I have decided to analyse some horror films as this is the genre my trailer will be. By doing this it will help me to find out what are common conventions of horror films. It will also help broaden my ideas.
The first trailer i have analysed is Wolfman which is due to release in February 2010. Here is the trailer;
The trailer starts in a dark and gloomy forest with a man that is walking with a lantern. The mise-en-scene looks threatening and makes the character look vulnerable the sound starts off as slow strings that gradually builds up. You then here a slash off the wolves claw and you see a close up of his reaction. One of the characters voices is used as a narrative voice over which helps explain the story. His voice is deep and croaky which gives a more scary effect. The music gets faster and louder as more action takes place and the action gets scarier and scarier building up to a big scare at the end. The use of elliptical editing also helps to create the scary effect as it is only showing short snaps of events which helps create suspense. As the narrator says full moon the universal logo turns into the moon in the scene. A lot of the editing fades to black then fades back up again which is a common convention in horror trailers. The mise-en-scene of every shot is mainly dark and gloomy and the costumes fit into the setting of the past which makes the film believable. The use of a bridge suggests the community is isolated. Like many horror films a lot of things are emerging from shadows which makes the audience scared. Like all trailers it is a common convention to keep the beast/monster hiding so in this trailer we always seem to get close ups or extreme close ups of the wolf as they don't want to show too much and spoil the film for the viewers, we also see the wolf in the flare of the gun but it is only for a split second. They use a match edit with the girl in bed to the boy in bed which shows the two characters could be related. The girl lights the candle which in some movies connotate that she could be the light in the story, the heroine type of girl. The editing is always moving there is a quick cut, then the camera is moving towards a character then another cut then the camera is moving away from a character which makes the film seem exciting, like there is always something happening. The quick snappy editing stops the audience seeing too much. By using the point of view shot of the wolf running through the forest it helps make us feel sympathetic towards him. Iconic lines are used in the trailer 'Darkness comes for you' which the audience will remember. The quote 'let me help you' suggests he isn't evil he has been taken over. Quotes like these are normally shown in a different place to what it is in the original film. At the end it is all quiet with a girl in the forest the music isn't there any more and you can here the girl heavy breathing. She looks very vulnerable alone in the forest and we can see the wolf looking for her in the background which creates suspense. Then the last big scare is the wolf growling.
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1 comment:
Wow you have took alot of thought in analysisng these trailers.
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