A N A L Y S I S O F 1 0 ‘ D E C E I T ’ T R A I L E R

STILL SHOTS

This is a close up of Stephanie starting up the car. We found that this was a good shot to use in the beginning of our film trailer, as it shows that the

characters are heading off somewhere in the car. This shot is just purely used to highlight the importance of the car. We got inspiration for this shot by

looking through the different types of shots from the film trailer ‘The Cabin in the Woods’. We came across this one (right) and decided that it would be a

great idea for us to use a similar shot. This was all to make our film trailer look as conventional as possible.

This is a two shot/mid shot. This shot was to show the characters driving in the middle of nowhere as they are lost. The audience can see that Lauren is reading

the map and Stephanie is driving, showing that they have authority over the other characters. We didn’t intend to, but it looks like we have subconsciously copied the same type of shot used in the film trailer ‘The Cabin in the Woods’

(right). We have practically mirrored what they have done. As this shot has been used in a ‘real’ existing product, it makes our own film trailer seem more realistic

and conventional.

This is a wide shot. In this shot we have all of the characters on screen and they are being shown walking to their destination (in the woods). Lots of

conventional trailers have shots of characters going to their destination, e.g. ‘When a Stranger Calls’ and also ‘Chernobyl Diaries’ (left). We thought that we should include a similar shot to the one from ‘Chernobyl Diaries’, but instead of

the characters walking towards the camera, we had them walking away to show that they are moving away from normality and heading somewhere ‘bad’. When we were editing, we cut this shot up and joined them together to crate a

jump cut, this was to show the passing of time.

This is an establishing shot. An establishing shot is usually used for location shots. It sets the scene and tends to be a wide shot allowing for most of the

background to be seen. Our establishing shot is the location in which the characters will be situated (Remenham Woods). These type of shots are

conventional to all genres, this is why we made sure we used one so our film trailer would be conventional. The image to the right is a still shot from the film

trailer ‘Eden Lake’. This was an inspirational shot from that trailer.

This is a master shot of all the characters, while Sarah talks, the others listen. From what we know, a master shot is where all the characters are in view from the same angle all the way through the scene. We thought it would be a great idea to show all the characters happy at the beginning as it is conventional for the beginning of a horror trailer. Our main inspiration for this shot was from the film trailer ‘Chernobyl Diaries’. This still (right) shows what shot we got inspired by, as one of the characters was talking to the rest and they were all in the shot

together.

This is one of our inter-titles. As you can see the text is white on a black background, which is conventional to most film trailers. The blacks main purpose is to help the white stand out, but it also creates a ‘fear of the unknown’ as it is darkness. The font we used for this inter-title was called ‘Freaky Typewriter’, a

font which we downloaded off of DaFont. We got our main idea for the font type when we looked at the inter-title from the Paranormal Activity trailer (print screen

right). We believe we have followed the conventions of inter-titles in the horror genre very well, making ours look very realistic.

This is a long shot of Stephanie when she is lost and looking for the others. A long shot is when the subject is captured in full length. This helps to establish the

characters, and to also provide the audience with the most information. In this case, the long shot is helping us to convey loneliness and vulnerability. We

believe we have conveyed this well as the character is shown on her own in the middle of the woods with no other characters in sight. The still shot from the

French film trailer ‘Ils’ (right) is also a long shot. This is the one shot out of the whole trailer that we thought worked really well and better than most of the

others, so we decided to do a similar thing.

This is an ‘over the shoulder’ shot of Sarah talking to Stephanie. This shot is used in many films and TV programmes. It is usually used to show the

conversation between two characters. We saw many shots like ours used in different film trailers. The lighting in this shot was hard to do. As we knew we

were going to film this particular shot in the dark, we tried to find similar shots in the dark from many trailers. Here (right) we have a still from ‘Chernobyl

Diaries’. They have cleverly used a torch to light up the characters faces, we used this as inspiration for our own film trailer so we could try and follow the

lighting conventions of the horror genre.

This is a close up of one of the characters screaming. This is when the frame is filled with an object or a subject. It highlights importance, show details and

allows the audience to engage with intensity. This type of shot is commonly used within the horror genre, so we made sure that we used them in our own

production to make it conventional. The still from the ‘Chernobyl Diaries’ trailer (right) shows a similar close up to our own. This was because it was our main

source of inspiration, and we think that we have used it well.

This is an extreme close up of a characters (Lauren’s) face. An extreme close up is when an object fills the frame unnaturally and appears to be larger than it is. This shot draws attention and might connote stalking, fear or anxiety. This type of shot is very conventional within the horror genre as it helps the audience to get close to the characters fear, making them become aware and copy how they feel. The

still from insidious (right) is showing another extreme close up. This was where we got our main inspiration for this shot. Following the horror genre conventions

made sure we would get the genre across to the audience.