To help with the trailer we will make, I have been watching many horror film trailers such as 'the grudge', 'the ring', 'dread' and 'the uninvited'. I have analysed these trailers and have looked at what conventions that were used made the trailer effective such as lighting, setting, costume and camera shots, it has made me think about what I will need to to make the trailer relate to the genre and at the same time be interesting and convincing.
The trailer for the ring scares the viewer using a soundtrack and strange realistic images.
I think the trailer is gripping and it makes the viewer think making them curious, encouraging them to see the film - what the trailer was set out to do. In this trailer, there are many conventions that are used to make it effective, editing techniques such as
I think that in this trailer the sound is especially effective, during the trailer as we see a series of quick images at the same pace as the backing sound.
At the start of the trailer we hear a sharp sound that instantly grabs our attention, it is the sound of a video player starting up so we know that something is going to happen so it instantly puts us on edge. Towards the end of the trailer we hear a voice over saying the same thing repeatedly - this makes the repeated phrase stick into the viewers mind and gives the trailer a scary, mysterious, eerie but realistic effect as it is like the voice is talking directly to us.
The sound starts off slow at the beginning but gets faster and faster reflecting and increase in tension and keeps the viewer on edge it also reflect what is being shown - the more serious and scary the events become in the trailer the faster the sound becomes. Also the trailer shows just enough to keep the viewer interested but at the same time it does not give too much of the story away, the trailer links in with the rest of the film and at times the screen goes fuzzy and black and white as they talk about a sinister video tape that kills people so it makes the viewer feel as if they are really watching the tape, which gives a scary sense of reality to the trailer. Also the trailer uses text as well as sounds and images to be both informative and entertaining, it addresses the audience directly to show us a realistic sense of fear.
Eye-line match is used continuously within the trailer as to make us feel like we ourselves are experiencing what the characters are, making the scenes even more frightening as it feels like they are happening to us, for example we see the main character Rachel looking straight ahead we then see a frightened horse running towards us which makes the clip so much more realistic and frightening.
The trailer uses mise en scene to add a more realistic sense to the trailer, the use of make up and costume creates a realistic ghost-like character. Samara (the long dark haired young girl in the video tape) has long straight hair, pale skin and wears a white dress. This can all have meaning if looked at close enough, when looking at classic horror film conventions - particularly Japanese horror films which I have always found very interesting - the villain, usually a ghost will all have very pale drained skin to look drained and 'dead' and long black hair is always used for the female ghosts. This creates a sense of mystery as we are unable to see the characters face making is curious and afraid to see the face hidden behind the long black hair. Also the uses of black hair makes the face more striking and ghost like as the pale face contrast with the dark hair.
Also Samara wears a plain white baggy dress, - the colors used can portray alot about the character. The color white can be seen as pure and innocent - reflecting Samara's childlike nature, even though she is supposedly an 'evil being or spirit' the white dress reminds us that she is just a child in reality. Also the colour white reminds us of ghosts as classically in films like 'the grudge' the ghost wears a white dress which gives her a more eerie presence and adds to her ghost like nature.
Overall I find the trailer of 'the ring' both effective and scary I particularly like where the trailer is set - at the beginning we see a long empty dark corridor which adds and eerie element of loneliness and fear - as it looks like we ourselves are going into this dark corridor being led to the door at the end of it. I like that the trailer is very fast paced as it keeps the viewer on edge and not wanting to miss a second, the trailer put the viewer in a trance like state as we cannot keep our eyes of the trailer as we see scary shocking clips, one after the other, making us jump and not wanting to look away in case we miss something crucial. This effect is what I am hoping my trailer turns out to be like, as I find the trailers for both 'the grudge' and 'the ring' extremely effective and leave the viewers thinking about them afterwards.
'The Ring' Trailer
The Grudge Trailer
From watching the trailer I have found that similar to 'The Ring', 'The Grudge' is also very fast paced, however ' The Grudge' is much scarier as shocking.
The Grudge is a remake of the Japanese film 'JU-ON' describing a curse that gathers in the place where someone has died in a grip of powerful rage, anyone who enters the place where the curse is gathered, will be haunted by the victim of the curse and the curse will pass on from person to person who dies because of the curse has caused them to be killed. It focuses on the story of Kayako and her son who were both killed by her husband after he found that she was in love with another man. Her ghost follows and kills anyone who enters her home where the murder took place.
