Dead Silence Trailer Analysis

                   

Genre:



The film can be put into the genre of 'horror' or 'psychological thriller' we can see this by the prop of blood used, as blood and gore is a stereotype of a horror film. There is also the diegetic sounds of screaming and heavy breathing which are stereotypical to these genres. There is fast-paced editing used to create tension near the start and end of the trailer, again usual used in films of these genres.



Target Audience:



The trailer does not give a certificate, but the characters portrayed in the film appear to be predominantly male, although the villain is a female which breaks the stereotype of horror movies, generally having a male attacker. The characters tend to be around their 20s, apart from an older male who plays the part of the donor. This leads me to believe that the target audience would be both genders, mostly male at the age of around 18-30.



Length, shots and transitions:

The trailer lasts 2:14 and uses around 223 shots with 49 transitions, the most popular being fade to black and white flash. However a dissolve can also be seen at times. The number of shots stands out to me as a shot is used for every second if not more.




Sound:



Diegetic


Screams – showing fear, stereotypical of horror/thriller films



Heavy breathing – also a stereotype of these genres, shows fear/tension



Footsteps and exaggerated sound of creaking floorboards – creates the idea of being followed



Loud smashes – shows action, creates excitement





Dialogue "There's an old ghost story around here about a women named Mary Shaw.", "she was murdered, the men cut out her tongue" etc. - stereotypical themes of death, murder violence.



Non-Diegetic


Slow-paced violin music which speeds up to match the editing pace creating tension and suspense



High pitched screeches when something shocking is shown – enhances tension and therefore shock



Voice-over at the end of trailer, children's voice "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw, she had no children only dolls, and if you see her do not scream, or she'll rip your tongue out at the seam." - adds more background to the story, also relates to audience by using "you". Themes of violence and death are used again as a horror stereotype.



Plot, narrative and titles:



In the beginning of the trailer we see the logos of Universal and Twisted Pictures allowing us to know who produced the film. We then witness a young woman walking through what seems to be an empty house, we know she is looking for someone from her diegetic dialogue of "Jamie? Jamie?", we then see her walk into a bedroom lifting a sheet. The trailer then speeds up dramatically as a number of shots are shown with fades to black in between with the diegetic sound of the women's screams over them. From this we can assume that she has been injured or possibly killed. A title is then shown saying "From the writer and director of saw" allowing us to associate the film with other horror movies. The trailer then cuts between shots of sharp objects and dolls faces confusing the audience. The next shot is a medium close-up of a young man, allowing us to empathise with him. We learn from diegetic dialogue between him and an older male character, that there is "an old ghost story" about Mary Shaw, the main character and villain, who was "a ventriloquist who lost her voice." A title then appears stating "Comes a new experience" creating suspense as the audience want to know what the experience is. We also learn that she was suspected of taking a young boy, and so was murdered. The dialogue bridges the scenes of the character's talking, Mary on stage, the search for the boy and Mary's murder. We are then told families have been found "without their tongues" as the scene jumpcuts to the younger character holding pictures of bodies with the tongues cut out.  The next shot is a title saying "this March" letting the audience know when the film will be released. The dialogue then tells us "she was buried with her doll collection" as the shots cut between numerous shots of close-ups and extreme close-ups on dolls faces causing them to look almost distorted and disorientating the audience. Another title is shown telling the audience "they will come alive". The diegetic dialogue of "Her children, she called them" bridges the scenes, the word children emphasising the idea of them coming alive. More shots of the dolls are shown but this time at medium close-up revealing more to the audience. This then cuts to yet another title "with a vengeance." the word vengeance relating to revenge, another usual theme in horror films. There is then scenes of two male characters attempting to destroy the dolls, mixed in with a possible flashback of Mary Shaw with a young boy. The two scenarios are bridged by a child-like voice reciting the rhyme "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw, she had no children only dolls, and if you see her do not scream, or she'll rip your tongue out at the seam." this fades to silence, as the scene fades to black. The movie name then flashes up accompanied by a high-pithed screech and followed by a billing card.


Characters and their relationships:

The characters shown in this trailer are mostly male, although the main character and villain is female breaking stereotypes of horror film villains. However the first victim shown is female, adhering to the stereotype of a weaker female to be overpowered. The two male characters in the trailer seem to share a strong bond as the younger male character feels he can ask the older male questions while the older male acts as the donor giving him useful information. We learn from this information that the villain's name is Mary Shaw and that she was a ventriloquist having "no children, only dolls." this could mean that she did not have strong relationship with any other character's. The female victim we see, appears to be looking for someone, while calling the name "Jamie" giving the idea that she has some relationship with another character by this name.



Code of enigma:

The trailer reveals quite a bit about the film to entice the audience but also leaves a number of questions to be answered such as:

- Who is the female victim in the beginning?

-Who is "Jamie"?

-What is the shape under the sheet?

-Did Mary kidnap the young boy?

