Evaluation of horror trailer shot screens.

Rebecca Paterson

Setting and location The shots depicting the setting an location are a series of pans and tracking shots showing a secluded and isolated road of old Victorian houses the purpose of which is to show how isolated and quiet the setting is. This along with the eerie atmosphere adds to the build of tension for the audience to relate to the horror genre.

Costumes The villains in the trailer are clear shown by the symbolism of the top hat and dark clothing. Also by the fact that it is hard to make out their features as this adds a hint of mystery and enigma to the trailer. The purpose of the costume is to add symbolism and motif to the characters.Every character in the trailer is depicted in the same clothes this to help identify the characters as villains or victims, one of the characters is wearing red and this symbolises danger and death, like a foreshadow, as she dies first.

Editing In the trailer there are fades to black and fades out of black this was to cut up each scene so that the trailer wasn’t one big chunk. This is effective in building up tension and enigma to keep the audiences attention. This was also enforced by editing techniques such a jump shots.

Introduction to the characters In the trailer we are introduced to the villain in the child’s form first who is shown to be “spying” out of the window, the sun disfigure her face and the sound in the trailer adds a eerie atmosphere. We are then introduced to the victims as they are moving into the house next door. Then we are introduced to the villain again in the adult form where the link is made between the two ego’s. the introduction to the characters are important as how they are portrayed lets the audience know their identity. This is also helped by the sound on screen.

Special effects In the trailer there is a running theme of a flashing effect (in the scene depicted above, on the title screen and the scene after the title screen) on the scene depicted above we used an effect called blinkers from final cut, this creates enigma and tension in the disequilibrium stage of the trailer. It links in well with the theme and genre of horror.

Opening scene and genreThe opening scene sets the trailer up as it shows the location and introduction to the characters this is important as it allows the audience to relate this information to themselves which in turn leads to them forming a bond with certain characters allowing them to empathise with them and this allows an effective build of tension and enigma in the trailer to allow them to want to go and see the movie. Which is what an effective trailer does. The opening scene also hints to the genre of the movie, as the isolated setting and the “peeping tom” villain, helped by the sound on screen, hints to the audience that the genre is horror, which is important as to inform the audience what type of film it is.

TextThe text that was chosen for the title screen and text for the story line hints is ??? And ???. This text was chosen as it fitted in with the genre of horror, white and red stand out against the black background and all colours are connotations of the horror, good against evil, blood, danger, and death.