Eastern Promises Trailer Analysis

Cinematography

The movie is effective in terms of telling the story using cinematography. The first shot we see is a crime scene of a dead body being investigated, because of the use of a wide shot we can see that the film is based in London. It also tells us that it’s a film with lot’s of violence. This scene is followed by a series of shots inside the tent where the dead body is examined. We see a lot of close ups due to the fact that it’s a constrained place with not a lot of room foe the characters. When the body inspector introduces us to the aspect of having tattoos tell a story a quick shot of the main character is used. It shows him almost completely naked with his body covered in tattoos. Also in this scene he is performing a ritual of getting new tattoos suggesting that he is getting promoted within his mafia. Furthermore a mid shot is used to tell us this because it shows us more of his body than a close up wouldIn the following scene we find out that a girl has died and left a baby without a family, that where are introduced to the nurse who also plays a lead role in the movie. We find out that she has kept a diary of the girl. In this following three shot we can see that she is close to her family, who are trying to help her with this problem. We also learn that her uncle is of a Russian decent. A tracking shot is used to tell us about the main boss’s Russian cosine restaurant, and to show that although it’s a restaurant its very luxurious and this suggests that he is rich and powerful which conforms to the conventions of a mafia film.

Mise-en-scne

Many of mafia conventions are conformed to in this trailer for example the mafia being dressed smartly. You can see that every mafia member apart from the boss is wearing a suit. The locations used in this trailer include a lounge, alleyways and similar isolated places which don’t have many people around. This is for obvious reasons as they can do illegal things such as drug trades and murder. Other props which could be seen are luxurious cars, weapons and money. Which all relate to the status of particular mobsters. Lastly the use of tattoos for representation is also used in this movie. Every mafia member has tattoos all over their body which symbolise different things.

The trailer being with the production logo, this is a convention of all trailers as they want to advertise themselves for making the movie. The first scene ends with a bang of a gunshot, this sort of shock makes the audience more interested in the trailer. It’s also a good way of changing the pace of the trailer as after the gunshot the scene fades away to a another production logo. At this point the pace changes and slow piano music starts to play. This non diegetic sound links all the shots together which is followed by a voice over of the Russian mafia boss which beings as diegetic sound in one scene but follows as non diegetic in the other, which goes back to diegetic before another text shot which starts with a shot and then a change of music to a slow drum like sound which works in sync with the relatively fast pace shotsAfter a series of shots the same technique is used to slow down the trailer once again Slow exotic music stars playing towards the end of the trailer this builds more tension as the shots speed up again, until a point where it cuts to the main character threatening to kills someone through the use of hand gestures. Ends with a voice over, which suggests that getting involved with the gang will result in death.