Trailer Analysis #1

Introduction.
Insidious.

 

I have always enjoyed psychological and supernatural horror because of the interesting way that it is made, how there is always a twist that drags an audience in and adds a fear factor of the unknown. I selected 'Insidious' because it relates a lot to my own production, it involves horrific imagery, blood and suspense which is what I want to involve in my own film trailer and it's also the same sub-genre as mine and includes a possessed child just like mine. 

Insidious is a horror film that was released in 2011. The basic plot-line sees a family of 5. The parents named Renai and Josh Lambert, and the other main character Dalton, which is their son. One day Renai starts going through a family photo album with her son, Dalton. He asks why there are no photos of his dad Josh, when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy. One day Dalton hears something coming from the attic, when he goes to investigate, he sees something off screen that scares him and takes a fall when the attic ladder breaks. The next day Josh goes to wake Dalton, but he does not move. They rush him to the hospital where the doctors say he is in an unexplained coma.

Three months later Dalton is moved home, still in the coma. Disturbing events begin to occur. Renai believes the house is haunted when she begins to see and hear people in the house. She confronts Josh about the events and the family soon moves to another house. In the new house, increasingly violent and supernatural events begin to happen again. Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), contacts a friend, Elise Reiner (Lin Shaye), who deals with paranormal activities. The family, Elise, and her team go into Dalton's room. There, she sees and describes a figure to one of her two assistants, who draws a black figure with a red face and dark hollow eyes.

Elise explains to Renai and Josh of Dalton's ability to astral project while sleeping, but has wandered too far to find his way back in to his physical body. Skeptical at first, Josh later relents when he discovers Dalton had been drawing pictures which resemble the demonic figure Elise described. Elise and Lorraine reveal to the couple that Josh also can astral project, and was terrorized by a terrifying spirit during his childhood. Josh's mother shows them pictures from Josh's childhood, revealing a shadowy old woman nearer and nearer to Josh. Elise suggests that Josh should use his ability to find and help return Dalton's soul. Josh agrees. Guided by Elise, Josh finds and frees his son, captured and held by the red-faced demon. In search of their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demon who pursues them. Just before the two awaken, Josh confronts the shadowy old woman who appears to be inside his house, along with several other spirits. Shouting that he is unafraid of her, she retreats into the house. Josh awakens, as does Dalton.

Later, Dalton, Renai, and Lorraine are eating in the kitchen. In another room, while Elise and Josh packed, Elise notices something strange about Josh. She grabs a camera and takes his picture. Suddenly, Josh goes into a rage and strangles Elise to death. Renai hears the noise and runs into the room to find Elise's body. She calls out to Josh, but receives no answer. She picks up the camera that Elise used from the floor and sees, not a picture of Josh, but the old woman; implying he has been possessed by her. Just then, Josh tells Renai he is right behind her and grabs her shoulder. She turns around and gasps as the screen cuts to black.

After the credits roll, a short scene shows the old woman blowing out a candle followed by a laugh.

The film trailer itself obviously doesn't give away too much of the plot-line, but gives us some kind of idea on what the film is about.

Analysis of Sound, Mise-en-Scene, Camera and Editing

Sound

The trailer begins with an eerie sound, it sounds like someone is opening and closing a large cupboard door, the shot then moves onto Josh sitting in a chair, the only sound we hear then is a man saying 'You ready?' and Josh replying with 'Yeah'. We then hear a metronome ticking, we hear it throughout the trailer, the eerie sound is still there, there is no music playing in this trailer. The metronome represents that the clock is ticking on their happiness and Dalton's life. Whilst we hear the metronome ticking and tocking, we see scenes from the film of the family, which makes you feel very unsettling because the sound is eerie and uncomfortable. We hear laughter coming from Renai, and even that doesn't sound at all happy or pleasant. After a little while, the metronome stops, we then see Renai walking into her sons bedroom, we hear the sound of his wooden rocking horse. An innocent object was used here to make it look sinister. Renai stops the horse from rocking, it is then silent. This diegetic sound draws our attention to an innocent object make to look sinister, which is a convention of horror. It makes the object seem more creepy. From that moment on the eerie sounds become louder, we hear a loud beat coming through, which is when the trailer becomes faster, giving us a feeling on edge. The sound stops completely, we see a woman scream at the sight of the devil, then the shots become faster, we hear non diegetic and ambient sound. The trailer is nearly ended, and the sound of the the metronome is back and it's a lot louder. At the end of the trailer comes the sting, of course like any other horror film trailer. We hear a loud scream and a sort of crashing piano sound.

