Movie Trailer Analysis 2: If I Stay

If I Stay
Directed by Heitor Dhalia
Genre:Thriller, Drama and Supernatural
Certificate: PG-13 (for thematic elements and some sexual content)

Plot:
Mia Hall (Chloe Grace Mortez) thought the hardest decision she would ever face would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at Julliard or follow a different path to be with the love of her life, Adam (Jamie Blackley). But what should have been a carefree family family drive changes everything in an instant, and now her own life hangs in the balance. Caught between life and death for one revealing day, Mia has only one decision left, which will not only decided her future but her ultimate faith.

    Movie Poster:
The image above, also used as the font cover of the book, is quite helpful for the audience on its own, we see that the character has a relationship with a boy, that the main character is the girl that takes up the majority of the poster, there is also the image on the left, the poster shows more of the love side of the film, the light shining through the middle, and the mix of the faces, one showing the supernatural side of the film and the other looking towards the audience, I as an audience member if I was going to see this film would probably wonder why she is looking away from the boy staring down at her and the other supernatural character located behind her is looking up. The text in the middle of the poster shows up through the light background, and the text from the title, is also very easy to spot, and very recognisable. The audience that will be seeing this film, possibly teens and girls, this being said that the audience are wanting to see the love between them and this picture adds a little mystery to their 'love story' and they want to know what happens.

Trailer:

Mise-en-scene:

• The first shot shows a span of a theatre, the span of it shows that it is dark and only shows colours of dark bronze and brown, we then come across the main protagonist playing an instrument so we feel as though we are there more for purpose, many films in this genre are like this.
• Costumes in the trailer are again consider 'normal' to present society, I believe it is like this because that want the audience to feel like they are, not too out there and quite relaxed, and normal people, this changes a little with change of environments.
• We can see flashbacks or memories when the screen is a little darker and the camera moves a little and with less purpose.
• Not use of many environments and they are ones that an audience can recognise.
• The main character is shown at different ages - seeing more of a story - more of a life story.

Editing:

• The rhythm from the beginning is slow and the shots on scene match the speed of the instrument that is being played, an instrument that the main character is seen to be playing, the speed of the music and the speed of the scenes being seen, with the black shots breaking them up, create a sad feeling on the audience, however when the dialogue mentions the main characters love interest, the rhythm quickens and brought to a climax, and more instruments quicken. After this the tragedy happens, and a song is introduced 'say something' this brings the trailer to a close, however with dialogue over the top of the instruments and the song throughout, keeping the audience informed on emotions and what is happening, this technique is quite unusual in this film genre with not using any text.

• Looking at the use of shots, the use of spanning, and pace to match the use of instruments in the non-digetic sound, it is calming, also the audience are shown different reactions from different parts of the body, so we see how the main characters face shows her emotion, then shown the shot of how her hands are playing with the instrument to match the emotion shown on her face. When the dialogue is talking about a boy in the film, it shows him in slow motion, suggesting a memory possibly.

• The film is split into two parts I say this because we have before the tragedy and after the tragedy, before we can assume how the events that the audience is shown happened, after the tragedy the scenes become more mixed and varied and the audience is never certain.

Sound:

• Like I mentioned earlier we first hear the simple notes of an instrument, we also hear the dialogue of who I assume to be the main character, her voice is calming, having a female voice is considered calming, and matches the atmospheres that we are shown at the beginning. With a break of the non-digetic dialogue, we hear the words of a few main characters, but not the main character herself. As the instruments gets faster and the overall speed of the trailer increases, the main dialogue ends with 'and just like that...' the song 'say something' then takes over and we see everything slower. 

• 'Say something' by A great big world and Christina Aguilera lyrics include...

                                          And I will stumble and fall
                                           I'm still learning to love
                                            Just starting to crawl

                                 Say something, I'm giving up on you
                                  I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you
                                   Anywhere I would've followed you
                                 Say something, I'm giving up on you

Camera Shots:

• Throughout the trailer we see a vary of shots, including spans, medium shots, close-ups, the use of zooming in. All which are quite ordinary for this genre, they are each used to show a reaction or body language, also used in the beginning to show a discussion between the main character and the love interest, we are shown a wider shot at first to show who the conversation is between and then medium shots of each character whilst they are talking. 

The still image on the left is showing us mainly the girl, we can see the boy slightly the side of his face, we are unable to see all of his face, however the angle of his face is showing the audience that he cannot see the main character,

The image on the left, with the use of the camera being slanted the idea of it being supernatural/fantasy shows through this use of angle, however the lighting is kept normal and we still know what type of location it is.




The lighting in the image on the left is used well to only show the two characters they want you to, we know that there are people in the background but as an audience member your attention goes straight to the boy and girl.

If I Stay Movie Website

Looking at the film website it is quite simple, and the use of colour has the same type of pallet as the film poster and book front cover have (pinks and purples) these colours can be used to show the link between them, we know that they are all connected, if we see the film poster then we go on to the website, we know, they are on the right website due to colour and possibly font.