Film research

Film research

• 1.
  Film research A2 media- horror teaser trailer
• 2.
  Chucky Chucky is afilm about a possessed doll which kills people. The trailer opens with a wide shot of the city and then jumps to a shot of a couple having dinner. The man is narrating a story. The scene of them having dinner is the equilibrium however the story which the man is telling the woman is a scary one. This tells the audience that this is a horror film. During the story telling, there are jump cuts to images which correlates to his story, the shot of the woman falling, then it jumps back to the couple at the restaurant having dinner. The trailer opens with piano music which is non diegetic. Pianos are an instrument which is usually used in horror films to create an atmosphere of suspense and worry for the audience. Later on in the trailer, you can hear beats. This creates rhythm and a pace is set. This helps to create fear in the audience as sound can increase the fear factor of the visuals on the scream. You can also hear screams which is a trait of a horror. There are many fast jumps in the trailer. Especially of the shots with the chucky doll. In the beginning of the trailer, there was a very quick cut to the chucky doll and the light flashed. There is also a shot of him with a red tint which suggest to the audience that he is the antagonist in this story.There is also a cut away shot of his feet as he is running. This scares the audience as it creates the effect of seeing a spider and not knowing where it went. Mise en scene. Chucky is a doll which was originally designed to help the patient. He has pale skin and wears a colourful top with blue overalls. This suggest he was designed to be good as his clothes resembles a child which have connotations to being pure, good and innocent. His pale skin also suggest an innocence and pureity as light skin is deemed desireable. However, his red hair suggest he is crazy as there is a stereotype of ‘crazy redheads’ just as there is a stereotype of ‘dumb blondes’
• 3.
  Annabelle Opens with anestablishing shot of the house. The events that are occuring may not be a normal everyday, the style of acting and filming is realistic. The trailer opens with a sound bridge. You can hear the woman speaking before you see it. There is a dramatic beat for the first disruptive scene where the husband runs out of the next door neighbours house covered in blood. Near the end of the trailer, there is a sound of a music box playing which gets faster and louder towards the end of the trailer. To this sound, we can see a truck running into the pram and a door flying across the room. This suggest that the annabelle is making this happen as music boxes have connotations to children and dolls. There are jump cuts going back and forth between Annabelle's face and potentially dangerous activities, the woman's fingers being dangerously close to the sewing needle and the stove turning on. There are black screens in between shots in the opening sequence of the trailer this suggests that it is leading up to a disruption. It creates suspense as it takes a pause and keeps the audience guessing. The black screens can be transitions between scenes. It is well edited to line up with the beats of the soundtrack. This film is rated 15 by the british board of films classification. There are flashing images, blood and a knife, which suggest a more mature audience. In the trailer tells the audience how annabelle came to life and became evil, the blood of the victim dropped in her eye. This is not an element we have added into our teaser trailer. The audience for The dollhouse do not know how the children get possessed into the dolls and why. The ending shot is similar to the film It where the antagonist is running towards the camera. This gives the audience a final scare which is a good marketing strategy as it makes the audience remember the film, remember that this horror film did scare them and that would persuade them to watch the film.
• 4.
  It The trailer forIt opens with a shot of two brothers who are getting along well. The older brother is making a paper boat for the younger brother. This is the equilibrium shot where everything appears to be normal. The lighting is quite dark however there are highlights on the hands. This creates an eerie mood in the scene which is suitable for the scene as it is raining outside. There are a lot of close up shots of the hands There are signs in the town of missing people which tell the audience that this is the disruption, todorov’s narrative theory. Conversely to other trailers which signal the disruption buy a change in music or a dramatic scene, It chooses to signal the disruption with a literal sign. In my opinion, this makes it less engaging to the audience. There is a diegetic sound of clicks from the projector which gets faster as they reveal the antagonist. There is also non diegetic sound, of music, which gets louder. There are sound of ‘warping’ which sound futuristic and signifies something abnormal. This is suitable for this film as the antagonist is not something which is scientifically explainable, it leans more towards fantasy. There is nondiegetic sound of narration of the backstory to the film to help the audience understand the storyline of the film There are black screens in between shots, this suggests that it is leading up to a disruption. It creates suspense as it takes a pause and keeps the audience guessing. It is well edited to line up with the beats of the soundtrack. The trailer ends with a shot of the antagonist running towards the camera. This makes it seem as if the antagonist is running towards the audince. This leaves the audience feeling frihtened and persuades them to watch the film as the realised that this horror film scared them. (this is applied to the consumers who enjoy horror films) The directors name appears in the trailer, this attracts fans of his other work such as Carrie. While It is not a film about a doll, I have chosen to research this film a it features the film of children, a ‘monster’ preying on the town’s children. This relates back to an idea for our teaser trailer.