Dialogue
In the trailer, the dialogue is selected very carefully from footage, and is pieced together to give the audience an idea of what the story of the film is. From simply listening to the dialogue, the audience can understand the narrative. I have demonstrated this by writing down the dialogue used for the 'Insidious' trailer.

Man: "Are you ready?"
Josh: "Yeah"

Renai: "Hey sweetie.."

Josh: "Hey guys"

Renai: -Laughter-

Nurse: "He's not in a coma"

Renai: "They don't know what to call it"

Elise: "I went into Dalton's room, there is something in there with him"

Josh: "Dalton!"

Nurse Adelle: "I know someone who can help"

Tucker: "We took dry fields and EMF readings of the whole house, wiring, alarm clocks"

Elise: "I don't think that wiring is the problem"

Renai: "I wanna leave, I wanna leave this house"

Renai: "What is it?"

Elise: "It's not the house that's haunted, it's your son."

As you can see, just by reading the dialogue, the audience will have a rough idea on what the film is about, and what the storyline is. In the begging we see a family that moved into a new house, paranormal activities begin to happen. We then see their son fall of a broken ladder and he ends up in a coma. We then see a shot of Renai saying that the doctors don't know what to call the coma. The audience is then shown that when the little Dalton is taken home, still in the coma, there is something or someone in the room. This is when the audience is realizing that there is something is going on in this house. When we see a shot of Elise in the house saying that it's not the house that's haunted but it's actually Dalton, the audience is then let known that their son has been the problem all along. As the audience learn more about the narrative, enigma is set up which is further persuades the audience to watch the film.

Mise-en-scene
Lighting
The main use of lighting in this trailer is ambient, there is natural light coming into the house from the outside, making the house look dull and not homey, lighting is always kept to a minimum. We also see under lighting, for example when Dalton is in the attic, we see light on the floor, but no lighting used anywhere else, which makes the whole room look very eerie and giving a horrific effect. A lot of lampshades and side lamps are used, which usually would give out a homey effect, but in this case more of an uncomfortable effect, keeping the scene under lit. For example when Renai is in the corridor listening to the baby monitor, beside her, there is a side lamp, which doesn't give out a lot of light, making the corridor seem bigger and more spacious. In one of the shots we see Renai is a dark corridor with a torch in her hand, because she is running, the torch shines everywhere and the whole scene becomes more hectic and chaotic.
In one of the scenes we see profile lighting being used, where Josh is standing by a window holding a candle, and we see an old, terrifying woman's reflection. Whilst half of Josh's face is hidden in shadow, the other half is visible in the light of the candle. The limited lighting adds to the cold and hostile feeling of the trailer. All the lighting that is used in the film creates a very dull look of the house and possible these people's lives. As well as showing the audience a dark and gloomy atmosphere that these people are living in.

Colour.
The film trailer tends to contain a grey tinge of colour throughout, making the atmosphere of the film appear very dull and 'dead-out'. It is conventional for films of a supernatural nature to present this eerie and dark atmosphere. Red is also used a lot which clearly symbolizes blood. At the beginning of the trailer we see Josh wearing a red checkered shirt, which represents of course blood, and subtly tells the audience that blood will be seen throughout the film.

The completion of the characters are quite pale, and dull. They wear clothes that are not bright like grey, black, red, white and navy. All colours that represent blood, death, darkness and coldness. In one of the shots we see Dalton wear a bright red cape, symbolizing blood coming his way. Clearly if the characters wore colours like bright yellows and greens, it wouldn't give out the same effect because both colours symbolize happiness and peace, which is clearly not what the film is about.

