Trailer Overview

Below are the 8 film trailers which I have chosen to compare to find conventions that they all follow.

'SINISTER'

'WOMAN IN BLACK'

'THE GRUDGE'

'THE DEVIL INSIDE'

'THE LAST EXORCISM'

'THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE'

'THE POSSESSION'

'PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3'

Film trailers are extremely important features in the marketing campaign for movies. They are usually shown in the cinema before the movie is played, but also they are played on television, on DVD’s and are regularly searched on ‘www.youtube.co.uk’. Film companies have taken advantage of this viral take over and so produce trailers in hope that video sharing websites such as ‘YouTube’ will promote them further. Trailers are usually a short, condensed version of the film and go to the extremes of the genre to display an exciting and captivating narrative, for example, in a horror trailer they would show all the ‘best bits’ of the movie to ensure that the target audience are lured into watching the movie and so they feel obliged into watching the movie after being teased by the trailer. Along with the narrative, trailers also reveal the exciting stars featuring in the movie and information on the production team. However the shots are not shown in chronological order and so the scare factor is still predominant when watching the movie.

The film trailers we see today have been developed over many years; originally film trailers only consisted of short clips which featured parts of the move with a narrative running alongside. There may have also been a soundtrack, straps and a cast run. The trailer below is for the movie ‘Casablanca’ and is an example for this structure. 

'CASABLANCA'

In the 60’s films began changing due to the more liberal and free age of cultural, this meant that the films needed a new type of promotion to  keep up with the times; Andrew J. Kuehn was responsible for this change within film trailers in 1964. Kuehn created the company Kaleidoscope which is responsible for producing trailers for some of the biggest movies, for example ‘ET’ by Steven Spielberg. Kuehn stated himself that ‘a trailer has but one goal: to draw audiences out of their houses and into a theatre; to do that you have to set up a sense of urgency. In the process of arriving at that forced pace, we advanced the style of editing. We really pushed the envelope in terms of what audiences would accept’.

'E.T'

There are two main formats for film trailers; the first is called a teaser trailer which is used to pique the selected target audience’s interest. Teasers are released well before the expected release date of the film so that they can build anticipation and curiosity amongst the target audience. Usually a teaser trailer will last between 30-60 seconds and will include rough footage from the film, as the movie itself has not been completed. In some cases a teaser trailer may contain footage which is not in the actual movie due to editing of the movie closer to the release date.  The second format of a trailer is the theatrical trailer. These are normally shown in the cinemas a few months before the movie is due to be released and they are sometimes slightly shortened so they can appear on television. Also they are much longer ranging between 3-4 minutes.

Looking at the eight examples above they all seem to have similar format. They all have a beginning where the protagonists life is shown to be tranquil and almost ‘too good to be true’; this is known as the equilibrium. This equilibrium is then followed by the problem. The audience begin to see some sort of disruption in the characters life, here the editing for images and sound decreases and there is often a narrator or ‘straps’ to explain the narrative to the audience. At this point the editing speeds greatly and we see a montage of fast images displaying the character in great danger and thoroughly building up the audience’s anticipation. This fast editing continues until the end of the trailer and then end abruptly leaving the audience awed and in some cases further frightening them with a ‘sting’. This structure follows the beginning stages of Todorov's narrative theory, however trailers do not show the last stage which is the reinstatement of the equilibrium, to achieve the perfect balance of revealing the narrative, whilst at the same time maintaining intrigue. Lets look at 'The Last Exorcism' trailer; the trailer begins with the protagonist, Reverend Cotton Marcus, happily about to retire after he carries out his 'last exorcism'. As the trailer progress we begin to see our disruption at the point 0:55. For the duration of the trailer the audience witnesses Reverend Cotton Marcus trying to find a resolve but at 2:00 the audience are left with one final demonic image of possession and the trailer ends on a cliff hanger and so urging the audience to go and see the complete movie. 

Another way the trailers try to portray the narrative is by using straps. From the eight examples above, all the trailers apart from ‘The women in black’, ‘the devil inside’ and ‘The Possession’ use straps. Straps are captions which are placed in between the footage in a trailer and help inform the audience of the plot. They often appear on a black or white screen and the font is usually the same as the font which appears on the poster to create a symbiotic link. The information which appears on the straps could be a review for example in 'The women in black' the first strap tells the audience that it is 'the most chilling ghost story of our time' and so they begin to feel excited and anticipate the narrative of the movie. A strap can also be used to intrigue the audience, for example in 'The Possession' trailer, the first strap is 'based on a true story'. The idea that the events in the movie have already happened will frighten the audience because they begin to believe that it may happen again, making the viewing experience of the trailer more realistic. Usually straps appear within a few seconds of each other slowly revealing enticing information. However when looking at 'The Devil Inside' trailer, the use of straps are used differently. The trailer begins with a strap displaying the transcript of a conversation, The strap helps the audience understand the narrative however the layout is unconventional; it heightens the fear created as they can hear the problem but not see it.

