After two institutional references, the teaser opens with an eye-level medium shot of a woman whispering "he's here" as she moves across the screen. We are unsure as to what is happening because all w can see is a crowd of people in a room. The shot ten cuts to a man walking in through the door as everyone shouts "suprise!" The camera zooms in quickly to him and shakes to show it is handheld, making it look very realistic. This shot then cuts to another eyelevel shot of the camera moving across the "we'll miss you Rob" sign, establishing it is a party and also making it seem like it is someone capturing a real party on a home video. There are then some sharp cuts between different shots of people at the party. There is people dancing and some people who come up to the camera. There is then a sequence of shots that are eye-level, medium closeup shots in a short of interveiw style as the camera man asks them about Rob. A man at the buffet is then shown in an eyelevel medium shot when the camera swings around to show Rob walking past the camera and off frame. There is then a medium long shot of the room showing people dancing when the camera zooms out slightly and the lights and the music suddenly cut off. The camera flicks around quickly through the crowd as people wonder what the strange noises are. Short clips cut between eachother showing people moving around towards the window as the lights turn back on. The camera moves with the people, putting the audience in the moment. The camera is always at eye-level to show it is being held by a person. There is then an over-the-shoulder shot as the camera films through a crowd of people watching the TV. The shot then cuts to a man in the crowd moving towards the camera "can we see from the roof?" This shot then cuts to a long shot of people spread across the roof of the building looking out at the city. The sharp cuts between shots suggest the camera has been turned off and back on again to continue filming, again adding to the realism. The camera-man walks with the camera through the crowd to get a better veiw of what is going on. We then see a medium close-up of Rob looking worried. Suddenly there is a loud roar and bang and with this the camera unexpectedley flicks across to show an explosion in the distance. The shaky camera zooms in to try and focus in on the action and then faces upwards to a low angle shot, showing objects that came out of the explosion and appear to be on fire falling from the sky. The camera quickly spins back in the oposite direction to show people running away. The camera-man moves with then people, the camera moving and shaking around as the objects on fire crash on to the roof. One lands very close and the camera cuts out and suddenly and then flashes back on to inside where the stairs are, as if there was interference. This creates the effect of damage and panic. The camera continues to cut out and come back on again quickly showing people running down the stairs. There is then a brief low angle shot of a man picking up the camera that is on the floor. There are then some more flicks of shots as people continue to run down the stairs. The camera-man is then out on the street with a crowd of people. he runs with the camera through the crowd and cuts through people, creating a sense of panick. The shot then cuts to the camera facing Rob, a woman and some other people in a medium eye-level shot. They talk to each other in a panick until the woman suddenly freezes when she looks in to the distance. Seeing this, the camera flicks round to show down the street, two large sky scrapers at the end. Something on fire flies above, hits the building and then starts to come down towards the street. The man quickly runs out of the way with the camera, the object lands on the street and bounces past him. The camera qucikly spins around to show the large object that has now stopped on the street, the audience can now see it is the statue of liberty's head. There is then interference and the camera cuts out to show some titles. This this the camera returns to a shot that is supposed to be from earlier on at the party. The shot is close up of a man's face as he says "It's gonna be a good night" which is ironic as the audience have just seen what actually happens. The camera zooms out slightly as he takes a sip of his beer and then interference cuts out the camera to reveal more titles.
Sound
There is no non-diegetic sounds within this teaser trailer apart from the interference sound and quiet droning when the titles are shown. This is to create a strong sense of realism within the trailer. There is a voice of at the begginging of the trailer as a woman whispers "shh shh he's here" over the insitutional references, which builds tension as the audience cannot yet see what's going on. We then here from the shots of the party just the diegetic sounds of people talking and the music. The music is normal, modern music that would usually be played at the party, again suggesting realism. When the lights cut out there is an interference diegetic sound and the audience might think they perhaps here a roar. As people stop confused, there is more diegetic sounds added such as a creaking that sounds as if something very heavy is being bend or under pressure. There is also sounds such as car alarms. There is then just the sound of people talking over each other, but we do hear clips of dialogue such as "what's the sound?" The diegetic sound from the news report on TV allows the audience to get a brief idea of what may be happening. When the people are on the roof and we see the explosion, we hear the loud roar that we heard before, but much clearer this time. There is also the diegetic sound of the explosion. As the objects on fire crash on to the roof, a sort of wooshing sound effect has been put in to sussest they are falling at a great speed, and then loud crashes as they hit the building. As everyone moves down the stairs there is the diegetic sound of people screaming and shouting, creating realism and panic. When the audience see the corwd out on the street, the screaming continues and we hear people shouting over each other. When the camera films in to the distance, we hear the roar again as the statue of liberty's head flies above the buildings. The audience relates the roar to something bad happening, and because it is so loud they know that there is something that isnt human doing this. There is a diegetic sound of the crash as the head hits the building, and the same wooshing sound as before as it comes craqshing down. There is then another loud crash as the head lands in the street and then a screech as it scrapes against the road and comes to a stop. We here people screamn very loud and a man shouting clearly over the over voices, which seems to be the camera man "Oh my god! Oh my god!" Which creates a real sense of urgency, shock and panic.
