Insidious (2011) - Teaser trailer analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxpvRRpyzE

The teaser trailer starts with text on a black/dark red background that reads 'From the makers of paranormal activity and Saw'. This firstly attracts people who are fans of these films and have significant cultural capital in horror film, but it also attracts a mainstream audience as paranormal activity and saw are also very popular recent films that have been a huge commercial success, so the audience will already have a sense of cultural capital and familiarity with 'Insidious' because they have watched films from the same filmmakers. It also clearly introduces a horror, paranormal/thriller genre by referencing films of the same genre. The text also has fast fuzzy/blurry transitions that is in sync with static, white noise sound effects, which creates this feeling of tension and instability which also adds to the genre of psychological thriller/paranormal.

The next shot is a close up shots of a child, there is a dark, de saturated colour palette with low key lighting causing shadows to cover the boy’s eyes and most of his face. This reflects ideas of the character being quite complex or has some kind of internal conflict, as the shadows covering his eyes suggests a sinister, evil character however the boy is hunched over in a vulnerable and defenceless posture which is a huge contrast, suggesting a narrative theme of possession, like in 'the exorcist' that also had a child protagonist that was possessed.

Much of the trailer's most scary and disturbing shots are part of a very fast paced sequence of quick short shots, such as bloody hand prints on shower curtains, or a person in the middle of a panic attack/exorcism. This extremely fast paced editing creates an idea of uncertainty and ambiguity in order to not reveal too much of the narrative, and also to tap into the viewer fear of 'the unknown'. These sequences also contain very bleached shots with lots of light, that contrasts greatly with shots with a dark colour palette. Also to intensify the scariness of these shots in the fast paced editing the non-diegetic static sound also peaks and becomes faster, while during the slower parts of the trailer the sound is almost non-existent.

In contrast, slow paced editing is used in areas of the trailer that focuses more on narrative, for example when we hear the mother say 'he's not in a coma, they don't know what to call it' the editing is very slow, which is a huge contrast to the fast paced sequences. This helps build tension to add even more effectiveness to fast paced sequences, but it also allows a revelation of small parts of the narrative in order to establish a 'paranormal' genre.

The use of an establishing shot of a house on a dark, stormy day is effective at establishing mood and location, where it becomes clear that nearly the whole film is set in a relatively normal family home. The dark, creepy mise-en-scene in the establishing shot of the house, and in the interior scenes of the house also draws inter textual references to scary stories based on a 'hunted house' particularly with the voice over during the shot - 'I want to leave, I wanna leave this house'. This build up tension until its revealed near the end of the trailer that 'Its not the house that's haunted, its your son'. This is very effective and shocks the viewer because it breaks conventions and stereotypes of the classic paranormal films being based around a 'hunted house' so the viewer is left feeling as if there may be no solution or 'happy ending'.

Saw 3D - Teaser Trailer analysis

Saw 3D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg0go2b3ekY

Camera Work and Editing: 

The camera work in the Saw 3D horror teaser trailer is all used purposely in order to create tension and suspense to the audience. It would also help increase to a wider target audience to those who are interested in the genre of horror. There is a lot of flash cuts and fast paced editing in this teaser trailer which could make the audience feel panicky and create a lot of drama. After every shot of an image, text appears and the camera zooms into the text. The text follows on to he next text and shows a message to the audience to let them know what is happening and so that they feel intrigued to see the move. 

Sound:

The trailer uses a lot of non-diegetic sound and this is done again to create suspense and tension and build the pace of the trailer. The trailer starts of with a loud bang and this could already create fear to the audience. There is also a robot, deep voice of a man throughout the trailer which gives the main message to the audience about the film. The language he uses relates to the genre as he uses words like 'death' and 'suffering' and this is often what happens in horror films. Once the talking has stopped, non-diegetic music is added in and it is fast paced music in order to go with whats happening in that particular scene showing such as someone trying to escape from a machine. There is a lot of diegetic sound used in a very effective way too, for example people screaming and this would lead the audience being on the edge which is the purpose of horror films. The screams are form different people in the movie and are very loud which signifies that they are very afraid and this would make the audience feel their fear and share the experience.

Mise En Scene:

The use of props in the trailer are very effective towards horror films. There are many chainsaws and machines and this connotes horror films as it is a typical item that appears in some horror films. It is common for horror films to use props which relate to violence as it is represented a lot in horror films. In one part of the trailer we see someone trapped in a machine trying to escape and this would create fear to the audience as they would want to know if he has escaped or not. There is a use of de-saturated colour palette used throughout using dull colours which connotes horror films. The us of low key lighting represents danger.

