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Analysis of Horror Trailers

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The Shining


This trailer effectively creates a trailer for the horror genre. With its quick and short shots it gathers a lot of action and shows a clear storyline for the film. The audience is gently brought into the action scene with a slow build up of the narrative at the beginning with editing being of a slower pace that the ending, often using fades. The effect of a fade often transports an audience to a new part of a narrative, place of can even be a different characters perspective. The horror genre over uses fades to build tension in their films & trailers.

Throughout this trailer the editing is not consistent alternating between fast and slows shots this creates an uneasy feeling for the audience feeding their curiosity even more. A thing I really liked about this trailer was its use of establishing shots, when looking through a number of trailer I noticed that establishing shot where one of the main scary aspects of a trailer, as this left me as the audience looking for things that where going to pop out etc. Establishing shots are often the sign that the trailer is about to build up to something, at the start of The Shining the were a number of these shots use effectively I was left on the edge of my seat waiting for the tension to erupt.

By introducing the audience to a relatable family they instantly have that connection built and become emotionally attracted. This often happens with horror films as it enticines the audience to watch more. The effect of children have also been used well in this trailer, with the added innocence of a child the audience ill feel venerable and uneasy about things happening to the child.

Another aspect that keeps the audience guessing throughout this trailer, would be the long black shots that are filled with sound, its as if the audiences eyes have been covered and they just want to see what’s going on. This effect takes away the viewers eyes and lets their imagination take over this often makes the atmosphere scarier than it actually is. 

Grave Encounters

By beginning the narrative in such an amateur way they set the feeling of a predictable as they develop the narrative though the trailer they keep the audience on their toes on what is coming next ruining the safety of the original predictable offset. The trailer is consistent with its “documentary” narrative and throughout the whole trailer this “handheld” experience is brought out. The trailer is then introduced to its professional aspect with long slow editing of establishing shots that then start to build on the atmosphere looming. But having this documentary team in the trailer is adds a sense of realism to the paranormally activity that is going on in this trailer.  An aspect that makes this sort of trailer stand out from others as it is a subject that would nesscarryly be seen by a camera, and often is something that plays on an audiences imagination when left alone in a quiet or dark room.

With great use of mise-en-scene they open up the story with a lot of depth. The use of an old Psychiatric hospital allows the audience to know that abnormal and unseen things are about to happen. The viewer is now will expect to see distressing images following but, due to the connection that has been made with the “crew” the audience is eager to see what is going to happen to them.

By featuring a “based on true story” it excites the audience that this could actually happen and opens their imagination even more. 

Social book

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Seeing as our beginning ideas worked around the website "Facebook" we noticed we would have some copyright issues regarding the use of the website in our trailer and made a group decision to make our own social networking site based on the conventions of other websites like; Facebook, Twitter & Myspace. By mixing the components of each site together we had made an interface that our audience would be able to relate and understand.

Here is our first draft of our page "Social Book"

Social book came from the idea of "Facebook" and seeing as it was a social site we altered the name effectively. So far with the design for our network we have used a similar style to page layouts that our focus group uses (Twitter & Facebook) This & other images will be used on phones, computers and other aspects of our trailer that involve the decline and further relations to the deaths in our group trailer. 

Each of our deaths in our trailer our connected to a social event that is declined on "Social Book" so as a group we decided to create a stamp effect that will be slammed onto a page when each victim dies. Instead of following a horror related font I went for a college font (http://www.dafont.com/colleged.font?fpp=50&text=DECLINED) as it is college students that are dying & this will genually leave our audience questioning the innocence of our decline stamp. This is only my first draft so as a group we still need to create each victims profiles and apply the stamp ETC...

"Social Killer" Scenarios

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Death chainmail


Death chainmail has been round since mail has been sent to mailboxes, unresolved murderers happening around the world everyday with no evidence or cause... Technology advanced, people were able to communicate over the World Wide Web in 1950’s and ever since our technology advanced allowing us to socialise, nearly every household owns a computer, but ever since technology has advanced so has death chainmail, from letters it moved to emails and then onto IM’s, but now onto socialising websites and thousands disappear with no cause or evidence and is put into a top classified folder. However a child of the dad in the M16 gets their hands on the folder and turns into child’s play.


School Student speaking from America

9/11 a bad day for Americans as terrorist attack the twin towers leading in many deaths and injury’s, but ever since that day death chainmail has appear out of nowhere causing mystery deaths World Wide by Internet, some say it’s just a hoax, others say it’s to scare others for the fun of it, but only I know it’s the people who died in 9/11 creating these death chainmail’s I have researched the IP address and it is coming from that exact location but there are no networks there, how is this possible, why are they doing this, I will find out myself and end this mass murdering chainmail.’

Character speaking

It was only a joke, someone I knew from another school sent me it everyone in school read the message after I sent it to five people, and them five sent it to twenty five until everyone had read this message, there are 568 students, 565 have forwarded this message to other schools, leaving three students to face their most feared, death. But can they escape death?

Most popular to our media focus group was the second idea about the 9/11 incidient and then death chain mails happening, so I would guess our group would go with that idea being the most popular choice, the scenario may be changed throughout our project to our liking and to make it more interesting for our audience.

Questionnaire analysis/focus group feedback

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To ensure we knew what our audience wanted to see in a horror trailer and what they liked about horror films, we felt that we should carry out a questionnaire and run a focus group for a select few to find out in depth what they liked, what they didn't like and if they had any suggestions for our trailer ideas.

These were the questions from our questionnaire:

1) Do you like/dislike horror films?

2) What do you like/dislike about horror films?
3) If you watch horror films, how often on a weekly monthly basis do you watch them?
4) What are your fears (eg, what makes you jump) in a horror?
5) What are your favourite aspects of a horror film.
6) What do you like to see in a horror trailer?
7) What do you like to see in a horror trailer? 
8) *brief outline of trailer* What do you think of our idea, would you see the film?


