Trailers are defined as a promotion to a film which is then exhibited in future cinema. Trailers are used in order to advertise film material. Our film trailer is a psychological horror which is useful since there are many horror films to deconstruct. Some good directors include James Wann, Alfred Hitchcock, James Whale etc.
Some main film trailers are The Purge, The devil inside and The conjuring. These have been successful movies making thousands of dollars down due good advertisement from the film trailer. Film trailers have key features a lot of authors tend to stick by, these include;
- The quick cut
- The opening sound
- The motion graphics
-The voice over
- Post production e.g. Editing
- Addressing the target audience
a cut is a form of editing, it is the splicing of 2 shots together. A cut is made by the film editor at the editing stage of a film. Between sequences the cut marks a rapid transition between one time and space and another, but depending on the nature of the cut it will have different meanings. The cut is one of the most used editing techniques which helps to reduce timing, fit a sequence together and help the audience establish a narrative. This is especially important in the horror genre as it helps to create a suspense.
The Opening sound
The opening sound is one of the most important features in a film trailer as it helps to establish the genre or even sub genre and has to fit well with the piece unless it is going for a juxtaposition e.g. for our psychological film trailer we will use a combination of 'happy and scary music'.
The motion graphics
The motion graphics are one of the most important features of the trailer. This is all of the mise-en-scene the audience will see and experience, they will get familiar with characters, settings, personalities and the narrative of the piece. Even the audience experience audience pleasures such as escapism from watching the trailer and thinking 'I want to see that film'.
Voice over (optional)
a voice over is optional in a trailer but used in many film trailers to help enhance the imagery in the persons mind, a voice over usually asks rhetorical questions which makes the viewers think more about the trailer for example 'what would you do if there was a demon in your house?. Moreover a voice over helps to make the narrative easier to understand and make the audience think more deeply into it.
Post production
Post production is a very broad category as it includes all the editing of the piece. Some editing techniques include ellipsis, iris, eyeline match etc. This is extremely significant in film making as it makes the final piece perfect with the idea coming to life. Post Production is the term for the final stage in film making in which the raw material (shot by the Camera crew and recorded by the Production Sound crew) is edited together to form the completed film. The processes involved in Post Production include: picture editing, sound editing, composing and recording the score, music editing, adding visual special effects, adding audio sound effects such as Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR), Foley (Post-synchronised sound effects), sound design, sound mixing, colour grading, titles design, and negative cutting.
Addressing the target audience
with any film you need to go back to basics and decide who your target audience is. This is crucial because then the development of the film process comes later when deciding which age rating and what time its shown in cinema etc. Our target audience is mainly projected at 16-21 year olds because its mild horror.
