Analysing The Black Swan
A movie about a ballet dancer (played by Natalie Portman) who wins the lead role in “Swan Lake”. She is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan – Princess Odette – but not so much for her alter ego Odile, the Black Swan. As the movie goes on Nina’s pursuit for perfection of the black swan leads her to become more and more like the black swan.
The trailer starts of with a ballerina dancing to music that resembles a music box. This is clever as it is synchronies to what is seen on screen. Above the music there is narration from Natalie Portman saying ” I had the craziest dream last night of a girl who was turned into a swan, but her prince falls for the wrong girl then, she kills herself”. The narration is spoken in a soft tone that is visceral to make the audience feel sympathetic, this also engages them. The pace is also very slow which is unconventional for a psychological thriller as most trailers jump straight into the action getting the audience hooked straight away. However this approach is also very gripping as it describes the movie in one short concise sentence, which leaves the audience with questions. As the narration says “she kills herself” it swoosh cuts with asynchronous sound effects of a bird flying across the screen (this is emphasis to the title and context of the movie ‘Black Swan’) into a black out that fades into title screens showing awards that the film has already gained. Other title pages used include the directors name; ‘Darren Aronofsky’ and his previous work such as: ‘The wrestler’ and ‘Requiem for a dream’ . The background of the title pages are black feathers that illustrate the wings of a ‘Black Swan’, this is a running theme for all of the title pages, again emphasising the movie context and name. The title pages give the audience reassurance for it to be a good movie it would lead them to go and watch the full movie. Over the title screens and the rest of the trailer there is dark menacing music that increments in pace and intensity as the trailer goes through. It adds effect to what is being shown.
Throughout the trailer there are small clips of the movie which invites the audience to get an insight of what will be in the movie. This clips are cleverly chosen to not show too much of but enough so the setting of the movie and a few of the main characters are established. Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis – two of the more known celebrities appear, this is another way to attract viewers because they know and enjoy watching their work.
The editing of the trailer is very smooth to match the movement of the white swan. They clips chosen also show a narrative structure. Voice overs are used a lot in this trailer, they use significant voice overs that almost match what is on screen. For example her mother says “you’re the most dedicated dancer in the company”, Tomah (the choreographer) “Our new Swan Queen, the exquisite Nina Sirs” lastly Mila Kunis’s character “Hi, I’m Lilly”. All of these voice overs are important times in the movie.
The trailer goes through a conventional narrative structure of everything is good to start of with, Nina getting the Swan Queen role, then its goes into the problem which is Lilly – she gets Nina paranoid of her place as Swan Queen as she says she is Nina’s alternate. However there isn’t a clear utopia ending which is effective as a trailer as it leave the audience wanting to know how the movie ends – they want to see how the problem is resolved.
The ending of the trailer the editing pace increases a lot, some of the shots are distorted. With lots of voice overs of questions being asked, a visceral feel is used making the viewer panic with Nina, it is very effective in building tension and creates anticipation for something terrifying to occur. This is a conventional technique for psychological thrillers.
Amos Mukombero 