1. OPENING SHOT
My establishing shot is a wide location shot, showing the idyllic setting of an old stately home. The setting, which could easily be the opening of a period drama, is so beautiful that it makes what happens all the more disturbing for the viewer. It is a wide shot which establishes where we are, although beautiful, it also suggests a sense of isolation and the possibility of a mysterious interior. It fits the conventions of a trailer, by giving the appearance of something beautiful that will, in the end, go wrong.
2. LOCATION
The location for my trailer is the unique selling point of the film; this is similar to the film, ‘When a Stranger Calls’, where the location is also one of the main attractions. A clear convention of most trailers is to have engaging and alluring scenes and locations.
My trailer only has one setting but, like the title of the film, it serves a double purpose. On one level it is a beautiful stately home; on another it is isolated in its many acres, with the potential for dark spaces and endless corridors. It has a sense of dereliction that serves to emphasize the fact that the girl is all alone; try as she might, there is no escape. The age of the house and the dark woods around it gives off the aura of a gothic and slightly haunted place. The establishing shots at the beginning of the trailer highlight the vast amounts of land surrounding the house, which reinforces the sense of isolation and emptiness. However, Charlotte is not isolated: as the trailer continues we begin to understand that in fact she is not alone. Rather than have Charlotte trapped in the house, I decided to use the fields and woods outside and the stables. There are some similarities with the trailer for ‘The Strangers’, in which there is also an emphasis on the fact that the house is isolated. In that trailer the only way of escaping is in the car, which we then see being destroyed. This is not an uncommon convention: the means of escape are removed. In my trailer, we see the girl’s car keys being taken: she is trapped at the house.
3. USE OF CHARACTERS
There is only one main character in my trailer. The viewer’s expectation at the beginning is that there will be two characters: Abi and Charlotte. However as it develops we begin to question whether Abi will ever arrive. This is a key question in the trailer. Charlotte is the girl that we see in the majority of the shots and hers is the only dialogue we hear in the trailer. Using just one main character was a risk; the central conflict is less obvious than in most conventional trailers. The trailer makes clear that there is another character in the form of the person with the mask. However, it is not clear from the trailer how the conflict in the film will develop. The convention of many trailers is that that the villain only becomes apparent at the end. The trailer for ‘When a Stranger Calls,’ is similar to mine in the way that there is really only one main character.
In my own trailer, the character of Charlotte is portrayed as innocent and unsuspecting. In several parts of the trailer, we can see something or someone that she can’t. This is reversed at the climax of the trailer, with Charlotte seeing something that we cant see. This fits with the conventions and key objective of any trailer: leaving unanswered questions that the audience will want to answer by going to see the film.
4. FINAL SHOT
The end shot shows a hand in a surgical glove turning off an old-fashioned brass light and throwing the house into pitch black. The glove is intended to raise questions in the viewer’s mind: is this person trying to avoid leaving fingerprints? Worse still, perhaps, do they have some kind of medical background? I used a combination of the shot itself with sound effects to heighten the dramatic effect – the mounting sound stops dead as the light is switched and the picture turns to black. Hopefully by now the viewer is scared, but also asking: what happened? The most fundamental convention of all is to leave the audience wanting to pay to go and see the film. The titles are often followed by another sequence of shots which make the audience want too see the film by asking the classic narrative question: what happens next? Mine is perhaps a slightly more unusual ending to a trailer. The final shot does not feature the character of Charlotte, but instead suggests a crisis that she is about to encounter. The convention for most trailers is to end the sequence on a shot of the main characters. Obviously, I only have one main character. But the viewer knows that someone else is there; the end of the trailer hopefully leaves them wanting too know who it is.
5& 6. 2 MASK SHOTS
There are several shots throughout my trailer that involve the man in the mask; each one of these shots plays around with the unknown. Every time the viewer sees the masked man, however, the girl does not. The first time we see him is through a window, when he is watching over the girl who is pacing up and down outside. This shot introduces the character and gives an idea of what is to come in the rest of the trailer. It is not obvious that he is there until we see him walk away. The second time we see him is in the mirror. Again it is not obvious he is there until there is a quick zoom into his ‘face’. The last view we see of him is much more obvious and develops a lot more tension than the previous two. Each shot develops the suspense – another convention in most thriller trailers. Unusually, in my trailer, we see the masked man very early on. In some ways this gives too much of the narrative away. But it seemed that, like many other trailers similar to mine, the outline of the story is relatively obvious. Therefore I decided too show all three of these shots with the sound of different phone call conversations underneath them.
7. OTHER TITLES
For my side titles, I used the same font – ’28 days later’ - as my titles, film poster and website, This font has a military effect. However, I also added the effect called ‘Light Rays,’ giving the effect that a ray of light is shining along the font. With sound effects, this also serves to add tension. I had originally intended to use the background of my film poster, a photograph I took, as the background for the titles, but after testing it, it incongruous with the rest of the scenes, so I decided to just use a simple white writing on black background. The titles in ‘Prom Night,’ also use the effect of something shining through with white lettering on a black background.
Each title adds a new layer to the narrative as the trailer progresses. Another convention with titles is to enable the audience to understand that much more of the storyline, so having too many effects on the title risks confusing the audience. Therefore after having my test screening, I decided to reduce the number of effects and prolong the clip, making the trailer simpler and clearer.
8. TITLE: THE DWELLING
My title is edgy with a double meaning, amplifying the style and the increasingly uncomfortable atmosphere of the trailer. I have used a font called ’28 days later’ - the same typeface I used in my other titles and poster. The font and the effect I have used – ‘Bad TV’ – makes the title shake, adding a sense of tension and flagging the nature of the film. This is similar to the film ‘Control’.
According to conventions, the titles in thriller trailers are often the final shot – the memorable ending, teasing the viewer to go to the cinema to see what happens. Alongside my title I have positioned a clip from my filming of the person in a mask, which for the first time in my trailer, is shot which pauses on the face, rather than quick shows of the villain that aren’t through a window or through a mirror. This is to give the trailer both a memorable ending and also encourages the viewer want too see the film. Technically, I cropped the image of the masked intruder and zoomed in. I then moved the image too the right of the title. The title sequence is not dissimilar to that of ‘The Strangers’. Both show the faint image of a person in the background behind the title, though ‘The Strangers’ is arguably more subtle.
Another convention of thriller films is to have a short and unforgettable title that stands out.
9. THE IDENT
My trailer opens on my ident, ‘Lee Ray Motions.’ The idea for this was developed and produced using Flash. The little amount of detail and special effects tries to achieve the affect of a low budget production company, implying a low budget film, intended to be similar to those of smaller companies like ‘Film London’ and ‘Metrodome.’ However, it was clear from looking at conventional teaser trailers that they are normally used when the audience already has enough of a relationship with either the characters or series, not too need a full explanation. For example, merely using the ‘Batman’ logo, sets up a clear audience expectation of what they are about too see. The same is true of hearing the ‘James Bond’ theme music.
SOUND
Although a main convention for a trailer in terms of sound is Dialogue, within my trailer, we only hear one main voice, that of Charlotte talking on the phone, we are left who is on the other end of the phone. Many thrillers, use dramatic voiceovers, however I decided against this and, in a sense, used titles to the same effect. I used a mixture of music (in the beginning) and sound effects to create a sense of suspense and unease. Rather than using a soundtrack at the end, instead I layered several sound effects over each other.
