The Host - How do trailers help fill cinemas?

  The Host

Each film has to stand out from the rest in order to receive credit and to make a profitable amount of money from cinema releases. The trailer is one of the most important aspects of marketing so this is the film’s chance to show off its USP (unique selling point). From watching the film trailer of The Host it is clear that it has an innovative use of special effects such as CGI (computer generated imagery) and stunts like jumping through glass and dropping three storey’s high to the ground and cars spinning and flipping off the road. These are conventions in an Action/Adventure genre film and so this film conforms to those. When you are at the cinema to watch an Action/Adventure film the trailers before will have been specifically picked to suit the audience watching and so other action films trailers will be shown. If the cinema is screening Despicable Me 2, the trailers shown beforehand wouldn’t be The Purge or World War Z.

This is a CGI image which shows what the future looks like. The CGI gives us a location and setting and this use of special effects is intelligent and appeals to audiences who enjoy Sci-Fi’s. This is a wide angled long shot which enables you to see the mass of the location and gives a small idea of how large outer space is. Even though this is a long shot you can see planet Earth is taking up the whole height of the shot which shows how enormous it is. Seeing outer space is rare on television so this can work as a USP too. There is non-diegetic music playing (Imagine Dragons – Radioactive) which starts with a slow pace with a guitar and another instrument, overlapping is a man’s voice quietly singing one note and fluctuating in tune and volume. When this shot appears you know it is the future as the main girl character says in a non-diegetic voiceover ‘this is the future and humanity is all but extinct’. As she begins to talk the music almost does a sucking sound and closes into silence until you hear these little rockets (left of earth) swoosh past. This shot fades in and out as if it is a memory and she is telling a story. Her voiceover in the trailer at the moment acts as a narrator.

 

This is a long shot of the ‘aliens’/antagonists base. This CGI shot has been used to enhance the abstract nature of this film as aliens are erasing human’s minds and taking over their bodies. The dark night sky indicates the abnormal nature of this plot and also allows the audience to see the three glows which shoot down into the base. This is their form of transport. Again, this is unconventional and so stands out against other films entering the cinematic world and will make it more appealing to the audience. The colour of the base is blue. This is associated with calmness, tranquillity and peace which implies that the ‘aliens’ are good and do not mean any harm. So, this could make the audience want to see the film in order to discover why they are the antagonists. The blue base looks like light beams attaching to one another and since this is their mode of transport it links to the cliché of ‘travelling at the speed of light’. This shot comes after the above one and the transition is a slow cut which is synchronised with a small non-diegetic bang. This is used as an entrance for showing the aliens base as it is powerful and its presence is intimidating. This use of CGI hooks fans of Sci-Fi’s and then the humans are introduced so for audiences who like storylines involving people appeal to this too.

 

These next two shots are medium shots which frame the girl lying on her back. We are on her level and so the audience is placed on her side. Also, the other people’s faces cannot be seen, implying their unimportance and how the girl is the focus. The girl is bruised and cut however, once this man has held this silver machine over her and pressed a button her cuts and bruises miraculously fade away. This won’t be CGI but the combining of two shots I presume in the editing room allows them to do this. All of the antagonist’s possessions are silver; their vehicles, rooms, healing machines, even the sheet used to cover the girl. After researching I have found on ‘alizons-psychic-secrets.com’ that silver represents intuition, imagination and illusion. The meaning of silver is also associated with mystery, femininity and female power. The main antagonist and leader of the invasion is a woman which goes against stereotypical conventions that men are the stronger sex. The people healing her are men and are working for the women which again is unconventional, this is a feature which could come under their USP as it will appeal to audiences. The men are wearing black which is a conventional colour which symbolises evil, darkness and is associated with being an antagonist.   

 

 

Once the aliens have entered the human’s body so you know they have changed the human’s eyes form a silver ring around the pupil. This is unusual in a film to have something affect you in such an obvious way. Another film which has had a change to them once something has invaded is Invasion of the Body Snatchers where the humans become devoid of emotion. The age of this girl will attract younger audiences as well. The camera pans around the side of the girl’s face and stops at her front, the audience expects her eyes to open as it is very typical and is repeated in other films such as Twilight: Breaking Dawn part one and Avatar. The music is the same non-diegetic piece and is fairly slow with what sounds like a whistle overlapping. It is quite mysterious which suits the scene as you know something about her will have changed. There is a non-diegetic voiceover of the female antagonist saying ‘their emotions are powerful. If her will has survived along with her memories, she may resist from within’. This gives the audience an insight as to the plot and it clearly is about the girl getting her body back and the alien out. This shot is a close up, the background is blurred which puts the focus on her as she is significant. The man is sideways so the camera must be on its side as she has turned over. This abstract feel to the shot matches the abnormal and surreal plot.

The target audience for this trailer is 12-20 year old boys and girls. The girl appeals to younger children, the action for boys and the romance for couples.

• Trailer Length - 2.08 minutes
• Action - Adventure - Romance
• Certificate 12A