Horror Trailer Analysis

Whilst watching a few horror trailers I was able to tally the camera movement and the various types of camera shots involved in the horror trailers. i have represented them as bar charts and I also commented on the use of sound, issues of representation and horror iconography. I looked at four horror trailers which include 'nightmare on Elm Street', 'The Crazies', 'The fourth kind' and 'The anti-Christ'. The information I discovered has been displayed below:

The Crazies

Sound: A drum beat which gets faster. A soft song is played in the movie which is 'Mad World' by Gary Jules.
Horror Iconography: Blood trail, no signal on mobile phones. All connection with the outside world has been cut off. A community event turned out badly, fire, a mysterious character walking into a feild.
Issues of Representation: Male characters are dominant. The husband turns on his family (male gaze).

Nightmare on Elm Street

Sound: Charaters talking about nightmare and capture. Casual talking between characters and also significant dialouge "anyone here!?"
Horror Iconography: Unknown hallucinations, child, hospitals, phallus shaped objects, unknown person and isolation.
Issues of Representation: Screaming girl, men cope with it better (male gaze).

The Fourth Kind

Sound: There is dislouge included in the trailer - "what you're about to see is extremely disturbing", "staring at me", "an owl" actress speaks as actress. The music includes airy soft sounds, high pitched screeching, and loud drum beats. Other sounds included were camera turning on and off, scratching and screaming.
Horror Iconography: A true story which has been recreated with real footage shown, isolated area, aliens and abductions, cabin in mountins.
Issues of Representation: Strong female, curious female, male victims (final girl theory).

The Anti-Christ

Sound: Important dialouge included in the trailer - "what are you most afraid of?" In response "the woods". The music included is a choir, and opera music. Other significant noises include snapping sticks, animal cries and panting.
Horror Iconography: Woods, darkness, girl in toilets, an isolated house in the middle of the woods, Satan, anti-christ and screaming.
Issues of representation: Vunerable women, man has authority, baby crying and sex.

I have noticed that there are many similar traits within horror films after having analysed a few horror film trailers. The most common type of camera movement was the movement where the camera moved away, moved nearer and moved down. In my opinion, these camera movements are the most common to be found in horror movies as they create more intensity in the horror film trailer. The camera movement which involves the camera to be moved nearer encourages the view to notice something they wouldn't have noticed from a distance. The camera movement which involves the camera to be moved away encourages the viewer to notice the surroundings and the mise en scene. The camera movement which involves the camera to be moved down may be used to show how far away the characters are from contact and this what I discovered these camera movements were used for in the horror trailers I had watched.

The types of camera shots that were frequently used in these horror trailers were close ups and medium shots. Within horror trailers close ups are used very often as they create a sense of uncomfertability. In the trailers I had viewed, I had also noticed that the long shot was also used quite a bit. I beleive they were used to show or present isolation.

The sound in the horror film trailers were mostly slow and airy which usually got faster as more of the trailer was revealed. There was also a quite noticeable drumbeat which was repetitive. The iconography used in these horror film trailers were isolation, darkness and blood which are people's usual fears. Intensifying them causes them to become even more frightening. In the horror trailer 'The Fourth Kind' the actress spoke as an actress which ultimately made it seem more realistic in the film.

