'Right at your door'
Director and Writter: Chris Gorak
UK release:8th September 2006
- The digetic sounds of and alarm clock going off is a denotation to establish the time(morning) and even the setting (bedroom), it going off implys a pressing appointment typically school/work, it also signifies possible connotations of death as the font style of the digits includes serif, so its sharply pointed at all ends also signifying phalic objects implying the use of weapon such as knives, the colour of these digits ired red and thier on ablack background, the red is typical symbol of blood, the black background implys corruption. The use of an alarm clock in this opening scene has also been chosen to give the audience something to realte to as its the classic 'bog standard' alrom clock, the easily recognisable objects bring the film closer to home making more believable and in turn scarier. The piercing noise of the alarm clock could also be a slight intertextual link from 'Psycho' as its recognisable and generally associated with something bad.
- This shot pans across to a more zoomed out angle of a couple in bed, both white caucasion. The female is blond in skimpy blue pyjamas with her back to the male signifying she 'wears the trousers' in the relationship, even though her pj's are skimpy signifying their sexually active
- they're still blue which is a stereotypically masculine colour connoting shes not a dumb blonde and may be an important character, which is further anchored in the next scene where shes dressed in a suit although with a femanine twist of pink,(binary opposition to the normsal blonde caucasions outfit) kisses the male goodbye and leaves in her car for work this shows the film is fairly modern som at first glance isn't a patriarchal society.
- The male in the bed was wearing clothes and above the duvet hugging the females back signifying his love for her as he kind of protects her while she sleeps.
- This is then turned on its head as shes the one kissing him as she leaves for work thanking him for cooking her dinner the night before signifying a possibel matrisarchal society if not in actual society at least within thier relationship.
- For the first time male speaks saying 'drive safe' which an ironic device to imply something bad is now inevitably going to happen.
- Female says 'I love you' before she leaving helps to anchor them being a couple, transitions between these few scenes fade in and out getting slightly slower each time connoting time past and things are about to change.
- Female promises to unpack boxes when she gets in connotes they've just moved in together so their a fresh young couple the 'sparks' still there
- Male speaks for the first time 'drive safe' is an almost ironic signifier that something bads about to happen, this is further anchored by the pause that follows it accompanied by the changed tone in music.
- We're then led onto the title sequence 'Lionsgate' the happy life just shown before the pause and title sequence is now juxtaposed to events about to happen, again further anchored by the music changing from a higher pitched tone to a lower one has connotations of realisation that sinister events are starting to occur, weather seen yet by the central protagonist or not they're still developing.
- The male central protagonist is in dull clothes brushing his teeth this denotation connotes his boring mundane life (one a wide audience can relate to) before its turned upside down by the horrific event. The news on the tv is then brought to his attention as he walks over to it and the window accompanied by the enthitic music as his catharsis occurs, the music rises to a higher pitch as this happens connoting coruption, causing the audiences heart to tense up becoming a little more breathless thus adding to the dramatic element of the trailer.
- Police sirens sound as a voiceover 2 a shot of a black child behind a fence and over the shoulder shot of the male cp this juxtaposition of the 2 characters helps to identify their similarities as theyre both affectd by the events to come, prophetic fallacy is used (dull weather) to further anchor the devastation future events will bring, the audience will therefore empathise with the characters as they started off with mundane everyday tasksthat are easily relatable, the audience therefore feels they can put themselves in their shoes anchord by the otss feel what they feel.
- The musci then statrs to sspeed up a s the worried male cp frantically call his gf repeatedly, this si mirroring is heartbeat, followed by a montage of quick cuts accompanied by the audia of a loud radio helping to symbolise the chaos in the world outside his house, the shots are of cars crashin people running connoites action genre dark colours eg denotation the black car crashes these dull colours were purposley chosen to signify some sort of coruptive event agin anchored by police (an authority figure) behind masks this signifys the peolpe in charge have something to hide.
- title sequences of ratings and awards the fil reiceved pop up in and amongst the shots, white text on a black backgrounds been chosen to make it fit i with the film serious staements as if news staories connotes a social realist drama.
- The male cp argues with the police connoting his frustration as hes made to return home by the black police officer.
- The shots of awards and ratings become shorter with fwer and shorter words as the shots become more quick cut when he returns home symbolising his brain how his thoughts and emotions are all over the place hes in dispair.THe radio audio returns anchoring the genre of social realist drama/action, the music accentuates at the news reports at words like toxins as it flashs to a clip of outside the house, the reprots confirm some of his fears shown through him ;the alpha male' breaking down in tears hinting at slight romance genre that he really loves the woman cp.
- awards and ratngs show for abouts the 3rd time ensuring the audience this is a good ilm go and see it at the cinema or on DVD as it has so many recommendations and made other reliable films.
