Tuesday 18 October 2011

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Film Teaser Trailer

A teaser trailer is a short trailer that advertises a film due for release without giving away too much of the story.  Teaser trailers consist of a series of shots from the film being advertised.


The Saw series consists of seven films distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment and produced by Twisted Pictures. The film is based on fiction charcter John Krameralso known as Jigsaw. He traps his victims in situations which he refers to as 'tests' or 'games'.


Saw 3D is the seventh and final installment of the Saw series. It focusses on a man who falsely claims to be Jigsaw despite his death in the third installment.

Like most trailers the teaser begins with the logos of the production companies. The opening scene begins with a voiceover saying, “you can’t hide”. The dialogue incites fear in the audience, as they will think anywhere they go is not safe and the voice is deep and eerie.

There is superimposed text that says “every master craftsman”. A voice over in the trailer then says "This game has a new design". It then leads to a mid shot, of a man trapped in a broken down car, that quickly zooms out into a wide angle shot which shows the warehouse like surrounding and shows another character who appears to be locked in another trap in a standing position. An image below shows this.




This lets the audience know that there are new traps, a new concept and possibly new motives for Jigsaws games without giving away the storyline at all.




 It then shows more superimposed text which says, “and all true geniuses”. It then cuts to two different close ups of a woman then a man then another two people who are hanging loosely above fan like blades which are spinning at a very high speed. All four of their non-verbal communication shows that their emotion and situations match that of the voiceover which says “fear, suffering, death”. This shows that fear, suffering and death plays a big part of the forthcoming movie.



It then cuts to another superimposed text that says "always save their best". Which is again shown in the image below.



It then cuts to a series of three establishing shots which shows the environment outside with the last showing a large crowd gathering around one particular building. This is shown below.


From here it cuts to another superimposed text that says "for last".


A voiceover then says "all of my work has been leading to this" while showing a a man who appears to be trapped in a cage. It then cuts to a high angle shot which shows the man tampering with a chain which the cage is hanging from. On his finger he has a prop which is a wedding ring which may play a part in the reason as to why he has become a part of Jigsaws's games. A mid shot shows that he has managed to release himself from the trap but then a birds eye view shows that below him are long sharp pieces of metal which will kill him if he falls.


This was followed by super imposed text which said 'witness'. It then cut to a mid shot of what appears to be a vehicle moving at a high speed on a track with a large sharp object on the front. A cut to an extreme long shot showed a female with her hands and legs tied screaming as the vehicle with the sharp object was heading towards her.

There was then a cut to super imposed text which read 'the final'. This was followed by a cut which showed a man as he struggled to keep a circular saw from making contact with him.


It then lead to super imposed text which simply read 'saw'. This implies that this installment of Saw would be the final in the series.

It then lead up to more super imposed text which was the title of the film 'Saw 3D'.


A number of sharp objects broke through this title and also appeared to break through glass. This highlighted the fact that the film was going to be released in 3D.


It then cut to the final super imposed text which read 'This October The traps come alive', this again highlights the fact that the film is going to be released in 3D. It also gave details of the film such as the production companies.

This teaser trailer has already informed us that this film will be the last in the Saw series. It also informed us that it will be in 3D. The teaser trailer has showed that the film will have new and exciting traps but without giving away any of the storyline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg0go2b3ekY

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