1. In Depth Analysis of One Teaser Trailer
Director: Mike Flanagan Release Date: 11 of April, 2014

2. In this PowerPoint you will find that I have selected
certain scenes of the teaser trailer called Oculus
because I believe they are important scenes that
provide some insight into the type of movie that
Oculus could be. On the left hand side you would find
a long-shot of an object being covered with what
seems to be a piece of material. This connotes that
the covered object is covered deliberately to produce
a sense of mystery and create curiosity to what the
object is towards the audience. The colour scheme
created in the scene is quite dark, creating uneasiness
and the light being focused on the object, connotes
that the director done this deliberately to draw the
attention of the audience towards the mysterious
object. Also, the colour scheme portrays that the
genre of the film is thriller/horror because of the dark
colours and the setting of the scene seeming to be an
attic, which is dusty and creates an uncomfortable
atmosphere.
Right after the above shot, straight away it goes on to
showing that the producer who made Oculus has also
made other successful films, that the audience would
be familiar with. These films are called Paranormal
Activity and Insidious. The font of the film titles are in
capital letters, to make them stand out to the audience
and are bigger then the other piece of writing; for
example, ‘produce of’. The colour of the writing is white
and the background is black, to make the writing stand
out and clear. The titles of the film are placed there
purposely to attract the audience that have seen the
films before to watch the upcoming film (Oculus).

3. The image on the left shows a long shot of the white piece
of materiel having dropped on the floor and the mystery
object is revealed (a Mirror). The shot is created so that
the audience focuses on the mirror, which connotes that
the film is going to be about a mirror and considering that
the scene is set in the attic, it could mean that the mirror is
old and hasn’t been touched for a long time. Usually things
placed in the attic are unwanted and have been there for a
long time. The colour scheme has remained dark and
continues to create an uneasy atmosphere; however, the
bright light has also remained near the mirror to draw the
attention toward the mirror. The props used in the scene,
seem to be old; for example, the crate on the bottom-left
hand corner, which is also half covered, as some of the
other props used in the setting. There are also leaves on
the floor, which connotes that there hasn’t been any who
has visited the attic in ages or the attic would be cleaner
and tidier.The image on the right is a mid-shot of a young girl
and a boy standing behind her. The female
character is standing in front of the male character,
which connotes that she is trying to protect him
from something that she is looking at because her
face is looking straight ahead. I chose this shot
because of the character facial expressions, which
connote that they are worried or scared. The dark
background adds to the idea that there is
something wicked happening in the scene; dark
colour connotes evil, mystery and danger. The
audience is not able to see what the female
character is looking at, which means it creates a
sense of mystery in the scene. The characters
costume are casual house wear, as the female

4. I have chosen this scene on the left because in the
teaser a female character see’s something move
underneath the pieces of material, which startles and
frightens her. This is done deliberately in order to
create a similar feeling for the audience, as they watch
the film and almost being in the characters place
seeing something move creates unease. The scene is
placed in the teaser trailer, to allow the audience to be
aware that there are going to be scare scenes, were
the audience is going to feel uncomfortable and getting
prepared to get scared. The setting of the scene s in a
room full of a variety of things; however, the objects the
pieces of material on them stand out the most because
they are the only things covered and that move. The
lightening is quite dark but has light on the main things,
that the director wanted the audience to focus on.
After the above scene it straight away cuts to the setting
in the attic; a slowly zooming-in shot of the mirror. As the
camera is zooming in, the mirror begins to let out a red
type of liquid, which connotes that it is blood because of
the colour red. The mirror is presented to be a more
dangerous item, due to it having blood going down. Blood
connotes danger, someone being hurt, evil and pain. This
portrays that the film is going to be based on the mirror
having something wicked inside; for example, a curse or
an evil spirit. The lightening of the scene is a dark
background and only a spec of light focusing on mid-way
of the mirror, which is done so that the audience draws
their attention straight to the mirror.

5. After a few scenes there is a transition back to the mirror,
but this time it is zoomed in on a piece of the mirror, were
the blood is running down and creating a letter ‘S’. This
connotes that it is creating a title and that the director
wanted to make the title look unusual, dangerous and
scary by making the title of blood forming the letters. The
colour red brings in the sense of pain, danger, blood and
violence. This connotes that in the film there is going to be
violence or that someone is going to be hurt and that there
is going to be blood. The letter ‘S’ is in focus and the
background is slightly blurred, which connotes that the
director wanted the focus to be on the first letter appearing
on the mirror and that the audience would be
concentrating on the letter being created in blood.
Following on from the above image, the image on
the right is when the title of the film is created and is
in full focus to the audience eye. The font of the title
is large, bold and the colour is white, which connotes
it is done purposely so that the title stand out from
the dark background and is easily readable and
focused on. The red blood remains flowing
downwards the mirror, which continues to create an
unsettling atmosphere and a sense of danger. This
furthermore portrays that the film is a horror genre
based and will have scenes of violence and
characters either dying, due to the blood flow of the
mirror or being tortured.

6. Straight after the previous scene it cuts to a scene of a
women standing in front of the mirror or that the female
character appears to be inside of the mirror. The character
has an evil expression on her face and seems to be
watching straight ahead, as if she is watching the audience,
which creates unease. The character in the mirror is
portrayed as an antagonist because her face is shadowed,
and her eyes seem to be completely white, which connotes
that she is evil. The lightening of the scene is quite dark,
even the character’s most of the body is overshadowed by
the dark, creating mystery of who the character is and why
she might be there. The costume that the character is
wearing (white shirt), connotes that she might have been
pure and good; however, her facial expression
overshadows that idea and represents her as the
antagonist character of the teaser trailer.
This is the last scene of the teaser trailer,
showing that the film is going to be out soon and
below the production companies that helped
create the film. For example, Relativity. Below the
COMING SOON, there is a tag line (SeeYourEvil)
in red font, which relates to the colour of the title
and portrays that the film is horror based and the
word evil, connotes that the film is based on
something being wicked.

7. Sound
The sound of the teaser trailer begins with some swooshing sound; sound of
the wind and a background music, which is low and barely hearable. The sound
of the music includes a rattling sound. After a number of seconds you hear a
young females voice, talking about the mirror (‘see the mirror hanging there’).
Her voice is calm and even but afterwards the music changes and creates
tension for a few second before cutting the music off completely. It stops
completely because it is showing quick cuts between different scenes of the
film; however, afterwards again the young girls voice appears and she
continues to talk. There are swishing sounds again throughout the voiceover of
the girl. The main focus of the sound is the young girls voice talking about the
mirror.