Trailer Analysis #2- Insidious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuZnRUcoWos ... Link to trailer...


The trailer starts with the green rating screen that tells the audience the official age rating of the film. We will include this in our trailer as well as it makes it seem professional and realistic, rather than student made. Our trailer will be rated ’15’ in the UK, (meaning anyone under the age of 15 will not be allowed to view it at a cinema), and ‘PG-13’ in the US, (meaning the same as the UK except from age 13, not 15). There is then the logo of the production company, followed by the film name its self. This is a good way to start a trailer, as you instantly know what the film is called. However, another techniques could be to not show the name of the film until the very end of the trailer, as then it is more memorable. 

The first shot is a close up of a man sat in a chair, with a woman asking him if he’s ready. This is a clever way to start the trailer as it is almost like the woman is asking the audience if they are ready, as it is a horror film and they need to be prepared. She then puts a metronome on at a slow steady beat creating a feeling of tension and fear already. 

Full screen titles appear after this, saying other famous horror films that have been made by the same company director. This is a good way to gain hype a following to a new movie, as fans of their old movies will be intrigued instantly. We are using Blumhouse Productions as our production company so we can mention films such as Paranormal Activity and Saw.  

The titles used on the Insidious trailer- we didn't want ours to look like this, they were too bland in our opinion. 

The next few shots show a happy family environment in a new home, with a young child. Thus connoted happiness and calmness, however in the horror genre, a new home is often a bad thing as the family is in unfamiliar surroundings and the new house is a mystery to both them, and the audience. Our film also features a family moving into a new home, so we can take some inspiration from these shots for our own film.  

The mood of the trailer changes very soon, we see a medium shot of the young boy in the attic. The mise-en-scene shows us this is a dangerous place. It is dark and dusty and filled with spider webs. The boy is climbing up a ladder when one of the rungs breaks and he falls to the floor. Again, this shows hints of danger and could be seen as foreshadowing for what is to come.  

Shot showing good mise-en-scene. Demon is just shown, contrasts with child's room.

Instantly the mood of the shots changes, instead of laughing and happiness and bright warm colours, we see sad faces, pale/washed out colours and shots of the boy in a hospital bed rather than in his home. There is a clever use of shot reverse shot showing the mother walking down the corridor. It is a hand held shot so it feels more personal and as if the viewer is in the film. It then uses a POV shot as she walks into the room and sees the rocking horse moving by itself. This makes it a lot more realistic and scary, as if we ourselves had just walked into a room and seen a rocking horse moving by itself. The use of POV shots is very important in horror, as it brings the viewer into the film. Some horror films such as The Gallows or The Blaire Witch Project, is 100% shot on hand held cameras so the viewer feels like they are in the movie themselves. This is a good technique but not suitable for our production, so we will be using a combination of handheld and professional/ tripod shots.  

Throughout the trailer, every 10 seconds or so, there is a full screen title saying either ‘Insidious Is’ or ‘Is Insidious’. The movie’s tagline was ‘Insidious is Insidious’. Even though it is not a very good tagline, it is still something that the viewer can remember about the film, and they could even use it as an advertising technique, and put up signs with the tagline on. This way, people will want to know what film is being advertised and they’ll Google it which gives the film more publicity.  

There are many different camera angles and shots used in this film, but they are usually medium to close ups, as it is set in a house so we don’t need to see much of the set, but the characters impressions. There are quite a few high angled shots, which show intimidation and power which is very applicable in horror movies. As the trailer goes on, the overall mood gets darker and darker. It starts happy and bright but by the end it is dark and shadowy in almost every shot. This is another technique we can use in our trailer, as it is very easy to do and has a big effect on the viewer. The darker a shot is, the scarier and tenser it is. If there is an almost pitch black shot with the character taking up a very small part of the screen, it can be very effective as it connotes danger and fear.  

Furthermore, as the trailer goes on, the speed of the editing increases dramatically, until it is almost a different shot every second. There are a lot of shots of bad things happening very quickly, along with a few shots of the monsters. It then cuts to a full screen title of the film on a red and black background, followed by the release date of the movie. The screen fades to black which makes the viewer think it is over, but at the very end, the ghost appears out of the black and charges towards the camera to scare the audience. Again, this is a very effective but easy technique to include which we may use in our own trailer.  

High angled shot- shows weakness and intimidation

The end of the trailer is filled with credits for a few seconds before ending. We will have credits at the end of ours to make it more professional and realistic.  

Trailer Analysis #1 - Sinister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kbQAJR9YWQ ...Link to trailer...


The ‘Sinister’ trailer starts the same, with the green full screen age rating, and again it is followed by the production company logo, Summit Entertainment. The first shot is a establishing shot of a house at night, there is quiet eerie music playing in the background to build tension and there is the non-diegetic sound of a radio presenter reading out news about recent murders. At the same time there are close up shots of pictures of families and children. There is then a full screen saying ‘9 Months later’ and there is then a shot of the same house but in the day, as a new family is moving into it. The mood is happier now and the music has stopped, furthermore the fact that it is day instead of night is a use of pathetic fallacy. 

Establishing shot of the house. Lighting is very effective, sets a sombre mood.

