Zodiac Trailer Analysis - Research and Essay Task

Adhering to the genre:

• Sound boom to bring in the establishing shot of a city (not clear which city) and fireworks - sound boom is commonly used in crime/thriller trailers to emphasise a particular point and or signify the end of or start of a sequence.
• The police sirens are a clever way to suggest something more sinister in a shot that doesn't look all to threatening - suggests that some sort of crime is happening or is going to happen (motivated editing perhaps, through the sound. It could also suggest that crime is major theme in the film - this is of influence to us as aforementioned it is a clever way of suggesting violence without actually showing it. 
• Clever sound-bridge between the fireworks and the gun going off - again, a common feature in many crime/thriller trailers is to employ sound-bridges in order to create a clever effect that keeps the audience interested in the rest of the trailer. 
• Production companies introduced after first sequence again - memorable, splits up the trailer into sequences, allows for a change in tone. 
• Common convention - start with something dark and sinister in tone and then switch to a completely different tone (usually in a police station or a particular persons family life).
• Switches from the dark shooting in the middle of nowhere to a newspaper company - we see a change in tone through the change in time of day. 
• Slow tilt downwards on the letter - a lot of emphasis is placed on this letter, which suggests it has importance to the overall story (throughout the film, the Zodiac killer sends them letters and packages) - important influence for us as we would also like to imply the importance of particular things through extending their screen time. 
• Sepia style colour tint employed to highlight the fact that the film is set in the 70's - this is also shown through the mise-en-scene - easy way to show the different time periods is through the mise-en-scene. 
• Slow pace editing suggests a lot about the movie itself. 
• Fades are employed to emphasise the importance of particular moments - particularly used when fading away from the code-sheet - another common convention employed in many crime/thriller trailers. 
• "Zodiac Killer has come to San-Fransisco" - They make the audience wait 38s before revealing who the killer is - common convention used to create tension amongst the audience. 
• Bankable actors - attract audience by showing them more. 
• Montage effect used with some fast paced editing in order to give the audience a idea of the film as a whole - not much is given away - this trailer is much slower in pace, in comparison to the previous, which is useful for us as as group. It allows us to use techniques from both styles of trailer - slower pace, with more emphasis on particular objects and moments compared to extremely fast paced, with lots of action and danger to keep the audience interested in what is going on (perhaps a weaker narrative is why the second choice of trailer is employed). 
• Gets darker as the trailer draws on to the climax, which is shown right at the end of the trailer after the biggest Actor's names are revealed. 
• soundtrack employed half way through until the final scene to collate much of the action and shots together nicely, without it looking disjointed - also emphasises the point that this is the trailer. 
• Footsteps and film noir style used at the end - creates tension and leaves a lasting impact on the audience. 

MT