World War Z trailer analysis

World War Z is an apocalyptic film and is about a family oriented father and husband who was a former United Nations investigator tries to save his family but in doing so if asked to help save the world and leave his family behind to find a way to put a stop to the zombie pandemic. The main actors/actresses are Brad Pitt who plays Gerry Lane, Mireille Enos who plays Karin Lane who is Gerry’s wife, James Badge Dale as Captain Speke and Matthew Fox as a U.S. navy seal. All of this characters play an important role but Gerry Lane is the main character because the story is based around him and he is played by a well-established actor who is the attraction of the film, this has been highlighted throughout the promotion of the film and during the trailer.

The editing is in linear short clips which help build up the storyline and gain interest which will persuaded the audience to go watch the film. It also means the trailer will end and at the most interesting point of the story leaving a type of cliff-hanger. The trailer builds up to the main clips of the main scenes in the film and the use of sound also helps with the build-up making audience feel like if they look away for even a second they may mess something very exciting. The music used throughout the trailer makes a big effect on the reactions of the audience when watching the trailer. The fast pasted music makes the audiences heart pulse start to rush with excitement and the sudden loud sounds give the audience a little scare since it was unexpected. This effective because its only happens at certain parts of the clip where it is lest expected. This gets the audience excited because most people like to be scared this is because ‘the hormonal reaction we humans get from responding to a threat or crisis is what motivates us to “like to be scared.”. Although this film is not a horror it still has the same type of effect.

Oddly the names of the director or producers was not given in the trailer and starts, although Brad Pitt’s name was given near to the end of the trailer. This suggest to me that he is the main attraction and star of the film. By putting his name in the trailer as a respected actor people will assume the film will be a reflection of this, also fans will be persuaded to watch the film to support their favourite actor. I think the film is targeted at males and will appear to them because of the genre this is because males typically to like apocalyptic films.

I think the trailer is very effective because it does what a trailer is meant to do which is to catch the audience’s attention, gives glums of the type of scenes which will occur (storyline) and leave them wondering which is the aim because this is one of the main things which makes people want to pay to watch the film. The trailer even made me want to watch the film and I’m not in the target audience also it’s not normally a film I’ll go and watch but the trailer got me interested.

The trailer I watched is 2 minutes long and I also watched a 4 minutes 24 minutes , comparing the two together I feel like the longer trailer actually tells too much of the storyline and isn’t as effective because of this. The shorter one shows shower clips and skips scenes within the film which leaves mystery. However both trailers are both effective in it’s own way, the extended trailer added a timer which shows up at various parts of the trailer which builds suspense.