Sample:

We gave our questionnaires to 7 females & 4 males, this was an opportunity sample of people who were in our sixth form common room, it was a mixture of students in year 12 and year 13.

3 of 4 males said they liked horror.
6 out of 7 females said they liked horror.



Male’s favourite aspects of horror were:

  •  Portrayal of scary scenes
  • Gory Stuff
  • Sound Effects/Music
  • Blood
  • Suspense
  • Thrill and Rush
  • Death scenes.
  • Tension



Some answers were given more than once in the questionnaire..
  • Fears were:
  1. Spiders (1)
  2. Rats (1)
  3. Silent scenes
  • In a trailer they liked..
  1. Scary stuff
  2. Parts of a scary scene
  3. Blood (2)
  •  Female’s favourite aspects of horror were:
  1. Jumpy scenes (2)
  2. Sound Effects/Music
  3. Action (2)
  4.  Death (2)
  5.  Violence
  6. Tension
  • Fears were:
  1.  Jumpy Scenes (3)
  2. Scary faces
  3. Devils and Demons
  4.  Unsuspecting scenes
  5. Music
  • In a trailer they liked..
  1. Jumpy scenes
  2. Appropriate music
  3.  Action (2)
  4.  Something that is worth watching in cinema
  5. Blood
  6. The general idea of the film


2 out of 4 females, after hearing about  the trailer would watch the film.
4 out of 7 males, after hearing about, would watch the film.

Focus Group:
We ran a focus group on Wednesday 5th October to gather some research from an exclusive group of year 13 students to research about their ideas on horror films and what they liked/disliked, and what they thought of our initial trailer ideas.

In our focus group we had 4 females and 2 males: 


The name "Social Killer" appealed to the group as it was a contemporary issue, social networking and connecting with friends, and the killer part made them know instantly that it was a horror film. 


The focus group liked our idea of it also being a social issue as they felt that it was scarier, because it was dealing with a real life issue and would be a pseudo documentary.


We found out that the focus group liked suspense, music, jumpy scenes and cliffhangers to make you want to find out what happens, in film trailers. 

The group suggested that we have:
  • A flashing blue screen in darkness, to add to making it scarier suggesting that the computer is alive?
  • Having computer key noises when flashing up facts on screen.
  • On our draft film poster created, we could have a pool of blood under the hand on our next one, to make it look really effective and look like that there is a large amount of blood loss, to show the audience that the film will be gory and scary as there is lots of blood.

Classifications from the BBFC

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The BBFC endeavours to classify submitted works in one of the following categories:


The criteria should be read in the light of the general approach set out earlier under ‘General Principles’, ‘Overarching Factors’ and ‘Main Issues’.
Because works from time to time present issues in ways which cannot be anticipated, these criteria will not be applied in an over-literal way if such an interpretation would lead to an outcome which would confound audience expectations. 
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/the-categories/But seeing as our Media team is only focusing our trailer at the age group 15 we'll focus on that criteria...



’15′

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Conventions of horror

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To help define our trailer as the Horror genre we will have to closely look at and use the conventions of a typical horror as well as adding our own. Most horrors follow these conventions which found in my research to the conventions of a "Typical Horror" 


  • Dark/shadowy lighting 
  • Isolated location 
  • Female victim 
  • Disruption of normality
  • Sub plot of male/female relationship
  • Defeat of monster

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_Codes_and_conventions_of_the_horror_genre#ixzz1aP8UE76j

Sub genres

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Sub genres of horror films:
  • Comedy 
  • Animated 
  • Extraterrestrial 
  • Holiday
  • Monster
  • Natural 
  • Slasher 
  • Supernatural 
  • Social 
  • Teen

Our trailer and story seems to be nicely falling into the "Teen" "Social" & "Holiday" sub genres of Horror giving us a little more to focus on whist filming and planning. Our team will have to research the convention of not only Horror but also, of these sub genres. 

The fantastic timeline of horror...

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Pre -1920's and itself was Silent era & beginning of of all things Horror... Introducing the cinematic world to all things scary. 



1930's - With classics like Frankenstein & Dracula coming from this film period the start of this timeline is already a great success. Horror then started developing to what it is today... 

1940's - Horror lost it touch in this decade. And throughout the ten years 3 films appeared with hardly any effect on the history of horror.

1950's - Again, Horror was struggling but, made a incline with films like Godzilla and Teenage Frankenstein coming from it. But now Horror was in colour could this be what the timeline needs?

1960's - Horror was back on track straight away to the early 1960's, Psycho made in 1960, The Birds was made in 1963 (Nature gone out of control), Blood Feast, horror looks horrific once again.

1970's - And the Golden ages hit as the 60's moved on true Horrific Horrors were unleashed. With the Exorcist coming out in 1973 one the the scariest films I've seen let alone voted a true Horror classic. This Era Begin to define Horror expanding from past films.

1980's - was a Revelation for technology and enabled the horror lovers to truly see what the had imagined...

With its great boost of horror fans from the 70's the genre Horror was now quite popular and great films like Nightmare on Elm st and Fright night appeared.

1990's - by the 90's Horror had changed it turnt more gory and blood related. It was a different time for the genre and this was either going to make or break it?

2000's - so as the horror genre and changed slightly and and 9/11 had such a huge effect on the world Horror started to fall again. But on a positive note there was some good from this Era like the series was Final Destinations were started, we had the Grudge and 28 days later.

Now will future reply itself and give the genre a boost... Time will tell, but I have a feeling with things like CGI and 3D innovations and I have a strong feeling that Horror will soon pick up its feet and start scaring the cinemas with jaw dropping scaryness