Analysis Of A Film Trailer; Les Misérables

Les Misérables is a romantic musical, which involves a lot of drama. It will be released 11th January 2013 in the UK.

• The very first shot within the trailer is an extreme long shot. This shows a silhouette climbing a desolate hill, emphasising the tone of the film as well as the struggle within the story. Thus setting the equilibrium, as the three key characters are then shown briefly.
• One of the main characters, Anne Hathaway, is singing throughout the whole trailer, which is unusual but this highlights how it belongs to the musical genre. Dolby Digital is used so the music is a focus point of the trailer.
• The choice of song also sets the mood, and the well known song ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ attracts a wider audience. It is recognised for being associated with the on stage performance of Les Misérables.
• There isn’t any narration used within the trailer so the premise is unknown. Therefore a lot of clips of the surroundings and characters have been shown to try and enhance the audiences understanding of the plot.
• Two separate cast runs are used to display who the Director and Producer are, which are separated by 5 seconds of shots to convey how they’re from two different aspects of the media. Tom Hooper is the Academy Award Winning director of The Kings Speech, and this information is shown within the trailer to attract those who enjoy his work.  Similarly you are told that Cameron Mackintosh is the Producer, and that he has worked in many musicals. This uses Richard Dyer’s Star Theory to attract a wider audience.
• The middle of the trailer shows many men doing hard physical labour and a lonely child. This is the recognition of disruption used in Todorov’s Narrative Stages, and is the climax within the trailer. It shows the high point of the pain throughout the film, and that many are lost and alone.
• There are several close ups of the many main characters, followed by a cast run. The use of Richard Dyer’s star theory attracts a wider audience as there are many highly regarded actors within the film, especially as it’s a well known stage performance.
• The attempt to repair disruption is also quickly shown within the trailer. We see a wide array of different types of characters (shown by the mis en scene) celebrating together, highlighting how the story is taking a different dynamic from the beginning of the trailer.
• We also see that the lonely child from earlier on in the trailer is found by an adult, who looks very pleased to see her. This conveys the man as the hero within the film according to Propp’s character type.
• Through the mis en scene we see a difference in characters quickly within the trailer. The costumes used convey the idea that there is a very clear hierarchy within the film and the time it was set. It also uses Judith Butler's queer theory, conveying the typical stereotype of different gender's.
• We see a male and female wearing high quality clothes in a rundown street which contrasts to their appearance. We also receive a feeling of lust between them both due to their body language with each other. The lighting used on the two characters highlight them two within the street, this means all our focus should be on them. Although the trailer conveys a very distressing image of the film, this small clips shows that there are some positive aspects within the film.
• The trailer has a lot of quick edits of short clips, where each actor is usually alone. This portrays the numerous forlorn characters throughout the film, as well as emphasising how many stories there are interwoven within eachother.