Film Trailer Analysis

Shahid Islam

• Darkness is portrayed a lot throughout the trailer as it signifies a dark and evil entity close-by, which is an easy approach to frighten the audience.

• A Box in a dark, empty loft; this indicates an evil atmosphere as there lays a box abandoned in the middle of the attic – also suggests you should always avoid this instead of approaching it.

• Video tapes – showing multiple videos of victims being brutally murdered.

• Notice Board – Keeping all his notes of the killing and linking the deaths together to the find the killer.

• Evil Entity – A devilish, suited man pops up throughout the trailer, indicating he is the masked murderer. This pops up rapidly to frighten the audience.

• Lock – To protect himself and his family from the visicious entity.

• Weapons – An axe, knife and sharp objects dripping with blood

• Family Tree – A video of a family being hanged together on a tree

Sinister SAW Conventions

• Camera – The camera is a convention as it took pictures of the crime scene. The flash is also a convention which was used to identify the murdered scene investigation in the dark – The flash provided the light to see.

• Old Bathroom – Two men were found locked up in an Old, disgusting, trapped bathroom. This is where the scene was set.

• Old TV – The TV is a main convention used. This is where all the murderous plots were carried out from by a mysterious doll. The doll would talk to his victims and give them daunting tasks and torture them through the TV.

• Timer – There was a timer set for when they had to complete their tasks by. Failure of doing so would lead to deathly consequences.

• Newspaper – The newspaper was used to identify and question the mask killer, ‘Jigsaw’

• Hacksaw – A hacksaw was the only weapon the victims had to escape. Jigsaw didn’t want them cutting through the chains, he wanted them to cut through their feet to escape.

• Chains – To Stop the victims escaping.

• Establishing Shot – This is used to set the scene of the movie. The house is shown as the main, horrific events happen at this residence.

• Fade-out Shots - These are continuous shots of the family, showing who the victims of the residence are. They fade out after showing each individual family member to reminisce them.

• High-Angle Shot – This shot was used on the protagonist as it looked down on him. This was to make him seem weaker and more vulnerable, making him inferior to the antagonist/haunted house.

• Low-Angle Shot – This shot was used on the antagonist, as they look up to him, making him a threat and more superior than the victims. This shows the audience who is the greater threat.

• Close-up Shot – The close-up shot was used to show the expression and emotions on the protagonist’s face. It shows the deep pain, struggle and sadness in his face. This shows a strong message to the audience.

Sinister SAWCamera Work

• Close-up Shot – A close up shot was used on the protagonists face to show his emotions such as pain. This also shows how he was sweating because he was nervous and scared. Using a close-up shot shows a better view of the characters emotions.

• Long shot – This shot was used to show the full screen and area the characters were in. This was used when the characters were locked up in the toiletry area, to show their surroundings and the scenery of their location.

• High-Angle Shot – ‘Saw’ also uses high-angle shots to show the characters are weaker than the antagonist. The shot makes the protagonists vulnerable and inferior. This shot is very effective.

• Panning Shot – This camera movement scans the camera horizontally. In the trailer ‘Saw’ this panning shot is effectively used to scan the room/location of the torturing acts.

• Order of Shots – The editor used a shot editing technique, which shows the killing of the characters and a build up of crazy scenes all happening one after the other. This is used to build rapid tension for the audience. It’s a useful editing technique used to engage the shots to the audience.

• Shot Duration – The shots used in this film trailer were short and snappy. This is to not waste time and show the viewers what this film is exactly about. This builds up speed and fast shots, in a small duration to keep the viewers interested.

• Pace and Rhythm – The pace and rhythm of the shots were done on purpose to keep the trailer rolling smoothly. The pace of the shots were decided on its length to guide the viewers in their emotional response to the scene.

• Continuity – The continuous shots of the antagonist were shown to create tension. This was done briefly throughout the trailer continuously to engage the audience to a frightful view of the antagonist.

Sinister SAWEditing

• Order of shots – The editor used this order of shot technique to build up tension within the trailer. They specifically arrange the shots in order of how it will build up pressure for the audience.

• Dissolve/Cross Fade Transition– They used this editing technique to slowly change the shots whilst having a smooth transition. This is done in a way which makes the images look like its dissolving to one shot to another.

• Cutaway – There were a few cutaway scenes throughout this trailer to give the audience a chance to take a break from the horror content. This was also used to build back up the tension within the scenes and scare the audience.

