Thursday, 25 June 2015

Analysis of original and recut of 'The shining' trailers

The shining- official trailer

In the original trailer for the shining the editing makes it clear to the audience that the genre of the film is a horror.  They do this from the beginning of the trailer by starting off with a voice over as well as showing the setting of the film with an establishing shot. The trailer shows the film to be set in the middle of nowhere with no people around. The voice that is talking to the audience says that the main character seemed to be ‘completely normal’ however this could make the audience think otherwise. There is juxtaposition between what the voice is saying and the action on the screen. The trailer then shows the main character walking down the corridor of an empty house holding an axe. This shows a typical convention of a horror film.  The voice over is matched to non-linear narrative shots, which implies what is going to happen during the film. However this wouldn’t be as affective without the voice over as it is this that provides the hints.  As you get further through the trailer the music starts to change and becomes atmosphere becomes tense. This suggests that the genre starts to become more obvious as the conventions of a horror film start to become clearer. The trailer also shows the characters with axes, knifes and blood which are the typical icons of a horror.


In the recut version of The Shining they have firstly changed the name to just ‘shining’ this is because it makes it sound more positive and helps it to match the new genre of the trailer which is a family drama/ romance.  The music in the new trailer has been changed to an upbeat happy song to imply positivity and happiness within the film.  The voice over has been total rewritten to change the narrative and other subtle changes have also been made such as the voice talking in a completely new tone. This is done as it is in harmony with the music so that they can work together to create an overall positive feel of the trailer. The new trailer has purposely been made to show many moments of a father and sons loving relationship in order for it to fit the typical conventions of a family/romance film.  In the original trailer at 0.29 seconds and in the new trailer at 0.06 seconds the same shot of the main character in a brightly lit office is used. However the voice over of the second clip overrides the original genre even though the shots that are used are the same in both of the trailers.  In the original clip it shows a shot of ‘Murder’ written on the door in what looks to be blood, which is an iconic moment of the film. However in the recut version of the trailer they have edited the same scene however it makes it look like there is just a child innocently drawing.

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