The Transporter Trailer Analysis By Jamie Paxton Candidate Number 5955

The Transporter Trailer

The trailer for the film The Transporter begins with a tracking shot of a man walking out in front of a car on the driveway of a posh house, the sound in this initial part of the trailer is quite badly edited, so you can hear the tiny spaces between the non diegetic dialogue which has been edited into a man saying “I was wondering” “if you wouldn’t mind” “transporting” “something for me”. There is then a slightly odd effect where the shot of Jason Statham jumps out to fill the screen and then he is shown saying, in sync with the shot, “Why not?”
This way Jason Statham is introduced to us as the protagonist for this movie. There is then a quick montage showing Jason Statham shifting the clutch in his car, a mid shot showing the car moving forwards very quickly towards the camera and a high angle shot showing the car going shooting off beneath the camera and away. It is important to note that in the trailer the storyline is obviously non linear and also that the editing is reasonably paced to begin with but it speeds up towards the end in order to increase the audiences excitement at viewing the trailer.

Then there is a voiceover telling the audience what other films the directors have made, as well as titles giving the same information. Then Jason Statham takes up a voiceover stating that once a deal has been made it cannot be changed or negotiated, this iron hardy sticking to the rules show him to be a ruthless professional as well as the four or five closely edited shots showing some fast and dangerous driving. Then there are four shots of Jason Statham which play across the screen one after another, showing different parts of him, essentially to show off how big and good looking Jason Statham is, while a voiceover gives more information confirming our previous impressions that Jason Statham is a professional at his trade. We can also guess this from the fact that he can demand £75,000 for doing a single job.

The voiceover also provides plot, there is no diegetic sound from the shots except the sound of the engine revving and also a tapping noise coming from the boot of the car, then there is a Tarintino style shot from inside the boot showing Jason Statham opening it and looking inside. There is an example of non diegetic sound syncing up with diegetic sound, when Jason asks “What kind of deal am I in?” the first half of that sentence is said with a black screen and the second half is said with Jason saying it visibly.

The use of a sound fade into a sound somewhat like a muted bell is important in the next scene because just after this gunfire erupts through the walls of Jason’s house, the use of sound being muted is effective because it makes the next scene seem all the more dramatic. The visual use of having Jason jumping through the air at the moment his house is apparently blown up by an RPG is effective because it creates the feeling of action and suspense which the film entails, this is also helped by the playing of quiet rock music riffs in the background during this scene.

In the final montage of action shots of the trailer which start with Jason getting thrown backwards by his car exploding, there is a reasonably volume amount of upbeat rock music playing in the background. Jason can also be seen diving out of a plane, beating up two French police officers, having sex with a hot Chinese girl. Some of Jason’s fighting action is synchronised with the singer to the music shouting “Boom!” this can be seen when he is beating up the policeman, kicking a guy who is driving a truck out of his seat and when he is taking out a pair of sword wielding thugs.

There are also a couple of interesting uses of the negative effect, most commonly just after Jason has punched or kicked a guy in the face. The final piece of technique is when the pace of the montage has really sped up and Jason Statham does his final trick to demonstrate how cool he is, flicking up a gun off a table cloth into the air, the camera at this point goes into a bird’s eye view in slow motion, and we view the gun flying up and then coming down to land squarely in Jason’s hand and he uses it to shoot the guy’s that he is fighting.

After the title sequence, there is a brief shot of a doorbell ringing and then as someone goes to answer it and checks through the spyhole, there is a shot of Jason running towards the door and kicking it down, with a final use of the negative technique and then it cuts to the title’s telling us not exactly when the film will be released but that it will be coming soon.