- The male cp has fianlly broken down after being ordered back to his house and crying hes no longer a manly man a seals his house to literally protect him physically and symboliacally protect him emotionally for the worst. Her voicemail is heard over the top of the music as he fears her daeth.
- He pleads with the police 'whats the big secret?!' as their giving oreders without known reason this is a prophetic warning implying theres more to it quick shots show public being pushed into vans, and of the female cp looking scared hiding connotets a twist as the prefered reading was that she was dead signifying a more sinister plot.
- Ends with police orders to stay away from outside as the title is zoomed into, in yellow text on black is an intertextual link from everyday road signs, which are easily recognisable to the audience.
- Establishing wide shot high angle of location including Alfred Hitchcock accompanied by playful, bouncy, happy go lucky music, white text appears introducing AH and why hes in the trailer, then the titleappers in a different style of white text its bigger and has been cracked in half this connotes ideas of horror/thriller which doesnt realluy fit in with the preferd reading of the music and scene so far, an educated reading may be that its a happy atmosphere now to make a bigger impact when its not going to be in the rest of the film, meaning its a polysemic text.
- AH describes the scene behind him of an ordinary hotel but end s with 'thats now been known as the scene of a crime', the musics tone is lowerd to a more sinister sounds connnoting horror these are all prophetic warnings for what the films really about.
- The camera then zooms and pans across and down to a low angle following AH whos now stood in nfront of a huge old scary looking house juxtaposed to the before cute motel, which is nirrored in the music change. This shocks the audience as its such a binary opposition to the motel further anchored by the sound, this keeps the audience gripped as the plot is no longer predictable. AH confirms this by saying the house is 'a little more sinister looking, less innocent then the motel itself'.
- AH mentions when one of the character is first seen and the music accentuates the words implying this character is very important maybe a cp, the music returns to its happy self as AH walks off to the house.
- The next scene is in the dark house where AH stands at the bottom of the stairs vividly descibing a murder accentuating actions with hand movments which adds to the drama, stood behind him is a statue of a baby cupid.
- AH then walking up the satirs is faded into the next scene of him at the top continuing his story in which narrative enigmas are created as AH repeatedly doesnt finish detrimental sentences to the plot always leaving them as cliffhangers leaves the audience in suspence throughout the trailer, never really finding out the truth. egAH talks about how weird the woman was, 'she was the weirdest and the most...well lets go' he tries to brush it off.
- When in side the room the way he talks about her is juxtaposed to the way before commenting on her tidyness and how glamourous she was, this choping and changing of describing nicely complimenting and vivid descriptions of horrific murders is mirrored in the music which chages back and fore to the the same happy go lucky music and the sinister eary music almost like the mood of a person with a mental illness eg bipolar.
- AH shows the imprint of the womans body on the bed where she lay is still there implying she'll never really be gone, AH looks in the wardrobe and suspiciously back at the camera implying theres something not right but says nothing more about it.
- By the bed is a statue of a woman which connects to the child version downstairs implying something has grown or changed in somway upon entering the room.
- The music gets louder and quieter as the scenes fade in and out, AH walks out back to the motel to the sons room, the audience feels sympathy for the boy as AH implys the boys was emotionally forced to do somthing he doesnt want to as a result of a woman.
- Ah describes the boys room in the hotel as a hideawy which connotes a criminal act is associated with it, the boys hobby is taxidermy which is quite creepy a little sinister gives possible conotations of death murder and torture, this is accompanied by splitting high pitch music anchoring the creepy coruptive feel of the setting.
- AH is getting more and secretive in what hes saying things dont quite make sense moving about from different subjects makes the audience feel uncomfortable from taxidermy, to supper. to a significant picture this mysterious device builds tension.
- AH draws special attention to the to a certain bathroom in the motel despite ignoring the bathroom in the house, the music stops suddenly, and the sound of the door opening and light being switched on is accentuated.
- Inside the bathroom its clean looking and white possibly symbolising purity of the woman staying in the motel as oppose to the dark ndingy house and boys hideaway.
- When AH is in the bathroom he anchors the 2nd reading in this polysemic text of the horror genre by being more blunt then before in saying 'you should have seen the blood' giving connotations of death. AH points to a 'clue' down the toilet which connotes theres a twist to the film a mystery for the audience to unwravel.
- The music getting higher causing the audiences chest to tighten with anxiety starts again building up tension as AH talks about murder says 'and..oh..' AH reaches out slowly opens the shower curtains to find a screaming woman in the shower accompanied by high pitch screechy stabbing motion music(this is the most famous scene of the film). The title appears over the woman in big thick white text which appears to visualy crack at the sound of her screaming possibly an intertextual reference to AH describing how the murder victims back cracked as it hit the floor., the screen then fades out to black, the musics still playing and emphacesesmurder and tragedy now low pitch while white writting appears on the black background.
