In this post here I am going to talk about the conventions of two trailers. Because I am doing a horror film trailer I have chosen to look at two horror trailers, this will help give ideas and techniques when filming and editing my trailer.
The two films trailers are as follows;
Sinister (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgYxydrVlDk
The Possession (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gBeG31fX40&feature=related
When first watching these trailers, the first thing that you will see is the ident. These are important in film trailers because it initially tells you who the film is made by and in some cases it can give you a hint as to what the film is going to be like. For example they could give it a horror film style to it, to tailor it to this specific film.
To start off with, in the Sinister trailer, they use a voice over to set the initial storyline of the overall film. In this particular case the voice seems to be coming from a television, to get the feeling of a news report. Voice overs in trailers tend to give the viewer only what they need to know, this means that they will have to watch the film to get the full theme of the story.
Another feature in the Sinister film trailer would be how it says "From the producer of Paranormal Activity and Insidious". This is already gathering a fan base of those who are fans of those already existing films, and will gain a hype in the horror genre. The downside to this is that the people who are fans of those films will expect this new film to live up to those two other films.
Because this film is in the horror genre, the people who edit these films into trailers tend to use a lot of jump cuts to make the film seem more fast pace even though it probably isn't for the most part of the film.
Another thing that is in this trailer that is important in horror films is the text that appears in-between scenes. This provides the viewer with short bits of information to add to what is being spoken about in the trailer. This makes it so that even if you're not particularly listening to what the trailer is talking about, you may still read what it says and get some sort of information about the trailer, which could be enough to make you go and see it.
At the end of the Sinister trailer, they give you a website to visit to get more information about the film and they also provide the means of social networking sites such as Facebook to give people the chance to follow the film and stay updated as to when it is out and reviews etc.
As for The Possession trailer, they also use a voice over to tell the viewer what the general storyline is and what they need to know before they watch the film. Another returning feature in this trailer would be the use of jump cuts to transition scenes. This again gives the illusion it has a fast pace nature when the reality is the most part of the film will not use jump cuts.
Another feature which is present in both trailers is that of showing focus on the main object which is causing the controversy in the films. For example in Sinister they are video tapes that the man character finds, and in The Possession it is a box that the child acquires from a household sale.
Again in this film they also use the technique of texts in-between scenes to provide a link other that another scene or a voice over the picture.
The main thing that I have found in these trailers would be the music tends to set the whole mood of the trailer. The music in both is creepy and slow, this will provide the atmospheric mood that is needed in horror films for the viewer. Also, the jump cuts tend to fit in with the music so when there is a loud noise, that is usually when something 'jumpy' will happen or it will swap scenes. This is a technique used in almost all trailers in the modern day, but is seemingly important when it comes to horror films.
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