Hell and Back Again Research

The genre of the film Hell and Back Again is war and documentary.  The audience can identify the genre due to the mise-en-scene of army tanks, guns, soldiers and also the location of the film.  We can tell it’s a documentary due to the way the story is told.  The trailer is targeted at mainly males between the ages of 25-34 as the actor in the film is between this age so it represents the typical man. The film trailer last a whole of two minutes a two seconds.  There are around 36-40 shots used in this film trailer with a mixture of close up’s and medium two shots.  All shots were taking on a Canon DSLR camera.  Shots are less edited because of this as they want it to be as realistic as possible.  Diegetic sound is used in the trailer with different instruments first of all we hear trumpets followed by drums and violins are also used.  There is a lot of speech used an example is “We are experts in the application of violence, when you move, move with a sense of purpose and aggression and intent on finishing the enemy” This leaves the audience with questions like who is the enemy?

The non-diegetic sounds that are used are the use of gun shots, explosions, rocket launchers and aeroplanes and a lot of booms.  The use of gun shots and explosions makes it more entertaining for the audience and makes it dramatic.  The first character we see is giving out a speech so this gives the impression that he is clearly ranked high up in the army.  The next important character we see is a man with his head in his hands looking very depressed.  He is represented as a man who has come home injured from the army and can’t cope with life.  We then also see a woman dressing the man which looks like a girlfriend/wife to him.  The trailer creates a sense of narrative by not telling us what actually happens in the film but giving us just enough information to make the audience want to go see it.  This is good as they didn’t want to give too much away.  The trailer reveals about the plot of the film that a man gets injured in the army and has to be sent home and cant get back into civilian life again.  He also needs his girlfriend/wife to look after him.   We also learn that this man is very depressed.  The code of enigma is how did he get injured? Why he tries to kill himself? What is his injury?  The trailer uses titles in the trailer when it show’s reviews from other companies, an example is “ Vivid and moving” this was said by a company called Entertainment.  This shows the audience that it has good reviews from big companies which will want them to go see the film.  The mood and expectations that we get from the trailer is that the mood is depressing as the main character is depressed himself.  The expectations we expect to happen in the film is there to be up’s and downs all the way through the film.  The most used camera shots are close up’s, medium shots and establishing shots.  These are the most used as they want to make the film seem fast paced and a lot of action.  I think they use establishing shots a lot to set the scene and show us what's going on.  The mise-en-scene in this trailer is shown through guns, tanks, and the location.  This gives us an indication into the genre as well.  I think the film trailer is very effective in attracting an audience as it attracts the correct audience well and it doesn’t give too much away.   So this leaves the audience wanting to find out answers to the trailer which will make the film successful.  Film trailers are a very effective promotional device as almost everyone can see a trailer either on the internet e.g youtube, with just a few clicks you can view the trailer you want.  Or on the tv you can see trailers.  They are effective because they tease the target audience into wanting to go see the full film which is what they are made to do.