If you pay attention onto the setting of the house, you see that all the walls are painted white, nothing special. There are no family pictures or painting around to make the place look homey or bright. All adding to the eerie atmosphere.
In one of the shots we see in the trailer of both Renai and Josh in the hospital looking at Dalton, we see that they are both wearing dull greys and whites. Symbolizing a dark and grey life. No actual life in their lives.
When we see Renai going into a bedroom with the wooden rocking horse, she is wearing a muddy green top. Nothing to say that anything good is going to happen to her anytime soon. In one scene we see Renai is a birds-eye view shot when she is in the corridor holding the baby monitor, and there we also see her wearing a muddy green top, dark jeans, her surroundings are also dark and gloomy, there is no bright or light carpet on the floor, its all dark wood making the whole scene very eerie and unsettling.

The whole house is dark, most rooms only have one or two lamps, the floors are all dark, the walls are white, bedsheets are white, no decorations around the house. The place looks very unwelcoming, and they wonder why they can't have a nice life in a house like that!!

Renai's hair and make up is very simple and plain. Her hair is mostly done up in a low ponytail or is hanging down. Her make up is very natural and nothing special. She doesn't look like a woman who is too involved into her looks, she is more of a socker mum. The dad has a simple short hair cut, wears casual clothes. Dark colours and doesn't try too hard. Because Renai's hair and make-up is simple and plain it creates realism, it also suggests that she's stressed because she doesn't take care of her looks.

Positioning of characters/ Body Language / Facial Expressions

At the start of the trailer we see John sitting in an arm chair, he has a very unsettling facial expression, he looks worried and uncomfortable, like he is about to do something that no one is ready for, not even him. We then move onto a deep focus camera shot of Renai and John in the hospital, looking at their son. The couple stand close to each other. Renai looks very distraught and upset, John looks speechless. They are looking at their son who is in a coma, clearly explains why their facial expressions are so worried. The whole shot is deep in focus so the audience sees where the couple are and shows the setting. The next thing we see is a cut from the couple to Renai looking very 'out of it'. She looks like she is completely numb, talking about what the doctors said about not knowing what to call her sons coma. She isn't moving or looking around, he eye focus is on one thing, and she is talking like all she is experiencing now is physical and mental pain.

As the trailer carries on, we see Renai walking very wary and cautiously through the corridor, because she is alone, it makes the scene more intense. She walks into the room where she sees a rocking horse that no one is on. She places her hand on the horse, at this point her face is not in the shot, then we see a tilt shot where Renai's face comes back into the shot, her lips are pursed together and she still looks very wary and also curious. The positioning of the rocking horse is behind the door, so when Renai walks up to it, the audience expects something to jump out, but nothing does. This builds up tension in the audience. Next shot in the trailer we see Renai positioned in the middle of the corridor, with no one around, again her body language is vary wary and unsettling, she looks very uncomfortable. She is holding a baby monitor, as soon as she hears a mans voice shout, her hand jumps onto her chest, she drops the monitor and runs upstairs her face full of worry. You then see her run into the bedroom of her baby, with no one there but her face is full of fear and confusion. Her body language screams 'help'.

When the shots cuts to Dalton's room, we see him laying in a coma, and a devil like body form in the corner of his room, the body language of this creature is very still and mannequin like. We then see a shot of a door handle being moved and three people running to Dalton's room shouting 'Dalton!'. We then see a shot of Dalton laying on the floor with John and Renai kneeling around him in shock and horror. There is a bloody hand print on a white sheet and the whole room has been messed around, everything is broken, the cupboard door is open and bed sheets are hanging out of the cupboard. When we see a close-up shot of Elise's face, in the background we see three characters standing away from each other, like they have planted themselves around the room. We then see an extreme close-up of Elise's eyes, they are looking back and fourth on the ceiling looking alarmed, camera moves onto a birds eye view of Elise looking up slowly, the words 'Insidious' pop up on the screen. The sequence of the trailer gets faster and faster showing chaos. On the screen we then see 'Insidious', 'Is' 'Insidious', 'Is', the repitition is very clear that something is wrong and insidious actually is something harmful and horrific.

