Baz Lurhmann used a variety of techniques and styles for this trailer. I am going to take each technical aspect he used and try to work out why he used it and what connotations it implies. Firstly, I will look at colour. Baz Lurhmann used colour to point out the characters of the people involved. For example, Tybalt, who is Juliet’s cousin, always wears black and/or red. The connotations of these colours are aggressive, quick-tempered, angry, bold, evil and dark. This is Tybalt’s personality, reflected in the way he dresses; basically he is the devil incarnate and there is even a scene where he is wearing devil horns to show this to us directly.
On the other hand, his cousin Juliet normally wears white. This implies purity, innocence and virginity. We get a feeling that Juliet is a sweet, innocent girl almost in a heavenly or magical way. There is a scene where she is wearing angel wings to further impact this idea. This is one of the major contrasts in the trailer to show that even though Juliet and Tybalt are family, they are as different from each other as chalk and cheese.
Another good example of colour use is the difference in the dress code between the Capulets and the Montagues, the two main rivalling families in the story. The Montagues dress in bold, bright Hawaiian print shirts. This implies immaturity and loudness. They are “in your face” type of people who are just fooling around looking for a laugh. However, they can get rough if they are challenged. On the contrary, the Capulets dress in all black and exude an air of quiet menace. This gives them a threatening and evil edge, a kind of gangster image. And it is further acceded by the fact that they are the ones who start the fights usually. These two different images also help to show us that the families hate each other and try to be as different from each other as possible.
Lighting is another very important aspect in this trailer. The way different characters are lit shows us what they are like or what situation they are in. For example, in the scene after Romeo and Juliet have made love, he is happy and content. This is shown by the lighting on his face, a soft, low-key, golden light. The gold also symbolises to us that he is precious and rare, something to be cherished once it is yours. On the opposite side, there is the scene after he has killed Tybalt. The lighting in this case is a blue-black light to symbolise this black moment in his life. It is a hard, cold light coming from the top creating harsh shadows. He has killed his wife’s cousin and he is likely to be killed for doing so. This is all emphasised by the lighting that the director chose to use.
Music is one major aspect in the trailer. It immediately tells us what the mood of a particular scene is. Loud, fast music suggests anger, violence, fast cars and drugs. Soft, slow music suggests romance, love and peace. The trailer uses two main sound tracks; a fast, loud instrumental and a slow, haunting song, “Kissing You” which is a solo sung by a female singer, Des’ree. When “Kissing You” is playing in the background, (nondiegetic sound) the mood of the scene is romantic and full of love. For example, the scene when Romeo and Juliet first meet has “Kissing You” playing. The song makes the viewers empathise with the characters, as it is full of passion and built-in desire, just as Romeo and Juliet are for each other. This part of the trailer is aimed at women because, stereotypically, women prefer romance to fights. The song, however, also has a tinge of sadness and is very melancholy. This suggests to us that everything is not perfect in their love story.
On the other hand, when the fast music is playing (nondiegetic sound), the scenes too are very quick and are mostly about gunfights, violence, fast cars, passion and more gunfights. These include scenes like Mercutio’s death, Tybalt’s death, scenes of Romeo and Juliet kissing, fights between the Montagues and Capulets, scenes from the Capulet party. The music complements these scenes perfectly because they are scenes of anger and passion and violence. Therefore the music is parallel as well nondiegetic. This part of the trailer is aimed at men because, stereotypically, men prefer fights and fast cars to romance.
Both the examples above were nondiegetic sound. There are many diegetic sounds in the trailer too. The sounds of police sirens and the helicopter flying when Romeo is being hunted by the police, the sound of Tybalt’s car smashing when he dies, the sound of gunfights and many more. These sounds are parallel as well as diegetic. They are important because they show us how the characters react to the sounds in their world. They also tell us what a fast-paced, harsh, modern world they live in, the world that we the viewers live in too. This is another way of making the audience empathise with the characters.
Baz Lurhmann used numerous camera angles and shots in the trailer to convey different things. For example, he used a low angle shot when showing a statue of Jesus. He did this to show that God is superior and powerful but humans often forget Him because of being wrapped up in their own lives. By contrast, he used a high angle shot on Romeo after he has killed Tybalt to show us that he is insignificant, desperate and helpless when it comes to matters of life and death. Tybalt is always positioned in the middle of the frame and he is always looking directly into the camera. This furthers the impression that he is very bold and dominant. In the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, he uses a close up to show us the expressions and feelings of the characters as they see each other for the first time. He utilizes an extreme close up to show us Juliet’s eyes. They are wide open with curiosity and it adds to her innocence and purity. These different techniques show us how characters are feeling at a particular moment.
