Tuesday 27 June 2017

Gone Girl Trailer Analysis

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry. The film had its world premiere on opening night of the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, before a nationwide theatrical release on October 3 2014. The director, David Fincher, is known for having directed the psychological thrillers Seven and The Game; this will make the film appeal to people who are a fan of his previous work. The purpose of the Gone Girl trailer is to get the audience to entice the audience in and encourage them to watch the film. The trailer seems to attract a wide target audience of all genders, which is conventional of such a big-budget film. The 20th Century Fox ident appears and this shows one of the distribution companies behind the film, this will encourage the audience to watch the trailer due to previous films released by that company such as Avatar.

There are many elements in the film that make us question what the genre is. When the police officers entered the shot it made it obvious to the audience that a crime has taken place. There are also guns, smashed glass, and blood which all demonstrate that there is an element of crime and violence involved with the film. The audience may think that the trailer reflects on real life because the locations used are parks and cities for example, this will increase the tension that the audience will feel because the locations used are not stereotypical horror/thriller locations. Furthermore, there are other elements significant to the thriller genre such as arguments, kidnappings, domestic violence and crime; this suggests that it will be full of action.

The trailer cuts from the present investigation and then back to Amy and Nick’s past; this is to make the audience think about who they think kidnapped Amy before they watch the film. It will also encourage the audience to watch the film because they will want to know if their guess is right and who did kidnap Amy.  It challenges Todorov’s theory as it is hard to identify which point of the story is the equilibrium and which is the disruption. The trailer follows Bathes’ theory, as there are many enigma codes that leave the audience wondering things like “What happened to Amy”. This is expected of a thriller film as they aim to always keep the audience guessing.


The establishing shot of the trailer sets the mood of the film, the shot looks calm, peaceful and happy, however it is juxtaposed with non-diegetic eerie music. This suggests to the audience that this is where most of the action will take place and something is going to happen which will disrupt the happy and calm nature of the scene. The lighting used throughout the trailer is mainly low key, this symbolises that the film is dark. However the scenes which include Amy have high key lighting making the scene brighter, creating a binary opposition between Amy and Nick. This portrays Nick as the antagonist of the film as he is very much is the dark throughout the trailer; this leaves the audience wondering if he did kill Amy. The use of the non-diegetic voiceover of Amy reading her diary encourages the audience to connect with her since they are hearing her side of the story.

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Evaluation Question 4