In the trailer mise-en- scene is a key part of both the film and trailer the main character, the ghost Kayako
has extremely pale skin making her look like a very realistic ghost, her long black hair contrasts with her skin giving her a more striking appearance and making her look corpse-like.
At the beginning of the trailer we see what looks like hair flowing across the screen hinting that the long black hair we see has relevance in the rest of the film. When the hair brushes past the screen a message is revealed on a foggy white background - contrasting with the black hair, but giving a ghost like vibe.
From the message it then flashes to a busy road, we see cars and people crossing the road - it is taken from a very high angle shot or crane, as we look down on the people in the public. This gives the trailer a scary sense of reality and makes us a viewers feel like we are being watched and it makes the scenes seem so much more real so that the events or the curse that is described could happen to anybody.
We then see a transition from the members of the public to the house - showing there may be a link between the two. The house we see looks seemingly normal - like a happy family home at first.
The music remains soft and breezy as more text is shown, we see the white misty background the long hair brushing past the screen and more text is shown. We then see a blond haired woman enter the house looking above at the ceiling as she and the audience hear scream - like noise.
We then see a flash and a hand reaching towards the screen - making us jump as it is unexpected and it seems so real, as if it is reaching towards us.
After this image the pace becomes much faster and we see a quick flash of images before our eyes, it is quite hard to keep up with them and the last image shown is an extreme close up of a ghost like face, frightening us and making is jump, again. We then hear a loud screech, and the image dissolves into the foggy background where we see more text. We see the hair flow by - so we know there will be another message, which reads ' a curse is left behind'. This is a more sinister message making the view become more scared and on the edge of their seat.
The text fades away and then we see that the pace slows down slightly, and we see the blond woman walking slowly past a mirror we see a ghost like figure with long black hair watching her and following her as the blond woman walks forward remaining unaware that she is being followed.
We then see a different scene of a man looking out of his window, also seemingly unaware that there is a little boy behind him, we hear the little boy miaowing like a cat - this puts us on edge and makes us slightly confused and uneasy as we wonder why the little boy is miaowing.
This then fades into the continuous white fog, we see the hair and then the message ' it never forgives' and the slow breezy music continues. We then hear the sharp slam of a door making us jump once more. We then see the ghost walking through what looks like a hospital corridor through a security camera, it looks as if the ghost is coming directly towards us and it shows that the curse follows its victims.
We are then shown a woman standing in a lift, she is alone and closing her eyes, we then see through the windows of the lift, the ghost looking directly at her seeming to be getting closer and closer to the woman.
The pace then becomes quicker again and we see, who we can now identify as the ghost crawling down the stairs as if she is after us, her expression is frightening she has her mouth wide open suggesting that she is in pain or trying to say something. She begins to get closer and closer making us think that she is coming for us, it then makes us jump as the ghost's face comes right up to the screen - an extreme close us of her pale face, jet black hair and dark, evil eyes.
A transition then occurs and we see the main character - the blond haired woman washing her hair - where we think nothing scary will happen. We then see her lift a section of her hair and then an eye looks straight at us and a hand reaching out of the woman's head making us jump at the grotesque scene.
The image then fades into a black mist and the title of the film 'the grudge' is in large bold white letters. We then jump thinking that the trailer is over when we see the woman in the shower turn around after noticing something on her hair. This makes the event seem much more real as both the character and the viewers are engaged in what is happening
This is the official movie trailer for 'Dread', I personally did not think the film was scary until the very end where there was a twist that shocked the viewers. The film was a psychological horror, like the chosen genre of the trailer I will be producing with my group. I liked that the film had such a shock at the end and I also like how the trailer does not give anything away but it still shows enough to make the viewer captivated and curious. At the start of the trailer we see what looks like a hazy flashback in black and white - it is extremely fast paced which I thought was very effective as it grips the viewer right from the start, I find the camera angles very interesting as the angles constantly change, it feels as if we are looking at the situation through somebody else's eyes, the first short clip goes from a high angle shot so it feels like we are looking down at the man with the axe and then we look up at the young boy who appears to be witnessing a murder, I particularly liked the camera being placed at a low angle - at the foot of the stairs, as it focuses, on the murder weapon - an axe. When we see the axe we instantly are aware that something bad will happen. We see the scared child looking down from the stairs first, so when we are shown the axe afterwards we are put on edge as we think that the child is going to be killed next.
The sound at the beginning it is again, very hazy but it matches the scene perfectly, at the very beginning we hear a man answering the door; we only hear sounds that can be heard by the characters in the film world (diegetic sound). When we start to see the woman being attacked we hear a soundtrack over what is going on - the sound is very hard to make out but it sound like a piercing ringing noise which has been put over the diegetic sounds of screaming and shouting that we are able to hear.
