Finalised Narrative Structure

Narrative Structure

The trailer will start of with the idea of a myth/old tale that the characters are discussing, however there been watched from above by the killer. The students are not aware of this, this shows that were following the conventions of horror films as the equilibrium is showing the students having a good time and not aware of the danger that surrounds them.

After a jump cut is used to show that the unknown killer is socialising and persuading the group to go visit the location in where the myth/old tale was created. This shows how the story line is progressing into the next stage, a change in the equilibrium.

The killer then invites them to visit a church and grave yard as a joke/dare, knowing that the popular teenagers would take up the offer. This is a stereotypical location for a horror setting as we connate churches and graveyards with death, blood, isolation and etc.

Once the students are standing outside the church, there will be a panning shot of the killer watching the teenagers outside the church gate, thus giving the impression of a sinister atmosphere, which adds to the conventions of a typical horror film/trailer.

When the students are in the church, we will use the effects of shadows, non-digetic and digetic music such as, screaming, the sound of the killers shovel and sound effects used. This will effectively make it a good value production horror trailer that will appeal to the target audience.

In the horror trailer there will be only two killings that are shown through fast editing, this again follows the convention of horror trailers. The decision to have the killer kill two characters was because we didn’t want to reveal the whole story and wanted to keep the audience interested in the trailer. 

Throughout the horror trailer the killer’s identity is not revealed to the audience, we thought that this would create a darker atmosphere within the trailer and will scare our target audience.

The most significant prop used in the trailer will be the killers shovel and the sound of the shovel this shows the audience how a garden utensil can become such a violent weapon which will scare our audience more than having a knife used. 

The trailer will follow Todorov's theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. We felt that this is would be the right narrative theory to use as horror trailers normally show that everything is okay at the begining and that the characters are enjoying theirselves. However, in the middle of the trailer something dark and sinister distrupts the plot which is where the characters fight against the killer or antaganists. However, as it's a trailer we will not be showing the new equilibrium as we want the target audience to be kept in suspence and want to go watch the movie. In the narrative, I feel that we are meeting the theory sucessfully and have thought clearly how we want to attract the target audience. Below is Todorov's theory:

TZVETAN TODOROV - Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of

events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the

fiction.