The document discusses the creation of a student horror trailer project. It aimed to incorporate generic horror conventions discussed by Thomas Schatz in his genre theory work. Specifically, the group focused on creating a psychological horror by using techniques like low-key lighting, enclosed locations, close-up shots, handheld camera work, and unusual editing/camera angles to build suspense and scare the audience. Sound design incorporated a creepy lullaby. The trailer was influenced by the pacing and montage techniques of Alfred Hitchcock as well as George Romero's approach to challenging stereotypes through characters that subvert expectations.

1. Joseph Donaldson

2. In our horror trailer, we made sure we used generic horror conventions, from
mise-en-scene to characters and representation. Looking at Thomas Schatz‟s
Genre Theory (established in his book Hollywood Genres in 1981), we wanted
to make sure we included everything we could to make our horror trailer the
best it could be. All 3 of our group members wanted to do a psychological
horror as we found them to be thrilling and exciting so we carried out a lot of
research into psychological horror trailers, making sure that when we made
our own one, everything was done properly.
When looking at the mise-en-scene, our main focus was using low key
lighting as our group all agreed that this is one of the most affective
things when you‟re trying to make a good horror trailer. We used low key
lighting whenever we could as it gave our trailer an eerie twist, like many
horror films do such as „Paranormal Activity‟ (2007). Due to our location, we
mainly filmed during the day so it was quite difficult getting the lighting
correct on every shot so we had to change the contrast in some of the shots
to make it darker. Another thing we tried to incorporate into our horror trailer
is an enclosed location, and the garage where Caitie hangs herself is quite
spooky so it made our horror trailer seem very professional, just like „Evil
Dead‟ (2013) or „Woman in Black‟ (2012). One thing we tried to avoid in our
trailer was body horror as we were making a purely psychological horror and
felt that body horror wouldn‟t fit well with the storyline, and would risk
making the trailer for „Lullaby‟ seem a bit comical.

3. With the sound, we used conventional parallel music throughout, using three
copyright free tracks downloaded from the internet. The primary parallel
music of the eerie “Hush Little Baby” lullaby was a focus used to build
suspense and a different version of the same lullaby was used the ending
seem really spooky. It could be argued that the lullaby music we used is
contrapuntal as it is a children‟s song, but we used a creepy version to make
the ending of the trailer quite disturbing.
To make a dramatic horror trailer, we had to make sure we included lots of
close up camera
shots so the audience could really see the emotion within the characters. We
used the close up shots a lot with the main character Caitie, so the audience
could see exactly what
she was going through and sympathise with her and to be afraid of
her. We took inspiration from films such as „The Conjuring‟ (2013). Another
way we tried to
scare the audience was by using a handheld camera and point of view shots
like they do in horror films like „The Blair Witch Project‟. (1999) This is to make
the audience feel like they are in
the film with the characters as they are seeing a lot of
things from a scared character prospective. We also experimented with
different camera/expressionist
camera angles. For example when the main male character is
taking the baby, we used a low angle to connote his power that he has over

4. Like a lot of Alfred Hitchcock films, we used pacing to build suspense
throughout our trailer. We stared off using longer shots of around 2-3 seconds
to establish the storyline and give our trailer a more scenic feel to it, but then
the suspense starts to build and the shots are speeding up from 0.5-1.5
second shots, making it more of a highlights trailer. We liked the idea of the
„Cloverfield‟ (2008) trailer as it starts of as a slow, casual trailer and then all of
a sudden the pacing picks up and it starts getting really interesting and
exciting, a lot like our trailer. For example towards the end of the trailer the
shots are a lot more interesting and scary whereas at the start we‟re just
setting the storyline.
When it came to filming the trailer, I had a lot of interesting ideas with
different camera angles we could use as I studied quite a few horror films and
I knew which camera angles looked best and which ones create more mood
and effect. I also felt I had a lot of input with the unusual editing techniques
that we used to create a lot of suspense, for example when Alex‟s hair is
being pulled up by the ghost; I thought it would look a lot
spookier if we reversed the shot. We also did this when I was falling down

5. There were two auteurs that influenced our horror trailer; Alfred Hitchcock
and George Romero. Hitchcock is well known for his very clever montages and
pacing techniques that he uses in his popular horror films like „Psycho‟ and
„Birds‟ so we tried to include some of his ideas into our own trailer and I think
it worked well. George Romero is known more by the film industry for his
interesting characters and the way he challenges stereotypes in his films. He
made a run of zombie horror movies in different decades where he uses
political satire and goes against cultural dominant ideologies. For example in
„Dawn of the Dead‟ (1979), Romero addressed the problem of
capitalism and consumerism within America by connoting that malls are
an unsafe place. „Day of the Dead‟ (1985) tackles the military and „Land
of the Dead‟ (2005) attacks terrorism. As Romero likes to challenge
stereotypes, we thought we‟d do the same. For example we our main
character Caitie starts off as a weak character but quickly turns into a
powerful female killer, making the male hero into the male victim. We
also had a non-sexual female victim which is quite unusual for horror films as
the female victim is normally very provocative, just like in „Dawn of the Dead‟
(2004).