This is the first production intro, giving an eerie feeling
which matches the genre of our trailer. The effect at the end also adds to the sinister
theme. However, we thought that it doesn’t look professional and is very
simple. The duration and place of the effect was very fast hence why it was
difficult to read the title of the production. We have decided to not use this
production intro.
The second into has inter textual reference to Albert Hitchcock’s
film ‘The Birds’. Although it has a link to the most respected horror genre
director, it has very little link to our trailer. Hence, we have decided to not
use this production intro for our trailer.
This is the last and final production intro, which we
created. The effect in this intro is very unique and professional. The blood
connotes danger and perhaps death, which is associated with the genre of
horror. We have finalised this production intro for our trailer.
Through my mood board, it gave me some inspirations for my
teaser trailer. Some ideas were on the locations (isolated place), types of
shots (establishing, pan, hand held, over the shoulder, reverse shot,long/medium/close up shots), angles (high, low), different types of characters (antagonist,
protagonist) and their gestures and facial expression during certain
situations. It also allowed me to come up with some ideas for the storyline.
The trailer Texas
Massacre shows how female characters are vulnerable and the male characters are
shown to be more dominanting ones as they are portrayed as the antagonist.
Binary opposite is illustrated by the use of the two female characters: one is
shown to be the innocent and pure one, whereas the other is more of a
rebellious character, which is seen as more or less as a sinner. This is mostly
displayed through the use of the character’s costumes and their gestures
(flirtatious).
Setting
The mise-en-scene of the
location is set in an isolated area, which is a convention of a horror film.
This makes the scenes contain eerie atmosphere. The main setting in the film is
the remote house, surrounded by forest to make the sure the characters does not
escape easily. This creates an uneasy feel to the audience as they will have to
see the horrible things the character go through, similar to accomplishing them
in their journey.
Narrative
A non-diegetic sound of voice-over is used as a narrator to inform the audience about some background
information on the crime occurring in Texas. The use of diegetic sound, dialogue
is used to let the audience know what is going to happen in the film.
Theories linked to the trailers
The last girl standing because
throughout the trailer, the female character is seen to be fighting against the
antagonist, when all her friends are getting murdered one by one. Also, the use
of her costume as she is shown as the innocent and pure one whereas, the other
female character is shown to be wearing revealing clothes portraying her to be
a sinner.
Types of shots
Variety of shots has been used to show the dominance
of the antagonist and the vulnerability of the antagonist and her friends. In
the beginning Extreme close up is to show a light bulb flashing and then a dead
person’s hand. That is followed by a long shot to introduce the antagonist.
When the antagonist is shown, the use of low angle is used to show his
authority and a high angle is used with an over the shoulder shot to show how
the other characters are inferior to the antagonist. A medium shot which pans
in to become a close up shot is used to show the setting and the antagonist’s terrifying
face mask.
Nightmare in Elm Stree was directed by Wes Craven, which is
a slasher genre. In the beginning of the scene three little girls are seen to
be plating with white clothes on to suggesting their purity and innocence.
However, the first person to die is shown to be a girl, who is seen to be
having ‘sex’ before marries. A point of view shot of the antagonist is used,
where his hand is shown to be grabbing the girl. This suggests that the male
antagonist has more dominance and power than the girl. Throughout the trailer,
the antagonist is seen to be hunting girls to show how vulnerable females are,
however the theory of ‘last girl standing’ is used to subvert from the
stereotype of how females are weaker than males. Medium shots are used to show
how she is trying to fight back and is determine to survive. Hypodermic needle
theory is being used in this trailer to show teenagers if they do something bad
this could happen to them as well. Therefore, trying to persuade the teenagers
to stay out of trouble.
The cabin in the woods (2012)
In this trailer females are still objectified because even
if their costume are not too revealing, their gestures seen to be very sedative
(Laura Maulvey). A low angle of is used to show a female dancing and a close up
is shown of her trying to kiss the wolf head. This is shown to suggest how women
are less intelligent and only care about sex. Also, the male protagonist is
seen to be leading the group, where the protagonist girl is seen to be cowering
behind him. Even though, the girl is seen to be the last one standing, she is still
not seen as an independent woman who is able to carry on trying to survive all
alone. This is portrayed when a over the shoulder is shown and her frustrated facial
expression and scream.
