Class Survey

Personally my favourite horror genre is psychological which is why i chose to base my horror trailer on this. This also means that i will be targeting a wider audience as the survey suggests the majority of people enjoy this particular style. 

Choice of Trailer and Synopsis

Captured: Trailer
Our trailer will be a psychological horror. The first scene will be the stereotypical group of teenagers finding the camera in the woods. We will use an over the shoulder shot to show them watching the footage on the found camera. Also a close up to show the emotion of the teenagers of the horrific footage they have seen. By slowing zooming into the camera when using the over the shoulder shot it will represent that the next scene is of the footage they have seen. The footage seen on the camera will be of a family playing maybe using a few establishing shots to show the location where the children are playing (two young children, 8 and 9 years old and a father) this will than cut to the children hanging on a tree dead. The pace of the trailer will pick up by using a quick montage of the teenagers running and mentally breaking down with the image of the children hanging running through their heads. By using hand held camera shots it will create a feel of panic for the audience watching. The pace will then slow down again showing the tile of the film, CAPTURED, then cutting to a shot of the father pulling a mask over his crying face. Another title of the film release will be shown before using another hand held POV shot of a panicking girl stumbling across a dead body before a jump scare, close up of the killer’s masked face.

Captured: Film Narrative:
A father kills his young children by hanging them whilst filming it, however this psychologically damages the man and turns him insane. Wanting to destroy the footage he travels to a wooded area and throws the camera away. This is then discovered by teenagers camping for the night. After some time has passed the father becomes paranoid someone may find the footage. He backtracks to the woods to find it but finds it in the children’s possession. Slowly he hunts down and kills the children/ witnesses to his own children’s murders before then capturing the final girl. He locks her away but she gets free. She waits for him to return and then slowly beats him down with the original camera. She then exits.

Class Trailer Review (3)

 Name of film: 30 days of night                                   

Year Released: 2007

Genre of film: Horror/Thriller                                     

Mark (after viewing): 9/10

30 days of night’s trailer uses more modern generic horror conventions to convey the film in the best way possible. There are many positive aspects to this trailer which is why I think that this trailer works really well to attract the targeted demographic.

I think overall the structure of the trailer works really well and there are many different aspects which I could include in my own. A generic feature which was fulfilled well in this trailer is that it is fast paced. By keeping the trailer quick using techniques like jump scares and parallel music, the trailer seems full of impact and will keep the audience engaged with the trailer. Another aspect they used throughout was the clever use of collision cutting. By going  from quick to slow scenes it breaks up the quicker scenes and gives a build up to end to make the final scene as punchy and remember able as possible. They also used this at the start of the trailer by using a jump scare; this is a common technique used in horror trailers as It straight away gets the audience’s attention by making them jump. Finally another aspect which I could include is the use of intertitles. By having small intertitles throughout it give the audience rough idea of what the story-line is without giving too much of the main plot away. I think this is a great technique as it gives the audience a clear but not obvious insight into the film for them to decide if they want to watch the whole thing or not.

I could not find many aspects that were unsuccessful in this trailer but I think there were a few little editing aspects that could have been altered to make attract the target audience the best way possible, the main one being the amount of fade-ins/outs. There is a fade out in almost every clip, even when the clips are really quick. I think that it gets a bit too much and could make the clips unclear or too quick. Another aspect is the amount of clips within the trailer. I think it would have had a bigger impact if there were less clips of narration from the film and more important bits. This would make the trailer short and snappy. From this I will make sure I don’t make the same mistakes to get the best results possible.

The trailers average score from the class was 9. I think this is a good score to give it as it has many generic horror conventions to attract the target audience; this is also why this trailer got the highest mark out of the all the trailers reviewed in class. 

Class Trailer Review (2)

Name of film: Day Of The Dead                                 

Year Released: 1985

Genre of film: Horror                                                     

Mark (after viewing): 4.5/10

Compared to the other horror trailers this one is seen to be a controversial trailer as it doesn’t fir the stereotypical conventions of a horror trailer and may be interpreted as a comedy/horror-meaning the idea may not come across to the audience as expected.

There are a few aspects of the trailer which I find are interesting and I could include in my own trailer.  Seeing as not much of the narrative is shown, the trailer is mysterious which might make the audience intrigued to watch the full movie. Another positive aspect of this trailer is the subtle hints of the title. Throughout the trailer it relates back to “night” and “dawn” which can then link to “day”. This would attracts fans of the previous films as they know what to expect.

Overall there are many aspects of this trailer which I thought were unsuccessful and would put off the targeted audience. Throughout the trailer there is an audience in a cinema watching the trailer. Then towards the end there is a zombie sitting with them. Although this was done for comedy purposes, I feel as though it doesn’t relate to the film at all; in fact it sells comedy when there isn’t any comedy in the film. This was a risky move as it steers away from the target audience and may attract the wrong audience for this particular genre. Another unsuccessful aspect of this trailer was the pace. It was too slow throughout and didn’t have a fast paced ending to finish on. Doing this runs the risk of the trailer not standing out enough to the targeted audience. Finally, there a voice over through the whole thing which personally I find is outdated and annoying. I feel that this doesn’t sell the film the right way at all.

The trailers average score from the class was 4.5. I think it received a score that low because the trailer wasn’t pitched correctly and didn’t follow enough horror conventions; this made the trailer not work.

Class Trailer Review (1)

Name of film: Pusher Trilogy                                      

Year released: 2005

Genre of trailer: Horror/Crime                                  

Mark (After viewing): 8/10

The Pusher Trilogy has a fast paced trailer which includes montages and highlights of the film to instantly grab the audience’s attention. I think this works really well next to the genre of the film as it promotes the film in a quick simplistic way, making the audience want to see more.

