The Dark Night - Teaser trailer analysis

The first teaser trailer that i will analyse is the one for the recent batman film 'the dark night', it's quite a unique trailer and has some interesting meanings that are simple but effective.

A link to the teaser trailer can be found using the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWw0ov-cAUg

• The first major thing to mention about the trailer is that the footage shown doesn't match the dialogue over the top. They play a section of dialogue from the film over the top of trailer. This not only gives a sneak peak of the film, but also gives the audience a sense of mystery which fits with the film genre.
• The trailer starts of very black, with just a few strikes of light, which could symbolise a deeper meaning of hope within the film, whilst also giving away the action genre.

• One important thing to understand here is that the trailer only works because batman is a widely recognised film and people around the world see the logo and instantly know what it is. This means that it is down to the sounds and effects surrounding the logo which give a taster of the genre of the film and what it is about.
• The logo is kept hidden to start with, just allowing the audience to see glimmers of the outlines. Which, as well as adding to the mystery of the trailer, keeps the identity hidden until the dialogue becomes more tense and builds up. As the trailer continues it becomes more and more light, as the strikes of light increase. These strikes reveal the action genre of the film.

• In the screen shot above you can see how the trailer becomes lighter and lighter. In this shot, the light could symbolise the hope in batman, and may depict him as the hero. However this is a contrast to the fact that his logo is breaking down, which could symbolise his downfall. As well as all of this, the bits falling off the image are coming straight at the camera which puts us as the audience right in the centre of the action.

• The way that as the batman logo complete breaks down the joker card comes flying towards to camera could symbolise that it is the joker who is to potentially bring the batman down. In the image above the futuristic style light effects reveals the sci-fi and futuristic angle of the film.

• Right after the batman logo breaks down the screen goes black, which could evoke the sadness around it, but also go back to the mysterious nature of the film and add tension to the trailer.
• The dialogue over the top is from famous voices that people will recognise, such as that of Michael Cain. The dialogue becomes more tense as the music begins to build, until finally the batman logo is fully displayed and the trailer is at its tensest moment. This building effect evokes the action genre of the film without giving too much away.