Your (labor intensive but highly rewarding) first assignment.

HERE IS THE ASSIGNMENT

Watch a trailer for the one of the films we have seen as if it were an abridged version of the film it is designed to promote. Think of yourself as the person creating the trailer, someone who is making his or her own aesthetic decisions, someone who is remaking the film. No two trailers or teasers are exactly alike, so you will have to discover the structure of the teaser or trailer on your own. To help you understand what I mean by structure, I took the teaser from a midly entertaining, generic action thriller entitled Red Sparrow (dir. Francis Lawrence, 2018). I intuited a narrative structure (see below) based on the inserts (shots 16 and 39, for example) to show how the trailer is divided up by its editor in a way that is like and very much unlike the way the film is edited. You'll have to adjust my narrative structure to fit the structure of the trailer or teaser you choose. As you do, be sure to include all the information I have given in mine below.

Directions:

You may choose a three minute long trailer, if you wish. I chose a teaser that lasts 89 seconds. So feel free to chose a teaser, but choose a teaser that is at least 89 seconds.

What I have written in the eample below is the model for your assignment. You will have to modify my format according to the needs of the trailer or tease you choose (number of each shot; number of narrative segments, and so on).

You may take screen captures in a number of ways. I found the trailer on youtube. I paused the trailer at the beginning of each shot and used SnapNDrag to take the capture.

Richard Burt

Red Sparrow (dir. Francis Lawrence, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5KYCsWhado

Brief summary of the trailer or teaser. What story does it tell?

It is a pretty straightforward teaser. It opens with what turns into a conspiculously long take. in an expensive hotel room with a murder of a man we heard off screen by a nervous, sexy, young woman, probably an escort, sitting on bed and looking over at a TV broadcasting something) then a close up jump scare of a man being garroted, and then fade to black with release date. The rest of the trailer gives the back story of the woman killer: she's young professional a member of Russian assassin group nicknamed "Sparrows." Killing is her job. So is seduction. She dresses well and has a good eye for a wig too.

1. Title of Film Trailer: Red Sparrow (dir. Francis Lawrence, 2018)

Rated: R
Length: 1:29 
Total Number of Shots:  45 
Total Number of Segments: 4
Total number of times the film title appears: 2
Link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQUBjoGm1ls
Links to alternate trailers and teasers, with their dates:
2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmUL6wMpMWw
2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3m155Oj-V0

2018 Final Trailer

Red Sparrow Movie Clip 

2. The Trailer

Studio Logos 

0:00-0:04

Integrated

Total Number of Logos: 2
Sound: from the film  (a loud, ticking clock)

Shot 1 First Studio Logo

Shot 2 Second Studio Logo

The shot of the second logo is shorter than the first almost bleeding directly into the first shot of the trailer.

Segment One:  Dressed to Kill 
Time Stamp: 0:04-41 
Number of Shots: 12
 Dialogue: Number of Lines: 1

Camera Movement

Who or what is in the frame? We see the woman in full frame in the first shot and twice in the same medium close up.

And importantly, who or what is out of the frame? The characters speaking in voice-over. We never see the murder victim, and we don't see who is murderering. After the murder, we see her wearling the same dress in a long shot and a low angle medium close up.

Sound Design and Music: The voice-over narration divides the film in two. In the first part, 00:00-00:45only the murder speaks, and he speaks only one only four words. In the second part, 45-00-1:29, one man gives the voice-over narration. He explains what the woman is. There is a kind of counterpoint here: the woman gets the majority of shots; and opens the trailer (33 seconds). She is silent throughout the trailer. The shot of the man in a swim suit turning his lead to look at the woman who just passed him and toward us in the previous shot is a good and amusing example. The man gives her story after the murder, but is rarely seen in the frame. She dominates the image, but he dominates the sound and tells the woman's story. The images are synchronized with his narration at the start. The silence at the end of the trailer suggests a draw between the two characters: there is no sound and no image, just the end titles.

