Analysis of Orphan trailer.

THE PLOT
Kate and John are rebuilding their marriage as she had a drinking problem; however, she is in therapy and is doing well. They then decide to adopt a child. When they meet the nine-year-old Russian girl, Esther at an Orphanage they immediately fall in love with her. Their son, Daniel, is very unfriendly with his new sister but their deaf-mute daughter, Max, is thrilled with having a new sister – at first. Eventually, Kate begins to notice that Esther is manipulative and probably even psychologically disturbed. When Kate tells John he refuses to listen and the wounds in their marriage reopen. Kate calls Sister Abigail at the orphanage who which informs her that Esther has a troubled and mysterious history. Kate then researches further into Esther’s past to discover she is not at all who she pretends to be.


ANALYSIS
The trailer I am going to analyse is ‘Orphan’ from 2009.
The opening of the trailer denotes an orphanage school and of young girls playing, an establishing shot helps the audience to know where it is set. Dialogue is used a lot at the beginning to update the audience of what has happened, this is a common convention as it’s an easy way to set the scene. Throughout the next shots, Esther (the girl they adopt) is isolated from the others. There is then a mid shot of the mother and father (John and Kate) showing the audience that they are in a relationship, another mid shot is used of Esther and Kate holding hands, showing how they bonded quickly. The town is very snowy which makes the scene appear very cold, winter has connotations of being cold and dark and I think that is reflected in the trailer. When John and Kate take Esther to their home, a low shot is used to show their large house and to show that they are wealthy. Non diegetic music is played quite quietly at the beginning; however, as the tension builds up the music gets louder. Throughout the trailer, Esther continues to wear roughly the same old Victorian dress which shows that she is quite a mysterious character. When Esther is introduced to her class mates they bully her over what she is wearing and we then see Esther locking herself in a cubicle hitting and kicking the walls. The audience then realise that Esther isn’t as sweet and innocent as she is portrayed at the beginning of this trailer. Also, as she is enclosed in the cubicle this could suggest she is trapped within her character. Within this trailer there are a lot of low shots to show that Esther is dominant and has power over others. As the music gets louder we then hear her scream, then there is a lot of diegetic sounds within the trailer such as the eerie noise of the swings which then creates atmosphere. Text is placed within the trailer to give the audience hints of what the film about, these are effective and are a very common convention of a horror trailer. Nearer the end of the trailer we see Esther looking into a cracked mirror, this could connote that she has broken up the family which she was brought into. Also, nearer the end, as the trailer progresses, the cuts become faster to build up tension and to show that there is a lot of drama. In the final shots, the screen goes blank as the voice over is played to create tension, also, Esther then sings “that’s the story of, that’s the glory of love” which sounds very creepy and makes the film even more eerie. At the very end, we then see Esther jumping out at John which could make the audience jump and non diegetic sound is added for effect.