Conventions of a horror trailer

'Devil' synopsis

Looking at synopsis and the similarities that it shares with other horror synopsis:

These colours represent:

Green: Characters

Orange: Protagonist

Red: Plot

Blue: Villain

Devil:

The film begins with a person committing suicide by jumping from a building narrated by Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) who mentions that his mother tells him stories of the Devil roaming the earth, and it always begins with a suicide. Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) is called to the scene to aid in the investigation. Bowden is a recovering alcoholic devastated by the death of his wife and child in a hit-and-run accident by a driver who was never caught. As this is happening, five strangers, who have committed various crimes in the past, step onto an elevator located within the same building where the suicide has taken place.

The five strangers include Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), a temp security guard with a violent past; an elderly woman (Jenny O'Hara) who is a compulsive thief; Vince (Geoffrey Arend), a mattress salesman who moonlights as a con artist; Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), a former mechanic who served in the U.S. military during the War in Afghanistan who is now seeking employment within the building; and Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), a greed encompassed heiress meeting with her lawyer in the building.

Strange things start to occur beginning with the elevator becoming stuck between floors. Then, after the lights go out, Sarah is inexplicably wounded on her back. The remaining occupants of the elevator quickly begin to suspect Vince of having committed the assault. Slowly, one by one, the five strangers start to die. First, Vince is killed by a shard of glass from a mirror which slices his jugular vein. Detective Bowden, sensing a connection between this and the man who earlier committed suicide in the same building, is compelled to further investigate. Checking the building's guest log, Bowden finds that only four people have missed their scheduled appointments that day: Sarah, Vince, Ben, and Janecowski. The investigators misinterpret the latter as Jane Cowski and assume this is the old woman's name, leaving Bowden suspicious of Tony who appears to be the only undocumented occupant.

With the help of the buildings security team, Bowden examines security footage and discovers that the old woman had stolen a wallet prior to entering the elevator. The office building's repairman is sent down the elevator shaft to fix it, but plummets to his death. During a power outage, the old woman is found hanging by the neck from an electrical cord and presumed dead. Sarah and Ben turn on Tony, while Bowden begins to suspect that Sarah's husband has hired Ben to kill her. A security guard inspects the basement and electrocutes himself attempting to secure a hot fallen wire. The lights go out again and Ben is dead with his neck completely twisted around. Each thinking the other must be responsible for the murders, Tony and Sarah prepare to fight each other with broken glass, but Bowden seemingly manages to calm them. As Sarah prepares to take out a shard of glass hidden in her back pocket, the lights once again go out and her throat is slashed. The mystery seems solved, when a tattooed woman arrives and informs Bowden that Tony is her fiance, and was at the building for a job interview. Only then is his full name revealed to be Tony Janecowski.

The old woman suddenly rises and appears behind Tony. It is now apparent that she is the Devil who has taken a human form. Having dispensed of the others, The Devil tells Tony its his turn to die. Detective Bowden watches through the CCTV as Tony confesses to killing two people in a drunken hit-and-run accident. Tony had been trying to grab another beer while driving and had not seen where was going. Tony says "I'm so sorry." and Bowden had a car wash coupon that says "I'm so sorry" on the back. At which point the Devil is forced to spare him (as he confessed his sin and apologized for it) and disappears as the firemen finish breaking into the elevator. Detective Bowden realizes Tony is the one who killed his wife and son, but expresses his forgiveness en route to the police station following his arrest.

The film ends with Ramirez telling the audience that his mother always reassured him at the end of her stories, "If the Devil is real, God must also be real."

www.imdb.com/title/tt1314655/synopsis

Once looking at the synopsis for the 'Devil' film I found that it has some similarities with the film 'Saw'. For instance in both films the characters have all committed a sin or have done some wrong in their past, where they are then tortured by the villain for doing so. I found that these type of story scar their audiences by trying to show a lesson such as, 'if you don't follow the moral codes in life then you will become that victim.' (social control)

I also thought that the 'Devil' film brakes the rules of horror conventions by teasing the audience and then doing something that they wouldn't expect. For example having the villain as an old woman instead of the stereotypical murderous male character. This completely breaks the conventions.

