Analysis of Editing in a Horror Movie Trailer

Example: The Purge Anarchy

Production Logos

Every film trailer, regardless of the genre, will start with the production company’s logo. It will sometimes be themed to fit with the genre, however in The Purge: Anarchy, by Universal Studios, there is no need to alter the theme as it’s such a huge, well-known production house.

Pace of Editing

• At the start, shots are longer and more continuous.• When something bad happens, the shots become

shorter, with more transitions and it cuts to black.• Then followed by even shorter shots each with a fade

to black in between them, to speed up the pace of the trailer.

• As the danger starts, there are one second long clips with cuts to black to build the tension.

• The trailer then ends on longer shots once the climax has finished, to show the extent of the violence.

Transitions

• The transitions set the pace of the trailer. • There are no transitions to the next clip at the start of

the trailer, to make the shots seem more continuous and fit in with the calm mood at the time.

• You then get some fade to blacks as the danger begins which then turns to quick cut to blacks to speed the trailer up, in keeping with the growing sense of danger and violence.

• These fast transitions are used to leave the character’s fate unknown to the audience.

Text

• Captions tend to be used in horror films as there isn’t always a lot of dialogue or narration.

• The captions in the purge are in short, basic font.• They appear and disappear in a distorted style to fit

in with the horror theme.• The font fits in with the themes of patriotism and

anarchy – themes that the film aims for, keeping continuity and the genre.