- the trailer starts off with a rhythm of breathing sounds along with tingly high pitched music possible intertextual link from 'The twilight zone'. Counts through 13 main scenes inbetween each is a deep male voiceover counting with a black title screen with red text which is a common convention of horror, each of the scenes gets more scary keeping the audience in suspense.
- The victims in this are always white teenagers except 1 and mostly sexually active and practically always female which is another common convention of the horror genre.
- The closer to home a horror the more believable and life like it is makes it more terrifying for the audience as their then able to relate to the characters more easily, this is shown by putting the characters in recognisable locations such as summer camp and the fact that all the victims seem to know thier killer puts the audience more on edge as the killers face is never actually seen by the camera, the cameras used as the eyes of the killer, making the camera quite jumpy, which is another coimmon convetion of this sort of teen horror.
- This is all accompanied by screechy stabbing music accentuating violent actions, probably an intertextual link from 'Psycho'.
- The trailer ends with a shot of a female blonde teenager, the denotation of her unbuttoned shirt connotes that shes sexually active which is a sin outside of marriage so will therefore be a victim in the film also shown through her screaming and stereotypical blonde hair typical of a 'scream queen' in a horror film. A low male voiceover which has been counting to 13 throughout the trailer, the voiceover then introduces the title of the film and adds an ironic play on words creepy comment of 'you may only see it once but that will be enough' ie it literally means seeing the film once will be enough but symbolically means seeing the day and living through 1 will be enough. The scene then fades to black the screams fade out as the 'Psycho-esq' music continues to get louder, chaperoned by the visual effect of smashing glass as if t smash the tv screen, connoting the films power and realativity to modern day.
- The denotation of the pinks creditsconnotes that the films is aimed at a prodominantly female audience this is futher anchored by the production logos being changed to fit in with the 'chick flick' genre accompanied by girly bubbly music partly from the tv show that the film follows on from.
- American female voiceover starts almost telling a summary story of whats on screen which links into the book. The shots start with an establishing birds eye view shot of New York at night implys that the film had a high budget, New York is also typically female ie shops, restraunts and romance.
- The voiceover talks about change then speeds up as do the cars which links to the narrative. Sillouette of 4 main characters produces narrative enigma as havnt their faces yet, women linking arms in fashionable clothing connotes femanine themes such as freindship and fashion drawing up similarities between the 4 of them.
- A close -up of the Sarah Jessica Parker dressed up signifys that shes is the central protagonist and also the voiceover voice its also a visual bridge to a wedding dresssignifys romance further anchored by SJP comically saying 'hello lover'.
- 2shot of friends watching SJP connotes her glamour and thier less importance, a binary opposition of the ginger haired friend is used as t ginger haired people are stereotypiaclly represented as geeks in the media usually but here shes fashionable with a good group of friends.
- A pun shows up on screen in pink glittery text saying 'get carried away' which is a play on SJP's character name 'Carrie Bradshaw'.
- A panning shot of the appartment with SJP in her walk in wardrobe connotes wealth and success, the denotation of her wearing just wearing black underwear connotes that shes sexually active and femanine and the more masculine red shirt connotes romance, being a shirt which is more masculine implys she has a boyfriend.
- Mirandas in a bold red lowcut dress mirrors her character in that she sleeps around especially with younger men which is signifyed by the style and bright colour of the dress.
- SJP is in a suit despite all the other women in dresses connotes that its still a mans world and shes the most successful therefore in more masculine clothing. Shes also seen kissing a key male character which signifys romance helping to anchor the genre of chick flick and that hes the 1 shes marrying.
- Linear editing has been used all the way through this trailer to maintain continuity.
- The trailers coming to an end so the TV shows theme music from the beginiing that the film follows on from starts up again indicating to the audience its near the end.
- The title of the film then shows up in pink sparkly writing appealing both to women and the pinkj pound looking like a fun film. Followed by sparkly pink information saying 'Only in theatres' implying it a teaser trailer.
Butterfly Effect (Ashton Kutcher=AK)
Tagline: 'Change one thing. Change another'
- The denotaion of the sans serif white text on a black background connote that the film may be a horror/thriller, a deep mature authorative american male voiceover comes on.
- 2 central protagonists in a medium close-up mid-2 shot walking together at night satright away they're talking, theres a blue tint over them further anchoring thriller/horror genre, the male actor is well known (Aston Kutcher) which informs the audience they can relay on the film being good. AK talks about past blackouts and flashbacks of the past. Romance between the couple is established as scenes of them together are shown as they grew up and became romantically involved with eachother further shown when he wakes up in her bed.