Next we see another clip following on of a man waking up screaming ,the scream becomes particularly haunting when it is played repeatedly, and this also puts an emphasis on the fact that the flashback we saw was actually someones nightmare, this makes us question whether or not it was a real event. We then see the same man looking in the mirror as he takes some tablets, this makes us question his mental and emotional stability.
The scene then fades to black as the name of the production company appears on the screen. We then see two different characters, male and female, having a conversation, our enitial interpretation of the two are that they are students. The scene shows them briefly and then we hear the overlapped voice of a man talking we presume that the three characters we have seen are the main characters as we have been shown all three of them briefly, it does also make us presume that all three characters, although they have not all been shown together are linked somehow. The voiceover we then learn is of the man we saw waking up from the nightmare, who is asking the male student to help hime with a project. From the fast paced begining of the trailer it seems to have now slowed down to allow us as viewers to follow the story. As far as we know there is nothing sinister happening yet, and the story seems very innocent, however the trailer changes its tone once more once we see a bright camera flash and an extreme close up of an old fashioned camera.
Over all of this is the trailers sound track, in whcih we hear a slow guitar and child like music, which actually has a scary effects as it makes us think that something bad could happen at any moment, so as the soundtrack continues it makes the viewer increasingly tense as we wait for something scary to happen.
We then see all three of the students shown previously filming people's responses to the questions they are asked which is 'what is your greatest fear' when the character says this it makes us ourselves think, as we are shown the responses of others, we first see a young girl who has been scarred she tells of how her scar makes her feel and reveals her own insecurities. As she is talking we see a re-occuring flash showing another scene of a girls silhoette walking towards the camera, this makes us curious as to who the girl is an why her silhoette has even shown.
We are then shown a boy who tells of his fear - he tells the three students of when he had went partically deaf and suffered from concusion, we are then shown what we presume is a flashback which shows (in black and white) the same boy lying on a hospital bed with his ears covered in bloody bandages. As the boy tells his story we see the faces of the female student, who seems sympathetic and concerned for the boy, and the face of the man at the start of the trailer who seem intruiged, this makes us qusetion him and once again makes us feel that he is not what he appears to be.
We are then shown a quick series of people sitting in front of the camera and then we see small, qiucj shots of the flashbalk we saw at the beggining, again shown in balck and white making us think that they are not just a nightmare - we then see the man at the begining in a mid shot, looking disturbingly intriged as people talk of tehir fears, we then see more short flashes of his nightmare - such as a bloodied axe, which makes us increasingly disturbed.
We then see the three students together in the 'interview room' as the man at the beginning declares his fear of spiders and clowns, the two students seems to believe him, but we as viewers have seen it to his nightmare so are able to presume he is lying. The female student then tells of her fear and why she does not eat meat, as she talks we then see a balck flash and an interferred image of stale meat, this itself is enough to both confuse us and make us curious, at this point we as viewers notice that as each person tells the story of their greatest fear, the image we see of them has been iterferred with what seems like a flashblack, which makes us think that the images that we have seen while they were talking were actually foreshaddowing the future.
As we are then shown the girl finishing off her story we see the reaction of both of the male students, one seems upset and concerned and the other (the man at the begining) shouts out and is seeminly pleased to hear her story.
We then see the two male students arguing and we see the man at the begining shouting at breaking the equiptment with a base ball bat, we then see flashes of a womans bloodies face andflashes of the nightmare fused with what is going on - the man at the begining is compared to the man with the axe, as he loses his temper making us thing that the events were real and there is a link between them. As we are shown the man at the beginings face from a close up shot their is a transition showing his face and the young boy in the nightmares face, finally letting us know, or assume, that he was the young boy and the nightmare was in fact real.
