The Butterfly Effect Trailer Analysis

1. The Butterfly Effect

2. The audience first sees ‘Some people want to forget the
past’ the words ‘forget the past then changes to ‘want to
change it’. This is done to entice the audience and give a
clue on what the film is going to be about. the first shot
we see is a two shot of a woman and a man. It than
transition to a boy on this shot the have a special effect
to make it look like he is dizzy or a feels a bit spaced out.
The lighting is low key.

3. The next sequence we see the two characters through
their life it goes from them when there adults to
children to teenagers than to adults again. All this is
done by fade in from one shot to the next.

4. A cut into a high angle shot/close-up of the man on a
hospital bed, a cut into a low angle pan shot showing
someone being taken into an ambulance. The pan
carries on two show a funeral. We than see the male
character again, he places a note onto the coffin saying
‘I’LL COME BACK FOR YOU’. The audience than sees a
fade into the male in his room. A close-up of the book he
is looking at all the words than goes all moving and
getting jumbled. The audience see the male
concentrating and than the room disappearing like the
character is going back into time.

5. A close-up shows the male in pain a wide shot than see the
woman with a doctor showing a close-up of the males
head scan results. The audience sees a mid shot of a the
male confused, it is hot like the it is being rewind as the are
walking backwards.
There is non diegetic sound of a voice over in this . The
voiceovers confirm that the ,ale character is going back in
time.

6. In this the voiceover is carrying on it says
‘Think of it like a movie, you can
pause, rewind or slow down.’ this goes really
well with the sequence. The shots through
this is mid shots, close-ups, and wide shots.
The editing to this is done really well it entices
the audience to watch it. The way they have
done this is by when the voice over says pause
the shot pauses, when it says rewinds the clip
rewinds and slow down the shot slows down
to shoe the male looking at the book.

7. The voice over carries on to say ‘Could you save
the one person that mattered the most.’ This is
carrying on the sequence. While that sentence is
being said a fast pan and close-up of the male face.

8. A close-up of the males face shows the audience that
he is rather confused and not sure where he is and
why he is there. Cuts to the next shots shows the male
and female in different places. Anchoring than tells us
this winter. This is done by a cut into a bright light and
into a black screen with the words written in white and
some blue on the left of the screen.

9. It than fades into show a close-up of a male
character in a orange jump suits, barbed wire on the
walls behind him this suggests that he is in prison. A
cut into a n establishing shot confirms that he is now
in prison. The establishing shot shows the audience
all the cell, all the people behind bars. Another cut
than show the audience the male and female
characters having a talk. A wide shot than shows the
male character with a new male character. The main
male character says ‘just tell me if you see anything
weird.’ with the new character replying ‘weirder than
this?’ The audience than see again the male traveling
back in time as we see all the prison disappearing.
Another anchoring accurse saying ‘Change on thing’
all is the same as the last except the blue is now on
the right.

10. A fade into a wide shot shows the audience the male character
has appeared to a street when the door opens that he has gone to
we see a close-up of the female character she seems to be on
drugs and alcohol. A close-up shows the male character upset to
see what has happened to the girl. He also seems to be blaming
himself which makes the audience wonder how this has
happened to her and if he is going to do anything about it. A fade
in than show the female how she used to be all happy and
innocent. Anchoring than reappears with ‘ Change Everything’.
Another cut shows the girl when she was low saying ‘why don’ you
go back and save me.’ This than cuts to a wide shot of him trying
to go back in time which indicates that he is doing exactly what
she asks. However we see him go back to when they meet which
makes the audience wonder why he has gone back to that time.
This than entices the audience to go watch the film as they want
to know why he has gone to that specific time. The is non-diegetic
sound in this of a soundtrack the words of this is parallel sound to
what we see on screen. All the lighting is quite low lighting to give
the scene of dark scenes.

11. A cut shows us a man behind a video camera looking very
confused he says ‘How are you doing this?’ we than see the main
male character. The audience would be wondering we he has also
returned to this place and who is this character. The words Ashton
Kutcher than show on the screen the same way all the other have
been done. This is star persona the producers are trying to get all
fans of his to come watch the film.

12. The audience than see an over the shoulder shot of the main
character when he was younger talking to a prisoner, this make the
audience who is this character and what has he done to try to attach
the main character. Star persona is than used again as the words
Amy Smart than appears on the screen this is to also get her fans to
go watch the film. Following this is a mid shot of her. The audience
than see the main character again saying’ every time I go back in
time to try to go back in time and help someone, everything just
goes wrong.’ this is followed with seeing a piece of dynamo been lit
and being rolled across the floor followed with a cut to a big
explosion with someone being flung backwards. The soundtrack is
still being played.

13. A high angle/mid shot is showing the male character in a
hospital bed looking extremely scared. Quick shot than occur all
leading to reveal ‘The butterfly effect’. The soundtrack continues
through this however it is slightly louder.

14. The whole title ‘the butterfly effect’ appears on screen
like how all the others have been done except the
writing is in a gold colour and the blue is now in
the centre. A black screen transitions us to the
word ‘coming soon’ followed by the website.