Analysis
Silent Hill’s genre is horror. It is a film about a adopted girl called Shannon that has dreams about a place called Silent Hill. Her adoption mother Chritabella takes her to this mysterious place unbeknown to her the background to this place is a ‘ghost town’. Through out the film strange scary creatures regularly appear when an alarm is sounded. The main character Christabella goes on a quest to find her daughter and uncovers some terrible truths about her daughter Shannon’s background. The film ends with a twist as the audience find out that Christabella and Shannon both died in silent hill.
Silent Hill’s trailer follows the traditional conventions. In the first opening scenes we are presented with the two main characters of the film Shannon and Christabella. The dialogue between the two characters tells the audience that Shannon has been having dreams about a place called Silent Hill which is the title of the film. The two characters are presented as being very united as in the opening shot they are placed closely together suggesting a mother daughter relationship they are in a very nice sunny setting.
The setting immediately changes, we can see car headlights in the night and then there is a birds eye view shot of a car travelling in what looks like a isolated area. The text Toucan country west Virginia is shown on the screen which sets the setting of were the action is going to take place.
There is a close up shot of the main character Christabella and then a medium shot of the radio where the radio starts crackling. This is followed by another close up shot of Christabella this shows her reaction to the radio. The crackling of the radio has a hidden meaning to ghosts as many people believe this certain noise to be called white noise. The audience then see a strange shadow of a person walking in front of the car, the car swerves to miss this mysterious person but hits her. However the car goes through the character also suggesting the theme of a supernatural presence.
The screen goes black and the next sequence of the trailer is followed by a series of shots followed by screen black outs. The editing is more fast pace as the narrative progresses. There is a extreme close up shot of the main character face looking up at the sky were a something that looks like grey snow is falling. This is followed by a shot of her hand fingertips rubbing the substance this is done to establish to the audience what it is. We learn that it is flakes of ash falling from the sky. These serious of unlikely consequences reinforces the films genre of horror.
The grey misty setting of Silent Hill has a hidden connotation of disorientation because fog covers things up making things hard to see. This is the same in the narrative as Christabella has woken up in this place were ash is failing from the sky having found she has lost her daughter.
The first few seconds of the film the music is subtle, the music is played on a piano which is a nice sound. As the narrative has progressed and when she wakes up in Silent Hill the music becomes more dark and sinister with high pitched noises, the music gets louder as the camera focuses in on a sign saying Welcome to Silent Hill. When the shot cuts to the following sequence the music stops. This is done to build tension and suspense of the audience. The following sequences of the trailer cut to the music so as the music gets faster the shot cuts do as well, this is done to show the past pace of the narrative. On top of the music is Christabella shouting “Shannon” this is also building the story line as no one knows were this girl is.
There is cut between two narratives one which she is in and one were her husband is. There is a close up of a family picture of the three characters presented so far so that the audience know that they are all connected within a family.
The words ‘what was once an ordinary town’ is shown on the screen centrally in black bold font is shown against a foggy grey back ground. This also goes with the narrative as the fog is connected within the miss-en-scene. The man Christopher is wearing a suit reinforcing the idea he is a working business man providing for the family. We see him researching Silent Hill and his dialogue tell the audience what he is reading on the screen. Extreme close up shots of significant parts of the text is also shown progressing the audience understanding of the narrative further. The audience is the shown a series of flash backs were they will make the connection that the girl in the flash back is exactly the same as ‘Shannon’. Further text is shown “has been transformed by evil”. As the fire is flashed onto the screen the music becomes very loud this is done to make the audience jump and to scare them.
The following shots develop the narrative even further with a sequence of shots showing Christabella looking for Shannon in various different locations of Silent Hill. This is the quest of the plot.
There is an extreme close up shot of a girl with messy hair covering her face. She is wearing a blue dress. In the next shot there is an old woman with very long grey tangled hair she is wearing torn dirty closed. She is displayed to be like a homeless person later on in the film she is presented like this because she has been shunned out of the ‘community’.
A non diegetic sound of an alarm is heard and we are shown lots of people running into what looks like a church. A church is a holy place were no evil is allowed so seeing people running into a church could mean that they are running to safety away from these creatures as they can not enter the church.
When the narrative turns more scary and the audience are shown sequences with monsters the background of the text changes. It has gone from a grey foggy background to a red/ yellow dirty colour. This is done to show that the genre narrative has changed to something more sinister and scary. The yellow/ red background also conotates the fire in Silent Hill.
Another character is shown wearing a similar costume to the girl previously shown. The costume worn is not modern this means the people are not from our generation. The hair styles also present his theory as they are very old in style. The music becomes more apparent as these monsters keep on appearing. The sound is very low like a trumpet. The editing becomes more fast pace as it changes to the beat of the music.
The audience hear the sound of a heat beat and there is a montage of different shots of monster, Christabella and the mystery girl that looks like Shannon. The heart beat sound effect is done to build up the tension of the audience as the trailer is now nearing to the end. Each different sequence has a screen black out it edits to the heart beat. The last final sequence of the trailer is a shot of Christabella looking at the camera and screaming. This leaves the in total suspense as to what is going to happen to her making them want to know what happens next..
The film title Silent Hill is shown against a dark brown background. The words silent hill are central and we can see a bight light shinning through them this could be fire which is significant in the film. The background fades out from the sides into the middle and blacks out. This is a typical film trailer convention showing at the end of the trailer the film title and when it will be in theatres. Also at the end there is a website people can go on to find out more about this particular film.
Film Poster
The film poster is for the horror film Silent Hill. The audience for this film would be anyone ranging from the age of 18 plus as the movie certificate 18. The film can be watched from both genders as anyone can enjoy a horror film. The genre is portrayed in the poster in the use of colour. The dark grey fog is a recurrent theme of the film as there is ash falling out of the sky. In the audience watching the film trailer previous they will know that this poster is a clip from the film when Rose a desperate mother tries to find her daughter in silent hill. The writing style of the sign Silent Hill is both gothic and scary; it follows the colour scheme of dull colour’s mainly dull green which is shown a lot through mise-en-scene.
The person on the cover is one of the main characters featured in the film this is a convention of film posters, from researching I found that their will usually always be a character on the front of the poster. The clothing style and colour follows the colour of the film. The dull beige coat mixes in with the grey foggy background. The words Silent Hill are placed at the bottom of the poster in big bold black writing this is down because it is the only thing that the audience can see clearly on the poster. This is major selling point as the producers want the film name to stand out and appeal to the audience. Above the film title is the words “we’ve been expecting you” this follows the genre of horror the film producers want the audience to be frightened and also intrigued enough to want to see the film, this short snappy sentence doesn’t give away what the film will be about but it interests the audience enough to go and see the film to find out what it means.
Through mise-en-scene the only part that has colour on the poster is the date that it will be shown in cinemas this is shown in red. The colour red has a hidden connotation of blood, violence and gore which are conventions of horror. The film accreditations are shown at the bottom in a fainter smaller font; these are always at the bottom this is a convention of film poster.
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