Paranormal Activity.
Horror films generally have fast paced trailers with different shot sequences in quick succession. This hast the effect of exciting the audience.
The trailer of paranormal activity has challenged the typical conventions of movie trailers by showing the film trailer actually being shown in a cinema with a real live audience. The trailer opens with a LS showing a long line of people all cueing to get into the cinema. The trailer uses simple word art which appears on the screen saying 'In 2009 a screening was held in Hollywood California'. This shows a huge number of people then piling into the cinema highlighting it is going to be a great film because all of these hundreds of people have come to see it. This real life effect with a live audience encourages the audience that the film is going to be good and that they should to go and see it due to the huge numbers of people going, it gives the feeling that the film must be good.
The effect of the live audience also has a huge effect on promoting and advertising the film. The use of CU shots on the audience showing them holding each other with terrified expression on their faces, the way which some of the jump out of their seats and some are screaming and hiding their faces away. Again due to thelive audience been affected in this way, the audience immediately believe it is not fake and that the audience where really affected in that way which excites them into wanting to see the film as it must be scary due to the audiences reactions. This encourages people, specially fans of the horror genre to see the film due to the live audiences response.
The effect of the camera being positioned at the back of the cinema and capturing the heads of the audience sat in their seats with the film starting on the screen in front. Again this is realisitic to the normal world and defies conventions by showing the trailer as people watching the film in the cinema rather than just showing the film. This shot is also a POV shot and gives us the feeling that we too are sitting in the audience 'experiencing the movie paranormal activity'. the use of the word experiencing also makes it sound as though te film is great and that the audience are lucky to be experiencing this movie.
The effect of the shooting this with a hand held camera again reinforces the realism. Whereas other film trailer such as The Mist, the audience know immediately it is a film with special effects, however, Paranormal activity, being shot with the hand held camera, makes this look like a home video and gives it the powerful effect of looking real and this alone is one of the factors that immediately excites the audience and provides some of the terror as whilst watching the film the realistic look it gives influences the audience into thinking what they are experiencing is really happening.
The sound effect of the film reel turning and the projector firing up and paramounts logo appearing on the screen again gives the audience the feeling that they are sitting in the cinema watching a film.
The sound effects provide an eerie and tense atmosphere to the trailer. When the male character starts listing off 'door locked, windows shut'. it immediately gives the sense of night approaching and the two characters locking the house up. It excites the audience as it gives a feeling of seclusion and isolation and night time falling creates excitement as the audience know something is about to happen. During the night eerie and mysterious noises are also heard, like the howling of wind and creaks and bangs, again scaring the audience and exciting them that something is out there. The characters speech also becomes quieter and they whisper to each other showing their fear. 'There are footsteps in but no footsteps out.....If you do try and play games with it, thats inviting it in.' This dialogue tells the audience the spirit is now in their house and again creates a tense feeling leaving audiences wonder what is going to happen. During these sequences, loud bangs are heard before the camera cuts back to the cowering and screaming audience, putting the film across as being 'jumpy' and scary which again excites people viewing the trailer that the film is going to be scary and make them jump which is what fans of this genre want.
The trailer follows conventions by the pace speeding up to build a big crescendo of tension and fear at the end to leave the audience excited and needing to see more. Clips of the door slamming shut on its own then shows a CU of a bruise, bite mark on the womans back, before a clip of a white bright light flashing past the camer. During these fast scenes the audience are shown screaming and the music is building up. The excitement builds up, up until the point when all appears still, until the male characters body suddenly appears out from the blackness and hurtles towards the camera. As he appears out of nowhere and flies towards the camera is has the effect on the audience that he is going to hurtle through the screen and instinctively makes them jump and gets their adrenaline pumping leaving them excited about seeing more of this film.
Throughout the end sequences quotes from various reviews by media companies appeared. This technique is typical generally of film trailers. 'Paranormal activity is one of the scariest films of all time.' - Bloody Disguisting
'Genuinely Horrifying,' - Film Threat
'The entire auditorium was freaked out of their minds....People where physically shaken.' - Dread Central. These again, help to influence the potential audience to see the film as it shows great reviews saying how horrifyingly scary it is. These influence people to see the film. As is normal with trailers the title of the film appears at the end in order for people to be able to remember the name and also note the release date.
Rec:
This trailer follows most of the same principals towards the end of the trailer. However it has challenged the conventions by starting off slowly. It shows the fire brigade running around in an apartment block trying to find the room they have been called to. Whilst clips are shown of them moving around, messages split the clips up. The last of these messages says Unexplained 4 before it suddenly switches to 5. Immediately this tells the audience that this incident the fire brigade have been called to is going to be number 5 on the unexplained list. Immediately this excites the audience as they know something is going to happen. The tower block is dimly lit with shadows to create an eerie, mysterious setting to the location. Most ofthe trailer isnt scary, however it is the end few seconds which hook the audience and encourage them into going to see this film. A LS is used showing a small shadow of a girl stood in the dark. None of her features are visible which again shrouds her with mystery. As the fire brigade move closer to the small girl they tilt the beam of torchlight towards her. Suddenly the camera switches to a CU showing the decapitated and evil looking face of the small girl, who suddenly charges towards them screaming. This horrifying image comes almost out of nowhere as the previous scenes in the trailer had been quite relaxed and natural. This horrifying image suddenly results in the audience jumping and being completely caught off guard which in turn pumps their adrenaline and their levels of excitement shoot up, which in turn excites them and encourages them to want to see the film.