- The next several scenes are quick cut which aooeals to a younger audience, this montage of quick cuts flashs from an ambulance to a slow pan of a grave yard in order to highlight its significance.
- Theres then a slight pattern of 'short take, long take', special effects are used to mirror AK's mind, which are quite abstarct indicating a more supernatural theme which wil appeal further to a younger audience, it also signifies the science-fiction genre therefore pointing to a high budget spent on the film. Hes shown hospital scans to blame the flashbacks on this creates versimilartude making this typically science-fiction theme more beliveable and realistic to the audience.
- The music changes to more mainstream teen soft rock sung by a male, which additionally reaches out to the teen/youth audience.
- A binary opposition is created when a shot of the feamle cp is juxtaposed from a shot of her in dull cloths in a dingy flat to the pink femanine girly girl she was ear;ier on in her inocent white bed. The editing is eliptical as time is lost between the shots.
- The fact that the shots are going back and fore to childhood and adulthood intercut connotes that the past and present day are interlinked.
- 2 celebrity names show up which are main actors in the film helps to ensure the audience that it will be a good film. An explosion implys shows the film makers had a high budget furhter. Blue tint is again used to subconciously indicate to the audience the trailers about to end as it started with blue tint and also to further anchor the genre, bright white light is used to signify death and closure.
- The trailer ends on the website name for the film and details of release dates.
Halloween 1978
- Blue tint is used to connote to the audience the genre of the film which is horror this is anchored by the non-digetic high pitched eary single toned music creating suspense for the audience as a pumpkin lantern and a deep male voicover is used to give the trailer some versimilartude by talking about halloween as well as signifying the film is a horror.
- lower menacing non-digetic music is accompanied by the digetic stabbing sounds and scream of a murderer in a mask and victim providing further anchorage to the genre.
- The yellow tint over these masked scenes is a strong juxtaposition to the earlia blue tint emphacising the shock realisation of the event being shown.
- The mise-en-scene is partially covered by the outlines of a sharp mask giving a narrative enigma to who the victim and murderer actually are until the murderer is shockingly revealed to be a young boy in fancy dress causing the audience to feel as more versimilarutde is created as many young children dress up for fun at halloween every year but bot to kill.
- The young boy is holding a huge knife as his murder weapon empahciseing his young age as hes still so small in comparioson to the phalic shaped weapon signifying corruption or a possible motive linked to the movie where his sister is sexually active with her boyfriend.
- The digetic sound turns to a single realisation tone as the title 'Halloween' emerges like light juxtaposed to the black screen, the text also has a slight serfi style alongside a pumpkin both of which anchor the preffered reading of a horror film.
- Versimilartude is then created by a psychologist giving background to this linear text, making the untypical incident of a child murderer more belivable.
- Half of the psychologists face is lit in normal light to signify the yaers he tried to help the boy and the other half is in the dark with a blue tint over it to signify the years her tried to keep the man locked up.
- This swiths to a shot to demonstarte his evil as the murderer (Michael) is lighten up by red light as he attacks a feamle nurse, a nurse is chosen to emphacise his evil as nurses as stareotypically seen as good dressed in white helping people.
- The digetic music emphacises Michaels actions which helps to shock the audience more effectivly than if just animation.
- A number of shots are shown to establish the narrative, and evidence of the menatl patients metal behaviour also making use of bothe red and blue tint both of which are common conventions used in horror films, both these factors help to anchor the genre furthur.
- Prophetic fallacy of stormy weather is used to set the mood.
- These are all juxtaposed to the scenes creating versimilatude of the three female central protagonists walking down the pavement on a bright summers day, so far this is a linear narrative.
- The music picks up again to its trademark tune as the final girl looks confusingly down the street, the title is then shown in orange to match the scary faced lit pumpkin, title sequence
- A slow montage of killing shots are then shown to build tension as he stalks his final victim the final girl whos screaming for help, which adds drama to the sequence, the audience is meant to feel empathy for her and scared of the killer emerging from darkness in thier own house.
- The trailer ends on the earlier totle sequence, but this time including the film company name in the same text.
- Comedic voiceover starts accompanied by 80's style music, a thunder sound is used to emphacise the title and help point out the genre of horror to the audience.
- The style of the blueish purple textlooks as though its written in dripping blood, both a male and female teenager and surrounded by a dark background accompanied by low sinister music, the words used 'bloody battle for survival' connote the genre of haorror.
- A voiceover uses irony by sayong 'dying to have fun'iconogarphy of alcohol connotes typical mischievous teens as they're drinking underage which is a common convention of horror films, the voiceover sounds like a stereotypical ghost train voice, this montage of happy teens carries on intercut with scenes of murders popping up. This trailer used linear editing in order to maintain continuity.