Mise en Scene
The lighting throughout the teaser trailer is natural but dark, so we can tell it is night time. There is dull lighting in the party, to suggest the typical atmosphere of a party. The audience can tell it is a party because the people are dressed in clothes that would be typically worn to a modern party, such as jeans and shirts for men and dresses and heels for women. Props have been used to also suggest this as everyone is drinking, there is a buffet and a banner, which also tells the audience what the party is for. When Rob enters there is also the cliche "suprise!" that clearly shows the audience it is a suprise party. We can tell the party is being held in a modern apartment, as everything is on one level. The apartment is quite large and has nice furnishings, so this suggests the owner is quite succesful in some way. We can also tell we are in a city, firstly from the veiw we see off the roof. We can see large sky scraper buildings that are corwded together, so we can see this is quite an established city. The people are speaking in english with American accents, so we know it is somewhere in America. We can tell for definate that it is New York when the statue of liberty's head crashes down on to the street, the iconic symbol related to New York city.
Editing
The teaser trailer has purposley been editing to suggest it is being filmed in real time and that it is actually from a homemade video. The shots cut sharply between each other in chronological order and as if only moments apart. This suggests the camera is being turned off and on again to continue filming. because the shots are in order and take the audience through the evening, a definate sense of realism is created and it is siggested that this is actually a home-filmed video.
Narrative
The narrative of the trailer takes the audience through the evening where something very dramatic happens. The audiecne is intoroduced to the characters and they are told the film starts with a suprise party for who seems to be the main character, Rob. They then know that something serious has happened, but they are not sure what. They then know that the city is being destroyed by someone or something, although they never see what is actually doing it, encouraging them to watch the actual film. Lots of possibilites of what it could be would come in to the audience's heads. The trailer is essentially the opening of the film, but cut down the a teaser trailer length.
Character representations
Everyone in this teaser trailer is represented as normal, young people. They all seem to be having a good time at the party and are acting in a way the audience can relate to, which also suggests realism. When they are running and screaming, they appear very vunerable as clearly something much bigger than them is happening. Rob is represented as a person who everyone likes, as there is a lot of people at his party and his friends have made the effort to plan a suprise party for him. When his friends are being asked about him they all say friendly or joking things, and make it clear that they will all miss him. This establishes Rob's character above any of the ther people. Rob's friend who says to the camera "you owe me eleven bucks" and at the end of the teaser takes a sip of his beer seems to be Rob's joking, confident friend. We can tell they may possibly be best friends as he later says in front of the camera "what am I going to do without you Rob, you're like my main man" and Rob replies with a joking answer of "I don't know I'm like your main man". This tells the audience they are clearly close, which may be important later on in the film. The way the characters interect with each other at the party is something the audience would be able to relate to, making the film seem more appealing and also creating realism.
Titles
Some short titles appear near the end of the trailer, after we see the Statue of Liberty's head. They appear on the black screen, fuzzing and crackling like interference. The first is "from producer J.J Abrams" which would appeal to the audience as he has produced, written and directed some very successful films previously such as Armageddon. This then crackles and disappears like interference again, and the next title "In cinemas 1-18-08" appears, which then also dissapears like interference. The short clip of Rob's friend is then shown, which fuzzes out and more titles and institutional references appear. Things such as the director, writers and producers are shown here. Again these titles flicker like there is interference. I noticed the name of the film isnt actually shown, which I thopught was quit effective because it not only makes the audience go and research what the film was, but it builds suspense and excitement for the main trailer where the audience can find out the name of the film.
Institutional references and logos
At the beggining of the trailer there are two short animated sequences showing institutional references. The first is paramount, where the stars arrange themselves in a circle around the mountain. The second is bad robot where their animated logo is shown. These fade between each other while the audience can hear the woman whispering. At the very end of the trailer these two institutional references are mentioned again with the director, writers and producers. Their logos are also featured in each corner of the screen.
Number of shots
I counted that there was approximately 32 shots in this teaser trailer. Some are longer than others were the camera moves round such as on the roof and some are very short clips such as when they are running down the stairs. The shots have been editied to cut between each other sharply so it is like the camer5a has been turned off briefley as most shots are only moments after the previous. The shots move in chronological order to create the effect of real time and suggest realism.
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