The trailer starts off with peaceful non diegetic music playing, whilst seeing a long high angled shot of a car driving down the road with palm trees on either side. This could suggest a family holiday away to somewhere sunny. The non diegetic music carries on playing whilst you see the shot change to an establishing shot of a pool and then of what is believed to be a family staying at this place. The audience are being made to see the trailer as a happy family holiday from the diegetic sound of the 'dad' talking saying
"Boys come and see this, isn't this great!"
This implies that the family are happy and excited to be on this holiday, and following after this is a long shot of the family all playing on the sandy beach in the sun. You are shown a close up shot of one of the boys under water having fun whilst swimming with a snorkel on, you can still see by the way he is looking at the camera that he is enjoying himself, and this is also implied by the other close up shots that come next of the mum smiling with a book in her hand relaxing, whilst watching her husband and son playing about on the beach. The music gets a little louder and quicker, when the family are sitting down eating at a beautiful place, filled with lights and decorations emphasising on how bright and happy they all are. You then see a shot reverse shot of the husband and wife, looking at each other both smiling. As the audience, the fact that everything seems so nice and perfect to this holiday you know that something bad may happen, this is effective as it creates a build up and sense of tension making you want to watch on.
Straight after the shot of the family eating dinner, you get a plain black background appear with white writing on it saying ' In 2014'. As the audience you know that something will start to happen after reading that. A close up of a red ball that the boy and the Father are playing with is emphasised as if it has some meaning, the colour of the ball is red and red is normally a colour that is associated with something bad. The peaceful non diegetic music is still playing in the background, until you see the mum looking a bit concerned by the diegetic sound of the wind that seems to be picking up. The red ball is then shown again with an extreme close up shot, emphasising it even more, however its in control of the boys foot and when he stops it the music also stop and you are shown another black background with white writing saying ' Tragedy struck South east Asia'. The effect on the music stopping and the writing being shown is that as the audience you know for sure after reading the word ' Tragedy' that something very bad is about to occur.
Diegetic sounds of the birds are played whilst they fly away from the beach suggesting panic and worry. The extreme close up of the glass that the mum is looking into is shaking, and her expression on her face shows that she is worried and confused about what is going on. A low angle shot of the palm trees and the birds flying past, once again are emphasised as is they are trying to escape as they can see something is happening and they want to get away from it. The next camera shot is an establishing shot of the setting of the pool where the boy is shown holding the red ball, whilst watching the each palm tree in the distance vanish as if something is destroying them You can also hear the sound of the tress as they fall to the ground, and the sound of them falling getting louder as if it is getting closer to them. At this point in time, you can see that everyone was enjoying themselves seconds before this happened and did not know that whatever is about to happen will happen, this is shown through mise- en- scene. Everyone is either playing in the pool, in swim wear or relaxing on the chairs around in shorts and vest tops, showing how hot it is there. The way that the two boys are clinging onto their dad in the pool shows that they are scared and are holding onto him as it makes them feel safer. The birds eye shot that is used, shows the gush of water taking everything out in its path, this helps the audience see what it happening and understand the situation.
The dad shouts the name of his son who is stood there fixed on watching what is happening, whilst still holding the red ball. The boy doesn't seem to be as worried as the others as he hasn't run yet, however it could just mean that he is so surprised as to what is happening as it was so unexpected. You then see close ups of the water bursting through windows and houses smashing them, and a close up of the dad running through the pool with the two other boys in his arms. The build up of music gets more intense and then stops when shown a close up of the mum, squeezing her book tight whilst crouching against the glass wall she was looking at earlier closing her eyes as she know what is about to happen. Text is shown again saying' This is one family's true story of survival' this straight away catches the audiences eye and make you want to watch on as you feel emotional connected to the event as it was a true story.
Sad non - diegetic music starts playing whilst a close up of mans feet slowly walking as if they have been injured. The lighting is dark and gloomy, giving a sense of sadness and loneliness.You see an over the shoulder shot of the man walking towards some blurred lights, implying the feeling of hope. As the trailer goes on you hear here the man talking to explaining the experience to his son and reassuring him and his brother. Through mise- en- sense you can see how the costumes have changed an that their clothes are all ripped and dirty and their faces are all cut and bruised to. You see an over the shoulder shot over the sons shoulder whilst his dad is talking to him and you can see a close up of the dad's face and how the impact of the water has made his eye all red. The shot reverse shot is also used to show the deep conversation between the boy and his dad and shows the interest in the little boy to hear what his dad is saying. There is a flashback extreme close up shown of the man, upset and panicking as to where his family were and emphasising on the cuts on his face.
Shots of the mother and her son with the red ball are shown. The mum is under water fighting the objects that hit her and from this close up mid shot of her you can see how scared she is and as the audience it makes you question what she is feeling. The extreme close up of the two hands trying to hold on to each other shows how much they are fighting to stay together and to help each other out. An establishing shot of the setting is shown to show the audience just how much damage the tsunami has impacted on everyone's lives. A lot of close ups are shown after of the mother and son fighting to stay alive and a close up of the mum looking down at her wedding ring thinking of her husband and family, as she doesn't know what has happened to them. A low angle shot is used of some old people surrounding the mum and looking down at her, showing us that that something must be wrong with the mum. The people have their arms around her and are looking after her showing their goodness by the close up shot. You see the boy going around the hospital trying to help out other families find they're loved ones and in hope he will find his family too. You see shots of papers all over walls with missing people and the emotion of everyone around. The impact and affect of these shots make the audience feel like they are part of it and make them feel the emotion that they are feeling, to help them get into the film and watch the whole thing to find out the whole story behind it all.
Towards the end the music gets happier and you see a panning shot of two brothers that were separated in the tsunami running towards each other with their arms open as they see each other. You then get shown flash backs of the tsunami and the family before it all happened. It then ends with the mum in a hospital bed strapped up and the husband looking over her smiling. The way this trailer ends makes you want to see the whole thing as you feel like you want to know how they found each other and what they went through.
