Transcript
Page 1: Trailer analysis shutter island

TRAILER ANALYSIS

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SHUTTER ISLAND

In this presentation, I will be analysing the trailer for Shutter Island which was made in 2009. I will be analysing it for genre, representation of groups, age, class and gender. For its narrative, talking about its target audience and lastly, looking at the media language used.

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Genre

The genre of this film is a Thriller, which is shown through the media language used throughout it. You can tell Shutter Island is a thriller because of the low key lighting which runs throughout the clips shown in the trailer. The lack of lighting also tells us it is a thriller because we associate the genre ‘thriller’ with scary, dark, secretive things. Also, Leonardo Dicaprio, a star famous for romance films, thriller films and highly stylised films, is the main protagonist in Shutter Island, which shows this film will be a high concept thriller because of his stereotype of being in them type of film genres. However, we know there is something dark about his character because of how he is seen in the trailer and the genre highlights this because of the cinematography we see, the tracking of Leonardo Dicaprio signifies his dark persona in the film as we don’t know quite who his character is because trailers don’t give the important bits away. The fades to black hint a distortion in the films narrative and it’s as if the shot fades before we see something else- it is also shown as secretive which is what we expect from a thriller.

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Representation Of Gender

Gender is highly represented in this trailer as it is set in a different time (1954) and women and children are seen as the weaker characters, we see this when Leonardo Dicaprio’s character ‘Marshal Teddy Daniels’ Looks at the older woman who is making a ‘shush’ gesture, she is obviously a prisoner on the island as she is cuffed. Somehow she shoes power over Marshal Teddy Daniels because of the gesture and him not reacting in any way.

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Representation Of Gender

We also see another representation of males when we see Marshal Teddy Daniels with his colleague, they are in their detective suits stood next to the guards of the institute, the Marshal shows most dominance as he is wearing his badge and showing it. However there is a slight role reversal when the guards ask for their weapons, when the Marshals hand over the weapons, they have the dominance.

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Representation Of Age

There are no clear representations of age in this trailer although there are children in it. Children seem to be weaker however, this is due to them being represented as ‘vulnerable.’ As we can see in the screen shot of a part of the trailer there is what looks like a mother and daughter holding hands stood in a blazing fire. They have no facial expression which can tell us that something isn’t right in this shot as if they were in a fire they’d be yelling… This also hints that the main character (Leonardo Dicaprio) is unstable in the mind as it’s a ‘vision’ like shot.

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Narrative

The protagonist in the movie is Leonardo Dicaprio, we know this because throughout the trailer we follow him and he appears most. We think the hero is Leonardo Dicaprio too because he is a marshal. He is going into the asylum to search for a missing patient.

Villains- we think the villains are the people in the prison cells, they are very low key lit so it makes the characters look eerie.

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Equilibrium & Disruption

At the start of the trailer we see 2 marshals arriving at an island (as we see a boat in the mist) and then there’s a fade and after this we see them on the island entering the asylum gates. They are greeted by security people who take their weapons.

Outside of the asylum we see an old lady who looks straight into the camera and makes the ‘shhh’ gesture. This is eerie and highlights the thriller genre.

The disruption comets through the middle of the trailer and we see that a patient had escaped, the marshals are on the hunt for the missing patient.

We see peaks in the narrative and one is right at the end where we are left on a cliff hanger, a patient grabs Leonardo Dicaprio.

It is important that a trailer NEVER reveals the CLIMAX as this is the whole point of watching the film. It would immediately spoil the film.

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Audience

The audience of this thriller would be 15+ (people aged over 15) as it has moderate violence (blood, fighting, weapons) and the genre is a thriller, people ages under 15 may find it too graphic.

People with an interest in Leonardo Dicaprio also may want to see this movie just because he is in it.

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Cinematography, Editing, Sound & Mise-en-scene

Cinematography

Editing Sound Mise-en-scene

- Close-up on all key characters

- Close-up on foot dragging the gun away from a man

- Close-ups on prison people

- Long shot of the tower and island

- Fades- Flickering on

needle (screaming non-diegetic sound)

- Tilt on needle and nurse

- Non-diegetic score (dramatic music throughout, becomes louder at the end)- Lady ‘shh-ing’

(made more obvious)

- Buzzing of the security gates opening

- Screaming

- Set in an asylum

- House/hall - -Prison cells- Asylum island- Tower- Twisty stairs

I am going to talk about what Media Language is used in this trailer, below is a table and I have recorded what I see in the trailer: