Thereafter the audience continue to see the youngsters dancing with the non-diegetic music. Honey, the main character is then introduced. She immediately talks about hip hop dance class which makes the plot slightly clearer and later she mentions the word ‘centre’ the youngsters immediately all start laughing exaggeratedly. The shot of these youngsters is not a close up which tells us they are just general characters. What makes this scene effective is the fact that the music stops as they laugh which brings humour to the audience as they also feel like laughing, though they themselves might not understand why these youngsters are laughing. Amongst this scene is a close up of a happy young boy with curly hair. His face appears to be innocent however the close up is how you can tell he may be a main character. This scene fades out in what can be described as a heavenly glow into the next screen shot. This heavenly glow ties it with the innocence of these youths and their culture.
In the next few scenes the nature of the film becomes more serious as the music pace slows down and becomes calmer. A few of the images of people dancing are put through slow motion, which represents the serious side of the film. The diagetic voices of the character’s conversation summarise the plot. This dialogue is much better and effective as it makes the audience more involved and causes intrigue amongst them. There are a few midway shots and again one close up of the young girl. By now we can establish is probably the main character as she has appeared twice now on her own.
Following these images are sequences of fade in and fade out shots of Honey Daniels. Accompanying these images is a voiceover which gives the audience an idea about the plot. After the voiceover explains, ‘it’s time for Honey Daniels to make her move,’ the music explodes into a crescendo and there is a close up of Honey Daniels. The music becomes vibrant indicating as well as down and serious times in the film there are happy and high times as well. This music carries on throughout the frames, as you see Honey ‘making it big’ as a dancer. You see her in a music video, up beat music tempo and the energetic diegetic voices. One thing which grabs the audience’s attention is the scene which included a well known hip hop artist. As this celebrity appears in the film it will appeal more to the young urban generation. This artist is known as Genuine.
A new character is soon introduced into the trailer. a smart looking young man. After seeing a few fading shots of this man and Honey together, you see a far back shot of Honey walking up a staircase. Her expression is unpredictable and the fact that the shot was taken from far suggests at this point she is venerable. Sure enough after this image you see another with honey being unwillingly kissed. You then see an outburst of violence as she slaps the man. This diagetic sound effect can be heard and as she hits him the action cleverly links in with and accompanying image of Honey spinning around whilst dancing. The non-diagetic music changes to a slightly seriously tone.
Again after the drama, humour is used to balance out and show a different aspect of the film. Yet again another famous hip hop celebrity: Missy Elliot appears. This interests the audience further. The humour comes when the diagetic music is played which a new dancer performs to. The celebrity later refers to the dance moves which are performed, which are some what pornographic. Missy Elliot unimpressed imitates the dancer and asks, ‘What is this?’ she then follows with a joke exclaiming, ‘You better call MC hammer and tell him you’re stealing his stuff,’ thereafter walking off. What enhances the humour is the fact that all music stops at the punch line of this joke, almost hinting and giving the audience time to laugh.
To demonstrate a change in scenery, the camera takes a shot zooming over a city in the night. This quick shot, and zooming sound effect proves to be effective to the audience as it clearly shows that something else is going on elsewhere and shows a change in scene and characters. The following scenes are accompanied by vibrant gospel singing, non-diegetic and show frames more rapidly of honey dancing and her ups and downs with other characters.
A vibrant flash of colour leads you to the next few frames. Individual characters are captured in a close up shot, which allows the audience to recognise their main roles in the play, and introduces the characters to the audience. As each character is caught in a close up shot, a thick vertical blue border enhances the shot. As these characters appear voiceovers introduce the main themes of the film, as it speaks the keywords are caught on screen in bold writing. This ensures the themes are caught in the viewers mind; the inspirational words are then made even bolder as the outline of each letter seems to glow, which makes these words stand out more to the audience then the bold writing.
Toward the end of the voiceovers piece, he announces the title of the film ‘Honey’. It then appears on screen along with a short loud sound effect, which immediately grabs the audience. The title grows in size on the screen which could demonstrate the character honey growing in confidence and becoming a wiser person. The font is simple and the white outline of Honey and the black background contrast well. The blue vertical stripe which falls through the title indicates there could be some bad times however Honey rises above it, hence the growth of the title on the screen. As the music comes to an end the credits appear which allow the viewers to see who put the film together.
Overall there were many techniques explored which proved to make this trailer effective. The use of music was one of the most crucial parts of the trailer as it added tension and allowed the audience to predict the mood of certain parts of the film. Stereo types helped us determine who the film was aimed at, it was concluded this film was more for teenage urban youths or people interested in dance. We could tell this due to the way the characters dressed spoke and acted. The pace of the scenes and the diagetic sound helped the audience hear and understand what was going on. Humour grabbed the audience’s attention along with the appearance of several celebrities which immediately appeal to a larger target audience who may like these certain artists.
