Sherlock Holmes Trailer Breakdown

Charles Harris

The trailer starts with the logos of the production companies, the logos have

been adapted to make them seem more old fashioned, this conveys to the

viewer that the film is sent in the past

The logos rotate around a cube; the fast pace

transitions create excitement for the

viewer, and the cube could be a reference to a

dice which implies gambling, this reflects

the protagonists character in taking risks and his gabling habits

There is an exaggerated non-diegetic banging that happens as

the logo’s change, to draw attention to the screen and announce that the trailer is

happening

The master shot is a deep focus tilt, this is done to set the scene for the viewer so

they can establish that the film is set in the Victorian era (1891)

– as shown by the construction of tower bridge and the fashion. There is colour

correction used to make the colours more dull, this acts as pathetic fallacy because the weather is bad to foreshadow that

something bad will happen.

The text is used to engage the reader as they wonder who is “the world’s most brilliant mind?” by structuring

the trailer like this, it creates intrigue and builds up suspense to the reveal

of Sherlock Holmes, this gets the viewer excited about the film rather than opening with Sherlock Holmes.

The off-white text contrasts the black background making it stand out to the

viewer and the serif font makes the text look more classy, attracting it’s

adult audience and is also reminiscent of the Victorian style of writing

The sound track is a quiet low pitch drown which works well as ambient background noise to go under the dialogue as the soundtrack builds tension and excitement without drowning out the talking. The dumbing that occur

when a black out comes up is in a rhythm that is like a heart beat, this is done to get the viewers heart racing as they can sense something big is coming.

The Voice over says “Sherlock Holmes,” as the actor playing Sherlock appears on screen, this conveys to the viewer who Sherlock is, meaning the rest of

the trailer makes sense to them.

A very low angle shot is used to make Holmes seem very powerful and in charge, this belittles the viewer as the shot makes Sherlock more powerful than the viewer,

this is a reflection of the characters ego and how he perceives the world.

The voice over is speaking in a sinister whisper: the tone to his voice puts the viewer on edge as he sounds menacing. The voice over says “twist the very fabric of

nature,” which matches the image of a women floating, this conveys to the viewer that some mystical stuff will happen, and therefore it wont be a typical action film.

The actress is wearing white, a symbol of purity, but in the Victorian era, it was tradition to wear white at a funeral, implying that the girl is dead or is dying.

The sound track is string instruments playing at a medium tempo, the choice in

instruments reflects the time period and adds tension, while the choice in temp adds to the excitement however it gives room for

the pace to build as the trailer climaxes.

There is a close up of big ben striking 12, clocks striking 12 is a convention of horror films as that’s the time events tend to happen in films, the clip is then

followed by explosions –sticking with the trend. This follows Neale’s 1980 theory of repetition and difference as the director is conforming to the

convection of the clock striking 12, however they have added the difference of setting it in the past and not the present or future.

The voice over says “tomorrow the world as you know it,” which builds up excitement and intrigue, then the explosion happens which delays the rest of the sentence adding tension, then the voice over finishes by saying “will end.” which is matched with the image of explosion to make it clear to the viewer

the jeopardy of the situation which adds excitement. This is then contrasted with the protagonist saying “well, there isn’t any time to waste then, is there?” this adds humour as the films hero is so relaxed about the end of the world in the casual manor that he says it,

conveying to the viewer that there are light hearted elements to the film.

The prop of the pipe makes Sherlock seem classy to the viewer which contrasts his informal costume making him

seem down to earth.

The medium close up has Holmes breaking the 4th wall and is directly addressing the

viewer with his line, this engages them with the film and makes them feel like Sherlock is

on their side

Action matches are used to show Sherlock jumping out of a window and falling into a river, this is don’t

to create intrigue about why he is doing this instead of walking out of a door. This conveys

Holmes quirky character nature to the audience.

Synchronous sound is used, as Sherlock hits the water, the explosion happens. Meanwhile the

sound goes from ‘light hearted strings’ to a more intense soundtrack, exciting the viewer

A sound bridge is used of having the horse sound effect come in before the shot of the horse chase, this draws the viewer in as they wonder where the

horse has come from, before finding out

Low key lighting is used to make convey how dangerous what is happening is as it’s hard to make out what is

happening. The excessive shadows conveys the characters on screen to be untrustworthy.

Track shots are used in this section so that the clip looks more exciting and action packed, an action match is used to convey the action from

different view point making the viewer feel more involved in what's happening.

The protagonists sidekick isn’t brought in to the trailer until nearly 40 seconds into it,

this conveys to the viewer how unimportant he is compared to the protagonist as he

gets significantly less screen time.

