Our Teaser Trailer Analysis

Our teaser trailer is 1.33 minutes long this is a general length of many teaser trailers as it is just enough to give a taster of the film but leaves out some information for the later theatrical trailer. It begins with the ‘green screen’ from my research I realised this is included in many if not all trailers; it just basically approves the film. After that the institution logo appears in this case ‘Twisted Pictures’ this is instantly recognisable with Horror and film fans and just shows who will distribute the film. Following this ‘in association’ appears and then our second institution logo comes up, this is one we made our self from all the first initials of our names, hence ‘M.A.D Productions’ it gives a modern edge to the film as it is a new and fresh company therefore appealing to out target audience. The screen then goes black and the music begins, it is a quirky, rock piece that complements the feeling of out trailer .

The trailer then begins with our main character Abbie asleep in bed. She then wakes up with a fright after what looks like a bad dream; this puts the audience on edge and gives a hint to the genre. The character looks confused and anxious. Then the first piece of narrative text appears it is a black background with white text this adds to the ideology of the mysterious and thrilling trailer. The text says ‘she was alone’ this adds a sense of vulnerability to the character and the audience get the feeling she is the protagonist. The next scene is a tracking shot of Abbie running through the forest. Tracking shots are generally associated when someone is being watched or followed so this gives an eerie feel to the sequence .As does the location ,a forest it a stereotypical location of a horror movie, therefore by this point the genre is defiantly know. We used fades outs between clips as we knew this was common in teaser trailers and we wanted to follow the correct codes and conventions to make it successful .

The next clip is in Abbie’s Point of view and sees her running through the forest. The camera is handheld and shaky as it puts the audience on the scene and draws them in .We used a flashing negative effect in the shot to add to the unknown aspect of the trailer and make is seem as though the character may not be in the right mind set. The next bit of narrative text comes up it says ‘With nowhere to hide’ this adds to the idea that the character has no where to hide from someone following her or her own paranoid mind so it makes it ambiguous and doesn’t give to much away, leaving the audience guessing. The next scene is back at the house, it shows the main character Abbie shutting curtains on the back doors, it is a long shot and shot in a way that gives the effect that someone is outside the house watching in, therefore creating tension. The scene then fades out and into a close up of Abbie behind the banisters of the stairs, the close up shows the emotion and evokes the nervousness of the character. The mis-en-scene of using the banisters acts a connotation for Abbie being ‘trapped’ or ‘hiding’ from something, someone or even her self. This gives ambiguity to the trailer as it doesn’t give too much away, leaving the audience unaware of the resolution part of the film.

Next there is a high angle, long shot of Abbie running up the stairs, this just adds vulnerability to the character due to the shot, and also the audience are left guessing why she is running. The shot after this sees Abbie sitting in the corner looking scared ,she looks as though she has been crying because they is make up around her eyes. The camera is slightly high angle to add to the defencelessness of Abbie, the shot flashes negative like the previous shot in the forest, this adds consistency but also makes it quite strange as the audience are unaware of what these represent. The next bit of narrative text then comes up ‘Feel the panic’ this directly ‘talks’ to the audience and stirs up the emotion it aims to-Panic! After that there is an over the shoulder shot which shows Abbie looking into a mirror, and the camera watching her reflection, she seems on edge and flustered. The mis-en-scene is a normal, stereotypical teenage girl’s room though; this creates the effect that what ever may be happening to Abbie can happen to anyone.

Then there is an extreme close up of Abbies eyes, she is looking around and looks worried and extremely uneasy. The close up of the eyes draws the audience directly in, as the eyes conjure up so much emotion which is portrayed to the audience. After this scene the next one shows Abbie sitting on a work surface in the kitchen, with a knife held to her wrist. This scene is put in place to shock the audience and put them on edge. The scene then changes to an extreme close up to the wrist and knife to just add emphasis on it, it then flashes negative as some of the previous scenes. The next bit of narrative text then appears ‘Feel the fear’ there is a consistency between the narrative text as they portray Abbie’s sequence of feelings. This is followed by a scene which is back in the forest this, gives the affect of someone looking around a tree; we added a wipe affect to this scene to just add some difference from the fades out. The next scene shows Abbie walking through the forest; it is a high angle shot and gives the effect of someone looking down on/watching Abbie also adding weakness to Abbie. Also this scene shows some text at the bottom ‘From the director of Silent Scream’ this is in white to stand out, it adds credibility to the film and director, and it is popular to do this as many trailers have text like this. Therefore we are following the codes and conventions successfully.

Next we used a low angle shot which is a close up of Abbies legs/feet jumping over a hole, this adds to the panic and fast paced nature of the trailer and is a very successful shot. After the fade out we used a dolly, close up if Abbie standing in the forest the camera moves around Abbie, giving the ideology of panic, confusion and even paranoia. Some more text appears on this scene it states ‘starring Oscar winning Abbie Smith’ it is in white to be consistent with the other text. We mentioned this statement to attract the audience and also because it is a code and convention of other trailers we decided to stick with them as they generally work. Afterwards the white on black narrative text comes up again with ‘Don’t look back’ it acts as a direct statement toward the audience, and it a stereotypical horror/thriller statement which works well with our trailer. Then in true horror style that scene had to be followed with Abbie looking behind her.

Our title then appears; it is red on a black background and creates the ideology we wished to, the font also relates to the genre. The music then climaxes and ends and ‘its coming to get you...’ comes up this challenges codes and conventions of other trailers as it is normally just ‘coming soon’ or a given date .We feel that this works well with our trailer though .After it says its coming to get you, the audience see Abbie in the forest with her back to the camera ,the only sound that can be heard are footsteps, this is an eerie moment in the trailer and contrasts to the fasted paced ideology of the rest of it. Then ‘soon’ appears with a sound effect to make the audience jump and sound the end of the trailer. Our credits screen appears and plays into all the codes and conventions of other trailers by revealing important details such as the certificate (if this hadn’t been guessed already!),and institutions which are shown at the start and end of the trailer.