Initial Research: Reservoir Dogs: Trailer Close Analysis

The Reservoir Dogs walking as a group.

The title is shown only once at the end of the trailer, accompanied by a voice over. The title is reinforced through the tagline of “every dog has its day”, an idiomatic phrase which everyone will be aware of and so it is very easy to remember. 

The character types on display are quite vague and we don't learn much about them, as much of the trailer focuses on the action and humour. Although we can see what 'type' of character they are e.g. many are shown to have a good sense of humour, the guy in the Hawaiian shirt could be cool and trendy etc. This again adds to the mystery of the film and how each person fits into the plot, as well as the different motives they will probably have.

Firstly, the text of the title is red connoting danger and violence as well as denoting blood and gore. The text is a sans serif font making it more informal, as well as it being all capital letters making it more bold, striking and threatening.

“Reservoir Dogs” implies that there are several people together in a group, or in this case a gang. Dogs tend to swim in reservoirs when taken for walks, and reservoirs are usually full of dirty water, this perhaps connotes that the members of this gang are ‘dirty’ and not ‘clean’ i.e. they don’t have clean records, and are criminals. They are also very loyal animals, connoting that the members of the gang work well together as they don’t betray one another. The 'gang' could also be seen as not being particularly appealing to join due to the word 'dog' being used as a derogatory term. The title is also, in itself, very mysterious and ambiguous encouraging the audience to see the full film.

A guy dances in time with the music of the trailer.

The Villain could be Mr. Pink as he is seen having a gun pointed at him by one of the other members of the gang. It could also be the guy with knife as he is standing in front of a guy who is tied to a chair, which is probably part of the interrogation scene and they are usually violent and gritty.

A gun pointed at Mr. Pink, accompanied with the song stopping.

The Dispatcher could be the old man, as he is talking to the whole gang and briefing them, as well as giving them names whilst explaining their objective, sending the ‘heroes’ on their way to their ‘quest’.

The Helper who helps the hero in the quest could also be the old man for the reasons above.

The Prize would be the diamonds as that is the main objective of the whole gang

The donor and hero are harder to pin point as we aren't given much narrative exposition.

The False Hero could be the knife man or guy in Hawaiian shirt, due to the guy with the knife being part of the Reservoir Dogs, and they are represented more as the heroes in the trailer. The Hawaiian shirt guy could also be the False Hero as he stands out from the others in the gang.

The trailer overall tries to keep us in the dark about the characters, as to not spoil who gets the diamonds and what they will do with them, as obviously that is a big plot device that they will want us to see when we watch the film. This is typical of crime thriller films such as Pulp Fiction and In Bruges.

The locations of the film seem to indicate it is set in urban America, making it look realistic and gritty. Furthermore classic gangster clichés such as a body in the boot of a car, a hostage tied to a chair and guns are prevalent, which establish the genre of the film; a crime thriller.

The lighting seems to all be in broad daylight, with the use of shadows and lower key lighting in the indoor locales. Colours used seem to be predominantly black because of the suits they all wear, showing they are usually all smartly dressed, and this connotes professionalism, intelligence and style. Alternatively, the colours used could have darker connotations- they are powerful and corrupt, which maybe will intrigue people in the audience who think more deeply about the characters themselves, perhaps they use humour to cover up their fear and what they do on a day to day basis; stealing, killing and getting money for it.

There are binary oppositions of life and death in that people are being shot in one scene and then laughing together the next, (hence showing a fragmented timeline, partly to maintain mystery but also reflects the film's post-modern structure and appeal)  black and white in the text slides, trust and mistrust with gang members pointing guns at one another, legal and illegal with the scene of gangsters shooting at Police.

There is a semantic code of violence and crime through the shots of guns, shooting and talking of chopping off fingers so naturally, enigmas are raised of who's shooting who and for what reason? Who's fingers are being chopped off and what have they done to deserve it? Who could possibly do such things? There is also an enigma code of what the motives of each person and the collective group of gangsters is, and how they will go about getting the diamonds. Another could be what they are actually laughing at, as the audience may want to know if the film will be very comedic. This could establish them as a gang where crime is their job so they are relaxed here. Action codes are also raised such as running, kicking open a door, and when one of the gangsters wipes the sweat and dirt from his face.

Trailer conventions

A good variety of shots are used which is very common in film trailers to showcase that it has been well filmed and that it contains a lot of different elements, whilst additionally widening the films appeal to all audiences. The editing is generally quite quick, allowing many different locations and situations to be shown, as well as a good number of shots, keeping the audience interested as to what is happening on screen – film trailers need to be short and snappy to sell the film to an audience, especially depending on the location it is viewed in e.g. at a cinema, on TV, YouTube etc.

Straight cuts are mostly used as to quickly cut to different shots and angles, also so the action is not got in the way of by long edits such as fades. In between different scenes there are pieces of text giving some narrative exposition e.g. "Six perfect strangers", "Are teaming up", "To pull off the perfect crime.", so in effect it acts a synopsis, giving information that scenes themselves can't as well as some background information about the characters. Furthermore, voiceover announcements with a deep tone are very common-place in film trailers, to allow the action on screen to be displayed whilst being narrated, allowing for more information to be squeezed in a shorter period of time.

Shots like this POV shot create good variety.

Finally, the best shots and scenes will have been selected, as they will sell the film better than some of the longer or more monotonous scenes and shots.

