Research: Trailer Analysis of Dawn of the Dead

• Editing

The speed of clips in the teaser trailer last from 1 to 2 seconds, while the theatrical trailer has clips lasting from 2 to 3 seconds. This makes the transitioning of clips in the teaser trailer faster and more intense, probably to help conceal more of the narrative from the audience, to create a larger depth of suspense and tension. The theatrical trailer; however, is trying to reveal more of the narrative to the audience, while at the same time trying to create the same atmosphere its teaser version upholds.

The use of text titles in the theatrical trailer helps uncover more of the narrative to the audience, to help them understand the whole purpose of the film clearer. The teaser trailer; however, doesn’t use any text titles, due to how it’s simply trying to create a fast paced atmosphere only revealing small hints about the narrative. This leaves audiences on a bigger cliff hanger then the theatrical trailer, leaving the audience to think for them selves, what the film could possibly be about.

• Sound

The theatrical trailer has a larger use of dialogue then the teaser, due to how it’s revealing more information on the narrative of the film to the audience, so that they’ll be able to distinguish it as a horror zombie film. There’s hardly any dialogue in the teaser trailer, creating a darker and more tension fuelled atmosphere, which emphasises and concentrates more on the action in the trailer.

The use of non-diegetic music in both the teaser and theatrical trailer are used in the same similar way to establish and emphasise a change in the atmosphere, which helps show both the trailers to conform to Todorov’s theory. For the teaser trailer, it uses a calm and gentle slow paced tone of non-diegetic music at the beginning, to create equilibrium in that atmosphere. It’s only half way through the trailer that the music changes to a faster paced, ambient tone of non-diegetic music, which breaks the calm atmosphere creating disequilibrium. The theatrical trailer does exactly the same but does it from an earlier point at the beginning, creating a more longer dark atmosphere, which shows more of the horror the film has to offer to audiences.

Overall, the use of non-diegetic music helps shows the teaser and theatrical trailer to conform to the conventional ideas of a horror trailer, due to how they normally place audiences in a calm sense of state at first then gradually break away into a dark and chaotic atmosphere. The trailer then ends, leaving audiences on cliff-hanger, making them want to see the film to find out how the disequilibrium is resolved.

• Location/scenery

The teaser trailer immediately gives away that the film is based on a shopping centre, due to a long camera angle shot of it at the beginning, which is placed directly in the centre of the screen, to suggest the shopping centre having a major importance in the story. It could be suggested that the shopping centre is the group of characters’ safe haven from the mysterious crisis happening around them. The theatrical trailer, however, doesn’t showcase the shopping centre like the teaser but showcases other locations, which finally lead up to the shopping centre being revealed. This has probably been done to help show a larger prospective of the narrative of the film but due to this, it decreases the suspense and tension the trailer has compared to the teaser, due the location of the film being less mysterious.  

• Characters

Both trailers showcase characters in a different way from one and another, to help establish their value and importance to viewers. For the teaser trailer, it showcases a number of characters but never establishes who the main character is, making all the characters have the same level of authority and value. This has probably been done to convey more of the narrative and to focus more on the disequilibrium, to help create a larger feeling of suspense and tension, which will be the selling point of the film. The theatrical trailer; however, actually establishes a main character (who’s a heroin), focusing more on the characters to probably reveal more of the narrative to the audience.

Conclusion

Overall, the teaser trailer of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ is much shorter and faster then the theatrical one, only revealing a small amount of narrative while concentrating on building an atmosphere full of suspense, tension and mystery, so that audiences will be made interested, wanting to watch the film. The theatrical trailer tries to do this, while also revealing more of the narrative but as more of the story is shown, the less suspenseful the theatrical trailer becomes compared to the teaser.

Research: Trailer Analysis of SAW 3D

At what point in the trailer are we told the name of the film? Why is this?

The film name ‘SAW 3D’is told at the end of the trailer in order to hold tension towards the audience. The teaser trailer builds the movie name by making each inter-title build up to the actual film title. This is to build suspense towards the viewers. Throughout the teaser trailer, it doesn’t inform the viewers that the film is in 3D until the end which encourages and motivates them to wa tch the film. Moreover, this is the concept that the teaser trailer is trying to keep from the viewers until the very end which is effective because as they watch the teaser and gain interest in the film, knowing that it is in the final saga and it is in 3D will make the viewers more enthusiastic about the film.

