The majority of modern day trailers will share similar conventions; these will include displaying the genre, name and production values of the product. In reflection of my groups own finished product I would say it displays and distinguishes these conventions from the offset. For example the trailer is established with a police report that gives context and suggests the style of film this is. Continually, as the trailer continues the genre is further reinforced by further inter-titles and shots such as the bloody hand shot suggest the horror conventions of our trailer. We aimed to have the title of our film emphasised by having it on screen at the end of the trailer with no other distractions so that the audience remember the name – this is a trait associated with nearly all trailers. Production values generally in horror are not focused on as much. This was similarly found in our trailer as it lacked actor’s names as generally horror films have unknown actors. Although some of the production company’s names were revealed in the inter-titles we did not include the director’s name for similar reasons to that of leaving out the actors names. However, in a lot of modern non-horror trailers these elements we have left out are utilised greatly in advertisement as it draws in the audience as these names provide certainty in the quality of the product.
All trailers must connect with its demographic and include elements that will naturally draw them in to increase sales. As we established our target audience was young at the age of about 15-24 we wanted to use a complete teenage cast and to start the trailer with establishing shots of the teenagers setting out on their journey to, hopefully, maximise identification. We then expanded on the idea of identification with the expansion of characters such as myself and David, the suggested main protagonist and antagonist. This was achieved through shots such as my character crying in close-up shots to allow the audience to sympathise and identity further. This is also heavily capitalised on in other trailers as they try and build a relationship between the audience and the characters in order to urge them to go watch the full feature.
Another aspect that all trailers build on is the sense of creating enigma without full resolution. Like in many modern trailers we tried to capture this technique by building tension and revealing sections of footage that could imply the narrative, however it was important to find the correct balance so not to ruin the climax and reduce the sales of the main feature. We achieved this, like in many modern horror films, by cutting to black before the gore or full terror of shots which equally built up tension.
Linking to tension, the soundtrack of any trailer is very important in providing atmosphere, tension and build up - as well as once again highlighting genre. We followed the conventional ascending beat and pace of trailers soundtracks but did not complete it with a crescendo as this would give a sense of completion as appose to lack of satisfaction in not seeing the conclusion. As well as the music a lot of trailers include voice-overs that partner the inter-titles in order to create mystery and additional information. We decided against the use of this largely because they were conventions of theatrical trailers and ours would be considerably shorter as well as potentially ruining the overall feel of the trailer – possibly slowing down the pace and tension.
Although I have touched upon some of them, horror trailers have their own conventions as well as trailer conventions themselves. One of the clearer conventions is the location and setting of the film as this will generally compliment the genre. In our horror trailer we situated the characters in the forest (as suggested in the title) as we felt this provided the atmosphere a sense of the unknown, a sense of entrapment and a feel of a location that is indefinite and impossible to escape from. We also graded the trailer to be at night time as this is also a typical convention of horror trailers.
Similar to that of normal trailers, horror trailers also have their own technical code – including camera shots, angles etc. An example of this within my groups own trailer was at the start where there is an extreme low angle on my shoes that quickly shifts to a high close up of my face. This sudden switch of shot creates confusion or disorientation in the audience, something associated with the horror genre. The application of extreme close ups also connotes the horror genre. We used them, as mentioned earlier, to create identification between the audience and the characters at points such as the crying at the end. Some of the ambient sounds we used also connote the horror genre – such as the heart beat used during Theo’s running sequence. The iconography of horror focuses on aspects such as colour, in particular black and red. In our trailer we used black in the inter-titles and red in mise-en-scene for shots such as the bath shot and the bloody hand shot. Victimising teenagers is also something often followed in horror, hence why we did.
Finally the antagonist or “monster” characters have their own set of conventions, these generally focus on the idea of a mystery or something unanswered about them (like the group not knowing what was wrong with David). This links in with not revealing too much of the plot in order to entice more viewers to the full film.
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