Somethingoff-screen is ticking loudly for a second at a time. Its source is probably a grandfather's clock, begins in the first shot as the first logo and continues after the logos until a fade to black at timestamp: 00:33. The sound of curtains moving in the hotel room, fade to black, murder by garotting as a jump scare, then a second fade to black. At timestamp:00:38, an establishing shot of the woman in red walking down a grand staircase. No one else is in the frame and the only sound is clicking of her high heels. A rapid cut from the woman precedes by an all black screen with "IN 2018" written in a very large font across it (timestamp 00: 41-43). We are now about halfway through the trailer. More dialogue in male voice-over as a new car arrives at a large, official looking building. The same musical note plays. When the car stops, there is a boom sound just like the one at "IN 2018." (timestamp 00:50). A succession of unrelated and increasingly sshorter shots, two of them of the stars, follows. A loud percussive thump repeats the same note for the same length of time. Fade to black at timestamp: timestamp: 50:18. The music becomes increasingly montonous and quieter for the rest of the trailer. At timestamp: 01:19, the same male voicer-over narration and same music continue with shots mostly of the woman in red and we gather that the man speaking is also a spy and that he and the woman are both aware the both are spies. The title drops the same way the release date did : "Red Sparrow" is written across a black screen in red letters (timestamp: 01:13-15) accompanied by just one note played by a loud horn instrument of some kind. At (timestamp:01:16) the same music continues and becomes increasingly loud. It goes nearly silent in the next shot (one second close up of an eye peering and a door shutting). In the following shot, the sound gets increasingly quieter as the names of the stars . Again, the screen is black and the lettering is red. The soundtrack goes silent when the title drops again, remains silent as the release month and day follow, andremins then for the rest of the trailer as the title drops again at (timestamp:01:23), this time with the word "Red" appearing over "Sparrow" and both words appearing "2018," written in white and a much smaller font.

Pacing: The scene builds slowly. The first shot is a relatively long take (fourteen seconds), no one moves, and the camera remains nearly stationary, only dollying in very slowly before the cut. The clicking sounf marks the passage of time. The rest of the takes are shorter, but proceed at conventional Hollywood speed (two to four seconds). The fade to black and fade into the open window and curtains sets up the next shot of the murder. In addition to being unexpected, the climactic last shot is very short. The same medium stationary shot of the woman is used three times, giving us a false sense of stability. (See shots 4, 6, and 8.) And the fade to black shot (12) after the close up shot (11) of the murder gives us a sense of narrative closure. It's a kind of set-piece, a stand alone, and the two shot long aftermath, (the symmetrical long shot of her coming down the stairs, 13, and then a cut in medium shot of the woman now walking out of the frame to the right, 14, lets us breathe a sigh of relief--the woman is alive and well--but the editing invites to leap to the conclusion that she is the killer and is now calmly getting away with murder.

Description: Shot 3, slow dolly in, long take of a pretty young woman wearing a very expensive brand new red evening dress with cleavage showing, sitting on a bed in an expensive hotel room. Apart this shot, the camera is starionary in every ofther shot. The woman nervous, with a drink (the shape of the glass and the clink of the ice let us know she is drinking hard liquour--evidently, she needs a drink). Is she an escort Off-screen male dialogue:

“Take off your dress” to a young woman sounds threatening, but the man issues his command with a quiet tone of voice. Is is she an escort waiting for her date? Is he a client? Or is she an employee, the man her employer? We don't get much time to wonder.
Shots of the young woman (4, 6 and 8) alternate with close ups of a man’s hand putting down his phone (5) and then his billfold (7) on a night table. In the following medium shot stationary camera (10), curtains blow into the hotel room from window open,
Jump scare close up of (shot 11) seated man being garroted, whipping sound effect. Fade to black (shot 12) with continued sound effect. Fade in from black establishing shot of the same woman walking down a long staircase, only now she is wearing a black slip, then a cut in, as she looks well, maybe a little shook up, but still calm, and confident. No music, just the sound of her footsteps. (She is still wearing heels.)  She is alone in an expensive hotel. Mysterious, yet clear. She murdered the guy, but what did she have to do before she could murder him. The two fades to black (shots 10 and 12) are very carefully placed to maximize their dramatic purpose.