Director: Jim Gillespie
Written by: novel- Lois Duncan, screenplay- Kevin Williamson
Tagline: 'Hes got a hook on them...'
- Starts with scary tingly sounding music accompanies an establishing shot of group of 4 caucasion teens on a beach at night, blue tints used as a common convention to connote horror possibly intertextualy linked to 'Halloween', they're sat around a campfire debating over a story of murder they'd heard fading in and out of white implies flashbacks ie storytelling is significant to the rest of the film.
- Music changes like a puch along with the screen to a title sequence saying' From the creators of scream' which gives the audeince a film to put the advertising 1 on a par with and to help anchor the horror/thriller genre, the text is red and animated to come out of the background as if risen from the dead.
- 90's party music satrts to play as the teens are drinking alcohol in the speeding car which becomes out of control, the alpha male screams and the car screechs and crashes the scene fades out to black which implys a negative outcome of the crash.
- They teens then discover they've killed someone, they all agree to throw the body in the water and keep the manslaughter between them, ablue tints shon over this scene connoting horror as they state an ironic coment of we'll take this to our grave' which is kind of a ironic prophetic warning, the shot then fades to black with the splash of the dead body.
Shot of sea at night with blue tint juxtaposed to a shot of the sea in the day with orange light, now with happier music establishes how the 4 characters feel about the murder eg brunette woman feels guilty, blond man is acting cocky despite happy wealthy life the majority of characters felt bad.
- Brunettes females mum can see somthings wrong but she keeps it bottled up recieves letter saying the film title 'I know what you did last summer' which connote the twist in the film. Each of the teens recieve signs that someone else knows what they did.
- They meet to talk on a sunny day at a house by the beach, the sea is therefore in hte background symbolising the incident is always in the back of their minds which is juxtaposed to them arguing about it after the shot faded to blacksignifying time had past.
- Shot beach at night with blue tint with man running after woman, the music speeds up to a memorable happy teen song. A black figure with a hook keeps appearing running in the dark connoting someones back to avenge the death of the man they'd killed, a shower scene of a female is shown which is an intertextual link to 'psycho'.
- Brunette female the stereotypical final girl screams, the blonde female the stereotypical scream queen jumped out the window all physically and emothionally running.
- The title sequence popped up in and amongst shot sound of which emphacised the action of the text which builds tension.
- Quick shots and close-ups of CP's scared and screaming, title then read out in deep mature male voice, last shot ends with blonde female being startled connoting to other minor character and the audience she has something to hide.
I know what you did last summer (teaser trailer)
The first third of the teaser trailer is pure establishment of a happy teenager, using the technology of a laptop attracts the attetion of a youth audience, as they may think if the products in the film are that good the film will be too, the digetic cound is loud and happyfor the first third however everything stops when the girls receives a letter , the non-digetic music connotes shes scared which is anchored by the mid close-up of her facial expression. But once the letter is open she relaxs, which is juxtaposed to the voicover which is still talking a a deep horror voice, howevr this makes the audience wonder what does she have to hide, the false sense of security is finally shattered as her face connotes shes scared upst about reding an email, further anchored by the voicover description.
All of a sudden red serif text is appearing between a fast montage of violent clips and appears to be ripped everytime by a hook, which is emphacised by the sound effects, screams are also added for further dramatisation and anchorage. The film ends with the red text rising from a red background to signify the dead rising and the knowledge of the girls secret thats now known, this attracts the audience in further as they're left on a cliffhanger , wondering what did that innocent looking brunnete girl do? The audience will feel a little uneasy after seeing the perspective jump bak and for
An american warewolf in London (teaser trailer 1:10mins)
- starts with barely any sound apart from crickets keeping the audience in suspense as the camera tilts up from the ground to a full moon with a blue tint over the scene and blck outline of trees in the background in dicating typical location of a horror film-forest with blue tint intertextually used from halloween. A visual bridge fades into the scene of the water again but with the reflection of the light blue moon in the black water very quiet eary music possibly a flute with wind sound effects is starting also typical of a horror film also connote danger. A red liquid starts to pour down the stream towards the moons reflaction, the denotation of the red liquid is blood and signifys corruption and danger to the pure now white moon reflection as the blood envelops it the music gets louder and more eary at a higher pitch causing the audience to tense up, the shape of the blood almost takes on the shape of a wolfs head which is a prophetic warning of whats to come, finally a wolfs paw punchs into the stream of blood shocking the audience as it roars with blood spalshing out and the frames caught into a still the genre of horror has now been confirmed to the audience, the title of the film then appears over the still in white sans serif capital text which stands out on the bright red blood and the rugged dark brown leg. so that the audience make a mental note of it. The music fades out the scren fades to black and a recomendation in red appears 'from the directors of 'Animal House'..... a deifferent kind of animal making the audience feel uneasy.