There is non-diegetic sound of the father talking to his children telling them why they had to move house to inform the audience. Again, like in Insidious there are several short shots of the family looking happy and the father saying positive things like ‘I have a great feeling about this’. But as in Insidious, there is a shot of the attic where the mood suddenly changes. The father is putting boxes away into storage and he sees an ominous black box in the middle of the attic. The music turns scary again and the father’s non-verbal codes show fear and anxiety.  There is then a full screen title saying ‘from the makers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious’, to show that this is a professional, high budget horror film and also to make fans of those other movies more interested in this movie.


The text is on a cracked, dirty white wall and has a light above it flickering, this creates a scary atmosphere, even in the title card. In the box there father finds an old camera along with a set of old film reels labelled with different dates. There is a low angle shot on the father as he begins to watch the films, to show he is still in control at this point and nothing bad has yet happened to him. The films show an almost over the top happy scene. There are kids playing in a garden on a sunny day, everything in the shot shows happiness and calmness, and he father says that is it the family that used to live here. Straight away it cuts to a shot of the family hanging in a row from a tree and the father jumps up looking shocked at the screen. This use of binary opposition, from a very happy scene to a very morbid one is quite shocking for the viewer. It is very effective to use a film within the film as we get to see the characters reaction to it and it matches our own, which reinforces the emotion. 
The next few seconds are filled with shots of the father talking to a policeman. The shots are now from a much higher angle to show the father is losing authority.

The titles that Sinister used- these heavily inspired our own titles.

The trailer soon becomes very dark and twisted as there are shots of the children becoming enticed and tricked by the monster. The mood of the trailer has completely changed and all the shots of very cold colours and are dimly lit. There is the sound of a camera rolling in the background and at the same time a series of scary shots in very quick succession. The sound gets louder and louder and the shots get faster and faster until there is an extreme close up of the father and it goes silent. It then shows a POV of him looking into the attic and the monster jumps out at the camera. This is to scare the audience and make them want to go and watch the movie. The name of the film comes on screen with the same background of the white wall. The trailer ends with information about the movie such as credits and websites for it, as well as the tagline ‘Have you seen him’. I think taglines are very important, especially in horror movies and we will probably use one in our own trailer.  

Conventions of Trailers

As we will be creating a trailer as part of our promotional package, it would be useful to know multiple different conventions of trailers to help us along the way. A trailer usually consists of a series of shots from the film being advertised, not always in chronological order. The purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience so that they will go and watch the film. This is usually done by giving the viewer a preview of the most exciting, funny or noteworthy parts of the film but in such a way that no spoilers are produced.

The length of trailers usually very between each genre and each movie. As a rough guideline, they usually last between one and a half minutes to two and a half minutes. Any longer than this and it is quite easy and quite possible that to much information about the storyline will be given away or the viewer will become bored and loose interest in the trailer and therefore, the whole movie. However, the audience need to have enough time to become engaged with the trailer as one that is too short may result in them not being "hooked" in to watch the full film in cinemas. 

A typical horror film shot- Shows chiaroscuro lighting.

In trailers, the length of each shot is usually kept to a minimum and the editing pace is often much faster than the full film. This keeps tension built in the audiences mind and excitement as they want to know more. Shots are always chosen to build on the storyline of the full movie but without giving away spoilers, this often means that in the trailer, you may only see part of a shot rather than the full thing. As we have decided to create a horror trailer, we will be using a slow pace of editing alongside eerie music to build tension, and linking back to Todorov's theory, when the disruption occurs, the pace of editing will increase to strike fear into the audience. 

Typical shot from a horror film- again shows chiaroscuro lighting and a high angled shot.

Titles are often used to present information about the movie that the audience will not have received from just watching the shots in the trailer. Things such as actors and directors are almost always put in the titles as famous ones often attract an audience of their own and thus increasing the chance of more people coming to watch the full film. Titles are also used to break up shots in the trailer to make it more of a "teaser" and the audience are aware they are only watching a trailer and not the full film. 

Trailers often include a piece of music over the entire thing, this allows much smoother transitions between the quick changes in location and quick editing pace. The piece of music is often chosen to make the audience feel a certain way, for example in a horror movie, a piece of music that builds tension and eeriness would be chosen. Voice overs are also sometimes used to develop the storyline that may not have been easy to follow from just watching the different shots within the trailer. They can also help the viewer get to know the character who is speaking. 

The genre of the trailer should be one of the easiest things to identify. It should be obvious from many different things such as lighting, type of shots, music, colour schemes etc. For example, a horror trailer will use more chiaroscuro lightening and darker colours will be used. 

There are millions of horror trailers on YouTube, some of which we will analyse and evaluate to gain inspiration for our own trailer.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Harry Naylor and I am currently studying A2 Media Studies at Crompton House Sixth Form. This is the presentation of my A2 G324 Advanced Portfolio, in which I have showed evidence of my work during pre production, production and post production of a horror trailer I have created with another member of my class called 'The Door'- it follows the story of a 17 year old English teen called Adam Black who has moved into a new home only to find a locked room which it is haunted by the ghost of a young girl.

In my group there was two members, me and Benjamin Hurst. Our blog posts will therefore be quite similar as we are working on the same production.




Image of me, Harry Naylor

Image of my other group member, Benjamin Hurst