Trailer Analysis - Godzilla

The 2nd film trailer that I am analysing is the 1998 film Godzilla, Directed by Roland Emmerich. The reason why I have chosen this film is because even though Roland Emmerich films are normally terrible, and very poorly recieved by critics, they are always a box office success. The main reason why this is, is because his films always have great marketing, such as in Independence Day when all they showed was the whitehouse being blown up, everybody was so curious on how that was going to happen (and now it has become a cliche amongst disaster films). And Godzilla is another good example, the teaser trailer for one of the biggest monsters in monster movie history, and they don't show him in the trailer, we only get small glimpses of his feet and horns; so if people wanted to see the monster, they had to go and see the movie.

(Godzilla, 1998, Dir. Roland Emmerich)

The trailer itself is very well put together, being a teaser for a very popular story, they knew what to put in that people would want to see, Godzilla destroying things. The trailer starts off with Godzilla destroying ships in the ocean, with voice-overs talking about how bad the damage was, this instantly introduces the threat, and the power that he's capable of. It then begins to progress a narrative by saying "this thing's only 200 miles off the eastern seaboard" and then showing an establashing shot of New York, telling the audience where the next disaster and the majority of the film will take place. It then slows down and all that is heard is Godzilla's footsteps and the ground shaking. Again, this teases the audience of the presence of Godzilla to create even more suspense . The rest of the film is nothing more than a montage of Godzilla attacking along with explosions and dramatic music before ending with the trademark Godzilla roar.

 

This is effective as a teaser trailer because instead of showing Godzilla (Which is all the audience really wants) it shows the power of Godzilla as well as the setting of the story. The trailer never even shows any of the human main characters, because they know that that's not what people care about, they want to see the monster, but just giving them a brief look at the monster, making the audience all the more excited to see this movie. The elements of this trailer that I hope to use in mine are the use of suspense, the trailer never reveals the most important element of their film, mine would be the conspiracy that the protagonist discovers, while in this film it would be the monster Godzilla.

 

In terms of mise-en-scene, this trailer uses conventions of a horror film, using lightning storms and ominous music and never showing the monster but more so of people being terrified of said monster. This is all done to create tension for the audience watching this, and it will make them think that is a trailer can get them to be tense, then the movie itself will be even better. Another point that supports this being more of a horror movie is the lighting and colours, everything is made up of earth or dark colours and the enviorment is very dark and bleak, an example of this is the birds eye shot of the umbrellas and they are all black. The reason why this is, is because monster films normally either fall into two catagories, thriller or horror, and this trailer uses these techniques to signify which of the two it focuses on.

 

In terms of editing, the trailer follows basic conventions of a teaser trailer, by that it sets up the basic elements of the story without giving away too much, but also the first half of the trailer is all set up for the story which uses a lot of match-on action by timing the edits along with the lightning, just tohelp create an atmosphere and also to keep the trailer at a good pace. While the second half is montage editing, creating a juxtaposition within the trailer. This is another convention of trailers, especially for action films, showing nothing more than explosions and Godzilla destroying everything. This shows the genre of the film (action) and what the majority of scenes of the film will consist of, so this is what the audience can expect the film to be all about.

 

As for sound, the use of voice-over is done for exposition of the film and the create a narrative for the film and the trailer; as well as describing the monster Godzilla. The use of ominous music creates a suspenseful atmosphere and to set the mood of the film. Seeing as this is the first footage that people will see for this film so it needs to capture the accurate tone of the film within this trailer. During the montage, there is fast-paced action music playing along with the clip, letting the audience know that the film is also an action film with a lot of explosions and voilence. Finally the film closes with the title of the film and the iconic Godzilla roar. This is iconographic for the film as it is used in every Godzilla film to date and should it be left out then a lot of fans of the franchise would be upset about that. So putting it in the end of the trailer is a good selling point for the film as it helps get fans more excited to see the film.

 

As for cinematography, there is no proper establashing shot until halfway through the trailer, for the first half it is all just Godzilla causing destruction, and only when a character says it's close to the eastern seaboard and then it shows an establashing shot of New York, which is where the film (and rest of the trailer) takes place. This is interesting as the trailer doesn't even attempt to create a narrative until halfway through the trailer, but there is a reason why and I discussed it earlier. People going to see this film aren't going for a story or characters, they're going because they want to see Godzilla destroy things, so it makes sense that the trailer would start off with nothing but that. As for the actual shots with Godzilla, the majority of them are filmed from low angles, this is obviously to make Godzilla look larger and therefore more intimidating. This is emphasized by one shot with a man in the ocean, sat in the middle of the bottom row of the frame, when Godzilla suddenly appears and takes up every other frame.