Textual Analysis

Legend (2015, Dir. Brian Helgeland) 

 

Cinematography

Near the start of the trailer, we see an establishing shot of the city of London, which helps the audience get a better idea of where the film will be set. As this takes place in a  large city, it helps the audience now the genre of the film as well, as crime films generally take place in large cities. 

A large number of shots shown in this trailer consist of mid- close ups of the characters, which means that this is a character-driven narrative. Many of these shots have a shallow focus, which makes us pay more attention to whomever is in the shot. 

At 1:31 we get a tracking shot of one of the twins being bit by a car, in which the camera follows the car. This draws us towards the action and aso creates tension, because we are made to watch the inevitable happen.

We get a point -of-view shot from Reggie's perspective at 1:44. This helps to engage he viewer more, as it makes us feel as if we are in his place, about to get hit by Ron ourselves. 







Most of the shots in this trailer have been filmed with a tripod, or some stable surface for the camera to rest on as the shots look steady. This gives us the impression that the characters are in control or are not in any dangerous situation.

Editing

The action in the trailer has been edited to match up to the beat of the music. The shot duration becomes shorter towards the end of the trailer in order to pick up the pace and draw the audience in in order to make them watch the trailer to the end, however it does slow down and pace up again at various points within the trailer for dramatic effect. From 2:17 until 2:23 when the title card is shown, there is a montage of 10 different shots, each of which last approximately half of a second. The trailer ends on a fast paced note in order to excite the audience, to help leave them feeling that they want to see the film. 

When the trailer slows down, it is to ensure that the audience is paying attention to the events going on, or the dialogue that is being said. If a trailer had a slow pacing throughout the entire duration, the audience will not be gripped and will stop paying attention to it. However if the trailer was quick paced throughout, the action and events will be too quick for the audience to follow, therefore I think it is a good idea that this trailer differentiates the pacing. 

At 0:11 - 0:13, the logos for Universal and Cross Creek Pictures are shown. This is to show the audience that this film is of a high budget and is of a good quality. Universal are a major company, and usually distribute mid-high budget blockbuster films.

Cross Creek Pictures have also produced successful thrillers in the past such as The Woman in Black, Black Swan and Rush. 

The on screen text is used to show the selling points of the film. For example, the actor who plays the lead in this film, Tom Hardy, is very popular, and the fact that he is playing two characters at once makes his role in this film very unique, and will intrigue fans how he will play these two roles differently. The text also states at one point that this is based on a true story. An viewer might see this and want to consider watching it as they know it will be realistic and might want to find out more about the Kray twins. This also states 'from the academy award winning screenwriter of', which would convince an audience to watch this film as the screenwriter has won awards for his past work. 

Sound

The trailer starts out in a club. We can hear quick paced jazz music playing in the background (diegetic). It shows a long shot of the singer standing on the stage with her back to the camera, which quickly straight cuts to a mid-close shot of a female and a man, sitting close together on opposite sides of a table. The female asks him 'Do you like being a gangster?'. This cuts to a close up of the male as he lifts his gaze upwards to look her in the eye, and the jazz music stops, and is replaced by a slightly screeching noise, which gradually gets louder. The soundtrack music begins at 00:11 when the distributor title cards appear. The song used it 'I'm So Sorry' by Imagine Dragons. It has a heavy, rhythmic beat that's fairly paced paced. This helps to attract an audience as the music is uplifting and gripping, and since it is by a popular artist, a fan of the artist might recognise the song and pay attention to the trailer. When the actions or shot changes are synced with the trailer, the heavy beat of the music creates the illusion of the sound of an impact.For example, between 1:22 and 1:28, when the shots fade in and out, and when one of the twins starts throwing punches, the beat is played at the same day. For an audience, it will make them feel as if the shots or punches are metaphorically being thrown in their faces. Around 0:57 - 1:05, this song stops playing after Ron Kray says 'I prefer boys'. This is done for a dramatic impact. When the music goes silent we assume that something bad will befall Ron for admitting this, however, he continues by saying 'I prefer Italians, sometimes Greeks. I'm not prejudiced', the tension in the situation fades and becomes more comedic. 

There is a brief narration at the start of the trailer, presumably by Emily Browning, who is introducing the Kray twins by saying this:

'London in the 1960's, everyone had a story about the Krays... Reggie was the gangster prince of the east end... Ron Kray was a one man mob'.

