Hard Candy- Teaser Trailer Deconstruction
The trailer begins with a essential convention of any trailer; the official rating for Hard Candy for its appropriate audiences, by the motion picture association of America, INC). Followed by the production company logo (Lionsgate).
Diegetic sound of typing on a keyboard is heard over a black out. The trailer then goes into a close up of an instant messaging service (chat room perhaps) of two users who appear to be flirting and decide to actually ‘hook up’. This simple shot of the messages sets the equilibrium. The only sound that is heard is the diegetic sound of the messaging service when a new message comes in e.g. similar to the ping sound of msn/skype/facebook etc.
The close up shot shows the female protagonist; her noticeable ‘baby-face’ and innocent features. The camera even zooms in to show her young face in its entirety, (when she sweetly calls out the name of the internet date, Jeff) e.g. her short almost boyish hair cut, blemish free pale skin and white pearly milk teeth. Her appearance is presumably perfect for the portrayal of the young, naive, vulnerable girl.
The dialogue between the introduced characters allows the audience to assume that their meeting, is in fact a date; ‘You don’t look like the type of guy that has to meet girls over the internet’ and Jeff responds “well I think it’s better to meet people online first, get to know what they are like on the inside...’
At this point the non-diegetic sounds drastically changes e.g. becomes eerie, deep echoed sounds.
A close up of the cake, then of Jeff feeding Hayley some, some would say that it still can be considered innocent, even perhaps comparable to the interaction of a father-daughter relationship.
But it’s the next shot of Jeff wiping the cake from Hayley’s mouth then licking it, that changes the impression of the dynamic between them, it suddenly doesn’t seem so platonic and innocent anymore but rather uncomfortable for the audience because even the over shoulder shot allows Jeff to appear like the dominant one; obviously he is the adult but yet his behaviour and body language towards Hayley is becoming increasingly inappropriate.
The slow motion shot of Hayley looking at Jeff, with ‘doughy’ eyes of affection and the mid- shot (showing the height difference) plays into the child-like appearance, stature, affection of Hayley.
The isolation of the two characters in the parking lot and the fact no one else is present seems strange and deliberate to suggest the dangers of Hayley following Jeff, practically a stranger and it’s unusual nature is emphasised by Hayley turning down the opportunity to call her ‘sister’ to notify her on Hayley’s whereabouts.
This crane shot/pan of the highway, is surrounded by high trees and it appears like Jeff lives in a secluded and hidden area away from the city which is ideal for perhaps the type privacy he wants for the things, the audience can only presume he gets up to or for even what may happen to Hayley.
These shots of Jeff’s photographs and particularly the one close up of this model seem to be the turning point of the trailer, the disequilibrium. Hayley takes particular interest into this model in particularly and thus the real reason why Hayley is really here begins to unravel as the trailer progresses. In the next mid shots, the ‘sweet naive innocent girl’ facade is disappearing and the non-diegetic sound begins to heighten.
Here the roles have completely switched and Hayley is the prevailing character, who has the power over Jeff. Hayley is subverting the stereotype of her created in the beginning of the trailer; she is empowered and appears to even be torturing or punishing Jeff, for reasons, the audience would have to watch the film, to find out.
The non-diegetic sound became very disturbing and creepy with echoed sound bridges of Jeff protesting how he ‘...wouldn’t hurt anyone’ and his ‘please let me go..’ screams. There is then a sound bridge of Hayley claiming ‘it’s just so easy to blame a kid...’
The trailer, synchronous with the sound choices, becomes jam-packed with fast paced cuts of violent shots of the two characters e.g running, cling film over Jeff’s mouth (method of suffocation perhaps), Hayley trying to drown Jeff etc.
The sheer speed of the shots, (almost as fast as a click of a camera snapshot, which ties in nicely with the fact, the paedophile Jeff is indeed a photography and that the background non-diegetic sound has been the loud shutter/flash sound of a camera) and crescendo of the non-diegetic sound created a great sense of tension, anticipation, and overall adrenaline, which collective is totally on the contrary to how the trailer first began. (We could implement this editing style into our own trailer)
Teaser trailers don’t typically put the exact date of the cinema release just yet but rather leave that to the theatrical trailer that is normally released later on; ‘COMING SOON’. The only things placed after the actors/actresses names are the production information and website.
POSTED BY TOSIN
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