Textual Analysis - Trailer - Chelsea

Movie trailer analysis: The eye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaVjs1OAvRs

For my analysis I have chosen the film ‘The Eye’ In my research of the film I found out that it was a re-make of the Hong Kong film “Jian Gui” which has the same storyline as “The Eye” about a women who has been blind since the age of 5 that undergoes a transplant to regain her sight. However she starts to get disturbing visions as her sight returns. The film was directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud and the trailer is 72 seconds long. It was distributed by Lionsgate and Paramount Vantage.

This film is a horror/thriller and low key lighting is used in the trailer throughout. It opens with a medium shot of a woman’s back then sharply turns into a long shot of a woman walking down the road in the pouring rain. There are non digetic sounds of thunder which indicates something bad is to follow. The woman in this shot is wearing sunglasses, even though there is no sun and it’s raining and is using a stick to see were she is walking so we are lead to believe that she is blind if we had no idea of what the film is about.

There is a close up shot of the woman’s face behind a window of rain with the camera slowly zooming out so we get a clearer view, we also see that her eyes are a rare shade of blue which relate to her blindness. She then starts reaching for the window and holds on as if there is something on the other side however us as the audience can not see anything so then we start to think that maybe she is seeing things. There are low background sounds and fades are used slowly to bring in a new shot, which work effectively alongside the sounds as it is chilling. After the first 20seconds of the trailer the pace starts to build up and the shots become quicker and the sounds become faster. The non digetic sounds continue and almost sound like heartbeats which could reflect on how the character may be scared which contrasts with the scene in the hospital as the woman ‘Jessica Alba’ looks as if she has undergone an operation as the doctors are removing bandages and she is in hospital clothing.

They also have another sound over the “heartbeat” which turns into a slight wind chime sound which creates mystery and the two sounds working in cannon could show that the character is not alone and some sort of sprit is with her. The eyes are shown a lot which reflect on the title of the film, they stand out to be bright blue which make it more eye catching and make them look as if they are not real. There is also a close up of one of the eyes with a laser reflecting and then we get to see the point of view of the character which shows that she has blurry vision so we can suspect that the operation went wrong. The editing of this shot helps us as the audience see the point of view of the character, we feel like we can see what she see’s and this helps to draw the audience into the film and create a connection. We can expect that some of the film takes place in a hospital as it looks as if this character is being treated for her blindness. As the film is called the “eye” we can assume that whatever takes place and what mysteries are revealed have something to do with and linked to the characters eye. Also throughout the trailer the character squints her eyes many times as if they are causing her problems or she is in pain, this alongside the fact that she does not ever smile gives us clue that this woman is not happy and she is experiencing troubles.

We see the character that was blind driving a car after being in hospital so she must have had an operation on her eyes to make her regain her sight. Then things start to appear and we as the audience do not know if it’s a figure of her imagination or if the eyes are causing these problems and if she is part of paranormal experiences.

The shots are quick and flashy which builds up the tension for the audience. There is no dialogue in this trailer and the only sound is the non digetic sound. This works as we can focus on what’s going on in the trailer rather than what’s being said and it also means we can see the character without becoming to connected with who she is, as if she was talking in the film it would reveal too much and a teaser trailers purpose is to create a buzz around the film not too know the whole story. The pace of the music builds up with the quick pace and change of the shots which work well as it could reflect that things are happening very fast and are becoming out of control. The low key lightening shows a dark side to the film and contrasts with the genre and the low key lighting is meant to have an effect on the audience as it creates more of a scene and makes it more possible for the audience to become scared as darkness creates an eerie feeling.

There is a long shot of the character alone in the house in the dark, this shot worked well as we can see how alone she is, the amount of space around her shows her weakness as she is made to look small in a big room, it could indicate that she is in the world alone and has been left to fight what is happening to her by herself. So there is a theme of loneliness throughout the trailer. All of a sudden in the same room we see things like the furniture moving and changing position rapidly so you don’t know whether its you eyes playing ticks on you or can the character see this or even we could be in the position of the character and see what she is seeing, so this clip is effectual as it creates mystery as we are left confused just like the character.

The character then begins to reach out for something as if she can see something but nothing is there so then the idea that she can see things really starts to kick in from here. With the following shot being a medium close up of fire blowing up in her face which sharply cuts to her suddenly rising from bed as if it was all a dream looking frightened, these shots are so quick that it becomes hard to concentrate. Editing and effects are used to show an old grey haired woman standing in what looks to be a hospital corridor, the woman is blurry and the camera swiftly zooms in and out once with Sydney once again trying to reach out. The paleness of her face and facial expression show how worried she is. Non verbal communication is a big aspect of this trailer as there is no dialogue and only NVC, non digetic sound and camera shots to give us clues. It becomes obvious that her operation has not turned out as well as expected. As hazy images start to appear in the distance and the pace is at full speed. The editing used contrasts with the whole idea of “eyes” as it shows the characters eye sight and point of view. It helps us to form a connection with the character as the point of view shots are used; the audience are experiencing these events with her.

From this point the pace becomes even more intense and speedy; we see many different scenes and settings in a short space of time including a car crash, so the idea of “speedy” pace and a car crash could link together. The music also changes and becomes more consistent as it sound like many different instruments are being played and it sounds like an actual tune. This also contrast with the pace as the music is fluent and at points becomes louder at points but with there being no pauses or decrease in volume it could connotates that something drastic is happening and a sense of fear is created. It builds up an image of this woman trying to escape from what is happening, which links to the following shot of the character running down a hallway, with a long shot hooded man following behind, this character is not revealed as clothing is covering up everything which has a good effect as it is only the main character we see throughout the film so the focal point is on her. The intensity starts to build up and a disturbing image is show of two feet dangling in the air, which depicts that someone has hung themselves or has been hung.

Towards the end there is around four shots of the character in different settings of her looking angry and frustrated this is shown through her facial expressions and movement of her throwing objects and grabbing on to things, this character is looking very distressed which creates sympathy as she is going through all of this alone. One shot I found very interesting was after she had become angry there is a close up of the character opening one eye and it streaming with water the eye was a different colour to how it was in the beginning of the trailer which shows that it is the eye she must have been given in the transplant, then there is a prompt zoom right into the eye. I found this worked as it had build up how angry she was becoming and she wanted to do something about it and it seemed as if us as the audience was the mirror she was looking in which helped us to feel more involved.

In the last 12 seconds the pace slowed down and the music came down to slow piano keys which appeared every two seconds, in this shot the character was walking towards the door and as she looked through the keyhole something suddenly flew into it. It looked like a form of creature as the face looked as if it was scared. There was a loud bang to go with this which was a jumpy moment and was shocking as it was not expected so it was a good way to end the trailer. The last shot was of a computerized eye with the title of the film to the left so it brought back the main theme of the eye.

The actress used as the main character “Jessica Alba” does not normally play these kind of characters as she has been in many other films such as “honey” were she played a dance teacher for youngsters. So by using her to play this role in a horror movie means that the audience do not know what to expect as she has never played this character of a victim. So we are unsure of what is to be expected as she has never played this role before. Throughout the trailer the main focus is of this character and we don’t get to see many other characters apart from a doctor and a woman which are quick shots so we are able to concentrate solely on the main character.

From watching this trailer and a few others such as ‘drag me to hell’ and ‘paranormal activity’ I now have a better understanding of the work. I have learnt how different effects such as lighting and sound can create suspense and other emotions, so this can help me when making my own trailer with my group. This trailer especially has showed me that you don’t have to show all the characters and there does not have to be any dialogue as non digetic sound work just as well and they are probably better in creating effects. Editing is crucial in linking shots and adding effects as the pace is very important in a horror film/trailer as horror films are supposed to be scary and have an effect on the audience so it has made me realise how hard it is going to be in making my own trailer and making the audience feel the anxiety that I have felt in watching horror trailers. One of my main aims is for the audience to enjoy the trailer so that they would want to see a full length movie of this because that shows that the trailer is convincing and an achievement has been made in having made an impact on the audience.