Film Trailer Analysis

For our final piece of research, I had to look at and analyse other film trailers based on the genre I had chosen. I did this so that I could further my knowledge and understaningd of how film trailers worked and learn the typical conventions of them, especially in horror films.
The three horror films that I choose were:
The Shining
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Silent Hill

Trailer Analysis
The Shining

•   Male voice over. Lays out the film with a simple line “I don’t suppose they told you anything in Denver about the tragedy we had up here during the winter” 
•  Trailer opens with a long shot. Car moving across a country road, desolate.
  
  
  
•  Mountains in the background. One single road. Immediately gives the impression of isolation and mystery.
  
• Long, wide shot of the hotel (castle) with mountains as a backdrop and surrounded by trees. Reinforces the idea of an isolated place.
  
  
  
•  Voice over continues to tell the story with no apparent meaning.
  
•  Interior shots of the hotel. Empty and abandoned. Seemingly harmless but adds mystery and suspicion.
  
•  Voice over delivers the final line “killed his family with an axe”. Intense and disturbing. However it attracts the viewer’s attention and intrigues them into what why the tragedy happened
  
  
  
• The music builds to a crescendo. High pitched screeching sound. Makes the viewer uncomfortable and suspicious.
  
• Crescendo ends in sync with the final sentence. At the same time a deranged man wielding an axe smashes a door.
  
•  So far the colours in the trailer have been bland and dull, showing no life or vibrancy, which again reinforces the idea of isolation.
  
•  Quick editing between scenes shows the antagonist and his family.
  
  
  
•  This gives background and pretence to the story, revealing a little bit more about the plot.
  
•  Also adds a bit more humanity to the trailer, for instance, it finishes with the long, dark, mysterious scenes of the castle and its surroundings.
  
•  More colour and vibrancy is added.
  
  
  
•  Single second shot of the son screaming. Makes it more intense and brings back that feeling of mystery.
  
• The editing between the clips, especially the vibrant ones in comparison to the other long shots of remote areas, include a lot of fades. This adds tension to the trailer.
  
•  The sound is creepy and off putting, keeps the viewer on edge and makes them anxious.
  
•  The following editing is jumpy which makes it more intense and adds to the tension and horror of the film.
  
•  Violins build suspense and quick cuts add to that. More action starts happening.
  
•  The following shots are dark and mysterious. They reveal more about the plot and have confirmed the viewer’s idea that something bad is going to happen.
  
•  There are a lot of cuts that are out of context to the beginning and middle of the trailer. This is purposely done to confuse the viewer and make them feel uncomfortable, adding to the intensity of the trailer. 

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

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• Trailer starts with a shot of a lonely house in the middle of nowhere. Completely white with snow. This shows isolation and fear, and the blanket of white creates tension and the mystery of the film.
  
  
  
• Low shot of the man up in the window; this builds tension and gives the character mystery.
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• Editing of “Based on a true story” does two things, it intrigues the viewer as well as scares them. It makes the film more realistic
  
  
  
• Following writing sets the scene and describes the plot. Background information on characters.
  
• Continuation of the desolate, bleak colours of white and grey which plays on the emotion of fear and shows isolation.
  
• The scene with the tape and the girl screaming play on the fear on the viewer, making them anxious but interested.
  
• More close up shots of the man show that he is disturbed or troubled by certain events that are to become clear in the film. Gives the viewer incentive to keep watching.
  
• A few short and sharp cuts add tension to the trailer.
  
• The scene where the bed moves with the women in it sets the scene, adds mystery as to who is behind it and plays on the viewers fear.
  
• It gives the viewer a teaser of what is to come.
  
• Further scenes in and outside the courtroom add further background information to an ever revealing plot.
  
• More short scenes with dramatic music and dialogue, adds more information but also builds up tension and fear of the horror film.
  
• Dialogue like “there are no injections against the Devil” are powerful and revealing, furthermore, the close up shot as the man delivers the line shows the emotion in his face and body language, which shows fear.
  
• Light choral music creates tension and mystery. The theme of desolate and bleak colour is continued. Dark prison cell, dark church, dark and mysterious hospital room.
  
• Following scenes contain dramatic and scary images of evil and possession, revealing even more about the film and again playing on the fears of the viewer, but still keeps them interested.
  
  
  
• More short sharp cuts in editing. Background music also experiences cuts and peaks with screeching.
  
• Towards the end of the trailer there are a lot of quick fade in, fade out cuts. This is to show that the pace of the film/trailer has picked and that is in full flow. Shows action and drama.
  
• Continue with scary flashing scenes, playing on the viewers fear.
  
• The trailer reaches the climax of the action after the crucial dialogue “It has begun”. The dialogue itself shows that everything is about to happen. Plays on fear. Quicker sharp cuts, lots of lights and flashing images create more tension and fear.
  
• The trailer ends with the light choral music and the aftermath of the horrific scenes.

