Inception Trailer Analysis

Camera

• Almost every shot is very carefully framed. Lots of centre framed shots to portray DiCaprio as the main character.
• Lots of camera movement. Lots of stabilised handheld camera.

Editing

• Slow in act 1 despite lots of drama and effects - shows that in this world, that sort of thing is fairly normal.
• Remains slow at the start of act 2 but speeds up rapidly and stays rapid for act 3 - this conforms to trailer conventions.

Mise-En-Scene

• Anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio creates a very cinematic feel
• Contrasting colours - outside is brown but lots of inside shots (especially after act 1) are very blue. Inside shots with other people in are also yellow/brown.
• Intertitles begin in act 2, essentially replacing the V/O as the narrative device.
• A heavy emphasis on special effects throughout - this shows that the target audience of the film is not necessarily focussed so much on a good storyline but more a good cinema experience.
• Ends with CGI city becoming title - reflects opening CGI city WB logo.

Sound

• V/O narrates the trailer, but is dialogue as V/O. This helps to show the audience the story because it is otherwise not clear what it is
• The music begins with a series of loud booms (apparently known as "The Inception 'BRAAAAM'). This is the first film to do this and has since been used dozens of times by similar films.
• The music consists of low drones topped with dramatic, heavily rhythmic music. Violins build towards act 2.
• Big boom ends act 1. 'I have to steal it' ends V/O.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Trailer Analysis

• A relatively short trailer - only 78 seconds, the average trailer being 120-150 seconds, but is very successful at selling what is actually a really weird film.
• It opens with the production company, A24, reinforcing their brand to potential customers.
• We also hear the start of the musical track for the trailer - a young girl singing, a capella. This is heard over what is actually a reasonably innocent looking few shots of what looks like a young couple in a park - plenty of wide, bright, colourful, and open shots - however this soundtrack makes you think perhaps there is something else going on.
• After the park the singing continues, but we cut to a birds-eye view of an escalator in a very sterile, hospital-esque building, at the bottom of which a young boy collapses. We also hear a synchronous crash which emphasises this moment.
• We then get an intertitle telling us that the film is from the same director as The Lobster - this attempts to bring in a ready-made audience for the film, as those who liked the lobster may also like this.
• The trailer is made up of almost entirely low shots, adding a very sinister angle to the film.
• There are a series of these intertitles, all in the same visual style, building coherence in the film's branding. Most of the other intertitles are reviews.
• The dialogue is very morbid, consisting of discussions about surgeons killing patients and 'how did his father die?' One particularly poignant moment is when Colin Farrell says 'it's nothing serious' but the young man sat opposite him tells him it is - how could this young man know? It adds a very sinister tone to the rest of the trailer.
• The trailer ends with a series of dark, low-key shots, hinting at the film's tragic ending. The title of the film is then shown in the same style as the intertitles.

Buster's Mal Heart

• Opens with a very slow editing speed and no non-diegetic sound
• The colour palette is largely brown for the first act, creating a dull environment.
• Very orchestral, elegant music is played over the banal chores Rami Malek is performing.
• The music swells and we become generally much closer to the characters until we get to a crash and Malek is underwater.
• The music is replaced with eerie singing.
• The colour palette suffers a dramatic shift towards blue, signifying a large shift in plot.
• We see Malek dressed in biblical clothing, with blood on his lip, long hair and a beard. It is unclear when in the film this happens, retaining an air of mystery to the film. This mirrors when the other character said 'I'm the prophet'
• Critics' reviews are placed over wide, sweeping landscape shots
• Static is overlayed onto some of the shots, giving the idea that someone else is in control.
• The trailer ends with him blowing out a fire - certainly significant of something in the plot.

Secondary Research - Mental Health

In our film we are going to attempt to convey the life of a girl with mental health issues, we hope to make it non offensive, not just displaying her as a monster with no remorse or on the other hand a character who's purpose is simply to receive pity from an audience. To help us present a balanced representation of a girl with these issues I have carried out extensive research into how mental health is currently being portrayed in films to see what people are doing right and what problems there are. During this research I came across an article named "A Century of Negative Movie Stereotypes in Mental Health" (see below) by Time to Change, an organisation fighting discrimination across all aspects of life. As I thought this article made several useful points within it I decided to carry out Secondary research on it.

On the second page can be seen a table displaying the common stereotypes used when displaying mental illness as either just, comedy, faking, pity or violent. These end up giving the character a very one dimensional personality with little most to be said about them other than their mental illness, similar to the issues around how the limited times gay people are represented in films the simple fact of them being gay becomes their entire personality. We hope to display our main protagonist as not just fitting into one of these four boxes, there will be some aspects of violence and pity but these are only by products. Through conversations with her mother we hope to depict her human nature and how she desires to get help and to fight back against herself. We will show the mother and the one standing in the way of her getting help as she refuses to believe in her daughters condition until it is too late. This will hopefully help to convey the message that we should listen to people who trust us enough to tell us about their mental health issues and when appropriate get them the help they require, the same as for and physical condition.

Time to Change along with Dr Peter Byrne are attempting to improve the way the public see mental health by properly educating people, in our current education system there is still very little in the ways of teaching people out mental health issues that effect so many people and what to do if not only you suffer from one but if someone comes to you care about does. The article discusses the challenges they have faced in spreading awareness when the films that are being widely distributed across all ages contain such glaring detrimental stereotypes of mental health.

The article then looks back at how stigma around mental health has been around for centuries, even early films such as Off to Bloomingdale's Asylum (1901) depicted the escape of several mentally ill patients, getting humour out of their illness, ending with them all being captured violently and retuning them to the asylum. On the next page of the article can be seen the striking statistic that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental illness at some point in their lifetime but because of the stigma around it such a small number of these people will talk about it with others. Even children's cartoons are rich with representations, demonising mental health suffered, giving the idea to children from a young age that mental illness is something to be afraid of and to disassociate yourself from whenever possible.

The article ends with presenting three solutions that everyone should carry out, to talk about mental health, mind your language and to abandon cliches, and the plea for people creating films around mental health issues to begin to use a more sophisticated representation of mental health, creating characters with more to their personality than just their mental health.