Trailer Analysis

FIGHT CLUB

MISE EN SCENE• In the trailer of fight club, one of the stand out bits of mise en scene used was the use of

bandages and plasters covering injuries. This is important as it lets the viewer know the film will involve a lot of violence without showing to much blood/gore to a young audience (as the trailer can be viewed by anyone).

• Another noticeable of mise en scene used was the fact during the short clips of fights the characters were wearing tattered clothes or were shirtless. This implies the characters are very masculine and aren’t bothered about the state of themselves. Them being topless has connotations to their aggressive nature throughout the film.

• The environments in which the fight clips are filmed were very dark and dim, the dark lighting has as it connotes to a dangerous environment as it is harder to see. The dark lighting also gives us the sense of how secretive the ‘fight club’ is. A famous quote in the film is ‘the first rule of fight club is: you don’t talk about fight club, the second rule of fight club is: you DO NOT talk about fight club!’.

CAMERA WORK• One of the early camera shots within the trailer is a birds eye view shot of the narrator,

the angle of the shot gives the audience a sense of power over the character and because he is positioned below us it makes us see him as weak and powerless.

• There is a close up to the narrators face, enabling the viewer to see just how dull and boring the narrator’s face is, this resembles how dull and boring his life is. He really detests his current job of a recall coordinator of a major car company and the close up of the characters expression provides evidence to his boring life.

• A point of view shot in which the narrator is on top of the camera, punching it, gives the audience a completely opposite view of the narrator to what was previously shown in the trailer. He is now an aggressive, masculine and powerful man out of control. The point of view shot makes it feel like the audience are the victim of the attack and we are now confused about the narrators character.

EDITING• The slow motion edit of the narrator punching towards the camera shows us the intensity

and power of the punch, the viewer gets more time to witness the punch which makes them recognise how much of an effect it could have on the victim.

• The pace of the cut edits picks up the longer the trailer goes on for. At the beginning the slow paced edits reflect how boring and slow paced the narrators life is, but as the ‘fight club’ is assembled the fight clips are briefly shown through quicker cuts, increasing tension and speed of the whole trailer. The audience only get to see short glimpses of clips after each other in quick succession, this creates a feeling of confusion and makes the viewer want to see the film in order to understand what is going on.

SOUND• “I want you to hit me, as hard as you can.” is a line Tyler Durden says in the trailer, this

diegetic dialogue automatically draws the viewer in as it is something you wouldn’t usually hear someone say, the audience want to know why Tyler wants to get hit. It also lets the audience know there will be violence within the film, backing up the thriller genre of the film.

• “The first rule of fight club is: do not talk about fight club.” is a line included into the trailer to cause a sense of confusion. The contradictory sentence makes the viewer want to know why the members cannot talk about fight club, and what will happen to them if they do.

• A non-diegetic song about losing your mind begins to play over the top of the trailer, which gives a subliminal hint to what the storyline is about, as the narrator begins losing his mind throughout the film.