Analysis one

Before we started to film our trailer, i wanted to know exactly what a horror trailer is and also find some already existing trailers.

'Horror movies deliver thrills as well as telling us stories of the dark, forbidden side of life (and death). They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time.'

I got this information from the following website which provides lots of intresting history about horror films http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/

The first triler i analysed was called 'The Summer House'



Mise-en-scene

Initially we see two cars driving down a road, one is bright and the other is darker, and maybe not part of the group? We then cut to a group of friends playing in a lake. This is the equilibrium of the piece. The equilibriam is very short in a horror trailer as it should mainlt be about scarying the audience, not showing the safety and happiness on the screen. We then see a girl in a red/orange top wich has connotaions of danger. The light then hits the screen and all seems well. After the first flash card the trailer gets darker, implying danger. When we see the road sine on the floor there is a bright flash, this is almost the turning point in the trailer from equilibrium to disequilibrium. Now every shot is darker and faster, making the audience feel more tense and on edge.

Sound

Withtin this trailer the sound plays a vital role. It starts of quite happy and almost cautios. the song has a very eary feel to it and is almost haunting. The fact that the sign on the floor warning them is not seen is even more implied by the sound effect added on the top. The song starts to build speed and get more intense as the camera shots speed up. As a flash card appears saying 'survive' intense drums start, making the audience evn more nervous. The haunting sound and singing stop and the music is very intense with sound effects corresponding to the shots. This builds to a climax which stops when the name of the film appears (The Summer House) and then holds on another eary and haunting climax until the trailer ends.

Camera angle shot and movement

The beggining of the trailer has a ixture of shots from close ups to extreme long shots. The length of the shots are between two and five seconds long which is resonably long, showing a sense of safety. At the point of view shot in the lake we can see that the girl is by herself looking at her friends at the edge of the lake. We then see the car in the backround and a sign in the forgorund. We know that this is there car because we have preiously seen it in the establishing shot of the trailer. The sign is quite easy to read and the 'NO' is in red which has connotations of denger. After we see a close up of knives and what appears to be a face, the shts speed up dramatically and consist of a mixture of extreme close ups and extreme long shots. This fast cutting makes the audince feel more tense and edgy.

Editing

The editing withtin this piece is very important. Like the previous two technical codes it starts of reseonably slow but speeds up as we reach disequilibrium. The flash cards are very influential into the tension building within this trailer. We see more flash cards as the editing speeds up. Within the trailer there are many blend edits which give fluidity to he piece.