Analysis of Alice in Wonderland Trailer

The first trailer I have chosen to analyse for part of my research is the film 'Alice in Wonderland' Directed by Tim Burton, Produced by The Walk Disney Studio and released on the 5th of March 2010. I have specifically chosen this trailer as it is a fantasy movie which has been turned into a dark fantasy by the director. Tim Burton is a extremely well known director of surreal thriller movies and this combined with the classic fantasy element of 'Alice in Wonderland' creates a very interesting and unique movie.

The non diegetic soundtrack starts just before the production companies logo appears. The music is upbeat and appears to be written in the style of a classic piece of music played at an old fashioned ball. This shows that although this is a fantasy film, usually without a specific date, it is set in the past. The ball type music also suggests that it is based around a character of, what would be a long time ago, upper class as they would be the only ones attending such an event. This soundtrack music is played over an animated movie logo for the Walt Disney Studios, this animated logo contains fireworks and as they go off they are accompanied with diegetic firework explosion sounds. 

The logo then fades to black and there is a cut to the image of what appears to be a grey manor house. There are lots of people walking around outside of it, these people are all clothed in light pastel colours. There doesn't seem to be any type of vibrant colour. This could connote that although the place is safe and calm, expressed by the light bright colours, it lacks excitement which would be shown through bright exciting colours. I have pointed this out because later in the trailer, when she is actually in wonderland, the colours are vibrant which connotes excitement and adventure. 

There is then the first shot of the main character, she is walking through an arch into the mess of people. We know this is Alice as she fits the description of the previous 'Alice in Wonderland' cartoon movie. She has blonde hair, pale skin and is wearing a pale blue dress. She has an air of innocence, which is emphasised as blonde hair often connotes a character who is naive and innocent. She doesn't look partially happy which suggests she doesn't want to be at this particular party. There is then a sound bridge of a man saying her name "Alice" which assures the audience that this is Alice.

It then fades to the next clip which is of the man telling her to meet him under a gazebo. The music by this point is quite faint compared to the diegetic dialogue. This makes sure that the dialogue can be clearly heard. This character we are introduced to is dressed in a suit and a ridiculous looking tie, his body language makes it clear that he is looking down his nose at Alice. This suggests that perhaps he is of slightly higher social status. The camera then flicks back to her and she looks at him with quite a disgusted look. 

We are then given a medium long shot of them under the gazebo. The man gets down on one knee, which evidently means he is going to propose to her. She is standing with her hands by her side which suggests that she doesn't know or want what is happening to happen. We are then given a close up of his face as he proposes, and then smiles at her. The camera then focuses on Alice as she avoids looking at the man and instead looks to the side trying to come up with an excuse. By this point the non diegetic music stops abruptly, reflecting her shocked mood. 

We then have a shot of what she is looking at and it is all the people who were at the party standing in a big huddle watching the proposal. This makes it clear that this is a forced marriage and that these people are expecting her to marry him. There is a faint frog croak in the background, this is often used to show awkward silences within movies and is of no exception here highlighting a slight element of comedy within the film. 

She then moves away from the man and we are shown a close up of her speaking to everyone saying 'I need a moment" - As this happens a new piece of non diegetic music starts up, this one is more mysterious sounding and is therefore a conventional piece of music from the genre of fantasy movies. As she runs off of the gazebo all the heads of the people watching follow her. As she runs into an arch formed by a bush the video fades to black. 

We are then given as long shot of her running through the wood towards an old, large twisted looking tree. She is framed rather well between the trees which makes her stand out in the frame. Woods are a close connotation of fantasy movies as many films which are of this genre are often set in the woods as they add an element of mystery and unknowing to a film. Many fantasy films are based in earth-like worlds and therefore a wood is something which can be found on earth but supplies dark spooky settings without having to totally create somewhere. 

The camera then goes to a low angle shot, almost a worms view shot, of down a hole un a tree root looking up as Alice looks down the whole framing her in the holes entrance. This shows the idea that something is down the hole, and as most of the audience watching will already know the story of 'Alice in Wonderland' acts as an element of foreboding that she is going to fall into the hole. She then crouches down to look into the hole closer, and the music reaches a slight peak and she slips and falls straight into the hole. 

There is then a point of view shot of Alice falling looking back up through the hole, her hands reaching forward as if trying to grab onto something to save her from the fall. This type of shot makes the audience feel instantly involved in the action and brings supplies a relationship with the audience as they place themselves in the characters position. We are then given another shot of her falling down, we see around her as she falls, the hold no longer seems normal as within the walls are loads of lights and various other objects such as chairs. 

This then fades out to black and fades back in with a close up of her face as she opens a door and we have a shot of her looking at whatever is on the other side of the door. With a peak of the music we are shown what she is looking at which is a castle. The castle shot is of a red and white palace positioned in the shadows, the light looking through the clouds is directed to highlight the castle and make it stand out. 

