Sherlock Holmes Trailer Deconstruction

The opening shot of the trailer is a lowering crane shot of a street at night, you can clearly see that the film is set in the 1980’s.A voice over then says ‘I have a request,’ this tells you that the person speaking is a character in the film and not somebody doing a voice over for the whole trailer.The person doing the voice over then is in the next shot, a close up shot of him behind bars, the lighting is very dark giving an eerie atmosphere to the character and location. You then get the idea that the character is the villain due to him being in jail.

He then continues the voice over and says ‘someone I want to see,’ and a mid shot of another character appears in a lighter more untroubled atmosphere giving the idea that he is the good character, most likely Sherlock Holmes. The next thing the villain says in the voice over, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ then backs this up.

The next 3 shots are very quick with dramatic flashing lights giving the trailer more intensity. The lighting is still very dark and gloomy.Music starts as a character with a lantern starts to walk down some stairs followed by a crane camera shot which travels down the centre of the spiral stairs for about 2 seconds.The villain then continues by saying ‘you under-estimate the gravity of coming events,’ the scene when this is happening is some sort of spiritual ritual with an unknown female character lying on a table. A mid shot is used to show the female character as she rises off the table towards the camera making it a close up.

The next couple of shots are very fast paced, much like the shots earlier. Also this continues all throughout the trailer, which adds intensity to each part of the trailer. The shots are mixed in terms of distance e.g. close or medium, however they are all similar in terms of mise-en-scene or lighting.

In the voice over the villain says ‘the world as you know it, is coming to the end,’ this adds a lot of tension and mystery to the plot of the trailer as you find out the villains plan, to end the world.Once the villain says this the music stops, a close up shot on Sherlock Holmes appears and Holmes says ‘Well there isn’t any time to waste then, is there?’ This changes the mood of the trailer completely. In the first 30 seconds of the trailer are very dark and mysterious, which is then contrasted by the increasing light and Sherlock Holmes diving out of a window into a river shown by a long shot.

After the contrast occurs, the company logos appear on a plain black screen. This is followed by another occurrence of quick fast paced shots with a lighter, less intense mood. The shots are still similar in lighting but different variety of lighting such as the other similar shots.

One of the next shots is a … shot travelling towards a man in the street when Sherlock Holmes says ‘It does make a considerable difference to me having someone with we on whom I can thoroughly rely on.’ The man is clearly this person Holmes is talking about. The next shot is the man with Holmes and Holmes says ‘Always nice to see you Watson.’ You then realise that the character is Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ assistant.

The next couple of shots are mid-shot scenes of fighting, giving the idea the film has a lot of conflict in it.

The fighting shots are also interlinked with shots of each character and their real names on the screen in the same text that has been throughout the trailer. This is to reveal to the audience who the characters are and to entice them into watching the film.

Next the music stops so that a humorous scene can take place, much like it did earlier in the trailer. When the music stops, it makes the scene less dramatic.A long shot is used to show Sherlock Holmes threatening a much taller person with a small hammer. Using a long shot allows the audience to see everything adding to the humour.

The final shots are varied close-ups, mid shots and long shots going very fast paced like the ones earlier. However this time they are more varied and do not relate to each other so much.The film title is interlinked with these quick shots and finally the shots end leaving some text saying ‘Sherlock Holmes’