All trailers are a type of advertisements hoping to entice its target audience into watching a particular movie. To do this a good trailer can do either one of two things:
- A trailer may contain everything you need to know about the film, everything that happens, so there is very little surprises, yet intrigue the audience to watch it anyways.
- It can give snippets of information, in a sequence which leaves the audience with little idea as to what happens but in doing so leaves the audience in suspense.
Either way still captivating its audience, in some cases a trailer can use aspects of both.
Inception Trailer (2010)
Now, this trailer does the latter very well. Although the trailer illustrates enough to grasp the general theme and genre of the film, the non-chronological snippets suggests a non-linear narrative. As Inception is a combination of genres- Sci-fi, Adventure, Action Thriller- after the green screen containing audience certificate information.
- A black Warner Bros symbol, sets the scene already suggesting mystery. Which is then zoomed in an rotated revealing it to be an animated version of an American city instantly setting the scene to the audience.
- The non-diegetic slowly building like a countdown beginning petering along, I like the way it creates a false sense of security to begin with- equilibrium.
- In contrast the opening close up of crashing blue waves, a serene shot followed by a close up of a bruised Leonardo DiCaprio (Dom Cobb) face down on a beach. As his voice over begins to introduce himself. Highlighting to the audience the protagonist
- Cuts to a new scene continuously contrasting from the last. From light to dark mise-en-scene, mood lighting. Such as the beach scene to Chinese interior and a mid-shot panning DiCaprio entering into a room wearing a suit-ideology-I like the imbalance of light and dark in each scene, it creates new atmospheres.
- Close ups of DiCaprio's facial expressions, close ups of weapons, other Famous cast members including Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon- Levitt and Tom Hardy intensifies the anticipation. As the music builds suggesting disequilibrium approaching.
- A black out, interrupting the continuity, a loud menacing horn as the director's name in white and the previous film success emphasising the importance of both to the audience.
- From this point onward the duration of shots gets shorter, as the regularity of cuts increase as the music continues to dabble between to notes, which is continuously interrupted by the horn, however the juxtaposing calm voice over is lulling. I like the way this heightens the uncertainty, creates more suspense and mystery. I think I could use this concept in my own work.
- As the voice over explains the concept of "inception" and it being illegal is mimicked to some extent through the intense, explosive and unexplained scenes, contrasting between fast action to slow motions and a romance scenes - between DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard).
- The crescendo in the music at crucial line " I'm ready" opens the door for the action enigmas used.
- Other crucial lines; "The dream is collapsing" and "I have it under control" at which point the action mirrors this, crashes, explosions- not only foreshadowing what's to come but creates confusion.
- From this point there's a lot more low angle shots of DiCaprio looking more vulnerable and clearly out of control juxtaposing his lines.
- Later on black outs again accompanied by the horn of the main start studded cast. contrasting black and white. I think an on going theme that highlights the theme could be used in my work.
- The title of the movie is only seen in the last 20 seconds of the trailer but mentioned throughout. I like that it's the thing that's memorability factor, the font is large white and to some extent reflects a futuristic maze within each letter.
- After the movie title there is one more scene not involving DiCaprio but Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in a gun scene, this juxtaposes from the rest of the themes, adding underlying comedy in the movie
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