Daybreakers Teaser Trailer

This is a teaser trailer for the film Daybreakers:

The teaser trailer starts with the logo for studio who produced the film, this is to show the audience who it was but also to advertise themselves. The studio for Daybreakers is 'Lionsgate' who have also made films such as Saw, Hostel, Crank and many more.The Lionsgate logo is surrounded by dark clouds and lightening, this is to give an introduction to the style of the film.

The trailer begins with non-diegetic music, which is a croshendo which keeps increasing the intensity in relation to pace and volume leading to a dramatic peak of a loud guitar piece and rock sining. Along with this non-diegetic music, there is also two different voices, one which is diegetic which fits in with the first shot, then another following which changes from being non-diegetic to then fitting in with one of the shots of a man talking. This creates suspense to begin with because at this point the audience does not know who they are and how much of an importance it has to the film.

The opening shots are sharp and quick changing, showing little detail into the actual film. The first shot that appears is of a woman holding a gun against a man and speaks the words 'We need your help' this immediately captures the viewers attention because they do not know what she needs help with. The shot then changes dramatically into a mysterious looking tunnel, with a beautiful landscape of the sun and a lake, with a dark figure at the end. This is then followed by a matched cut shot of the man at the end of the tunnel looking out. This whole shot is very mysterious because the viewer isn't sure of what has happened, it also makes it look mysterious how the man is shielding his eyes from the sun as though scared, however the audience also doesn't know what this means.

The mise-en-scene is quite unusual, the landscape showing the sun and the lake looks as though it should be a lot brighter and more contrasted and the whole image seems very dull.

(ADD SCREEN SHOT) Shot duration: 0.03 seconds.

During the shot of the man looking out from the tunnel there is then more suspense as there is a voice saying 'Who are you?' which is then followed by a gun shot sound effect during a black screen (duration 0.03 seconds) leading into the next shot of a man holding a gun. This effect is very clever because it almost freezes the action and makes it seem slower. This is then broken when the non-diegetic music gets considerably louder and there is a sudden series of quick changing shots that almost move to the music. The action is very fast pace and dramatic. These series of shots include four well lit vans with bright lights surrounding them, men creeping around in the dark with torches, gun shots, large crowds of people in which many wearing helmets and army uniforms, fast cars and helicopters and bombs. Throughout all these series of shots I noticed that the mise-en-scene was very dark and dull. Almost every shot was extremely dark with either very little light which only came from halogen torch lights or car lights with the exception of the shot of the helicopters which was shot outside. This continues the effect from the studio logo and the previous series of shots as there seems to be no natural light except for one shot and the overall effect seems very dark as though it is night time all the time; this fits in with the stereotype that vampires do not like the sunlight. During these series of shots I also noticed an inhuman creature, this is the first sign of something suspicious. It appears to be a vampire however the shot isn't long enough to show what the create does to the human.

(SCREEN SHOT OF VAMPIRE) Shot duration: 0.01 second.

There is then another black screen, however this one has the words 'Immortal', followed by another series of fast paced shots. Although these are also very dramatic and the mise-en-scene is similar, these shots seem to be chase scenes. The first few shots include people chasing each other, then vehicles chasing one another, this then slightly changes as the strange creature appears again but this time with large wings. This shot then changes suddenly into what appears to be several men with army uniform, helmets and guns slowly approaching something with their guns held ready to shoot. Although these series of shots are fast pace this single shot makes things appear to slow down slightly as they look as though they are barely moving which is contrasting with the other shots where the objects are moving very fast.

(SCREEN SHOT OF MEN) Shot duration: 0.01 second.

There is then another black screen with another short sentence that reads 'No more', along with the other similar shot with writing on it, they seem sort of confusing to the audience as they are revealing very little and with quite large gaps with several shots in between. This is used to create suspense and mystery because using one or two word sentences doesn't reveal as much information as the viewer would like.

The following shots are even more fast paced than the previous series, this is probably done to speed up the action and fit in as much excitement into the teaser trailer as possible. So far the teaser trailer hasn't revealed very much about the actual content in the film, but the next several clips reveal a lot more of the film but in tiny fragments of information. These include more people with guns, several facial expression; most of which show fear or shock, objects being smashed or thrown around frantically, vehicles exploding and a few quick flashes of the vampires. Without anything very obvious, the shots then slow down starting with a shot which targets humans, this is shown by the banner in the background of one of the shots saying 'Capture humans', therefore this shot was slowed down so the audience could read the banner.

Shot duration: 0.01 second

The little lighting that was in the previous shot then flickers out, this is a very effective editing technique because the vampires bodies then change into dark shadows which furthers the feel of mystery. This then leads onto a man sitting behind a desk talking to a man dressed in army uniform sitting opposite him. Looking at the mise-en-scene in this shot, it shows authority for the man behind the desk, this is because he is wearing a suit, sitting in a large leather chair and he is asking the soldier questions with a stern expression. At this point the only sign that they are vampires are by the yellow tint in their pupils, however, this shot is then followed by the first image of a woman who has vampire teeth, this shot is 3 seconds long which is the longest shot so far, this was done so that the viewers don't see the actual vampires closely till the end of the teaser trailer to keep the attention. Therefore, after this shot the final several shot are revealing more of vampires and the evolved vampires that look a lot less human-like as they have large wings and fly up to the ceiling.

(SHOT OF VAMPIRE WOMAN) Shot duration: 0.03 seconds

The final 10 seconds of the teaser trailer are very fast pace, however they are significantly different to the rest of the trailer, this is because they have a lot more day light/brighter light included. This may be to signal the end of the trailer, but it also may have a different meaning that the viewers will have to find out by watching the whole movie.
These shots include a few men in a dark room, looking upon a huge ray of light coming through the building they are standing in, then a close up of two of the actors holding hands, whilst the ray of sunlight is still shining upon then. This then changes straight to the final black screen with the words 'Daybreakers' to show the end of the trailer. I thought this was very interesting because the title at the end is the only point in which the viewers are told what the film is called.
This is then followed by the image of a man firing a gun shot which then cuts to another scene where there is an explosion, all of which include a much brighter light than the previous shots.
The final shot is of the credits which are an important part of a teaser trailer because they include information such as the studio, finance corporation and the actors in the movie.