Silent Hill

• Two separate shots of a woman and her daughter. Shows the audience a picturesque image of a happy family a supposed happy family. The image contains a long shot of the pair under a tree in the sun.
• The voice over is by the female mother character, describing the events that her daughter gets up to while asleep. This gives the audience a hook, something that intrigues them to continue to watch the trailer and draws them into the storyline.

• The music in the background adds a feel of intensity and interest. It plays the story out in the beginning of the trailer. The voice over gives more of the storyline away, intriguing the audience more.
• There are continuous shots, with sharp cuts between each one of a car driving along a long stretch of road at night. This again gives the audience a feeling of intensity and gives the storyline as well as the trailer a destination. There is brief text saying ‘Toluca County, West Virginia’ which gives the film a setting.
• A brief scene inside the car in which the mother and daughter are still driving towards their destination. There is low lighting due to the fact it is night, but it also gives the scene an edge of creepiness that intrigues the audience. This is followed by a shot of the radio crackling and the music stopping. This again gives the audience a hook, which makes them understand that something strange is about to happen and hopefully any of their questions about the beginning of the trailer will be answered.

• The following scene still only involves the original two characters, the mother and daughter. This makes the audience question what their background is and how they have ended up in this situation, a question that would only be answered by watching the film.
• The next few scenes contain only the mother. This makes the audience more interested in the daughter and what has happened to her.

 

• Also in the next few scenes, there a several different shots (long shots, close ups and profile shots) that are of the mother in a completely changed setting. It has gone from darkness to and abandoned road in light, covered in ash.
• Throughout these scenes there is still silence and no added non digetic sound. This adds more suspense to the scene, making it more interesting for the viewer to watch.
• There is a pan of the camera to a billboard that has the name of the film on it. The name of film obviously has a vital part in the plot of the movie. As the pan takes place, there is a sharp high pitched crescendo of music which stops as there is a cut to black, followed by the mother shouting her daughter’s name in the darkness. This adds creepiness to the film and puts the audience on edge, as they have no idea about what is to happen next. The crescendo music then cut to black is classic horror movie convention.

• There are then a few very effective sharp cuts that show time passing and the mother walking down an apparently abandoned road.
• There have been three major changes of colour throughout the trailer. It has gone from a happy yellow and orange at the beginning, to a dark black, which is because of the night, but also shows the mystery and intensity of what is to happen next. Then the final change is to a bleak grey and white, which creates tension and mystery.
• The voice over is dialogue taken from the film that continues to tell the story and give details away about the plot. The voice over is of the mother again, and is put over scenes of her desperate struggle to find her daughter. Another character is introduced and that gives the impression of a father figure. 
• More text that displays ‘what was once an ordinary town’, which gives more away about the plot and the setting. The mix of the bleak and abandoned town coloured in grey and white means the audience can start putting together pieces of the plot.

• Another voice over is added of a deep male voice, which completely changes the pace of the film. The scenes that play alongside the voice over are made up of quick cuts and shots of a town ravaged by disaster.
•  There is more text, adding more to the plot, and making the trailer more mysterious keeping the audience on edge and making them want to find out more.

• Following scenes are made up of the mothers search for her daughter through the town. To keep the viewer interesting and wanting to see more, there are quick cuts with high pitched choral music, followed by long shots of the town in silence.

• More text is added, over fast paced music the builds higher into a crescendo. The text proclaiming exactly what the viewer feels, ‘mysteries without answers’.
• There is the continuation of black and white colour, which not only adds to the tension and anxiety of the viewer, but brings back the suspense and mystery. 
• The father figure comes back into the trailer, proclaiming that the woman is his wife. This gives the viewer the ability to piece together some idea of the family.
• There are then quick cuts between the mother and her struggle to find her daughter, and her daughter looking possessed. This adds suspense to film, and his further backed by the high pitched screeching sound in the background.
• The audience is then given another piece of text, and a loud wailing sound begins in the background. This is done to build up tension in the audience.
• This is followed with quick cuts of people fleeing in terror and dialogue of scared and anxious characters.
•  Over the course of the last few scenes, the colouring of the trailer has got darker and darker, and the shots of the characters have become more obscure. This is to put the audience on edge and keep them in suspense. It is a convention of horror that is used to frighten and put the viewer on edge.

•  The idea of the darkness is continued in the next scenes, after it cuts from scene to scene of the mother in some sort of hell. This puts a completely new spin on the trailer, and essentially throws the audience off balance as it lays out the rest of the plot.
• This is continued by disturbing scenes that show content of the films plot. Intriguing the reader on wanting to find out the truth behind the film. The music in the background is also creepy and adds to the suspense of the film.
• The scenes of the mother in this hell get longer and more in depth, revealing more about the plot and interesting the audience more, creating tension. This is reinforced by the music building into a slow crescendo. The crescendo ends with a cut to a black screen. This again adds to the suspense and continues to intrigue the viewer.
• Finally there are 10 scenes that are effectively cut in time with a non digetic heart beat in the background. The scenes show the mother still in her struggle to find the daughter and the hell that surrounds her. Therefore the plot and direction of the film have been given to the audience so that they can try and predict what happens next.