2017

Critical Approaches: Cinderella (2015) Trailer Analysis

By Jamey Rowsell - Tuesday, May 09, 2017


Each and every media product produced, whether it be a film, film trailer, advertisement poster or any form of online marketing material, is aimed at a certain audience and with a particular target market in mind. A target audience is the demographic of people who are most likely to show interest in a particular product, and it is usually identified during the pre-production stage so that the product will fit correspondingly. For this task, I will be using the trailer of the live-action remake ‘Cinderella’ as my example and will show how media producers have produced this content for their intended audience.

Walt Disney, being the producers and distributors for Cinderella, have a well-known wide target market. It can range from 7-year-old children right up to 21-year-old young adults, depending on what the content and the product is. However, for this particular product, Cinderella is aimed at young girls and teenage girls ranging from ages 8-17. Young girls are all connected by the characteristic and trait to believe this film is about true love between a princess and her prince charming, therefore would share the same social category. Teenagers themselves would also be a social category as they are all within a specific age range and share certain characteristics that would be different from younger girls. In terms of the BBFC certificate (British Board of Film Classification), this film is rated U for Universal meaning that it is suitable for all and according to the official website, it should be “suitable for audiences aged four years and over.” 

The trailer opens with an establishing shot of a wide field accompanied by blue skies and large green trees, which straight away gives a happy mood to the setting. In the foreground we see a family having a picnic on the grass and enjoying their time together, whilst we can see a manor house in the distance as part of the background. The trees are almost creating a path that opens up towards the house, which could suggest it’s where most of the story takes place and it’s also where they live creating happy memories with each other. In terms of mise en scene, I believe the scenery is quite idealistic and dream like for any family. As soon as the trailer starts playing, we are immediately greeted with some non diegetic sound – a piano instrumental, which was a popular instrument in those old days. As well as this there is a voice over and narrative from who we find out later is Cinderella’s mother, accompanying the shots and instrumental music. It’s also worth noting that the family appear to be sitting in the shade instead of enjoying the sunlight, which could foreshadow dark events that may happen later on. The scene as a whole is very green which all in all symbolises nature, growth and harmony and could perhaps be indicated towards a certain character e.g. Cinderella, as it’s a place where she is growing up in and surrounded by.

The following scene is a medium shot, introducing us to the character of Cinderella’s mother sitting in the field. Instantly I can point out that the setting is extremely colourful and dreamy, she appears extremely angelical and innocent. The main colour standing out is yellow – it being both the colour of her dress and in the majority of the flowers she is arranging – which suggest joy, happiness and an overall burst of energy. We get this confirmation from her facial features and expression as she looks ahead with a huge, carefree smile on her face. Also the fact that she is surrounded by a bed of yellow and lilac flowers indicates she is the source of light and happiness in the family and she holds them all together.  The background is particularly dull in comparison – the edges of the grass in the distance almost frame the image and adds a considerable amount of attention to her character. The next shot (which we find out is the reason she was sitting there with a smile on her face) is a low/over the shoulder angle, making us as an audience feel as if we are there in the moment experiencing it with them. We are looking up at a young Cinderella in the arms of her mother, showing her importance to the film. The fact that she is smiling and laughing shows the relationship she has with her mother and how much they love each other. The blue sky in this shot is very bright and again, suggests an idealistic fairy-tale where everything is always bright and happy. 
Additionally, her dress has elements of blue which foreshadows later events and the fact that we know she wears an iconic blue dress. Blue as a colour symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, and intelligence. All of which seem to be characteristics of her and perhaps what her mother believes her to be.

