Micro analysis of Snow white and the Huntsman: (own research)

Snow white and the huntsman clip micro analysis

The clip (trailer) I have chosen to analyse is the fantasy, action, adventure genre: ‘snow white and the huntsman’ by Evan Daugherty Lewis. The main parts of the clip I will be focussing on analysing are the cinematography and mise- en -scene. This clip is composed of editing techniques, and cinematography which makes this trailer, invigorate, and gripping for the viewer.  As it is a very long trailer I will be focusing on a little bit (0:08- 0:42 seconds)

The clip starts with an extreme long shot, which is an over view, of the castle, this prospective allows the audience to see, where the film, is based , the camera slightly zooms in, releasing anxiety , towards the viewers, which allows the viewers to see exactly what is going on within this view. As the view of the castle slowly fades away, straight after, the character queenRavenna fades in, with a close up, showing her face and her shoulders, she is looking towards the camera, with her eyes slowly rolled up towards her eye lids, showing her devilish look, which creates tension for the viewers, as the viewers can’t yet see what she is up to. Straight after, the camera cuts to a close, another shot is taken on the mirror, the mirror, melts and bleeds down the steps, as it does, the camera cuts, and the camera takes another shot of the stairs which is close up, which shows how slowly the mirror melts, this scene slowly creates tension, as the viewers do not know what it is. The camera cuts to close, and the mirror, morphs into to a human form, as it does, the camera cuts, and starts with a close up of queen Ravenna, showing her facial expressions, her face shows, how powerful she is as she is saying “mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all” as she said this, she looked as if she knew, what the mirror was going to say. The camera cuts to a close, and another extreme long shot is taken, of the queen and the mirror, which is formed as a human.

The mise-en-scene of this scene conveys the setting of the throne room. The colours that are used are mostly metallic, this compliments the theme of fantasy, and this colour helps develop the mood that the castle creates. The mirror also helps create the mood, as most mirrors, you can see your reflection, but however, this mirror, is metallic and almost looks as if it was some kind of shield. The lighting used, is mostly artificial, as the lighting is only used at the centre of the room, the rest of the room, is shadowed. The light is coming from the left; this is because the shadows are casted to the right. However there is some natural light, from the window, showing a ray of sunlight.

Themirror is the narrator, as he speaks, the scenes move as well. When the mirror says “My queen you have defined nature” the scenes starts to moves, with a close up of shot of queen Ravenna’s back, she is taking her gown off, the camera cuts, and straight away comes in another close up, but showing her right side of her body, so it shows the viewers what she is doing. The camera cuts to a close, and takes another close up, with her back again, she is covering herself in white goo, as she is drowning into it. The shot fades very quickly, and as it does, another shot emerges from the previous shot. This shot is an extreme close up, showing her face as her body, and face, drowns into the liquid, as this occurs, the shot fades away, and the camera cuts to a close. The camera takes a shot of the outside of the castle during the winter, the camera moves from left to right very slowly, showing the audience what they are meant to be looking at.

The mise-en-scene, which is the castle in winter; there is pure thick white snow, glued on the edge of the walls, crystallized with ice, this may symbolise how the castle had been poisoned, through the eyes of queen Ravenna. The colours that are used are mostly black and white, which shows how dark, and gloomy, the castle creates.

This shot then fades away, and as the mirror says “on this day there is one more beautiful than you” the camera fades in with a 2 second close up of snow white, showing her back, the light from  the window slowly creeps in,  in front of her and the camera cuts. Another shot is taken of snow white’s face (close up) which the light is shining on, show the viewers how she’s been locked up in a tower for years. The camera fades in, the camera goes back to the previous scenes, as to when the queen was under the white goo, the camera is at a low angle, with a close up, of the queens face ( side shot)coming out of the goo very slowly, the camera cuts very quickly and takes  another shot of her standing up, as she does this , the camera speed up the process (fast motion), of her standing, after a second, the camera slows down, which freezes her movement.  The camera then cuts to a close by fading into the blackness.

Above all thanks to GraigFraiser the clip contains several techniques, e.g. camera angle shots, cinematography, and lighting, which contribute to a successful trailer.