The Experiment (2010) trailer deconstruction

The Experiment (2010) - theatrical trailer

Mise en scene

• The protagonist has longer darker hair, is unshaven and has a few tattoos - we can assume that he is not a rough man/thug due to his skinny frame and so we can assume he is quite laid back and, from the connotations of his eastern design tattoos, a ‘free spirit’. 

• The next shot shows a white, contemporary designed room with a group of men sitting in a semi circle on chairs each holding a sheet of paper. All the men are dressed differently but in ordinary, everyday clothing - this is show the audience that this is just a regular group of men who are all different in background. It also creates a juxtaposition against the man in the middle of the group wearing a lab coat- we immediately assume that he is some sort of doctor and so superior to the other men. He is explaining what the experiment is about - his white lab coat has connotations of control and we can assume this is the man in charge of the experiment. His long hair contrasts against his uniform - the common media representation of doctors is very smart and usually with short hair.
• The prisoners are dressed in off white, loose uniforms while the guard are dressed in navy shirt and trousers and each have a truncheon. The colours of the prisoners have connotations of being weak and vulnerable. The dark guard uniforms suggest power and evil. 

• We see the guards standing on a white line looking in control and quite arrogant of their power and then the prisoners standing on a yellow line looking uneasy - this clip is clearly from later in the film as some of the men have had changes made to their appearance. The shot of the prisoners makes the audience uncomfortable because they resemble images we see from ww2 due to their shaved heads and numbered pajamas. The guards uniforms also resemble army uniforms in some of the shots.
• Through the bars we see a full shot of four guards waiting outside 77’s cell - the lighting is dim and from above so that their faces are in shadow and they are all in black which has connotations of evil and something secretive happening- the shadows suggest they are doing something that is wrong and they don’t want the people in charge to know. 

• We see 77 gagged and being physically tortured by the guards with the black man as the leader. They have shaved his head - this has connotations of being vulnerable and is often seen as degrading: it is another reminder of the holocaust. We see that the guard has also shaved his head but this seems to be a sign he has changed from who he was outside the experiment rather than as a punishment. 

Camera angles

• Similar to many modern thriller/horror films, the establishing scene is misleading in terms of genre; the first shot is a slight low angle of a slightly hippy looking couple sitting at a bar.  

• There is a medium shot of a black man in a suit sitting in the circle - this must be another very important character. He looks concerned but seems to be checking the rest of the group to judge people. There is another cut away shot to the main character being tested; there is an extreme close up of his eye to give the sense he is being monitored and to make the audience uncomfortable - blood shot eyes can make us feel squeamish. 
• We now learn from the man in the lab coat that the men will be put into a simulated prison. At this point we cut to a high shot of the men getting out of a metal bus outside what looks like a warehouse.

• We cut to a low shot of a security camera as if seen from inside the room/cell it is watching. 

• We cut to another low shot of a camera watching a cell. There is a group of men walking down a corridor to the room- they are relaxed as a group and our main character seems to be their leader. 
• There is a high angle shot of the men entering the room. The shot looks as if it is the security camera and we can see that this is a small area they have to live in and that they will be constantly watched.

• The low angle, almost on the floor, of 77 tied to a chair and pushed to the floor is used to make the guards appear intimidating and to make the audience sympathize for 77. 

Editing 

• The first scene is used to make the audience think this might be a romantic drama and also give us an idea of what the main character (assumedly the dark haired man) is like and that he wants to go to India.

• There is a cut away shot to some kind of mental monitoring happening to the protagonist - the cuts look like a Tv signal cutting out as if we are not meant to be seeing that part of the process. 
• Again there is a medium shot of the black man as he gets out of the bus - he looks uncomfortable but interested.

• We pan at a low angle across the group of men sitting now in rows - whereas before they were in a relaxed and casual circle in a light and clean room they now seem to be sitting in a dirty room and in a more regulated seating arrangement. We now learn that some of the men will have no human rights as prisoners; this is designed to make the audience uncomfortable as we fear what might happen in that situation. 

• We are told that if rules are broken there is a red light that will turn on and the experiment is over - we repeatedly come back to this shot of the red light being off throughout the rest of the trailer to show us that the situation is allowed to continue. The red light makes the audience and some of the characters uncomfortable.
• The black man pulling the gate shut and locking it has connotations of being trapped and confined. I like how this shot looks as it feels to the audience like we are trapped with them.
• Clips fade in and out as we cut between close ups of the guards and prisoners - we get the sense that tensions are rising between them as the main prisoner is mocking the system and not respecting the guards. ‘How is this for rational?’ is the black guard’s warning when the main prisoner argues with him - he raises his truncheon and his eyes are wide to show he is getting carried away with the power. 

• We pan the rooms from the view of the security camera to remind us that everything that is happening is being watched by the researchers. We zoom in on the lens to make it look like an eye watching them. There is a flash of white noise as if the camera is cutting out and then we see the main prisoner through a heat vision lens.

• Again we see a camera watching the guards as they refer to the prisoner as 77 and decide that they have to scare him into submission - this is the main guard’s idea. 
• ‘Academy award winner Adrien Brody’ and ‘academy award winner Forest Whitaker’ come up in between shots to promote the film because the actors are well known and very good - if people like the big name actors they will go see the film. 

• We see 77 climbing up a gate and shouting at the camera to open the gates. This shot is distressing for the audience as we can see the situation has gone too far but the red light has not turned on. A series of slow motion clips showing the guards and prisoners fighting or torturing follow alternated with shots of the red light still being off. 

• In the final shot we see 77 through a heat vision camera asking ‘why don’t you stop this?’ at the lens - this is mainly distressing because we now realise that the researchers had planned on this happening or else they wouldn’t have had a camera in there.

• The white image of 77 in the tunnel is graphic matched to the title ‘The experiment’ being shown. The title written in simple typed font as if it would appear on top of a form or report. 

Sound 

• The music in the opening shots is light and happy piano music - this stops as their is a fade to white and the man is seen reading an advertisement to take part in a social experiment. Violin music starts - it is slow and deep in tone to alert the audience that it is a more serious situation and make us feel uneasy. 

• ‘I can’t help but think that this says something about us’ - the suited black man who seemed uncomfortable says this to show that people are having concerns about why they were selected to take part in the experiment and we as an audience also question why these men were chosen and feel uneasy at the idea of what is going to happen. 

• From inside the tunnel we see the main guard inspecting a small, dark tunnel area with a door - it looks like it was meat as a safe. The music is high pitched and a wind instrument to make the audience uncomfortable and recognize that the guard has had an idea. 
• The music becomes fast strings and there is white noise in between the shots - we see a camera tracking the men dragging 77 along so that we are reminded that this is all being watched which makes us uncomfortable.
• ‘You are a prisoner 77 but your pride gets in the way’ is heard over the top as we see the guard sitting watching the monitors - he seems to have become a dictator in the prison and watches everyone.
• The non-diegetic sound is of drumming and sounds similar to cell doors slamming to make the audience uncomfortable - every time there is a bang the shot changes.

• The final scene is off 77 being pushed into the tunnel we saw before and being locked in. The music stops and all we can hear is 77’s breathing and what sounds like a boiler so that we are made aware of how confined he now is to make us fear for him. 
• The music over the titles becomes high pitched strings and piano that have been changed using a computer to make the audience uncomfortable and on edge to see what happens to him.