We then see that both the male and female student leave as they are scared after their friend's outburst. The scene blacks out to a foggy background where the directotrs name is displayed. We are then shown another set of clips - it seems as if the trailer goes in an order to how it is shown in the film, we see the female student going into a house alone and looking around we see everything that she sees, she sees a set of paintings and then the man at the begining emerges - so we know that it is his house. The scene then changes and we see the man, who we now know as Quaid, in a room boarding up the windows, the camera shot is a high angle shot and appears to be a survailance camera in the corner of the room which he is setting up, we then see a close up of Quaid's face and then we see someone else trapped in the the room from a high angle shot, then we see a close up shot of the female students face and it is revelaed that she has been trapped in the room by Quaid, this close up shot then chages to show the boy who had went deaf being hit over the head by quaid this then turns to black and we see bold red text which reads ' what if your fear' - the red font sybolizes blood and danger and instantly puts us on edge, then we see a painting of the girl with the scar who we had seen previously and we see a crowd of people looking at something (which we cannot see) the girl with the scar is the front of this crowd looking upset and embarrased - her expression is revealed through the use of a close up, however seeing her expression makes us curious as to why she is so upset. We then see a close shot of the same girl looking distraught and in pain this shot then changes to a mid shot so we can see her sitting in bath pouring bleach over her scar - showing why she looked in so much pain. The shot then fades to black once more and we see the words ' became reality' this text portrays a very haunting message, and again makes the viewer think, we then see a high angle shot of the female student screaming up at the camera - we see that she has been locked in the room with a plate of meat - we then see a close up of the meat - showing that it is stale and moulding - making the viewers stomach turn, but this also makes us wonder how long the girl has been trapped in the room. We then see her manicly running her hair making us worry about her mental state, we hear a piercing scream and we see Quiad looking to the side as if he is watching what is happening. We see the male student Stephen looking up at something (eye-line match) and then we see that he is looking at an axe, we see Quiads face mounthing can you hear me? he sounds very distant and quiet although he appears to be shouting- we are then shown the boy who was previously deaf, as we cannot hear what the man is shouting clearly it makes us feel like we are actually there and we are also unable to hear. We then see Stephen carrying the axe up the stairs - similar to Quaids nightmare it then flashes from the axe murderer to Stephen showing a repeated turn of events We see the little boy looking scared and the axe murderer coming after him, as we see Stephen going up the stairs we see someones hands picking up the stale meat - which makes the viewers stomach turn, we then hear Stephen shouting 'Quiad' reflecting his anger as we see him looking for him the image blurres to show the female student trapped,we then see the axe stephen is holding from the same low angle as in the nightmare which draws comparisons between stephen and the murderer when Stephen asks Quaid where she is, we see Quiad turn around and see an extreme close up of and eye - we then see the axe swing towards the screen, which then fades to black revealing the title 'DREAD' in large red font. We are then shown the final clip where Quaid is dragging a body to where the female student is trapped Quaid throws down a small knife which the camera follows, and we see the girl from his eyes screaming, we then see a close up of his face talking to the girl. We then see the girl screaming from a level angle and the door slamming in her face - showing that she is still trapped. We hear her piercing screams as the trailer ends as we see a road as we hear Quaid say ' I want your sould to open up for me' this gives us a strong idea of his sanity, and making him seem very disturbed - his words stick in the viewers mind and leave us feeling disturbed.
Overall I found this trailer most effective at the begining and the end, the genre of psychological horror was well reflected throughout the trailer as it is at times quite confusing, however I think that this is what makes it so entriguing. The soundtrack was simple and refected the mood well and I like how this trailer was ordered in such a way that made the viewers gripped. What I found extremely effective were the clips that were shown in black and white - the nightmare at the begining was in black and what which made the viewer think that it was something that happened in the past. In our own trailer we also have flashbacks and after watching this clip I feel that showing the clips in black and white were extremely effective and would help the viewer to differenciate between the past and present.
This is the trailer for the 10th Freddie Kruger film (a remake of the first ever film in 1984), the remake follows the same story of child killer Freddie Kruger being murdered by angry village parents, then Freddie takes revenge on them by killing the children of the ones who killed them through their nightmares. At the start of the we see an eerie isolated construction site, or derelict landscape, we hear panting and running and we see a dark silhouette of a running figure, the scene is dim lit, so we have to concentrate to focus on the characters faces and what is going on. We hear an eerie sharp sound and choir like voices, making us intrigued as to what is going on and it also gives the clip a heaven like vibe, which could foreshadow death. We see the headlights from cars speeding after the man, which makes us instantly think that he is a victim running for his life. We see the man running and we hear him panting creating tension, as at this point we are scared for him, and as we don't know why he is being chased we want him to get away. The sound is very dramatic as we can hear the car's tyres screeching which puts am emphasis on the fact that they are speeding, it also increases tension as it makes the viewer jump and put them on edge. We hear a man shouting 'Kruger!' as he emerges from the car and we see the man (the 'victim') running into a building and closing the door behind him. At this point we are able to see the man's face - he looks terrified and quite innocent, which makes us feel sorry for him, but when we hear 'Kruger' film fans and anyone who has heard of the films will know that the man running away is actually a villain, we are now able to make sense of the scene, as Freddie Kruger was a child murderer, so the people chasing him would be their angry parents. At this point we see that there is more than one car and the see a large group of people emerging from the car, showing that they are in fact an angry mob. We hear shouting with the man who appears to be the leader of the mob, it makes us jump because he sounds very aggressive and angry, we see a scared Kruger stuck in the building, which makes us think that he is safe, we then see a mid shot of the mob leader throwing an inflamed object through the window of the building, we then see a strong flash of light showing that the flame has gone through, we see a burst of fire and hear the characters screams, reflecting his pain. We see Kruger taking off his jacket whilst screaming in pain, and revealing his trademark striped jumper, which fans of the film would instantly recognise, we see bright flames and piercing screams making us even more engaged with what is going on. As we see the burning building the shot changed so we see the face of a woman in the mob, looking upset and distressed, this reflects the woman's innocence and suggests that she has a relevance to the rest of the film.
