My chosen genre.

After looking at several different trailers and their conventions, I have decided that the genre of my trailer will be horror. I will include lots of conventions in the trailer so that my audience will be able to pick up on the genre. Some of the conventions of horror trailers that I will include will be: dark and brief shots, quick paced editing, creepy/intense music, tension and seclusion, and the resolution unknown which will leave the audience asking questions.

Horror films are designed to elicit all kinds of emotions from the audience such as fear, terror and horror. Many horror films have similar plots that include themes such as death, the supernatural or mental illness. There are many sub-genres of horror: slasher, teen terror, serial killers, satanic, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. Some horror films also include elements from other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, black comedy, and thrillers.

Horror films have been around since the 1890’s when the first depictions of supernatural events appeared in the form of short, silent movies. The early 20th century brought the first monster to appear in a full-length horror film, Quasimodo. In the early 1930s American film producers, such as Universal Pictures, popularised the horror film, creating a series of successful Gothic films including Dracula and Frankenstein. In the 1950’s the tone of horror films shifted away from the gothic, towards concerns that some saw as being more relevant to the late-Century audience. The horror film began to fall into three sub-genres:
• the horror-of-personality film; these are films that evoke horror through villains that are human but have horrific personalities, as opposed to a supernatural being.
• the horror-of-armageddon film; this type of film attempts to signify the end of the world, or at least the end of the world as we know it, owing some horrific event.
• the horror-of-the-demonic film; this type of film often features an antagonist that is supernatural.
Films of the horror-of-personality sub-genre continued to appear throughout the centuries, with 1991's The Silence of the Lambs as an example.

The horror movie received a huge revival in the late 70’s, early 80’s. More films started referring to the occult such as The Exorcist. Also, “evil children” and reincarnation became popular subjects. The success of the horror genre in the 70’s and early 80’s died in the late 80’s and throughout most of the 90’s. Many horror films caused controversy because of the ease of availability to children, therefore many films were dubbed as "video nasties" and where banned. The horror genre had worn itself out with the nonstop slasher and gore films in the 70’s and 80’s. The adolescent audience of the previous decade grew up, and the replacement audience was being captured instead by the explosion of science-fiction and fantasy. To re-connect with its audience horror became more self-mockingly ironic. An example would be the parody hit Scream, along with I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend. They made the horror genre, once again, extremely popular.

The start of the 2000s saw a quiet period for the genre. The re-release of a restored version of The Exorcist in September 2000 was successful despite the film having been available on home video for years. Final Destination marked a successful revival of clever, teen-centered horror, as well as the Jeepers Creepers series. Some notable trends to horror films in the 2000s are:
• the emergence of remakes of Asian horror movies, such as The Ring, and The Grudge.
• the major return of the zombie genre in horror movies.
• the larger trend is the return to the extreme, graphic violence; films like Audition, Wrong Turn, and Wolf Creek. An extension of this trend was horror with depictions of torture, suffering and violent deaths, with films like Saw, and Hostel, and their sequels.

Textual analysis of existing texts, comparison across genres.

The Notebook

The Notebook was realised in 2004 and features some very well know actors such as Rachel McAdams and James Garner.

The trailer opens with the logo of the production company for the film, New Line Cinema which is a subsidiary company of Time Warner. As soon as the trailer starts the type of genre can be identified by the soft and romantic music played. As soon as the production logo has been showed it cuts straight into an establishing shot, of a rowing boat on a river with swans flying over head and a beautiful white house in the background. This confirms the audiences’ beliefs from the music, that the genre of the film is definitely romance.

A voiceover then begins to tell the equilibrium of the story, which is a convention in film trailers, to inform the audience of how the film starts. It also sets the scene and ideas of the story before the disruption and quest have begun. However not all trailers have the use of a voiceover to help do this, some use text or visual language, such as montage editing. As the voiceover begins there are several shots from the film that slowly fade into each other, helping the voiceover show the equilibrium. After the first few shots you see that the voice over is in fact a character from the film, he is reading the story. You therefore realise it is not a voiceover but instead scenes from the film, pieced carefully together to help set the story without giving too much away.

