The trailer for the 2008 horror film The Happening effectively promotes the film and targets its intended audience. It establishes the genre as thriller/horror through suspenseful shots without revealing the unexplained disaster. A variety of characters meant to appeal to ages 18-30 are shown reacting to the event without understanding its scope or cause. M. Night Shyamalan's previous successes in similar genres build confidence in the film. Close-ups of characters' scared reactions heighten the drama without explaining the threat. The trailer promises revelation of unknown forces at work to compel viewers to watch the film.

1. Trailer analysis
The Happening is a 2008 horror thriller film written, co-produced and directed
by M. Night Shyamalan that follows a man, his wife, his best friend, and his
friend's daughter as they try to escape from an inexplicable natural disaster.
The happening

2. • The genre of the film is a horror thriller. This is obvious within the
first few shots of the trailer. As it shows a police officer being
zoomed in closer as though something is coming towards and then
the next shot you see the police officer on the floor dead. This is
showing a key element of a thriller with suspense because eave the
reader hanging, trying to figure out what has killed the police
officer. Another key shot is the shot with the intertitle of Friday the
13th. They have purposely set the opening date to Friday the 13 th. This
is because Friday the 13th is supposedly one of the unluckiest days
of the year that something bad will happen . This instantly adds a
scary element to the film.
The target audience for this film seems to be around the age of 18-
30 predominately male but it does target towards female. The
trailer initiates this target audience as we are witnessed to
characters which are around the age of 30. This includes the main
characters who we are witnessed to at the start. A very clear shot
that indicates this target audience is the shot with the train
conductors. I believe the target age goes down to 18 because it
includes a variety of shots which initiate with 18 year olds.

3. The film trailer last for 2 minutes and 24 seconds this includes a variety
of 84 shots. Throughout many of these shots the audience are witnessed
to many fades of black. This is done so it will disguise the audience form
the event happening, how the people are dying and instantly making the
viewer come to there own judgment which will make them want to watch
the film.
Dietetic sound is used very smartly within the trailer. As it uses the
characters within the film to ask questions and describe the outcomes of
the event. What the trailer is doing here is feeding questions into the
viewers mouth . It also cancels out some of the things that the viewer
might believe what the event. For example when on the radio the
broadcaster explains, “A terrorist which is deemed responsible may be
less and less likely”. This immediately makes the audience wonder what
the vent is.
Non dietetic sound is used as a lead up to an action happening
within the trailer. This is shown by using a low key sound when
building up to the action , however when the action is about to
occur you here a loud thud and it cuts away with a black fade,
this is evident within the two shots with the police officer.
Throughout the trailer the audience are witnessed to the sound
effect of the wind. This instantly adds a supernatural natural
effect that something is coming for you but you cannot see it .

4. The main character within the trailer is presented as a teacher. But he is also
present him saying that “honey bees are beginning to go missing but nobody is
interested about what is happening to the bees”. This is a very important quote
because it instantly makes him as a top characters within the trailer because he
is one of the first characters shown interested in the events. Throughout many
of the characters they are presented as ordinary people, there is no one which
is presented as a leader or superhuman or even a villain, instead they have
included family's, teachers, police officers, train conductors all under attack
from something. This is done so the audience are able to relate to the
characters within the trailer. As people who often spend their money to watch
these films are often ordinary people with civilised jobs.

5. Throughout the trailer the narrative is often showing the journey of the teacher throughout
the events, as though he is on the run. The audience is also shown how widely spread the
event is through shots of new York and other states of America. This shows severity of
the event and it also shows the effect of the event., however it never shows what the
event or how it is killing people this creates that sense of enigma. Within the trailer the
teacher quotes the words “ there are forces of work beyond our understanding” this
immediately reveals a little bit about the plot of the film that the event is something worse
than we have ever came across and the event maybe something natural not man made.
Throughout the trailer the titles of “the event we cannot see” “on a
scale we cannot imagine” “the unthinkable is happening”. These title
all shown that something new is happening. Which is communicating
to the audience that you cannot image what is going on but if you come
and watch our film we have done it for you. Within the trailer the
intertitles of films that the director of the happening has already
directed. One of these films was the six sense which is a horror, and
the other is signs which is a thriller. This immediately gives the
audience confidence about the making of the film and makes them
expect that this will be successful like the other films because the
director has done it before. It also sets a scary mood by involving other
films with a similar genre.

6. Within the trailer there are many close up shots as this makes the viewer
able to see the reaction of the characters face to what is going on within
the trailer. It also makes the audience see how dramatic the event is
without even knowing what the event actually is. As you can see with the
bottom picture on the side there is a high angle close up. This show s the
vent having power over the character and presenting the character as
week and vulnerable.
In the trailer there are many establishing shots to show to the
audience where the event is being caused and constructs the
mise en scene. These shots show where the event is
happening so it is technically giving the event some kind of
identity and helping the audience understand how big the
event is.

7. The happening was in co-production
with Twentieth Century Fox, Blinding
Edge Pictures and UTV Motion Pictures.

8. • The film trailer is very successful in targeting its audience . This is because it doesn’t
involve anyone laughing, having fun or making jokes, but it does involve people being very
serious, scared and shocked. Which will grab the attention of the audience in which they
want to which is a serious horror thriller. This also proves that the trailer is a very
important promotional device for the film.
• There are many other factors which show that this trailer is a very important promotional
device for the film. These factors include the montage , which is shown when the audience
are brought back to the main character telling us that there are forces of work beyond our
understanding while he is still teaching and it is linking it to the different points which are
going on within the film. What this does is that it speeds up the time of shots and it gives
the simple shots like wind blowing the trees

9. • The film however received mostly negative reviews, Evan though it
was a negative film it still did surprisingly well in the box office. This
was evident to its opening day gross of $13 million and over the
weekend it came to a gross of $30,517,109. These figures show that
the happenings promotional tools were very successful, and even
though the trailer isn't the only promotional device it s preferably the
main one to get people to come and watch the movie.