How our trailer uses forms and conventions of real horror teaser trailers

(click images to read annotations)

CONVENTIONS I ADHERED TO:

 

1. use of a natural/everyday setting - we began with an opening shot of Sean at the bus stop to show a natural setting and to set the equilibrium which as it is a horror, will be broken through the inevitable murder

2. use of bright light - the use of motivated artificial lighting is commonly used in horror as typically locations are dark so lighting is used to create shadows and highlight the characters to we are able to see them. Often torches and matches are used within the scene for this and become part of the mis-en-scene.
3. use of torture - we used shots of torture in our trailer to show what to expect in the film which most horror teaser traielers do also, as well as this it also shows the characters and part of the narrative

4. use of close up of body parts - These shots are similar as they both use a CU of feet instead of the face or injuries. A horror convention is to have a great deal of close ups to show the gore and interesting shots, we followed this convention as it created interesting shots however we also used a range of other shots as we wanted to have a diverse range also.

5. use of hidden identity - Most horror films hide the identity of the killer, usually as that comes at the end of the film, we followed this convention as it makes the narrative more mysterious and then the audience have to see the film to know who the killer is. We also followed a common convention which is to hide the killers face with a mask. This idea is used in 'Scream' 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween', and I think is very effective.

6. CU of victim - although audience feedback said they felt as though they didn't relate to the victim however we did use close ups of Sean in an attempt to allow the audience to identify with him. This shot from 'The Sixth Sense' shows a young male victim, similar to ours and shows a close up of him sleeping.

7. interesting shots using reflections - This shot from Hostel shows a man killing another in the reflection of a mirror. We did a similar shot where you can see a victim hanging but only see him in a mirror which is propped up on a rusty wall. We followed this convention as it makes shots stand out and by showing them in a reflection you don't see everything so makes the audience pay attention as well as creating a unique shot. I don't think the shot would have worked as well if it wasn't in a reflection, and also if it wasn't canted.

8. use of violence - obviously in horror violence and gore and important and we had to incorporate them into our trailer. This shot from 'Stakeland' shows an overtly violent act with blood splattered, while it was difficult to create realistic gore we did attempt it with this shot were we acted the victim getting stabbed. We increased the speed of the knife stabbing to make it look more real and brutal which worked well and looked realistic. If these shots were easier to create, we would have attempted more as we had a lot of ideas and it was a shame they didn't all come to life.

9. use of distribution company - All trailers show the production companies at the beginning and so we used this so our trailer looked as professional as possible

10. intertitles - most trailers use either intertitles or a voice over, but we used both. Intertitles are usually used to either explain the narrative or to give information, we felt we should use both as we wanted our audience to understand the narrative through the voice over and we used an intertitle to keep the audience engaged with our trailer as they would have to read it.

Other conventions which I adhered to are:

music - not all trailers use music, however in horror it is a common convention as the music sets the tone as well as the pace. We used bangs to emphasise the voilence on screen and a slow paced quiet music which worked well with the on screen shots, the music quietened nearing the end unlike most horror trailers which tend to get faster and louder to build up tension and suspence.

title and release date at the end - A common convention not just in horror is the title and release date at the end which we used so that the last thing the audience would see would be the title and release date, the most important components of a trailer.

male killer - as we used a male victim we felt that we had to adhere to the male killer convention however I think that the male killer is the most effective as sometimes a female killer (unless in supernatural horror) often isn't as scary. While you don't ever see the killer's real face you see his body and clothing to show that he is obviously male. I think this is one of the most important conventions as men stereotypically connote strength, power, and intelligence which are characteristics needed in a horror killer for the audience to be scared and the narrative to work.

weapons - we used scissors and a chair leg as our main weapons as we obviously weren't able to source real weapons and also as we wanted to make it more interesting that the common guns and knives. We took our inspiration from Hostel, and originally we had shown a pan of tools on the wall to show a more imaginative and cruel killer. However this didn't make it into the final cut as it didn't flow with the rest of the trailer, unfortunately.

canted angles - while I wasn't able to find any stills of canted angles in horror trailers it is one of the main conventions within the horror genre. We used a few canted angles to give the idea of being watched and show a more interesting shot rather than just the usual straight on camera angle. We also used a moving canted angle with the shot of the victim hanging in the mirror which proved very effective and popular with our target audience.

illusion of being watched - many horror films give this illusion by showing part of another object in the line of view. The opening shot was Sean at the bus stop with half of the shot being a tree to give the illusion of the camera being POV. This is a convention in horror as it makes the audience feel uneasy and creates mystery as they want to know who is watching them.

voice over - many trailers, especially horror trailers use a voice over to explain the narrative as a lot of the time horrors are much more complicated. We decided to use two different voice overs from two different perspectives. This isn't a common convention however having a voice over is and from my research I found them very effective so wanted to incorporate it into our group trailer. The main inspiration for our voice over came from the 'Friday the 13th' trailer which uses Jason's mother's voice narrating, it was very unnerving and effective and we wanted to do a male version of this.

