Film Trailer Analysis

The Trailer opens with the non-digetic sound of a school bell, which already establishes where the setting of the trailer will begin/take place. This already gives the impression to the audience the targeted audience has been aimed at young adults as they can obviously relate to the sound of the school bell. This is then followed on by the opening shot of a low angle, which shows the audience a male shutting his locker door which is followed on by the use of the digetic sound of a teacher talking.

The camera then pans in, while the teacher is talking and shows the students doing their work. This all looks normal of course but the non-digetic sound, of a continues high pitch note creates a tense atmosphere for the audience whether they subconsciously notice it or not. Already the beginning 10 seconds of the trailer follows the conventions of a horror trailer as the audience know that something is going to happen. 

A Jump cut is then used to pan along one of the students faces.

As the camera pans across, the audience can see the student’s features which do not look “normal” and is hidden away by his “hoodie”. Additionally, the digetic sound of the teacher’s voice is continued as the camera pans slowly, this has purposely been done as the word ‘grotesque’ can be seen to describe the boy, which already gives the audience this false impression about this male character. 

The high pitch non-digetic sound is continued as the audience see a high angled shot of characters talking around a fire. This creates a uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience as they start to question what is happening and what they are doing there in the night. The use of darkness is significant as it follows the conventions of a horror film and is a cliché, as the audience know that “bad” or “evil” things happen during the dark. 

Another jump cut is then used to show students laughing at one character, the audience here can see that he is being “picked on” or bullied, which positions him with a low status in the classroom.

Furthermore, a significant shot is then followed showed to the audience as the camera pans across and the audience see a streak of light (from the fire) which shines on a characters face. This image used here is quite powerful as the “bullied” character is contrasted from his earlier status. He is now seen as powerful, dominating and in control as he is in the centre of the shot and is perceived to the audience as confident.

Here the character looks more confident. 

Below are some examples of lower status students being “bullied”. The medium shot used here shows the facial expression clearly on both characters. The audience can see who the victim is and who the "bullier" is.

The analysis of the trailer helped me understand what shots to use so that I can make sure that my horror has the same effect on the audience. Through analysisng the trailer I can see what kind of shots are used to create the horror 'atmosphere' for the audience. The shots also show me how I can keep my audience in suspense for example, the bird-eye shot makes the audience feel like they don't know what is going on which effectively keeps them in fear and suspense. The mise-en-scene follows the horror conventions, an example is the woods that the victims sit in. The audience know that something dark will begin to happen. The shot used is another bird-eye shot which makes the audience feel as though they are spieing on the characters. This creates suspense for they want to find out what is happening. Suspence within horror films is a significant element as it creates fear and makes the audience want to follow the plot. This shows me how I will need to make my audience feel within my horror trailer, and will use these elements of horror to succesfully meet the requiments and needs for my target audience.