An american warewolf in london trailer (1:07)
- voiceover of the an mature northern man warns the young american travellers to keep off the moors and stick to the roads acompanied by a well known song 'blue moon' which is ironicly significant to the film the myth of the warewolf is that a man turns into a warewolf when theres a full moon.
- A sense of comedy and lightheartedness is established as a result of the traveler in the green coats odd comments you have lovely sheep' and 'Northern England first Italy later. These comments eventually get him into trouble rubbing the locals up the wrong way as punishment the locals dont retrieve them when they hear the warewolf howling, a reference to religion is made 'its in gods hands now' which connotes death as the 2 travelers start on the blue tinted dark moor, eventually the traveler in the green coat is attacked by the warewolf he screams and shouts as the warewolf growls attcking him the scene fades to a shot of the moors in daytime stiil acompanied by the sound of the attack, the title appears in large white sans serif text further anchoriing the genre of horror, this scene all looks very calm and countryside but the attacking sounds and word warewolf make it more sinister twist on things finally fading to black with the word repeated in the mature male northern voiceover from the begining 'stay on the roads, keep clear of the moors' as the attacking sound fades out and the slight sound of wind and thuder is brushed over the thick white text appearing saying 'coming soon'.
- The trailer shows that its a rom-com witha difference as the tables have turned as the male central protagonist belives in love but the female cntral protagonist doesnt, she is a binary opposition to typical females in rom-coms which entises the audoence to watch it as its not likely to be borringly predictable like her looks although attractive and white shes brunette with a fringe and is small chested juxtaposed to typical rom-coms where the female is more stereotypically asthetically pleasing. The comedy is anchored through comical speech and witty odd comments between the actors also through shots which challenge stereotypes such as the male central protagonist being sensitive and upset about a girl dumping him where as the female is quite morbid about it, and the romance is obvoiusly anchored through his quest to get her to believe in love by falling in love with him.
Inglorious Bastards (BP-Brad Pitt)
- The genre of this film is drama and war. The trailer starts with drum rhythmic music straight away into action with the genre of drama and war already established through iconography of war uniform and regime and the speech delivered by Brad Pitt whos porbably one of the main reasons the female audience will want to watch the film. Brad Pitt is then used as a visual voiceover throughout the trailer establishing what the films about, which is killing nazis, BP's soldiers all have black hair and tend to have longer noses which is a stereotypical representation of jews who will obviously take pleasure in killing geremans who are stereotypically blonde and blue eyed which is particuarly emphacised through a close up of a blonde blue eyed german on his knees with a baseball bat to his head.
- The characters are practaically all men signifying a patriarchal society mirrored through one of the only female characters running in fear however theres a binary opposition of a white blonde female shooting a German this woman is attarctive which appeals toa male audience but also a female audience as its not just another boring male war film also because of the drama which women generally like, the pink pound is also subtly tapped into by the amount of men seen and the fact that most are in uniform. The trailer summarise the film without giving too much away although staill embodies key scenes to interest the audience so that they really want to spend money and see the film.
- The music is prodomenantly rock music and i s used to emphacise the actions and violence used and the splats of blood which the white army text taglines appear in. Although blue tint is used to connote horror its still used in this trailer as they're talking about murder which is a common occurence in horror films hence the cross-over of convention.
- The trailer ends with a comical element of the character of Hitler shouting 'nein!' 4 times so that the film doesnt seem too depressing and violent however is still very much morbid, which was earlier anchored by the smile that grew across BP's main jewish soldier as he talked about killing Germans.
- This trailer is for a horror film which is shown by the creepy slow old mans voiceover talking about a haunted house, various ghosts and ghoulis popping up throughout the trailer scaring attacking and warning the male central protagonist of danger if he stays there.
- The trailer starts off with the burial of a coffin which instantly connotes death next hes warned about the house and then a montage of ghost and monster attack and scare him this like most horror films was probably low budget as the primary location is in a house, however there are a few special effects and computer animations at the begining and the end. This is furhter anchored by the screams heard at the begining of the trailer, also the music is quite eary and accentuates actions which make the audience jump as they're usually either scary unexpected or both these are both common convetions of horror films.
- The trailer creates versimilartude as his aunt has just died and hes living in her house this makes it more believeable that its haunted as one of the main ghosts is her and the fact that she jsut died, as well as external characters pre-warning the cp about it.
- Starts off with a slow montage of teenagers in their final year of high school, getting ready and going to the prom, the prom king and queen are announced and the soft rock non-digetic music stops instantly as the lights go out, everyone screams, from here is a fast monatage of girls being chased, attempted murder, a creepy whispering voice whos established by the police as an escaped mental patienet obsessed with the female stereotypically blonde caucasion central protagonist who unconvenytionally of horror films survives, the trailer ends on a cliffhanger of the mental patients calling and reaching out for her, a narative enigma is created.
