Trailer Analysis

The first trailer that I studied was Resident Evil 2002. I chose to watch this trailer because I believe that this film employs a lot of established horror conventions. Not only does this film contain Zombie elements, what is an incredibly popular concept used by horror films it also is a fairly typical modern horror film and would be a good constant to compare other films to.

The trailer begins with shots of any mundane office full of workers before shots of a lab are shown, during this time a robotic narrator voice outlines the plot, this can narration continues throughout the trailer. The robotic voice which is very cold sounding connotes technology to the audience reinforcing the films location which is a laboratory. A shot of a glass vial apparently containing a virus is shown accidently smashing; this shot further explains the plot along with the narrator. The trailers pace begins to speed up with the use of accelerating straight cuts; this technique is used a lot in horror and action film trailers.

A key element of the films plot is that the lab itself is trying to stop the escape of the virus at any cost, including killing anyone that tries to escape. An elevator full of people is seen to stop moving and suddenly fall, killing those inside. This part of the trailer puts emphasis on the idea of artificial intelligence killing survivors. Straight cuts are made to shots of a Special Forces team, a main female character is heard saying the words theres something youre not supposed to see this technique adds mystery to the trailer and encourages the audience to ask questions in their minds. Towards the end of the trailer the pace increases and action shots are included, this bombards the audience with multiple images. Before the climax of the trailer a robotic voice is heard saying Youre all going to die down here! and finishes with the words Resident Evil scrolling silently across the screen. This use of scrolling text causes the audience to read to films title carefully and focuses upon the name of the film. The trailer gives a lot of the plot away however the audience knows exactly what kind of product they will be watching; they will know it contains a virus, zombies and lots of action. This trailer makes it very clear that this film is a horror film with plenty of action. Its inclusion of very obvious conventions will appeal to a lot of people and thus the creators can afford to give the basic outline of the movie away yet still draw many people to the cinemas.

Another horror trailer that I watched was The Blair Witch Project - 1999. The reason I chose to research this particular film was due to its famous use of mostly handheld camera work which is a technique I would like to incorporate in my project at some point. The trailer is considerably different to the other film I researched in the way that it doesn’t include as many of the stereotypical horror film techniques.

The plot of the film revolves around supposedly lost footage filmed by a group of student who want to investigate a local myth. When the sun goes down everyone begins to disappear. The trailer itself was fairly short compared to the trailer for Resident Evil but it just as, or even more effective. The impact that this trailer has is that the audience is asking questions from start to finish. If very little of the films plot is given away the audience will be mentally engaged trying to work out what they have just seen and what it means. The whole of the trailer is in black and white with mostly handheld recorded shots of a forest along with a few various clips of police footage.

The trailer begins with white text on a black background In October of 1994, three student film makers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found. This gives the impression of a vague storyline to the audience, however this statement causes the audience ask even more questions. Immediately a cut is made to slow moving amateur footage of what appears to be a forest floor before a fade transition effect is used to cut to a shot of what appears to be a evidence recovered from the forest and is being examined by a man in rubber gloves. A transition cut again is made to more handheld footage, this footage shows hang prints, writing and symbols on what appears to be a wall. Another fade transition is used and this time it cuts to a side on close up of man against a black background this shot occurs for only 2 seconds before a straight cut followed by a lightning style flash is made to the title of the movie presented with a pattern which appeared on the wall earlier in the trailer. Abruptly a straight cut is made to handheld footage of people running through the forest manically before a fade to black with the words This summer followed by the films website appears in white text. After the text fades back to black the trailer ends.

Nothing is really given away by this trailer and by doing so it stimulates the audience to the point where they want to figure out the mystery of this film and answer. The only sound throughout the trailer apart from the almost inaudible non-diagetic sound of which appears to be a forest, with insect noises mixed in. This use of sound really has a very creepy effect.

The Third trailer I watched was The Hills Have Eyes, this trailer has a running time of around 2:25 minutes and is longer than the two previous trailers. It begins with a shot of an atomic bomb being dropped from an aeroplane followed by clips of explosions and mushroom clouds. Subscript appears Between 1945 1992 The United States government carried out 331 nuclear tests in the desert of New Mexico. There are more shots of mushroom clouds and a house being blown away, more subscript appears Radioactive Fallout contaminated and mutated all living things within 1,30square miles.. A shot of an infant with mutations is seen and then a newspaper clipping is displayed Miners refuse to leave their homes, yet more pictures of mutations and explosions before a fade to black. This first portion of the trailer gives the audience the rough outline of the story and stimulates them with its shocking images even though the trailer is only around a fifth of the way through. Sinister vibes are connoted through this introduction quite apparently and it does the job brilliantly.

