JACK SPENCELY 9302 A2 MEDIA

Alien is a truly great bridge of both Sci-Fi and horror and, despite being 36 years old. It still stands up to more modern films in terms of horror content and monster desgin. It is regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time by several critics and it definately demonstrates it. Its trailer is perfect for the film showing both action and horror. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first 14 seconds of the trailer are fairly uneventful. It uses a shot of a black background with white dots, meant to represent stars flying past the screen. This represents the idea of stars flying past a spacecraft as it flies through space. This instantly establishes one half of the genre, Sci-Fi, as this iconography is typical for a Sci-Fi film. The diegetic noise of what appears to be engines of some kind can be heard in the background, adding to the motion that is already in the piece, as well as reinorcing the genre once more. This idea of travelling adds to the original purpose of the characters in the film, as they are exploring space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the next 8 seconds, a rock passes the camera, perhaps to represent an asteroid or other piece of space debris. This once again plants the film directly in the Sci-Fi genre. The surface of this rock is extremely cracked and the draw distance is limited as it passes, as the back end of the asteroid eventually disappears into the darkness at the far end. This begin to suggest a theme of darkness, a common piece of iconography for a horror movie. The dull colours also suggest a lack of life. The sound of engines can still be heard diegetically. Overall this first opening shot of 22 second length is very quiet giving a sense of lonlieness as well as isolation. A theme constantly explored in the horror genre, and linking to the films tagline "In space no one can hear you scream". This lack of sound actually makes the viewer feel uncomfortable, as real life usually has some sort of noise that can be heard. For example typing on a keyboard. This scene also has white bars that begin to appear over it. These white bars are not part of the mise-en-scene but more to show the title of the film which they will eventually become. The linear structure of the lines, all being coloured white, a total contrast to the white background they are placed on. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trailer jump cuts to a new scene, not unlike the first. This one shows a rounded object with a rough texturing. With space being the only scene that is used to so far it is reasonable to assume that this is a planet of some kind. It shares a similar colour pallette with the asteroid seen in the first shot, giving it a dull hue. The diegetic but quiet sound of engines can still be eard in the background. This shot pans down to show more of the spherical shape before jump cuting once more back to the shot of the asteroid. The main change in the scene this time being that the amount of sound begins to increase. It is uncertain whether the sound is meant to be diegetic or non-diegetic. The noise sounds like wind or whispers, but illegible ones if they are. This presents a question, 'Who is creating the noise", and causes unease since the audience was thought to have been alone for the past 25 seconds. These jump cuts go back and forth once more, with each time the spherical object is shown more is revealed. It is at this point that we can question whether it is a planet. as i appears to have shadows on the small bumps on its outer layer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is at 38 seconds when the audience learns what the spherical object is. An egg. The diegetic sound shifts from engines to a much more uneasy wind kind of sound, creating tension and once again grounding it in the horror genre. The title finally finsihes and spells "ALIEN". This allows the audience to know exactly what trailer they would be watching. The angular and consistent shape of the letters also helps represent the Sci-Fi genre, because of their linear nature. The egg itself is shown fully in the next scene where the audience is lead to be even more uncomfortable as the setting that was once though to be perhaps a piece of space debris is shown to be the ground on which the egg rests. This links the two scenes together. The shots of the egg always pan downwards into the darkness below, which links the egg to the darkness and firmly solidiies the genre of horror. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However at 48 seconds a shot is shown of the egg cracking. The diegetic sound that accompanies it is the traditional sound of an egg cracking, followed by a wailing sound. This wail is perhaps is linked maybe to a siren or the sound of a person crying out in terror. This instantly links the egg with the idea of fear and horror. The wail almost sounds like that of a spirit, a common piece of iconography in the horror genre because of it's supernatural connotations. The opening of the egg also has light coming out from within the egg, an unnatural twist in light levels, as the audience would expect there to be light outside and darkness within the egg, however that is instead reversed. The light accompanied with the wailing noise is also a strange juxtaposition. This causes the audience to associate the egg with fear. The egg hatching is what causes all of the extra noise to begin playing which adds to the tension of the trailer and signals the beginning of act two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot features someone, it is unclear who, shines a light towards the screen. The light is extremely bright, a beacon in darkness. This is similar to the light from the egg however the fact that a human is the one who manipulates it provides the audience with some relief. However the darkness around the character is extreme. They are enveloped in darkness, once again hinting at the horror within the film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next the camera zooms in on a shot of a blue structure. This blue colour could be of a scanning device perhaps. This futuristic device and the colour blue are common iconography of a Sci-Fi film. The structure itself is supposed to be an alien spacecraft but the shape of it almost makes it seem like a part of a skeleton. The echoes of the wailing noise can still be heard in the background. The shot then cuts to a long shot of a group of people walking up to the alien structure. The connotations of a Sci-Fi film are extremely prevelant here as they all wear futuristic space suits. For the most part these scenes appear to be in some form of chronological order suggesting at the premise of the film.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next two shots are two fairly short scenes at 2 seconds each. As the trailer cuts to these two scenes the siren wails once again. This appears to be non-diegetic in the trailer, but during the film it would play some function as the ships alarm. The scene itself features a woman, the protaganist of the film, running down a darkened hallway. The camera shot is a medium shot and the camera stays in front of her as she runs allowing her features to be shown. There is light coming from behind her in the corridor, lighting her back. The corridor is made of metal and has pipes running along it which leads the audience to believe this isn't a main part of the ship. The shot then quickly jumps to another shot of a handheld camera running down a corridor, putting us in the eyes of the character just observed on screen. This gives a clear shot of the darkness that approaches reinforcing its horror conotations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next scene shows a wide shot of a large open room. The heads of the characters can be seen at the bottom to show the scale of the room. It is extremely well lit featuring floodlights at the top, however the bottom is still very dark. It is clear that this is meant to interlink with the other shots of the researchers at the beginning, showing how it doesn't chronologically follow onwards from the previous shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot however is another POV shot of running down a corridor. It is interesting as as the trailer progresses this kind of scene will be seen multiple more times. This promotes an idea that there is a consistent need to run in the film. The sound is another important part as there is a constant beating heart sound throughout the trailer now, causing the tension to rise and the audience to match the beats with their own heart. There is also another, quieter wail heard during this running sequence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trailer cuts once more to the next shot. It once again cuts back to the team of people who were investigating the spacecraft. They are still in virtually complete darkness, only iluminated by the lights on their heads. The fact that the audience cannot see what is happening around them adds to the tension and hooks the audience, causing them to wonder what it is that they can see. The fact that they don't run like the other characters suggests that the danger of the film has not been discovered yet, which causes the audience to question if they discovered the antagonist of the film. A quiet wail sound is heard in the background once more and the trailer cuts to the next shot once again of a POV shot of running down a corridor. These kind of shots repeat once more, one with a research team walking through the dark and people running down a darkened corridor. This intense contrast of mise-en-scene creates a lot of tension in the trailer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is another cut to a completely new shot of some kind of machines screen. The screen has a planet looking object and the words 'Orbit Insertion' written on it. It is unknown whether this is good or bad but nonetheless the shot moves on extremely quickly to a cut-away shot of a man who looks up to look at the screen which shows a level of interest in it. This suggests to the auidence that what was on the screen was worthy of concern and adds to the tension already brought on by the constantly wailing siren. The next shot is of one of the team members once again who is shining a light over a wall in the alien spacecraft. The texture of the wall is organic but alien, reinforcing its genre of Sci-Fi. The trailer then cuts back to another POV shot of running down a corridor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot is completely different and features an extremely white room with pods in the middle. Each of these pods contains a person. This is extremely dissimilar from the darkness seen so far in the trailer. The connotations of the pods suggests that they are sleeping pods. The idea of waking up in this scene suggests it is a shot from the very beginning of the film. The amount of light and white colours also suggest that the monster has not yet arrived at this point in the film. There is another quick shot afterwards of another grey corridor with blue lights, adding to the Sci-Fi theme, but this time they turn a corner which helps the audience to sense a change of setting than the previous POV running shots. The blue light in particular helps to show the sense of progression in the running, as up till this point the lights have been orange in colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot is one of a hand gripping a ledge, trying to pull themselves up or stop the person from falling. The shot lasts for a second and the light in the picture gradually increases granting a better view of the hand. The hand itself is covered in dirt, suggesting that the person has been in outside location. There is then a quick cut to a close up shot of a cat. It is unknown what this cat represents at this point. There is then another cut to a POV shot of someone running down a dark corridor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is then a very brief extreme close-up shot of a blurred face. The face bears the resemblance of the woman from the POV shots. This blurred effect, along with the distance of the shot gives a sense of claustrophobia to the short shot. The shot quickly jump cuts away to a close up shot of a male who looks around slowly, searching for something. It is still unclear from te trailer what the threat actually is and this creates a very tense atmosphere, as it is unclear of what actually is the antagonist of the film. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot is a medium close up of someones face, as he appears to wave something on fire at the camera, perhaps as a makeshift torch. This gives the second suggestion of what the antagonist is: An animal, as animals are generally scared by fire. However there is still no sight of the monster adding to the tension. The next shot is a shot of the female again in a close up. There is light shining across her face and sweat suggesting that she has been running or is under extreme pressure, which given all the running shown so far in the trailer is not unreasonable. The shots overall have moved from long shots to close-ups of peoples faces, engaging the audience with the characters of the film. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is another brief shot of a face before a longer, medium shot of a man who begins to spasm. This adds to tension as when the threat cannot be seen by the audience. Spasms are also a fairly unnatural thing to experience and so would make the audience feel uncomfortable. The colour pallette in this shot appears to be white again, instead of the dark one seen in every other shot , suggesting that this shot comes chronologically before all of the others, along side the pod shot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is another short shap shot of a cat which interrupts thetrailer again. Though it is unclear why it is in the trailer it does appear to be part of the mise en scene because of the orange light shone on it like in many of the scenes from the trailer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally one of the POV running shots links the dark tunnels seen in many of the shots with the white environment seen in few other shots. The shot shows a person running towards a door. This shot not only connects the two locations but provides the final shot for the scenes the picture the corridor running scenes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is another shot of a man who is behind another person, perhaps the same person who was spasming earlier on the floor. He appears distressed and disgusted by the scene infront of him, almost providing the audience with the reaction they need. A liquid also shoots from the man on the floor which doesn't look similar to blood, suggesting something alien or dangerous. There is then another extremely short shot of a cat once more. This time the cat appears to be attacking something by biting it however the audience doesn't get a good look at what.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot is a quick series appearing to show something breaking through a solid object to attack someone. This creature looks spider-like and alien and finally gives the audience a clear threat and clue as to what the films antagonist might be. At this point the shot begin to speed up, becoming shorter and harder to see what is going on. The sound of the sirens eventually turns into just one solid noise that begins to build to a cresendo as it gets to the end of the trailer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an extremely quick selection of shots showing people in pain and standing in darkness. There are two shots that stand out however and are integrated with the other shots. The first is of the man spasming across, and another shot of a dfferent male figure spasming across a table with people tending to him and attempting to deduce the problem. The re is another shot of an extremely shaky camera focusing on a female face that is under a white-blue light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final shot has the non-diegetic sound gradually quiet down as a spaceship can be seen in the distance floating next ot a planet. The tagline of the film shows up "In space no one can hear you scream". This firmly plants the film in the Sci-Fi and horror genre