RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Sleeping with the enemy trailer

I have chosen to analyse the trailer for Sleeping with the Enemy as it has a similar narrative to our teaser trailer. I could only find the full length theatrical trailer on YouTube but i still think the techniques used could be helpful to us in planning our teaser trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ombLA8Gqbpk&feature=related

This is a link to the trailer.

The trailer starts with a soundtrack of the song ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ this is a happy, upbeat love song. There is a voice over which states “She was a stranger in a small town” over a shot in which Julia Roberts is putting flowers on a window sill, this shows her innocence and that at the beginning of the film and that she is happy and content with her life at that moment. In the next shot it shows Roberts meeting a man (Kevin Anderson), the lighting is light to show that he poses no threat to her, it is clear to the audience that there will be some sort of romantic connection between the two of them. The screen then goes black and the words “Twentieth Century Fox” appear, the voice over also says this, this shows the audience who the distribution company is and would appeal to them if they have seen other 20thC Fox films. The next shots show the relationship building between Roberts and Anderson including a first date and some sort of event, the happy soundtrack is still playing in the background and the lighting shows that there is a good atmosphere; even the darker shots look romantic as they have an orange glow. The screen goes black again with the “Julia Roberts” in it, the voice over also says this; this would attract the attention of the people who have seen Julia Roberts in previous films and attract a wider audience. There is then a fast sequence of shots of Roberts laughing and having a good time, the voice over starts up again saying “Behind her smile is a secret…Behind her laughter… is fear.” When the voice over says “laughter” the soundtrack changes from ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ to tense music typical of a film from the thriller genre, the types of shots also change when the word “laughter” is mentioned. The shots are a lot darker and the editing is more dramatic, there is a shot someone banging on the door and that sound is amplified to scare the audience, there is also a CU of Roberts face as she screams. This shows a dramatic change in the films genre from romantic to thriller and therefore attracts a wider audience. The voice over continues “Behind her happiness is a past she can never forget” there is then a shot of a boat in a storm and someone falling, or jumping, off that boat, the shots still remain very dark. A new character is introduced played by Patrick Bergin, he shouts after Roberts character “Laura!”, Roberts then admits to Anderson that she had a husband, in this shot the lighting is light again, this shows that she is comfortable with her new boyfriend and feels safe with him. There is a shot reverse shot of her talking with her boyfriend to her swimming in the sea to get away from her husband (Bergin) then back again to her talking with Anderson. The lighting is a main contrast between the two shots, when she is swimming it is very dark and obviously the middle of the night, this makes the shot seem tenser. It then cuts to a CU of her husband as he says “she was the only thing I ever loved”, it then quickly cuts to a shot of Roberts running up a bank looking extremely scared and then cuts back to Roberts talking to her boyfriend. There is then a mid shot that zooms to a CU of Roberts when she is in the bath; this is trying to show the audience that no where is safer for Roberts, she is always in danger. The next shots show how her husband came to find out she was still alive, even though these shots are filmed in the day time they are still very dark. There is then a shot of Roberts in the water but the shot is in red, this could symbolize the danger she is in. There is then a high angle shot of Roberts as she tells her mum that she is no longer with her husband, this shows that even through she has left him she is still vulnerable. The voice over starts again “She changed her looks” the editing slows down a little as it shows her meeting her new boyfriend but then speeds up as her husband shouts at her mother to tell him where Roberts is and there is a very quick shot of her husband rummaging through draws, this again is very dark. The voice over continues “she changed her life”, there is now lots of shots of her new life but the music remains the audience that this is still a thriller and that things don’t stay like this from the main characters. It then cuts back to her husband and her mother, he is being very aggressive and there is a low angle shot as the camera tracks towards him to show the power he has and to show that he is dangerous. The voice over continues “the women she used to be is dead”, there is another shot of her husband before it cuts to her boyfriend asking her is she is ‘okay’, this is the second time he has asked her this in the trailer, the lighting remains dark. “But the man who always wanted her” the voice over continues, there are more shots of her husband looking powerful and him threatening a man in a car so he will tell him where is wife is to show the audience that he is ‘the bad guy’. There is then a shot through the bushes looking into Roberts’s window, “wants her back” the voice over concludes, the trailer then cuts to a shot of the window and shows that it is raining outside, all of these shots are in the night time and some has a sort of orange glow, before this could have been seen as romantic because maybe it was from candles but now only seems dangerous. There is then a CU of Roberts crying and there is a voice over of her husband saying “Nothing can keep me away, I can’t live without you”, the camera zooms towards him, he is wearing all black, it then cuts to Roberts climbing up the stairs wearing a white dress, this makes it clear to the audience how is the innocent and vulnerable character and who is the dangerous one, the trailer then cuts back to the husband as he says “and I won’t let you live without me”. The trailer cuts back to Roberts walking round the house in the white dress, it is almost pitch black as she reaches to open a door, as she does the voice over begins again by saying “Julia Roberts”, the screen then fades to black and the title of the film appears which the voice over also says “Sleeping with the Enemy”. There are then credits and at the bottom it states that the film is ‘coming this February’, the tense music continues until the trailer ends.

I think this trailer is effective as it gives the audience a clear indicator of genre, The editing is very fast so it is able to cram a lot of infomation into the trailer about the film. It promotes the film mainly by using the name of the leading actress Julia Roberts who is very famous, this is effective as it will attract all her fans who may not have gone normally to see a thriller to go and watch this film.

Rach.