Analysis : Trailers : Inception, SALT and Heartbreakers

1) What cinematic techniques are used to establish mood and tone?

Visual Special effects show that this is largely an effects-driven film. Voiceover tells us a vague, maybe too vague idea of the concept of the film. Music is building, showing the progression in the plot and an increase in the tension throughout the film.


2)How does the trailer establish the themes and narrative?

Establishes plot using narration by Leonardo DiCaprio
They make sure that what he is saying and what is being shown on screen correlate, ‘A single idea can build cities’
We are intrigued to know what this idea is, and why he is stealing it

3) How does the trailer establish genre?
The effects and chase sequences suggest an action movie or a thriller. The idea of the idea being all-powerful suggests science fiction. I think I would describe as a

4) Who is the target audience and how is this audience targeted in this trailer?
The main target audience I would say is 15-35 year olds,it is also appealing to the audiences of other movies, it looks similar in many ways to ‘The Matrix’, what with the city being controlled by the mind being similar to that of the collective imagination in ‘The Matrix‘.

5) What is the reason/ effect for using the director's name and previous work?

The trailer states clearly that it has the same director as ‘The Dark Knight’ which was insanely popular. Christopher Nolan has a reputation for making great films and being a real upcoming film maker and so the audience will be great.


1) How does this trailer promote and focus on the big star? (look at camera work, editing, sound...etc..)

A vast amount of the shots clearly show Angelina Jolie’s face. As well as this, she has the largest amount of dialogue and all the other dialogue is used as voiceover to almost describe what she is doing on screen.

2) Action films are thought to appeal to a predominately male audience. How does this trailer target both a female and male audience separately?

The film is targeted at a female audience by having a woman as the protagonist, however this also appeals to the male audience because she is Angelina Jolie, who has been considered to be one of the World’s most beautiful women

3) How does this trailer use editing to create atmosphere?

It shows what I presume to be the most action-packed moments of the film. As well as that, there are fades to black in the establishing shots and they get faster. The trailer also attempts to make us excited by spending the entire first half of the trailer slowly setting out the plot and revealing the twist, which is the USP of the film.

The Heartbreakers trailer displays many cultural differences between France and the UK. The UK distributors know that they will sell less if they show that it is a foreign language film, so they include the only English dialogue in the movie, on the other hand, they do not show any of the real substance from the movie, the voiceover is unable to really demonstrate the tone of the movie. The British trailer portrays it as a romance film with comedy, the french trailer seems to portray it as a film that is mainly comedy with a romantic plot, the trailers show the film as two completely different films.