Analysis of The Age of Adaline Trailer

The next trailer I have chosen to analyse is one for a film called "The Age of Adaline" which is a drama, romance due to release in April 2015. It is directed by Lee Toland Krieger and stars Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman and Harrison Ford. 

The first shot in the trailer is a long shot of a street panning down, this shot fades in from black and the non diegetic soundtrack also starts at this point. The music is lively and gives us the feeling of everyday peaceful life. Combined with the shot of the street this makes the start of the trailer appear to be based around a normal persons normal life, which contrasts with later on in the trailer. There is one character within this shot, which is a man riding a bike, this again adds to the peaceful idea of ordinary life.

The next scene goes to a police man getting out of the car, from this shot it is apparent that at this point in the film it is based in the past. This is made clear through the use of mise en scene, the policeman is dressed in a police uniform from a long time ago, the cars are also one of the first types of cars. There is then a sound bridge as this clip fades out of the policeman talking to someone.

A fade in from black reveals he is talking to a woman who helps to confirm the time period in which this part of the movie is set. The costume and make up are done to the style of around the 1940's with her hair in tight curls and a red lipstick, which was very popular. She is sitting in a car and talking to the officer through a window. The window allows her face to be framed, which makes it stand out within the medium close up shot. The man is questioning the face that her licence says she is "45 years old". She replies with "That's right". She is obviously not 45 years of age and appears to only be in her 20's or possibly early 30's - this creates a sense of mystery into how she is so young in appearance and technically so old. I believe this has been done to set up the enigma of the film a mere 18 seconds into the trailer. This ensures that the audience keeps watching as they wish to discover the mystery.

The image then cuts to an animated production company logo, and the music strikes up along with the sound of a ticking clock. This adds to the theme of time and age which has already been made clear. On each tick of the clock, the production company logo's appear, in total there are three production companies which are shown in the trailer. This means that this is a high budget film, also by promoting the production company logos, anyone who enjoys films created by a specific production company will want to watch this film as some of their other movies have attracted their attention.

The video then turns back to clips from the movie it shows a shot which fades in from black of the same woman, who we can now take to be Adaline, the protagonist, with an old fashioned projector. The camera then cuts to show what she is looking at on the projector. As this cuts, there is a non diegetic voice over telling the audience when she was born, combined with the image we take that this is a video of her as a baby. The camera then changes to an old fashioned photographer taking a photograph, and then a follow up shot of what h e is taking an image of. This is of Adaline getting married to someone. This shot uses an effect called 'vignette' this makes the edges of the image dark and shadowy. This means that only the bride and groom are really visible and the other people in the image are faded into darkness. This creates quite an odd image as wedding photographs are supposed to be bright and happy. This suggests that something bad has happened to the people in the photograph and that things aren't as they were when the image was taken.

There is then a fade out to black as the voice over explains how she started her own family. The image fades into a scene of a church with Adaline holding a baby and people surrounding her, obviously at a christening. The image again has a 'vignette' appearance and is darker than we would associate with a clip about something which is a social ideal and commonly linked with positive connotations such as joy and happiness. Another fade out to black and fade in reveals a car driving through a rain storm in a wood. The headlights stand out against the background very vividly, catching the audiences' attention. The dark woods, combined with the fact that it is raining connotes that something bad is about to happen and the dark connotes the idea of unknowing and therefore danger. The voice over describes that on a "cold winter night in 1935, Adaline's life changed forever." As this happens the non diegetic soundtrack reaches a peak of tension, this suggests to the audience that something is going to happen. This is accompanied with the sound of a ticking clock. This comes back to the idea of the film being about time.