Film trailer de-construction - The Descent

The trailer opens with the caution message on a green background. this is customary for trailers shown in cinemas as this tells the audience that the trailer is going to be age restricted with scenes of violence and gore or sexuality. this provides the producers of the film with liability for anyone under the verified age who see's this. the shot then quickly changes to the producers logo with an eerie effect on the background, this typically shows that this will be related to the film and helps set the mood for the audience, they will now be in anticipation of what may happen in the film. this then fades to a short extract of the film, one of the main characters is taking a group photo of the other people who are with her in the wooden camp behind them. this shows the setting of the film and also helps the audience get a clear picture of the characters relationships with each other, it becomes clear that they are on an expedition of some sort. the audience can tell that the woman is a main character as she has the opening line, she is alone in the shot, she is in control within the scene and she is filmed in a clear mid-shot focusing on her face and showing her authoritative status. as she takes the picture the image goes to a still shot of the others in black and white. this could symbolise a memory or the scene as being in a flashback the image fades to darkness and the audience see an Arial shot of a highway cutting through a Forrest. this quickly changes to a scene with people in a car talking so the overhead shot was to establish the scene two women are in the car talking and laughing, they are obviously friends. the camera then cuts to one of the women throwing a rope down from where she is standing at the top of a rock face. the camera then follows the rope down to the inside of a pot hole cave with the rest of the team from the photograph. we see a close up from a high angle of one of the explorers standing under a drip from above, she gets called to by another woman and the camera changes to an extreme close up of her applying her safety harnesses the camera then cuts to darkness and is re lit by the head torch of one of the explorers as they clamber through the darkness deeper into the hole. this is done for a few minutes with different shots such as panning and close ups etc. this shows a lapse of time and gives the impression that they are going further and further down. these shots are broken up with words such as 'claustrophobia', 'disorientation', 'hallucination' and 'fear' written in small, hazy font, mimicking the atmosphere of the dark, cramped setting. towards the end of these the audience can see shots of the characters clambering into a bulge in the tunnel. this is followed by a mid shot with a green filter as if being shot through a night vision camera. the audience can see a woman talking to another woman, as she looks at this woman the camera zooms round to view her. when the camera zooms back the audience sees the first woman standing with a shadowy figure behind her, the shot does not freeze for long enough for the audience to focus on him but just long enough for them to see that this is not right. this is followed by shots of people running, the camera is in a handheld position so the audience can only see a flurry of blurry images this is then slowed down by a short shot of a head torch glowing dimmer and dimmer as the power drains out of it. the camera then changes to a shot of one of the explorers stuck on a rock. she is panicked. after a few more shots of caves and tunnels being lit by overhead torches one of the explorers ignites a flare. the camera then increases in brightness, this then quickly changes to a new shot (this effect is like the one at the beginning where the flash of the camera was used to change to the next scene) the next shot sequence shows the group all crowding round the flare watching the walls, these shots have quotes flickering at the side of the screen from different critics who have seen the film and have given good reviews. these shots show what happens after the first attack when the torch went out. the title then appears in the same misty font as the key words before but in a much larger font. the titles fade away to three clips of some of the explorers fighting the beasts. this then changes again to the end notifications and the coming soon end title which is another convention of the modern movie trailer.