Textual analysis of teaser trailers

Nocturnal Animals : Director : Tom Ford

Narrative Context 
A wealthy art gallery owner receives a draft of her ex-husband's new novel, and once she starts reading it she just cannot put it down.

Enigma Codes 
The first character shown in the trailer is a woman. An extreme close up shot shows her eyes. This makes the audience question who this woman is and why is she the one to be shown to the audience first?

The next character to be shown in the trailer 

is another woman who says the first character 

that she scared her the last time they talked. 

This makes the audience think who this other

lady is and why was she scared the last time 

they spoke to each other? 

A little bit further on in the trailer, a man is shown however his identity is not very clear due to the high key lighting in the medium shot. This medium shot makes the audience think who is this man and is he important to the story and why is his identity barely being revealed.

A close up shows the first character that was introduced shocked at something through her facial expressions. Her facial expressions show clear emotions but why is she feeling this way and has someone or something made her feel this way? 

The woman says that she has been thinking about 

her ex husband a lot recently and the woman she is telling was not aware of the fact that she had an ex husband. This makes the audience ask themselves why did she and her ex husband get a divorce and how could the other woman not know about it? 

She then goes on to say that she did something terrible to her ex husband. What exactly did she do to her ex husband that was so terrible and why did she do it? 

A man is shown here aiming his gun at something or it could be someone on the floor. The audience do not know a lot about this character so who is he and is he shooting at someone? Why is he doing what he is? 

Near the end of the trailer two cars are bumping into one another and crashing. It is not completely clear who is in the cars so why are they crashing and is it being done on purpose? Who is in the cars? Is anyone hurt? 

How the characters are established and represented 

One character that is established and represented is the main character of Susan who is the first person to be shown in the trailer. The very first time the audience meet Susan in the extreme close up of her eyes, she seems like a really emotional person from the way she looks like she is about to cry. When someone is so emotional, a character can be shown to the audience and represented to be vulnerable and weak because something is clearly affecting them and getting to them so they must be worrying about it one way or another.

When Susan tells another woman about her ex husband sending a book to her, the woman says that she didn't know that Susan had an ex husband. This shows Susan to be a secretive character as the people around her don't really know much about her, they didn't even know that she had an ex husband.





As the trailer goes on, the audience aren't told a lot of information about Susan's character which makes her seem more mysterious and secretive. It also gets the audience wondering if she is presented this way on purpose or if it is a certain reading that they have of the character. Towards the end of the trailer, she seems more together and more confident through the walk she walks and is dressed.



There is another extreme close up shot of Susan's eyes at the end of the trailer and it is quite similar to the extreme close up in the beginning. It is similar in the sense that she looks like she is crying in both of them, she is represented as emotional. It also shows to the audience by having the same shot, that nothing has changed from the beginning to the end.




Another character who is established in the trailer of Nocturnal Animals is the character of Bobby. He is first properly shown to the audience standing next to a police car with his hand holding his gun when he is smoking. The hand positioning on the gun shows that Bobby's character has a lot of power and because he is holding it when he doesn't really need to be, it looks as if he likes to remind people of who is in charge. Standing next to the police car and holding the gun also makes it seem as though Bobby is the police officer.




Bobby's character is represented as determined when he says to a man it depends on how serious he is on getting justice. The facial expressions show that he may be willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Or, he could be genuinely a good officer seeking justice.

Another time Bobby is seen in the trailer he is again holding a gun and shooting at something/someone. There are quite a few times in the trailer where Bobby is shown to be violent or using a gun and this represents him as a violent man.

Bobby is represented as intimidating and violent again as he invades the personal space of someone who he has just arrested. The fact that Bobby is so close to this man and the way he has positioned his arm shows great power over him but it can be seen as intimidating.

Edward is represented as a dark character in the trailer. A close friend of Susan's didn't know she had an ex husband. Did she hide him for a particular reason? Why did the marriage end. He is represented as quite nasty as he used to call his wife a nocturnal animal and now he has written a book about it.

The book is dark and evil that gets sent to Susan and is about her which represents him as a dark character as he has written a book that isn't so nice about her. Although, it does turn around when Susan said that she did something terrible to Edward which could justify whatever he is doing now.

Edward's character is represented as more of a genuine character when he asks a police officer what to do. He seems to be going the right way about things when getting the authority involved.

Edwards is also represented as a genuine person when he flinches at someone being shot. It shows that he is clearly affected by whatever has just taken place and he isn't used to seeing it happen.

Camera and Editing Techniques

An extreme close up shot of the character Susan first shows her eyes. As her eyes are the first thing being shown in the trailer, it goes straight on to the topic of trust as normally you have to look someone in the eye to believe in them. She looks very emotional in just the extreme close up shot of her eyes and this enegages the audience with her as they can see the emotion in her already. 

Susan is shown through a long shot where it makes it look as if she is standing behind barriers because of the frame/design of the windows. The audience are made to feel sympathetic towards her as the shot makes her look trapped. 

In the beginning a lot of slow paced editing is used  when the feelings of Susan's character are being stated. The slow paced editing builds tension and creates atmosphere for the audience. 

In the trailer, fast paced editing has been used which makes it a bit hard to understand which visual images have been shown at this point. The fast paced editing creates a rush in the audience as so many things happen altogether at once.

A point of view shot happens in a car when it is driving out of somewhere. This also happens just after a shooting happens in the trailer. The audience are made to feel somewhat responsible for the shooting because of the point of view shot. 

A lot of the time after something shocking has just been said or happened in the trailer, the screen goes to black which makes the audience reflect on whatever has just happened. Going to black with hardly any sound makes it seem more real. 

The closing shot, the last shot in the trailer is the exact same one in the beginning of the trailer. Having the same shot with the same emotion shows that nothing has really changed for her. 

Use of Sound 

At the beginning non diegetic music is played with a low tone and is at a slow pace. The slow pace and low tone sets the mood as quite low as the music matches the first characters emotions which is the first thing the audience see. 

Dialogue happens throughout the trailer. One time where is dialogue is used is when another character is speaking with Susan. She says that she scared her the last time they talked creating sympathy for Susan's character. 

The music sort of speeds up and turns sinister when a scream gets louder and louder in a sequence of shots

The music then becomes faster than what it started as, as the plot develops in the way it is being shown in the trailer and more action is being revealed.

The music stops for a slight second when Bobby's character is aiming a gun at someone/something. All that can be heard is the gun shot and it makes it seem more real for the audience. 

The non diegetic music gets more intense and louder when it gets nearer to the end of the trailer. Near the end is where darker and more evil events are being shown which is why the music gets more intense. 

Titles 

the first title seen in the trailer shows from Tom Ford. The font is in a red colour and this can link to the dark events and evil that is in the film. Red is typical of the thriller genre because of the evil that exists on the bad side.






The next title that comes next in the trailer is displayed exactly the same as the first one shown. The same colour and font is used.







 All of the actors names are used again in the same font and the same colour. They are written in bold.





















Target Audience 

I would say that the target audience for this film is a 15 and upwards. The events that happen in the film and because of the genre it is in, I think that this is the correct age group as this is typically what people these ages are interested in.

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