The Shining trailer analysis

The Shining trailer analysis

• 1.
  The Shining trailer analysis
• 2.
  Genre • Thistrailer is an 18 certificate, meaning there is no restrictions. • First thing we see is a shot of an isolated area, stereotypical horror represents horror as Steve Neal said genre is shown through repetition, I have seen similar shots before. • Slow editing in the trailer creating an eerie feel, puts the viewer on edge. • Throughout the trailer we see weapons such as knives and axes that are often used to portray death or fighting. • The trailer ends showing the movie title in red and black distorting, stereotypical colour and style for the genre.
• 3.
  Representation • Ratherstereotypical, portrays the mother as a protective female, when she holds the child whilst screaming at the male villain. • Male is portrayed as the psycho villain as expected from a horror. • Close up shots used to represent the emotions and expressions of characters. • Creates the question of is the child affected when we see him holding a knife? Children are often seen as vulnerable.
• 4.
  Narrative • Todorovstheory suggests that in all films we start with an original equilibrium that is calm and settled then disturbed and goes up and down with peaks throughout the film. • This idea is shown similarly in this trailer, wee see an ordinary family and the father is then affected and goes mad, going to attack his family. • However it is not like the usual horror trailer as we don’t see many of the peaks in the narrative, in fact we see quite a lot of low points including a lot of speaking. • However from the trailer I can see the idea of the film, the mother protects her child from a mental father suggested through him attacking the door with an axe.
• 5.
  Audience • 18certificate means that no one under that age can watch, making the audience much smaller than that of an action that would be 12 – 15. • 18 also means that there are no restrictions on what can be said / shown, meaning that it could offend people. • The trailer suggests that there will be a lot of violence and possibly someone getting killed with an axe? So it would be targeting a very small audience into bloody films.
• 6.
  Media Language •Cinematography: Lots of close up shots to show fear and emotions but also long shots portraying isolation. • Editing: Rather slow editing, like a montage showing various scenes including some peaks in the narrative • Sound: unlike other trailers where we would usually just hear a high pitch / screeching score we also heard a voice over talking you through, including words such as “isolation” suggesting these people aren’t like normal society? • Mis-en-scene: rather stereotypical, see murder weapons and its set away from the rest of society.