Trailer analysis

Because I am creating a film trailer, I have been required to research film trailers. There are several factors that are consistent throughout film trailers:

• Music
• Text in-between clips
• Company logo
• Voiceover
• Heavy editing e.g. dubbed voice from clips over other clips
• Website address
• Release date
• Title logo

Certain film trailers may have factors that aren't consistent:

• Clips in quick succession might emphasise drama
• Monologues for effect
• Voiceovers of characters yelling and screaming to heavily emphasise drama

I am going to analyse two horror film trailers. The first one is for The Cabin in the Woods and the second one is for Sinister.

The Cabin in the Woods:

This trailer starts off with everything happy as it shows the 5 main characters getting into their motorhome. This is to 'disguise' the actual genre of the film, trying to get the audience to, at first, assume that the film is a teen movie. The tone of this trailer suddenly changes when the Lionsgate logo appears on a blood-red sky and the upbeat music ends suddenly as the characters stop off at a dilapidated petrol station owned a sinister man, starting to create the sense of horror. The text in-between clips makes the audience feel uneasy. It is in a white serif font on a dark background with hexagons and it flickers, clearly indicating that it is a horror film. The main premise of the film appears to begin when a bird is obliterated completely by an invisible forcefield, meaning that the cabin (in the woods) is sealed off from civilisation. The horror really starts to begin when a clip of the petrol station owner shows his true nature saying, 'The lambs have passed through the gate. They have come to the killing floor.' This is used to raise suspense. To surprise the audience, the music in the trailer stops so that the only sound heard is the hushed voices of the characters until something loud happens, namely in this trailer, a fist suddenly punching through a wall. The end of the trailer shows the factors generally used in horror film trailers: the stereotypical clips in quick succession and voiceovers of characters screaming or yelling. The music used over this part of the trailer is really effective because the drum beats emphasise the horror and drama of the film.

Sinister:

Unlike the trailer for The Cabin in the Woods, which starts off positively, the trailer for Sinister, after the logo for the distributor, Summit Entertainment, begins eerily dark and scary, showing a house from the front at night. The sound over this is near-silent to create the tension. A sudden flash on the screen along with what sounded like a screech surprises the viewer. The trailer starts to make the viewer anxious when it shows a drawing of four stick figures hanging from a tree and a police photograph of their feet. It also makes the viewer think because the previous image, a photograph of the family, shows a fifth member. The main premise of the film begins when it shows a family moving into that same house. The horror begins when the main character, a father of two, enters the attic and finds a box full of film reels. When the main character starts to watch a reel of the murdered family playing and acting happy, the viewer starts to feel fixated on the family. A screech and a quick glimpse of the family's legs hanging from a tree surprises the viewer as it is sudden. This makes the main character leap out of the chair, allowing the viewer to feel the same way as he does. It happens again when the next film reel shows a car being torched by a viewer, but this doesn't make the character jump out of his seat. The film really starts to take off when the viewer is shown quick glimpses of the film's antagonist, a supposed demonic creature, on photographs, videos and even outside the main character's window. To really terrify the viewer, as the character has the picture of the creature zoomed in, the creature turns its head towards him, while the character looks on completely unaware. Various clips such as the character's son screaming as if possessed, the character screaming, an axe dragged along the floor and zombified children in the attic have all been selected to scare the viewer. Like the trailer for The Cabin in the Woods, the text in-between clips is in a black serif font against a white marble-like background going dark around the edges with cracks around. The music is quite and eerie, adding to the horror of the film.