There are many aspects of the trailer that I think I could include within my own, the main factor being the overall speed of the trailer. By slowly increasing the speed of the montages towards the end, it creates tension and makes the audience curious as to what the rest of the film is. In relation to this, by adding dramatic music in sync with the scenes it creates a bigger impact making the trailer has gained the audiences full acknowledgment. They have also used quotes from many different organisations and reviewers to help influence the audience into wanting to see the film that “everyone is talking about.” I think this is a very good technique as it subconsciously makes the audience think that it is going to be a good film. This is used a lot in modern film trailers and is almost always successful.

On the other hand I think some aspects of this trailer might not have been so successful; the main one being the montages might have been a bit too quick. Towards the end the montage speeds up so quick that you can hardly see what is happening. Although this was probably done on purpose it might defer the audience away from wanting to watch the film. This also ties in with that I think the overall trailer doesn’t show enough key plot bits; making the trailer vague and not definitive of what the main story-line is.

The trailers average score from the class was 8. This was lower than my original personal score of 9 but generally overall I think everyone agreed that it is a well suited trailer for the niche genre and it works really well to attract the target demographic.

Solo Trailer Review (3)

Name of film: It                                                                                                

Year released: 1990

Genre of trailer: Psychological Horror/Drama                     

Mark (After viewing): 4 /10

To make sure I see a wide range of techniques used throughout trailers, I decided to choose an older one as it shows how techniques have changed and improved over the years. This trailer is simply a montage of various shots within the film edited in a way to make the film look as exciting to the audience as possible.

I found that there weren’t many positive techniques that I could pick out from this as it is simply just an edit of clips but a main one which I could use in my trailer is the use of contrapuntal music. By adding a non-diegetic song of fair ground music, it creates a spooky feel to the clips making the audience scared. This is then followed by parallel music alongside quick editing till the end to build tension but to also create confusion and panic.

Straight away after watching this I found two aspects of the trailer that I think were unsuccessful and could put off the target audience; the first one being that there is no narration. I think this is a something they could have worked on as I feel it is not clear or identifiable what film is actually about or what the story-line is. Secondly there is a pink banner around the sides throughout the whole trailer. I think this looks a little bit tacky and is so bright that it is hard to see what is going on in the scenes of the trailer.

Overall I think I would give this trailer a 4 as it doesn’t have a very good layout and just doesn’t give enough detail about the film which could defer the audience from watching the whole film. 

Solo Trailer Review (2)

Name of film: Annabelle                                              

Year released: 2014

Genre of trailer: Horror                                               

Mark (After viewing): 7/10

There is a common trend in technique within modern horrors trailer and with this being the most recent I can take ideas from the old and new to make sure my horror trailer is successful. Annabelle is a horror about a couple experiencing supernatural events after a vintage doll is put in there house. This is a generic horror narrative making the film have a wider targeted audience.

A Generic feature which is used well throughout this trailer is the use of collision cutting. By having slow to quick transitions by using prolonged darkness, it creates tension and gives a sense of panic and worry to the audience. By doing this it will make the audience remember the trailer, making them want to see the full film. They also used intertitles with one being “Before the Conjuring”. Because this is a prequel to The Conjuring it straight away is targeting the demographic of that film. This is always a good way to attract the right audience. Finally another great feature that was fulfilled well was the use of contrapuntal music. By adding non-diegetic children’s music over the top of a low-key lighting shot, it creates an eerie feel to the trailer making the audience scared.

However, I think there are many unsuccessful aspects which drag the trailer down. After watching I straight away thought that it gives too much of the storyline away. I want to make sure I avoid doing this in my trailer as I feel it can make the trailer too long and is not punchy enough for the audience to remember the trailer. From making this mistake it could lead to losing the audience’s attention or them being disappointed when watching the whole film.

Overall I think I would give this trailer 7 as I think it is effective but could have been a little shorter and less narrative.

Solo Trailer Review (1)

Name of film: The Women in Black: Angel of Death    

Year released: 2015

Genre of trailer: Drama/Horror/Thriller                         

Mark (After viewing): 8/10

I chose to use this trailer as part of my research as it is a hybrid genre and seeing as it’s only a 15 certificate it has a very wide target audience. The trailer shows the rough narrative of the film and has key features of the film to make the audience jump and to make them remember the trailer so they watch the film.

There are some clever and interesting aspects of the trailer which I think were done well and I could do in my own trailer. The obvious one that I could use in my own is the use of parallel music; this helps to build tension within the scenes and to emphasise the eerie theme of the film. Another common technique that they used is establishing shots at the start. This is not just to set the historical context of the film (WWII), but is also to slowly entice the audience into thinking that it is a drama/romantic film. I think they have purposely done this to attract a wider audience as lots of people enjoy dramas. Finally they used a generic horror technique of a jump-scare at the end. By doing this and other things like prolonged silences and darkness, it creates confusion and fear to the audience which will in theory make them want to watch the film.

There is only one aspect of the trailer that I thought was unsuccessful that might put off its target audience and that is the beginning of the trailer. There are no indications that the film is a horror at the beginning. By doing this it could possibly steer away audiences that are fans of horror as they might think it’s not a horror film or might think it’s boring. If I was to change I would make the start shorter as I think it might be a bit long-winded and could bore the audience.

Overall I gave the trailer a 9 as I think it is really well structured and follows generic horror conventions to make sure the audience want to see the whole film.

Horror Poster Analysis (3)

Horror Poster Analysis (2)

Horror Poster Analysis (1)