This helps the audience who are unfamiliar with this film or the Kray Twins, gain a better understanding of what the film will be about, and a very brief explanation of the twins personalities. 

SFX have also been used in this trailer for the sake of the sound of corks popping, the shuffling of a gun, oil of money being dropped onto a solid surface, breaking glass, punches and the sound of a camera flash. This might have been done through the use of foley. For example the sound of punches could have been created by someone hitting a watermelon, or glass breaking by dropping glass onto a hard surface. These would have been recorded in a separate studio where there is no noise disruption. By adding in foley sounds, the audience will have a better idea of what is going on in the scenes, as normal cameras will not always pick up the background sounds such as doors shutting or opening. 

I'm So Sorry - Imagine Dragons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pJbS2iw0vQ

Mise-en-scene 

The mise-en-scene helps to tell the audience where the film is set, when it is set, and the genre of the film through locations, props and costumes. In this shot at 0:41, we can see one of the twins standing in the middle of a room, staring out through the window. Beyond the window we can see a city, and one of the tallest buildings we can see in this landscape is St. Paul's Cathedral, which is in the middle of London. The lighting in this scene looks quite golden, and the brown furniture has been made to complement this. Gold is often associated with wealth and fortune, which suggests that the Kray twins have a lot of wealth. It is possible that the director, Helgeland deliberately made the golds stand out more in order to make the film feel 'rich'.

This is also the case in another shot in the trailer at 1:41. They appear to be in an expensive restaurant that is decorated in golds, reds and greens. The combination of red and gold is also associated with wealth, particularly with royalty.The reds are also made to look more vibrant in this film, which helps to connote the crime genre as there is usually murders and deaths within the genre, which means there is usually blood, which is red. Red is also associated with anger, and in this scene the twins start physically fighting each other. The red helps to make the anger and tension in this scene more intense as it will make the audience either fearful of the emotion, or will help them relate to the anger of one or both of the twins.  

At 0:53, we see the Krays standing with a group of Americans, and they are all wearing suits and are holding glasses with presumably champagne as its contents. Wearing a suit is usually associated with people will occupations related to professional businesses, or again, wealth. Giving how Emily Browning's character in the trailer has already told us that the Krays are gangsters, by wearing suits they fit the stereotype of being a gangster, especially since their hair is often shown being gelled back. 

At 1:12, we got a shot of money being thrown into a sink. This is also another indicator of the time period as the pound notes that are shown here do not match the design of those of the modem day, but rather those that were around during the 1960s. 

The time of the film is once again hinted at 1:19. The Krays and associates are sat and stood in the middle of a kitchen. The props and design of the room very much fits the stereotype of a kitchen in the 60s. 

Also at 1:19, we see a police officer talking to someone about the Krays. His uniform is clearly English, which once again helps denote that this film takes place in England. The uniform of the police has changed over the decades, and in modern days we often see the police walking around in high-visibility jackets, but this was not the case in the 60s, so therefore this helps to show the time period in which the film takes place. 

Performance 

Tom Hardy plays the role of both of the Kray twins (Reggie and Ron) in this film. When performing as Ron, he is very blunt with his speech. He always has a stern facial expression and walks stiffly and upright. His main reaction when something bad is said or something has gone wrong appears to be that he moves to physically attack the person who has wronged him, which shows that he is mentally unstable. When playing as Reg he is much more comedic and sarcastic in his speech, and is more dynamic in his movements and stands with a slouch, as you can see in the screenshot on the right. Their accents are clearly British, so this tells the audience where they are from, and considering how many of the actors show in this trailer share a British accent, we can assume that this film takes place in England.

Live By Night (2016, Dir. Ben Affleck)

Cinematography

The trailer features a great amount of establishing shots, each of them have a tracking camera movement. Giving how there are more than one establishing shots, this tells us that the film will take place in numerous locations.

Most, if not all of the close ups in the trailer have shallow focusing. In this particular case, the camera is subtly zooming in towards his face, drawing more attention towards him but in a non-dramatic manner as there is no significant action happening in this shot.

Quite a large number of shots are tracking shots, such as this example at 0:31 where we follow two characters as they walk towards the tent in front of them. When tracking shots are used on characters, it helps the audience to follow the action  in a more dynamic way.