Bloodshed High Presentation

Applying Conventions of Trailers:

Bloodshed High

In order to apply with the recognisable conventions of trailers in groups, we came up with ideas about how to market and promote 'Bloodshed High'. To do this we came together in small groups to discuss what we felt the most important aspects were of a trailer.

In our presentation we included our unique selling point which would make our trailer stand out from all the others. Our unique selling point was that we would have an unusual twist where the killer in our horror film would be the most popular and likable cheerleader character. We decided to have this kind of twist to shock our audience. The way in which we would achieve this effect on the audience would be to show in the trailer that she is the heroin and that the boy who has been bullied in the story looks like the killer and is punishing the people who made his school life hell.

For the main characters we decided to use Asa Butterfield who plays the main character as the British boy who gets bullied, Dakota Fanning who plays the popular cheerleader who ends up supporting and fighting for the innocent and attacked character of Asa Butterfield. I thought that these characters were perfect for the part since Asa has that look of being quite innocent and naive, where Dekota looks quite womanly and can play a character where she can be bold and someone that everyone likes to watch on the screen.

ASA BUTTERF

IELD

Asa Butterfield's fansite: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/asa-butterfield

Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Asa-Butterfield/36720384454

DEKOTA FANNING

Dekota Fanning's fansite with pictures and videos:http://www.fanpop.com/spots/dakota-fanning

Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dakota-Fanning-Fansite/293121254702

We decided to use

the band Linkin Park's music. My group and I thought that their genre of music would suite scenes where there are fast and dramatic shots. This is the song that is used in one of the killing scenes:

Here is Linkin Park's 'myspace' fan site for more details on the band: http://www.myspace.com/linkinpark/music

My group and I decided to use 'Twisted Pictures' as our production company for the film 'Bloodshed High'. We thought that this would be a good production company to use since it mainly creates films of horror genre. 'Twisted Pictures' would also be quite a useful selling point since it's mostly known for the production of the 'Saw' series; which audiences would realise through the trailer. This type of promotion would attract audiences that love the 'Saw' series which would be a wide range of audiences and bring the publicity of the film up.

Editing and Film Styles

Looking at different types of editing and film styles:



Editing:
At the beginning of this trailer there is a voice over of characters talking showing a tape being recorded. This makes the scene or shot seem more realistic making it more intriguing. They have also used sentences to tell the audience what they are listening to. This type of editing has almost a documentary style to it. They've used slow and relaxing shots at the beginning to lure the audience in so that the shock of the different shot types have a greater impact on them.
As the trailer goes on the shots become much faster and the sound increases, this creates a chaotic atmosphere allowing the audience to feel an intensity of suspense.
This film cleverly makes something that seems so out of the ordinary so realistic. Allowing the audience to be entranced and lured into the film.

Editing:
In this trailer there is a lot of different editing used, such as fast moving shots, slow moving shots, computer editing and text.

At the beginning of the trailer the shots are quite slow which foreshadows the fast pace tension building shots. The audience are introduced straight after the slow shots to the main plot of the film. However, this doesn't ruin it for the audience instead it makes it more enticing. The music also enhances the tension and creates a more heavy atmosphere of horror.

Introduction

Welcome to this years most thrilling, most exciting and heart racing trailer of your life. The new up coming film, 'Final Deadline' will be out in your cinemas in October 31st.
We're allowing you to see the journey of the making of 'Final Deadline' and experience the hardcore thrill just from watching the film trailer.

This is the official site of 'Final Deadline' where you will see the steps in making this trailer from the preliminary task, to the images used and our influences to of course the final piece.

Analysing a trailer





In this trailer the title is shown at the end.




This is a a significant devise which many trailers do, this is done so that it intrigues the audience and almost spell bounds them needing to know what the new film is about. Once the title 'Devil' is shown at the end it makes the trailer seem more dramatic and a must see. It's also done to build the anticipation up, all the feelings that you get from watching the trailer whether it's excitement or maybe sadness it is all then built up through seeing the title at the end which makes it more intense.


