- Comedy

Shaun of the Dead.

Comedy trailers generally are fast paced before stopping suddenly for the audience to hear the joke or to witness a funny scene, before the action tends to speed up again. Following conventions, the usually have a jovial and upbeat soundtrack playing over them. The storyline is usually serious with the characters behaving in a comedian way.

In the Shaun of the Dead trailer, some of these conventions are used. The trailer starts with the effect of television interference 'Please pay attention, this message is for your own safety.'



The Hangover

Hot Fuzz

Spoofs - Scary Movie 3

After researching into comedy film trailer i discovered some of the general conventions which are incorporated in most comedy films, for example i discovered that in most comedy trailers, their is a jovial and upbeat music track in the style of 'Benny Hill', which creates a happy and sound track which has the general effect of putting the audience in a happy and good mood which sets them up for enjoying the film and the humour. I also discovered that most film trailers tend to use slapstick moments such as men walking into lamp posts etc and also tends to leave a gap between the verbal jokes to give the audience time to take in the joke, laugh before they move onto the next one.

Scary Movie 3's film trailer begins with the intertextual reference of the horror film 'the ring', by starting with the text 'There is a videotape', the scene then switches to show a womans legs walking towards the camera, this is then interrupted with interference 'the snowing effect', from the tape which suggests to the audience that what they are being shown now is footage from the videotape, whilst also possibly is just another reference to the tape to keep reinforcing the narrative of the story to the audience. The audience are then shown another piece of text saying 'If you watch it', straight away this indicates to the audience that this is inevitable as people are obviously going to watch a videotape if they have gone out and got it. Highlighting to the audience that this element to the film is going to happen, throughout these sequences more interference is shown again referencing the videotape and leaving the audiences wondering whether they are watching the videotape or if the film are just again making references to the tape which the narrator doing the voice over is referring to.

The scene then cuts to a mid-shot of a young woman putting the tape into her television recorder. The scene moves slowly with eery music playing over the top as she slowly puts the tape into the recorder, the effect of the blue tint to the scene also creates a cold image and gives the audience the impression that they are possibly watching the events on a hidden camera, almost like a fly on the wall, watching the character secretly to see what is going to happen. During these scenes and relying on the audiences knowledge on the film 'The Ring', a tense and spooky atmosphere is created which builds anticipation in the audience as they believe something scary and sudden is about to happen which is conventional of the horror genre, therefore the audience become excited and tense waiting for the climax of the scene. 'Seven Days later will be one week from today.' This text is then shown after a quick sequence of shots showing a woman screaming and a girl emerging from a well, these are shots that are intended to be spooky, however the trailer is taking the previous media construct of 'The Ring' and is parodying the narrative structure in Scary Movie 3, by doing this they are relying on the audiences knowledge of the horror conventional elements and also the knowledge of the film 'The Ring' which builds up their expectation of something scary and dramatic being about to happen when suddely the audience are shown the woman diving off the high cliff and landing on a branch at the very top of the cliff, this slapstick comedy immediately turns the audiences expectations of the previous conventional elements of the suspected horror genre and provides them with the knowledge that this film is going to be satirical and make a joke of a serious film, the audience are then providing with the knowledge that the film genre is a spoof.

The film trailer also plays on the stereotypes of 'dum blondes' this is highlighted in the scene when the two women are discussing the videotape which has been hyped up throughout the beginning sequences of the trailer and one of the women instantly believes that the videotape is a pornography about people having sex in lots of different places and then the other woman states that it is a film that as soon as it is over your phone rings. The trailer then switches back to the conventional elements of a horror film trailer showing a CU of the ringing phone and the shot which shows the depth of field as the female character slowly walks over to the phone, the voice tells her she is going to die within seven days however the dumblonde is shown as mishearing her and believes the speaker is talking about somebody being gay again highlighting the humour is coming from some verbal jokes targeting social stereotypes such as the 'dum blonde' whilst also some of the humour is also coming from the slapstick area of comedy which has been shown in the way in which the woman dives off the cliff and hits the branch.

The film then places text in the trailer in connection with the voice over saying 'Three times the Terror.' This is ironic and again satirical as there is no terror in the film, this again highlights how the trailer is playing with the typical comventions which are associated with the horror film genre and are parodying them in this spoof film. The film then uses juxtaposition in the way in which it shows the horror film sequences and then immediately follows this with the slapstick humour of the man sitting up in bed and banging his head on the light everytime the woman screams again telling the audience that this film isnt a horror film although it is interpreting the conventions of a horror film in their narrative structure. The film also adds addition humour by taking realistic horrifying events such as crop circles which is an intertextual reference with the horror film signs, and taking the seriousness out of it by making a joke out of the scene, this is seen clearly in this case in the way that the crop circles have been chaped to read 'Attack Here', with an arrow pointing at a house in the countryside, this turns the dramatic situation humourous and again hypes up and tenses the audience by using the horror conventions to give them something completely unexpected which creates the humour of the film by playing on the audiences expectations.

The film again makes humourous references with the blonde stereotype by showing the woman talking about how she can sense when danger is nearby and then ends up walking into a microphone and knocking herself out, this slapstick event creates humour yet again and adds more humour to the stereotypical view which is being displayed on 'dum blonde women'. The trailer also uses the stereotypes of disabled people and mutes to be a fuel for the humour which is created in the film. For example the scene in which the president of the US played by Leslie Nelson believes that in the conference there are aliens and these are the mute who speaks with a machine and the disabled man with a head brace on as he deems them to be weird and so must be an alien, this creates humour as the characters ignorance and lack of knowledge as he strikes disabled men as he deems them to be aliens. The trailer also plays on the media images of Simon Cowell and Michael Jackson and interprets the media representations, such as Simon Cowell as being the harsh media critic who gets shot by gangsters and Michael Jacksons media image of being involved in child sex abuse scandals which has been interpreted in the film in the way in which he says he wouldnt have touched the male characters young daughter as she was a girl.' This creates humour as people have knowledge of these reality stars and their personalitites and the humour is caused because of this and the way in which the film has represented them.

The trailer then follows the typical conventions in the way that it shows the films main title, release date and who has starred in the film for the audience to view.



Scary Movie 3