The trailer uses some longer clips; at 0.18 it has a twenty second clip from the film, this gives the audience more of an understanding of the roles the characters play and helps illustrates the basic plot as the story starts to unravel more. Montage editing is then used again, with the different shots slowly fading into one another. This gives the whole trailer a very peaceful, relaxing feeling along with the slow, soft music in the background.

At 0.55 the disruption sets in, the two young characters are very much in love which has been demonstrated throughout the trailer so far, however it then becomes apparent that the boy is not in the same social class and earns little money and this causes problems. The match does not have the approval of her parents and the girl is not allowed to see him anymore.

At 1.12 the use of a deep and powerful voiceover is used. It is a conventional voiceover as the deep, clear to understand voice is easily recognised by audiences as similar voices are used in many trailers and this makes the audience feel more comforted. Voiceovers are only used when explanation is necessary, for something that cannot be shown through visual language or perhaps advertisers just feel that a voiceover is more of an effective way of getting audience understanding. The voiceover informs audiences that the film is from “the bestselling novel” by Nicholas Sparks. This is another convention of film trailers as it will help sell the film if it has previously been a book because if someone has read it they will want to watch the film and also vice versa. It then shows clips from the film of a war setting. This shows that the disruption has happened and it is not all as simple as when the story began. The use of this clip also allows audiences to have a rough idea of what time period the film is set in.

Another character is then introduced and he has fallen in love with the girl also. He is shown to be the “ideal” man for her just as her parents would have wished. The editing then becomes sharper and faster with stronger, more powerful music. The voiceover is used again; he does not give too much away but allows audiences to know what the story is about. “..comes a story about...what we long for...what we settled for...and who we’re meant for” In between each statement different clips from the film are used, all very powerful which help to further explain the narration and what the voiceover said. It is not necessary for the voiceover to say a lot because the use of powerful and emotional clips helps to convey the plot. However it has all carefully been placed together to leave audiences wondering, who does she choose? It does not give away the resolution.

Another convention then used it the names of the actors and actresses in the film, this is often used if they are well known actors. If audiences see an actor or actress in it they recognise from another film it might entice them to go and see it even more. Also the name of the director is stated. All of these things are conventions that are very often found in film trailers. Then at the ending of the trailer the name of the film is announced followed by small text stating again the director, film title, production company and other information. However this is not shown for long. “Coming soon” is then shown which is how most trailers end or by a release date. The total length of the trailer is 2:16.

Couples Retreat

Couples Retreat is a completely different genre to The Notebook, however after watching it I have noticed several similarities between the two trailers as well as some differences.

At the start of the trailer the production company logo is showed as it was in The Notebook. It was produced by Universal, which is a major film company. It was released in 2009 and features Vince Vaughn and Kristin Davis, along with many other famous names.

After the logo has been shown dialogue from the film begins, and then two men talking are shown. Their dialogue begins to set the narrative of the plot and then an upbeat, bright and breezy song starts. It again helps sets the tone of the film and gives clues to the genre of the film. Unlike The Notebook there is no voiceover in this trailer. Instead, text is used to help enhance the audiences understanding of the plot of the film. Brief moments from different scenes are shown in between each title screen. The different clips use close ups and medium shots to show and introduce the different characters. After seeing a few seconds you soon realise that it is a romantic comedy, due to the jokes and content already seen.

Once the audience have seen most of the main characters the plot begins to unfold even more around 0.42, when the audience become aware that the film will revolve around the couples going away on holiday to what is referred to as “Disneyland for adults”. The music from the beginning of the trailer fades out and another lively song starts as a change in scenery happens. The couples arrive at the resort and the disruption soon begins. At 1.00, the couples realise that the holiday package they have booked means they have to do couples skill building and therapy. The music change is key again as the disruption happens and the couples have to begin their quest to sort out their marriages and problems. The lyrics of the words also reflect what is happening, “Let it go, give in, give up, surrender”. Appropriate song lyrics are also used many times in film trailers, or if a song doesn’t have lyrics the music reflects the genre and mood of the film.

