Thriller Trailer Analysis

The Final Destination is a thriller film with elements of horror and supernatural elements too. This trailer for the film explores several of the main conventions of the thriller genre.

One of the most significant conventions of a thriller is the use of enigma to create a sense of mystery and curiousity in the audience. This is no different to this trailer whereby the narrative is entirely hinged enigma: the main character is revealed to have the unsual ability to foresee and thus avoid death. This is completely abnormal and so the audience is left in awe as to how he can achieve such a feat -- it is an enigma. Furthermore, dialogue raises the point that maybe they're simply not meant to survive; this statement (and the basis for the plot) suggests a supernatural control over life, which also introduces a whole new curiousity within the audience as to who or what is dictating death and whether or not it can be beaten, as the protagonist hints at. This alone is another common element of thrillers: the antagonist is largely hidden from the viewers and who or what he is is a large enigma or plotline.

Another typical convention is the use of realism or a sense of normality. While the protagonist's ability to predict the future is certainly abnormal, the rest of the setting and context is extremely regular; the group of teenagers that the plot centres around no dissimilar to any other group of mixed teenagers. As well as this, the scenario is which the freak car crash occurs is another example of something regular; these types of car rally races are both frequent and popular in America, the example setting, and this is supported by the establishing shots that display the full stadium of a cheering audience -- this is just everyday, usual life.

One convention largely unique to thriller genre is Theatre of the Mind. This trailer uses this convention frequently in regular succession to keep a large amount of suspense within the audience and maintain interest. For example, in the introductory scene where the protagonist sees the future, there are regular fade-outs to black in-between all the action, as well as pausing the sound. This means that the actual event is only implicitly revealed to the audience and we are left to fill in the blanks, it is left for the a audience to imagine. Another more regular example of Theatre of the Mind is the several different scenarios it shows where it is likely that each person is going to die. For example, one teenager is sucked to the bottom of a swimming pool and we see an electric pole fall in that direction. However, before the actual event is completed and his fate revealed, the entirety of the scene is cut short. In reality the pole could fall short, some one could stop it or sheer luck could save him, but he isn't necessarily dead, though it is likely the audience will expect him to. This happens for several similar scenes repeatedly.

Slow paced, tense and irregular music is another conventional element of thrillers when anticipating something bad (a villain in a hallway, someone hidden behind shower curtains, etc.) This same style of music is used for the same reasoning through the trailer, but the most typical use of this is at the start of the trailer as things gradually begin to set themselves up to go wrong on the rally track. As the conditions worsen, like the bolts in the fence unscrewing, the roof partially falling, the cars deteriating and so on, the music gradually begins to escalate in volume and speed until the crash occurs and it continues to become more frantic. However, the slow portion of the music is very drawn out and long-lasting, building tension as it slowly rises as the audience recognise the convention.

One final convention of a thriller the trailer partially uses is that of a false ending. Without previous knowledge of the plotline of the Final Destination series, one would come to the conclusion that as the explosions encompassed the apparent protagonist he would die in the blast. However, there is actually as twist as he is about to die in the fact that it is actually a vision and the sense of closure presented to the audience in a climax is actually false.

Preliminary Task and Evaluation

One of the required features of our preliminary task was to ensure that we used the "shot/reverse shot" technique at least one within our continuity piece. While we included one definite use of it, moving from a face to a face to an eyeline to another eyeline, we ultimately believe that it was a fairly weak attempt and could have either been improved by refilming the sequence and making sure we used a less restrictive shot, which would provide the audience with a more clear understanding and confirmation of where each person was looking (rather than what could be interpreted as a random selection of facial close-ups.) As well as this, it would have been productive to capitalise on the conversation scene more and instead of the quite distanced shots which showed both characters at once, it would have been beneficial to use the technique here, not only for the mark but for improving the dialogue scene too.

As well as this, we had to demonstrate the ability to follow the "180 degree rule." I believe we done this relatively effectively as the dialogue scene features two different camera angles around 90 degrees apart from each other, on one consistent side of the speakers. This shows we understood not to place the cameras at any point past either person. However, this could have been improved by spacing the two side cameras further apart along the semi-circle axis and by introducing a third camera. The film would look better with multiple angles anyway, but by having more cameras and still following the rule it shows a clearer proof that we understood the rule.

Finally it was required that we provided evidence of the "match on action" technique. This was easily our most successful feature, with reasonable editing providing a smooth transition on a few scenes. The most prominent example of this technique is when the protagonist is running down the hallway, to when he kicks the doors open and the shot cuts to the door being kicked open from the opposite side. This is relatively fluid and we have no criticisms for how we did this.