Dawn of the Dead Trailer (2004) Analysis

The trailer begins with a mystical tune, almost cosmic and peaceful. To coincide with this music all of the shots for the beginning of the trailer are slowly paced and only include calm, happy imagery for example a couple kissing and a little girl playing around outside. The weather for the beginning of the trailer is very picturesque - sunsets with no wind or interference's - which uses pathetic fallacy to set a calm and tranquil environment. The inter titles that read 'evening' and 'night' are both dressed with the same peaceful music, however when the word 'dawn' appears on an inter title the music suddenly deepens which instantly tells the audience something is going to go wrong when dawn time is occurring. We then see a shot of the sun disappearing which symbolises the idea that 'goodness' is leaving and its place will be replaced with 'evil' or 'danger'. The music stays 'deepened' and a clock ticking begins - this gives us the idea that we are waiting for something to happen which builds suspense. After the dialogue "..are you OK?" everything begins to increase in both speed and volume. We see a quick montage of shots as the girl 'zombie' attacks and the main female protagonist tries to run away. The lady's scream is a lot louder than the music to make the audience jump and feel panicked. As we see a panning shot of the road in which the lady lives we can see that pathetic fallacy is used yet again - the weather is much dingier which highlights the idea that everything is going wrong. The lady's breathing is again enhanced to almost create the idea that we, as an audience, should be breathing like this too which adds a sense of tension and uneasiness. We then read an inter title which for moment settles the mood for the audience. After a few medium paced shots of the main female protagonist driving away from her home town and ending up in a mall we see an establishing shot of all the new characters and of the mall to set the scene. The music is much calmer again here but as an audience member we still feel tense as the music feels as though at any second it will increase in volume/speed and something new and potentially frightening could happen. From here the shots differ in speed frequently; some of the shots are elongated in length and others are short and quick. For an audience member this almost makes us feel lost as to how to react because we are essentially 'thrown' around with different emotions and effects used. After an image of what looks like 'DNA cells' emerging together - representing the whole idea within the film of the 'zombie virus' the screen appears completely white. Finally 'zombies' hands are pressed up against the white screen with faint 'heaving breathing' and muffled talk - this highlights to the audience the idea that the zombies are 'close to attack' which give the consumers hints as to what will happen throughout the actual film. Finally we see the 'Dawn of the Dead' title appear against an indistinct, low pitched, almost groan-like music. This trailer does not have a jump-scare which I felt let it down a little as the ending was slightly dull and relaxed. The trailer adopts the structure of a slow-quick-slow montage to build and hold suspense, however I felt a final jump-scare at the end would of definitely made the audience 'jump' and capture their attention for one last moment.

An element within this trailer that I particularly enjoy is the very beginning. We see an establishing shot of a small, sweet village with the sun shining and everything seems settled and relaxing. I feel this sets the audience up for thinking that everything is going to be calm and stress-free and therefore the quick montage of shots when the 'young girl zombie' attacks seems more shocking and unforeseen. 

One part that I dislike is that it takes around 0.26 seconds for the main action to begin and although I like that it again makes the attack seem unexpected, I feel that it goes on for a little too long leading me, as an audience member, to feel slightly bored.