Our aim for the film trailer was too break AND use the conventions of horror. We gave away no clues to the back story of the mysterious Diederich, a bit like the film "Cloverfield", where by the end, there is no clue as to what the monster is. We decided to acheive the same sort of effect because this sort of ending does not appear very often in horror. There are usually mysterious cliff hangers, such as "Is he/she really dead?" Or "Where did the body go?" etc, but rarely do we never find out why the monster or person is doing what they are doing. Another good example of a movie that breaks all of the conventions would The Strangers. As from the title, you can see that there is going to be some sort of plot enigma involved, and we don't exactly find out why these strange three characters have invaded the house and killed the two inncoent people. They do say when asked why, "Because you were home." but this really does not help the plot as it gives us no characterisation apart from saddistic random killers.
Just like any movie, ours would end with the audience leaving with some justification, but its one of those movies you really have to delve into to understand. Diederich was a german pilot back in the 1940s but he was shot down and captured by the english. He was then tortured for information that he was not supposed to give out and then killed. The movie is based in the present day at the scene of the backstory but a house has been built in its place, and Diederich is still trying to escape, but as a haunting. The movie does not end well, as the final shot is of the door flund wide open, Diederich has finally escaped, leaving the two innocent civilains who have just moved in dead.
The main function of a teaser trailer is to promote a movie before it is due for release in the cinema in order to gain a fanbase and a profit from those who are interested in seeing it. It does this by targeting specific audieces so that it gains the biggest popularity and potential income possible.
These 8 screen shots above are all similar in the conventions, but have different storylines and plot developments, for example:
The first image is a movie called "Mirrors" which is based on an ex-cop and his family who are targeted by an evil force, using mirrors to force its way into their household. The scene screen shot i have taken is where a woman looks away from the Mirror, and her reflection is still looking at her. I chose this as a similar shot to the Diederich shot because they are both based about looking into or out of somewhere. The camera positioning and shot size are also very similar. They are both very mysterious shots as they do not reveal why the person on the other side is there; in these cases behind a door and in the mirror. I think both shots are very effective, one being because it creeps the audience out as it isn't going away, and the other because it is such a quick flash, it makes them jump.
In the second case, I have taken a shot from the motion picture "The strangers" that has a similar meaning and layout as to the one in "Diederich". Both screen shots show the male and female leads in some sort of shock/peril. Me and Amy are hiding from the gas mask man of Diederich, and the others have been allerted by a mysterious bang at the door, caused by one of the antagonists. Both shots are relatively similar in shot sizes, both being close ups. However, the shot of "The Strangers" uses very high key motivated lighting, whereas, the shot in Diederich is very low key. This could show while being similar in the shot size and situations, the storyline is actually different, with one nearing the end, and the other is just introducing the antagonists. The light also portrays the danger. The more darkness there is, the more dangerous the situation, as the visibilty drops. Darkness could hold anything.
Shot 3 comes from REC, a movie about a spanish fire brigade that is called to a hotel because of a trapped old lady. When they get there, the doors lock, and they are trapped with the crazy residents of the hotel for a nightmarish night. The shot that i have chosen may not be the same shot size, but both cameras show that it is from the characters eyes, they are seeing this as we are. Both characters are very mysterious, one being in almost complete darkness covered in blood, and the other with his back to us so we cannot see his face. The conclusion of both of these shots end up revealing who the person is/what he/she looks like (The camera goes up to the girl to see her, and Diederich turns round). Our shot could have been better, but when we got to the house, we had mis interpretted the layout, so our shot wasn't going to be as good as we thought.
My final shot i have selected again comes from "The Strangers". In pre-production we looked at that movie alot to gain inspiration. The idea of enigma was very attractive to us as a film as it made us think, and got to us psychologically. Both of these shots show the main characters nearing the end, looking more vulnerable than ever, and eventually, both sets of characters end up dying, specifically strangers, as that is practically the end, we don't hear them speak again, and they die in that position. I think both are effective in their own ways, for instance our shot, shows them sitting right by a way of escaping. They were so close, and its kind of teasing them saying "You haven't made it".
The Whole idea of a Teaser trailer is to "Tease" the audience. It leaves them wanting more from that movie. This comes before the Main Theatrical trailer, and can even sometimes come out before the entire movie has finished production. The structure is very rarely chronological, and is largely a montage of shots that contain action, which shows the audience the "Best" bits, even though it leaves us with no clue to plotline. Camerawork starts off slowly, establishing realism, but as the trailer moves on, it gets quicker and quicker, and there are more fast cuts.
Sound of Teaser trailers almost always contain music and most definitely non-digetic sound effects or boosters. The music usually starts off as just general music, but as the action unfolds, the music picks up, and moves along in time.
In making our trailer, we decided to follow a basic teaser trailer, starting off with normality and then gradually including more action and suprises. Again, as the action unfolds, the editing will increase it's speed leading to a boom, and then ending on the title. However, after the title, we decided to add in our own little twist by putting our antagonist in before the credit sequence in a quick shot to make the audience jump out of their skin. Class screenings have proved that this works.
The music we used in our Teaser trailer was all made on garage band, and just used a basic loud droning sound throughout with harmony parts. We sped this up at the end by making the bassy boom sounds quicker. This unnerved our audiences as the noise gets really irritating as it is quite loud and jumpy. These bassy sounds can be heard in any horror trailer, usually at the end, after something shocking has happened, or when the title appears. Classic horror sound.
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