The trailer has a very detailed mise en scène. Mise en scène literally means, “what is put into the scene or frame”. This includes props, setting, costume, hair, make-up, facial expressions and body language. The costumes used in “Romeo and Juliet” are modern-day clothes not clothes of the time of Shakespeare. This is to symbolise that the story is so powerful and yet so simple that the time in which it was written doesn’t matter as it applies to all time. The costume is used to show differences in people in the trailer. The Montagues dress in bright, bold prints while the Capulets dress in black. They want to be as different from each other as possible. Another way costume is used in the trailer is to tell us something about the characters. For example, Juliet wears angel wings in many scenes. From this we can an impression of sweetness, virtue and purity. Romeo wears a knight costume in some scenes and this suggests to us that he is Juliet’s knight in shining armour. On the other hand, Tybalt is shown wearing red devil horns. This implies that he is a very angry, aggressive, quick-tempered person who doesn’t wish anyone good. Lastly, costume was used to tell us when someone was out of place in the scene where Romeo goes to the Capulet house to meet Juliet. He is wearing a blue, printed shirt while the rest of the room is white. This tells us that he is not meant to be there and that he is walking on forbidden territory.
Make-up used in the trailer also tells us something about the person’s character. Juliet wears light, natural make-up showing us her innocence. On the other hand, her mother wears enough make-up to suit a circus and this tells us that she is a very vain woman. There is a scene where Mercutio dresses like a woman and he wears make-up too. From this we gather that he is a fun-loving character who will go to any lengths for a laugh. It also suggests that he is not the “fighting to death” type but indulging in horseplay. This is further emphasised by the scene where he drops his gun to the ground. By contrast, Tybalt is always featured as face-on to the camera with a gun in his hand. Hairstyles in the trailer are not very elaborate, the type that a normal person would do by themselves. However, they tell us something about Juliet. She normally wears her hair up but in the scene after she has consummated her marriage, it’s all loose and rumpled. This shows us that she has become carefree and very happy.
The props used in the trailer are very important and symbolic. For example, when Romeo and Juliet see each other for the first time, there is a fish tank between them. This symbolises the barriers that are there between their love. However, it could also be interpreted that they are now crossing the barriers that their family have erected between them. There is another incident where a glass shatters just before everything goes wrong. This could symbolise that their love is shattered or that the peaceful image is broken.
There isn’t much dialogue in the trailer. However, it is very important. After Romeo has killed Tybalt, he screams, “I am fortune’s fool!” This has many connotations. Fortune could mean wealth or it could mean fate and destiny. If it means wealth, then he means that if his and Juliet’s families had not been so wealthy and powerful, then there wouldn’t have been any trouble. If he means fate, then he is trying to say that life is playing a game with him by making him fall in love with his worst enemy’s daughter. Near the end, Romeo says, “O Juliet! I will lie with thee tonight”. This too has several connotations. Lie could mean, “to tell an untruth” by which Romeo means that he will help Juliet by lying to their parents. Or it could mean, ”to sleep with”. In this case, Romeo is saying that he will be with Juliet that night. All these things show us how important mise en scène is in the trailer.
Editing is another important aspect of the trailer. Baz Lurhmann used many different techniques to show different things. At the beginning, he used jump cuts to bring about a quick, rapid sequence. This symbolises that life isn’t simple and everything is complicated. However, when the text comes on, he uses a black frame and white lettering to make it stand out and make us focus on it. The text fades away. In the romantic scenes, he uses straight cuts to make one scene flow smoothly to the next creating an image of peace and simplicity. He used a fade effect again when there was a black frame saying, “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”. After a few seconds “William Shakespeare” faded away. I think this is significant because it shows that the story is so powerful that it doesn’t matter who wrote or when it was written. And lastly, he used an editing technique known as pathetic fallacy. This is when the director uses the weather to reflect the character’s emotions. He used this in the scene after Romeo kills Tybalt. It suddenly starts raining very heavily and this shows us how Romeo is feeling; totally lost, helpless and awaiting doom.
In conclusion, I think that the trailer of “Romeo and Juliet” is extremely effective in convincing viewers to see the film. After analysing the trailer in detail, I can say that it covers all the genres that the film is i.e. romance, action, comedy, drama and Shakespeare. The trailer has an element of each of these. The trailer also appeals to both genders and various ages. There are parts of the trailer aimed specifically at men or women or people of a certain age. Baz Lurhmann used a variety of techniques to create the right effect for the trailer and it is very successful. However, in my opinion, the trailer was a bit short. I think that if it had been a little bit longer it would have been more effective. Nevertheless, it is still very good and it persuades the viewers to actually see the film.