Women In Black Trailer analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odR08_ShIPc

Camera and Editing:

Like most horror genre teaser trailers, the Woman in Black follows a trend of quick jump cuts from one clip to another. This is done throughout the trailer in order to not reveal too much so that the audience want to see more therefore they would go watch it. They show the scariest part of the film to make it seem interesting and draw attention to it. It is portrayed by fast paced editing of certain scenes deliberately, all again to create anticipation for the full movie and to act as a “tease”. Rather than focusing on the narrative of the film, a teaser trailer announces that the film is soon to be released. For this trailer, the editing is done to build up suspense of what is going to happen.

Mise en scene and Sounds:

The location of an isolated haunted house is shown right at that start so the audience immediately feel as something bad is going to happen. There are mainly non diegetic sounds of creaking doors, loud thuds; thunder/flashing sounds overlapping what the characters are saying that links back to the narrative. This gives a basic overview of what it’s about and the sounds are done specifically so that the audience follow it. For example at 00:49 something seems to be coming closer and is filmed with a loud thud at each pace, making the audience feel as if something’s coming towards them. At the end, there are a series of very fast paced shots and ends with a silence following the title of the film. During our research, we noticed this is a generic convention for most horror trailers. The purpose is to give the audience that “shock” feeling and think it is really good so they wait for it to be out.

Bullet Boy - Film Poster Analysis

Here is my annotation of the film 'Bullet Boy'. The genre of this film is Social Realism which is different to the genre of our teaser trailer (horror). I decided to annotate a film from a different genre so I could see the contrast of the layout of the film poster. 

Texas chainsaw - Film Poster analysis

click image to view annotated version

Little White lies - Independent film magazine analysis

Fangoria - film magazine analysis

Click image to view annotated version

Magazine Analysis

Teaser Trailer Survey Analysis

Here are some of our results from our survey:

Following up my results from the ‘Teaser Trailer’ survey, I found that a lot of people are interested in the genre of horror, and watch them quite often. My results came back from both males and females and this is an advantage as the sample can be generalized to more people.  The age range was mainly 15-18 years, which is the typical age rating given out for most horror films and this would help towards my target audience.  73% of the respondents said that they enjoy horror films.  There were a range of different horror films named when the respondents were asked to name their favorite ones from The Conjuring, Insidious, The Ring, The Grudge, Paranormal Activity and The Unborn. The main reason as to why the audience enjoy horror films is because of the lighting, the sound and the thrill. The locations people enjoy to see are mainly graveyards and dark rooms.  100% of respondents said that they enjoy silence in horror films as it creates suspense. 90% said that they find teaser trailers very effective for horror films. To help a little more with some extra research we looked at the BFI statistical year book of 2013 (http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-statistical-yearbook-2013.pdf). This gave as additional information on 

'The Exorcist' - case study

The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name. The film deals with the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's desperate attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two priests.

The subject matter is about demons and Satan and contains a lot of foul language toward God, which consequently caused controversy with the Catholic Church with preachers like Billy Graham, who claimed a real demon was living in the film reels. The film had courted much controversy in the US where it had supposedly provoked fainting, vomiting and heart attacks in cinemas. The X rating had provoked significant outrage, however, the film was a huge success at the box office and the public as a whole didn’t seem overly concerned. However some local authorities did ban the film in their areas, which only added to the reputation of the film, with "Exorcist Bus Trips" being organised to take people to watch the film in nearby towns.
After the Video Recordings Act (VRA) the young age of the protagonist became problematic as it might therefore have significant appeal to under aged viewers, which couldn’t be prevented from watching the film at home as easily as they were stopped in cinemas.
The special effects used in the film were used on set, so they weren’t added in post-production. At the time, they were ground-breaking. Scenes including special effects like the shaking bed, the projectile vomit, the 360 degree head spin, levitation, spider walk down the staircase, the words "help me" dug into Regan's belly, the moving furniture and objects and other effects. A major part of the scariness of the special effects is the demonically possessed face of Regan, which was achieved with makeup. There is very little blood or gore – one of the worst bloody scenes was the crucifixion masturbation scene.
The dark, desaturated colour palette and low key lighting across many scenes is so dark that it’s hard to make out figures and objects in these scenes, which creates tension and unease in the viewer’s towards the climax of the scene. The dark, ominous colour palette also reflects the dark and eerie demonic narrative themes in the film.

The film is largely set in ‘a normal American, middle class family home’ with many of the film main scenes taking place in Regan’s house (e.g. the bed scene, and the spider walk down the stair case) which reinforces the fear behind possession and demons, as the film is portrays possession to happen to relatively normal people, like the viewers. 

Bibliography:

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-exorcist-1973-depth-analysis-why-is-6813846.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/

‘The Conjuring’ - case study

‘The Conjuring’ is an American supernatural horror film that is directed by James Wan. The film is set in 1971 and shows the life of a family who have moved into a farm house. Soon strange things start to occur and this escalates into a nightmarish terror which lead to the family having no choice but to contact the paranormal investigators.  The film was released in the UK on the second of August 2013. The estimated budget was $20,000,000 and the box office was around $306,000,000.

