Research - Taken

I chose to research taken because in the first scenes of the trailer it shows a young girl about to get kidnapped. I thought this would be useful for our production because it shows the type of emotion and feel we want for our trailer.

Generally the beginning of the trailer is slow paced with the camera at eye-level of the young girl and the camera moves smoothly. The colours are all warm which could be represented as a safe place, the sound is also harmonising in the background and with the use of editing and camera some scenes are set in slow motion. This is all to set the scene for the viewer, so they get to know the characters at a personal level and the father's and daughter's relationship. Then when the camera flashes the mood of the trailer changes. Using editing the cuts are quick and flash white to black and even sometimes using the negative image to cut from the scene. This gives an unsteady feel to the audience. When the girl is in the hotel room the sound really emphasises the unease as the only sounds are deep drumming which synchronises with the flashing cuts in the editing.

When the girl is on the phone with her father they split the screen so the audience can see each of their reactions at the same time, however using editing they move the frames around emphasising the uneasy and unsteady feel for the viewer. Also this sets a distance between them as they are on the phone.Looking at the mis en scene when the daughter and father are on the phone he is in a warm looking setting but the girl's setting is in cold tones making them feel far apart visually also could give an unsafe mood where the girl is for the viewer.

When the girl sees the men take her friend, it's through a window so it makes it very difficult for the viewer to see what is happening which creates mystery, but with the girl saying what is happening they know some detail to what is going on. Also because the screen is split showing her reaction and with a close up her emotion is clearly shown and makes the audience feel more personal to her. All the time the trailer cuts back to the father on the phone instructing what to do, to his daughter. Also during the split screens when this is happening, the camera pans quickly making it blur slightly, this makes the trailer feel more rushed and fast paced.

When the girl is taken from under the bed, there are flashes of white and black quickly while she is being dragged away. Also her scream echoes which gives more of an impact to the viewer as the sound carries on for a while even when the scene is over.

After the girl has been taken it becomes quiet and you can hear breathing on the other end of the phone and when the man says "I don't know who your are" it quickly cuts and flashes clips of a man, however you can't see his face. The viewer assumes this is who is on the phone, then cuts back to the father. during this part of the trailer there is classical music playing over and as the trailer goes on the music heightens and gets louder, it almost sounds heroic. The scenes then cut from action and back to the man on the phone with his voice over all the scenes. The action scenes are fast paced and cut quickly making it difficult to see what is happening, however when it cuts back to him it there is a long cut so the viewer can keep focus to what he is saying. The action shown is related to what he is saying on the phone which gives the audience an understanding of what the film is about and what is expected to happen. Although the main question for this film is 'Will he find her?' and this is what the audience want to find out so they will go and see it.

I think for our trailer we will need this type of main question that the audience want to know the answer to. For example 'Will they survive?’ The audience will also want to know how. All from this trailer, the audience will want to see the film to know what happens next.