Are we told who is starring in the film?

The film doesn’t tell us who the characters are; the reason being is that they are no famous, well known actors/actress in this film that will help sell the film. The characters are shown in the film; however most of them are not significant in the film and they are not being labelled as the main USP. Looking at the teaser trailer, the majority of the characters are from the pervious SAW films in order to keep the storyline going and some characters are new. The reason why they used actors and actress that are not well – known as the victim is so that they can make it supplementary scary and realistic as possible. As Jigsaw’s ‘games’ create gruesome deaths to these characters that are being played by actors/actress that are not recognisable will generate an idea that this can possibly happen to anyone which can create an element of fright towards the viewers.    

What type of action from the film do we see?

The action that you see in this trailer is the same action that you will see in the other previous saw’s which will attract the same audience to watch this finale one. The action you see are people struggling from the trap that they have been set in. In this trailer you don’t see the characters die, however they show the build up. The reason why they don’t show the characters die is because that give away too much of the story and therefore viewers will not be eager to watch the film as they already know what the outcome will be for the characters. In the film, we also see panic coming from the characters that are trapped which will make the viewers curious of what is happening to them that are making them appear terrified.

What clues does the music give us as to what type of film the trailer is advertising?

The Saw theme music comes up towards the end of the teaser trailer and at that part the pace increase and we see the different characters faced in a dilemma there in. The theme music has changed slightly, the pace of the theme music has increase which could mean that this new SAW won’t be the sane than the others and instead it will be more upbeat and fast pace. During the voice over of Tobin Bell (Jigsaw) in the beginning, we hear a loud low pitch sound with a minor scream every time Jigsaw finishes a sentence. This sound happens every time an inter – titles come into view, however, just before we see the inter – title we see a quick images of events they are in the film. The sound brings more effective towards the image as they are most unexpected and this gives an idea that the film is a thriller because thriller movies usually have unexpected scenes as one of there conventions.    

Does the trailer come with a voice over and if so, what can you tell about the voice being used?  Why do you think this voice was chosen? What effect does it have?

The person who does the voice over in this teaser trailer is the same person who is the main antagonist in the overall film, although people may question the fact weather he is an antagonist or not.  In this film, the person who does the voice over, who is John in the film (real name Tobin Bell), is the person who explains the fatal game task to the helpless characters that ended up in the ‘jigsaw’s’ game. As John does the voice over he talks to the audience and that makes them feel as if they are part of the game saying stuff like ‘you can’t hide’ and ‘you haven’t seen anything yet’ which is significant in drawing more people to come and watch the film. His voice sound demonic, evil and mischievous which straight away alerts the audience that this film will be a horror/thriller film. Also, he speaks in a slow manner so that the audience can hear what he is saying. 

How does the speed of what we see compare to watching a clip from a film? Why is this?

The speed of this teaser trailer is generally fast pace which is done by creating a quick montage of shots that has been edited for this trailer. The speed of the teaser trailer should be similar to the speed from the actual film so that the audience won’t be disappointed in the pace of the film, which they will if they see a fast pace teaser trailer and then see that the film has a slow tempo to it. Also, having a fast tempo trailer can attract people to watch the film as they may be entertained by a fast, exciting, upbeat film like SAW. In the teaser trailer, Saw uses fast tempo shots which is expected as the SAW films have always had a quick tempo. One example is at the beginning, just before they show an inter –titles, a quick image comes up. The shot appears fast as though it is a subliminal image and that gives a sense to the viewers that this final SAW film will be of a fast tempo with unanticipated events commencing.

Does the speed alter through the trailer or does it stay the same?

The speed of this teaser trailer varies but it is usually at first pace with the quick editing. In the beginning as the ‘jigsaw’ speaks, the pace of the shot is slow which matches his voice hen when he stops talking the tempo changes immensely which catches the audience off guard. This gives the audience an idea that this film contains a lot of unexpected events, which can catch the audience off guard and that are one of the conventions of a thriller movie. Then the pace of the shots slow down when we see the victims struggling to get out of the ‘games’ so that the viewers can see a little bit clearly the characters hast to get out of the trap and also what type of game they are put in. It was necessary to slow down the pace at this stage so that the viewers who haven’t watch a SAW film can try to see clearly the concept of the film whether than hearing it from the voice over.    