We may infer, correctly, that the man who told the woman to take off her dress has just been murdered. We may also infer incorrectly and that the murderer is the woman in the red dress.

Shot 3	Shot 4
Shot 6	Shot 7	Shot 8
	Shot 10	Shot 11
Shot 12	Shot 13	Shot 14

0:32 cut to black

Shot 15

Release Date with slam special sound effect

41:00-43:00

Shot 16

Segment Two:  Seduction by a Russian Spy 

Time Stamp: 43:00-1:10

Number of Shots: 21

Number of lines: 5
Off-screen male dialogue. 

The music, the single use of the cut to black at the end, and with the male voice-over narration unify this highly condensed sequence much like a classic Hollywood montage, the voice-over narration adding to the continuous music.

"Citizen Kane" (1941) Breakfast Montage

Princess Diaries time stamp 1:09

Lines of dialogue alternate with shots with music, the same note, loud, alarming.

Shots 17-21 one complete sentence of male voice-over dialogue from one unit (the sparrow's trainings) illustrate, often quite effectively, the completely implausible dialogue.

"When I was in Moscow, I heard about a program." Shot 17

Music Establishing Shot 18

"Young officers" Shot 19 (match with Jennifer Lawrence)

"trained to" Shot 20

"seduce" Medium Shot 21 (the word "seduce" matches the guy watching surveillance footage of softcore porn on his computer at work.)

"and manipulate" carries over into shot 22

Medium shot reverse shots 22-23 introduce the male love interest. The sparrow's revealing swimsuit matches the costume on the monitor in shot 21). Shot 23 reveals the buff hero wearing only a swimsuit.

Shots 24-25, picked up by shot 30 (the couple kiss), apparently show the couple on a motocycle, the guy driving.

Music continues
"To use their bodies" Shot 26, (woman at a bar with a man, as she spreads her legs:  she’s open for business?)

"To use everything" shots 28-20, with everything landing at 30, medium shot of a bloodied corpse in bathtub with blood on the bathroom wall,

At shot 28, the pacing becomes faster and faster, almost impossible to take in, with the music building, until cut to black at Shot 37, and we hear the words

"Call them sparrows" begins as the shot begins to fade in on shot 38.

We may infer . . . .

Segment Three:

“That’s Who She is” (sex and death) 

Time Stamp: 1:10

Number of Shots: 1
 Indentifies the main character
Dialogue "Call them sparrows"
This line dialogue continues from shot 37, and makes clear who “she” is, a sparrow, a woman trained to be a badass Russian spy (by a character played Charlotte Rampling--see The Night Porter). The dialogue is syncrhonized with the woman in a white wig.

We may be wondering. . . . Who is this sparrow?  A threat or a savior? See La femme Nikita and Atomic Blonde for other examples of trained women assassins.

Shot 38 fade in from black

Title

Time Stamp:1:14

Shot 39

The same loud sound special effect as was used for the release date title, with the same colors and fonts. The abrupt cut to the title confirms that the woman we've seen is "red sparrow" eveyone though she is now wearing a blonde wig and not wearing a red dress. She is tricky!

Segment Four:  But just who is "she?"   

Time Stamp: 1:16
Number of Shots: 2
Length of segment: 1 second

 Music continues, louder one shot of sparrow closing her door.

Shot 40

We may infer that the Red Sparrow is good at spying and at hiding.

Shot 41 cut to black

Shot 42

Credits of cast folds down with five main actors, two other credits titles, the title again Red Sparrow

Time Stamp: 1:17

Shot 43

Release Date

Time Stamp: 1:21

Silence

Shot 44

Film Title

Time Stamp: 1:23

Silence

Shot 45

Nothing below is required for your assignment or for this course. You can ignore it.

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