From that point on, we get a slow slow crane shot of the corridor, there is an eerie sound playing and a diagetic sound of Elise's voice saying 'It's not the house that's haunted, it's your son'. As soon as this line is finished, the shots become very fast creating a chaotic energy, we see horrific images throughout this fast clip and 'insidious' 'is' 'insidious' pops up again in white writing on a red background. We then have shots of John opening his eyes, and a load of hands surrounding him, he gasps, the shot then quickly cuts onto Dalton slamming the table during the séance and then insidious zoomed in with the flash bulbs strongly back lighting it. We then see a photo flash popping up and the words 'everywhere april 1' coming up on the screen. After this, the red background becomes darker and the writer brighter, the screen cuts to black then cuts to the sting, which is the horrific old woman screaming. When the shots in this trailer get faster we see a load of different shots from the film in the matter of seconds. Which is another code and convention of horror film trailers, they get faster and faster throughout.

Camera

Camera shots and Editing

The trailer for the Insidious film uses a wide range of camera shots as-well as editing. From the beginning to the end we see establishing shots, long shots, extreme long shots, two shots, over the shoulder shots, close-ups, extreme close-ups, medium shots. As well as numerous uses of camera angles such as low and high angles, canted angles, bird’s eye view; as well as camera movement such as 180* degrees shots and uses of panning shots and crane dollies.

In the first shot of the trailer we see a medium close-up of John sitting in an arm chair, this shot lets the audience see the anticipation and worry in John's face, we then see a fade out followed by a short clip of the metronome being set of, it has a ticking sound coming from the metronome throughout the trailer which could also represent the heart beat of the character John. You also see a fire in the background, the demon in the film is described as ‘the man with fire on his face’, this could have a link between them both. We then see a shot of a black and red background with the words ‘From the makes of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and SAW’ letting the viewers know that if they are fans of the two films, they will also enjoy 'insidious' and of course both films are very known and successful, and putting those words up there also has a way of promoting 'insidious' and telling the audience that it will also be a successful film.
Again we see a medium close-up shot of Josh still sitting in the same place, his facial expression is a lot calmer and focused, we still hear the metronome loud and clear at this point, linking with Josh's heart beat, steady but loud. The camera then cuts to a long shot from the right hand side of the house the family currently live in, it's a big house showing the audience these people are wealthy. I believe the reason why the house house wasn't shown from the middle point of view was because this way the camera showed a little more than just the house, you can also see their neighbors house and front lawn giving the audience a clearer and bigger view of the picture.

We then see a medium long shot of the family in the kitchen, Renai looks like a typical housewife feeding the kids and fixing John's tie, and John is in his smart clothes clearly getting ready for a long day at work. The camera then cuts to a close up, shallow focus shot on Renai and John in bed, Renai is laughing and John is smiling whilst looking are Renai lovingly, showing that they have a strong committed relationship with each other and that they are very unaware of how things are about to change. We then see a medium long-shot of the family in the living room, everything is in deep focus showing the audience the setting of the room, as the family has just moved in, the room doesn't look homey or lived in yet.


