Structure Conventions In Film

Trailers

Spotlight Film TrailerOpening:

• The opening of the film trailer starts with an establishing shot of a city. This suggests to the audience that the film is based in this place and the majority, if not all, of the film will have this setting or include associations to this location. The next shot is a tracking shot of a man, presumably the main protagonist, running by the sea. This highlights the fact that the city could be by the sea.

• The audience is introduced to the main character. This is a middle aged male protagonist. The main character is introduced early on in the film trailer so the audience can start to become familiar and connect with the main protagonist.

• The audience is then told the city is Boston. This is also shown on the side of the building, which says ‘The Boston Globe.’ It is then stated through the dialogue said in the voice over, which then joins to a man saying the rest of the sentence, starting with ‘The Boston priests.’

Build Up:

• The newspaper ‘Spotlight’ is the main build up focus for the trailer. It highlights the team of writers working together to prove what has happened and reveal the truth to the public eye. This build up takes place in the first half of the trailer. This is when the audience is introduced to the narrative and characters in the plot.

• There is clear friction between the newspaper journalists and the lawyer. This build up creates tension as the audience wants to find out why there is such friction. As this continues throughout the film trailer, it strongly suggests this is a big problem within the actual film. This relationship also helps create the sense of realism within the film. This is because, it is stereotypically known that press and lawyers do not always have a great relationship or get along well with each other.

• The narrative is based around a story the paper feels needs to be told. The journalists want to put the story in the public eye to reveal the wrong doings of the priests. This is the basis of the narrative for the film which is clearly highlighted early on in the trailer.

Problems:

• The problems highlighted through the trailer is that a potential news article has arisen and a specialist group now want to find out the truth behind the initial stories given. The problem is clearly stated that ‘Boston priests molested kids in six different parishes over the last thirty years.’ This strongly highlights that the main problem and focus is that child abuse has been taking place for a very long time and nobody has done anything about it. The audience is told that the church found out about it but did nothing. This small amount of information sparks anger and fury within the characters which may then be mirrored by the audience who will now want to find out what has happened.

• Another issue is that the church and lawyer is trying to silence all of the victims. The audience is told that 6%, 90 priests, were involved. So the issues becomes more about people knowing and not speaking out rather than people not knowing. The problem then grows in size as the press find out the whole country is facing the same issue and, on a larger scale, the whole world also has the same problem.

• The biggest problem highlighted which is the most gripping point is that ‘They knew and they let it happen.’ This will attract the audience into watching the film as they may feel passionate about the issue and want to see how these problems are resolved.

Events:

• The events that occur during this trailer run parallel with the problems. They are linked as the events are what happens before, during and after the problem.

• Finding out the truth is the main event that is clearly highlighted throughout the trailer. The papers involvement is also another big event as they are the basis to the narrative. They take it upon themselves to find out the truth about what happened and possibly is still happening at the churches.

• Other events include the press digging out more information, then coming to terms with the realisation of how big this issue is. Coinciding with that, they are also trying to help the church victims by taking the issue to the public. The press are trying to get the story, which evidently becomes much more than just a story, out there.

• It is made clear to the audience that there is two stories that can be told: ‘A story about degenerate Clergy and a story about a bunch of lawyers turning child abuse into a cottage industry.’ These are both very powerful headlines that capture the audiences attention. Having this pivotal moment towards the end of the trailer keeps the audiences attention and makes them want to find out which story got published. This would therefore make them go and see the film in the cinema when released.