There then starts a non diegetic voice over, we aren't sure at first who's voice it is. It is explaining about Wonderland. This voice over is accompanied with several short clips which are totally unrelated which are separated by cuts to black and back into video. These show some of the main characters such as, tweedle dumb and tweedle dee, the Queen of Hearts, the Chester cat and finally the mad hatter as the voice over says "you have to be mad as a hatter, which luckily I am". This shot shows him looking excitedly at what we are lead to believe is Alice. This is confirmed by him saying "Alice, it's you".

We are then given a front on mid long shot of him walking over the table towards Alice, his behaviour suggests he is extremely excited to see her. Unlike the characters in the manor scenes, the mise en scene is very different, the table is crooked and assorted broken cups and tea pots are placed on the table instead of organised matching ones. His costume is a dark purple with a bright orange band on his hat and a bright purple sash, he also has a very colourful tie on which consists of many different colours, it is as ridiculous as the man before but instead of making him look silly show that this place is exciting and interesting in comparison to the setting Alice was in before. 

The non diegetic music now playing is similar to that of a circus, this connotes that the characters here are like people from a circus, funny and entertaining. The Mad Hatter's make up also is very "clown like" which makes him fit into this idea of circus people. He then crouches down to look at a, unusually small Alice, and says "you're back" - this makes the audience question what this means this means, what is she back for? when was she here before? where is she? A rabbit and a mouse and the Chester cat also seem to recognise Alice, this makes the audience realise that everyone here knows who she is for some reason. Leaving a mystery in the audiences mind, into why and how they know her. 

There then comes a title screens showing "From Director Tim Burton". The title is placed on a red background with prints of tea pots and tea cups on. The writing is in gold which makes it stand out against this. Music starts up again, which makes the title stand out more as the music catches the audiences attention. 

The title then zooms in and though the top of the B in Burton, the next film clip appears. It is of the Queen of Hears throwing open a door, looking very angry. Her characters appears very abnormal, her head is larger than that of a normal person. The director has possibly done this to physically show she is a big headed and selfish person, which automatically makes her a disliked person. She looks angry as her voice says over the next few clips "Alice has returned to Wonderland". This acts as the introduction to the villain of this film.

The Mad Hatter then explains how the Red Queen has taken over all of wonderland, this is accompanied by some shots of her dark blood red castle and of her shouting "FIND HER". This shows that the Queen of Hearts is troubled by Alice's appearance in wonderland. The music keeps picking up more and getting faster and more intense. These are accompanied by shorts of action such as her being chased through the trees by beasts obviously released on her by the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter telling her that he needs her to help save wonderland. These short shots of action are very common within fantasy movies as they show the action element of the film. 

The music then abruptly stops with a small comedic part of the trailer with the queen requesting a big for a her feet, and the mad hatter standing laughing at her. The music then starts back up with another title screen, the same lay out as the first but saying "This Spring".

After this there are more action shorts which are separated with cuts and fades in and out from black. It is clear that fastly paced edits between shots of action are a commonly used to show off some of the best action scenes within any film. This allows the director to show off some of the best bits of the film without spoiling any of the plot as there is no context given to the clips and how the tie into the storyline. 

The music then dies down a little again and it shows a shot of Alice, now in a suit of armour and then a sound bridge to a shot of the White Queen saying "we have our champion". This shows to the audience that Alice has decided to help wonderland and fight the Red Queen. This reveals a little about the plot of the film without spoiling too much, an important part of movie trailers is revealing just enough to make the audience want to know more but not revealing too much so that there is no longer any point to see the film. 

The music then changed again to something more intense with a swooping shot of the castle with the words "Disney Presents" over the top. 

We go back to quickly editing action shots, now of fighting from what appears to be a battle between the two sides. It also shows more of the characters doing things and Alice saying "This is impossible". This connotes that the things which are going on within the movie are different from what Alice experienced in the world she was in before. It also connotes that lots of things will be happening that are interesting and exciting. There is then another word credit. This one is different, it has a green background with small hats decorating it, it contains the name "Johnny Depp" who is the actor playing the mad hatter (which possibly suggests the use of the hat design). 

Johnny Depp is a very well known Hollywood actor. This means that he has a lot of fans which would watch a movie purely because he is in the film. Many films use big star actors, directors or companies to promote a film and this is no exception. As well as using Johnny Depp to promote the film, the director Tim Burton is also very well known for making successful films and the production company Disney. Disney is an extremely well known media conglomerate and thus has a reputation for creating high quality, family friendly, movies. It not only attracts an audience who have watched other Disney movies and wish to watch this one but it also makes it clear who the target audience of the movie is, a family audience.

There are a few more clips placed very fast paced one after the other and then a shot of the Title of the film followed by information about the release date, the fact it is in 3D and finally some shots of the main actors and actresses and other people involved in the production of the movie.