Prisoners - Theatrical Trailer Analysis

The first couple of shots in this trailer show the type of people these characters are and show the relationship between them all; they're shown as family and close friends, this is important for the audience to know because it will change their view on how the characters react to different events and build a personality for them. The second shot shows the location as a middle class looking home which will help the audience relate to these certain people as most people go to the cinema to watch movies, having a group of people the audience can relate to will make them feel on edge once the film is over like the plot could really happen. 

The transitions change 30 seconds in once the two young girls ask if they can play outside, this would make you suspect that something bad is about to happen to them because of this indication. A sound effect is also used just before this transition is shown, the loud band which then turns into the sound of a quick but gentle drum begins to play as a non diegetic sound.

The shots begin to slightly speed up at the point of discovering the two young girls are missing, pathetic fallacy is used 48 seconds into the trailer as the weather changes to rain when the parents are worried, this presents the change of mood to audience in a more obvious way. Using pathetic fallacy also sets the emotion for the scene which reflects back to the audience and effect the way they are seeing the situation as well.

The actors in the movie are unique selling points as Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are actors that are taken serious which makes them good for the roles they were given; Hugh Jackman is mainly famous for the very famous movie 'X-Men'. These two actors are working along side people such as Paul Dano whom is recognizable for films such as 'Little Miss Sunshine' making the audience that recognize these actors feel curious to if they did a good performance in this movie also.

Extreme close up shots and new characters are introduced as we realise something has gone wrong (the children are missing) this hints more of the plot and genre as a chrome/drama because one of the characters now in shot is called 'Detective Loci'. The close up shots are very effective because they create enigmas for the audience; the shot is so close up it is almost unclear to make out what is in frame. At this point the music also changes to something that would be used to build tension, the repetitive sound of echoed drums continues until a medium shot of Detective Loci is shown as he says to the parents of the missing children "Im going to find your daughter", to which then this use of dialogue and the change of setting and music creates excitement. By showing Loci say this to only one of the families signifies the roles that are going to impact the plot and events a lot more than any other characters. 

By increasing the intensity of the music in the next shots allows the audience to figure out that more is about to happen, with the transitions changing back to fading to black and showing the same props that are shown at the beginning of the trailer before we meet Detective Loci just in a different way hints that this is something important in the film - the van that was once driving along the roads next to the families homes in broad day light just before the girls went missing, is now smashed against a tree at night time with Detectives searching it. The shots of this vehicle being shown in different lights connotes to the moments of the film and changes the emotions of it, the denotation of the darkness connotes uncertainty and mystery which links to the genre of the movie whereas the shot in day light comes across as a lot more realistic to the audience creating mundane realism, allowing the viewers to relate to the characters and setting.

From this point on the anger evolves around one character that comes across as very timid and insecure, an unrealistic expectation on someone that would abduct two young girls, although using someone with these characteristics makes you want to look more in depth on what actually happened to these children which means the audience would have more of a reason to go and see the film. The timidity of the suspected abductor - Alex, has very little dialogue in the trailer which doesn't give too much away about him, they use other characters to express he way Alex is, such as his mum, who says to Detective Loci "That boy has never been in trouble not a day in his life", this creates confusion for the audience as they are given mixed signs on who could be the main antagonist. Another man is shown as a negative character when Loci goes to his house and barges in to arrest him; we aren't told anything about this character, not even his name. 

The music builds up more from 1 minute 23 as well as the diegetic sound to present the anger and fear of the characters, this music results in a medium shot of one the daughters dads in front of Alex holding a gun to him which again creates a more thrilling experience as the even the likeable characters that we see at the beginning of the trailer to be shown as violent. This subverts the stereotypes of the roles of protagonists and antagonists because the antagonist is usually stronger than the protagonist and isn't afraid to harm anyone but in this movie the suspected antagonist is shown as weak. 

Showing the title of the film written on the paper that has continuously been shown through out the trailer using extreme close up shots creates a theme for the movie as the map like drawings can hint clues to what the whole plot could be about and why certain things happen.

Antagonist Costume Ideas

Me and my group came up with a number of costumes to give our selves s clearer idea on how we want our antagonist to look like. Doing this task first gave us more ideas for the plot of the movie and the different events that are going to be captured in the trailer.

Our first idea is of a man in a gas mask, we generated this idea when looking at movie posters such as 'The Crazies' and 'My Bloody Valentine', we liked the idea of using a real person but hiding their identity to create enigmas for the audience making them want to go see the movie, the big coat also hides the identity as it doesn't show the body of the villian which means also hiding the gender of this person. The ax and the mask conventions of horror/thriller movies because it shows that there will be murders and blood.

The type of location we would expect to see this particular antagonist would be an abandoned building because th gas mask would make the audience feel as though the type of events would be to do with a murderer that lost someone or lost their own life in this home due to a tragic event.

This is one of our favourite costume ideas so we might alter it slightly to decide on our final antagonist costume, because we haven't decided whether we want more than one antagonist yet we may use this idea for the main antagonist because it is haunting and it would stand out at dominant against the other antagonists cotumes; they will have less identity hidden.

The type of character this next costume presents is some kind of unrealistic creature that would see in a nightmare as a child, this already gives us ideas for the type of plot that would be suitable for this type of antagonist although it may be harder to do than the first one because it would involve adding special effects when editing as well as finding someone that would be able to play the role well.

To create this costume we would buy a morph suit and cut the eyes out our selves and sew a mouth in, then to create the dark eyes we could use makeup to fill them in. The suit would be black so it would look like a shadow when being filmed under dark lighting creating a supernatural effect.

The next antagonist costume idea is of a clown, this because clowns are one of the most common phobias which would scare a wider audience; this idea was inspired by the movie 'It'.

The clown costume conforms to the stereotypical horror movie antagonist because the essence of how it is meant to be fun and jolly turns to a terrifying idea when people thing about a scenario that includes a clown. The balloon would attract young children and knowing horror movies they would become possessed by the clown and become antagonist.

The colours of the clowns body suit would be black and white, because black connotes darkness and evil but the white would confuse the other characters into thinking he isn't an evil clown. Later in the movie the clowns suit will gradually get more and more blood on it to build suspense on the murders he will commit.

This next costume is conforming to the usual stereotypical horror movie antagonist, movies such as 'Sinister' and 'The Ring' use a young girl for the antagonist; a child isn't usually seen as haunting in real life because of their character traits which makes it unexpected and little more creepy when they are used in such a way. 

The colors of the clothing she is wearing would be pale pink and white as they connote innocence and vulnerability, she will be vulnerable because something is possessing her to act unnervingly making the audience feel terror whenever she is on the screen.

the teddy bear that the little girl is carrying will be an symbol of her presence in the film, a protagonist will find it and it will create an enigma for them but the audience will know its a sign that she is near. 

To make her look more like she is meant to be in a horror movie, we decided her dress would be ripped in random places and she would have blood on her hands, this would show the bad side of her character to make it more obvious to the audience that she wont be a very innocent character. 

Our final idea was thought up if we wanted to go into doing more of a thriller movie based around zombies; antagonists that are much more unrealistic. 

This antagonist would be presented as something that has no guilty conscious which means no sympathy from the audience as they have no relation to the type of character he is. I call the antagonist a 'he' because this would conform to the stereotypes of a villain as they are known as strong and manipulative in horror movies which is also the stereotypes of men.

The colours we would make this costume will be dark but will still have the texture of skin to make it seem more like an unrealistic character, this is one of the reasons why this is our least favourite idea out of the five antagonist costume idea, we prefer to make it more realistic to the audience because then we can use mundane realism and create many enigmas on who could be causing the murders and/events.