Several clips are then shown from the film in a montage. In the notebook once the disruption had happened and the quest had begun, moving and emotional scenes where shown. However in this trailer funny scenes are depicted, even though different styles of montage are used both trailers use memorable or key parts to the film that the creators believe will help sell the film. The music then becomes more powerful and faster montage editing is used as the couples begin to try and solve all their problems. Throughout the trailer the use of text is still being used. The resolution is not given away as audiences do not know how the holiday ends, in disaster or all being well. However it does not leave such a big question in audiences’ minds as perhaps the trailer for the notebook would as it is not as serious or as emotional. At 2.22 the title of the film is shown, with a voiceover announcing the name of it. This is the first time a voice over is used throughout the trailer. Like The Notebook the film then ends with a title screen saying “Coming Soon”. This trailer was a similar length also lasting 2.30.

Amityville Horror

Amityville Horror was released in 2005 by Dimension Films, which is a subsidiary company of The Weinstein Company, and was originally the Miramax Films division. All of the trailers I have looked at have had well known film companies producing them, therefore making it extremely important that their logo is included in the trailer. Audiences then know that the film has been produced by a well known trustworthy company. It might also give them a clue as to what the film will be like, if they have seen previous films by the same company they will know what standard and type of film to expect. Again the company logo is shown at the very start of the trailer.

Once the logo has been shown an establishing shot is used to help set the scene for audiences. Bright shots and light music are used to show that everything is normal and in balance, this opening scene shows the equilibrium. Dialogue from the film is used to help audiences understand what the film is about. The diegetic sound tells audiences that the couple on screen are looking to buy a house in the area that the establishing shot showed. A shot of the house is then showed for a brief moment. The screen then fades to black showing a date and location name, this gives the audience further information, it tells them when and where it is set. The continuing use of dialogue and continuity editing helps establish more of the story for the viewer.

At 0.23seconds into the trailer the disruption is introduced, this is the second part of the trailer and extends the story further without giving too much away. Audiences then become aware there was a murder in the house, hence the building being for sale. The music then changes dramatically to darker, spookier music; by this point in the trailer it has become clear the genre of the film is horror.

From 0.25 to 0.35 montage editing is used, short clips from the film give the audience a brief idea about the murders that had previously been committed in the house. A long shot of the house is then used, but this time it shows the house in a different light to the shot previously used in the trailer, it is dark and scary looking. Audiences immediately know something is wrong with the house. A title screen then lets audiences know the story is being further developed, “What happened over the next 28 days, has never been explained”. A home video is then shown of the family moving in despite being told about the murders, audiences are aware that this is a bad move. The disruption has now clearly been set up half way through the trailer.

A long sequence of montage editing is then used to help continue establish the story. The montage uses lots of brief shots in order not to give away too much. There are a variety of different shots used, but mainly medium and close up shots to show emotion on the characters faces. Each shot fades to black adding to the sense of darkness, secrecy and seclusion. This sequence of montage editing reveals more about what happened to the family before and shows the events might start repeating themselves with this new family; however it does not give too much away. This part of the trailer shows the quest, the family having to overcome the events. The shots get quicker and quicker creating a tense atmosphere and sense of urgency. The use of symbols is repeated a few times throughout the trailer. A clock is always shown showing the time 3:15; this allows audiences to guess what is happening at this time but gives them a clue that it is linked between the two families. Also the symbol of a cross is used in several shots, this adds to the sense of the horror genre.

At 1.57 in the middle of the montage sequence a title screen is used to show the name of the producer, it also says that he is the producer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If a viewer has seen Chainsaw Massacre it might entice them to also come and see this film if they enjoyed his previous work. At 2.20 the name of the film is shown followed by the credits and finally “Coming soon”. The resolution is not shown and leaves audiences wondering what is going to happen to the family. The trailer is a total of 2.30, similar to the two previous trailers.