Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller horror film directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. The plot revolves around the production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet by a New York company. The production requires the ballerina to play the innocent and fragile which committed dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as he dark and sensual black swan which as qualities of new arrival Lily (Kunis). Nina is overwhelmed by the pressure and finds herself competing for the part, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into a living nightmare.
The first shot within the trailer shows a ballerina ( Nina) in a single spot light surrounded by darkness, this opening shot could signify how her innocence and purity is surrounded by darkness clouding her judgement and sucking her in she is seen as the victim in the first instance as Propp suggests. This opening shot as we later see has great significance to the storyline its self, as we see that she has both a light and dark sides to her. Additionally this shot of Nina in darkness fits with the genre of the films its self, the darkness of the shot creates mystery as you can only see her silhouette and none of her facial features, this signifier is linked to the codes and conventions of the genre it's self.
The music at the start of the trailer starts mellow to reflect the personality of the lead role, sweet, soft and delicate. The lead role has voice over in this section reflecting on reality, almost as if shes reflecting on the past, it is said in soft and delicate voice to represent her in this stage within the storyline in which she is commenting. As the trailer progresses the music becomes deeper and darker as the lead role discovers her darker side of jealousy, lust and anger as she becomes paranoid that someone is after her lead role. Lily is seen to be the villain as suggested by Propp in the first instance and rermains to been see as this character throughout . However Nina Fighting with her subconscious she discovers her personality is split, between her id, ego and super ego, and ultimately becomes the villain in her own mind.
The shots have a sense of darkness from the start, the use of clothing colors such as black and white helps to signify this, through out these are the only clothing colors worn and gives codes that where firstly suggested by Barthes. The lead Nina wears white or light pink in the first part of the trailer to show her femininity and purity as she is the swan, something that is elegant, delicate, light and beautiful, this is also signified by the characters make up. The make up is either white face showing her facial features, or light make up that shows her natural beauty. Lily wears black or dark colors to shoe shes the dark side of the story line, that she is mysterious and causes trouble. Her make up is dark and hides her face, creating mystery behind the character, perhaps suggesting shes has something to hide. Nina's make up becomes darker, and hides her face as the trailer progresses to signify her change in personality as the darker side takes over. From 1.20 the shots become darker with faster parallel editing, with most of the shots are consisting of close up shots of the lead roles faces are they are making the transition from the lighter side of her self to the darker. The shots them selves even though they are still dark, show more vibrant color also signifying this stage of transition from lighter shots to darker shots. As the editing becomes faster it creates a sense of false reality and dis equilibrium firstly suggested by Todorov, and fits in with the codes and conventions of the genre.
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