Pivotal Shots

Maleficent Trailer Analysis

                                                     Maleficent Trailer

The trailer for the film Maleficent use’s micro aspects that convey fear and a sinister tone to great effect for instance the use of sound instills a eerie effect upon the audience almost immediately with the use of quite and high pitched piano notes that gradually raise in tempo right up until the point in which the non diegetic sound of the music meats the diegetic sound of the witch beating her staff against the floor. This sudden and unexpected fusion of sounds leave the audience shocked at the power that the witch has, they are lead to believe that her power can almost break the third wall and control the very trailer itself. From that point on in the trailer every cut is marked by a loud drumbeat adding a sense of haste and urgency to the trailer.

 The editing of the trailer is fast paste too to complement the rising tempo. The quick cuts that build up a sense of intensity are broken briefly by the scene in which sleeping beauty is frolicking in the woods with fairies. This relent of editing speed may be due to the fact that the trailer is trying to portray a sense of innocence to sleeping beauty’s character and to highlight the fact that she is perhaps a bringer of peace herself and that she and the things she is associated with are inherently good. However this feeling is immediately replaced by the sense of shock that the audience receive when the dragon billows into screen and whilst this may not be particularly shocking to an adult audience it is important to remember that this is a children’s film and therefore many of the themes and portrayals throughout this trailer would be considered very mature for that target audience.  When the dragon breathes fire the fire continues burning even onto the title screen where the words Maleficent and Disney are written in bold serif font. Serif font is typically synonymous with fantasy and adventure however the fire burning in the background may perhaps indicate the darker more sinister undertones to this film because despite the fact that it’s a Disney film it has been marketed as the mature take on a classic fairytale.

 This more mature setting is a theme witch is complimented by the mise en scene for instance the symbolism of the candles being blown out in the castle could easily be interpreted as a representation of the ‘darker’ direction that Disney have decided to take this new film. Also the scene when the witch summons a green mist to envelope the cradle of a baby is an extremely powerful metaphor. It is fairly obvious that cradles are symbolic of safety and innocence however the colour green is often associated with jealousy and other sinister motifs so this concept of the juxtaposition of these two symbols would fit in well within the theme of the more mature and emotionally complex rebranding of sleeping beauty that Disney is trying to convey.

 Finally the cinematography of the trailer does an excellent job of establishing the genre and setting of the entire film for instance the long distance pan shot of the castle shows the audience immediately that this is a fantasy film and the medium shot that cuts straight to a close up of the needle shows that this item is clearly of significance as it is a generally established rule that one doesn’t cut straight to a shot of the same subject matter without any change to the object or angle of the shot. Again this adds an almost third wall-breaking message that the needle is so important that even the conventionally established rules of cinematography do not apply to it. Finally the fact that the witch almost always occupies the foreground, with other characters repeatedly left in the background to middle distance, shows that this story is going to be more centered around the witch than the original story or other adaptations of the story have been. In conclusion the sound, editing, mise en scene, and cinematography have all been used to great effect to create a feeling of suspense and fear and also to add a sense of maturity to a subject matter many consider to be mainly for children.