After the fade to black music begins to play, and this forms a sound bridge. The song is California Dreaming by the Beach Boys; A fairly relaxed and calm song. An establishing shot of the desert is seen at first in black white which then quickly fades into full colour and a truck towing a caravan appears from the bottom of the screen travelling along a road. A date appears in the bottom right of the screen July 17th, 2006 to make the viewer aware of the setting of the film being around the time of present day. Straight cuts to shots of all the characters follow the truck stops at a petrol station and they are confronted by the attendant an old and simple looking man he asks where they are travelling and wishes them a safe trip. A visual effect is used as a visual bridge, its appearance is that of a projector running out of film, also at this time the music abruptly ends. A gun shot rings out along with the cry of a vulture, the camera in this new shot is placed very low to the ground on the surface of a road and creates a very low angled shot with a very shallow fixed focus. The truck comes along the road and slowly comes into focus, however right before the end of the shot a brief moment before the cut a set of tire spikes pops-up from the ground. The truck swerves out of control and hits a rock, a close up of the rock is shown of the impact. A cut to a shot of the tire spikes being retracted is shown before another cut to two characters trying to find mobile phone signal but failing is shown, this highlights the fact the travellers are well and truly unable to contact emergency services and safety. Lots of still images of the family are displayed and the non-diagetic sound of a heartbeat or a similar pounding sound is heard gently growing louder and more present. A shot of the teenage boy is included walking with an unknown character stalking and watching him standing upon a rock above this head and out of sight, this is the very first shot of the main antagonists in this trailer. A few brief action shots are shown and a mutant face is seen for the first time suddenly turning around to face the camera, perhaps in order to shock the audience. A collection of sepia still photos is displayed showing mutants and members of the family. Shots of the teenage boy running away from a tracking camera as it is moving is connoting that he is being pursued. More sepia still images are included. A brief clip of a fight scene is shown before even more still images are displayed followed by a fade to black. A long shot of a person trapped inside a freezer shown from the outside is seen banging on the lid trying to get out, more images are then weaved between a video of a woman swinging an axe intermittently before a fade to black and a the films title appears with its tag line “The lucky ones die first” and the end of the trailer.

A large amount of the films plot and its themes are given away by the trailer, the antagonists are shown many times and clips of violence are also presence, this is the polar opposite to the trailer for the Blair Witch Project which is very secretive. The use of sound is very good, a non-diagetic and quite calming musical soundtrack lures the viewer into a false sense of security before an abrupt cut to more sinister cinematic sounds. There is no voiceover to describe the plot, instead the reader has to read the subscript displayed on screen, this seems to make the viewer pay more attention and mentally digest the information better. Throughout the entire trailer it’s apparent that a filter has been used to create darker, dirtier and grittier visuals, this is a sort of addition that sub-consciously connotes an ominous feeling to the viewer. The way that this trailer is paced is divided into two halves, at first the trailer uses long clips and the transitions are quite slow however later on in the trailer the clips become shorter in length and the very fast straight cuts are used.

The next trailer I researched was from the film “I Am Legend” – 2007. I chose this film because it’s more of a science fiction/horror film. The trailer begins with a fade from black to a slowly rotating aerial shot of the main character and his dog huddled inside an empty bath tub. A voiceover of the main character is non-diagetically used “Nothing happed the way it was supposed to happen...” the shot fades to black. Subscript appears on a black background – “In five years” yet another fading transition before an aerial shot of a city at night is shown followed by a shot of the main character exiting a car whilst the orchestral sound track begins to play. Various shots of the main character and his family appear with fade to black transitions between them. More subscript appears “Mankind’s struggle for survival” which sinks away into the background slowly drawing the audiences focus towards the centre of the screen before another fade to black. Similar shots of the character, his family and the city continue before more subscript appearing in the same fashion –“Will be lost”. The trailer intensifies with a shot of a bridge being destroyed by missiles along with reaction shots of the main character before a fade to black. A shot of the destroyed bridge appears this time in the light of day followed by a selection of tilt shots of the rest of the city which is now completely deserted. There is a cut to black, the voice over reappears – “Day one thousand and one, my name is Robert Neville I’m a survivor living in New York City”, a pounding heart beat sound is heard. A montage of clips is shown of the character performing tasks such as pumping fuel and exercising, this is shown whilst the voiceover continues –“I’m broadcasting on all AM frequency, if you are out there, if anybody is out there... please...”. A high altitude overhead shot of a car speeding through the abandoned city appears before a fade to black. Subscript appears “The last man on Earth”, a shot of the character walking with a torch and rifle, breathing heavily in a dark room. Subscript – “Is not alone” precedes a shot of the character barely visible in the dark looking panicked. The films title finally appears and the trailer ends.

I find this trailer very effective and yet it uses a simple mixture of techniques. The trailer does use lots of clips from the film however not much of the story line is revealed and so a very good balance is created between the two and would make the audience curious. The music used in the trailer was a typical cinematic score rich in strings; a key feature of the soundtrack is the volume swells used to connote tension. The trailer does reveal what sort of person the lead character is and depicts him as a survivor that is well skilled and adapted to live in the deserted city, it accomplishes this by using a montage of the character carrying out tasks necessary for survival like it’s an everyday task (which to the character after years of being alone, it is). In a similar way to the previous trailer the pace of the clips are controlled, however this time the length of the clips are around the same length and it doesn’t appear to progress quite so fast.




In conclusion I have compared four horror trailers from various points of the spectrum. Each depict different techniques of marketing a film to an audience. An important decisions must be made whilst creating the trailer, simply giving away two much of the story could ruin the film, whilst not giving enough information could leave the potential audience with absolutely no idea about the films themes, genre or cast. Striking a balance is what’s needed to effectively appeal to the potential audiences. From the trailers I have watched in my research I would definitely consider incorporating such techniques as a sound bridge in a similar way as how the creators of “The Hills Have Eyes” incorporated in their trailer, or the use of mostly fade to black transitions and intermittent subscript placed between clips which was used quite successfully in the “I Am Legend”. I think I chose a good selection of different trailers each with their own techniques and ways of giving the audience a basic idea of the film.