Films and Film Trailers That Have Inspired Me

Sucker Punch is a film that particularly inspired me. At the beginning of the film, there is about 5-10 minutes of the backstory, which is filmed very stylistically. Shot in very dark and haunting colours, the narrative is told without any dialogue (excluding the introductory poetic voice over before the events occur, and the occasional, "No!"), as the soundtrack dominates the audio, and the actual movement of the characters is almost presented in slow motion, which dramatises the events and is an interesting way of storytelling in film.
Below is the opening scene to the film, with a mini trailer added at the end.






I found this scene in Kill Bill particularly inspiring, and definitely aided me to come up with visually pleasing storyboards of the nurse setting up a tray of equipment, as well as revealing the character. The extreme close up shots of certain items and actions were interesting, and I attempted to replicate a few when creating our own shots.  Although our trailer is a different genre, I love the style of this film, and when I was trying to think of resources to extract inspiration for a nurse scene, this clip sprang to mind. I also found the use of a split screen very effective when telling the story line, and I think it is clever that they synchronise the two, i.e. When Elle is filling the syringe, a close up of the patient's wrist is shown on the split screen, allowing the audience to make the link that Elle is going to inject the patient with an unknown medicine.

Sin City

The cinematography in Sin City is one of my favourite in cinema. The stylistic design of the way the film was shot is so unique, and perfectly suits the comic book adaptation genre. I love the contrast between the black and white and the use of certain colours, such as red lipstick and blonde hair, as it carries a very film-noir feel but remains true to the graphic novel. Although something of this design would be extremely difficult to replicate as an amateur, I am definitely inspired by the art and will contain the inspiration from Sin City incase I can apply it to our own project. Below is the opening scene to the film, which gives an overview of the style and art in the film.

Changeling was another film that I found to be a great source. In particular, the mental institution scenes were very effective and enticed me as I watched them. I will definitely refer to these specific scenes in the film as it features a similar storyline to our own film trailer - Jolie's character is contained in psychopathic ward even though she is sane, and it follows her struggle to prove that. Where as in our plot, the boy has been brought up in the asylum from birth, and does not know any other life, but is not insane (however he has psychopathic tendencies after finding out certain information). The mise en scene in the psychopathic ward - scenes were what I found most inspiring. Similar to American Horror Story: Asylum, the rooms are very hospitalised (obviously), minimalistic and I found the character's costumes within the institution greatly inspiring, which helped me visual what our characters will look like, especially in the first few scenes where Cecilia is a nurse. Below is the trailer for Changeling, which I will refer to in the future, although I am uncertain of yet whether to analyse.