• Shot Duration – The editor took time with the duration of the shots and dragged the length of the shots to make the audience more aware of the scenes. This gives the viewers more time to visualise the scenes. This was done to keep the trailer long lasting and interesting.

• Diegetic – There is a mixture of both Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound used within the trailer. The Diegetic sound was varied and only used a couple times during the beginning of the trailer. This was just the characters speaking to each other happily.

• Non-Diegetic – There was plenty of non-diegetic sound such as dramatic sound effects and background music to build up tension throughout the trailer. Without these background sound and music, the trailer would just be bland and boring.

• Volume Control – Volume control was used to keep the background noises/sounds under control and maintained. It was also used to know when to keep a high or low volume control for the audience and its sounds.

• Foley – In the trailer the editor used Foley sound effects, which was used to create naturalistic sound, such as the weapons used e.g. axe and also to imitate the sounds of other objects. This engages the viewers and keeps them interested in the trailer. Making it also seem realistic.

Sinister SAWSound

• Non-Diegetic – In the movie Saw they use a range of non-diegetic sound to create dramatic tension with the audience. These are the background sounds which build up throughout the trailer and you can tell when the action is going to happen due to the pace and volume control of the non-diegetic sounds.

• Diegetic – Throughout the Saw trailer there isn’t much diegetic sounds such as talking and voices. There was just a couple through the trailer when the antagonist ‘Jigsaw’ speaks to the victims saying ‘I wanna play a game’. And also the victims screaming when trapped in the room.

• Pleonastic Sound – There were a range of pleonastic sounds throughout the trailer to build up excitement, fear and tension. They used this background sound to build up the music to affect the audiences reaction.

• Silence – there is also a lot of silence throughout the scenes to build up suspense and get a reaction from the audience.

The genre of Sinister is horror. This is blatantly obvious when watching this movie because of its horrifying content and dark conventions. The movie kicks in straight away with a creepy haunted house, and then it slowly builds up with a dark, scary atmosphere such as dark hallway, abandoned rooms and an empty, dark attic with just a box of tapes in the middle.

It was easy to identify that this was a horror film. As you gradually watch the film trailer you eventually see a dark, suited figure popping up throughout the trailer. This builds up intensity and scare within the audience.

At this point, you see all the conventions come into place to realise that this is in the horror genre. You see a tall, evil antagonist, screaming kids, tapes of victims being brutally murdered, sharp axe with blood on it and cars being lit on fire. At this point of the trailer, viewers will be able to identify that this is a horror film as of all the conventions and horrifying content shown.

Sinister SAWGenre

The genre of Saw is obviously horror and you can tell by this easily due to its graphic content and the goriness it has throughout the trailer/movie. The movie displays continuous slaughtering and bloody content such as saws with blood on, a man cutting his leg off, a character trapped in barbed wire and various horrifying content.

It’s easy to identify that this movie was a horror due to all these conventions. Also another thing that gives it away that it is horror is the fact that every scene had a dark atmosphere and dark colours throughout. This can easily be told that it is a horror film as it makes the audience scared and uneasy due to the dark scenery. This was done on purpose to build up tension and a build up for fearful parts of the trailer.

Near enough to the end of the trailer you can finally tell this trailer is in the horror category due to its characters too. This can be seen by the scared look on victims faces and also scary, masked antagonists.

Throughout this Trailer you can tell it is a Horror film and what the storyline is about. This makes it easier to understand and more interesting to watch the trailer. The films reviews and titles that appear in the trailer also make it aware of how frightening the movie is and also what it is about. The movie used different elements to how it should make the audience aware of its genre and storyline. The way the protagonist first found the case of tapes; this automatically is known as the source of the attacks and killing of victims. The tapes show different victims being brutally killed and once you view the tapes, it will always stay with you and make you the next victim to the collection of tapes. The storyline is straightforward and is explained to the audience through its dialogue. It’s hard hitting and the tapes show how the movie slowly unfolds and shows the audience what is it about and its moral of the storyline.

Sinister SAWNarrative

Throughout this trailer it shows very high level of graphic content and you are able to tell it is in the horror category. The trailer is jumpy and carefully detailed and edited to appeal to the audience. This film is mainly about people who have done wrong in their life and have seemed to have gotten away with it. But this finally backfires when a brutal murderer known as ‘Jigsaw’, hunts them down and makes them suffer for their consequences.

