Solitude Review

Overall, I thought that this trailer was very well done for a student film. They knew how to draw people into the situation effectively with music and mis en scene especially. I really liked how they protrayed the lonely atmosphere in several different (though at times over-used) ways. They effectively built up to the action scenes and "kept us guessing" about what the whole situation is, while using appropriate music for the fearful and grave tone. Unfortunately, I must say that it was a bit cliche, and we have all probably seen traces of this plot and such in other movies. Still, it look professional enough to be a Sy-Fy Original movie; that is pretty good for a student trailer!


Mis en Scene
Throughout this trailer, I noticed that my eyes were attracted to the people in the shots, for often there were few or no people in the shot, emphasizing the sparceness of the evnvironment and the resulting lonely and fearful feelings of the characters.



The lighting is mainly low key, for this is a horror film, and the low key light like when they are discovering the situation in the house makes it seem creepier. There does not seem to be much high contrast, for a lot of it is just showing dark places and empty places in the daytime. The camera is usually in a sort of neutral postion to keep the audience on level with the characters. The camera is generally reasonably close to the action, though sometimes it goes far off to show the situation. The color values are either very dull or dark to show that there is something wrong going on in the area, to create a dark mood to create mystery. The eyes usally stop on the other people in the cackground, or the furthest line away, like the outer line on the highway. The visual background is somewhat stark, with plain beackgrounds, such as in a house or on the road, but with a sense of depth created through blocking, such as with the swing sets all going back to create depth, or the group of kids standing around a bit away from the foreground person.



The balance isn't not always there with the depth, though; sometimes the kids in the house shot are not angled correctly in order to create a more meaningful and interesting shot. The framing is loose in the opening scences to emphasize the
sparseness that is integral to the plot, but it gets tighter around the characters once the horror part of the movie starts. It also blurs focus a bit to disorient and
intrest the viewer. It is not cut ojectively, for the viewer is manipulated to feel the lonaly feeling the editor wants us to feel. Editing is a

Editing

There is a reasonable amoung of cutting, usually fadining into black each time, but the cutting is not extemely fast, showing different views to emphasize the intrigue and setting but not cutting to fast so that there would be a bit of tension created with the longer shots. The cutting is somewhat manipulative, for it places emphasis on the creepy loneliness throughout the piece. The rythym basically shows showthing interesting, they starts speaking, then while speaking it fades into another image. It is not cut ojectively, for the viewer is manipulated to feel the lonely feeling the editor wants us to feel. Editing is a language in this, since it is a trailer especially, for it shows us the feeling that the editor wants us to feel, especially since it is just putting the most interesting teaser parts together randomly to interest the viewer. It has sort of a sequence shot, for it is put in this order in order to interest the viewer.

Motion Analysis

The director does keep the camera close to the action for parts, especially when the tension is higher, but leading up to that the camera is a bit father away and the action is much more slowmoving, in order to create suspense. An example is when the boy is in long shot and comes closer up through fading in; this is not close, and is used to create suspense. The slow motion parts show good times, before the group found out about all of the disappearances. The movement is somewhat dramatic, with the slow and hesitant nature of all of the characters. The trailer starts with the camera being far from the action with the car, and getting closer as more intesity builds, like during the horror sceens. They frame these shots well, keeping the rule of thirds and such in mind.



Sound Analysis

The sound is generally innocent and not jaring at first, but it gradually it pounds and pulsates to create a forboding feeling. The sound is distorted a bit in order to make it sound more haunting during the jarring part. It is not very complex, and not much symbolism; perhaps the beinging music is symbolic of the innocence of the characters at the beginning. The motifs my be the road and the swings, for they represent abnormal sparseness. The sound often uses piano, deep drums of some sort (probably distorted), and synths. Music is often used to emphasisze language in this piece, making it sound more foreboding, ominous.