This genre of film

Generally thriller films showcase a lot of action, which Reservoir Dogs shows a lot of. With lots of gunshots, cars, violence drugs etc. They also usually have a catchy soundtrack taken from the film itself, making the trailer as a whole more memorable, as the audience will remember the film by association with a popular song.

Due to it also being a sort of hybrid thriller with elements of comedy, there are many humourous scenes, which blends with the ‘feel good’ attitude of the music which is a song by the band Stealers Wheel called "Stuck in the Middle With You", which is a mid tempo and upbeat 'rock radio' feel good song, and dialogue of the characters such as "You're under arrest sugar!" and "Who cares what your name is?", all of this broadens the appeal of the film, and make it seem less threatening and more enjoyable.

This film has been said to 'glamorise' criminals and their lifestyles, portraying them not as killers and thieves, but as hip and cool. Which could be said of the shot where they are walking together in slow motion, whilst wearing their expensive looking suits and glasses. However, the opposite could be said in the actual film, as they are generally unsuccessful, unreliable and always fight with each other, which isn't really glamorous at all.

There is non-diegetic music used throughout most of the trailer a part from a few moments where it stops. The song is light hearted and so makes the violence and murder seem much less sinister and allows the light humour to really shine through, especially the scenes with laughter and jokes.

Diegetic sound used in one of the actual scenes is played over the Miramax logo, making the trailer seem more professional. The six gangsters are shown walking together with only the song playing, allowing the text to roll. The music then stops due to the cocking of a gun connoting he is intending to use it soon, a punch is heard which cuts the music then allowing for the dialogue to be heard clearly "You're acting like a first year thief, I'm acting like a professional!", which then gives some much needed information about the characters themselves.

This 'Resevoir Dog' is shown as experienced as he says he's been doing this job for ten years, followed by an explicit word that is not heard because of a cut to another scene.

The music then starts again when they are all laughing, which almost cancels out any feeling of fear of violence. The music then stops again after another diegetic sound, then starts again, this time in a scene of violence; glorifying the gangsters as light hearted and innocent men who are just doing their job, and the Police as weak and trying to spoil the fun.

Further diegetic sounds are used to interrupt the music, and when it starts playing again it is in sync with the man dancing. This all makes the trailer punchy, sharp and professional. Different gangsters saying “Bam!” is then played consecutively, which then also syncs with some gunshots, again combining violence, crime and humour. Finally a voiceover is used to introduce the actors, cutting appropriately to the right actor. Using a male voice instead of a female obviously suggests they are really going for their target audience which is predominantly male, this ties in with all of the action, violence and humour. Whilst leaving out other emotions and situations that many trailers try to get across to appeal to a more female audience such as romance and female characters.

Mystery and enigma is created through hermeneutic codes such as the question “what happens if the manager won’t give me the diamonds?” which is asked by the gangster in the car, this makes the audience wonder why they are planning on stealing the diamonds and what connection they have to the main plot. The boot opening from the person presumably tied up also makes us ask questions as to who they are and what they have done. Further uses of this code include laughter and jokes that make the audience think “what is so funny?” hence making them more interested in the actual film and its content. More dialogue is used to give narrative exposition to the audience, enabling them to understand the film is about a group of gangsters committing crimes, in its most basic form.

Proairetic codes such as gun shots, laughter and a reference to robbing diamonds, indicates that people will be shot and killed, leading us to realize that this is a classic gangster sort of narrative, whilst additionally the gangsters are light hearted and there will be a robbery. “Every dog has its day” also indicates something will happen, that the gangsters have been unsuccessful in the past, but now they will have their ‘day’ and finally all their hard work will pay off in the form of diamonds.

There are also many connotations that are made in the trailer, that all link in with gangsters and their way of life; guns, drugs, money and violence to name but a few. Their costume especially connotes that they are professional and therefore intelligent as they know what they are doing, as well as being very experienced at it.

Rated 'R' or 18 in the UK.

Institutional information such as the starring roles is narrated near the end, as well as the title of the film. The rated ‘R’ for "restricted" where any child under 17 must be accompanied by an adult is right at the beginning of the film, which firmly states in actual writing that the film is intended for an adult audience, then the Miramax logo (distributors of the film) follows that. Credits such as “A film by Quentin Tarantino” and credits for other associates, as well as “Coming soon to a theatre near you”.

Additionally, the institutional information is stylized to fit the genre of the film, due to it being in black and white, which are colours commonly associated with the Thriller genre, as these colours connote death, the colours of the gangsters suits and binary oppositions.

The demographic is very Male orientated, as there are no women shown in the trailer, thriller films have a very strong Male demographic, due to the subject matter of guns, drugs and money, with fast cars and cool sounding quotes thrown in e.g. "Cut off one of his fingers, the little one". They try to widen their audience with lots of humour throughout the trailer which appeals to everyone.

Some of the film crew are included as well.

Reservoir Dogs is a quintessential Tarantino thriller, done very much like his later work; Pulp Fiction, so audiences know what they’re getting to some extent, but it is different to a lot of thrillers in that it’s very light hearted and actually not in chronological order, however the trailer does not show that. The mixture of music, humour and violence is quite novel however. It covers both grounds, with the familiar story of a thriller, combined with the slightly novel light heartedness and wit of a comedy film.