Teaser Trailer

Conventions of Horror Teaser Trailers

The conventions of horror films vary depending on the type of horror it is. For my case the main convention would be suspense and shock, this is carried out by the producer adding a pause between shots of half a second which allows the shock to be a lot greater. The unreality is also a large part of the horror in my film, with the murderer being a masked freak this is not what a usual film would contain therefore varying the convention. A regular convention would be dark and gloominess as this adds a feeling of suspense to the audience as they are never sure as to what is going to happen next. Anything could occur out of the dark where as in daytime it is easier to tell what is going to happen. Another convention would be blood and gore as this can scare or frighten a large amount of people depending on the way it is used. They can also use knives and guns as this is a way of showing that some sort of harm is going to be caused, this is the main part of my film as the bad guy in my case is carrying a large machete which in the end is going to be used to kill the young man.

Teaser Trailers Textual Analysis

For my teaser trailer I am looking to study the Horror genre, this involves studying trailers which are similar to what I am aiming to do so that I am able to build an understanding of what the conventions of a horror trailer are and how I should be looking to formulate my own trailer. I studied three of the Saw trailers as this is a theme of which I am very keen on. I also studied the human centipede, the exorcist and what lies beneath, so that I got an idea of conventions of other horror movies as well as those I’m looking to create.

The camera work in Saw is generally medium close up shots or low angle shots as these show the power of the person in control or the people who are receiving the pain for example it shows how vulnerable they are and with the medium close up shots in gives the audience a good idea of the pain they are receiving and how terrified they are. Seeing as Saw is generally filmed with one room as the main action station they tend to have cameras in set positions swapping between them every 2 seconds to give the viewing audience a sense of worry and anticipation. By doing this it makes the scene seem that bit scarier as the audience is none the wiser as to what’s about to occur. This is similar in the other films however there trailers the camerawork varies a lot more.

The lighting throughout the trailer tends to differ as at the start it tends to be light but as the action builds it becomes darker to give the scary effect that the audience struggles to see what happens and are looking into the unknown. However by mixing the two gives the audience a sense of what the film is about so that it is not off putting and therefore makes them want to see the film. By filming in darkness is used throughout saw as it is key to making the scenes look a lot more scary but also gives a sense of realism as the room they get locked in is very dirty and therefore darkness portrays that it is not a very nice place.

The mise en scene is the most important part of the saw films as they are what the film is based around. In Saw 1 they are locked in an abandoned bathroom of some sort and are tied up using chains and are only provided with a saw this therefore sets the platform for a very weird and distressing film as there can only be one eventuality.

Therefore for my film I will be looking to use a small room and only provide minimum amounts of props so that the weirdness can be portrayed through my trailer just like it is done in the Saw trailers.

Most trailers use large amounts of editing as the image changes nearly every two seconds therefore requiring the producer to connect a large number of clips so that they make a trailer that is believable to the audience. They also have to edit the soundtrack so that it fits with the clips in the trailer. For example in the saw trailer the clown’s voice is being spoken over the top of the trailer to give the scariness to the audience as we do not expect a murderous clown. Therefore for my trailer I could look at using sound from the clips for some of the trailer but also use a soundtrack which fits to the action that is taking place in the clips.

Therefore when I come to filming my trailer I should look at the saw trailers and use their conventions so that my trailer is similar and contains pieces of the genius which are portrayed throughout the Saw trailers.