Valentine trailer(central protagonist-CP)
- The trailer starts with the introduction of 4 female central protagonists who are good friends all trying to find the perfect man in time for valentines day.
- A voiceover with a deep male husky voice explains and shows various men on many dates accompanied by slow music.
- Theres an intertextual link to 'psycho' which is one of the clearer early signifyers of horror turning the preferred reading (chick flick/rom-com) to its educated reading of horror/thriller, also anchored by the music becoming more sinister sounding.
- The male CP is first introduced alongside the most stereotypical looking female CP, shes blonde caucasion which signifys purity the 'good girl' where as the male has dark hair and is in dark clothing signifying he may be a corruption to her.
- The dates the 4 women attend seem to get more serious becoming more sexually active which is a common convention of horror (women punished for being sex objects)
- Blune tint is used to connote horror over the female the blonde female with hair tyed up implying no-one is safe shes scared and shocked finally asking 'is someone there' which is an inevitable catalyst to horror action this speeds up a montage of the plot of a valentine revenge murder as the screen first fades to black the audiences fears are confirmed its a horror film when the voiceover says 'Its a nightmare' The music are then used to accentuate actions to scare the audience, for example the music increases to higher pitch as a quick close-up of the blonde being attacked is also emphacised by her scream, a close-up was used particuarly focusing on her eyes to signify the fear felt by the female CP.
- Slow menacing drum beating music is accompanied by the screaming whisper of a male making the audience feel uneasy as the 4 females open up traditional looking valentines cards and are attacked in various ways, lots of shouting and screaming is used to further anchor the genre, as chocolates filled with maggots in a red heart sheaped box is dropped to the floor, which connotes romance and horror intertwined, ie violent scenes based around sex.
- A large male black boot stamps on a red rose as he attacks a female, this is an ironic signifyer that romance is dead and corrupted.
- Another typical object found in a horror film is a phone the female CP tries to use it but its dead this is possibly an intertextual link to screama nd blue tint an intertextual link to 'Halloween' with the increase of violence comes the increase in porocative shots such as vest tops and the slowed down close-up of the busty brunettes body as shes pushed into the water in a black bikini.
- The rock music starts to fade as the eary sound gets louder along with the faint sound of a heartbeat, the quick cuts finich on the blonde female CP in a low cut blue vest top running, the word 'I'll put a spell on you are incidentalaly symbolic as the male CP has her fooled in beieveing him when hes the killer, the screen fades to black and the male CP is juxta posed to the killer in black on a res carpet holding the phalic violent object of a knife followed by the ironic iron, using both typically male and female objects shows hes clever and implys hes playing a game with the other characters.
- These violent hidden scenes are juxtaposed to the caucasion females innocently waving over at a creepy looking male giving the trailer a slight red herring so not to be too obvious of who the murderer is. A series of red herring males are then shown as the women try figuring out who the killer is intertwined with shots of half dressed females, the speech between the females links the male CP to the killings creating an argument the camera then pans across to the black figure whos face is ironically covered by a cherub mask with its nose bleeding, this connotes the murderer thrives on killing needs to do it so is a psychopath which helps to signify the genre also being a thriller.
- The trailer starts to end with the brunnette whos a binary opposition in the sense that shes most sexually active so will be punished the longest is screaming to get out of the jacuzi, the scene fades to black which connotes theres no hope for her.
- The title starts to appear 1 letter at a time like red beams of light with high pitched ear piercing music, the text is sans serif and turns to white like a white flame its more intense than the red, which links to the intensity felt by the audiences's hearts. The title is slowly zoomed into before being faded out to black all the time the heartbeat is still going as the trailer ends aon the shot of a young boy and girl holding hands and smaling at a school party, this shot fades to black with the realisation of a long drumbeat ending on the morbid tagline 'love hurts' in white text.
Valentine (teaser trailer)
Non-digetic creep low bass drum tune accompanies Warner Brothers red tibted logo, this is too establish the genre straight away as teaser trailers are short they must give lots of exposition.
The continuous creepy base tune pcks up with a high pitched sounded drum which helps to update the non-digetic music, to connote its a modern film, ths long opening company sequence takes up 25% of the time on the teaser trailer; is purposeful to increase tension among the audience so anything on the screen will be a shock.