-Who has dug up the dolls?

Mood and expectations of the film:

From this trailer, we expect themes of violence, death and murder, in particular with the victim's tongues cut out. We also expect a character named Jamie, a ventriloquist character and a number of props such as ventriloquist dolls. The mood is quite dark and sinister, the trailer creating a high level of tension through fast-paced editing and sound. The audience are kept wanting to know what will happen next.



Conventions in film trailers:


Here is a list of 10 conventions that appear in this film trailer:

Voice-overs (tell story and give credit information) - "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw..."

Producers logos shown – at the beginning

Dramatic camera angles show events or characters – close ups the dolls

Action is interspersed with actor or director credits - "from the writer and director of Saw"

The trailer builds to a climax, where it ends - fast paced editing and sound

Music plays an important role in creating atmosphere – music matches pace of editing

Key points are sometimes conveyed through titles - "They come alive"

Conversations between characters – conversation between 2 male characters

Billing card (production co, release date, stars etc.) - at the end

Film's title may not show until end – shown after billing card

Film trailers as a promotional device:

The film studio has chosen to use this film trailer to market it's product as it shows the genre and so interests the audience directly. It could also be said to target the audience through character representation, such as the character's being mostly male and of an age range of 20-30, creating an idea for the target audience. The code of enigma also enhances the interest as it leaves questions which can only be answered through watching the film.

Discussion of film synopsis

Psychological Thriller

Definition:

Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.

Thriller – Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state

Devices/Techniques:

Stream of consciousness – a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. In psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the character's psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.

First-person narrative – a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, "I". This direct involvement that the characters have with the story in turn makes the reader more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand the mechanics of the characters' minds. This technique is often paired with the concept of the unreliable narrator.

Back-story – the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character's motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions.

Themes:

• Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
• Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative (see Unreliable narrator).
• Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
• Existence/Purpose – The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.
• Identity – The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.
• Death – The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.

Storyboarding

I have currently been storyboarding different ideas for shots in my film trailer, however my group are unsure of the final order of shots at the moment. I  have also been looking at different examples of storyboards and animatics from former media studies students.

Videos - Discussion of plot synopsis and camera practice.

I have tried to post the videos onto my blog but for some reason, it keeps telling me that there was an error while uploading.

Synopsis for film (559 words)

The police officer is sitting at home when he gets an urgent call, out of duty hours, telling him about about a murder case. He then arrives at the scene of the crime, it is a block of flats and the victim is a young female, who for some unknown reason he feels he recognises. He is clearly quite uneased by this, however he pulls himself together and helps collect evidence and clear up. That night he starts to think about who could have done this and starts to put himself into the scenario but quickly shakes this idea from his head. The next morning he is making himself some sandwiches for work and holding the knife in his hand, he imagines it to be covered in blood, he is thoroughly disturbed by this and hurries to work to get on with putting together the evidence he collected from the night before. After work, he heads home to rest, and falls asleep on an armchair while watching TV. In his sleep, he has a nightmare, in which he witnesses the crime he is working on from the killer's point of view, startled, he wakes up just as the knife comes down on the victim. Every day he continues to piece together the small amount of evidence left behind with little prevail and every night he dreams of the grisly case, yet each night, inside his mind he sees more and more of what happened before waking up grasping at reality. One day in work, a colleague spots something odd in one of the crime scene photos – The police officer's ring on the dresser next to the body. He thinks this is very strange but puts it down to having taken it off to snap the photos. At this point his dreams have progressed to the point of seeing the full murder of the girl, this making him gradually more and more unsettled as he is still no closer to finding a possible suspect, so his thoughts become possessed with the ideas of who it could've been. “What sort of man would do this?” “Did a man do this?” “Did a woman do this?” It becomes his very mission to find and bring to justice whoever had committed such a heinous crime. His hours spent working through evidence double and any time he is not working through it he is thinking about working through it, this, in turn, brings on a new wave of nightmares. Yet, no matter how hard he tries, it is still a complete battle to find any relevant information. Finding it difficult to stay awake one night, while yet again, thinking it over and over in his head, trying to spot anything he might of missed before, he dozes off. As always, his mind's eye is directed straight to the block of flats, but this time, it seems different. It all seems so much more real. Her screams, so much louder, the stabs, so much more forceful, he hears the killer's heartbeat as he pounds to the sink to wash the blood from his hands, and as the blood swirls down the plughole his eyes drift up towards to the mirror on the wall and he sees... his own face staring manically back at him. He wakes up screaming, drenched in sweat.

Ideas for storyline of film.

-Murder occurs
-Policeman on case is murderer (split personality)
-Flashbacks to hint that he could have done it. E.g. Violence towards wife, threats towards neighbours etc.
-Piecing evidence together, starts to realise it was him

3 possible endings:
-Goes crazy and gets put into an institution
-Goes crazy and goes on a killy rampage
OR
-kills himself