Disturbia Trailer Analysis

The plot of this film is about Kale Brecht as he is placed under house-arrest for punching his Spanish teacher, after his father is killed in a car accident. Things then start to unravel as he as nothing better to do but to occupy himself by spying on his neighbours. Kale becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind these murders but, after a few unsettling run-ins with Mr. Turner. It becomes an ominous question to the viewer who is watching who. The main protagonist (Kale) is very un-stereotypical for a hero as he is a young adult and is a hero accidently by spying on his neighbours. He also spy’s on his love interest in the film which leaves the viewer question at first whether it is a romantic film or thriller. The film is set in the suburbs which is unconventional as most thriller films are set in a city e.g. Taken is set in Paris. However, this makes the trailer more thrilling to the viewer if it’s portrayed believably. As the majority of audience would live in a similar location, this makes them question that ‘What if it was their neighbour and What if it happens to them?’

As the trailer begins the music is very happy and comical. However as the trailer gets more intense the music picks up its pace when Kale notices a woman is getting murdered. The music then gets lauder and more dramatic. This keeps the attention of the viewer at full focus when the mystery begins to unfold. To help alert the viewer the sound of the screaming, heaving breathing and door creaking is highly amplified to attract the viewer’s attention. The music also anchors the editing of the trailer. As the film begins the editing is slow paced with softer transitions to help set the mood. However at the film trailer starts to get more interesting the editing is a lot faster with quicker transitions when action is present. This is done to make the viewer second guess what they have just seen and keeps them at the edge of their seat.

The trailer does not rely on its special effects to attract its audience as much as the other trailer I analysed. The special effects used are the captions at the start of the trailer to help fit the story together. There is also a split screen effect of the shots to different neighbours to emphasise that he is spying on them because they are place after a close-up of the male protagonist looking through binoculars. However as the trailer gets towards the end many flashing effects are used to make the viewer feel disorientated as well as the window-shutter effect used on the captions so the viewer feel like they are spying on it, in relation to what Kale is doing in the trailer.

The trailer consists of many close-up shots of both Kale and his love interest looking very afraid. For example when Kale is getting arrested there is a close-up of him staring at the villain looking very angry and scared of him. This helps the viewer convey the emotion of the characters. There are also many POV shots used to put us in the position of the character. For example when the girl is in the car there is a POV of her looking at the villain. This helps make the viewer as afraid as the girl and intensifies the trailer. An essential shot used in the trailer represents gender, which is the medium- shot of the female characters sexual body part when she is in Kale’s room. This represents girls as being an object. However since it is a POV shot it symbolises men as being ‘sexual predators’. There are also many camera techniques used such as a dolly shot which zooms into the characters. For example after Kale notices the woman is getting killed he hides behind the window and the camera zooms in to Kale to signify his importance. A cross cutting effect is also used when the shots switches from Kale spying, to the woman getting killed. This helps fit the scene together so the viewer clearly knows what is happening.