Avatar Trailer Analysis

At the begining of the trailer there is no music or dialogue, the trailer relies on sound effects alone to start creating suspense. As the trailer goes on it begins to play music. The music used creates a strange/unknown atmosphere. The music builds up through the rest of the trailer to relate to the action/war scenes and then suddenly stops at the last scene as the last scene is a complete contrast to the action shots that make up most of the trailer, it is a calm scene between two of the main characters.
There is barely any dialogue in the trailer as it mainly relies on sound effects and music to build tension. I think music is defiantly more effective in creating suspense within a film than dialogue as music can create the scene and bring it to life whilst playing with the viewers minds.
Throughout the trailer 'fade outs' are used to switch to a new scene. There is only one point in the trailer where on scene belnds into the next, but I feel that the reason for this is to show the viewer what the main character is looking at as he is viewing a new world for the first time and this is what comes across. The viewer is being put into the characters position.
There are a couple of scenes that are drawn out, because they have been slowed down it gives the viewer the chance to really take in what is going on. One particular drawn out scene is when the main character is looking at his avatar which is lying in a tank. It is a dark scene with the only light coming from the tank. This imediately draws the viewer to the tank, questioning 'what is this creature?' Also because of this lighting the avatar's blue skin is emphasised drawing even more attention. I find this scene very effective. The drawn out scenes build a lot of suspense within this trailer.
Avatar is full of bright colours and to show this off there is a lot of light in most scenes especially during the fight scenes. With this lighting set up you can clearly see the difference between the Na'vi and the humans. If there wasn't much light used then you wouldn't really be able to see the just how colourful the world is where the Na'vi live.

Story so far

Back story
Thousands of years ago heaven and hell signed a treaty resulting in peace
between the two realms. Neither angels nor demons are allowed to step foot
onto earth and interfere with the living.

Malum is a demon who is ranked alongside Venator.
(Malum is Latin for evil).Their job is to make sure the demons stay in hell.
Malum has never been happy with the truce; he believes demons are better than angels
and that the world should know their greatness. After years of trying to persuade
the devil to act on their greatness and take earth as their own, Malum decides enough
is enough he will do it himself, he will take over earth and become the leader of the demons,
and then everyone will realise just how powerful the demons are.
Malum opens the gates of hell releasing the demons. They begin to cause havoc among
the living on earth.
This leads Venator and Angelus being sent to earth to stop him.
Angelus story
News spreads to heaven that demons are among earth. Worried that the treaty may have been
broken God instructs Angelus to go down to earth and investigate. He stands on top of a
building, observing what’s going on when he notices a flood of demons closing in on an alley
way. Then he also notices the person in the middles of all of this, trying to fight them off
but failing. Then a demon grabs something from the person. Angelus spots that the something
is actually a pendant, he recognises the design. This was no ordinary person this was a demon.
But why is he fighting his own kind? Angelus swoops down creating a bright glow which
destroys the demons. As the demons vaporise Angelus catches the pendant as it flies through
the air.

Angelus walking off, Ventor says “I didn’t need any help, especially from your kind!”
Angelus – “looked different from where I was standing!” throws back Venators pendant.

Angelus - 'So...care to tell me why I was sent down here?'

Venator - 'I'm dealing with it so you might aswell just go back.'

Venator starts to make is way out of the alley, followed by Angelus.
As they both come to the open street they are greeted by Malum and his army of demons.
Malum looks at both Angelus and Venator. Realising that Venator is not here to join his side,
Malum points in his enemies direction, signalling for the demons to attack them.

Fight scene - Demons crawling along the walls jumping at them from all angles,
circuling/closing in on both of them.

Eurocom visit

The trip to Eurocom was very fascinating not only because it was my first trip to a games company but
also because I am interested in becoming an animator and so I was eager to find out how they went about
the motion capture process. This was then demonstrated to us, from the capturing of the movement through
to the building of the computer generated model.

Motion capture is when a series of cameras record a real life actor's movements.
The actor is wearing a suit covered in sensor points; the points are mostly located on the
joints of the actor's body with some extra sensors placed over the body for recording more information.
The cameras pick up on these sensors and use them to record the movement of the actor.
This recording is then used as a basis to build up a computer generated model.

We were also shown clips of the work they had done. It was interesting to see how they captured
the movement of a vehicle and also how they created a four-armed zombie.
From this trip I now feel this is something I would like to possibly pursue in the future.