In most trailers the audience are told who is staring in the film whether it's at the beginning or at the end. This information is given to an audience because if it's an actor or actress that is really well known or if the staring actor is an audience favourite then it pulls the audience in and makes them want to see the film more. However, in this trailer they haven't shown the staring actors that appear in the film. This maybe done because they don't want that to be the reason for their selling point, they want the story to be their unique selling point instead.
In this film there isn't action in the sense that there is fighting but it's shown in a different way.............















From the music you know that the film trailer is advertising a horror built with suspense film. The music sounds quite calm, slow but high pitched which is used in a lot of horror films to make it seem more taunting. Once the action in the trailer starts the music becomes more harsh, violent as though the music is building up the tension for us.

This trailer doesn't have a voice over instead they have used words to make an effect on the audience. These are the examples of this:

Doing this provides more tension and suspense for an audience which makes it much more effective than having a voice over, which sometimes can take away the sitting on the edge of you seat feel.

The speed in the trailer varies from slow and calm to very fast and dramatic.

The information that we are given in the very last frame of the trailer suggest that the devil character is unlikely to be human, however this may not be entirely true due to other parts of the trailer. This intrigues the viewers and makes them want to watch the film to prove there sceptical theory correct.

I find that a trailer is much more gripping than a poster as it previews exciting parts from the film whereas the poster can only plant one image in ones brain. Trailers also give the viewer a preview of startling moments in the film which excite the viewer and makes them want to watch the film more than a poster would.

a) I would expect to see this trailer before horror films in the cinema as it fits with that genre and would attract the same audience.

b) I would expect to see this film trailer in the advert breaks of late night thriller program's such as 'CSI' or such like. This trailer would generally be on more later at night when adults would predominantly be awake and watching television.

Titles vs Images

Titles vs Images

The font of the title 'Girl, Interrupted' is quite an unusual font and not a sort of font you would use for a film title. However, this style of font is quite child like which enhances the word 'Girl' in the title which suggests there is a theme of innocents and being looked after. This also allows the audience to have some information about the film but still keeping mystery to it. The use of the word 'Interrupted' also suggests that the genre could be a drama or a memoir of some type. The word it's self suggests that a character in the film is unhinged or scared mentally. The style of font could also be seen as written with an unsteady hand which links to maybe characters feeling unsteady within themselves. The title is placed across the main image looking as though it has been ripped across the woman's face. This could also suggest that the character has been stripped of her personality, making the audience think about the film a drawing them into seeing it.
The main image on the poster is quite subtle but shows a lot of emotion through it. We as the audience only see half of the woman's face suggesting a hidden personality or a secret which needs to be unraveled. The woman's eye that is shown looks almost startled or maybe confused, this already reveals to the audience the character's personality but still keeping mystery with only showing half of her features. The pale but rosy colour used on the woman's face suggests innocence which contrasts with her dark eye brows and eye lashes giving the audience two sides of the character (the dark and the pure). However the second image on the poster is much more seductive but quite stern at the sane time. The woman in the second image is almost looking at woman one in quite a jealous way suggesting to the audience conflict between both characters.

This title is quite interesting and unlike the other film title it's more intriguing and eye catching for an audience. The style of font is bold and the whit colour used for the font makes the title stand out. The style of the title looks like it's eroding, linking to the name 'Buried', suggesting rotting corps or people dieing. This title has less mystery to it and gives much more away to the audience through the title and image. In the word 'Buried' the 'i' is in the form of a lighter suggesting to the audience that the character has been buried alive giving them information of the plot on the film. The male character in the image looks like he has been caught in action screaming. This is shown through the blurred face of the man, suggesting pain and helplessness. The image also gives information on what kind of genre the film is through the man caught in action suggesting that it's a horror and maybe a journey of what the character will go through during the film. The audience is also shown that the male character isn't just buried in the earth but in a wooden box, this give them even more information on the film and that it could be a premeditated action on burring someone alive meaning the film could be about a phys co murderer.


I find that both images and words are equally important. For instance images allow your imagination to create a story and the words also allow your imagination to do the same thing but still allowing more mystery and still influencing the audience to want to see the film. Images work together to intrigue an audience and draw them in through the creativity to the language used.