The film the blacks out to represent possibly the end of Kruger's life, or a new, dark beginning for the film. The blackout could also signify a change as time has moved on, we then hear sharp piercing noised and flashes of black, the next thing that we see is three young girls skipping, and then another bold flash of black, we then hear the voice of a young woman, who we then see in a room where it is snowing inside, she says 'Im having these dreams' which seems very innocent and the visions that we see of her dreams seem very innocent, it looks as if she is talking to us directly when she tells of a man who she keeps seeing in her dreams, we then see the man from a long distance so we cannot yet tell who this man is, but then the voice over of the woman says that the man is burnt, so we as viewers know that the man is Freddie Kruger as we saw him being burnt, so it shows a link between the man we saw being killed at the start of the trailer and who has now returned in the girls dreams.
It then fades to black and we see the sign 'ELM Street', this is symbolic as it is in the films name and 'Elm Street' is known as the place where Freddie Kruger killed his victims. We then see a house, a woman walking next to a line of candles and two people walking alone in the dark, as we are shown these image we assume there is a link between them and the house, and over these short clips is a soundtrack where we hear the voices of young girls singing what sounds like a nursery rhyme, which makes us think of the three little girls we saw earlier also the children singing is quite scary and put the viewer on edge. The song has the tune of a nursery rhyme, but if you listen closely the children are referring to Freddie Kruger, we then see a fast set of clips, the most striking being a sharp clawed hand scratching against a wall, presumably we guess that we are looking inside the dreams of the main characters as the dreams are very dark, hazy and foggy. And we keep seeing throughout the trailer the little girls who we assume are Freddie's past victims.
The song gets louder we see a girl falling asleep in the bath, we then see a clawed hand emerging from the water, the girl gasps and then wakes up and the clawed hand is gone. We then see a male character warning not to fall asleep, this puts an emphasis on the fact that Freddie Kruger can only kill through nightmares, so it also shows that he is not actually alive still, also 'dont fall asleep' is a classical tag line for Freddie Kruger films. The trailer gets much more fast paced, we see a gruesome clip of a girl cutting herself to try and stay awake, showing how terrified they are. We see a series of characters being stalked or haunted by Freddy Kruger, and we see inside their nightmares and them trying to escape from Kruger. The trailer gets extremely fast paced at this point and we hear piercing screams as we see Kruger coming after his victims, each time we see him from a closer angle, we then hear a male character screaming wake up repeatedly and we see Freddie coming closer and closer, this makes us feel like he is actually coming towards us making the trailer seem frighteningly realistic, we see a girl being lifted up in the air while she is asleep, showing that what is happening to them is real and that Freddie can really kill them. After this we see Freddie's claw slashing the screen which makes us jump as it looks so real, after this we see Freddie's claw marks stay on the screen as the clip fades to back and the title ' a nightmare on elm street' emerges in red. There is a lot of colour symbolism, the black background signifies dark, night, mystery and the unknown, and the red signifies blood, death and the gory murderous nature of Freddie Kruger. We then see the final clip where a young girl sits at a desk and faces Freddie.
It ends with the haunting voice of the villain Freddie Kruger saying 'There is nothing to worry about this wont hurt one little bit..' Then we hear the sharp piercing screams of his victim this creates a very dramatic effect and leaves the viewer with the feeling of fear.We then see the decayed burnt face of Kruger up close, this sticks in out mind, we then hear sharp noises when the text is shown on the screen.