Watson is present at eye level with the camera/ viewer in his close up, this

conveys him to be a “man of the people,” as he is put on par with the viewer

compared to Sherlock who when he was first introduced was put above them.

Watson’s character fits into Propp’s character theory, Sherlock is the Hero, Watson is then

the helper assisting the hero.

The character is shown in high key lighting conveying he is a good person to the audience,

the close up shows his emotions to be rather stern, this implies

he might have a dark side – which intrigues the viewer.

When Holmes and Watson are first presented together, a low angel is

used, this conveys them to be powerful together – implying that its Sherlock who provides Watson with

his status and without him, John is an ordinary person.

Symbolism is used from a relatively un-known religion or cult, this creates mystery

with the viewer as they wonder what it is, persuading

them to see the film

The low key lighting makes the picture rather dark, implying that what the

symbols mean isn’t good

The shot of the actress topless from behind creates sex appeal attracting guys to see the film.

This is an effective way to attract some of their target audience,

although it is stereotyping young men

In this section, Sherlock Holmes is losing a fight, this gets the reader to

sympathise with the protagonist as he is getting very hurt.

The diegetic sounds of the character screaming helps to further convey the pain

of the actor, increasing the sympathy

The montage of Holmes and Watson arguing shows that their relationship isn’t

always a happy one and that there ups and downs which gets the viewer interested.

The dialogue acts as a sound bridge because as John rants “practising violin,” there are relevant shots

[Sherlock playing a violin] going through out the section.

The close up on the actors face conveys how annoyed

he is at the protagonist, adding impact to what his saying in the voice over.

The topless show of the actor playing Sherlock adds sex appeal to attract woman

to watching the film.

The names of the famous and staring actors come up as people who like the actors will want to see the film as well as people who like the look of the film

The film name is presented in a really simplistic way as it’s the text against a black background, this makes it easy for the viewer to see

what the film is.

A form of credits come up at the end as people who know, trust and

like certain cast crew and/ or production companies involved

will see the film.

The last thing to be shown is the release date

and the website which involves a challenge. This gets people to go to the website where they will find out more about the

film, and having this information at the end means its more likely to

be remembered.

The antagonist has his back to the viewer, this conveys that he isn’t trust worthy as you can’t see his

whole face. His pose is pragmatics to vampires and Dracula which

conveys the supernatural element to the film.The main 3 good characters are

all touching/ are connected, this implies to the viewer that they are linked and will work

together to save the day.

The pun “Holmes for the holiday,” is a play on words of “home for

the holiday.” this is done to convey the humour in the film, as well as

reinforce the release date of Christmas day, which is also the

only thing in red at the bottom of the page to draw peoples

attention to it.

The lead actors names are at the top making it one of the first

things the reader sees, this means they can see the famous names and get excited about the film.

The models are dressed in smart, old-fashion clothing, this is done to make

them seem intelligent as well as convey the Victorian time period. Because they look smart, they seem trust worthy to

the viewer. There is a blue and grey colour scheme,

this makes the poster seem cold and shady, the protagonists stand out in this as they seem to have a warmer colour

correction, this has connotations of them bring the good to the film and putting a

stop to the bad guy. The fact that the female is in the dark makes it seem like

she has a dark side compared to Sherlock and Watson

Although hard to read, credits are at the bottom giving people more

information about the film.

The cover follows the blue colour scheme of the poster, this gives

constancy to the advertising campaign. Blue has connotations

of wisdom is fitting for “the world’s most brilliant mind”

Big ben can be seen in the background, however it is blurred, this conveys that although the film is set in London, it’s not important

to the films plot.

The cover line “Extra,” is pragmatics to Victorian news

paper sellers stereotypically calling out “extra, extra read all about it,”

this matches to match the era films in which the film was set, and conveys that to the audience.

The Magazine’s website is just under the masterhead putting it in a place that’s easy for the reader to see

and go onto if they so desire

The Cover line “Sherlock Holmes” goes right across the bottom

third, this means the readers eye is drawn to so that they can easily see what the feature article in the

magazine is compared to rival magazines in the shop.

“world exclusive!” is written in the banner above the pull quote, this was

done to get the viewer to buy the magazine to find out what the content is that they can’t get anywhere else.

The pugs are in the bottom corner of the magazine as they need to be present to sell the magazine

but not draw attention to themselves

The masterhead is in a bold font which makes it clear and easy to read, the model is covering part of the masterhead as the brand itself is recognisable enough that it doesn’t need to be completely shown.

The model looks content on the cover, he is in a non-threatening pose

however isn’t in an overly welcoming stance, this makes it harder for the

viewer to ‘get a read on him’ so they will read the magazine to get a better

idea about him.