RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Wolfman Trailer

I chose to analyse this trailer because it is of the horror/thriller/supernatural genre and these elements could be useful for our teaser trailer.
Next to the trailer on YouTube there is a summary of the film, it states: "Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself-one he never imagined existed."

Below I have made basic notes on the trailer:

• • There is a non diegetic soundtrack – rock genre – tense
  • There is then the Universal sign with the world – the word turn to clouds and the world turns to a moon – genre and plot line indicator
  • There is a voice over, over this “She exerts enormous power doesn’t she?”
  • Fade to black
  • Cuts to a man who looks like he is in pain – sitting on a bed in dungeon – man standing in shadow
  • CU of moon light through barred window – low angle shows power of the moon – genre
  • Different VO – “Do you believe in curses?” – fade to black
  • CU of the man lying on the bed – in pain – he was the man who spoke
  • Mid shot of old man in dungeon – he laughs
  • There is then a establishing shot of an old house – not well looked after – creepy looking
  • Man who was in pain walking towards the house – outside – daytime but dark - grey
  • Cuts to the old man walking through the house – there are prisoners – men with shot guns – danger – darkly lit
  • Cuts to show stone floor – could be wall – cantered angle – shadow
  • Swipe cut to forest – orange glow – mist
  • High angle of stream train – cut to man in a carriage of train – looks dangerous – cuts to CU of him taking out bullets
  • Point of View shot - holding a torch (flame) - in a cave?
• fade to shot of half changed man climbing up onto a bed
• cuts to shot of women - sex appeal - lit by candles
• Cuts to old man he leans towards camera - goes from mid shot to CU
• High angle shot of carriage - shows wheels and horses legs - actual carriage is not show - mystery
• Long shot - night time - full moon - see man standing on rock edge
• Long shot of man running away from the camera - wolfman hand appears at side of the screen
• Black screen with caption: BENICIO DEL TORO
• Extreme CU of mans eye - bulges into wolfman eye
• Cut to wold hand - it brakes and dislocates - genre scary - diegetic sound of cracking bones
• Black Screen with caption: ANTHONY HOPKINS
• Low angle of the old man (Hopkins) - shows his importance in the film
• Black screen with caption: EMILY BLUNT
• Mid shot of Blunt in the woods - camera tracks towards her - she looks afraid
• Black screen with caption: HUGO WEARING
• Mid shot of Wearing with people running and screaming around him - diegetic sound
• Cuts to wolfman jumping from buildings - mid shot as he lands on a gargoyle - see whole of the wolf
• cuts to black screen - the soundtrack changes slightly
• Tracking behind men wheeling the wolfman - he is strapped to a table
• Upside down shot of wolf man - in pain
• There is then another VO, old man speaks "Never look back Lance, never look back"
• over the top of shot of gardens - animals made out of the bushes - camera CU of lion (could be wolf?)
• fade to black
• Old man walking in the gardens - CU of moon then cuts to old man and 'lance' looking through a telescope at moon
• The wolfman is locked in a room - CU of lock
• fade to black
• the next montage of shots show what looks like to be a torture room - wolfman is strapped to achair - see CU of hands changing - during this there is the VO of the old man: "run free" "kill or be killed"
• POV shot of wolf attacking a man and then there is a low angle shot of the wolfman attacking him
• black screen with caption: FROM UNIVERSAL PICTURE
• the next montage shows the wolfman after he had changed - torn clothes - shows men running through woods hunting the wolf - CU of shot gun - mid shots of hunters - then a man being chased by wolf in the woods
• Another supernatural part of the film is shown - stone women moves - genre indicator
• Black screen with caption: WHEN THE MOON IS FULL
• the next shots show villages running and screaming - diegetic sound -shows the wolfman being hit by men - mix of mid shots long shots CUs - an ExCU of eye - there is a quick shot of the wolfs face - intrigues the audience
• During this there is another black screen with a caption: THE LEGEND COMES TO LIFE
• There are shots of the wolf man being tortured - hard to watch - horror genre
• action genre - wolfman fighting - jumping from roofs
• There are shots of the man and the women - romance part of the film - shot of wolf man standing over her
• CU of wolf through the fire - danger
• Shots show the women crying and having to be held back and the hunters with their shot guns in the woods and men fighting the wolf
• Black screen: THE WOLFMAN the O is a moon
• cuts back to wolf in forest - VO - "It's glorious isn't it?"
• Cuts to credits and then to black screen with only 02:12:10 on it

There is a non diegetic soundtrack throughout this trailer - the soundtrack slightly changes half way through but returns to its original soon after. There is the diegetic sound of people screaming, bones cracking and the wolfman growling at various points in the trailer - this builds tension. The editing is extremely quick with some shots lasting no longer than 2 seconds - every scene in the trailer is darkly lit even when filmed in the day time, looks very grey and dark - makes the film seem more scary. This trailer is successful in attracting the audience to the film and it clearly shows that this is a horror supernatural film with romance and action elements.

Rach.