The trailer for the movie "Orphan", in my opinion, was effective in establishing interest in the audience and also showcased the main idea of the movie or essentially what the movie is about.
The music in the trailer morphs into less harmonius notes as the intensity increases. The music, therefore, not only accompanies the video but it allows the viewers to be aware of changes in mood, setting or attitudes. Thus the music plays an important role in keeping the audience interested and also in suspense. Lighting was also used effectively throughout this trailer. Light was used to showcase innocence and also a sort of "devilish", evil presence. In the beginning light coming through a window lit the room and fell soflty on the little girl's face, giving her an angellic glow and illustraying innocence. However, while having the tantrum in the bathroom the light got proressively darker, and the scenes seemed moe gloomy. Someone then declares "there's something wrong with Esther", the lighting makes this assumption more believable and sets up the audience for whatever is to come.
The way in which the light hit Esther in different scenes shows the gradual change in her angellic features to her demonic features. When one compares how the light illuminated her in the beginning when she was painting to the scene almost at the end of the trailer where her surrounding is dark and her face is the only thing that is lit in the darkness. The lighting at the beginning was softer, as it casted light shadows but towards the end of the trailer the scenes seemed darker., it even seemed like they had stopped having sunny days: the setting changed to one of some amount of despair.
The speed with which the shots were changed showcased the gradual progression of Esther from this good, cheerful orphan to the tormented, possessed being she was portrayed as being towards the end of the trailer. The range of shot sizes used were a mixture of: Long shot, Medium shot, Close Up and Extreme Close Up. Long shot, as we were taught, is always used to establish the setting, thus its effectiveness in the beginning where there was the long shot of the orpahanage. Long shot was also used in scenes with the family that adopted her, to me it speaks to the "distance" between Esther and her adopted family, due to her "problem". Medium shot was the more commonly used shot size, as the trailer focused mainly on the facial expressions of Esther. Close up and Extreme Close up were used for more 'dramatic' scenes, like when Esther was in bed with her adopted father and there was a close up of his reaction. Another example was the (extreme) close-up of the mother's reaction when she was driving along the road and then saw her daughter lying on the road infront of her car.
The shot angles utilized were also an important element in the trailer. The angles I identified were: eye level, high angle, bird's eye and worm's eye. Eye level was the most common angle used for the same reason that medium shot was the most common shot size used, the fact that the trailer focused mainly on Esther's facial expressions. In the scene where Esther had the tantrum in the bathroom all / most of the angles mentioned were used. I believe this was to showcase the intensity of the tantrum and to show the range of changes she went through. In the scene where the mother answered her phone beside her SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) the camera angle was switched to bird's eye; this illustrated that some kind of bad news was about to be communicated.
The muted speech throughout the trailer aids in the suspense. This clearly shows the audience that the fact that Esther has a problem is not something that they have publisized, like its being kept a secret (maybe it also shows that they do not want her to find out that they know). The fact that after her tantrum everyone speaks in muted tones, shows that they are no longer major 'players' in the movie and thus entire portion is about Esther and her supposed ''problem''. It also plays in the element of fear. The scene where the little girl told her she looked like Little Bo Peep was the longest shot, and thus hints to the audience that this scene is an important one, and even allowed me to conclude that this was the cause of her 'transformation'.
