Thursday 2 November 2017

Analysis of The Snowman trailer (Thriller)

Analysis of The Snowman trailer

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+snowman+trailer

The Snowman is a thriller film where the main narrative revolves around a killer who targets women, and leaves his mark (A snowman) after killing someone. The trailer is 2:23 minutes long and contains about 98 shots. It is most likely not in chronological order as the trailer begins with a woman being kidnapped which would be a weird start to a film.

There are 4/5 main characters with various other side characters, this allows for 2/3 narratives (based around the protagonists and the antagonist). There are also roughly 11 settings shown, these include: a city, a lake, a snowfield, a cabin, a mountain, a second cabin, a hotel, (what looks like) a museum, somewhere that is difficult to make out and a house.


Throughout the trailer, there is only one track that is repeated. It has an eerie voice and backing track to it which makes the atmosphere very suspenseful and puts the viewer on edge. Furthermore, at various points of the film, the music builds to a crescendo which makes it seem even more intense.

There are 6 titles which include: "Based on the terrifying best seller", "This October" (Release date), "The Snowman" (Title), "October" (Release date again), the name of their website and the two production.distribution companies. The fact that it is based on a book already, suggests that the story already has a following which will make it easier to attract its target demographic. The titles also use synergy; they are stylised to look as though they are frozen or cold, which keeps with the theme of snow/cold running throughout.

The film looks like it would have a 15 rating (due to the mature themes such as murder and kidnapping), but the age of the film's target audience would likely be young-mid adults. It may also be aimed at a British audience due to a majority of the actors speaking with a British accent.


A few of the camera shots used include: an extreme long shot of the mountain to show the scale of it. An extreme close-up of a victim's eye; the eye moves around a lot suggesting fear. An over-the-shoulder shot when the protagonist is talking to his (presumed) partner. A close-up of the main protagonist when the house explodes, the close-up on him shows that he is in distress and it could be assumed that maybe his partner or someone close was inside the house at the time.

Towards the end of the trailer, there is a long montage. This montage consists of clips from various characters, while the montage is very fast paced as a whole, the clips featuring the main protagonist are a lot faster than those featuring other characters - suggesting that he is involved in a lot of action. There is also a shot of (presumably) the main protagonist holding a cigarette while the background is blurred, connoting that he is tough and uncaring of people's opinion of him. The pace of the film starts off quite slow, but then speeds up a lot, this is likely to construct a narrative and then show some of the best parts of the film to show the audience that it is exciting.

The entire trailer is reliant on the enigma effect behind the antagonist, this helps to keep the viewer interested in it as they want to know more about the killer e.g. why he is doing it and who he is.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent, detailed research evident on your blog of research into existing trailers Jak, well done.

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