Trailer Analysis

Trailer Analysis

The Conjuring

The first analysis I decided to look at was ‘The Conjuring’, this 2013 horror story was based on a true story loosely surrounding the renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren; who in their career was associated to over 10,000 events.

The trailer begins following general trailer conventions where it displays the film productions logo, in this case Warner Bros and New Line Cinema is displayed for a very brief time. This is commonly used mainly to highlight the company, as especially Warner Bros, people are drawn due to their prior releases being reputable, and they trust that they won’t be let down from this release. Also through this the audience can tell what type of movie this is, the style that its designed shows that this is a horror, given by the dark atmosphere accompanied with clouds behind, even the logos are designed differently and made darker to have the audience perceived what genre this is; this is even complemented with a deep sudden noise that fades to attract the audience.

Here the trailer introduces itself, with what is given by how he is presented and his control over the situation, the trailer portrays the first seen person as the protagonist. He begins by describing what he’s doing and the line ‘we’re heading down in the cellar, where the door just opened on its own’ gives the instant interpretation of a supernatural where unexplained events occur and it also describes the groups roles as investigators, otherwise they wouldn’t have the cameras, equipment and documenting their venture, the professionalism gives off the working impression. The handheld camera work at the beginning is seen in few horrors, but this convention is one that’s taken upon as it seems as if the audience is there, looking around the cellar investigating, it’s an inviting way of getting the audience more immersed into the movie.

The equilibrium begins when the movie projector is cut out, with the characters introducing themselves and giving formidable roles for an audience, the setting here gives off the fact it’s an equilibrium with the two presenters looking very successful, a brightly lit room, and a lecture hall full of innocent students with intention on learning, this is backed up from the student asking a question as soon as the film is stopped, giving eagerness across also. Then the music begins through the equilibrium of acoustic guitar and soft singing, even though the images shown have a dark theme with skulls and graves, but this is what backs up the fades onto the shots with text reading ‘based on the true story of the Warrens’. This line though seen often actually seems like it goes against conventions as it even reads what the true story is straight off giving that leeway for those interested to find out more instantly, instead of reading only based on a true story, the text proceeding introduces the story and that it will be about one of the cases they endeavoured.

Then shows the event, with the student introduces a frightened woman, which by her appearance and her seemingly look for help the audience knows why she confronted the researchers. The music then begins fading out, and replaced by sequenced eerie tones, seemingly imitating loud footsteps. The screen displays more text reading ‘From the Director of Saw and Insidious’ which is something that’s seen in almost all trailers, due to the movies being recognised as very impactful on the genre, this is what can attract the audience viewing this to see the movie because of their adoration towards either of those films. Here the shots begin to speed up in changing between, this is a convention used in horrors as the pace of editing increases the tension in the movie as many things are occurring in a shorter period of time, however the trailer in general uses longer shots than other trailers as this adds to suspense but this stagnates and doesn’t increase in pace noticeably throughout, going against general conventions in a horror trailer as they usually develop as it progresses.

This trailer uses a lot of dialogue throughout, with the eerie tone playing constantly during the course of this trailer. A common line that creates tension in this horror is ‘look what she made me do’, this is whispered multiple times when the sound dies down, its ambiguous which draws in the audience yet said in a scary tone that creates a chilling effect. The trailer here just gives the story away but is rather vague compared to other trailers where it doesn’t show any resolve at all or even hints to one at all, just the bits that the audience were looking to see in order to attract them. The trailer uses many dark environments especially due to its domestic setting, and this shows that this could be something that could happen in any household. The ending has a series of fast paced shots, which have screams, running and panic from multiple people, this is followed as a horror convention, which is then interrupted by the title; action is usually broken up suddenly with the title or credits in a trailer. The title shows this is a horror due to the dark background and ominous text style with a broken faded white font, a final scene is played after this, silent apart from the dialogue, and the eerie whispered ‘look what she made me do’ leading to an unexpected jump scare to give the audience the feeling they want in order to experience a horror film.

Paranormal Activity

The next analysis will be Paranormal Activity, a movie for its time was qualified as the ‘Scariest movie of all time’, with a budget of only $15,000 director Oren Peli hit box office records with $193.4 million endorsed from this title. The profits mainly came through the lack of reputable stars included, Oren Peli being the director as well as editor, writer, and cinematographer, the absence of people included is what keeps the low budget. This 2007 American paranormal horror, started as an independent film distributed throughout festivals, only later being picked up by Paramount Pictures and modified, with an official release of this versions feature in 2009; the main difference was the change of the official ending to the film.

The first shot is of the approval and age rating of the movie, with general age guidance. Once the green screen has passed, it shows the queuing of an audience recorded with a handheld camera from seemingly a member in the queue documenting this event, introduces with text for the audience to understand what is occurring. This seems to record what appears to be an audience of those between 19 to late twenties, establishing a very mainstream target audience for those watching this trailer this attracts an interest from this group of people, this is seen to have been done due to the horror genre trying to gain a larger interest from a new generation rather than trying to appeal to those who have grown up with horrors but grown through it. For more of an immersive feel the camera is placed within those viewing in the cinema looking between their heads as if you were watching the trailer with more people, which is a very unconventional trailer technique that’s not been seen too frequently or not at all.

As the next scenes progress the continuous shot/ reverse shots between the audience’s reactions and the trailer itself, the audience’s reactions create suspense, their intense look and silence builds tension.  As a convention there is only a quiet but eerie soundtrack playing in the background, but edited in such a way that the dialogue is heard clearly over this to understand the equilibrium and disruptive event that leads into the movie, however, unconventionally from a horror the equilibrium isn’t all that bright. It begins with the woman’s worry about the foreshadowed issue surrounding the house, usually beginning where everything is normal and positivity seems to be the general vibe surrounding the characters.

The trailer as conventionally expected, began to become scarier to show the parts that would attract those that are looking to see the next horror of the year for say. But this in combination with the audience gives across reactions of fright, disgust and curiosity; this is where those watching the trailer can expect this film to give these emotions to them. Throughout the proceeding scenes general horror trailer conventions begin to appear, with screams, loud crashes, and sudden increase in the music’s tone to amplify the frightful scenes. These scenes bring out the hand held camera style of this movie, only static cameras being those planted on the walls to document activity throughout the night, this is in order to show that the movie is in  the style of a ‘found footage’ film, through the fast paced shots the camera seems more shaken to show panic and intensity for a seemingly dangerous environment.

The fast paced shots is a common convention in horrors and trailers in general, the suspense builds at a higher rate as none of the events transition to anything conclusive leading more to watch, this induces a psychological reaction. Throughout the series of fast paced shots towards the end, the words ‘experience It’, ‘for and ‘yourself’ separate these, this is to highlight the reactions from the audience, there are multiple scenes that we as an audience do not see but the reactions of the audience still heightens tension. The soundtrack intensifies when the action is at its peak, then gets cut off by the glitch style font reading ‘Paranormal Activity’ this is where the music dies instantaneously to silence, the quick change of tensions create a mental fright that seems to linger more than a fade out, which unconventionally is not seen often through this trailer as usually there are many fades throughout. The trailer typically shows when the movie will be released, however it shows specific cities, due to its low budget and low expectancy the movie was planned to be released in few locations in order to not make loss on the low budget that was originally assigned to this movie. The trailer in general is shorter than many others at only 1:45, even its predecessor is nearing 30 seconds longer than this, but this may either be due to low budget or that they wanted to show a fast paced horror, as concluding this trailer it was fast paced the whole way through, where the equilibrium was vague and the horror plot had already begun with narrative from the protagonist swiftly describing the occurrences.