8. INTRODUCTION
Trailers are used for promoting new films to potential audiences, and are designed to
attract the audience to either purchase or watch the film in cinema. By creating an
effective trailer which will appeal to the target audience you can increase your
chances of people going to watch the film making it a vital stage in the promotion of
films. Here I will be completing an overview of six different film trailers to recognise
the similarities and conventions which they share.
9. LIGHTING
• One similarity with lighting which runs throughout all the trailers is that whenever
something mysterious or paranormal is occurring it usually takes place at night
time. This is a common way of scaring audiences as at night our vision isn’t as
effective so we are more vulnerable to what is around us
• Two of the trailers have an opening which begins during the daytime, showing the
initial calm before the storm, yet the remaining four all have an opening in the
evening or at night. This is a way of showing that disaster is about to strike or
showing an already disastrous scene, meaning that opening with dim lighting to
straight away establish the dark tone of the film is quite common.
• None of the film trailers frequently use bright lighting, it is shown in brief periods
but the majority of the time the lighting is dim and grey.
10. COSTUME
• The most commonly worn costumes in these trailers are modern outfits, which are
used to reflect the time which the films are set in and also so the audience feel closer
to the characters in the film, which is an effective way of terrifying them more when
scares are added as they feel as though it can happen to them.
• Despite the fact that modern clothes are used, in each trailer there is at least one
scene where the clothes being worn look as though they are from a different time, for
example in ‘The Possession’ trailer, the girl is trying on old fashioned clothing when
she finds the ancient box which holds the curse, and similarly in the opening of
Mama the children are shown running around the house dressed as though they are
cave men, displaying how showing the possessed characters in different clothing is
effective in making them appear more uncivilised and shocking to look at.
11. MISE-EN-SCENE
• Most of these trailers actually take place in an urban setting, again showing how the
events taking place could happen to anyone, for example ‘The Forest’ trailer displays
a woman on the phone in her house in the opening, along with the ‘Sinister 2’ trailer
which mainly shows events in the home. By doing this it makes the audience feel
less comforted about the idea of home and increasingly afraid of it.
• Isolated settings are used to create a sense of emptiness and being alone, which is
effective in frightening the audience as they realise the characters are helpless in
comparison to the evil forces surrounding them. This is shown in ‘Insidious Chapter
3’ when the girl is left trapped alone in a dark room with the evil spirit trying to
take her away.
12. EDITING
• Usually in horror trailers the opening begins with an equilibrium which is slow
paced and displays typical everyday life, so during this stage the cuts between
scenes are slow therefore reflecting the pace of the mood. Halfway through the
trailer this usually changes at the point where something goes wrong, in this sub-
genre generally means the supernatural forces begin to show, which therefore
means the pace quickens which is reflected through the fast cuts between scenes
which build tension.
• This is demonstrated well in ‘The Possession’ trailer which shows the family
enjoying life together despite things not being perfect which suddenly changes
roughly halfway through and therefore the cuts get a lot quicker.
13. FILM TITLES
• Each film title is highly representative of the subgenre which the movie comes
under. The actual words which tend to be used almost always have a darker
meaning behind them, for example ‘Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension’. This
title immediately signals to the audience that this movie will feature ghosts, and
comes under the paranormal genre. In addition to this, the film name ‘Mama’ also
has horror connotations with the word, despite the fact that they are more subtle. It
still signals to the audience the genre which the film comes under as a typical
convention in horror films is using children and other child related objects as
passages of evil so this word links well with this convention.