Rings (2016)
In this film, even though the male character is shown as less
powerful than the female character, he is still helping her during the problems
she faces. A medium shot and close up shot is used to show how the male
character helps the female protagonist remove from the danger of being hit by a
wire pole. Near the beginning of the trailer, the female protagonist is represented
as a strong woman as she tries to fight and make herself believe the spirit is
not real. However, this starts to change as she turns vulnerable and starts to
slowly give up because she experiences horrible situations. The male character
is always beside her to show how even though he is not the main protagonist, he
is still there to help the female protagonist and without him she wouldn’t be
able to survive the challenges she faced.
Over all difference is seen throughout the years on representation
on women. In the olden days, woman are more sexualised and is shown to be
vulnerable and weak, who is always relying on the male protagonist. However, as
time has changed women are seen as strong willed and able to fight back. There
is always one female character that is shown to be objectified even if the text
is shown to be subverting on the stereotype of representation of female roles.
The forest is directed by ‘Jason Zada’, who mostly directs
indie films. Zada is mostly known for directing ‘The Houses October Built’ and
‘Take this lollopop’, which are both indie horror films. The forest had a
budget of $10 million, which tells us that the film is independent because the
budget has to be over $10 million to be labelled as a mainstream film. The
companies that distributed this film are not conglomerate companies; they are
all indie companies, who are not so well known internationally. The companies
that distributed ‘The forest’ are ‘Gramercy pictures’, ‘Lava Bear’ and ‘AL
film’.
This film’s genre is a hybrid of horror and mystery, like
every other horror genre trailer this one also starts with a long shot of a
house, with a very dark lighting. This scene can connote two things: the first,
to signify darkness because it has been shot at midnight and the other, is
family. From the beginning, non-diegetic sound has been used as a narrator to
tell the story, which is also used as a sound bridge to put together different
scenes. Not only that, the background music is being played throughout the
whole trailer to make the audience mesmerise and get their full attention. This
plays a huge role of making people jump during the important part of the
trailer. Diegetic sound is also used such as the creaking sound of the door,
this gives a further eeriness to the scene making the audience expect something
to happen. The background sound changes depending on the scene. When the text appears
in the scene, they tend to have a voice saying the protagonists name ‘Sara’.
This repeats over and over again to foreshadow that someone might be waiting
for her in ‘the forest’. When the forest was shown, they added an animalistic
sound of a wild animal to show the forest is a dangerous place. Furthermore,
the trailer’s background music has a lower level of volume, when something is
going to pop up and following that a booming sound is added. This is done to
emphasise the creature/sprit and make the audience experience from the same
fear as the protagonist. Also, dialogue from the guard is used to show how
deadly the forest is, when he emphasises while saying ‘Do not leave the path’.
Mise-en-scene is one of the most important elements of
making the film possess the eerie atmosphere. The setting is mostly based in
Japan, the Aokigahara forest also called ‘The suicide forest’ that is located
at the bottom part of Mount Fuji. The costumes used when the showing the twins
look very old fashion, making the audience believe that it took place in the
past. Also, since the dress is one piece and looks similar to a hospital gown
and their gestures are shown to be awkward making the scene look mysterious.
When Sara goes to Japan, not much of the setting is shown as it could contrast
with the current atmosphere because the buildings would be shown as bring and
lively atmosphere. The trailer contains iconography of a sign that says ‘no
entry’ to once again make a reference of all the evilness and the danger within
the forest. The gestures and facial expression of the characters are shown to
indicate their fear. The trailer also contains some gruesome sense of the
antagonist (the sprit) and some dead bodies hanging to give the audience some
insight of the movie and to make the target audience feel excited and scared at
the same time.
In addition, lighting and editing has been used to make the
target audience enjoy the trailer. A variety of editing has been used to make
the trailer look interesting. In the beginning mostly slow dissolve was used to
portray the serious atmosphere. However, later on cutaways was used to show the
stress of the protagonist, which has an effect on the audience by making them
feel the character’s emotions. Also, when something bad happens to the
protagonist the scene fades to black makes the audience curious of what happened
later. Also, the lighting of the scene is dark even when it is taken in day
time. This suggests that even light, which connotes to hope is unable to reach
inside the forest. When close up to the protagonists face the use of low
lighting shows the character’s fear in more detail. Hard front light is used
with a long shot of the protagonist running towards the light near the end of
the trailer, making the audience feel that there could be some hope and a way
to defeat the antagonist. Mostly close up is used to show the important parts
of the film, which includes injuries, hands coming from the ground and man’s
face at the end to make the audience jump. These scenes are put together as a
montage of small clips.
