A2 Media Studies work. I do not own the rights to Jacob's Ladder. This slideshow is for educational purposes only.

1. Jacob’s Ladder
Adrian Lyne

2. Overview
• Jacob’s Ladder is a 1990 psychological
horror/thriller.
• Distributed by TriStar Pictures.
• This trailer is a teaser trailer - short in
length and revealing less of the storyline
than the theatrical trailer.

3. Why did I choose Jacob’s Ladder?
• My film is also a psychological
thriller, so I can learn of
codes, conventions, common shot
types, themes and motifs used in the
genre.
• As this film is rather dated now, I can
observe the differences between this
and the contemporary trailers I
analysed.

4. Narrative
• Little of the story given away. Voiceover only
tells us that Jacob Singer (the titular
protagonist) is “afraid”, that people are
watching him and waiting for him in his home
and that he is “running out of time”.
• Visually, we are offered a bizarre montage of
strange and horrific imagery. At one point, the
protagonist yells “Help me!”.

5. Shot Types used in this Trailer
• Close-up
• Mid-shot
• Establishing shot
• Extreme close-up

6. Close Up
• Used to show emotion on characters’ faces. In
this trailer, it is used also to emphasise horrific
imagery.

7. Mid-shot
• Used to denote position, action among other
things.

8. Establishing Shot
• Used to introduce a new place, scene, etc.

9. Extreme Close Up
• Used to emphasise something. Used in this
trailer to create a horrific effect – a screaming
mouth, a person with a reptilian tail.

10. Extreme Long Shot
• A shot that shows all of the character, but
from a distance. A substantial amount of
background visible.

11. Cuts
• Initially fairly far between, clean cuts. These
slowly build tension when combined with the
music.
• When the voiceover finishes, the cuts become
very rapid, sometimes clean, often
overlays/cross dissolves to further distort the
disturbing imagery. This has a disorientating
effect.

12. Use of Ident
• The Optimum Releasing ident is the first thing
that appears in this trailer making audiences
aware of the films connection to this
company.

13. Use of Captions
• There are no captions in this
trailer.

14. Title Screen
• Red lettering on black background; danger.
• Grammatically correct title (capital letter at the
beginning of each word followed by lower case
letter) – quietly threatening, unnerving effect.

15. Credits
• Follows colour scheme of title screen.
• Idents visible at bottom.

16. Post Credits Scene
• Text does not give a definite date – a
convention of teaser trailers.

17. Use of Colour
• Very dark throughout.
• Bright, flashing lights used to disorientate.
• There is a quick shot of a white hospital environment – this can be
associated with madness.
• Figures often contrast with background.
• Use of red blood, to indicate violence and horror.

18. Costuming
• Jacob wears casual clothing that implies it may be winter (e.g.
Coat, scarf).
• Other actors have had make-up and prosthetics applied to
create a frightening appearance.

19. Non Diagetic Sounds
• Somewhat ambient background music – hard
to hear over other sounds.
• Loud screeching behind other noise.
• Dramatic voiceover by an omnipresent
narrator.

20. Sounds
• Heavy use diagetic sounds – e.g. Train, rattling
lights, hospital bed wheel, an explosion, etc.
• One line of diagetic dialogue – “Help me!” –
from the protagonist.
• Other diagetic ‘dialogue’ comes in the form of
screams and growling noises from
human/human-esque figures on-screen.

21. Representation
• Human characters are all white.
• The protagonist is a male in his 20’s-30’s.
• The only human female we see appears to be
insane or some sort of horrific hallucination.
• Human-esque figures appear to be white
too, where skin is visible.

22. Review
• Rapid, disorientating cuts, with overlayed
shots to make a terrifying effect.
• No captions throughout.
• Effective use of disturbing sound to
accompany visuals.
• Non-diagetic voiceover with minimal dialouge.
• Reveals very little of plot.