Student Film Analysis

I chose to analysis a past student Soap Opera trailer in order to help me with the planning of my soap trailer, this trailer was made 2 years ago called “Avenue Springs”.

Camera angles

The first mid shot of the clock timed “5:00” automatically makes the audience want to watch me, they are thinking “What’s happening at 5:00?” “Something important”, so from the first camera angle the audience are already engaged. The next mid shot is of a person lying in a bed with the clock next to them, the whole idea of suspicion is still carrying on as the audience are yet to find out what’s actually happening. I think this is a really good idea, they have engaged their audience but they still don’t know what is going on. At the start all the camera shots are in the dark, it makes the trailer seem creepy and eerie, it again shows the secret suspicion of the trailer. The low angle shot of the hooded person automatically makes me see them as intimidating and scary. The panning shot of the car moving is very clever because it seems as if someone is watching them, and when they pull the body out of the car they do have a reason for someone to be watching, as if they’ve been found out. The last shot which is an over the shoulder shot of a girl on the phone leaves the trailer on a real cliff hanger and to me this is really good because the audience want to watch more, so it is a successful trailer.

Mise

At the start of the trailer everything appears dark, it connotes that danger that is about the happen, it’s dark and creepy and the audience might even feel scared from watching it, I think this is what they wanted the audience to feel. The two males are both wearing dark clothing which again portrays them as dangerous characters and the black connotes darkness and death which after is proved by them bringing out the body bag so the clothing showed they were dangerous. The whole darkness makes the trailer seem mysterious and eerie but when the pills are shown (again showing death). As an audience member watching this I want to know how the person is dead in the body bag, were they killed or did they take the pills. It’s good that I’m questioning this after a trailer because it shows I’ve taken an interest and want to know more.

Sound

There is non-diegetic music played the whole way through the trailer and it represents the creepy, eerie mysterious mood, it makes me feel quite nervous watching because I’m expecting something to happen. I like the voiceover used to announce the soap, it still suits the dark mood and doesn’t distract my attention. At the end there is non-diegetic speech of a female asking “is it done”, again this makes me think how did the person in the body bag die, did she take pills or did this women plan it ? This again shows the cliffhanger that is left at the end of the soap.

Editing

The use of fade to blacks they used throughout the trailer is good because in a trailer it is a typical convention to use fade to blacks to split the story up. It also matched the mysteriousness that is the meaning of the trailer. The panning shots gives the audience the idea that something is watching them, as they are up to know good. I don’t think the continuity is right there because sometimes you get a bit lost as there is certain black outs, but this might have been the idea that the group wanted to portray to the audience of confusion.

Titles

The titles they used of “What if?”, and “Nothing is what it seems”, I think is really good, I like it because it helps to tell the story of a trailer, the taglines also make the audience question what is going on so you’re making them think. At the end they show the name time and channel of the soaps which is a vital part so they included all the right information.

This has helped me with the planning and research of my soap trailer, by watching this I can now see how someone in the same situation has put their soap together. I thought this was a really good trailer, the whole idea of it was very creative however to improve it they could of made the camera angles more clearer to make it a stronger trailer.