Robert- Textual Analysis of Teaser Trailer

Film Title: The Collector


Year of release: June 2010


Director: Marcus Dunstan




Actors: Josh Stuart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez


Synopsis:
When the Chase family moves to an isolated house in the middle of nowhere in Detroit, Arkin is hired to fix the windows and the doors. Later he meets his daughter and his wife that has a debt with dangerous sharks and needs money, but his week payment is not enough to pay her debts. Arkin plots to heist the safe of Michael Chase during the night to raise the necessary money. However, when he arrives in the house, he finds that a sadistic criminal has imprisoned the family and planted traps everywhere. Arkin seeks a way out of the deadly house to save his life.




The shortest trailer of the movie begins with a man driving to a house; he breaks in, it then cuts to words saying “a thief broke into this house”. He is then seen trying to break into a safe in the house when he hears a scream come from a nearby vent. Then it cuts to words that say “But someone worse, was already inside”. There is then a vertical pan to a birds-eye-view shot where we can see the robber and The Collector on two different sides of a wall. The robber is then seen walking through a dark secluded place with a flashlight, he looks up and someone (most likely The Collector) grabs him from his right. We only see their arm, its then goes dark, we hear the robber breathing fast, and we then see half of someone’s bloodied face. A female then says to him “My family’s in here”, there is then a pan shot of the family pictures and The Collector is shown in a reflection and walks away. There is then a low angle shot of the robber looking down a dark staircase with a flashlight, a woman then says “you can see them” as the robber lights a flashlight. There are then many quick cuts from The Collector running, tightening his mask and looking to his left. There is then a medium close-up shot of a very afraid woman dropping to the ground. It then says “From the writers SAW IV V & VI, there is a low angle shot of The Collector turning around with a shotgun in one hand. There are then many different shots of parts of the film. It then shows the Film title.


The trailer is dark and mysterious, this connotes feelings of suspense and fear, the words that come in at times add to the suspense of the film and no narration makes the suspense even greater. There are only ever night time shots; they keep the mood of the film the same. The short trailer manages to show a transition of the robber from a character of low importance to the protagonist. This teaser gives us a decent amount of information about the film while also keeping to the teaser convention of only letting us see a few parts of scenes. Also The Collector never makes any sounds or doesn’t say anything, this technique keeps him anonymous to the audience and the trailer tells nothing of how he got there or why he is there. The moment where there are many quick cuts raises the tension of the trailer and leaves us with many questions. We are also shown words that the writers from the Saw series worked on the film; this adds prestige to the movie and raises the audience’s expectations as they may have seen the Saw series.


Mise en scene:


Lighting: There is much low key lighting throughout the teaser; this is a common convention of horror movies and horror teasers. Also there are times when the only light source is a flashlight or a small bulb. This connotes vulnerability and bewilderment because the characters knowledge of exactly where they are is disorientated due to the darkness, so this adds to the horror convention of loneliness and being prone to unexpected events. Also the lack of light makes the person and ourselves have to rely on our hearing because our vision is restricted.


Setting: The setting throughout the trailer is within a house; this is a common convention and limits the horror and suspense to one foundation, so it adds the feeling of the audience wanting the protagonists to escape the secluded place, which in this film is the house. The house has lower and higher floors; this is common as characters in a film tend to go deeper into the building and usually down some stairs. The idea of going down stairs in a horror film connote going into darkness, into some sort of evil place, like traditionally hell is downwards, so going down represents going to a worse place where the antagonist may reside.


Costume: The protagonist is wearing robber clothing due to him switching to the good guy and so is dressed similarly to The Collector. The Collector is wearing tight black clothing and also a mask which covers his identity; this is a common convention of horrors, as an unidentifiable antagonist, in some peoples view, is more scary and frightening than an identifiable. Also concealing of his identity keeps the audience questioning and demanding answers to who he is, what his story is and why he’s doing what he’s doing, this a common horror convention of us knowing nothing about the antagonist.


Sound: The teaser begins with a quick sound and then Foley nocturnal natural sounds and a constant wind like sound, adds tension straight away, a good quality for teaser trailers. The sounds go as the man enters the house, and a stormy sound appears as the text comes up, this adds a spooky feeling, another good quality. Also as more text comes up the sound goes, and then unexpectedly comes back as we see the two main characters in a high angle shot, these surprise sounds keep us intrigued with the trailer. Also later on as the protagonist is in a dark basement with his torchlight we only hear diegetic sounds of him walking on a wood stairs/floor, this is a nice spooky touch as creaking wood is a convention in horror movies. Soon after this a quick paste sound comes in as someone grabs him and it fades to darkness and we only can hear heavy breathing from him and a female. This adds to the tension and doesn’t reveal much to us. Music then later comes in and many shots are shown while still revealing only a little bit of information to us.


Editing: With the editing there is many quick cuts and text describing the baseline of the story, these quick cuts add tension to the teaser and keep to the teaser convention of restricting information from the audience. The trailer begins with a birds-eye-view which fades to a slightly closer birds-eye-view shot, and then an establishing shot of the spooky looking house. Also there are many fade transitions which add tension which builds up to faster quick cuts. The title of the film then come up and soon after an unexpected shot is thrown at us, where The Collector slams a door on some characters, this is a great finishing shot for the trailer as it leaves us intrigued and wanting more.


From analysing and watching many teaser trailers I’ve come to realise and understand that a teaser doesn’t and shouldn’t reveal a lot of, or any, in some cases, of the plot. This is because the aim of a teaser is to simply tease, to make the audience seek more, to obtain answers and want to see the film. The collector trailer does this fairly well despite the duration, as nothing is really revealed. Also I’ve come to realise making a teaser trailer is a very complex task, as what content to have in it is vital as it contributes towards the marketing and advertisement and decides the potential audience who will look out for the movie in following months/weeks to come.