A trailer is a short clip of scenes from a film. Giving the audience a feel for the genre, plot and characters without giving it all away. Trailers are released months before the movie is out at cinemas to get the audience excited for its release.
Where might a trailer be seen? How will different formats affect the viewing of the trailer?
Trailers can be viewed on the TV, cinema and internet. These different ways of viewing can have different impacts on the audiences consumption of the trailer as the affect of the trailer will be bigger and better in the cinema, and not as affective by watching it as a youtube video.
What are genre conventions? What role does iconography play?
Genre conventions are the typical features you would find in certain genre films. For example, in thrillers/horrors you typically have a villian, hero and a victim. The victim is typically a woman. The role that iconography plays is the visuals that are linked to certain genres. For example, halloween, font and gravestones ect are linked to thrillers/horrors. Also, in romantic/love story movies there will be light and happy colours and music.
List 5 events that we see in the trailer and alongside these, the questions that each event raises.
Obsessed trailer -
Fighting scene in the toilet cubicle. This scene makes you wonder why they're fighting? who wins this fight? Does anybody get hurt and what is the outcome of this event.
There is also a second fighting scene, this one more violent. Where the two woman are fighting and one falls through the ceiling of the house. This event raises the question, does anybody die? Is anybody murdered? Thirdly, when the relationship between the husband and wife is presented in the trailer, and the interference of the other woman straight after this makes you wonder whether the couple will still be together at the end of the film? or will the family breakdown?. Lastly, the event in the trailer where the obsessed lady turns up at the house to see the child. This is very strange, and raises questions about the ladies mental health and whether she is ill or not? and what comes of her mental health state?.
Here are a few screen grabs of the events I have mentioned in the Obsessed trailer.
The Shining trailer -
The first noticable event that draws questions towards the film in the trailer is the suspense found from the start to the finish of the trailer. This raises questions on what is going to happen? and makes you think something big and scary will happen and gets you anticipating what it will be.
Secondly, the scene where Jack Nicholson is shouting towards the camera but there is no sound coming from the trailer this makes you question what he is shouting? why is he shouting and to who is he shouting?
Here are two screen grabs from the events I have mentioned from The Shining trailer.
Fatal Attraction trailer -
The first event that poses questions to the audience in the trailer is the kidnapping of the child. This makes you wonder why the woman has kidnapped the small child and if she is mentally stable as well as what is planning to do with the child and what her motive is.
Secondly, in the trailer you see the lady trying to attack then main character who is the husband. She is about to attack him with a big kitchen knife and this makes us question whether she kills him or not and what the outcome of this scene will be? When the child screams and the trailer shows you a pot of boiling water this makes you feel anticipation as to what has happened? and why is the child in distress? These events represent the suspense and anticipation of the storyline within the film.
Here are a few screen grabs from the events described in the trailing of Fatal Attraction.
Which trailers do not give you a great deal of information about the narrative?
Having watched and analyzed all 3 trailers, I think that the trailer for The Shining is the one that is the least informative on the storyline of the film. The trailer represent a lot of suspense and anticipation, and is also quite jumpy. There isn't a great deal of talking or any narration in the trailer, the audience are just making assumptions as to what they think the story is based on the scenes and the music. For example, when Jack Nicholson is shouting angrily towards the camera this gives anticipation but as there is no sound and you can not hear what he is shouting this gives no clue to the audience of what is going actually going on.
What is the difference between a teaser and a full trailer?
A trailer is a short clip of scenes from a film. Giving the audience a feel for the genre, plot and characters without giving it all away. Trailers do however give details on the films release, actors and actresses amd other important information.Trailers are released months before the movie is out at cinemas to get the audience excited for its release. A teaser is like a very short trailer, with only a few if not a couple of key scenes within the film as unlike a trailer it doesn't want to give away any ideas on the storyline but wants to get the audience anticipating and excited for the trailer.
Can you find a magazine cover for one of the 3 films, if so who does it include, what are the tag line used, does it follow a consistent theme?
The cover doesn't feature any tag lines about The Shining as this magazine issue is based on the 500 greatest movies of all time and The Shining is one of those. The picture takes up the majority of the cover and there is a quote on the picture which reads ' I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in' This is a quote from the film. All 3 of the films I have looked at all have a consistent iconology of their genre which is thriller. Like this picture featured on the cover of EMPIRE, the image for Fatal Attraction on another magazine also features the main characters representing a look of fear/horror, and the image above also represents an image of fear and horror.
Representation.
Who might be in your trailer?
In our trailer will be featured a few characters that are key to the storyline, like the trailer for The Shining we will use a few characters to represent the storyline and the relationships that are central to the film. In The Shining the characters are in the main setting of the film and are shot in scenes of action throughout the film to represent horror and violence. For example Jack Nicholson who is the main character of the film is seen a lot in the trailer in scenes of violence and anticipation, this represents the genre and the element of suspense in the film.
Where does the action take place?
The action is going to take place in a house, which will be the key setting in the film. Aswell as busy streets in the city. Within the trailer we will show clips of the film when action is taking place in each setting to give the audience a feel of the surrounding and the relationships between the people and the places. The settings will easily relatable to the audience demographic as we will be using a small middle/working classed home as our key setting, and also a busy city street. The demographic should be able to relate and familarise themselves with the settings easily.
What are the predominant colours/sounds/music?
The predominant colours that will be used in our trailer will all be dark colours, to represent horror, fear and darkness. We will also use flashing lights to represent contrast within the film. The sounds and music we will incorporate into the trailer will give the trailer the element of suspense and anticipation that the film includes.
What effect might camera angles have on the representation?
The camera angles and general editing we are going to add into the trailer will make our trailer more exciting and fast paced. It will introduce an exciting edge to the scenes within the trailer and is made to thrill the audience. The overall use of the camera angles needs to enhance the fear and the anticipation that is being brought to the audience. The contrasting angles and exciting edits will appeal to our audience as the our demographic is young, fun loving thrill seeking people.
How does this tie in to our audience demographic?
The whole trailer will appeal to the demographic as throughout the trailer scenes will include elements of relationships, sex and conflict. All these social situations young people can relate to. The editing and music will be exciting. edgey and will make the audience think. Aswell as this, the characters used in the trailer and film will be those of the same type of demographic so the audience can relate to many things about each character.
