The Lovely Bones Trailer Analysis

Shots, Camera Angles, Movement and Composition 

• Near the end of the trailer, it is shown Susie visiting her murderer (when she was a ghost) and it is a high angle shot from Susie’s point of view. This showed us that although her murderer once had the power over her, she now had the power over him and was the more dominant role.

• In the middle of the trailer, there is a tracking shot of Susie in heaven and showing her “perfect” surroundings as she says “I’m not dead, I'm still alive, just in my own perfect world”. This made me feel very happy and relieved that although she was dead, she was enjoying herself in heaven with these beautiful views and she was content.

• As Susie introduces herself and telling us she was murdered at the age of 14, one of the shots that is shown is a two shot of her and her mother playing and having fun in her bedroom, chatting and reading books together. This made me as a viewer, feel very upset as it showed that Susie had a very good relationship with her mum and family before she got murdered, it also made me feel very angry to the thought of how someone could just murder an innocent little girl and made me really think about how it isn't just the director challenging the convents of reality, but it really happens in the world today.

Editing

• At the beginning of the trailer, there is a sequence of quick shots, firstly showing members of all the family and then showing shots of Susie enjoying life at school, with her family and with her friends. This sequence of shots is going on whilst Susie is introducing herself and telling us that she was murdered when she was 14. As a member of the audience, this made me feel more sensitive and moved by this character as the fact that they’re showing you shots of her enjoying her life, when really, she is now dead.


• Between most shots that Susie is in, there is a fade out between the current shot and the following. This made me feel almost that there was no hope for Susie, and that there is a very dark world out there and she had been captured by it. Also by the director doing this a lot in the trailer, drew me in more as it made me wonder what had actually happened to her.


• There was a scene cut from Susie playing in heaven with her friend having fun to a shot of her walking in a dark forest walking towards a black, wooden old house (her murderers). This put me on edge a lot and I didn’t really know what to feel. It showed me that although she was in “high spirits” of where she had been placed in heaven, she still wanted revenge and still wanted to protect her family, there was still a dark side to her life.


• The trailer started off with a shot of Susie and her Grandma looking at something and then cut to a shot of a boy walking across the street. This eye-line match immediately gave us the understanding that in this story, the boy and the girl have some sort of chemistry. This links into the genre that this film had been categorized in “Romantic Drama” as Susie and this man obviously had some sort of connection and romance

Mise en scene

• At the beginning of the trailer, the light is very bright and cheerful, however, throughout the trailer it gets darker and darker. This shows me as a viewer that something bad is going to happen. The bright light for me symbolizes happiness and joyfulness, whereas dim, dark lighting portrays an evil, mysterious and sinister atmosphere.


• When keeping an eye out for colours, I noticed that everyone in the trailer towards the beginning is wearing bright colours for example: Dad wearing a white shirt and purple tie, mum wearing a white top and pink skirt etc. However, at the end of the trailer, I noticed that the majority of the cast were in darker, earthy colours i.e.- Mum was always in black, Dad was in dark green or brown, Sister was in navy. This almost resembled the feelings and emotional state of the family. Susie has died, which means that their life will be dark, gloomy and obscure from now on.

• It became apparent to me that the light is a lot lighter, brighter and softer in heaven with Susie, then it is in the real world with her parents and murderer. This almost made me feel relieved as at least Susie is in this nice world where there is no fear and that the murder was living in a evil, gloomy, horrible world, as he deserved. However, it made me feel sympathy for her parents who are living in this dark, dim, gloomy world due to the realisation that their daughter had been murdered, and they don't deserve to live like this.

Sound

• The trailer starts off with narration from the main character: “My names Salmon like the fish, first name Susie, I was only 14 when I was murdered”.  From this it straight away tells us what the story is about and who the protagonist of the film is. This automatically made me as an audience member feel anxious and straight away made me want to watch this film and the rest of the trailer to see if it let me in on anything about how she had been murdered and what had happened.


• After the girl had introduced herself, a sound bridge of emotional music started to play as well as speech from the detector telling Susie’s parents that her body had been found. This sound bridge brought out a huge effect to me as the music firstly, before even listening to what the detector was saying, conveyed that something bad had happened and it gave me an automatic feel of emotion, yet, when listening to the detector speaking to the parents aswell as the sound bridge of music in the background, it made you sympathise massively with the parents and want to help them, although you can't.

•  In the middle of the trailer, Susie's younger brother narrates "Grandma, Susie's in the in-between". As a viewer, this made me feel very emotional, as the boy must have only been about 5 and the fact he had lost his sister and was beginning to come to the realisation that she will never come back and actually understood heaven, was heart-breaking.