Now we have a close up shot of Cinderella’s mother (which is shown throughout the course of the trailer) accompanied by a narrative of her speaking wise words to her daughter and giving her lifelong advice. The fact that this clip is shown throughout the trailer and not just once shows the importance of her mother to Cinderella’s life, we know they had a close relationship with each other and could perhaps show why Cinderella is as kind and forgiving as she is. Lighting appears much darker in this scene compared to how we saw her in so much light previously, suggesting something dark and gloomy is about to happen. Although this scene is darker, we can still see an element of light reflecting from her face showing that she will always illuminate such light. We are positioned at a high angle, looking down on her as she speaks and this could show that she is becoming less important to the story and to Cinderella’s life. The next shot incorporates a fading transition as we see Ella as a young girl walking across the field with her father, which then fades into her and her father walking in the same position but with her as a young adult – showing that nothing much has changed with their love for one another or where they once lived. It also suggests that it is just them two and the idealistic family notion is gone, however the brightness of the scene is a sign of hope for them and their future. Interestingly, we can see some of the flowers still planted in the grass from when her mother was arranging them.
This could show that she is still there with them in spirit and in their hearts. So far the use of colour and the way it is selected depending on the content has really helped Disney with their target audience, as youngest audiences associate bright/happy colours with happy stories/endings and fairy-tales. Following this is the Walt Disney logo – a traditional convention for any type of film trailer. This almost confirms the story is a cheerful fairy-tale as it’s what most Disney films portray. 


A low angle/track camera movement is what we see next as a new character is introduced to us. The camera follows the step-mother at a low angle as she steps out of the carriage, we are immediately looking up at the back of her demeanour –
showing her importance to the household immediately, as well as her dominance and apparent intimidation. There’s notably a huge contrast in the use of colour as soon as her character appears, she is wearing dark and flamboyant attire suggesting that she is materialistic and only cares for that aspect – this in itself is a vast contrast to the natural looking Cinderella. She is wearing a black and green gown with a large black hat (which covers her face from a side angle). Black is associated mainly with power, evil and mystery – all of which is what we get from her appeal straight away, especially as we haven’t seen her face yet. Mise en scene consists of ancient looking pillars situated on either side of the entrance to the house, almost framing her grand entrance into the household. A fade
transition is used straight away after this shot into a long shot of the step-mothers face, which remained a mystery to us in the previous scene. The setting as a whole is dark and there seems to be no light or any sign of a comforting home. The only apparent source of light seems to be from the doorway, illuminating her face and part of her gown – suggesting that she is intruding into the light and joining the family. Her facial expression notably shows a slight smirk, symbolising a villainous/evil plan that we are unaware of. Her body language is very posed and structured showing her superiority. Shadowing this is a long shot of the step-mother and step-sister standing outside the
house. It’s interesting as they are showing different kinds of character, despite presumably being on the same side. There is a huge difference between their costume e.g. the step-mother is wearing a dark ‘witch-like’ dress whilst showing a victorious smile as she waves off the father – whilst the two step-sisters are wearing bright yellow and orange polka dot dresses, both with matching confusing expressions. There is also notably quite a distance between them – perhaps showing they’re unaware of their mothers’ plan and are simply just trying to ‘fit in’ with the happiness they desperately want as daughters in a family.

Shot/reverse shot is an editing technique used next between Cinderella and the prince – having just met for the first time in the forest. We see them close up and looking longingly at each other, which could foreshadow a later romance between them both and this is the point where the target audience could possibly understand where the happy ending will come from. The light breaking through the trees in the background could suggest that there is freedom and they will find
a way to be together again. The prince is wearing very rich colours – deep emerald green and a pure blue – and this of course confirms his important position as prince as well as his significant role in the film and in Cinderella’s life. The following two shots show an even bigger divide in the house between both Cinderella and the step-mother and step-sisters. We see Ella descending the stairs in a fluffy pink dress – which is a notable contrast compared to her dull and dark surroundings. A shot/reverse shot is used to show the trio looking up at Cinderella from the bottom
of the stairs whilst still radiating and showing dominance, despite the position. It’s almost like it’s a 3 against 1 competition and Cinderella loses every time. They’re standing in their rich materials and flamboyant clothing and proceed to tear her gown apart. Whilst there seems to be no light in Cinderella’s scene, there seems to be a candle in the background behind the step-mother – illuminating her surroundings and showing that she has control over the light and for happiness.