What information are we given about the film and at what point in the trailer is this information given?

The SAW 7 trailer doesn’t tell the audience a bit of what the story will be about, instead the voice over just keeps the audience in suspends. Every time a SAW came out, the gruesome game designs that is in the film became more creative and ghastly. So when the jigsaw says in his teaser trailer ‘You haven’t seen anything yet’ gives an idea that this SAW will be mind blowing compared to the other previous ones and that can influence their audience and SAW fans to defiantly watch the final film. The jigsaw also says these three words ‘Fear, suffering, death’ in that order. This could mean that the characters that are put in the twisted game will be facing their fears, leading them to be severely hurt and in pain which follows up with them dying. This is what is usually expected in a SAW film and this may prevent people from watching it, however they may be more interested to view it when the jigsaw later on says ‘you haven’t seen anything yet’. The information is given at the beginning of the trailer in order to get straight to it.

What type of audience is the trailer aimed at? How can you tell? 

Looking at the teaser trailer, I can see that the film is aimed at adults because of the images of deadly machinery that the characters are faced with in the film. As a viewer sees this, they will anticipate that the character that is faced with this machinery is going to end up in a gruesome death and therefore it shouldn’t be watched by children as they might be sacred mentally and emotionally. Also in the voice over, Tobin Bell says ‘this game has a new design: Fear, suffering, death’. These three aspect will be used in the film and as Saw put ‘Fear’, ‘suffering’ and ‘death’ into context then it will have explicit scenes and nature which shouldn’t be seen by children but adults as they are less likely to be mentally or emotionally damaged by this.

Research: Trailer Analysis of Cloverfield

Camera Movement/Angle/Shot

The first view of a close up a video phone foreshadows how most of the film will be viewed. However the video rewinds to what may be the main character and it zooms out into a mid shot. The screen then blackens to an explosion, this is seen from a long shot but the camera amateurishly zooms in, as if taken from a handheld device; which gives the effect of a firsthand (POV) which is similar to The Blair Witch Project and adds that disorientated effect. The camera then cuts to a close up of ‘Robert Hawking’ one of the only characters named in the trailer; his addressing to the camera gives a documentary effect which may connect with the text at the beginning. The screen then cuts again to a long shot of the cities desolate landscape and a projectile coming towards the audience. This indicates Cloverfield’s cross genres as the projectile adds an action theme to the film. However two extremely quick cuts of distraught humans, brings it back to the horror and bleak theme. In addition even more extremely quick cuts show hospitals; filled with depressed, deprived and destitute people, these are all done using hand held cameras so the quality is not good and the camera gets fairly close to the people to see their faces which show desperate emotion. As the video quickly cuts and the camera gyrates, it is slowed down by a low angle mid shot of a man on a phone calling “Beth”. However the camera then cuts again to people running, the movement of the camera suggests that the person is running away from something and due to the POV camera type it creates tension through haste and fear. The use of the extreme close ups in the scenes may depict the struggle as characters physically look worn out, over the shoulder shots are used to create fear and an element of hiding from a POV angle. The use of low angles creates an urban warfare scene, as the camera tries to hide under a car, a clear act of desperation and realism which is arguably lacking in some horror films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM&feature=player_embedded#!

