In films and movie trailers, visual representations are used to draw the audience in and create an environment and mood while also describing the scene for the movie. A new movie is being released in 2017 called Dunkirk which is based on a true event when British soldiers were sent on a mission to rescue Allied soldiers from Dunkirk, France in 1940. The reoccurring visual motif of hopelessness and death can be clearly identified throughout the trailer. These strong visual representations and symbols are used to show that the director wants the audience to experience a sense of grief and pain as the soldiers did. The positioning of the camera shots and the music that was used throughout each scene helps express these feelings.

In the Dunkirk trailer, different scenes are shown that really emphasize this visual motif of hopelessness and death. The first scene shows a long shot camera angle with hundreds of soldiers standing on the beach in the background and dead bodies buried in the sand in the foreground. The colors that are shown in this scene are dark colors which mostly include grey and dark brown. These colors are significant to the visual motif because greys and dark browns usually depict a depressing mood to a piece. This is due to the fact that those colors typically do not represent happiness or success such as yellows, greens or light blues would. The scene is practically silent, only being able to hear the sound of sand moving through the air by the wind. This provides the scene with the feeling of hopelessness because no one is moving and everything seems dead. The attention is definitely being focused on the dead bodies sticking up from the sand, as these are the closest to the shot and easiest to make out which also adds to the death and hopelessness motif being represented. Having all of these pieces in one shot really provides the audience with a feeling of misery and despair because it makes people feel like they are actually in this place, listening to the sounds of nothing but the sand and seeing death all around. 

The second scene starts off with an extremely wide camera angle, giving the audience a view of a wall and a line of people standing in the background, all of which are wearing black. This is significant because it shows the large amount of soldiers awaiting battle and the black color is used to foreshadowing death. In the close shot, a line of guns is shown stagnant and leaning against the wall. The only movement in the scene is the crashing waves against the wall which is significant in a symbolic way because the waves are seen as a more powerful force than the soldiers and guns which is why the waves are the only thing moving. This can be seen as a use of helplessness and an example man vs nature because no matter how many weapons or soldiers are present, the power of nature in this case being the ocean, nature will overpower. 

Another scene shown in the trailer starts with a deep field of view shot where up close and in mid view, all the audience can see is sand. In the background though, a group of soldiers are gathered around a fire or some type of smoke. This is significant because it gives the audience a sense of the vastness that’s present on the beach in this current scene which creates a feeling of openness. The concrete motif in this can be described to symbolize death because a plane could have possibly crashed and the soldiers are standing over and mourning. Symbolically however, the scene can represent the emptiness and loneliness that a soldiers might feel during war. The colors that are used in this scene are all very mild greys which in terms of feelings, can represent loneliness which also supports the idea of hopelessness.

The last scene shown in Dunkirk that represents the visual motif of death and hopelessness provides the audience with close up aerial shot where you can see hundreds of soldiers crammed in a boat and are looking down. At the start, the scene is very quiet and the only thing that can be heard is the sound of the waves. As the scene progresses however, the sound of a plane crashing down can be heard. This starts off kind of quiet but quickly becomes louder and as it does, the soldiers slowly look up to what looks like could soon be their death. The use of sound in this scene is significant in this scene because it starts off quiet. As the plane gets closer to crashing, the intensity of the sound increases, causing the suspense of the scene to also be increased. The colors shown in this scene are also dark colors, mainly being grey. The attention of the scene is focused on the soldiers being calm at first which later shifts to them all staring at death. This scene is a great example to support the motif of death and hopelessness because as the soldiers are staring up, the fear of death can clearly be seen and felt by both the soldiers and audience. 

In Dunkirk, the director really wants the audience to feel entangled and connected with the plot which is why these strong visuals are used to describe and represent this. Based on the title, people might be able to figure out that this is a war movie however, the title does not clearly show death or hopelessness being a motif presented in the movie until the actual trailer comes up. The overall design of the movie is wartime drama/action film. This allows for the director of the film to include slow, dramatic scenes to shape the emotions of the audience through sadness and grief because of death while still being able to include action and intensity through the war scenes. Based on everything described such as the colors, sounds, angles of shots and focus, the motif of hopelessness and death clearly facilitates with the visual aspects of the movie. 
