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.