These are stills from orignal horror trailers. The lighting is low key in the majority of the shots and a lot of extreme close ups (ECU's) and close ups (CU's) are used to get the audience feeling involved and able to relate with the characters.
Teaser trailers are usually shorter than the main theatrical trailer and are usually between 60 - 90 seconds long. They outline the plot to the film, without giving too much away. They're often fast-paced and show little detail in the main action.
Click the image to view notes on flickr.
These are screen shots from our own horror teaser trailer. We have developed the forms and conventions of horror products by using low key lighting and high and low angle shots to confuse and disturb the audience. We've also used close up shots to allow the audience to relate with the characters.
We have followed the key conventions of teaser trailers by keeping our trailer down to just roughly 65 seconds and by only letting the audience in on certain information key to the film. In our trailer we have allowed the audience to see the monster and several causes of death, but never reveal the character that has been murdered as we thought that this would give away too much about the storyline, leading the audience to feel that there is nothing left for the to find out and therefore losing sales at the boxoffice. By keeping the identity of the characters that have been tortured or killed, hidden we are giving the audience something to discover when watching the film. We have then included a few fast scenes to make the audience want to view the film to find out more. Within teaser trailers the main protagonist is usually idenitfied by featuring the particular character a lot in the trailer, mainly with extreme close ups and close ups to allow the audience to identify with them. We have recreated this in our own trailer by focusing on the expressions of the character I have played and by using scenes that this character is included in that point to this character being the protagnist eg. the bloody tear mirror shot as this shows the results of somethin gbad that has happened to a particular character after Bloody Mary has been summoned.
Teaser trailers always contain a set of intertitles that lead you through the background story to the film. We have used a single sentence and broken it up into 3 sections to create the impact of suspense as to what is being said. Our chosen tagline for the trailer - "This time, the legend comes alive" tells the audience:
- What exactly the background to this story is - the well known legend Bloody Mary comes to life
- That this is not a common occurence as it is simply believed to be a legend - "This time"
- It clarifies that if the audience is unsure what Blood Mary is exactly, that it is a legend that is said to be resurrected - "the legend comes alive"
The sound in a teaser trailer is vital when creating the suspense and buildup throughout the trailer. We begin our trailer with a slow, ghostly soundtrack that as well as linking to the theme of our film, also creatings a calming yet slighlty disturbing presence to the the beginning of the trailer. By adding dialogue to the few opening shots of our teaser we have set the scene to the storyline of our film. This also creates a sense of normality which is then turned on it's head with the return of an eerie soundtrack as the monster is revealed and followed by a faster paced beat that follows you through the action, building up the suspense which is ended by a harsh hissing sound from the monster. The hiss adds finality to the trailer as well as creating fear towards the audience as they are startled by the sudden sound. By adding loud 'booms' to the close up shots of the sink we are also creating a sense of build up as we show the outcome of summoning Bloody Mary and these sounds make them more apparent and draw your attention to the disturbing scenes.
You have focused on horror conventions. I think you could say more about horror if you reviewed our work on conventions and applied it to the stills you have chosen. More importantly, you have not discussed the product as ADVERTISING - ie how you have deployed TEASER TRAILER conventions. or example, what elements of the narrative did you withhold and what elements did you decide to reveal? Why? Do you enable identification with a protagonist enough? How did you use intertitles to generate that feeling of being carried along and into the story? How did you use sound to generate a feeling of buildup etc etc Reread our work on trailer conventions then apply by adding a section on this at the bottom of the post - stills not necessary here.
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