Camera angles and camera movement used in horror trailers

Slanted angle: This is where the camera tilts around the subject. It is often used in horror films to create tension and disorientation; it is mostly used in dramatic scenes to draw the user in and creates distortion to the scene. This is a slanted angle from the trailer of ‘Cloverfield’. 

Establishing shot: This is when the setting fills up the frame, it is mostly used in the beginning of a scene to emphasize the setting, for example if there is a haunted house in the movie, an establishing shot would show the house at the beginning to build tension and draw the audience into the set. These are two establishing shots from the trailer ‘Scream 4’.

Close up or extreme close up: This  is when the camera closes up on the subject, it is used in horror films to make the audience feel uncomfortable as to get so close to a someone’s face is unnatural. The shot on the left is a close up from the trailer ‘Piranha 3D’ and the shot on the right is an extreme close up shot from the trailer of ‘Insidious’. 

 
Point of view: This is when the camera is from someone’s point of view, the camera can see exactly what they see. This is mostly used in horror films to show a suspicious character up to something or in chase scenes from the victim’s point of view. For instance this is a POV shot from the trailer of ‘Cloverfield’. 

Pan: This is when the camera moves left to right, or right to left following a subject. This is used in horror movies when a suspicious character comes into play, the camera follows the character to emphasize on his part in the movie. Moreover it is used in chase scenes to follow the victim as he is trying to get away.

Hand-held: This produces a jerky movement which creates a sense of reality in the scenes. Furthermore horror movies use it to create chaos in the scenes; it is especially used in chase scenes. A good example of this is the film ‘Cloverfield’ which was shot entirely with a hand held camera. 

Sound and voiceover

Horror movies rely upon sound more than many of key features and other genres. In past horror movies directors often used a term called ‘mickey mousing’, this is when the music matches the action of the film. For example if the character is running, the music will get faster, if the character is creeping around, the music will be slow as well. This technique is not used as much in today’s horror films, this is because there are more violent and gruesome movies out now then there ever was. The directors do not want to anything to distract the audience from the actual scenes; this emphasizes the audience’s attention on the scene which makes it gorier. Furthermore in past horror movies the directors use to use a lot more diegetic sounds, for example a radio comes on by itself to play, this use to create suspense in the audience as supernatural entities was a huge fear in those days.

The music in horror films can often be forgotten by the audience however it plays a major part in developing the atmosphere in horror movies. For example a common way directors use sound in horror movies in when there is an important scene coming up, they have eerie music playing leading up to the scene the music is unpleasant and therefore is not something the audience likes, this makes them feel uncomfortable which adds to the suspense and tension in the atmosphere. Moreover the pace of the music in a film can alert and build tension within the audience, for example the pace of the music usually starts slowly and then gets faster and faster until something happens. I have taken this film trailer and analysed the sound:

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There are many diegetic sounds in this trailer to begin with, for example a camera shutter and screams. We also hear many things happening without seeing them, we also hear a clicking clock that gets faster and faster which builds tension, these are all diegetic sounds. When the character is being haunted there is a very slow and steady soundtrack and helps the audience to emphasise with her.

Directors use voiceovers in trailers to give the audience a brief synopsis to what the film is going to be about, the voiceover is usually very enigmatic which encourages the audience to go and see the film, the same voice is often used throughout the trailer which gives the audience continuity and does not confuse the audience, furthermore traditionally the voiceover is usually a man's voice opposed to a females. This is an example of a film trailer that uses a voiceover: 

Horror genre and conventions of a horror movie

The name horror movie first came from critics of the film industry in 1931 from the films Dracula and Frankenstein, horror movies have been developing conventions ever since then. When horror films first started out they use to play on people’s fears of supernatural entity’s to cause the viewer nightmares. However in today’s society films are more surreal with physiological thrillers, serial killers and a mass outbreak of some type of disease. The key convention however is to cause alarm and terror in the audiences mind or to revolt them entirely. This can be done in numerous ways from having gory graphical scenes or applying the audience’s fears and nightmares into the film. The viewers are attracted to these types of films as they have a great deal of tension and cause them to be on the edge of their seats. Typical conventions of a horror movie include darkness, screams, blood, death, isolated settings and chase scenes.

Some themes within the horror genre include paranormal activity, torture, ancient curses, or an evil force out to get one or a group of people.  Some films in this category are ‘Insidious’, ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Drag Me to Hell’. Although these types of films are not surreal, they scare the user with the key aspect of something that is unknown. Some are more realistic, for example a serial killer on the lose trying to kill someone, more often than not these people are innocent however lately some horror films are highlighting moral decisions and ethicality, For instance the girls that are more promiscuous tend to die first in horror movies which could give the younger generation who are more prone to being swayed by what they see a negative view of these types of people. For example in these two pictures from the movie ‘Scream 4’ the two girls on the left are typical blonde bimbos, they are more likely to die before the girl on the right.

