Trailer Analysis 1 - The Autopsy of Jane Doe

I am analysing the Autopsy of Jane Doe trailer. It is a recent horror film, produced by Imposter Pictures (who co-produced La La Land), 42 Pictures (who are relatively unknown) and IM Global pictures (who produce films from a variety of genres). The director is Andre Ovredal who has directed very few films, but the ones that he has directed have been somewhat successful and link to the horror genre, such as Troll Hunter. For horrors, actors are usually less known – it helps to separate the audience’s knowledge of the actor to the character in the film. It also helps to make the characters seem more real and leaves the audience to not know their fate; for example, when the actors of the Blair Witch Project were listed as missing on their IMDB pages. The lead actors in the Autopsy of Jane Doe are Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Ophelia Lovibond and Olwen Kelly, who are relatively unknown actors. For horror films, it is not the cast, director or production companies that grasp the audience’s attention, for the trailer, it is simply the visuals, sound and editing which help to grip the audience.

Firstly, the narrative type for this trailer began as linear, this was shown by the first half of the trailer, however as the climax of the trailer began the narrative changed to non-linear with a variety of jump cuts and becomes more mismatched. As it is in a linear format, it creates narrative hooks along the way when the plot begins to heighten. This trailer links to Barthes narrative theory of the Hermeneutic code- it refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained. This leads the plot to become a mystery for the reader. The way these narrative hooks can be created are through snares, equivocations and jammings. Snares deliberately avoid the truth, equivocations give partial or incomplete answers and jammings acknowledge that there is no answer to a problem. The trailer for The Autopsy of Jane Doe uses snares and equivocations throughout, to generate several questions for the reader to ponder. One of the first instances of this happening is when the sheriff brings in the body and says that he cannot identify her. The audience would already be asking questions and would want to know who this woman is, what has happened to her and why she can’t be identified. Another example of the equivocations used is when the protagonist asks “what happened to you” and there is then a series of jump cuts and close up shots of a variety of things wrong with the corpse such as grey eyes, parchment hidden in her body and several other concerning features. The lack of explanation creates a hook for the audience as they would want to watch the film to try and find answers about what happened to Jane Doe. The trailer also follows Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and difference, which states that a film must follow the conventions and stereotypes of a film’s genre to be considered a film of that genre. However a film must also subvert these stereotypes to be considered unique by an audience, without difference, the film would not appeal to audiences.

There are a variety of shots used throughout the trailer, such as establishing shots, extreme close ups and many more. The trailer begins with an establishing shot of a house, the colour palette for this shot is prominently pastel and light tones, this connotes a calm tone of the neighbourhood which contrasts with the discourse of the horror throughout the film.  This establishing shot also tells the audience that horrifying circumstances can happen within an ordinary setting, such as a suburban setting.  There is then a camera flash and a room is shown with a forensics’ person investigating the area. This shot is rather cluttered as the location is under a staircase and the man has his back to the camera; this could represent the distortion of the victim’s life before her death. There is then a pan of the floor showing blood stains and bullets, this sets the scene of the horror and as the camera pans more gore is presented to the audience subtly, but overall it connotes that a murder has happened. Several camera flashes happen to transition between shots; linking once again to the forensics within the opening of the trailer. Following this was a match-eyeline shot of a sheriff looking at a dead body in dirt. This shot once again highlights the horror of the situation but also shows how un-phased the sheriff is by seeing another dead body, presumably because he doesn’t suspect anything that subverts the normal protocol for a homicide. Further in trailer, one of the most prominent shots that stood out to me, was when the body was first being examined, there was an Arial view/ high angle of the body as it is being unzipped. This high angle shot helps to show the vulnerability of death and how helpless she looks, this would put the audience in a false state of security as further on it is made known that she is extremely dangerous and something unnatural. (PIC) Additionally, there was an extreme close up of a bell tied to the foot of the corpse, which could suggest that this is a prominent feature to the storyline. There were also several other extreme close ups of the body as she is being examined in addition to the items that are being found during the examination. This puts a high focus on the abnormalities of the woman’s death and arouses suspicion for the audience. Towards the end of the trailer, a handheld shot is used when the protagonist is looking for his father, this shows the unease of the setting after the chaos has begun to erupt. This shot foreshadows the disorder and calamity that Is to come. The final shot in the trailer is a wide shot of an empty corridor, there is then a sound of a bell heard and a flickering light before the trailer fades to black. This shows that something horrid is lurking in the darkness and it forebodes that something horrendous is going to happen to the protagonists. (PIC)

