Analysis of a fifth trailer with links to Delirium- Flight (2012)

Flight is a 2012 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It features Denzel Washington in the lead role as a aeroplane pilot who appears to be suffering from alcoholism. It is for this reason that I picked the trailer; our film trailer features an alcoholic in the lead role so it will be intriguing to see if there are any similarities between conventions or narratives.

0.07- Denzel Washingtons pilot, opens a door to get into a building, He has a neutral facial expression and it is raining outside of the building. Seeing as this is shown so quickly, it creates pathetic fallacy which is how the weather affects the mood of a scene. This would make the audience believe that a disruption will occur later in the narrative according to Vladimir propps narrative theory. In our film we are going to use pathetic fallacy at a location called riverside park in St neots. Foggy conditions will be ideal because our protagonist is also an alcoholic and it will show the audience that our film will have a dark mood and theme throughout potential attracting a mass audience.

0.08- From this point onwards there is repetitive feel good music with a high tempo which directly contrasts with the last frame. This synchronous sound shows that there is equilibrium in the narrative and everything in the shot is in order.












0.20- The main production company appears on the screen which is Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is also a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom. In our case, our production company is called Mortem Productions.
 Along with that particular frame there is also a sound bridge of the distinctive bleeps that are heard on life support machines shown at 0.23. This is a significant sound motif as everything was in order in the previous shot of the plane safely travelling upwards into the stratosphere which indicates a disruption according to Vladimir Propp's narrative theory. As well as that, because there was a denotation of a plane one would simply conclude that the plane had crashed if life support machines were heard in the next shot. To further support the disruption, the upbeat positive music abruptly stopped playing suggesting things are no longer in order.

In our film Delirium, we plan to use denotations to convey our ideas of alcoholism and how psychological deterioration can result from that or some other occurrence in our narrative which directly correlates to some of the conventions used in Flight.

Then after around 30 seconds of intense cuts the upbeat feel good music returns at 1.00. At this point there is a also a voiceover of a man congratulating the pilot for his efforts. This shows that the pilot successfully landed the plane against all odds. This is also supported by a news report at 1.08 when the reporter says '' Captain Whitaker is a real American hero''. However at 1.18
there is a quick jumpcut consisting of a non-diegetic white noise effect which shows the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of the plane crash. A voiceover is heard at that moment that announces to the audience the pilots alcoholism when a man says ''we found traces of alcohol in your system, that could be life in prison''. This is a form of juxtaposition where he was represented as a hero but is now represented as an anti-hero if explained using todorovs narrative theory.

At 1.22 an intertitle appears in Bold ''From academy award winning director Robert Zemeckis''. This is important because it will entice viewers to watch the film using star power whereby their success will encourage people to watch the film as there will be an expectation that this film will be of the same calibre. I will endeavour to use intertitles as effectively as possible in my trailer however I do acknowledge that my group and myself do not possess star power. At 1.30 there is another example of star power with ''from the director of Cast Away and Forest Gump''. This is important because it reinforces the idea that the film will be of a high standard. Both films won academy awards which again suggests the success of them.


























At 2.05 there is an extreme close up shot of Denzel Washington pouring whiskey and other liquour down a sink with a voiceover which says '' I drank the night before the crash''. I personally feel that this is relatable to our film because our protagonists alcohol addiction causes multiple disruptions in our narrative which is also shown in flight.

It is clear from the Flight trailer that there are many similarities and differences in conventions between itself and my initial ideas regarding delirium which I will note. In particular I will make use of intertitles, synchronous sound, pathetic fallacy and will keep in mind the effect each sequence of my trailer will have on my target audience.