Trailer Analysis - Clash of the Titans

The trailer for 'Clash of the Titans' is one of the most epic trailers I have ever seen, and makes the film itself look much more exciting than it actually is. The movie itself may be a terrible film, but the trailer created for it is incredible.  The climactic part of the trailer, based around the music is unusually long; lasting from 1:09 to 1:45. Although there is a part after that, this can hardly be said to be climactic, but more of just an extra sneak peek. By having the ending this long the trailer is showing the film to be constantly moving and full of action. Just by having that many action shots available is incredible, so the audience will be stunned by the amount of action in the film. Some of these shots last less than a second, but there are only a few shots that look as if they are from the same scene. Admittedly the giant scorpion seems to come back a few times, but other than that it is hard to tell that scenes have been reused. The key to doing this was that scenes were, in fact, reused, but shots were chosen that made it look as if they were different scenes entirely. Medusa is shown several times in the trailer, but it is hard to tell that it is actually the same character, for example, she appears both at 1:34 and at 0:46, but different shots are used. At 0:46 the back of her head is seen, and the audience, if they have any knowledge about Greek mythology will probably guess it is her by the snakes in her hair, but at 1:34 the shot is a bird's-eye view shot, showing her snake tail and her head and hands at the end of it. However in the latter shot it doesn't look like the same creature because the audience hasn't previously seen that she has a snake tail, which takes up most of her body. This makes the film look like it has more action sequences then it actually has, so the audience are cleverly tricked.

The trailer is also successful because of the way it times the visuals perfectly with the music, which makes the trailer seem to match the epic quality of the music and heightens the power of both the music and visuals. This is demonstrated brilliantly with the scorpion sequence at 1:17 where there are significant strong beats in the music that match perfectly with the giant scorpion hitting and stabbing. Particularly impressive is when it stabs the ground twice perfectly to the music without even changing shot. This is the kind of impeccable timing that we will try to aim for in our trailer - with short sharp movements in the visuals perfectly matching up to beats in the music. In a way it could make it easier composing the music first and then fitting the visuals around it in order the make the action match as perfectly with the music as possible. We wouldn't, however, make every shot perfectly fit with the music as then we might sacrifice the storyline, but we could at least have a few moments when the music hits significant beats where we tailor the visuals to the music. As with last year we are considering composing our own music, as this worked well last year to get a perfect relationship between visuals and music, however this year we are planning on composing music with a band instead of just a piano. The music used in this trailer has given us the inspiration to use more rock style music, using electric guitars and drums, rather than just the piano that was used last year. However we will, of course, work out our storyline before making a full commitment to the sort of music that is appropriate. In the music used for the Clash of the Titans trailer there is a very long crescendo build between 0:49 and 1:09 which builds the tension admirably. Moments like at 0:56 increase the pace of the music and give it a boost towards the climax. The particular moment at 0:56 is very powerful, as the visuals and music work in unison to create that moment. Also to increase the tension in the build up, the visuals fade in and out constantly. This is normally used in films when something  bad is about to happen, probably because fading into black has a morbid feeling and a sense of finality about it. By using this in the trailer it is getting the audience ready and they are getting pumped up for the climax to the trailer, which does not disappoint. Particularly important is that the climax does not disappoint, as the audience would get the feeling that the whole film would have a disappointing climax.

As much as I think that this trailer is very well put together, I do not, however, think that the ending, with the Kraken is very strong. It feels like a bit of a let down after the epic ending that finishes just a few moments before, and instead of leaving the audience with the elated feeling, it instead leaves them wondering why the extra ending was ever put in. I think that part of the disappointment is the change in music, from the heavy electric music to the percussive, drum piece which doesn't seem to have any melody or even beat to it. The music choice in the rest of the trailer is very well chosen, so this ending is incredibly disappointing with the music change; it would have been far better to end it on the epic piece that the rest of the trailer had. I can see what the ending was trying to achieve, as the Kraken had not been shown in the rest of the trailer, so it leaves yet another amazing action scene in the audience's mind and shows that the trailer hasn't given away everything. This is a good idea in theory, but was just badly executed. On a brighter note, the font at the end for the title was very cool.

There is a lot to learn from this trailer, mainly the way that the music and the visuals work brilliantly together to make the trailer very epic and fast paced. Also I realise now that we do not necessarily have to go to a hundred locations and get just one shot from each, but we can go to just a few locations and get a lot of different shots there that show a different angle to the location, making it look different. From seeing the ending of this trailer I see that it does not always work to have the kind of 'afterthought' shots, but these need to be thought through very carefully as they could make or break a good trailer.