Directors - Stanley Kubrick
John Carpenter
Roman Polanski
Alfred Hitchcock
Films- Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)
28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002)
Analysis of Scream Film Trailer
Link to the film trailer on IMDB -
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1418068249
The advert starts with a blonde teenage girl answering her home telephone, a mysterious male voice is at the other end of the line asking her what she is doing. The girl answers she is about to watch a "scary movie". He asks her what her name is, she says "Why do you want to know my name?" He says, "So I know who I'm looking at." Until this point the editing has been slow with limiting camera movement with them shot simply following the girl from her kitchen to the lounge, it has not yet given the impression of a horror movie.
Suddenly her glass French window breaks, she screams and a fast edit of montage images is bought in; a selection of police cars, people running and the computer screen of someone recording a 911 emergency call.
A male voiced narration begins over a continued montage of images similar to those before, with other characters answering the phone and running away from someone through a house. The narration says "Someone is playing a deadly game. Someone who’s seen one too many scary movies. Now he's taking his love of fear one step too far."
Text appears between shots and in breaks in the narration, the font is coloured white on a black background, the words merge into a blood red colouring, suggesting a level of threat in relation to death and harm.
The increase in pace of editing, along with the narration which suggest a man who is a scary movie addict and may turn into a psychological killer, along a montage of shot showing people running and screaming brings in a feeling of suspense and terror, fitting in with the horror genre of the film which aims to scare the viewer.
Analysis of 28 Days Later Film Trailer
Link to the film trailer on IMDB -
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4071817497/
The first shot is of someone opening their eye, all we can see in the rest of the shot is a darkened room. From here the fast paced editing begins, going to a shot of a zombie looking person walking towards the camera, then to a zooming in over the head shot of an ill looking man alone in the street. Throughout this time is a male narrator setting out the basis of the storyline; "In the blink of an eye, the virus struck. The devastation spread and the world as he knew was gone. He thinks he's alone but he's not."
There are breaks in the narration, at the end of each sentence, where dialogue from the film is inserted to show what is going on in certain shots. For example, a shot in the montage is of a man having a fit after something falling on his face, the woman with him says in horror, "It's the blood. There's something in the blood." We can assume that it is blood which has fallen on the man’s face and this is the reaction it gives, and the zombie like people previously seen are what he will soon be looking like. This gives the viewer more of an idea of what is going on in the plot, and increasing their level of fear of what will happen in the storyline.
Once the narration ends there are many shots of a man, stood alone in many different locations, shouting Hello, this links back to what the narrator said of him thinking his is alone, but he is trying to find someone else who is alive.
The montage of images contain people running, fires ripping through buildings, dark rooms with zombie like people suddenly jumping out towards the camera and deserted areas. The fast paced editing through the montages increases a level of suspense, and the carefully chosen elements of the films which have been put in through images and dialogue breaking up the narration can lead to the viewer becoming intrigued about the rest of the film and what happens to the single man. The shots of zombie jumping out of the dark, deserted areas and zombies in general reinforce the genre of horror in this film.
Analysis of 30 Days of Night
Link to the film trailer on IMDB-
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3786604825/
The opening of the trailer is of a blood red background with black font saying "Based on the groundbreaking graphic novel", at the same time is male narration reading the same words as those on screen. This is quickly replaced by a snapshot of a howling creature, the details of which are difficult to make out before it disappears into the darkness. The next shot is quickly moved in to a mid shot of three people in the dark walking slowly towards the camera, this fades out into a midf shot of a woman standing in a well lit room looking at something past the camera, over the top of this shot is dialogue of someone out of screen saying "They're coming", the camera turns around to a man standing alone in the middle of a jail cell, as an audience we can assume that he is the one who just spoke. From this is a close up of a blood covered hand which looks like a cross between a human hand and a wolf's claw stroking a wall. The shot is sharply moved to a policeman standing in the same well lit room as before looking inot the jail cell and asks "Who is coming?". The screen is once agina filled with the same blood red as at the start but this time the black font says "A new vision of the vampire comes to life". The red is then drained away in drips and draps, with the black turning into the shape of a mans face, as the last bits of red go the man bears sharp teeth, those associated with vampires and growls and something out of shot. The camera then moves outside. There is a group of men wearing thick coats and there is snow on the ground. Suddenly a creature comes out of the darkness behind them and takes one of the men. It flicks to the face of a woman looking scared and then to a man with the same expression. He says "Gabe?" We assume this is the name of the man who was just taken. It then changes to a low angle shot of a woman jumping through the air screaming and looks as through she is about to land where the camera is positioned. From here it moves to a close up of a man's face, covered with blodd, head thrown back and he is howling. Behind his head is a full moon in the night's sky, a convention commonly associated with vampires. This shot fades out and the screen is black for a second before fading in on a woman walking alone down a road in front of houses, she looks around her, her expression terrified and she is clutching her injured arm. She caslls out "Someone...Please." It cuts to a close up of a man's face looking through a slit in a door or wall where some light is able to get through to light up his face, we assume he is looking out onto where the woman is walking and says "They're using her as bait". As he finishes his sentence, a high wide angle shot of and area of houses is shown. there are dark figures moving around the place, everywhere covered in snow. It cuts to a second on the blood red background saying "Say Goodnight", before a pan down shot of the male vampire we have seen crouching down. An over the (his) shoulder shot of the woman who saw walking down the road saying "Please God". It turns back to the vampire and he shakes his head at her followed by saying "No God". Her screams are carried into the next shot of a man sat behind the wheel of a car, but through the side window we can see a vampire running towards the car before jumping up and smashing through the window. The glass shatterings which are flying twoards the camera turn into the blood red background and black fint for the last time, and the male narrator finishes the trailer but reading the text, and the films title. "30 Days of Night".
From these analyses a collection of Codes and Conventions for the horror genre’s film trailers can be drawn. They are;
- The trailer starts with slow editing, with simple camera movements, it then builds up to a much quicker pace with a montage of images from the film creating a high level of suspense.
- There are many shots of action (people fighting, running etc), and heavy suggestion of threat from the relevant figure in the film.
- Many of the films had taglines. For example, Scream had the tagline of Don’t Answer the Phone. Don’t Open the Door. Don’t Try to Escape.
- There is a male voice narrating over the advert, explaining the main characteristics of the plot. For example in 28 Days Later, he explains about the virus and the man thinking he’s alone but he’s not. This creates a better understanding for the viewer of what happen because sometimes adverts aren’t able to explain the plot well. Having a male voice is also more sinister than a female voice, which can be soft and a more comforting sound than a deep male voice, this therefore increases the fear and enforces the fact that the film is a horror.