This movie is all about a brutal game, which the murder Jigsaw, who uses his Puppet/Doll persona to introduce his game to the victims via videotapes/television. The storyline is based on victims who done bad things in their life have to suffer for them, as they have to battle through a dangerous game, which could end their life if they don’t escape within the time limit.

The movie sinister has a strong moral to the story and represents pain, murder, innocence and torture.

In Sinister it shows eager protagonists who move into a new house, unaware that it has a trail of secrets and deception. This house has countless murders and the main protagonist still knowing that it is a murder mystery household, he still puts his family at risk and chooses to investigate.

This movie represents stupidity within the protagonist and heroism. The main character tried to be a hero and solve the murder mysteries but ended up unveiling and awakening a dark spiritual creature and put his family in great danger. The movie tells people that, if there is something untold and kept hidden/secretive, then it should remain that way, instead of trying to investigate it yourself. This led all the protagonists dead and another mystery added onto the trail of murders in that household.This trailer represented fear and suffering for your consequences.

Sinister SAWRepresentation

This movie represents torture and suffering. This is based on if you have done wrong in your past then you will not be able to hide from it as there is a man who will make you suffer for your sins.

This also represents pain and suffering for the victims as they are brutally killed and have a slow, painful death. They become helpless and try to fight for their life to escape but it is merely impossible to do so.

The ‘Saw’ used in the first Saw movie represents their two meanings; firstly the saws that were being used in the first movie. This saw was used for the victims to escape through their chains by thinking they had to cut through the chains, but really had to cut through their feet. The saw used is the main representation that is shown as it represents their escape. Secondly the main character, who is also the main antagonist, murderer and the game planner, who goes the by name ‘Jigsaw’. This means puzzling through the game and also part of his name ‘Saw’ for the movie title.

The Institutions were shown at the end of the film. The institutions were, ‘Alliance Films’, ‘Blumhouse Productions’ and ‘Summit’.

These institutions/production companies are immensely popular and are responsible for one of the top horror films. They have worked with movies such as Insidious, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity, The Purge and many more. These have been hit horror films and made them tons of money. But these three worked together to produce and accompany the movie Sinister and made it one of the frightening, scariest and disturbing horror film out so far.

As our film trailer is based on a horror genre, these institutions will best suit us and out trailer.

Sinister SAWInstitutions

The main institution for the movie ‘Saw’ was displayed at the start of the movie, to make the viewers aware of their company logo/institution who helped with the making/production of the film.

The institutions involved with this film are ‘Lionsgate’ and ‘Twisted Pictures’. But the main institution is ‘Twisted Pictures’ and the viewers would be able to tell by this because in the trailer it shows ‘Twisted Pictures’ first and it is enlarged for the viewers and also shows the full animated introduction for the production company for a decent amount of time.

Twisted Pictures’ is known for popular horror films such as ‘Dead Silence’, ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and the ‘Saw’ series. They’re also known just mainly for the horror genre, hence the name ‘Twisted Pictures’ and its logo having evil conventions.

The values and ideology for Sinister is predictable and about teaching the protagonist a lesson.

In Sinister the character Ellison Oswalt (Played by Ethan Hawke) is a washed up, true crime writer and to write up and investigate this new murder mystery, he moves into the murdered family home, putting his family at risk also just for his washed-up career.

He well enough knew the house was in a bad condition, especially containing many family murders with a mystery killer. This would normally scare of many people but he still went along and bought that house knowing his family would be put at risk.After this, his house started coming alive and had a paranormal being living amongst the house. Then later his family all died one by one; adding another family murder mystery. The moral of the story is, don’t put your family at risk for your ego/washed-up job and don’t move to a murdered household to investigate something which is best left alone.

Sinister SAWValues and Ideology

The moral of the story of ‘Saw’ is pretty obvious and disturbing. This sets the story that if you have done something seriously bad In your past, that something you have gotten away with then you will always suffer the consequences. This movie also tells you that you can never get away with anything you have done and especially if there is a psycho-man searching and hunting down people who have done something seriously wrong in their past.

There is always someone watching your actions and even if you think you cam get away with it, someone will make you suffer for your actions. And in this movie, a sick man makes that person suffer more than they deserve but gives them a chance to redeem themselves. This is done by them playing his brutal game and trying to escape impossible limits to brutality in a set time limit. If they fail to do so, they lose their life…that is what could happen if you do something undoubtedly terrible that it could cost you your life.