Analysing game trailers - mise-en-scene
In all the trailers we watched there was mise-en-scene in the costumes, settings, audio, props, characters, lighting, body language and weather.
The first trailer we watched was for Battlefield 3 - the characters were wearing desert camoflauge, this obviously suggests that the game is set in the middle east. Throughout the trailer, the lighting was dark and there were shadows everywhere, this brings a sense of fear and unknowing to the player. The areas the characters progressed through were abandoned and empty, this again brings a sense of unknowing to the player, also this suggests that the characters are being stealthy and do not want to give their position away. The terrain was quite broken which suggests that this is the result of war, we know this because it is a war game. There were echoes of dogs barking which shows this is a hostile environment and that the dogs were perhaps attack dogs. Suddenly after progressing through the darkened area, the characters came to a bright, sunlite area where the characters were attacker, this shows that the characters were spotted in the light, suggesting to the played that they should stay in darkness.
The second trailer we watched was for Rage - the characters in this game were wearing homemade armour made from any scraps that they could find, this shows a sense of desperation and brings the question “what happened here?” to the mind of the player. We can tell that the game is set in the western region (perhaps a modern age Texas?) becuase of the style of buildings, how the characters talk and the terrain (ie. the prairies and the classic red styled rock formations) This suggests that this is a more modern take on ‘cowboys verses Indians’ except the Cowboys are soldiers and the Indians are mutated beings. The audio was typical contry and western styled music, the characters spoke in a western dialect this again suggests that the game is set in the western region. The terrain was also of a post apocalyptic city, this explains why there are mutants. The ‘A’ in the title of the game (Rage) is designed to look like an anarchy symbol. suggesting that no laws exist anymore and that the only law is to survive, this suggests to the player that they can do anything in the game giving them a sense of power.
The third trailer we watched was for Dark souls - we can tell that this game is a fantasy because there were giant monsters that the player had to kill. The character dialect was quite well spoken and used an old styled way of speaking for example saying “thou”. The music used was quite medieval and featured a choir, this sets a sense of religion to the game as choirs are usualy used in churches, as the gameplay got more intense the musics volume increased and a drum was introduced to perhaps represent a beating heart. The terrain of the game switched between a hell like, fiery area to a light, heaven-like terrain with god-lick status and ruins. The costume the character was wearing was an old-styled suit of armour again suggesting this is a medieval fantasy game. The lighting switched between dark and light with the hell and heaven like areas.
