RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Silence of the Lambs Teaser Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OKARuRfWis (embedding not enabled)


The teaser trailer gives little away in terms of the narrative, however it does deliver a general gist as to how it sets itself up. This "gist" is told to us by the narrator by speaking the lines,


"Trapped in a killer's world. Guided by a madman's logic. Searching for a victim's cry."


On the outside it appears to be a rather simple description, however consider what it tells the audience. Trapped, Guided, Searching. The protagonist, Jodie Foster, has become part of Hannibal Lecter's (Anthony Hopkins) world. She's guided by his clues and ideas to aid her in finding a victim of another madman. If you look at it carefully, it tells the audience that the protagonist allies with a killer, perhaps in attempts to get in the mind of another. This alone is interesting to look into as it's not too often good/evil combine. This may be read in various ways by the audience either negative or positive. (Future post to come on this!)


As for what can be seen, there isn't a great deal although it is relevant to both the plot and poster. As the narrator speaks, wings flap across the screen, acting as a transition which open up to credentials which fade into a rotating image. Only as these wings flap more, does the image slowly come into the view - various woman in different poses in a seemingly artistic painting. A few seconds later, the image fully rotates into view as these woman slowly zoom out to reveal the design of a moth's body and the wings flapping to the side of it. At this time, it's also clear that the position of these woman form what appears to be a skull, again a reference to the thriller genre and theme of death. As Silence of the Lambs is displayed across the screen, the image returns once again of the moth as it quickly zooms out to display Jodie Foster with the moth over her mouth - the same as the poster.


Overall the teaser trailer is effective as it does create interest as well as give some of the narrative away if you look into the script and depictions enough. This is rather different to our teaser trailer as I feel we may not have been quite subtle enough in terms of revealing some of the narrative. We were a little in-your-face with the details however having said that, we did leave a lot to be answered with our enigmatic scenes.


-Dale