear a voice over, we find out that this is the voice of Alice as her face appears as she introduces herself. This is an example of non diegetic sound as the characters in the clips are not able to hear what Alice is explaining to us. The fact that what she is saying corresponds with what we see suggests that she can also see what we are watching on screen. There are sounds that punctuate certain points in the trailer, appearing as scenes flash or jump to the next. For example a sharp sound is used as a girl screams at 0:48
-As well as this however we do also hear some diegetic sound including the planes engine and gun shots. We also hear some dialogue from the film mixed in with the voice over.
-Music is used towards the end of the trailer to help the scenes flow without the use of the voice over. The pace of the song matches the pace of the clips. As the song is of the rock genre this matches greatly with the action theme of the movie. Stereotypically a horror film has slower and softer music, this music suits this mix of the two genres much better.
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