The first minute of the film trailer follows the conventions of a television documentary, with the camera following the fireman about their daily duties and the reporter explaining about their careers and what they entail to the audience. Although this isnt typically frightening and fast which is expected of a film trailer it sets the seen and the narrative structure for the audience to follow. Immediately this indicates to the audience that this film is about a young woman reporter - which this in itself is stereotypical of most horrors, as the characters tend to be young adult women who are the victims, who is filming a documentary on the fire brigade. Immediately providing the audience with a little bit of background knowledge as to the plot of the film. The shots during this first sequence are using a hand-held camera suggesting it's shot in the form of a fly on the wall documentary.
The audience are giving their first taste that this film is going to be quite scary and 'jumpy' when the trailer is 24 seconds in and the fireman breaks the door behind the woman who instantly screams. Not only does this suggest to the audience that there is going to be more scares to come it also provides the audience with an insight into the womans 'jumpy' personality which incinuates to the audience that this woman isn't strong or fearless, she is an easily scared and 'jumpy' young woman which instantly suggests that there is going to be far more scary things heading in this womans direction as she is vulnerable and this is where most of the horror from the film will most probably come from.
Most of the scenes are dark and some are complete blackness with just the characters speaking or noises in the background such as the static on the firemans radio. This adds a sense of mystery to the film as the audience are shielded and left out of the action, although they are told it is still happening without them by the sounds which are continuing even though the audiences involvement in the scene has been prevented. This has the effect of making the audience want to know what is happening and want the blackness to go and be allowed to re-enter the scene so they can observe the events again. The effect of the darkness also creates a sense of danger as the scenes are shrouded in the darkness of the shadows suggesting to the audience that things could be hidden in the darkness where they cannot see, the idea of danger lurking in the shadows and the mystery which evokes excitement in the audience and fuels their adrenaline which gives the audience a good feeling about the film and encourages them to want to see it. The dark and shadowy scenes also creates a sense of being trapped in the unknown with lots of places the characters cannot see which creates a sense of panic and isolation which is a common feature in most horror film trailers, showing that this film is complying with the typical conventions in order to try and excite their audiences and encourage their interest and expectations of the film.
The scene 42 seconds into the trailer shows the woman recoiling in fear from something, she is screaming and the camera is racing through the darkness to watch her, the trailer has then chosen to show the woman standing in the torchlight recreating the image of a deer caught in the headlights suggesting to the audience that she is going to be a target of the evil or horrifying thing and that she is going to be involved in the films main action. The handheld camera used throughout the trailer is effective as it creates a feeling of a 'gritty' and 'realistic' image highlighting to the audience that the film is going for the effect that this is similar to real life, for instance by filming this with a lot of expensive cameras in HD would have made this film look un-natural and unrealistic whereas the hand held camera which creates some of the blurry and gritty effects suggests that this is really happeningto the audience which again creates an excitement within the audience as the action doesnt look staged and the horror and action look realistic. The use of the hand held camera also gives a sense of events moving in a fast space of time, with pictures zooming in and out of the scene and the wobbly and shaking camera highlights to the audience that all of these horrifying events are happening right now and the events are moving quickly and loud which again suggests the panic of the characters, which provokes an interest and excitement in the audience.
During scenes when the action on screen suddenly wobbles and goes off suggests the realism to the audience as the cameraman has sometimes dropped the camera or is only recording certain events in order to make sure they capture the horrifying incidents for the audience to see.
After about 50 seconds into the trailer the audience are introduced to some men walking around wearing full body suits with gas marks, suggesting to the audience that they are obviously protecting themselves from some form of danger, again reinforcing to the audience that possibly some dangerous chemicals have been released in the building or there is some sort of contageous illness or disease which they are protecting themselves from, thus, providing the audience with possible storylines of the film. Also dangerous storylines such as contageous diseases which have been released creates a sense of danger and again excites the audience at the prospect of danger which encourages them to see the film as it gets their adrenaline pumping.
The effect of having some of the shots taken being upside down or facing in the wrong direction again creates a sense of panic and desperation as the reporter doesnt have time to position the camera properly and position herself in front of it to report her information like she did earlier, suggesting to the audience that a lot has changed since that moment, now she is in a desperate rush, hastily grabbing the camera and reporting what is happening to the audience which highlights the character is not bothered about reporting the piece professionally as she normally would, she is scared and desperate to tell people what is happening and so is quickly grabbing the camera and recording when she needs to.
The film trailer constantly plays echoing sounds in their music and banging sound effects to suggest open spaces of the apartment they are in and also suggests the bare walls of the building where the noises are echoing from. The loud bangs and the eery music add to the eery and scary atmosphere which this film trailer creates throughout in order to scare the audience whilst at the same time provoke an excitement within the audience about the film.
The films title is shown at the end which has been created to look like the recording sign on a film camera, which links with the title 'REC' highlighting to the audience that these events are being filmed and are being shown not through the eyes of the characters but through the lens of the film of which the characters are recording the events, this also suggests that the recording is going to be on a less expensive (handheld camcorder which in turn suggests that this is a ameteur filming the events.
it
rec
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The Happening
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Saw IV
The Eye
Teeth
The Unborn
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A nightmare on elm street
the strangers
eden Lake
Doghouse
Paranormal Activity
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