I have decided to look at the 2024 Speak No Evil trailer as I thought it was a really interesting film. It is about a dream holiday which turns into a living nightmare, when an American couple and their daughter spend the weekend at a British families country estate. The trailer introduces each character and builds up a sense of suspense for the audience. The film has typical conventions of a thriller genre which becomes visible when watching the trailer. Thriller movies generally rely on having a human character as a threat and there must be some sort of mystery to be discovered.
The theorist that I am going to be looking at is Roland Barthes, where he says that media products were embedded with codes by producers, which audiences cold decipher/decode, in order to gain more meaning. All though each media product is different, they all take into account the number of organisational structures that affect our reading of each narrative. The codes that Barthes looks at are; enigma codes, referential codes, action codes, symbolic codes, and semantic codes.
Enigma Codes-
An enigma code is a mysterious element of a product that leaves the audience with unanswered questions. This is effective for any media product, especially film trailers, as it hooks an audience in making them want to carry on watching, in order for them to find out answers to their questions. This is done a lot in the Speak No Evil trailer as there are many times where there is a sense of mystery.
For example, there are a couple of clips that show the young boy, the English couples son, opening his mouth to scream or even to show other people inside of his mouth. These clips have a disturbing feel to them as we do not know why this is the case.
Another example of an enigma code is the myriad amount of weapons that are used. We see the British man (James McAvoy) with a gun, a drill, etc and the American women with a gun and something acidic which sprays in someone's eyes. Firstly, we know that these weapons are being used, but we don't know if anyone is actually being killed. We also don't know who the weapons are being used on. Which again creates a sense of suspense and mystery around why things have taken a turn for the worse.
Action codes-
Action codes are elements of a media product that tell an audience that something is about to happen. Therefore, they reveal more information or even answer our questions that where asked from the enigma codes.
For example, the enigma code about violence that i spoke about, the action code for that would be that there definitely is going to be some sort of death in the movie. This is because of the enigma codes of characters screaming and the weapons being used. This answers the audiences questions that, yes deaths will happen.
Semantic codes-
Semantic codes are elements of a product that connote particular meanings, that most audience's would understand. You wouldn't need to have any further knowledge of the movie to understand what is being portrayed.
For example, the editing and music adds to the typical conventions of the thriller genre in this trailer because of the eerie, ominous music and faced pace, short clips. For example the shot goes black and silent, and quickly cuts to a loud snippet of music where a man is grabbing one of the children. This illudes to a sense of violence and danger that the family is under.
Another example, is the use of lighting to create tension or a sense of foreboding. For instance, in parts of the trailer the lighting is set dimly in scenes where danger is conveyed. This contributes to the overall atmosphere of suspense and dread. this overall atmosphere creates a sense of darkness throughout the story.
Referential codes-
Referential codes are elements that might only be understood by a specific audience, in a specific culture. For example with thriller movies, you must be in a specific fanbase to understand what these codes are referring to.
An example of a referential code in this trailer can be the location and settings that evoke real-world cultural references. For example, the film might show a rural Danish Landscape that reference the Scandinavian culture, which enhances the authenticity of the narrative
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