The Ward Trailer Analysis - Chelsea Neil

The Ward
Analysis

1. The first shot begins with a very detailed and graphic introduction of the company that created this film, not only is there 3D text but there is also a soundtrack in the background which makes it seem like the text is 'landing' on the ground. This gives the company the chance to show who made this film and also gives them plenty more advertisement.

2. The very first shot of the film trailer is a quick close up of a clock ticking which zooms in very fast, the fact that the whole background is blurred out gives the audience the impression that time is going to be of an important essence of the whole movie. It also gives the impression that the movie may be based on some sort of timer ~ just the first shot makes the audience ask questions. From this point, a man in the background begins to talking, it seems as if he is talking to the girl throughout the shots: "What's the first thing you remember.."

3. It then quickly jumps into a tracking shot of the front of the girl running with a dress on, bruises and cuts covering her face. The camera then swings to the trees and makes everything blurred, then we see the back of the girl running away.

4. It then jumps to a extreme close up of the girls hand that is now holding a match and a matchbox and very quickly jumps to a mid shot of the girl standing at the window with the soundtrack of what sounds like the wind blowing as it quickly fades out.

5. After the following shot sequence, it is then followed by a blackout which makes the whole sequence before seem like a distant memory or a nightmare.

6. We are then quickly introduced to this shot by a girl whispering "Fire" in response to the man that asked a question in the previous shots. There is a mid shot of the front of a girl that almost doesn't seem quite with it, we can see some of the fire flames reflect from her. The environment she is surrounded by gives us the impression that she is in the middle of no where, but she doesn't seem to be lost as she knew that she definitely wanted to set that particular house on fire. We can see a car coming towards her, from the sirens it is obvious that this is a police car, this makes the audience realise that whatever she has just set on fire, she is now in trouble for it.

7. We then get an establishing and bright shot of the house burning down and moves to a close up of the burning roof and the smoke in the sky, it is accompanied by a spooky and mysterious sound and a loud thumping sound which softens down as the shot fades to black.

8. There is then another introduction of the company, again advertising who created the film etc. At this point a creepy sound track of a woman singing starts and keeps going, giving the feeling that whatever is next is haunted.  

9. This is then followed by an establishing shot of a type of old building and follows what seems like a similar car from a previous shot. The car appears from the right and the camera follows the car as it drives towards the house.

10. We then see a close up of the girls face, she is on what seems like a trolley and is being taken somewhere as we can see the floor moving.   
  

11. There is a variety of multiple quick paced shots of the main character having photos taken, the lighting is chosen very specifically so that the girl is lit up and you can tell is the main character. After this there is an over the shoulder shot of one of the nurses, it appears that she is talking to the girl, but the girl is confused and only answers with 'Kristen', at this point we are now introduced to the name of the main character.

13. This then shows a long shot of the back of the same girl being made to walk down the long corridor, the soundtrack of a spooky choir continues as the man says 'Welcome to the Ward', we are now introduced to the environment she is in. It is then followed by a similar shot, however this time we see the front of them.

 14. Just as the man continues to say 'Your new home.', we then see a panning shot of the environment including close ups of other girls looking around and stopping from what they are doing, the girl that is new then becomes the vulnerable one.

15. There is a shot reverse shot of the girl talking to the man who appears to be in charge, the girl says 'Why am I here' ~ The mise en scene tells different stories, whilst the girl is in dirty looking clothes with messy wet hair, the man is sitting on a office chair with smart clothes and tidy hair, this suggests that he is of high power and has authority over the girl. The first over the shoulder shot is tilting downwards slightly, this also gives the impression that the man has a lot of power and makes the girl seem very small and fragile as she is further away with a dull background behind her which makes her blend into the distance. 

16. There is an establishing shot of the hallway, the camera seems to be nearer to the floor, this makes the hallway look a lot more spooky and larger than it really is.

17. A two shot of people looking down towards her makes her seem small and vulnerable as if she is the prime target because of the way the two people are talking whilst looking down at her making them seem very important.

