Above is a link to this trailer.
I chose to analyse this trailer as I thought it would be interesting to look at a teaser trailer for such a well known film and see how much of the story line they gave away etc. One of the main things I have noticed about this trailer is that it has the non diegetic soundtrack playing throughout and the rest of the sound is cut out apart from some dialogue and voice overs.
The trailer starts with the familiar image of the Warner Bros. Pictures logo, the non diegetic soundtrack starts, the theme tune for this film and the rest of the Harry Potter series has become extremely well known since this film. This then fades to black and then fades to an image of a grate on a door, the room is dark and the only light is coming from the slightly opened grate. A boy around the age of 11 rushes out of the darkness and tries to look out of the room, there is then a voice over which states; 'There's no such thing as magic' This is a clear genre indicator, the audience may not know this film is the well known book 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone' yet but they now that the film is of the fantasy genre. The grate is the closed dramatically and the sound of this is enhanced for that effect, the room is the in complete darkness. The image of the Warner Brothers logo the appears once more, owls start flying towards the camera as the logo slowly fades away (there is the diegetic sound of owl hoots as the fly towards the camera), once one owl has flown so close to the camera that you can just see its eyes the trailer cuts to a high angle shot of the boy in the dark room (Harry) surrounded by letters and more are falling around him, he is jumping trying to catch one. There is then a mid shot of Harry as he catches a letter, the trailer the cuts to a CU of the letter in his hands, the audience can now see 'Mr Potter' and the address on the envelope, this would tell the audience who have read the books what film this trailer is advertising. The scene may also give away to film as it is described in the novel. The writing on the letter is old fashioned, this would indicate to the people who hadn't heard of Harry Potter that the letter is of importance. It is in this shot that a voice over starts; 'Dear Mr. Potter,' this indicates to the audience that the person speaking in the voice over is reading the letter, as the letter is moved across the screen, this is used as a cut away and the next shot is of a steam train facing the camera, on the front of it is says 'Hogwarts express' this is another indicator to the book, there is diegetic sound of this train and then there is a sequence of shots including a mind shot and a long shot to show that the train is moving. The voice over continues; 'you have been excepted' there is then a fade to black 'to Hogwarts' the screen then fades to the image of the train arriving at a darkly light station, this tells the audience that time has past as the other images of the train have been in day light. There is one man on the station and as the train pulls up he slowing walks down the station away from the camera. The voice over continues; 'School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' there is then another fade to black.
The trailer then fades to the image of huge doors being opened to revile a great hall with rows of students sitting at long tables. A women wearing black and a witched hat leads the new students who also wear black into the great hall. This is shot from a high angle looking down on the students and the camera tracks after them as they walk, this gives the impression that the camera is flying of floating in mid air, very supernatural. The only light is from the fires around the hall and the corridors outside of it, this also looks very old fashioned; no electricity. As this is happening the voice over continues; 'Soon you and your class mates will join us here and your education in magical arts shall begin.' There is the a shot of a Ron, people who have read the books would recognise as Ron, he is standing with Harry as the listen to someone talking, Harry then looks over towards the camera, there is the a mid shot of Prof. Snape starring at Harry, the camera tracks towards him to show his importance in the story line and possible danger, this then cuts to a mid shot of Prof. Mcgonagall, she is wearing a typical witches hat to make it clear the the audience that she is magical. There is then a mid shot which tracks to CU of Dumbledore, he is wearing brighter colours which stops him from seeming dangerous like Snape did, he raises his goblet towards the camera.
The trailer the cuts to a CU of a lock on a door, the room is dark, the door then gets knocked down and there is lightning flashes as a shadow fills the doorway. It then cuts to a frightened but comical looking man and women, the man is holding a gun. It then cuts so a frightened boy in his pajamas cowering in the corner. Then the image of Hagrid appears as he walks towards the camera. These main characters need no introduction for the people who have read the book, therefore the trailer does not waste time in trying to explain who each character is. The trailer then cuts to a high angle shot of a posh looking place (a bank) the camera the tracks after Hagrid and Harry as they walk through this place, this is another example of when the camera seems as if it is flying. The camera then cuts to floor level and looks at at the goblins at their desks as they look down at the camera, this could be a shot from Harry's point of view. There is then a shot of Harry walking with Hagrid looking around the bank with a sort of disbelief expression on his face.
The trailer then cuts to a mid shot of Ron looking confused and a feather floating in front of his face, a wand is also half in shot, this the cuts to Herminone, she was the one holding the wand, this is another example of how the main characters are introduced through their clothing, looks and stereotype (e.g. Hagrid is big, Ron is a bit dumb and Herminone is smart etc). There is the a high angle shot looking down on the class as the feather floats towards the camera. This fades to a shot of Harry, Ron and Herminone walking with Hargid, it is a long shot and the audience can see a castle in the background, this shows the location. This shot fades to a tracking long shot of Harry walking in the snow with an owl on his arm, this also shows the location but also what time of year it is set. This then cuts to a mid shot of Harry and the owl as he walks towards the camera. There is then a long shot of two people and a dog walking through a forest, it is night time and the figures are in shadow, this makes the trailer mysterious. There is thena shot of Hagrid dragging a large Christmas tree towards the castle, this also shows the time in which the film is set.
There is then an over the shoulder shot of another main character, Draco Malfoy. This cuts to a quick shot of a goblin looking down at someone, there is then a shot of Harry, Ron and Herminone screaming at something and running away, this shows that the film will have some action in it and this will help it appeal to a wider audience. The trailer then cuts to them running through a class room in a different scene, this insinuates the friendship of the characters as they are all together is both of these shots. The next sequence of shots are to do with flying and 'quiditch' this is something that is strongly focused on in the books. Over the end of these shots there is a new voice over; 'Harry, you're the boy who lived.' It then cuts to Hagrid saying this and then shows Harry's confused expression. The last shots of the teaser trailer are in the great hall, it shows all the students throwing their hats in the air like they would at the end of the year, this tells the audience already that the characters survive their first year and insinuates they will be back again. There is then a mid shot of Harry laughing while this is going on. There is a lightning bolt and the title of the film appears are the non diegetic soundtrack seems to start again from the begining and it is also louder. There are dark clouds in the background, an owl once again flies at the camera and when its gone the title has been replaced with 'The magic begins' these words then fade away and the word 'soon' appears.
Something from this trailer that we plan to use in our trailer is that this trailer has one soundtrack which plays all the way through and most of the other sound (apart from voice overs and that one bit of dialogue) is completely cut out. This is what we planned to do in our trailer also.
Rach.
No comments:
Post a Comment