The next text to appear on the trailer is the strapline. This consists of three parts. ‘This summer’ makes the audience think that the events are actually going to happen. It also gives the audience an idea of when the film is going to be released. ‘The Last War on Earth’ gives the impression that humanity is going to be wiped out and that the war may destroy the earth. The third part of the strapline, ‘Won’t be Started By Humans’, re-inforces the idea that humanity may be wiped out and suggests that the war may be started by aliens. The word ‘Won’t’ causes the audience to question whether it is reality of fiction.
The next credit to appear is the name ‘Tom Cruise’ in large, bold writing, which will attract many Tom Cruise fans to the film.
Towards the end of the trailer the name of the film appears. The two most emphasised words are ‘War’ and ‘Worlds’. Putting emphases on these words makes the name of the film more memorable and also gives a logo to the title of the film.
Finally, the credits of the main characters and people with key roles in the making of the film are shown. It suggests that this is the date that aliens will invade the earth.
All of the titles and credits are shown in silver writing upon a black background, giving it an eerie and mysterious feel. Light shines from left to right on the text to make it appear silver and metallic which can often be used to represent aliens or swords in a war. The black and silver is also representative of the night sky and the universe, which also suggests the idea of aliens. The font is large, bold and sharp. It becomes slowly larger as if it is coming towards the audience, which represents aliens coming towards the earth. The strapline is split into three to keep attention and create suspense in the audience. ‘Tom Cruise’ as a credit, becomes smaller rather than larger to make the audience focus on his name.
Colour, Lighting, Symbolism
The lighting and colours can be highly representative of mood and feelings in a film. The War of the Worlds trailer begins with a bright star at the beginning of autumn before the leaves begin to fall. This symbolises their everyday lives. A large bridge is shown in two shots with the sun shining through the gaps. The wind then blows and the leaves begin to fly off the trees which shows the autumn weather. This symbolises the death of nature as many plants die during autumn. It gets much darker, colder and duller during autumn which symbolises bad things to come and once again represents death. It also represents change. A powerful shot of the same bridge is then shown; Tom Cruise is standing below the bridge and a storm is beginning in the sky. The lighting is used here to outline Tom Cruise and the bridge against the brighter sky in greyscale. The outlining draws the audience’s attention towards the stormy sky, which Tom Cruise is also looking up at. This suggests that something bad is soon to happen.
Storm clouds have the metaphorical meaning of bad things lurking and waiting to happen. This causes tension in the audience as they anticipate the moment of something bad taking place. Once the storm begins everything becomes much darker and far more gloomy. There are dark black flashes between shots, combined with a drum beat. This represents a heartbeat in a panicky situation which creates suspense in the audience. There is a powerful shot towards the end of the trailer showing the young girl and Tom Cruise holding hands. This shot is back lighted to make the hands stand out against the dark background. It shows the love that humans can share, unlike the heartlessness of aliens. At the end of the trailer the screen turns to black. This symbolises the end of, not only the end of the trailer, but the world.
Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound
Non-diagetic sound is the background music that is used to add dramatic effect to the trailer. Diagetic sound are the sound effects and dialogue that add to the mood, information and tension of the trailer. These both made the film more appealing. At the beginning of the trailer for War of the Worlds there is very little sound. The main sounds are just voices and background noise suggesting that there is very little interference in their lives.
At the point where the wind blows and the storm is beginning there is a long note played by a piano. This along with the wind gives the trailer an eerie feel and shows that something bad is about to happen. It creates tension and draws the audience in. This long note is also played after the lightening and in the background when they are packing the boxes in the house. It signifies that there is a lot on the minds of the characters; background noise.
After this the sound begins to get louder and much more diegetic sound is used. Sound effects are used to create thunder and loud bangs to show that lightening has struck. When Tom Cruise is backing boxes in the house the sound is foregrounded. This emphases the rush to pack boxes and get out of the house. When in the house, the loud ticking of Ray’s watch shows that something is wrong. Diegetic sound is used to create the sounds of the weather and movements.
Non-diegetic sound is used to make the action scenes seem much more dramatic. The music that is used is sung by a choir.
On each title and credit there is a loud drum beat; like a heartbeat. At one point there is a pause in the dramatic music that occurs, between titles, and we hear and see the girl scream. The dramatic music is made up of drums, violins, an orchestra and a choir. The choir do not sing worded lyrics, but musical notes. This gives the trailer a more dramatic and eerie feel.
At the end, there is a loud drumbeat and the sound of fire burning out and finally silence. This represents destruction and defeat creating curiosity among the audience.
Shots and Editing
At the beginning of the trailer, crane shots of Ray at work and Rachel on her way home from school establish the normalities of their home lives. The fading between these shots combines them into one average day in their lives.
Ray and his son are shown play fighting. Ray is also shown in youthful clothes which implies that he is still young at heart however his wife has moved on and is pregnant.
There is a crane shot of the houses that shows that they are an ordinary family living in a suburban neighbourhood. A later shot shows these houses being destroyed.
There are many long shots of action cut into by close-ups and some extreme close-ups of expression and parts of action. This creates a powerful sequence in a short time, catching the audience’s attention with this contrast.
There are close-up shots that fade into black between each other indicating panic and showing worried expression to cause tension in the audience.
A tracking shot is used on the crack in the road. The camera follows the crack in the road and is several feet away on a vertical axis. This draws the audience’s attention along the crack and gives them a feeling of panic.
Conclusion
Overall, I think that the trailer is highly effective in appealing to a wide range of target audiences, rather than just one. The trailer shows lots of action shots which make it more appealing to young males and people who like sci-fi action films. Having a seemingly innocent young girl as a main character makes the film more appealing to younger children, particularly young girls. Showing shots of famous actors playing min characters like Tom Cruise makes it more appealing to women in contrast to science fiction; appealing to males. The trailer uses dramatic sound, lighting and shots throughout the trailer to make it more appealing to the target audience and to create an overall, successful trailer.
