The Phoenix Project Trailer - Research and Essay

• This trailer starts off with a slow pace, montage of close ups of machinery. This immediately tells the audience that they are scientists working on something in a lab
• A voice over and sound bridge is used to placed the dialogue over different shots
• This trailer is unusual in that it doesn't follow the three act structure of most trailers, this trailer only has two. This means that not a lot of information is shown and therefore gives the trailer an extremely slow paced feel
• As the majority of shots are in a laboratory they use low key lighting, this follows the majority of sci-fi films and trailers 
  
• The production company is shown at the start, and the name is shown at the end but no actors/directors names are shown as they aren't bankable stars. Instead the time is used to show a tag line
• The tag line reads 'The sequencing of DNA. The mapping of the brain. The harvesting of stem cells. The cloning of a mammal. The reanimation of life." This serves to build suspense and sound scientific in order to give the film credibility
• The text is in green in a font resembling a computer, this tells the audience that the film is scientific and futuristic and reminds them of it being a science fiction film 
  
• The camera throughout the entire trailer doesn't shake, this adheres to conventions of science fiction films without a lot of action
• The use of the video blog is similar to other trailers/films where that blog tells the story of what happens 
  
• The music starts off with a calm slow piano piece, this is similar to the majority of other sci-fi film trailers. There is a electrical beat in the background which represents a heartbeat and human life a an electrical buzzing sound which reminds the audience that its a science fiction film. As the trailer rolls into act two, the piano stops and all that is left is the electric beat which then stops as well. As the montage is shown every time it cuts to black all sounds stops this builds tension as it plays up the horror aspect
• When the corpse is brought back to life, the second act starts. In this act a montage is shown with each clip only being shown for a second before going to black, this is done in order to build tension as along with the sound clips of electricity the audience get the impression that something has gone wrong however they don't know what has happened, this works as the audience isn't told the plot of the film and therefore hype is built up

AF