 

Through the use of shallow focusing and rule of thirds, in this shot we are made to look at the woman in the foreground dancing as she is on the first vertical line in the rule of thirds and is in focus, the male on the side is out of focus and is on the very far right of the shot, beyond the second vertical line, therefore is is of less importance in this shot.

Editing

The very start of the trailer shows the Warner Bros logo, as this is the distributor of this film. Warner Bros is one of the largest distributors worldwide, therefore showing this in the trailer might gain an audience's appeal as Warner Bros have distributed many successful films in the past. 

Like in Legend, the film uses star/director appeal in order to attract an audience. In this case Ben Affleck directs and acts in the main role. The trailer states as on-screen text 'From the director of Argo and the town'. Fans of this film might be convinced to watch this film from this as they might have enjoyed the cinematography and editing from the film and would expect to see the same in this one. 

The shot duration gets longer as the trailer goes on. At the start of the trailer, the shots last around 4-7 seconds. After the first on-screen text is shown ('From the director...'), the shot duration becomes shorter, and starts to last around 2-3 seconds per shot. From 1:25 on wards the shots become even shorter, lasting less than 2 seconds, until the last shot, which lasts 5 seconds. The reason why this increases in pace is to first slowly draw the audience in to grab their attention, and once they have their attention, they will build up the tension and leave the trailer on almost a cliffhanger in order to leave the audience wondering what will happen. 

There is a significant amount of fade transitions in the trailer, both into and from black, and from shot to shot. When the trailer fades to black, it helps to show the audience that the scenes are not connected, or that they are significant and need a slow, dramatic reveal. These transitions are commonly used in the second part of the trailer. As the shot duration are still fairly long at this point, it makes it more interesting for an audience to watch compared to a series of straight cuts, and pulls you into the scene more so that you pay more attention.

Sound

The song used in the background of this trailer is 'Survive' by Chelsea Wolfe. The song starts subtly with only the sound of a guitar and perhaps bass guitar. The song itself has a rather fast pace in terms of instruments, however the vocals sound slower. The song has been shortened and edited in order to fit the trailer as there is noticeably more instrumentals in the trailer than in the original song. If you knew of or were a fan of this artist, you would pay attention to the trailer as you would recognize the song. 

Most of the dialogue heard throughout the trailer is non-diegetic, and is simply used as a voice over. There is only four shots in which the dialogue is diegetic. These are when these phrases are heard:

'You're making a fatal miscalculation'

'You're threatening me with people more powerful than you?'

'Exactly' 

'We're all going to hell'

The non-diegetic dialogue is presumably from the same conversation as the diegetic dialogue is (with the exception of 'We're all going to hell'. This is likely used this way in order to help the audience understand what the plot of the film is through this conversation alone. 

We do not hear any SFX or foley until the third part of the trailer when we are shown a montage of clips. The sounds we hear are that of guns shots, car screeches and knife 'shings'. 

The music stops all together in the last shot when the female character says 'We're all going to hell'. This is to made this phrase more significant and dramatic for the audience in order to leave the trailer on a high note in order to make the film more intriguing. 

Chelsea Wolfe - Survive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp-qeLxZV6g

Mise En Scene

Like with Legend, the mise-en-scene helps the audience to understand when this story is taking place judging by the costumes, props and settings. In this shot we see a women looking like a typical 1920s performer. 

In this shot from 1:34, we see three vintage cars, two of which almost drove into the middle car. These types of cars have been shown at multiple times in the trailer, which can suggest they are of common use. Considering how the driver is on the left hand side of the car, this means that this film takes place in America. 

This establishing shot shows us the costumes of many extras and a street of houses and shots, which looks like the types of buildings you would see in a western film, which can indicate to the audience that this film takes place in America.

 

Considering how this is a crime film, the colours used are quite bold and vivid at times, like in this establishing shot. The blues appear low saturated meanwhile the reds, magentas and yellows look highly saturated. 

Performance

Ben Affleck's character is shown to be perhaps a family man. Twice in this trailer he is shown interacting with a child, the first time playing with the child and his toy, the second walking along a path and holding his hand. By this interaction we can assume that the child is his son. This can appeal to an older male audience as they might relate to Affleck's character as they might be fathers themselves. 

The character he is seen interacting with is hinted to be an antagonist judging by their conversation. From what little we see of him, he appears to be not bothered by Affleck's company, as if he has nothing to worry about, that he is on a higher ground or authority compared to the latter. Both of these characters have strong American accents, which further tells us that this film is set in America.