Editing

The beginning of the trailer shows a distorted Paramount Pictures logo, this already indicates that things are a turn for the worst. The screech between each cut is a sharp sound, which is distinctive and discerning another tool used to frighten the audience as a screech can be mistaken for a scream. The first scene is rewound, this may imply that the on goings of the movie are being watched from a later point and again adds to the documentary ambience of Cloverfield. However the jubilation of the party scene is cut, with the use of a quick flash of negative colors then it changes to an explosion. The use of extremely fast cuts may relate to desperation or anxiety. Again the camera cuts to the statue of liberty head being destroyed, this is the first continuous shot in the trailer and it seems to be in POV, this creates fear as the monster seems a little bit closer to home whereas other films with monsters such as Godzilla were in Tokyo.  There is hardly any background sound within scenes; except for an ominous siren and the screams of people to create a disturbing environment. A series of quick cuts of random characters speaking of escape the use of dialogue produces a frantic mood, as the all want to escape but to no avail. One of the characters is blurred in the trailer, this strongly suggests that the film has already been record and is being watched from a later date. The 4^th wall is broken when a character tells another to “turn off that camera”, this shows that the film is being record from a POV angle. The director is shown in the middle of the trailer to add effect and slow the action down, however the tempo is brought back up by the a succession of extremely quick cuts to show the danger  and threat of the city. The film title and the day it comes out, the ominous screech stills erringly plays the background while the fills crew are shown.

Sound

The utter silence of the first scene with the text creates tension for it is to be broken with “SURPRISE”, an ironic term as it was used in a different less frightening context. The rewinding sound is an upsetting screech along with the screams of people following the explosion. As the trailer continues, the screams of people can be heard in almost every scene given the noise of all out disaster moreover what seems to be sirens can be heard to create an environment of panic and emergency. A warping sound can be heard when cuts are made in the trailer, this may be due to editing of the recording and is another indication of irony. Additionally to sound of emergency it seems every piece of dialogue is negative, “its winning” and “we have to get out of here” all add a dismal mood. When the trailer draws to a end, the bullet sounds of the urban warfare can hardly be heard over the screams, a distressing thought.

Research: Trailer Analysis of Drag Me to Hell

Camera Shot/ Angle/ Movement

In this trailer there was a use of reaction shots during the main characters discussion with her manager concerning a position this was to show the audience how her reactions to what was being said the audience could also read how she felt as the manager was talking . Their was also a use of point of view shots this was to show how she saw things such as the person she had to compete against for a position she wanted at work.

There was a use of high angle shot this was used in the scene where an old lady is begging the main character the high angle shot misleads the audience to believe that she has all the power where as when the trailer continues it reveals that it’s the old lady is the one with the power. There is use of low angle shot in the parking lot scene as the old woman pulls the main character from the car and places a curse on her this low and angle show is also used as a point of view shot because we can see the main character is vulnerable at that point in time and is unaware of what is about to happen to her. It also shows that the old lady is the dominant figure in the scene as we can see she is about to place a curse on the victim.

There where many different types of camera movements used in the trailers one of the movements that where used would the pan movement this movement is normally used in establishing shots but in this trailers it was used to see the faces of all the helpers of a ritual that was being performed this was to show the tension that was in the room and to highlight the seriousness of the situation that they were in. Another camera movement that was used in the was the tracking movement this movement was used when there were shadowy type hands moving closer to its victim this was used to show the hand progression towards its victim and to keep the audience in suspense because they will want to know what would happen if the hands got to the main character.

Sound

Diegetic sound that was used in this trailer was mostly used to give narrative to the trailer because it gave information on the plot which allowed the audience to piece together the possible plot of the film. The Diegetic sound was also used to give the audience a feel of the characteristics of the characters and what they are about where they are the protagonist or the antagonist. The diegetic sound also gave the audience a feel of the type of environment that they where in for example in the office scene it was quiet and not a lot of talking so the audience could tell it was a working area.

The non-diegetic sounds used in the trailer would have been the background music the background music when with the scenes almost like the music was leading the scene and with the background music the audience could tell when a scene was going to be tense and exiting or it would be calm. When the scene was calm the music was calm and the instruments used such as piano and the violins gave a calm and solemn effect. But when the action or an unexpected twist occurred was taking place the music became very fast and tense.

Editing

In this trailer there was a use of editing techniques one of the editing techniques used was cross cutting this was used in the scene where the main character is having a conversation with her boss there where cuts to different areas of the office this was used so that the audience got a better idea of what the conversation was about because there were cross cuts two a man that they where talking about and a and cut to a sign in the office this let the audience know what she was up against if she want a promotion. Another editing technique that was used in this trailer was jump cuts this technique was used throughout the trailer this helped actually put the trailers together and gave the trailer narrative because it took the audiences from one place to another and allowed the audience to be think about what the plot could be and make a judgement whether they would want to watch the film or not.

