September 2016 / Katie's A2 Media Blog

WHAT DOES THE MISE-EN-SCENE TELL US ABOUT THE FILM?
The detectives are wearing clothing from the late 40's/50's.
The setting is a mental asylum is on an island in the middle of nowhere. The place is isolated and has a dark and sinister feel about it. Some of the iconography includes guns that the asylum guards have and the U.S marshals badge. This iconography is typical for a police crime thriller. There are also nurses and staff who work there, wearing all white clothes. Halfway through the trailer Leonardo di Caprio and Mark Ruffalo's characters are wearing them, so it more tell the audience what may happen later in the film. Halfway through the trailer, the weather changes and it starts to rain heavily with thunder and lightning. This is common is supernatural horror films for the weather to be dark and gloomy, so the audience are not at ease.

WHAT DO YOU LEARN ABOUT THE CHARACTERS?
Leonardo di Caprio's character starts off calm and just doing his job by looking into the investigation of the missing woman. He is smartly dressed and is being professional. As time goes on, he becomes less himself as he looks more distressed and has taken his hat off. Then he changes his outfit into all white, which is what the staff at the asylum is wearing. This could show that he could be going undercover as a staff member. His character gets really invested into this case, as the audience may not know if he is going crazy himself as he is hugging a woman who turns into ash. In the trailer we do not learn anything about his partner.

The doctor, is a mysterious character. Leonardo di Caprio's character is doing a voice over during the trailer and he says 'Whatever's going on here, is bad.' and he turns around in the car and the doctor is looking back at it. The setting is dark and there is a storm, so this could show that he is not a good character and Leonardo's character finds out things about him. The doctor also says ' I have built something very valuable here, and i'm not going down without a fight'. The could show that the detective found something out he wasn't suppose too and he could possibly want to shut the place down.

HOW DOES THE TRAILER BEGIN AND END?

The trailer starts off slowly and sets the scene on where they are and why they are in Shutter Island. As the lead character finds out more information about the asylum, the trailer begins to speed up with some fast paced editing of a montage of clips from the film, as he learns the secrets behind the asylum and that is when the more supernatural and horror elements come into the trailer. The trailer then hits its climax and cuts to the title of the film. And then a voice over begins and says' Wouldn't you agree, when you see a monster you must stop it'. After this is said Leonardo's character is jumped by a man and dragged away.

WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THE USE OF MUSIC?

The music is eery throughout the beginning of the trailer but is played quietly. The camera goes down from a nurse to a large needle and a scream is then played. This use of non-diegetic sound would make the audience quite anxious to what may happen next. The music speeds up and is louder as the detectives find out more and know this isn't just a disappearance case. The music builds up and then quietens down as Leonardos' character is doing a voice over. Then the music begins to build up again. And when the trailer hits the climax the music stops and another voice over is heard. And then a loud scream is played and Leo's character is dragged away as a short clip of fast, loud and sinister music is played.

The trailer of 'The Girl on the Train' uses formalistic conventions such as the use of intertitles throughout the trailer, such as 'at 4.36pm', 'a women has disappeared'. This makes the audience more intrigued with what is yet to come. The backgrounds of the text in white and then once the trailer picks up pace and becomes more dark and the background changes from white to black. There are also intertitles such as 'from Universal and Dreamworks'.

The trailer starts off slowly with quiet music, but as the trailer goes on the editing becomes more fast paced and the music begins to get louder. The music could foreshadow what is yet to come in the film as it keeps repeating 'How could you be so heartless'. At the end of the fast paced montage their is a climax which then cuts to a black screen. Also, the music stops and becomes silent when the blonde woman is under the bridge, this causes suspense in the trailer.

The trailer ends on a cliffhanger, which then would make people eager to watch the film as the trailer has made the audience interested in the storyline. The weather is dull and grey, and the trailer as a whole is really gloomy which gives the trailer a dark feel about it as it doesn't make you feel very happy. This could foreshadow what is yet to come because of the setting and overall atmosphere.