Evaluation: Part 1

When creating my horror film trailer, I made it contain many features of a typical horror film trailer. I focused the trailer on being similar to a 70’s horror film, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, instead of doing a horror in the style of a more modern trend, such as Paranormal Activity. I found that sticking to an already defined genre was a wise thing to do, as audience would already have a rough idea of what to expect from the trailer before even watching it. This relates to Thomas Schatz’ ‘Hollywood Genres’ theory, how he believes that the genre of a film can sell it, as well as helping film makers to know what features to add to their film in order for it to achieve the genre that they wish. I agree with this, as when making my trailer, I constructed a list of features that I should include in the trailer to make achieve a gory horror feel. I found that using close-ups in my trailer helped establish emotion in the trailer, which is key in understanding a character in a trailer. I also used parallel music in my trailer, as I felt that this helped build a tense feel for the trailer, and achieve what I wanted it to within the short time that I had available in the trailer. I made the main character, Keith, in my trailer a sadistic character, as I felt that this was key in a horror film, as it helps to build the killer’s dominance over their victims. Quick montages were used towards the end of my trailer as this gave the trailer a chaotic feel, and gave the audience that the characters were scared and panicking. I used the stereotype of a typical ‘Psycho killer’ as I feel that in a trailer, it is important to establish the character as soon as possible, so by making it obvious who the villain is in the trailer, I achieved this.

My horror trailer was made to fit the generic conventions of a typical film trailer, as I found that doing it this way would make it work, as there is no need to challenge generic conventions in this area. For example, I used a production screen at the beginning of the trailer, as well as a red band banner which imitates a typical film trailer. For the trailer I decided to do a mix between a highlights and a scene trailer, with one scene being the main focus of the trailer, but with flashbacks during the trailer showing highlights of the film, as well as giving the viewer some idea of the storyline of the film. I found that doing a mix worked well as I could add storyline to the trailer as the trailer for Cloverfield does, but still add fast past highlights into the trailer as the trailer for Final Destination 5 does. As for the pace of the trailer, I made the trailer have a slow build up and then be quicker cut toward the end, as most trailers do. My trailer also used text and inter-titles. I found that in film trailer inter-titles help establish the storyline, so I thought that it would be a good feature to include them in my trailer. I also included a the title of the film at the end of my trailer, which is typical of a film trailer. I done this as it is the last thing that the viewer sees, so they remember the name of the film.

An auteur that I studied was Alfred Hitchcock. I decided that it would be beneficial to have a Hitchcock related influence in my trailer, as Hitchcock used to put his personal feelings into his films, such as his affection for blonde women. I decided to put my hatred of abuse towards women to use in my trailer, and decided to base the theme of my trailer around this. I also decided to use small aspects of gore in my trailer, which once again replicates a Hitchcock style. If I featured too much gore, I feel that the viewer would get desensitised from it, but too little gore would make the trailer stray too far away from being a horror film.