Textual analysis of a teaser
- 1. Minority Report (2002) – Steven Spielberg
- 3. The dramatic opening of the teaser instantly captures the audiences attention - due to the fast-paced editing - as they invade a man’s home. However, from this shot the pace is slowed as dialogue takes place.This mid shot is taken from a low angle, emphasising the authority that the two men in armour have.The use of armour and authority indicates that they are from some kind of government enforcers.The positioning of the shot allows the audience to infer that the character positioned in the middle is the main character and the one to the left is a side character. The camera tilts up and the audience can see that the man on the bed is victimised as he is literally pinned to the bed, however the audience are positioned to like the authority figures as we find out the victim is being arrested for murder, but this changes when it is revealed that he hasn’t committed the crime yet.The audience are left confused. In terms of lighting, the windows let in bright white light but the overall lighting is quite low key as shadows are used on half of the main character’s face indicating a potential inner struggle he may face in the film.
- 4. This use of graphic text helps to explain what the audience may have been confused about in the previous shot. The typography used is typical for a thriller as it is bold, white and capitalised and shares a common design to the movie poster.The actual text they use has key repeated words that they use to establish the genre of the film, including ‘guilty’, ‘crime’ and ‘punished’.The tension of the trailer is boosted by the use of dramatic ‘booms’ every time a new line of text is introduced.
- 5. The next shot I chose was of the institutional information, more specifically the production/distribution companies. Most importantly, this shot makes use of the colour blue. Blue is obviously the colour of the sky and sea and has relation to nature, but it is often used in thrillers as it links to the police and other law enforcement.This relates to the jobs that the characters have and shows that this is a crime/psychological thriller.The shot also has a moving water special effect.The water symbolises emotions, but also has a theme of identity due to reflections found in the water.This use of the colour blue is what the marketers of the film have used to create a strong brand identity that helps to make the film easily recognisable.
- 6. There is a zoom into an extreme close-up of a female’s eye, which creates enigmas as to why she is linked up to a machine. Eyes are a repeated motif in the teaser trailer and is a convention of the psychological thriller genre as eyes are the ‘windows to the soul’ and connotes themes of identity and inner-self.The combination of the eye and text makes a point of directly addressing the audience adding a sense of fear and suspense.The poster also makes use of this technique.The non-diegetic sound in this scene uses a kind of holy synth sound which is contrapuntal to what is on screen as there is often a strong divide between science and religion.
- 7. This close-up of the main character is during a dialogue scene in which he says the movie’s tagline ‘ Everybody runs’ following this there is a sudden change in non-diegetic music as there are more frequent drums and the tempo increases. Low key lighting is also used in this shot to create meanings as once again half of the main character’s face is covered in shadows drawing attention to the potential darker side of his character.The setting of this shot is in some kind of basement due to the ventilation on display in the background.This creates the sense of being trapped or hidden and excites the audience.
- 8. This medium close-up denotes the main character in mid fight. Once again the low key lighting is repeatedly used to cast the main character in darkness and create enigmas leading the audience to wonder what his true motivations are this enigma is strengthened by the dark leather jacket, which is often worn by villains.This is also the second time in the trailer where he is involved in fight scene. In terms of representation government authority figures are often represented as being weak as they are often too late to solve the crime or catch the criminal, or are easily defeated and the main character takes matters into their own hands. For this character he is represented as powerful, aggressive and very dedicated to his work as he is willing to risk his life. However, the audience do not know what exactly his work is.
- 9. The duration of each shot from this point is much faster as the fight scene heightens the excitement for the audience. This shot is the beginning of a montage featuring all the exciting or enigmatic clips from the film so far. Lighting plays a key part in this shot as there is use of a bright white backlight, which helps to create a blue tone over the shot. There are two characters positioned in the middle of the shot and appear like silhouettes. Notably, the main character is the one who seems to be winning the fight.This suggests that he plays a key role to the film.
- 10. The eye motif is featured again with use of more text graphics of the director’s name. In order to help build a stronger brand identity the eye is also the film’s key colour, blue.The straight cut into the extreme close-up of the eye is unsettling as it is wide open and suggests fear.There is a slight reflection in the eye of the pupil, this is effective as it confronts themes of identity and shares a link to the previous special effect of the water over the institutional information as water is also associated with reflections and the idea of confronting yourself.This ties in with the psychological thriller aspect of the teaser trailer.
- 11. The close-up here is interesting as it features the main character in a blindfold, a key element of the movie poster.The use of the blindfold here connotes vulnerability and weakness as his sight is restricted. In this shot there are sci-fi elements featured as there is use of robotic, technical features.The blindfold suggests that he is in complete surrender to these robots, the lack of clothing also suggests this.The setting looks to be in a bathroom, or sanitised room of some kind and adds to the sci-fi aspect of the thriller. It is just after this shot that the non-diegetic action music reaches its crescendo as the title of the movie appears.The shots towards the end of the trailer seem to be the most important to the narrative as the music gets more intense towards the end. It is shots featured at the end that create more enigmas for the audience to keep increasing the level of suspense.