Trailer Analysis #3 - Saving Faith

Saving Faith

“Saving Faith” focuses on the life of Jowls Ward whose world is quickly turned upside down when his girlfriend is murdered; quickly reacting upon this he sets out to seek revenge upon those who ruined his life while coming across a number of violent situations.

Within the trailer we see that a variety of shots have been used which allows us as the audience to see the actors’ facial expressions and to give us an insight into what some of the shots used may symbolise. Near the end of the trailer there is a close up of Ward sitting by a fire which may symbolise danger in some sort of way letting us know how angry and at this point how dangerous he is. Other close up’s are seen at 0:53 when Ward puts on his hood and walks away from the setting which in some way shows that he is now ready to get his revenge on those who ruined his life. The low angle shot seen at about 0:43 shows the actor is superior to us and that we should probably be scared of him.

Viewers are told the name of the film near the end of the trailer because as an audience we are able to obtain a brief outline of what the film is about previous to know what it is called, we see the name of the film because up until this point the audience are left in suspense as to what the title of the film actually is which may be hard to figure out based on the action alone.

The sound within the trailer of which can be tied in with the speed of it was carefully chosen. There is use of diegetic sound which has been given in the form of story sound; for example, in between some clips dialogue has been added to give viewers more detail into what the film is about and how the actors’ actions will lead to the climax of the film. The dialogue used basically tells us the narrative of the film, for example “his world turned upside down”, “his love gone” and “nothing will stop him now” on the whole in within this aspect this tells us that he wants to get revenge on those who ruined and that he cannot be stopped, use of the term “nothing will stop him now” essentially makes the audience feel as if the actor thinks he is invulnerable. Use of non-diegetic sound has been used in the form of a sound-track, the music played at the beginning of the trailer starts off with a very nice melodic aspect to it which in some way connotes the main character being very much in love with his girlfriend and happy that he is spending time with her, but when it shows him standing at his girlfriend's grave and the actual story of the film coming into light the music becomes some what haunting setting the mood at which this point in the film the character may be feeling and giving a sense on how the death of his girlfriend has affected him. The music becomes very upbeat at about 1:05 as the speed of the what we see in the trailer becomes fast based on the clips shown, the directors of “Saving Faith” probably intended to do this to show viewers how fast paced the film is. On the whole the music used within the trailer tells us that the film has a hard-hitting, gritty genre aspect to it.

The editing as a whole provides a real sense into how the trailer was able to be made and how it was able to have the effect of realism to it, the use of diegetic sound .i.e. the dialogue can be linked to cutting as each bit of dialogue leads us onto what Ward does next in each part of the trailer; for example, we see that he is with his girlfriend and then when it shows a piece of dialogue saying “his love gone” we see that he is standing at her grave.

The mise-en-scene aspects of the trailer are what is being shown as a whole, the clothing worn by the actors shows that it suits the genre of the film with it being a type of gangster film as we see one specific character wearing a suit; this character is shown to be the leader of who organised the murder of Wards' girlfriend therefore showing him to play the type of role which can be associated with the mafia, we also see a lot of hooded jumpers and tracksuits worn which gives more emphasis into what we can expect in the film. The lighting sets a certain feel on what the film is about, although by watching the trailer viewers may think that there is only natural light and no light at all that has been used because of it being daytime and night time, the lighting used is actually very distinctive as it sets a certain ambience within the trailer; the dark lighting used within this trailer connotes danger in a huge way as in most of the scenes where there are guns or violence involved the lighting is very low key, this low key lighting gives an aspect of action/thriller towards the film as the darkness of it seems to make things look more dangerous and treacherous.

Ward's facial expressions and body language show him to be very happy and comforting at the beginning of the trailer but soon after his girlfriend is murdered he begins to look very angry and very extremely hell-bent on getting revenge on those who ruined his life regardless of the consequences and it looks as though he almost wants to keep himself to himself. There is also some sense of interrogation when one the actor's throws his hat on the floor which lets us know that he is probably being asked questions by the police and because of this is getting incredibly angry. There is not much use of make-up which in my opinion sets a certain quality on the film as the director's were probably going for a very realistic approach to the film. The props used within the trailer were mostly weapons set a certain action code as they let us know what type of action will be portrayed within the film; there is use of guns, baseball bats and shovels which shows viewers an obvious aspect of violence within the film, there is a sense of practicality within the trailer as we have general knowledge of what type of violence seems to take place in today's society, based on the props this film would probably be able to appeal to those who have been affected by gun crime or by some sort of violence which has maybe lead to the death of someone who is close to them.

There are many scenes within this trailer that have been filmed in different settings; these include a cemetery, the outside of a police station, the outside of local houses and alleyways, this shows viewers how diverse the film is allowing them to see the different areas where violence is more known to take place.