For my media coursework blog.

1. My Teaser Trailer…

2. …And Genre Normal clothes – e.g. Cloverfield. Characters have normal clothes as it was happening in real life. Eerie red filter – Most horror trailers have some sort of sound or filter when the ‘bad guy’ appears. Field - Normal location. Let’s play Word Association! ‘eerie’, ‘creepy’, ‘romantic’, ‘unnerving’ Similar to Cloverfield, about a couple.

3. Panicked look – Protagonist is scared: horror Only in torchlight – Fighting for survival Dark background – Scary location Let’s play Word Association! ‘dark’, ‘panic’.

4. Dark surroundings – Same reason as before Light on face – Chance for survival Let’s play Word Association! ‘freedom’, ‘trapped’, ‘puzzled’.

5. Dark background again Blood on floor – Death Grainy picture – Camera is broken so also death Let’s play Word Association! ‘Death’, ‘blood’, ‘end’.

6. First piece of text to do with film – Immediately says horror. Let’s play Word Association! ‘destruction’, ‘Armageddon’, ‘death’.

7. Cracked text – Broken, scary, horror. Mentions whole of humanity – Same text as first inter-title ‘the end is near’, that with this one indicates that the end of humanity is near. Let’s play Word Association! ‘World’, ‘human’.

8. Word association conclusion Most of the words were very fitting, however one of them stood out: ‘romantic’. This is also a good thing, though, as I wanted to lull my audience into a false sense of security, thinking that the film will be one genre but turning out to be another – therefore shocking them and making them feel even more out of their ‘comfort zone’ when watching the film, which is what most horror films want to do.

9. Soundtrack ‘Calming’, ‘eerie’, ‘scary’, ‘confusing’.

10. …And Narrative My teaser mainly follows Todorov’s Equilibrium. His theory goes like: The environment begins with a state of equilibrium. Suffers some sort of disruption. New equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative. My teaser trailer begins with the couple happily walking through a field, which supports point 1. The trailer then starts to get faster and more panicked, showing the disruption. However, my teaser trailer doesn’t show the equilibrium being restored. This is most similar to ‘Cloverfield’ as it starts off with some people filming a birthday party in a flat when the monster attacks. In this film as well, the equilibrium is not restored. Most trailers follow a non-linear pattern compared to the actual film. Teaser and theatrical trailers are made to show some of the best bits of the film in no particular order, so bits and pieces from everywhere in the film are shown. This is a non-linear narrative. Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposition is also featured in my trailer. The two main characters are seen as ‘good’, and there is a force of ‘evil’ trying to kill them. This theory works with many different things, such as good and evil, men and women, humans and aliens, cats and dogs, or even life and death. In my trailer I have humans and a sort of supernatural force killing them.

11. …And Representation My teaser trailer doesn’t really represent anyone in a certain way, like the ‘hero’ or ‘protagonist’. The only thing that my trailer portrays is that the female dies first, and the male is alive until the end of the teaser trailer. My trailer does, however, represent dark locations as bad or scary locations, which are obvious in all horror films. The field area at the start was also filmed on a sunny day, to make it look like everything is fine. There are no groups in my trailer, so there are no representations of groups, like in most horror films where groups of teens trundle stupidly into the forest at night…

12. …And Audience My target audience is mainly the older teen years from about 18 and into the early twenties. This is the age group that will generally be more interested in horror films, and film in general. Elderly people are more likely to not use much technology at all or to be more interested in other genre of films such as romantic, history or western films. To convey this idea I used characters in my film that are of the same age to relate more to my target audience. In terms of the uses and gratifications theory, my audience will mainly get the thrill of being scared and being on the edge of their seat if going to watch the film in the cinema. The definition of ‘gratify’ is to give someone pleasure or satisfaction. As a horror film, it won’t give the kind of pleasure that you first think of when you say the word, like the pleasure of a nice smell, or the pleasure of a well-cooked dinner. However it does give the pleasure of being scared and that kind of thrill. The definition of thrill is actually ‘a sudden feeling of excitement or pleasure’ so in a way, my trailer does give the same sort of pleasure.

13. …And Media Language First of all, the dialogue in my teaser trailer absent, with there only being a few words a the start. This conveys to the audience a lack of communication between characters. The one thing that is said has a heavy reverb on it, giving it an eerie feeling. The only other sense of ‘dialogue’ is the screaming heard through the trailer. That also disturbs and disorientates the audience, putting them on edge. A lot of the camera shots are low angled and focus on the faces of characters to show their panicked look. The lighting created by the torch creates a lot of darkness and shadows as well, to produce a spooky atmosphere. The denotation in my teaser is that something is killing the characters. The connotation in it is that the characters may overcome this killer/being and fight back, while others may be that the thing may just kill everybody. In terms of costume, my characters are just wearing normal clothes and not in any particular costume. This would also link with the audience as it connects with them that the characters are normal people like them, making the film more believable.