Setting - most horror films use a isolated setting or a creepy setting to create fear at the beginning. Films like Hostel and Frontiers also use foreign countries to show the cultural isolation and lack of understanding, and supernatural films usually use the home like 'Sixth Sence' 'Poltergeist' and 'The Exorcist'. Most gore films like 'Saw', 'Hostel', 'Untraceable' all use isolated settings and places which are hard to find, mostly abandoned factories, cellars and basements. We adhered to this convention and set our trailer in the college boiler room as it is dark, dingy and looks as though it is isolated and abandoned. If we had used just a dark room the mise-en-scene wouldn't have been as effective as it was with the rusty walls, dirty floor and lack of natural lighting. If we hadn't have followed this convention I don't think our trailer would have worked and wouldn't have looked like a horror film, rather a spoof.
Age restrictive - I gave my horror film a 18 certificate as most horror films are so full of violence, gore, bad language and sex that they must. Personally if a horror film is only a 15 I wouldn't go to see it as I would assume that it wouldn't be as scary and a bit 'watered down' to appeal to a greater and younger audience. While I may have lost a percentage of my audience, if this were a real film I doubt it would make much difference to its profit and box office takings, as many people who are underage still manage to see 18's and if not at the cinema they do when they are released for rentals, released on DVD and especially when they premiere on television.
Narrative elements - I only included enough of the plot so that the audience would understand, but not enough as I wanted them to real 'unsatisfied'. I did this as I wanted to follow the convention which all good teasers adhere to, to 'tease'. We only told the audience that the killer could see his victims all the time through the voiceover at the beginning, a brief bit of him being captured, and the rest him being tortured. We purposely didn't show any more as if this were a real film and gave too much away there would be no need to see the actual film and you would lose your audience's attention and the film would 'flop'. We never included the killer's face as in most horrors not knowing who the killer is is much scarier, we used this further at the end as his identity is concealed by a mask and the screen blurs and distorts so that you never find out who it is. Hopefully this means that you have to see the film to understand and feel satisfied. Also we never explored how the killer picked that particular victim, or how many others there were nor why, because of this the audience want to know more about both the killer and the victim.

I adhered to most of the conventions of the horror genre and for teaser trailers so that it looked professional and was of a clear genre

CONVENTIONS I CHALLENGED:

 

non-conventions for blog final Originally uploaded by Sophie Temple

1.Lots of gore - The usual convention for horror teaser trailers are to have a lot of gore to show the high production values as well as the genre. However we didn't use a great deal of gore for many reasons. Firstly as if it was a real teaser you wouldn't want to give away too much of the narrative or too much of the memorable scenes as when you would go to see the film you would have already seen a lot of the good parts.

2. CU of violence - We didn't use many close ups of violence, this is because a lot of our trailer was stunt work and it seemed more effective to show long shots and CU of the blood instead, this also worked I think as then if you did go to see it at the cinema you wouldn't have seen some of the important and memorable scenes.

3. Use of shadows/ natural lighting - While we did shoot some good shots using shadows and lighting effects unfortunately they didn't make it into the final cut as we needed faster paced more interesting shots, and while they were good shots for the film, they didn't work well in the teaser trailer. The shots that we created made the killer look huge connoting his power and dominance over the victim, and we did argue as a group as to whether we should have put them in the final draft as lighting and shows are a common element in horror.

4. Special effects - We weren't able to create any special effects as we didn't have the software, this shot of the sixth sense where it shows some handprints coming up on the table surface and then disappearing is unusual and works well in the supernatural thriller, however such shots aren't common in gore horror which is the genre of our trailer. While special effects could have given our trailer an edge using memorable action sequences we couldn't think of a way to do it as we preferred shorter shots and faster editing which this wouldn't have complimented.

5. Final girl - The main convention of horror is to have a 'final girl' which I have mentioned previously. While we did challenge this convention I think that it did work as many modern horrors have used male victims. We wanted to challenge this convention mainly to make our trailer stand out so that it wasn't the typical and ordinary narrative which most to conform to.


As you can see I followed more conventions than I challenged and the few that I did challenge were to make our work stand out and as some of these conventions were unobtainable on a small budget and with limited resources.