Prometheus Trailer Analysis
The 2012 film Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott contains one of the most intense sci-fi trailers ever made. Director Ridley Scott, whom also directed the 1979 sci-fi/horror classic Alien, used the trailer from Alien as a basis to start constructing the trailer Prometheus. As the film Prometheus is a modern day prequel of the movie Alien, there were certain links that needed to be established through the trailer of Prometheus, enabling the audience to be able to establish the link between the two films directed by Scott.
Sound
Firstly, the sound used in the Prometheus trailer is mainly used to build suspense in the trailer as it is designed to be a film that keeps audiences of the edge of their seats. This meant that music was key to building suspense in the trailer so it starts off with low tone, high bass music to start off the build up of suspense. The first part of dialogue in the trailer is “A King has his reign… and then he dies” setting a scene for the rest of the trailer, this statement indicates that something at the top of a particular chain, such as the Earth, being the King will have to come to an end. At 0:15 high tempo drums kick in indicating that there is a build up of action/suspense.
Camera
Camera shots are used in the Prometheus trailer to help establish an idea of who main characters in the film are and who the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys are, building a small synopsis for the audience to base their judgement on whether they wish to see the film or not. In the beginning of the trailer, a close up of a non-human hand with black veins running through the forearm is used to present an extra-terrestrial form of evil, this helps the audience establish that the film is a sci-fi.
The establishing shot at 0:05 shows the audience a spaceship coming through the atmosphere of a new planet, further emphasising the genre. The majority of the shots in the trailer are mid-shots and close ups of the apparent main character in the trailer, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, who is on a search to try to discover the beginning of the Earth.
Extreme long shots are utilized to emphasise the scale of the spaceship and the planet in the trailer.
The longshot used at 1:07 is mysterious as it is a man in a deep tunnel shining a torch as if he is exploring the tunnel to find something sinister hidden in the tunnel.
At 1:24, the close up of the shocked face of the character expresses that the characters have no idea of the scale of the mess they have gotten themselves into.
Editing
There is a large amount of CGI used in the Prometheus trailer, done on programs such as Adobe After Effects, as it is a sci-fi movie meaning that visual effects are required to make it the film realistic despite most of it being computer generated, eg. the spaceship.
The futuristic advanced technology, such as the pods that are seen to be used as a a form of bed and the caesearean machine featured later in the trailer, that is clearly computer generated helps set the scene that the film is set in the future as it contains high tech equipment.
The visual effects used in the trailer are used to add realism therefore showing that the film was very high budget. The beginning of the trailer features slow transitions with a large amount of fade to blacks, builidng the suspense in the trailer until 0:18 where the tempo begins to build up.
Quick transitions are used throughout the trailer to build up the suspense in the trailer and to keep it flowing. At 1:08, the transition is fast showing the torch shining onto an alien life form causing intrigue. At 1:15 editing begins to speed up building up the suspense in the trailer as we begin to see that the focal characters are in some form of danger on the planet. At 1:21 we see that a large xenomorph has been edited into the ceiling of the cave that the characters are exploring, this is used to further establish the link between this trailer and the film Alien.
A headcam is used to show the characters sprinting out of the cave at 1:31, the editing on this shows the headcam as a form of monitor of the character adding realism and emphasising the setting of it being in the future.
One of the most noticeable parts of editing in the trailer is the strobe flash editing that starts at 1:44 showing brief scenes of intense action, all cutting at cliffhanger points of their particular clip, this is extremely intriguing for audiences as they see that film contains a large amount of action and suspense. This strobe flash editing is also used in the Alien trailer.
Mise En Scene
In the Prometheus trailer the mise en scene is used to establish where the film is set, when it is set and what genre of film it is. Through the use of futuristic gadgets and hi tech spacesuits, we learn that the film is a sci-fi set in the future. The use of the larger spaceship, Prometheus, also helps emphasise this point. At 0:26 we get a glimpse of some the advanced technology that is utilised throughout the film/trailer to add realism to the film being set in the future.
We also see that some of the film will be set on Earth, as at 0:32 we see Dr Shaw in standard clothes (warm coat & jumper), which would only be worn on Earth.
The rest of the trailer features the cast in spacesuits apart from one lady who is in a futuristic military style sharp cut uniform, symbolising that she has power and control over the rest of the characters, highlighting that she may be backing the research or that the military backs it. The planet in which the majority of the action happens seems quite rocky and dusty, possibly showing that is uninhabited apart from the ‘Engineers’ who invited the humans to come and visit the planet.
Pathetic fallacy is also used in the trailer when a large grey cloud appears at 1:18 meaning that something bad is about to happen in the trailer and things are going to take a toll for the worse for the characters.
Synopsis
A key convention of a film trailer is that it builds a synopsis for the audience of the trailer to be able to establish whether they would wish to see the film or not. In the Prometheus trailer, the trailer begins with the two focal scientist telling a team of their research and their discovery of an ‘invite’ which is a pictogram of star map leading them to a certain planet on which they believe the Earth’s creators are inhabited. The researchers venture out to the mysterious planet to try and search for the Earth’s beginning but strange events on the planet begin to unfold and the characters begin to realize they are in danger. At 1:09 a man says ‘whatever that probe is picking up its reading life forms’ this shows that the team are not alone on the planet. Further events unfold on the planet and they begin to discover that they have fallen into something much bigger than they realised, eventually they fin a ship, which is heading to destroy Earth. At around 1:29 the tone of the trailer switches quickly from wanting to explore the planet to wanting to get off it as quickly as possible.
The trailer ends on the quote ‘big things have small beginnings’ foreshadowing the events of the film that a simple exploration mission turns into an assault on Earth being launched.
Eventually more and more unfortunate events occur and eventually members of the team are killed and we see the main character, Shaw, clasping her hands together at 1:39 meaning that she has nothing else left and has resorted to God to save her meaning that her life is in serious danger from being on the planet.
The film trailer for Prometheus has many points of analysis available and the trailer is very strongly linked to the trailer of the 1979 movie Alien of the same director, Ridley Scott. Finally, the title at the end of the trailer flashes up in spaced out letters commonly used by sci-fi films and famously used by the film Alien. The billing block at the end of the trailer is also in the large spaced out text.
Later on in the trailer, the dialogue is used to create intrigue for the audience to keep guessing at what is actually occurring in the trailer, as the trailer only paints a small picture of what is to happen in the movie, giving the audience a brief outline of the plot, but not giving away too much of the plot to allow the audience to be able to guess what occurs in the movie, at 0:44 the scientists discuss their findings of a star map/invitation that leads them to a certain planet, the response “from whom” causes intrigue as the scientists are unaware of who or what has invited them to this planet and for what reason; this is used as a ploy to cause the audience to want to watch the movie to see who invited them to the planet. The use of intrigue is common throughout the trailer as it causes the audience to actually want to see the film, at 0:56 the main character, Shaw, says “are you seeing this” but the audience cannot see what she is looking at, this makes the audience want to be able to see what she is looking at.
One of the key aspects of sound in the trailer is the loud high pitch extra-terrestrial noise that occurs at 1:43, this sound was also used in the 1979 trailer for Alien directed Scott. Both the trailers feature the noise and high-pitched screams to cause a sense of fright to the audience as we can see that they have discovered something that they were not supposed to.