Under the Skin Website Deconstruction

Under the Skin Website

Under the Skin is a 2013 Science Fiction-Horror film directed by Jonathan Glazer. The darkness and psychological disruption of this film was a prominent inspiration for our teaser trailer. 

Within the narrative of this film one of the most important aspects is the ambiguity and mystery behind the protagonist, mystery is a common convention within Psychological Thrillers, therefore it can be argued that Under the Skin has elements of a Psychological Thriller, along side Science Fiction-Thriller. We took inspiration from this ambiguity for our teaser trailer.

This website is very minimal, with only part of Scarlett Johansson's face showing, as you scroll down the website the typography moves and changes, but the picture remains still. The colour lit onto the protagonist's face slowly shifts through several bright colours, such as red, pink, and blue - these colours are very bright and are the most prominent feature of the website. The stars in the background are very slowly, almost unnoticeably moving. Due to the film's Science Fiction side it can be suggested that the protagonist's face is presented in the middle of the dark night's sky in order to suggest the vast expanse of the universe, which leads to the idea of extraterrestrial life. 

However, although the dark sky indicates the infinite nature of the universe, the pivotal aspect of the website is the protagonist's face, due to its central framing and large scale, demonstrating that she is the most significant aspect of the film. However her face is partially shadowed, suggesting a duplicitous nature. Additionally, the vividity of the red lighting on Johannson's face contrasts the stark black sky behind her, this connotes danger, and causes her to stand out against the mundane nature of humanity. 

When on the website, once the audience has scrolled down, there are very clear media links to purchase the product. This is explicit advertisement, and allows easy access for the audience.

There is a common typography seen throughout the website, this is a very clear and easy to read font. It can be suggested that this font contrasts the abstract nature of the film.

The pastel blue colour scheme of the typography contrasts the black background, making it stand out.

Once the audience scrolls down further, reviews are presented on-screen. Unlike the media links, these take up the majority of the page, becoming the central focus, additionally, use of contrasting colours of the green typography against the red light on the protagonist's face makes the reviews stand out further.

This follows the conventions of a website, as its aim is to entice and persuade the audience, so by displaying all of the positive reviews and feedback across the whole of the screen, this reiterates to the reader just how good the film is, persuading them to watch it themselves.

Under The Skin Decontruction

What Makes 'Under the Skin' an Effective Teaser Trailer?

Colour is a very key aspect throughout this teaser trailer, the sharp vivacity and boldness of the repeated red is incredibly eye catching, and signifies various pivotal themes, such as sexuality, passion, danger and death. Simultaneously, fear and danger are reoccurring themes within this trailer. Many of the shots displayed in the time portray some sense of this, including a red tinted close up of the protagonist appearing wide eyed and scared, a hand held close up of a vivid fire, the fast paced montage editing, and heartbeat-resembling mu
sic builds up tension and a sense of alarm within the audience. This intense build up of tension is a common convention of teaser trailers, and establishes the disturbing plot and genre (science fiction-horror).

The lack of a clear sense of time or continuity adds to the effectiveness of this trailer, as due to the very fast paced editing it leaves the audience feeling somewhat stunned and confused, caused by a complete lack of understanding about the plot line. This trailer manages to gather shots from almost every prominent scene in the film, project them all to a very unaware and unprepared audience, while portraying barely anything about the story line. Although one could argue that this would not hook an audience as it all happens too quickly and cannot attract an audience a hint at the story line, I believe this to be an incredibly effective technique, as it leaves the audience wanting to find out m
ore.

There is a remarkable contrast in colour conveyed in this trailer, several of the shots display the characters emerged in complete black
ness, however as the trailer comes to a close, the credits are projected onto a piercingly white backdrop, creating a complete binary opposite between the colours. This is a very effective and clever technique used as it unconditionally draws in the audiences' attention as these stunningly bold colours are thrown into their eyes.Throughout the trailer, there is bright white typography continually flashing up on the screen, it is very quick and well timed with the fast paced music, and barely allows the audience any time to read what it says. This overwhelms the audience with this immense influx of reviews, portraying the sheer amount of positive feedback the film got - this is done to entice the audience and convince them to watch it.

Non-diegetic wind is used at the very start of the trailer this is a natural sound so therefore contrasts against the clinical and unnatural world the audience sees. The wind creates a very eerie and mysterious atmosphere, which is somewhat parallel to the on screen action as the audience is unsure of what is being presented to them, therefore it becomes relatively frightening, as it could be anything. When the scene changed to an extreme close up of a wide eye, the audience would become uncomfortable being so incredibly close to such a personal part of someone else's face. Additionally, as it transitions from the beginning to the eye, the non-diegetic music changes from high pitched, eerie, and mysterious, to a deep, faster paced thumping which resembles a heartbeat, this again leaves the audience rather unsure of what story line the trailer is portraying, but it still provokes an emotional reaction.