Mise en Scene

The wardrobe of the characters where very important because it allowed the audience to see what type of person they are socially whether they are upper or working class. From the old lady’s costume the audience could tell that see was not particularly rich and other than the fact that she was old played apart in getting the audiences sympathy when her request is turned down. Her wardrobe also helped in misleading the audience because the audience would not have expected her to place a curse on the main character the way she did.

The props used in the film where very important because a lot of props where used in this trailer one of the props used in the trailer was a golden button this prop was used to place a curse on the main character and it was key in the ritual that the old woman used to curse the victim because it belonged to the main character.

One of the setting that was used in the trailer was the office it was bright and was busy this setting gave a sense of normality before the disequilibrium occurs this also sets the scene for the disequilibrium to happen as viewer would not expect somebody to cause such a scene in an office area. The rest of the trailer is very dark and this is caused by the lighting this dark setting is effective because it highlights the evil that is following the victim. The lighting is almost like a contrast because when nothing was happening the lighting was bright but as soon as the disequilibrium occurred the lighting became very dark.

The special effects used in many films are use to the unreal look very realistic in this trailer the where many special effects in it one of them would be the hands grabbing on to the victim of the film to drag her down this effect was done with the use of Computer Generated Images (CGI) to give the illusion that the antagonist was truly being dragged in to hell.

Characters

Protagonist: In this film the protagonist is also the victim of the film she is the protagonist because she is the one trying to find a way of getting rid of the curse placed upon her and she is also the victim because a demon is after her trying to take her to hell.

Helpers: the helpers in this film are the people that are trying to help the protagonist get rid of the curse and the demon that is trying to get her.

Antagonist: The antagonist is an old lady who has placed a curse upon the protagonist and she has sent a demon after her to drag her to hell.

Location

There are various different places in which this trailer was shot in there was an office where the protagonist works , a car lot where the protagonist is cursed by the antagonist and at home where the protagonist is being tortured by the demon that is after her.

Narrative/plots:

There are no clear narratives in the trailer but the trailer is put together almost tell the viewer what is going to happen in the film.

Themes:

·         Curses

·         Death

·         Hell

·         Violence

·         Supernatural

Genre:

From this trailer you can tell that it is a horror/thriller

Research: Questionnaires and Graphs on Audience Feedback

Questionnaires

Here is a questionnaire we created to hand out to 30 individuals to find out their opinions on certain questions based on the horror genre. By carrying out this research we would be able to gain vital information on our potential audiences, to then help us create our horror trailer to be more appealing to them. Here is an example of our questionnaire and evidence of some filled out. 

Here’s a scan of three questionnaires we handed out to individuals, to receive their opinions on horror trailers. This is our evidence of our questionnaire results being performed on real individuals and not produced by us.

                      

Graph Results

Graph 1

After analysing this graph, it shows that there was an even amount of females and males who participated in the ten questionnaires we handed out to individuals. This shows that all the results from the questionnaires will all be based on fair and unbiased views from both females and males point of prospective on horror trailers. This will hopefully allow us to create a horror trailer which will hopefully appeal to both males and females, due to how we’ll have an understanding of what both genders like and don’t like about horror trailers.

Graph 2

The results of this graph shows that individuals aged ‘21 – 26’ were the biggest age group to participate in the questionnaires we handed out, showing that the majority of results will be based on 21 – 26 year olds point of prospective. This is a positive result, due to how we wanted 21 – 26 year olds to be the main age group to participate in our questionnaires, after our research into Pearl and Dean. We found that most horror films were watched by a majority of 21 -26 year olds, suggesting this age group to be the main audience of films in the horror genre. By having information from 21 – 26 year olds, we’ll hopefully have a better understanding of target audience, increasing the chances of our film appealing to them. Other age groups didn’t have such a huge participation in the questionnaires as 21 – 26 year olds did, although we still did gain information from other age groups, which we’ll use to make our trailer appealing to them, to expand our target audience.

Graph 3

The majority of respondents in the questionnaires, all preferred the supernatural horror sub genre from ‘Sci-Fi’, ‘Psychological’ and ‘Thriller’. This shows that for our horror trailer, we may base it in the supernatural sub horror genre in order to make our trailer more appealing to mass audiences. Other sub horror genres didn’t gain as many votes as the supernatural genre, proving these genres to be relatively unpopular with audiences, resulting in us not basing our horror trailer in these genres.

