The purpose of any film trailer is to attract the attention of the audience and leave them with a desire to see the whole film. The most exciting moments are joined together and are shown at a fast pace to help the build up of emotion and suspense. This makes the film look so thrilling and action packed, that no one will want to miss it. My main objective is to analyse how the film trailer manages to achieve its aim of attracting the audience to watch the whole film. In this film trailer lots of different techniques are used such as voiceovers and visual language.
Voiceovers help to build the suspense and captivate the audience. The reason being it is much more interesting when somebody is telling you what is happening as well as watching. Visual images are an example of the changing world, as the younger generation enjoy and learn from these images instead of having to read about them, it’s much more fun. The film has satirical links with the much earlier film ‘Jaws’. The film ‘Jaws’ had a much more serious storyline. It was based upon ordinary people, enjoying the coastline, being driven to panic and fear by a man eating shark.
The ‘Deep Blue Sea’ however is about specially bred sharks that are in a more captive environment, attacking the people who had helped to breed them. The storyline is much less believable and realistic than ‘Jaws’. This can therefore make the audience a little less frightened as they see what is happening as ‘unreal’ and can’t particularly relate to the situation. The characters in the film Jaws were just normal families enjoying a swim or paddle in the sea. An activity that most members of the audience could immediately relate to. The music and sound effects in the trailer are very effective. The music used is very similar to that of ‘Jaws’.
This helps create feelings of fear within the audience and particularly for any members of the audience who have previously seen the ‘Jaws’ film it could bring back a reminder of grim events. As the cameras go under the water the audience are left on the edge of their seats in anticipation of the whereabouts of the sharks. The beating drum seems to represent a beating heart, as the shark moves closer the beat is faster. When the shark attacks and kills the victim, the music ceases, the silence creating a sombre atmosphere. There are lots of different kinds of camera shots used in the trailer to show graphic images to the audience.
Such as close up shots are used to show the expressions and detail of characters faces and savaged body parts and the shark’s gruesome teeth. A bird’s eye view shot gives the audience the feeling of isolation, that there is no one nearby to the situation to relieve and help the victims who are suffering. This therefore is encouraging the audience to feel quite emotional. A point of view shot showing from the shark’s perspective, looking around for its next victim, this helps build suspense. It also helps the audience to relate to what the shark can see.
There are numerous different kinds of edits that are used effectively in the film trailer. For example fade ins, cuts and dissolves. All of these edits can be speeded up or slowed down to suit the particular shot. As the shot speeds up the fades speed as well. A good example of this usage is the heart beat sound, as the beat goes faster the fades go faster. When the beat stops there is great anticipation, then there is a quick cut for the final shot. All of these edits are important and effective because they help create the pace of the film trailer and keep the audience transfixed.
One of the main aims of the film trailer is to keep one hundred percent of the audience attention at all times so it is extremely important there are no gaps in the excitement of the trailer to allow any kind of distraction. The edits help to achieve this goal. In the film trailer the storyline is told to give background information but it is kept to a minimum because there has to be some element of mystery and suspense so the audience will want to see the whole film. Only the more exciting elements of the storyline are told to give the audience the idea that this is an incredibly exciting film.
In the film trailer and the film the sharks are portrayed as very powerful creatures. They are highly intelligent in the way they plan their attacks and deal with situations and are extremely ruthless. In the film trailer the sharks at one point move backwards and recognise a harpoon. This is not what is considered to be normal shark behaviour. The characters react to this strange behaviour in shock and horror as they try to deal with such aggressive powerful creatures. This intensifies the emotions of the audience as they watch the characters trying to survive in an impossible situation.
The film exploits the myth regarding sharks, portraying them as a killer of humans. This achieves the goal, which is for the film to be a suspense and action thriller. However, if the truth about sharks was portrayed there would be very little of interest. In reality sharks would only attack a human if they were mistaken for its normal prey, which is fish or marine mammals. The trailer seems to be successful in its effectiveness because the collation of exciting thrilling images are well shot and edited therefore giving the audience a small sample of what appears to be an action packed film, well worth watching.
If you like to be on the edge of your seat with anticipation and you are not particularly squeamish at the sight of torn off limbs and blood, then this is the film to watch. However, if you are looking for a film with a powerful and realistic storyline, then maybe not! Blurb “Einstein’s with big teeth” Research is underway to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. This is taking place in an underwater laboratory called Aquatica. The brains of sharks are being genetically altered to develop the cure.
However, there is an unexpected side effect of this treatment, the sharks are getting smarter. This puts the researchers in serious danger. There is no escape as the unforeseen begins to happen. The crew are trapped and it’s a desperate battle of wits. Samuel L Jackson, Stellan Skarsgaard, Thomas Jane, LLCool J, struggle against the odds fighting for their lives against cold calculating, man eating machines. Renny Harlin (Cliff Hanger/Die Hard 2) directs this exhilarating suspense thriller. A film that grasps you and pulls you do down into the depths of the movie.
