Comparing my trailer to professional

products

In my blog in a post labelled “Researching trailers and shot types” I explained how I researched and analysed a variety of different horror trailers:

• The Haunting of Helena• Holla

• Mischief Night• House at the end of the street

• The intruders• Nightmare on Elm Street

After doing this I selected certain shots from each trailer that I thought were effective and that I could recreate into my own as I was struggling for ideas.

The Haunting of Helena

Shown above is the shot type which I selected from ‘The Haunting of Helena’ trailer which I decided to try and recreate into my own trailer, however on the day of filming the fake blood prop which I had previously used in my rough cut trailer and film poster had been misplaced, and I thought using Ketchup would

look too unrealistic and would not be as effective so unfortunately I did not attempt to recreate this shot.

Holla

Shown on the left hand side is the shot type which I selected from the trailer for ‘Holla’. On the right hand side is the recreation I made for my own trailer. In order to recreate this I had my actor wears black shoes similar to the ones shown in the professional trailer. I also had my actor open to door slowly but

only slightly to make him seem more creepy.

Mischief Night

Shown at the top is one of the shot types which I selected from the trailer for ‘Mischief Night’. I felt researching this trailer was very

useful as it’s storyline is similar to mine as is it main antagonist.

Although I did not recreate this shot in my trailer it did help to inspire me for my film poster. I created a

film poster (shown on the left) and the main image was of a young girl

with a gloved hand covering her mouth, although I did not use this as my final film poster it was still

helpful to create it.

Shown above on the left hand side is another shot type which I selected from the ‘Mischief Night’ trailer. On the right hand side is my recreation of this shot. In order to

recreate this shot I had my main antagonist stand on one side of the window as my main protagonist opened the blinds on the other side, I selected this shot because I

felt it was very effective in shocking and scaring the audience. However, when I recreated this shot and looked back at it when editing my final trailer I released it was not as effective as I had hoped as the shot was too bright therefore not making it very

scary, because of this I decided not to use it in my final trailer.

House at the end of street

Shown above on the left hand side is the one of the shot types which I had selected from the trailer for ‘House at the end of the street’. I found it was very easy to select

shot types from this trailer as I had previously used it for research earlier on while creating my rough cut for my trailer. On the right hand side is my interpretation of the shot. When it came to filming I decided not to do a shot of the whole door, I felt that

only doing a shot of the bottom of the door would create a sense of enigma as it would make me audience wonder who is about to enter it.

Shown above on the left hand side is another shot type which I selected from the ‘House at the end of the street’ trailer. On the right hand side is my interpretation of shot. I

decided to use this shot in my trailer because I thought it would be easy to recreate and it would make my audience want to find out more and what the protagonist is looking at.

The Intruders

Shown above is shot type which I selected from the trailer for ‘The Intruders’. During filming I did not decide to recreate this shot as I felt it would reveal the main antagonist

too much and would make my trailer lack mystery.

The Nightmare On Elm Street

Shown above on the left hand side is one of the shot types which I selected from the trailer for ‘The Nightmare On Elm Street’. On the right hand side is my interpretation of

the shot. I decided to use this shot in my trailer because I felt it would spark terror in my audience and make them fear for the protagonist as the antagonist is watching them

when they are most vulnerable, asleep.

Shown above on the left hand side is another shot type which I selected from the trailer for ‘The Nightmare On Elm Street’. On the right hand side is my interpretation of the shot. I decided to use this shot as is the only shot which shows the protagonist and

antagonist together, therefore making it the perfect shot to end my trailer with, leaving the audience wondering whether the protagonist survives or not.

Shown above on the left hand side is another shot which I took from the trailer for ‘The Nightmare On Elm Street’. On the right hand side is my interpretation of the shot.

I decided to try and recreate this shot as it gave me the opportunity to experiment with props. However, while editing my trailer I noticed that this shot did not look as good on a bigger screen, the plastic knife looked too fake, therefore making it lack

professionalism.

IntertitlesAfter receiving audience feedback from my audience for my rough cut one of the

features most commented on were the intertitles which I had created. My audience felt that the intertitles I had used did not link in well with my trailer and lacked

professionalism. Shown below are the intertitles which I created and used in my rough cut for my trailer.

In order to solve this I decided to do some research into intertitles used in professional horror trailers, shown in a previous blog post labelled ‘Researching

Intertitles’. The trailer which I researched are:

• The Nightmare on Elm Street• Carrie • Smiley

• The Strangers

After carefully researching each of these trailers I decided to try and recreate the intertitles used in the trailer for the film ‘Smiley’. This is because I felt the red and white

worked well together, as the red connotes blood therefore presenting the horror genre. I created these new intertitles on a software called Photoshop. The step by step

instructions on how to create them are shown in a previous blog post labelled ‘Creating my new intertitles’. In order to act my own twist to my intertitles I decided to add a

splatter of blood to the last one which reads ‘No Escape’ as I felt it would help emphasise the horror of my trailer. I was able to do this by downloading a splatter effect from

www.cgtextures.com.

My new intertitles are shown below: