This analysis will be focussing on the teaser trailer for ‘Grace’ produced and directed by Paul Solet and made in 2009, Grace is a chilling horror movie, which was distributed by a number companies one of them being Leomax Entertainment (2009,USA). The teaser trailer is 59 seconds in length, which is not to past the ‘sixty second mark’.
Madeline Matheson mother of Grace is eight months pregnant and determined to have a baby having had already unsuccessfully tried to get pregnant with her husband Michael. She finally succeeds; Madeline decides she wants to be assisted by a midwife Patricia Lang for the birth despite the insistence of her mother-in-law Vivian who prefers her obstetrician Dr. Richard Sohn.
Michael and Madeline have a car accident and Madeline is left with the deaths of her husband and unborn child regardless of the tragic loss Madeline insists on carrying the baby’s corpse to term, Patricia the midwife accepts her decision to pretend a still birth however weeks later when Madeline delivers the baby, miraculously baby Grace is brought back to life.
The teaser opens with the non diegetic sound of Madeline mothers- in- law Vivian Matheson played by Gabrielle Rose who is explaining what has happened to baby Grace and her concerns about her a transition occurs when the scene fades out leaving Madeline Matheson mother of baby grace played by Jordon Ladd, the setting is in baby Grace’s room where the orange walls are bare, only having a clock and three small paintings in the background. The camera shot size is a medium close up, this is a connotation of Madeline and baby Grace being in their own world.
In Graces room low key lighting is used, the only lighting used was coming through the window, the light only hits Madeline on one side of her body, connotations of Madeline having a dark side to her, that being selfish even though she see’s her baby is suffering she some how forces her too live in pain because she isn’t strong enough to let her go.
From the start a denotation of Madeline’s tilted neck already connotes despair while looking at her sickly baby, the mood is set once the first string is plucked giving an eerie oar in the room, Madeline is dressed in a sleeveless yellow baby doll dress, on one side of the dress their is large blood stain presumably for baby Grace’s sake, this shows the drastic difference in Grace’s health and well being is abnormal in comparison to other infants.
Madeline is fearful about losing her baby (another child) worry also shows on her facial expression, non verbal communication, about how the set up of her parenting looks, Madeline also shows signs of hope that Grace lives through the night as she lays in her cot.
The camera is positioned straight on to give the impression of a low height. The camera gradually gets lower until behind the white bars of baby Grace’s crib, which symbolises that Grace is held prisoner by her mother, the scene then fades out to reveal the mattress of baby Grace the camera slowly crabs towards the left showing bit by bit a pool of damp blood which trails back to her mouth.
At this point Grace’s grandmother is still projecting non-diegetic sounds of her having a conversation with someone else about her concerns about baby Grace’s welfare. The words “ This woman raising my granddaughter” are last to be said by Madeline’s mother –in- law by referring to Madeline as “This woman” instead of mother of Grace which suggests that Vivian does respect nor trust her granddaughter with her birth mother and therefore believes she can do a better job.
Grandmother Vivian is being portrayed as a villain by wanting to take away a child from its mother however some would see Vivian simply playing the concerned grandmother who only has Grace’s best interests at heart; her worry and intervention have gone worse due to the fact that Madeline has bombarded herself in the house her and her late husband once lived in.
Fading away slowly is the non diegetic sound of grandmother Vivian and the incidental music of violins playing, the shot finally shows Grace’s face, this lead up to Grace has created suspense where then the audience can see Grace lying in her cot a moment of silence is heard when finally Grace takes a deep breath and the diegetic sound of her gurgle is heard, a sound as if Grace is in pain, a sign perhaps to her mother for Madeline to just let her die instead of suffering.
Baby Grace is wearing white, infant sized pyjamas and wrapped in her cotton blanker the white symbolises Grace is innocence and defenceless against her mother’s love. There is blood running down Grace’s mouth which came from her mother’s bleeding breast while breast feeding her this is clue that the sickness that Grace has, has come from her mother.
The form of editing used throughout the trailer was fade in and out which were slow, the reason for this was to create a climax up to the point where by baby Grace was seen in an alarming setting were blood was in her mouth as well as surrounding her in her cot, this worked well with the tempo of the soundtrack to drive the editing and create said climax.
The trailer ends with Grace breathing heavily, connotation’s of pain and then taking one last breath before gurgling, the soundtrack and the shot of Grace fades out quickly to black, which was effectively edited to leave abruptly therefore leaving the audience to ponder about what the plot of the story may be. The pace of the trailer is slow, this has an impact on the audience because it leaves them in suspense and once the trailer has ended it then leaves them wanting more out of the story and as a result wanting to watch the whole film.
The reason for the trailer being played before the release is to create a buzz among a target audience and therefore allow the audience to anticipate the full film and gradually word of mouth starts to spread, none the less trailers do not tell people everything they need to know about the film so that the story line is not given away however more information can be found from cinema websites e.g. ODEON or general film website sites that contain the films synopsis/plot e.g. IMDB.
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