During our trailer we used a
variety of sound techniques, some of the shots have backing music edited over
them, some use the sounds of the clip and others shots use both.
Blumhouse productions was
one of our
institutions and it has some very effective music over its title sequence,
because of this we didn’t add any other sounds over it. Although Blumhouse
productions title has their own music, our other institution, Brain Damage
Films, had none. The music we added over these titles carried on over onto the
first few clips. This bit of music is quite slow in pace and compromised of not
too many different sounds, it is almost monophonic which is good to have near
the start of a trailer because it allows for a less subtle increase of pace as
the trailer progresses. It starts off calm but then gradually becomes more high
pitched and eerie. The flow of the music is abruptly stopped at the start of a
clip with some brief monologue which is used to introduce the plot of the film
and the presence of evil. We used the abrupt stop in an attempt to grab the
audience’s attention although looking back on it, a fade would have probably
worked and sounded better.
After this
clip some more backing music is added in the form of an increasing loud and
fast heart beat, this is very effective at building the tension that the
audience feels and helps give them the impression that the film fits the genre
when paired with the fast paced clips. The denotation paired with the heart
beat also allows the audience to feel how the character is feeling.
The increasing pace of this trailer is common in trailers in general but
especially in horror trailers, conforming to the conventions of other horror
trailers is effective at assuring the audience that the film will include the
things they expect from a horror film. Being a new film with no sequels or
prequels it would be risky to use a trailer that subverts all the norms and
clichés of horror trailers. Some aspects of the trailer subverts the
conventions, having our own choice of music over the distribution company is
not common in any genre, but the only other option was to have none so we had
to do it. Subverting convention and clichés can be risky but in our trailer
many have been conformed to, this can make the little subversion effective at
peaking audience interest.
The first thing i notice about this poster is the title, the red font on the black background grabs your attention and draws your concentration to the title of the film, the release date of the film is also in red which has the same effect as the title which is important because even at a quick glance someone will know the title and when they can go and see it.
In our second shot the character is wearing a coat and black jeans. Having the character wear a coat suggests the film is set in a cold, wet place which is a common theme in horror films, some of which include; 'Friday the 13th' 'The Amityville horror' and 'Halloween'. Coats can also be used in horror films to add connotations to characters. It could be used to suggest the character is weak and that they are vulnerable to the elements. Often paired with this is would be an antagonist that is wearing no sort of coat which makes the antagonist seem more powerful. Another use for coats, in particular puffy coats would be to make one of the victims seem big and powerful before anything happens to them, this further elevates the perceived threat of the antagonist. Generally the antagonist would wear dark clothing in horror films but that wouldn't be possible in our film, although having the protagonist wearing dark jeans still gives the same impression, it gives the idea that where the film is set is not safe.