This is also shown in many other teen horror movies such as ‘Piranha 3D’ and ‘Final Destination’.

A sub-genre is a sub class of a larger genre, or a category within a category, for example Sub genres are useful for the audience as when they are looking into a horror film to watch they can quickly determine what kind of horror film it will be, for example if it has been labelled as an extra- terrestrial sub-genre then the audience know that the film will be about aliens, sub-genres give enough information about the type of the movie for the audience to consider whether or not they feel like watching the horror film. Some horror sub genres are increasing in popularity while some are decreasing, for example extra-terrestrial use to be very popular but is now being taken over by slasher and teen movies, which mostly appeal to the younger generation. A classic example of a teen slasher movie is ‘I’ll always know what you did last summer’. Another typical horror sub-genre is animation, for examples ‘Dead Space: Aftermath’ and ‘Resident ‘Evil: Degeneration’.

Hybrid genres are becoming more and more popular in this day and age; this is to keep the audience entertained and more excited about the films and to increase the target audience, wider appeal. A hybrid genre is when two main genres are combined together so that we can see the key conventions of both types of films in one film. For example the movie ‘Splice’ is a cross between horror and sci-fi. Another example is a film called ‘Lesbian vampire killers’ which is a cross between comedy and horror. Other horror hybrid genres include romantic- horror, dark humour- horror and fantasy-horror.

Classwork

This is work we have started in preparation of our trailer work, although this has nothing to do with horror trailers It will help me to learn more about different types of trailers and therefore I will be able to expand my knowledge and see the differences between different genres. 

Question:Look at the following titles of three trailers on the disc Teaching Trailers Secondary 2011: Captain America: The First Avenger, Prom, Honey 2. Based on just the titles, what clues are there about the content of the film? Try to say what exactly you are basing your ideas on. Is it the associations of a particular word or phrase? Is it knowledge of other films?

Answer: Captain America: The First Avenger sounds like an action packed film simply by its name, Moreover I know it is going to be an action/ adventure film as the film is based upon a comic character called Captain America, although this is a classic we can immediately know from the mention of the name that it is about him.
Prom: This film sounds like a happy sort of teenage chick flick; we know this as prom is usually a happy time for teenage girls.
Honey 2: This sounds like a sort of warm and happy film, Moreover the word ‘honey’ has a connotation of being warm and soft. Moreover I have seen Honey which was purely about dance, thus I know this film will be about dancing as well, however if I had never seen the film Honey I would never have been able to guess it would be about dancing.

Question: Now watch the trailer. How accurate were your predictions?

Answer: After watching the trailer for Captain America I found that it was an action packed film, however it was about a war which I did not get from looking at the title of the film. Similarly with Prom the film was about a high school preparing for prom, the trailer portrays the film as a drama type of film. As I had seen the film Honey I concluded that the sequence would be about dancing, I was correct, the trailer more or less showed this.

Question: Trailers help audiences understand the genre of a film. Referring to the trailers listed above, which ones fit the following genres? Comedy, romantic and action adventure.

Answer: Captain America is an action adventure film, Prom would be a romantic film and Honey 2 would be a comedy film.

Question: Do any of the trailers seem to fit more than one genre? Give reasons for your answers.

Answer: In the trailer of Prom it seems to be more than just a romantic film, as for some characters they have been rejected and some characters do not seem happy, this leads us to believe that the film could also be in the drama genre. Captain America could also fit into the war genre as it is mostly about preparing and having a war. 

Blogger background

I wanted to make my blog look unique and different, therefore I found a horrific poster for the film ‘The Human Centipede’ and imported it into Photoshop, I then manipulated it to make it look different so that I do not breech copyright law. I applied my knowledge of Photoshop I have learnt over the past two years of learning Media. 

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Introduction

For my A2 media studies coursework, I will be creating a promotional package consisting of: a Horror trailer, a magazine cover and a poster. I will begin my primary research by watching, researching and analysing horror trailers so they can give me a good grasp on the key features that I will use in my own teaser trailer and to have a more in-depth knowledge of trailers. We will mostly be focusing on contemporary horror trailers as horror movie conventions are ever changing and my trailer will need to fit into the current market. Following research I will be completing a narrative structure, character analysis, storyboard, moodboard, animatic, location pictures, risk assessment, shooting script, titles design, production co. ident, equipment list, camera tests, production stills and specific planning.