Graph 4

The ‘story’ of a horror trailer was the most appealing feature voted by respondents in the questionnaires and so we now plan to create a story for our horror trailer, which will hopefully be unique and interesting to audiences, which make our trailer more appealing. Less voted features of a horror trailer such as music, conventional ideas and scenery had a relatively low amount of votes but we’ll still focus on these features but on a small scale, to hopefully make our horror trailer appealing to most audiences. There was no vote for ‘scenery’ of a horror trailer, showing it to be the least favourite feature. This shows that the location of our story won’t have much of an impact on our horror trailer being appealing to our target audiences and so, we’ll focus more on the other features of our trailer.

Graph 5

The analysis of this graph shows that ‘Actors’ was the highest piece of information voted by respondents in the questionnaires. This result suggests that audiences may highly value actors, suggesting that star power maybe a huge factor in making a film trailer appealing to audiences. This could have a large impact on our group by not having any well known famous actors, due to us having no budget because we’re only college students. It’s due to this that we may not add the names of actors in the trailer but focus more on the action in the scenes, to create a more mysterious and horrifying atmosphere.

Respondents also largely voted for ‘Release date’, ‘Title of the film’ and ‘Synopsis’ as information they would like to see in a horror trailer. We’ll incorporate these features into our horror trailer due to how easy it will be for us and will hopefully make our trailer more appealing to audiences. The lowest voted feature was ‘Directors’, which suggests that audiences may not really follow cult films by famous directors. This is positive for our group, due to how we won’t have any famous director and so by not showcasing the director of our horror trailer, audiences will hopefully still find it appealing.

Graph 6

The majority of respondents said that they preferred music, suggesting that music may have a huge impact on emphasizing the dark and horrific atmosphere of a horror trailer. This result has caused us to plan the incorporation of music into our horror trailer, to hopefully improve its impact on appealing to audiences. We plan to probably use music which is similar to the kind we’ve heard  in other horror trailers, so that we have the best chances of having horror music which is conventional.

Graph 7

50% of respondents said that a voice over is needed and another 50% said that it’s not needed to make a horror trailer appealing. By analysing these results, we’ve decided that we won’t use a voice over for our film trailer, due to how we won’t have the right type of voice for it like other voice overs in professional film trailers we’ve analysed. Also, a voice over won’t be entirely needed in a teaser horror trailer, due to how it may give away too much information on the narrative of our trailer. 

Graph 8

The majority of respondents voted cinema as where they see the latest film trailers, suggesting that if we were to distribute our film trailer at cinemas throughout the United Kingdom, we would have the best chances of making our trailer viewed by mass audiences. ‘Televsion’, ‘Internet’ and ‘DVD/Blu-Ray’ were the next voted places respondents saw the latest film trailers. These are other places we’ll distribute are film trailer through to reach out to small audiences but our main focus will be distributing our trailer through cinemas. 

Graph 9 

The analysis of this graph shows that the majority of respondents want to see the release date of a film in a poster, to persuade them to watch the movie. Our main media product is a teaser trailer and so our poster won't probably have a specific release date on it, due to how we won't give a specific release date in our teaser trailer. Instead, we'll have to concentrate more on showing other important information such as the title of the film and cast, which we can easily incorporate into our poster.  

 

Graph 10

70% of respondents found that Empire was their favourite film magazine, proving this magazine brand to be the most popular and probably well known film review critic. It's due to this that we may use Empire as the publishing brand for our magazine front cover, to make it more appealing to audiences in the hopes of advertising our film.

Research: Mindmaps on Horror Trailers

Here are two mindmaps we created at the beginning of our coursework, to help us develop our understanding of what we currently know about horror trailers. The first mindmap is on 'The difference between theatrical and teaser trailers', which can be seen below. Click on the image to enlarge it, to see it clearer.

The second mindmap is on 'What is a Horror Trailer', which can be seen below. Click on the image to enlarge it, to see it clearer.

The third mindmap is on conventions in the horror genre, similar to the second mindmap.