Mise-en-scene is extremely important for a film, so it is important that it is presented accurately throughout the trailer so the audience can have an idea of the genre in enough detail that they would want to see the film their selves. The theme of death and murder is presented through the dark, moody colours in addition to the props such as the bullets, blood, the setting of the morgue and several other factors. These all connote a sinister or dark setting and all coincide with the horror genre. There is also a theme of mystery throughout the trailer, the chalkboard examinations show all of the areas where an abnormal injury has been found on the corpse, the cloth with a code on it that was found in her, her grey eyes and the blood coming out of her all show that something disturbing and beyond the knowledge of a pathologist. These features could also show links to cults, which has been prominent in horror films and would link to the cryptic message on the cloth. Other disturbing props and prosthetics used was the rusted bell on the ankle of the corpse to “make sure they’re dead”, which makes the aforementioned ringing sound in the end of the trailer all the more disturbing. Additionally, there was a brief shot of a woman’s face that had the mouth melted together, presenting to the audience that extremely strange instances have happened to this woman. Throughout the trailer, low-key lighting had been used, overall it was relatively dark and torches and flickering, faulty lights were used throughout. Darkness tends to enhance a horror film as this is something that many people are afraid of due to them being unaware of what is hiding within the darkness. Overall the mise-en-scene accurately resents the Horror genre.

There were several editing techniques used throughout the trailer, the majority were jump cuts, however there were some other techniques used in addition. There was a large use of camera flashes that were used as a transition between the jump cuts, this helped to link to the forensics and narrative of the start of the trailer. There were also several uses of fading to black in between shots when the linear, calm narrative was being shown in the first half of the trailer. Action match cuts were being used when the protagonists are prepping the body for examination and the objects they find during the examination are also shown in time with the voiceover. There are also two uses of eyeline match shots, one at the beginning of the trailer and one at the end, this shows a full circle within the editing and it is directly connected to the Jane Doe. The most prominent uses of editing in the trailer was the title card. Stop motion animation was used on the dirt moving around the title. This could show that something unnatural has been dug up when the case of Jane Doe is being looked into. The movement of the dirt itself is also something quite unsettling to look at as it almost resembles something like maggots. The editing was extremely effective and I will consider using something like this in my own trailer.

The sound is something that is extremely important in a horror and this needed to be showcased within the trailer in order to captivate audiences into watching the film when it is released in cinemas. The majority of the sound was non-digetic, it was mostly voiceovers and strings and other background music. However there were also digetic sounds such as the camera flashes, the bell ringing and the radio interference. All of these instances of sound were used well in conjunction with the rest of the trailer. The bell sound was used as both digetic and non-digetic; it was used to signify the change is the jump cuts and as the text appears, it helps to build the suspense and bring a greater unease to the audience. These sounds speed up when the trailer shows the more heightened and distressing moments of the film. To contrast to this, at the end of the trailer it is silent with the exception of a bell ring and a heavy breath, this shows the horror that is about to come to these characters and creates a narrative hook for the audience as they would want to know what happens next.

The trailer ends with the hashtag “#whoisjanedoe”, this will encourage audiences to post this and look up the hashtag to try and find out more about the film to answer any questions that arose when watching the trailer. This could then connect to the film’s website and generate traffic to there and allows the audience to find out more about the film. All of these features intertwine and in the online age it is necessary to promote a product or film online as much as possible. There is then the production credits which shows the cast, director, companies and anyone else who was involved in production. There is also the web addresses for the Facebook page and website, included with the hashtag, once again creating interest online.

I would say that this is an effective trailer for a horror film, however I do feel that some of the jump cuts were too fast and didn’t allow audiences to see all of these shots I will definitely use the editing, camera shots and sound as inspiration for my own trailer.