The next shot is of Dalton climbing up the ladder in the attic, the camera cuts-in to a close-up of one of the steps breaking, the camera then cuts to a long shop of Dalton falling onto the floor. By this point the trailer is getting more dark and intense, the words 'insidious' 'is' pop up onto the screen again. The camera cuts to a shot of Renai and John in the hospital looking at their son Dalton in a coma, the camera then cuts to a point of view shot to show the audience what it is that Renai and John are looking at at. The camera then fades onto a medium close up of Renai, clearly very distraught and numb from the pain of her son being in a coma. The straps 'insidious is insidious is' come up onto the screen again, following with a dolly, medium close up shot of Renai walking warily towards the kid's bedroom. We then see an eye-line match of Renai and her reaction to the rocking horse rocking. We see a medium close up Renai's hand stopping the rocking horse from moving, then a crane shot of Renai's face. The camera cuts to Dalton closing his bedroom door, then a fade to a window with a creepy shadow lurking next to it.
Camera cuts in on to a baby monitor, the sound coming from the baby's room sounds like an angry man shouting, the camera cuts to a medium long-shot of Renai trying to figure out what the sound from the baby monitor is, then we see a worms-eye shot of the ceiling and the upstairs which is where the baby's room is, camera cuts to a birds eye view shot of Renai gasping and dropping the baby monitor onto the floor and then a cut onto her running into the baby's bedroom to find no one but the baby. The clip is only 6 seconds but very effective as there are quick cuts that tell us what's going on. Strap is back on the screen on 'insidious is'.
We then get a point of view/panning shot of the camera going into Dalton's room, it's a long shot that allows us to see the whole of the room, and in the corner we see the outline of the evil spirit, camera cut, close up shot is used for a door handle been moved very fast, showing panic and desperation of the character. The audience is then shown a medium long shot of Dalton's room when it's been destroyed, this shot lets us see all the important parts of the room like the sheets covered in blood and Dalton on the floor. Fade, close up of the camera's used to catch all the paranormal activity in the house, we then see a shallow focus, close up of Elise's face, with Renai, John and Tucker in the background. The close up of Elise's face gives the audience the opportunity to try and read what it is she is thinking and feeling. Camera cuts onto an extreme close up of Elise's face, showing her looking up and letting us see the worry in her eyes. A cut is then used for a birds-eye view of Elise as if it's a point of view shot of the evil spirit.

The words insidious appear, very zoomed in, strongly backlit as if flash bulbs are going off behind it. After we see a medium long shot of Renai's running through a door to another door with a torch in her hand, we see a cut onto John looking into the window reflection and seeing the evil spirit. A cut is then used for a split second of a white outline of eyes and nose, that shot is very easily missed if you blink as it's only a split second. A close up/cross cutting shot is then used to show Elise's talking very fast to Tucker that is drawing everything she says, a cut is used for a split second of Elise's face saying something, and we then see a an extreme close up of the drawing that is being done by Tucker. After this, we see very fast cuts after cut being made, as soon as we see a split second of a point of view/reaction shot of Lorraine screaming at the sight of the evil spirit behind John. A cut to a black screen is then used. Clearly one of the codes of conventions in this trailer is the speed of the cuts, they start of slowly and progress into faster and faster cuts throughout.

A shot of the long corridor then comes back into focus, a tracking shot allows the audience to follow the movement to bring us closer to the grandfather clock. After this we hear Elise's final words of 'It's not the house that's haunted, it's your house', which is also the main sell line of the film, after this we get a very fast montage of shots consisting of Specs being thrown against a wall, the bloody hand print on Dalton's bed sheets, a spirit of a girl, the word 'insidious', the séance with Elise wearing the gas mask, the word ‘is’, Specs in the air surrounded in white light, the word ‘insidious’, an extreme close up of Elise’s face speaking, Renai gasping, the word ‘is’, a point of view shot from Elise wearing the gas mask, an extreme close up of Elise’s eyes in the gas mask, Renai in bright white light, extreme close up of Josh’s eyes closed then they flick open, the bright white face, fuzzy picture of Dalton with the spirit of the evil man standing behind him, a shot of josh in the arm chair opening his eyes and looking shocked with lots of hands around him, Dalton standing at the side of the table during the séance, the bird’s eye view when Dalton slams his hand down during the séance and then insidious zoomed in with the flash bulbs strongly back lighting it. Each shot is a split second, all the shots put together only lasted a few seconds and to catch them all I did have to pause it numerous times.
After all these fast shots, we are back to the red and black background with the words 'insidious' up on the screen, this followed by a flash and 'everywhere april 1'. Of course a horror film trailer wouldn't be a horror trailer without a sting. Now, I've seen this sting once, and refuse to watch it again as it does make me feel awful. But from what I saw, it's an old woman popping up on the screen screaming. That is all the detail I caught from it, and there is no way in hell am I replaying it or watching the trailer right to the end!