 

18. It shows some fast paced variety of shots of the girl in different locations whilst there is a narrative of her speaking throughout, the things she says are the following: "You can't get them to tell you anything, sometimes they take people away and they don't come back, if I were you I would watch out new girl." There are various close ups of the girls face, an arced tracking shot of a woman that looks like a nurse sitting in the office watching people as they pass by giving the impression that a lot of people try and escape this place and adds to the idea that they do not seem overly busy. 

  19. There is a sound bridge from a two shot between the new girl and a girl giving advice, she says 'If I were you I would watch out new girl.' This ultimately adds to the picture the audience gets, it shows that something bad has happened in the past.

20. At this point we see multiple fast pace close ups of the new girl showering, it starts off with all of the girls showering to show that the girl is not alone. However, after this we see multiple close ups of just the girl. There is no sound to these shots, but the sound of the water represents the fact that she is alone at this point. We then see a shadow of something next to her with the steam surrounding it and a white flash with a swishing noise and a close up of the girl looking around follows.

 21. After this there is then a fast drumming non diegetic soundtrack that is then introduced, this is accompanied by a long shot of the new girl sitting down in her ward cell, this shot gives the audience the impression that someone is watching her. There is white flashes in between as well as flashing noises. It moves onto the next shot with diegetic sound of the girl saying 'There is a ghost in here'.   







 22. There is a establishing shot which pans the outside of 'the ward', there is a diegetic sound which adds to the spookiness of the film trailer 'She's the last one that got out'.

23. There is a continuous use of diegetic sound of different people talking, 'she was one of us but she's gone now', this sound is accompanied by a fuzzy mid shot of what seems like a past memory of a girl in the very same place, it seems like there is a sense of deja vu.


24. There is another mid shot of the girl looking around, the way the light is positioned makes it so that one side of her face is in the shadows and another side is in the light. There is no sound in this shot apart from the girl breathing, this is very effective as it projects the way the characters are feeling. This is also effective because of the way the editing has been done, there is a sound bridge from this shot which then moves onto black flashes which almost seem like the flickering of the lights turning off.

25. The previous shot then turns into very faced paced one second shots of the girl from different angles, the audience then sees a zoom in and glimpse of the main horror monster which is the 'star' of the show. The film trailer is slowly unravelling bits of the main story to make the viewers want to see it. This shot is accompanied by a very high pitched scream from what sounds like a girl. 

26. I really like the way this shot is positioned, the way that the torch is very bright makes it effective as the audience doesn't know who is holding that particular light. I also like how the shot is based in some sort of basement and is very dark in contrast to the clothes that the man is wearing and the light which is beaming and grabs the audience' attention.

27. This film trailer has a lot of close ups and extreme close ups of some of the actress' faces to show their emotions. To the right we have another close up of the 'new girl', the light is very effective, this is because most of the left side of her face is kept in the shadows, however, the right of her face so the viewer can just see her facial expressions is shown. 

28. Just at this shot, the pace of the shots start to pick up dramatically and a loud non diegetic soundtrack of some type of fast violin is then introduced. There is an extreme close up of the girls facial expression of her screaming, not only this but the fact that the shot is in black and white changes about the shots. The second shot is the reoccurring text to make the film trailer that extra bit frightening. The text the film trailer uses encourages the audience to be scared and gives the audience an idea of what to expect when they watch the full movie.

29. At this point we see some type of creature picking up certain surgeon instruments, the music is now very loud fast and has an echo to it. I like how this film trailer is slowly giving small pieces of the film away.



30. This seems to be a POV shot from one of the nurses, the 'new girl' is being held up against the wall. There is still the constant drumming of the music and the girl screaming 'NO!'.




31. The previous shot quickly moves onto a straight edit of the girl now sitting in some sort of dentist or surgeon bed, the audience gets to see the girl looking around scared.





32. The shots are so quickly edited that the audience will find it very hard to pick out certain things, but the end of the trailer is so action packed and ends on something happening that it makes the audience want to see the full movie to find out what happens at the end.  

33. The film trailer ends with a shot of the ward corridors, as the text flashes in and slowly appears the shot disappears and changes into a plain black background.