Zodiac Trailer Analysis

Zodiac

The film trailer uses an array of different well known critically acclaimed actors meaning the star power is used by the film company in order to draw in a further audience. This is done by the viewers identifying that these people are in the film and know that they will only star in films with a good story line and high production value, so the audience will connote that this film should be good with such actors as Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhall and Mark Ruffalo starring in the film.

The film uses patriarchy, this connotes that there will be a lot of action will be in the film as normally when the films are male dominated, lots of action will occur meaning that the viewers who thrive for these situation will stay entertained by the film and will want to watch it all the way through. However, in the trailer this creates a sense of anticipation as the viewers will want to see what happens and who is killed due to the story line being based on a real life occurrence.

Low-key lighting is used throughout the trailer to emphasise the mood of the trailer, as lots of death will be occurring meaning that the film shouldn't have a happy tone to it and should represent the suffering and actions of the killer and victims.

Fade to blacks are used frequently in the film to show the passing of time or situation that the character has been put in.

There is no synchronous dialogue used in the trailer which will confuse the viewers when trying to understand what is happening in the story line. This will keep the viewers disorientated throughout the extract, but this will have a positive effect for them as they will still be questioning why this is used throughout the trailer and will hopefully go on to watch the film in order to comprehend what was happening in the trailer as it intrigued them. 

The music in the trailer was also changed to fit the scene change in the film as two different moods and situations are apparent in the trailer. This allows the scenes to make more sense of the extract as it is not playing with there emotions. As the scenes move into the inner city the music changes due to the location change.

Titles are used throughout the trailer to introduce the actors so that the audience can see the well known actors are making an appearance and to allow the audience to identify who produced and distributed the film as well as the title as maybe they can relate it to previous knowledge they obtain.

The use of props is quite apparent in the trailer as it helps progress the short story line and helps the viewers to gain a further understanding of the characters and what they bring to the table. For example a gun is shown and used for the chasers and killer, therefor the viewers would be able to identify that the film will contain violence and drama towards death.

The extract only uses dialogue which appears in the film which adds to the realism of the clip. This allows the audience to create an opinion of the film as they are seeing clips directly from the film with no further editing allowing them to come up with the decision of whether they would like to see the film or not.