Genre

There are many stereotypical codes and conventions in this film which prove to the audience and make the genre of horror in terms of mise-en-scene, narrative, sound and editing. The storyline is based on demonic possession towards a family who have just moved into a new house. Possession is a key factor to show that the genre is horror.

Lighting

The film has a dark, de-saturated colour palette which follows horror conventions.  The dark lighting was added to match the mood of the genre. A few scenes which are recorded in the basement have a dark background in which the light is only placed over the main character on the scene in order to build the tension to the audience and to create fear as they would not know what else is around.

Location

Filming took place at ‘Screen Gems Studios’ as well as other locations in North California. There are many different locations in the actual scenes of the films which are stereotypical to the genre of horror. For example a lot of the filming takes place in the basement where it is dark and gloomy. The house which links in to the actual story is very old which relates to typical genre conventions of horror.

Camera Shots and Angles

There are many different camera shots and angles used in 'The Conjuring'. Wide shots/ Extreme wide shots could be used to introduce the setting or sometimes they are often used in order to show the whole scene on the screen and this could be used to hide the full identity of the protagonist but still let the audience know that it is present. In horror films a lot of close-up/extreme close-up is used in order to emphasize with the character and show their reaction and emotions. It also creates suspense as the camera is based only on the characters emotions and the surroundings are hidden so this should make the viewer more anxious. High/Low angles are also used in order to show which character has more power over others and in the case of the genre being horror, it is used in scenes where the protagonist is trapped.

Sound

In horror films, loud music and sounds often create most of the fear for the audience throughout most of the scenes. Whispers and footsteps can also create a lot of tension however the silence creates most of the suspense following up with a loud noise. This is very stereotypical of horror films as most of them do this and one reason for them being successful and likeable could be because of the effects from the sound.

Bibliography:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_conjuring/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2382739/The-Conjuring-review-Watch-youll-play-hide-seek-again.html

‘The Ring’ - Case Study

The Ring is an American psychological horror and it is a remake of 1998 Japanese horror film called Ringu. It was later released in 2002. The main narrative consists of watching a videotape that contains random but disturbing images, following a phone call where a girl’s voice announces that the person viewing the tape will die within 7 days. It had a budget of $48 million which led to over $200 million at Box office as stated on IMDB’s website.

Genre

There are many typical codes and conventions of horror such as sound, editing, and shots which can be shown in this film. The film creates suspense in the audience as the narrative consists of a countdown to death. The characters in the film are also isolated in a cabin which again follows the stereotypes as most horror films stereo typically includes of being alone. This is what creates fear for the audiences; when they are alone in terrifying situations.

Codes and Conventions

The usage of dark, desaturated colour palette lighting follows the mainstream horror generic convention. There are also many uses of loud thuds during a moment of silence to make the target audience jump and this is why they go to watch horror films. Sound plays a major role in horror films from loud screeching to silent creepy eerie music which can all have an impact on how it affects the audience. It mainly follows a familiar template of having a quiet scene with a loud jump at the end which shocks the target audience.

Camera work and Editing

There are many uses of camera shots throughout the film such as wide shot, long shot, extreme close up shots, low/high angle shots; all of which fits to represent the horror genre. The use of wide shot allows us to view the location of the film to gives us a sense of isolation as it is shot around an isolated cabin. Low and high angle shots portray how we view the film along with extreme close up shots to emphasize the facial expressions of characters. Usually the demonic possessed person/object is shown by a quick jump cut to show a glance of it rather than show it for a long period of time because if this was the case, it would decrease the whole scary image of it and not leave the audience in suspense. In the modern days of producing films, there are lots of uses of CGI (computer generated imagery) to provide a supernatural image creating something that is beyond a person’s imagination. All again, used for the purpose to build fear. The main demonic figures face is obscured by hair in order to not reveal the full face, keeping suspense high by anticipating what it looks like.

Bibliography:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ring/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298130/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The history of horror film

Moodboard

Ideas

Here are a few Ideas that we brainstormed for our Horror Teaser Trailer in order to give as an idea of what kind of locations, mise-en-scene, effects and tittle names we would need to be using:

Introduction

"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones" Stephan King

This blog follows our progressive journey of creating a teaser trailer for our chosen genre...Horror. We decided to name our blog NFY after the initials of our names Nadia, Fatimah, and Yohanna, to represent our work. We are from East London where the most common genre is social realism however we decided to go with a supernatural/spiritual horror to broaden the appealing audience and therefore increasing marketing popularity. This is what influenced us to go with that genre and challenge ourselves.

In our previous AS year, we developed useful skills such as using Photoshop whilst creating our product of a magazine which we will also be producing this year. With this knowledge and skill, we are hoping to bring this forward into our project.