Basic Outline Of Horror Film

5 friends get invited to a party at school (they are given a leaflet). They discuss whether or not they should go to the party or stay home and watch scary films. They can't decide so they flip a coin, heads stay home, tails: they go to the party.
The party is on the night 31st october. When the party is in full swing they split into 2 groups (3 and 2) from one of the group, one of their phones go missing and then someone else in the other group gets a phone call from the person who phone goes missing and there is a weird sound on the other side, thinking it's bad reception they try to go outside to find that all the doors are locked. They try all the doors and windows but they are locked in. They try to tell all the party goers but they dont pay them any attention. the lights go out and then everyone disappears and then there are only the five people left. they realise that one of them is missing and go looking for them. they find them dying and they frantically panic. As there is no reception for mobile signals or any communciation to the outside world they try to help the person dying but consequently they die. One of then then go to the bathroom to be sick and when they are washing there face and look onto the mirror they see a figure in the mirror they turn around and nothing is there (the figure is the possession but the person doesn't know it) They decide to split up. One goes looking for other people, another goes tries to go and get reception and the other two stay put because one of them is panicking. The person going to look for other people see something sitting you can only see the back of their head they tap the shoulder and it a person then it grabs its hand and kills them with an axe, the person trying to get signal finds a window finally talks to a friend they saw at the party and ask them where did you go and they have no idea what they are talking about and dont know anything about a party. they some how drop the phone and they find the on their back they have some sought of evidence they have been pushed. The two people who who are together, one of them goes looking for the others because they have been gone for a long time he/she screams from from seeing the dead body. the other two rush to them and find the dead body, they then come to the conclusion that the killer has to be one of them, and then assume that the killer is the person who found the second body, the other two decide to kill the accused killer before he/she tries and kills them. they tie the accused killer to a chair and kill them brutally. Then out of the two left we find out that the killer is not the friend they just killed but one of the two the people left. They two struggle to kill each other and finally the possessed one is killed by the last person left.
THE END

Storyboard for Horror Trailer

These are the different shots in consecutive order for my horror trailer which is the storyboard. When I was filming with my group, our aim was to stick to the actual storyboard and follow through with each shot we had planned. At the beginning we did stick to the storyboard but gradually we realised that we had to change most shots we had planned as some things we did storyboard were too ambitious. They were ambitious in the sense that we didn't have enough willing actors to play the various characters which made us replace some of the shots with other shots.

There are many shots which were not included in the storyboard but have been incorporated into the horror trailer. For example, there is a shot of myself with a cork screw in the horror trailer at a birds eye view angle which as a group we thought of including. Initially, we were going to take only one shot of me with the cork screw at one angle but as we were filming, we decided to improvise with three different shots of me with the cork screw which I think significantly improved the trailer.

Treatment for the Horror film Trailer

The film begins on halloween with a shot of the bustling school entrance. We then meet the five main characters Jordan, Alex, Gavin, Nessa and Katie as they walk through the school grounds. It is Friday and Alex produces a leaflet that he has been "given" about a local halloween party taking place that night. The teenagers are indecisive about whether to go so they go to the common room and flip a coin. Katie says "Heads we stay in and watch a movie, tails we go to the party." Alex flips the coin and it lands on tails. The bell goes and they all go home after planning to meet at 9 to go to the party together.

At 9 o'clock they all meet at the corner of a street, it's dark. Katie and Nessa are there first and then Gavin, Alex and Jordan arrive separately. They walk to the party, the front door is open so they walk straight inside, shutting the door behind them.

They all walk into the packed main room and Katie, Jordan and Gavin go straight to the other side of the room to get drinks. Alex and Nessa stand on the other side and mingle. Nessa is holding her phone, she outs it down for a moment to look in her bag. When she looks up again her phone is gone. She just assumes that it has been stolen by someone at the party and isn't too bothered because it was cheap.

Moments later, out of sight and on the other side of the room, Gavin receives a call from Nessa's phone number. Gavin, Jordan and Katie are unaware that Nessa's phone has gone missing at this time. Gavin answers the phone and hears crackling and indistinct whispering. Assuming that it is Nessa and he just doesn't have signal, Gavin goes to the door to get outside. The door is locked, he tries another door, it is also locked, he then tries a window which is also locked.

Gavin tells Jordan and Katie that they are locked in. They feel a little uneasy and try to tell other party-goers. Everyone brushes them off in a trance-like fashion and carries on dancing.

The lights go out. Everyone gasps. There is a state of panic. "What's going on?" Someone feels a cold brush by their arm. A girl screams. Gavin: "Stop messing around guys. Turn the lights on!" A rustling sound. It sounds like Gavin is in pain. "What happened to the lights?" Katie in panic rushes to the light switch and frantically tries to switch it on. "It's not working! It's not working!" The light switch is on the off the button.

And then the lights come on. But the audience can see that the light switch is off. There is dead silence. Katie is still at the light switch. "Hold on! This switch is actually off!" Turns around to see that everyone else has gone and the other four are in a state of shock. Katie: "Where's everyone just cleared to?"