At this point the music appears to be getting faster and louder; showing the significance to the events waiting to happen whilst also adding intensity to the audiences’ mood. The next few shots show Cinderella receiving a magical new gown from her fairy godmother, which confirms the notion of an idealistic story as all of her dreams are coming true. We see the wand
fly up into the sky surrounded by sparkles and glitter, as well as a following crane shot of Cinderella spinning around in her dress, again surrounded by sparkles and glitter (and even blue butterflies). It’s quite obvious that CGI has been used here to create the illusion of a magical transitioning and to show the magic overall – however to the target audience this wouldn’t be as obvious. The intensity of the
blue used in this scene is absolutely enchanting and dreamlike and it’s what any young girl would dream of owning. It leads the audience to believe that anything is possible if you dream it. Following this straight away is a close up of the iconic glass slippers – immediately giving away the film and character if people hadn’t already guessed. Everything is tinted with a rich blue filter as well as thousands of floating sparkles, and it’s almost like she is standing in a puddle of hopes, dreams and glitter. I believe this is a USP (Unique Selling Point) as the use of CGI really brings a fairy-tale like element to what she’s wearing and helps captures the live-action Cinderella perfectly.

After a few seconds of complete magic, we are now greeted with a high angle/over the shoulder shot of Cinderella looking over at everyone dancing at the ball – showing her sudden significance. The huge sparkly chandeliers show the prominence of the event and light up the whole room; she is back in the light again where she belongs and where she was in her
childhood. After being kept in the dark for so long by her step-mother, her dreams and aspirations are coming true. A crane shot of Cinderella and the prince dancing amongst everyone else is presented to us. We get a really good view from this angle
of how much attention is applied to her, with her dress being the brightest and biggest to everyone else. Although there are other blue dresses, hers was purposefully made to shine. It’s also almost like we can still see the magic illuminating from her dress as she dances. After this there is a huge montage of medium shot scenes – the motion of the trailer has sped up at this point along with the music. Anchorage is being used to help us interpret the scene and to understand the intensity of the action. We have scenes of the prince fencing, riding his horse through the forest and then running in the palace as if he was on a mission. This represents his determination and also builds suspense for the film and what it’s ending may be. Typography is used cleverly in this trailer – which we see used twice, one in the middle and one at the end. It was designed and animated to look like glass, matching perfectly with the iconic glass slippers associated with her character and the film as a whole. A blue tint has been added to the text, giving off a glow, which is a constant theme throughout the trailer and film.



Disney have a well-known variety of typical codes and conventions that they love to incorporate into each and every one of their films. Some examples may be a plot involving a relationship (true loves first kiss) and/or family conflict, usually a lesson is to be learnt, and there’s typically always a happy ending. These conventions are perfect examples as it’s also what we see in the Cinderella trailer. We see Cinderella interacting with a Prince – stimulating the idea of a later romance and true loves kiss, and we can also tell there is some sort of family conflict between her and her step-mother. She learnt a very valuable lesson from her mother (which we heard at the beginning of the trailer), to “have courage and be kind” and we can see Cinderella applying this to all of her actions. Lastly, a happy ending – which we’re not entirely sure of from the trailer but can guess it happens nevertheless.

All of the points I have made above show significantly how Disney have selected content to meet with their chosen target audience. They have incorporated typical codes and conventions that young girls and teens expect to see from this type of film and apply it effectively, as well as sticking with the theme throughout. Comparing this to another trailer from a different genre – The Avengers: Age of Ultron for example – is interesting as they both grasp the young audiences contrarily. The Avengers have a young target audience, with ages ranging from 8-18, more towards young boys rather than young girls. When watching the trailer, it’s hard to tell what the story is about (everything is sort of a mystery) yet it’s obvious that the conventions of a typical superhero/action film are there. We see comic book strips, characters in costume, superhero style typography and action packed scenes. So although this is a complete different genre to Cinderella, they both capture their audiences in different ways and by using diverse techniques.

  • Share:

You Might Also Like

0 comments