FILMS

The ins and outs of a horror trailer

Eden and I have chosen to go

with our first idea of making a

contemporary horror trailer as we both

love watching the horror trailers more

than any other genre and we will love

the production stages and planning and

research around this genre too (which

is always an advantage).

HORROR

• noun 1) an intense feeling of fear, shock, or

disgust. 2) a thing causing such a feeling. 3) intense

dismay. 4) informal a bad or mischievous person,

especially a child.

WHERE DID IT ALL START?

Early horror films were surreal, dark pieces, owing their visual

appearance to the expressionist painters and their narrative style to the

stories played out by the Grand Guignol Theatre Company. Darkness and

shadows, such important features of modern horror, were impossible to

show on the film stock available at the time, so the sequences, for example

in Nosferatu, where we see a vampire leaping amongst gravestones in what

appears to be broad daylight, seem doubly surreal to us now. Nonetheless,

these early entries to the genre established many of the codes and

conventions still identifiable today. They draw upon the folklore and legends

of Europe, and render monsters into physical form e.g. Frankenstein .

WHAT DO HORROR FILMS DO ?

Horror films, when done well and with less

reliance on horrifying special effects, can be

extremely potent film forms, tapping into our dream

states and the horror of the irrational and unknown,

and the horror within man himself.

IMDB TOP FIVE HORROR FILMS

1.What Lies beneath –October 2000 - Gross =

$155M

2.The Gremlins - December 1984 - $148

3.The Blair Witch Project – October 1999 - $141M

4. The Ring –February 2003 - $129M

5.The Grudge –November 2004- $110M

HORROR IN THE 00’S

The defining event of this decade in the Western world was the morning

of September 11th 2001, when people turning on news were forgiven for

thinking that they'd already tuned into a horror film of some kind. The

panicked shock emerging from great clouds of smoke and those images -

played over and over - of planes ripping into the twin towers of New York

City, instantly created a new language in horror. Once again, with

previously unimagined monsters now looming on the horizon, horror films

have begun to try and make sense of the War on Terror's war on us.

http://www.empireonline.com/features/horror-through-the-decades/6.asp

HORROR STARS

Clowns

Monsters

Physco killers

Vampires

Ghosts

Dolls

Witches

Mutants

Devils

CONVENTIONS

We realised when watching the horror trailers two

main types of trailers. The first starts of with a very

laid back atmosphere with maybe a group of friends

or family not expecting whatever is going to happen

next . The other type grips the audience from the

start asking rhetorical questions and scaring the

viewers. There are obviously trailers which are

different to this and do not follow conventions that I

have seen in the horror trailers i have watched.

Involves fast paced editing such as jump cutting,

dissolves and fades are commonly used to merge

scenes, add pace and atmosphere to the trailer.

Little clarity in fast paced sections, leaves more

to the viewers imagination and creates suspense.

Low key ,dark lighting –hides features ,darkness

in forces the idea of fear of the unknown.

Rural locations are often used .

Victim – usually female characters are

represented as the weaker and at more risk

Weapons are essential convention of

horror trailers.

Text - ‘the biggest scare this summer’

Blood is a common convention used and is

used as the main symbol for horror movies.

Variety of camera shots show the victims perspective from

different angles .

Iconography is constantly used so that the audience know

that they are watching the horror genre.

Fear of the unknown is a conventions used or should be

used in all horror films.

One last scare keeps the audience on the edge.

Non diegetic sounds are added for dramatic effect.