Whilst looking at the trailers, I spotted that trailers which portray films that are not in a found footage format tend to have a voice-over to enable the audience to understand what is happening in the movie. The voice-over is normally the voice of the protagonist who is saying their thoughts out loud, similar to a soliloquy; the voice is dramatic and slow. The trailers which use the found footage format, such as ‘The last exorcism’, use dialogue from the movie to help the audience follow the plot. The voice-over/dialogue, in some cases, is accompanied by the movies soundtrack or non-diegetic music which is usually ominous and dark. This can be heard in ‘The possession’, ‘the women in black’, ‘sinister’, ‘the grudge’, and ‘the exorcism of Emily rose’ and ‘paranormal activity 3’ trailers. The music helps set the mood of the narrative and creates excitement.

Found footage format trailers tend to use camera differently than ordinary trailers. For example, when looking at  'the sinister'  and 'The grudge' trailers, we can see that the the beginning there are lots of long shots and establishing shot to help set the setting for the trailer. As the narrative develops, the camera begins to use lots of close ups so the audience can see the fear on the characters faces. Match on actions also become popular towards the end of the trailers so that the audience can witness the disruption from all angles. Whereas 'Paranormal Activity 3' which is filmed in the found footage format, begins with a medium two close up, and continues to use close ups throughout the trailer. As the narrative unveils the audience can see the protagonist places the camera on a tripod and the camera pans around the room. This limits the variety of shots the camera can do however it is a great way to build tension as every time the camera pans from one side of the room to the other, the audience expect to see something frightening. 

 both open with long shots and establishing shots of the setting for the narrative, whereas the 'Paranormal Activity 3' trailer opens with a medium two shot as it is in the found footage format. When exploring further into the trailers, there is a clear difference in the use of the camera. The camera in the 'Paranormal Activity 3' trailer, is not on a tripod and so therefore the movements such as the pans are not as smooth and so making the audience feel as if they are there in the scene. 

The lighting and sound are combined to help portray the genre to the audience. Sharp bursts of sounds which are used to surprise and frighten the audience are called stabs. They appear throughout the trailer and are often accompanied by a frightening image. This can be heard in ‘the sinister’ trailer from 1:02-1:05.  Also diegetic sounds are amplified and emphasised to make them sound sinister and so turning innocent objects into evil; this is a convention for the supernatural sub-genre. An example of this is in ‘the possession’ trailer from 0:57-1:02 where the sound of the fork is being amplified. Moving on to the lighting, it is easy to see that all the trailers use dark, shadowy lighting in the trailers are this is a convention for horror movies in general. Lighting helps to reflect the mood of the scene and can represent the personality of a character. This technique is used in ‘The exorcism of Emily rose’ where at 1:20 there is a shot of ‘Emily rose’ possessed. The audience can see that she is under possession as the lighting on her face is profile lighting and reflects the evil presence in her soul. 

Mise-en-scene elements are a major part in portraying the sub-genre and these include, costume, hair, make-up, character placement, facial expressions and body language and settings and props. Beginning with costume make-up and hair, we can see in all the trailers that the protagonist wears simple costumes such as jeans and t-shirts. This is to reinforce the idea that they are ‘normal’ people and that this evil occurrence can happen to anyone. This also applies with the hair and make-up. Moving on to facial expressions and body language, we can see in the trailers above that the protagonist tend have expressions of shock and fear as they see their lives falling apart, whilst the antagonists tend to snare at the camera and their bodies are usually bent in a way not possible for a human being; this is to show that they are demonic and therefore representing the supernatural sub-genre. This is shown in all of the trailers apart from ‘the woman in black’. In trailers, props are used as part of the iconography so the audience can identify the supernatural sub-genre. Items such as crucifixes’, bibles or anything to symbolise religion are often used as religion is a big part of the supernatural topic. In trailers, the setting place a huge role as the perfect setting can create the perfect eerie ambiance when viewing the trailer. Six out of the eight trailers focus on a house as their main setting but in different ways, for example 'The Woman in Black' trailer narrative revolves around a house and so we predominately see this haunted house in the trailer, whereas 'The Possession' trailer narrative revolves around a box, but is set in a house to follow the codes and conventions of horror movie settings. The fear of the threat coming from within your home is growing within society and so this is why a typical house can make the perfect horror movie setting. 

Another convention spotted throughout these trailers is that they all include are dead black-outs. They are placed in-between the shots of the film and make a great effect as they heighten the fear created.

All the trailers above also include the movie title, release date or ‘coming soon’, website, director’s name and tagline. A trailer does not have to include all of the features listed but some of them will appear.

Finally the last convention to talk about it is the actual length of the trailers. From the eight examples above none of them are longer than 2.40. A short trailer full of action is more effective and also ensures that it does not give too much away, the audience are left wanting more.