Using what I already know

Annabelle is a horror genre film, directed by John R. Leonetti and produced by Peter Safran and James Wan. This film is a prequel of ‘The conjuring’ series. It is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. This is a conglomerate company; this means they are able to have a high budget to create the film, which is a budget of $6.5 million. The film is able to attract a mass audience because Warner Brothers are a multi-national conglomerate, who also possesses cross-platform companies. This means the film can to promote into different platform. Thus, attracting more audience and gaining more profit.

The trailer itself is very indulging to the target audience. The scenes contain a lot of dark lighting from the very beginning to create an eerie atmosphere. Even in during the day, the weather is shown to be very dark, foreshadowing the future of the characters.

The use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound is used to narrate the story. In the beginning, the dialogues between the two protagonists are used to make the audience believe something is already going wrong. This catches the audience’s attention since the start, making the want to watch the trailer till the end. Non-diegetic sound is used a lot for the background and also as a narrator to make the audiences are excited and also aware of what is going on.

In the beginning of the trailer, it contains a lot of fast paced shots, which complements the background sound, the character’s scream and also the transition of the scenes. They have used slow pan towards the dead body and the doll, with the intense background sound to make the audience anticipate that something will happen. There are a various types of shots being used mostly close up and medium shot when the doll is shown. This could be to empathise the importance of the doll and remind the audience that the doll is the antagonist. They have used a low angle shot, when the church is shown because they want the audience to feel that there could be some hope for the protagonist. Right after that shot, a woman is shown with the protagonist making the audience believe that she has the role of the ‘helper’ as Propp’s character theory suggests.

Moreover, the use of text is also used to keep reminding the audience about the presence of the doll. Furthermore, these texts are only shown between scenes that are interesting to grab the audience’s attention on important facts such as the release dates.

In terms of the mise-en-scene, they are mostly shot inside a house and flat. The furniture and the props used to decorate the house look rather old fashion and plain. Therefore, they are not portraying any lively or bright aura towards the scene and the action happening in the scene.