Analysis of a Genre

I have chosen to analyse the trailer for the upcoming film 'Into The Woods' due for release next year; it's a film adaptation of the Broadway musical 'Into The Woods', a twist on the classic tales written by the brothers Grimm. This trailer is a hybrid genre of fantasy, musical, family and romance (because of the love story between Cinderella and Prince Charming).

The trailer begins with a long shot of a willow tree in the woods, followed by camera shots of individual classic fairytales characters repeating the line of dialogue 'I wish'; the continuous shots of the woods give emphasise of how the setting is a key element for the narrative of the film. The audience are then shown a skewed low angle shot of a door bursting open in almost an explosion of light followed by a close up of the witches (Meryl Streep) face which immediately allows the audience to create some identification between themselves an the character and notice the intense, crazed look in her eyes. This shot of the door itself brings the first magical element to the film as it's the first sense of enchantment we see.

Iconography is used a lot throughout this trailer because of the classic items associated with each brothers Grimm character: red riding hoods red cape, Jack's cow, beans and beanstalk, Cinderella's  slipper and Rapunzel's golden hair. These iconic features have been associated with the characters for hundreds of years and can, for many audience members, provide a sense of nostalgia; these stories have been told for generations to children by their parents, creating a comforting, family feel.

The stars of this film include well loved house hold names but they haven't just been chosen for this reason; Into The Woods based on a musical and each star have some musical background including the upcoming child actors. Everyone is aware of Meryl Streep's performance as Donna in 'Mamma Mia' and Johnny Depp's performance in 'Sweeney Todd', however, the young actors playing the child stars have received Tony Awards. This film being a hyrbrid genre is also a fantasy, the audience will recognise Anna Kendrick for her appearances in the 'Twilight Saga' films and Chris Pine's 'Captain Kirk' in 'Star Trek' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' which both have a fantasy type genre about them. I think the stars in this film have been carefully picked as they all have an eclectic mix of talents and were chosen wisely.

Rob Marshall was the director for this film, in the past he's been credited for his directing on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Annie and Chicago. Most films of a more musical genre which is understandably why he's been chosen to direct this film as it's based on a musical.

Mise en Scene is prominent in the trailer; the trailer shows that there will be various changes throughout the film but the main setting will be the woods. In the first few seconds of the trailer the audience are presented with a montage of clips where each character enters the woods. After this the audience are taken the cottage of the baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) live; the trailer also includes long shots of castles and towers which can are associated settings to certain characters. The characters costumes have quite a medieval style about them, they're very old world style and fit in with the fantasy genre of the film; each characters costume is very simple but effective using light tones of pastel blues, off whites and baby pinks. The lighting throughout the trailer is dark but not eerie, it compliments the dark greens and dreary colours of the woods.