Nessa goes up stairs. "I need to use the bathroom." She opens the bathroom door. She sees Gavin lying face down in the bath with the shower on. "Gavin! Oh my God!" She pulls him slightly over. His face is completely deformed. Blood is dripping from his neck. All of a sudden she notices a large pool of blood in the bath. She screams: "Everyone come upstairs." Everyone attends. He tries to speak but he can't. They pick him up and take him to a bedroom. They lie him on the bed. They try to stop the bleeding with the bedsheets. He still can't speak. "What happened?" Then he dies.

Alex runs to the bathroom and throws up. Then when he looks back up in the mirror he sees a black silhouette behind him. He turns around straight away so it's only there for a split second and there's nothing behind him. He feels scared but he doesn't tell any of the others because he thinks it's all in his head.

They all go back into the living room to discuss what they are going to do next. Alex says that he's going to try to get some signal. And Katie says she's going to see if there's anyone else left in the house. Nessa is having a panic attack so Jordan stays and looks after her.

Cut to Katie walking through the corridor looking into rooms.

Cut to Alex walking into the bedroom. Sees a window a bit open but it's second storey so he can't jump out. He sits on the ledge and leans out of the window and he gets signal. He calls Tom who he saw at the party. "Tom! Where did you go?!".
"What do you mean Alex?" Alex then asks why everyone left the party and why they locked the five in. Tom explains that he was never at any party. Alex feels a sharp pain in his back, he slips and drops the phone out of the window before he can ask for help. He then makes his way back to the others in the living room.

Cut back to Katie looking into rooms. She enters a bedroom and sees someone sitting on a bed with their back to her. They are wearing a hood so it is unclear who they are... She walks towards the person and grabs their shoulder. The person turns around, their face is hidden, and they thrust the blade through her neck. They hold it there for approximately two seconds and then slice to the right out of her throat, leaving her neck dangling to the side half on.

Cut to Alex entering the living room as Nessa gets up to look for Katie as she is worried about her. She leaves the room.

Nessa screams, Alex and Jordan both run into the bedroom to see what has happened, Katie is in a pool of her own blood.

Jordan: OMG

He runs out the room to the living room and the rest follow him. Alex is the last to enter and locks the door without anyone noticing

Alex: Ok what the hell is happening?
Nessa: who is doing this what have we done (crying and hugging Jordan)
Jordan: did you get reception
Alex: yeh i called Tom but dropped the phone
Jordan: (Jordan eyes widen in disbelief) how on earth did you manage that
Alex: look at this (lifts up his shirt to see burn mark) something burned me and made me drop the phone, whoever or whatever is doing this is stopping us from getting in contact with anyone else.
Nessa: How the hell could you drop the phone what's wrong with you?! That was our only way to get out and now we're stuck, you probably did it on purpose
Alex: WHAT are you trying to say? That I’m doing this?

The group start to argue and accuse each other. Jordan finds a bloody hand print on the wall – "Hey guys look at this!"

Alex: it must be the killers, so whoever's hand fits must be the killer
Everyone hesitates as no one wants to go first. Alex goes first, then Jordan, then Nessa. Nessa's hand fits.

Jordan: Nessa??
Alex: it makes sense now, you found the bodies, and you started accusing people
Nessa: it wasn’t me I swear
Alex: she’s lying
Nessa: Jordan you know me, why would I do this, Katie’s my best friend
Jordan: I don’t know, you did find Katie and at the party i got a phone call from you
Nessa: what phone call? I lost my phone at the party
Alex: what did the person say?
Jordan: I didn’t hear it properly, it wasn’t clear, that's when all this stuff started happening
Alex and Jordan gang up on Nessa. Jordan and alex convince themselves that it was Nessa.

Jordan: we've got to kill her
Alex: what?!
Jordan: whatever's or whoever's making her do this, is going to kill us too!

Jordan and alex talk and decide that they have got to kill her.

Nessa: no, please it wasn't me
Jordan: stop lying, your hand fits you found gavin and katie and you made that phone call.

Alex picks up Nessa and ties her to a chair with some cable from the TV. Jordan and alex discuss how they are going to do it, Alex convinces Jordan to do it some how. Nessa still pleads with them to stop and is trying get away. She manages to untangle herself and gets up and picks up and smashes a bottle.

Alex: look she trying to kill us

Jordan walks towards her she stabs him in the arm, Jordan uses a chair to repeatly hit her until she is dead. Jordan goes towards Alex to tell him that Nessa is dead, Alex turns around and his eyes are black, Jordan realises that something is wrong with him.

Alex looks at the hand prints and so does Jordan. The handprint changes shape and Alex puts his hand on it, it fits.

Jordan realises that Alex is the real kill and he is possessed with something, he tries to leave the room but the door is locked. Alex charges at him, he misses and smashes down the door. Jordan runs out the room and Alex chases him.

Jordan picks up a corkscrew to defend himself and alex runs towards him. He jabs him in the eye. Alex grabs his eyes and falls to his knees and Jordan runs out of the room.

Cut back to Alex. Alex gets up. He thinks Jordan has gone outside so he unlocks the front door to look for him. Jordan isn't outside so Alex runs back into the house and runs upstairs. He gets to the top step and Jordan jumps out and pushes Alex down the stairs. He then pushes a chest of draws down and it lands on him. Alex is dead.

Jordan sees the front door open runs out. The film end with a front view of Jordan running down the street.

The Orphanage Trailer Commentary

This is the official trailer for 'The Orphanage'. This trailer made me think that the film was going to be quite scary and that I would have to brace myself throughout the whole movie. There were many moments in the movie where I thought I would of had to prepare myself for a huge jump and there were one or two moments in the film like that but not as many as I thought there would be. After watching the movie and I thought over it, I realised that it was more of a melo-drama than a real gory horror film. Rather than being scared from graphic animations, I was psychologically scared which made the film much more enjoyable for me I think. There weren't actually any really scary parts in the film once I looked over it, but the official trailer made me think that it would be a very frightening film.

Using IT software, I will create my movie trailer in the same way to make the movie seem as if it is really frightening and 'hold on tight to your seats' scary. As seen in this trailer, I shall attempt to use special affects and SFX sounds in my trailer. Specifically, near the beginning of the trailer where leaflets are being handed out, the 'dream' effect can be used to show a previous scene and then it could blackout and flash to the party scene in the trailer showing the rest of the trailer. These techniques will be very useful when creating my horror trailr to make it look as exciting and horror like as possible.

Eden Lake Commentary

This is a really interesting 'Extreme Trailer' which isn't the official trailer for the film 'Eden Lake'. It is a horror film which is more of a thriller. The story line of the film is that a couple go out for a romantic week-end away together. Upon reaching there, they enjoy the beginning but a gang of youths start to spoil the couple's week-end. The gang of youths start stealing from the couple and when the couple approach them, they end up being tortured and it ends in death eventually for both of them.

I got this trailer from Youtube where as this proves that the way films are promoted has changed and other ways of marketing has occurred over the years. This includes the likes of Facebook where user's can become fans of the film before it has been released and the likes of Youtube where alongside official trailers 'fan mash ups' can exist to promote or comment on a film.

I will consider using these techniques of promoting and marketing when I start to create my own horror trailer.

Planning and Filming

To prepare myself for my A2 media studies coursework, I was given the task to create a chase sequence that lasted approximately 2 minutes. I researched and looked at different chase sequences to get an idea of how they worked at what they looked like. When researching these chase sequences, I was particularly looking at the different camera angles used within it which I could include into my own chase sequence. Below are the chase sequences I looked at to help with my own chase sequence.

The preperation for my AS exam helped me vastly as it was about textual anaysis and largely analysing different shot angles and shot types. By watching these chase sequences, I understood the importance of lighting, mise-en-scene and also the significance of a variety of camera angles.

Before I could start creating my own chase sequence I had to practice different camera angles and shot types. I did this by looking at a chase sequences from a film called "The third man". I was given a storyboard sheet of the chase sequences telling me of the shot type and shot angle so I could imitate it as much as I could. I went into the school grounds in a group to try and complete all the shot types, in attempt to create our own chase sequence.