The audience will be surprised to see women searching for men as the first slow opening montage, but this is just to lul them into a false sense of security, the first woman is wearing red which signifies both romance and blood, these women also all have cleavages meaning they'll be killed as its a horror film sexually active women get punished, the sexual activity is anchored by the grinding while dancing brunnete whos a binary opposition as stereotypically they're sensible final girls, however on this occation the convention has been challenged,inbetween this montage are words telling the audience about the release of the film in grey writting, the now calm creepy music is interupted by a loud sudden sound effect which is incidental with a word in red lettering joining the grey ones, it red to emphacise the word
even meaning its significant and because its red its furthre anchorage for a horror film.
The first woman now with her hair tied up reacts suddenly to it, this shot is in blue tint, which is another comon convention of horror films.
A new bright blonde character is then used in a snapshot as a hand in black leather gloves grabs her face, the is to dramatise the difference in colour of her pale pure skin to the dirty dark glove.
The music slowly starts to change and pick up including vocals which start screaming 'i love you' this connotes a an unhealthy obsession of somekind as a blonde woman drops a valentines chocolate box of magot infested chocolates, the non-digetic music pick up louder and faster and works along with the sound affects to emphacise the violent actions of the fast pace montage, of female victims.
The montage suddenly stops with a loudd slicing incidntal sound effect as the title slides together, the tagline then appears with another loud sound effect which keeps the tension in the audience high so they are more likley to think it is a great film.
The Unborn
- This trailer uses blue tint throughout to connote horror it also uses dull colours to signify sinister evil side of the story.
- Special effects make-up is used to convince the audience the child is dead.
- Versimilartude is created by the setting being in quite an ordinary day to day life location starting off babysitting which is a very mundane task, the female central protagonist going to hospital and medical proffesionals telling her she had a twin, its more believable as a trusted doctor told her, which makes the audience nervous thinking what if they had a twin.
- Intrtextual links are mad to 'The Exorcist' such as characters being taken over by dead people and climbing up and downsatirs up ad down with spinning heads
- The music and sound effects constantly accentuate actions and get louder when theres a shock on screen this makes the audience nervous and scared as they never quite know when they'll get a fright.
Frontiere(s)
- This trailer is filmed in a documentary style with jolty camerawork makes the audience feel as if they're really there. This trailers genre is crime horror thriller and drama.
- 2 thieves stay over night at a bed and breakfast where the hosts offer them a free room and sex.
- The camerawork is also blurry which could be argued as an intertextual link to 'white noise'.
- Like most of the film trailers ive analysed the title is white and red on a black screen, however this title appears like an explosive firework signifying explosives and violence, the letters also look as though they've been splattered with blood signifying horror along with a screeching noise which further anchors the horror genre.
- Shifts between typical blue tint and red lighting signify a gory horror.
- A visual bridge is made between the throwing of a bomb and the explosion of it.
- A white police car is een howver both the police officers and the criminals are in dark clothing this connotes that authority has been corrupted and they're now just as bad as the criminals.
- Yellow lighting also seems to be a typical convention of horror films as it contrats so well against blue tint creating a larger visual impact.
- Fast cars signify crime and action as they're driven the non-digetic music starts to speed up.
- The non-digetic music then fades to a more gentle lulabye, dark green night-time mode on the cameras low angle view of buildings helps to anchor the genre of crime and the time that they're traveling at night so are likely to be hiding/running away from something, a crying woman in the front seat further connotes unease that somethings not quite right, this is further anchored by the road signs being old dirty and battered, 2 of the male characters arrive at a bed and breakfast iin a small village saying to one another 'Perfect, we'll be fine here' which is a prophetic warning, meaning 'Sods law' will come into play.
- Skinny women are drinking and smoking inside the BnB they look unclean and have greasy hair this connotes possible drug addicts, they give evil looks to the criminals and offer them a free room and sex things seem to be too good to be true for the criminals meaning things will inevitably go wrong as this is a horror film.
- The music lowers its tone to a base guitar sound, flashing scenes of violence and sex are edited together in a montage of quick cuts, each using mainly blue or yellow tints which helps to highlight the contrast between the 2 themes of these shots.
- The montage seems to come to head when the blonde criminal has a gun being pointed to his head, this shot fades to a tagline sequence signifying the death of him that there's no hope. This is anchored by the tagline saying 'They found a place worse than hell' a black the digetic sound of a black crow is heard which is a traditional common convention of horror.
- After this the horror really starts with a montage of violence, blood and gore which is slow to start with but speeds up, these shots include black screens between the violent shots signifying the progression of time and also giving less of a view of a scene leaves more to the audiences imagination until faced by the terrifying truth such as a close-up of a dead man hanging like a piece of meat in the butchers behind a white sheet this signifys corruption as humans are given dignity in death by being buried not hung. A large bald unshaven man from th begining is reintroduced in a violent way as he sows up dead bodies, turns up the heat physically and metaphorically as hes taken murder to a whole new level by enjoying torture, he drags his victims along the floor theres then an even more controversial shot where blue tint is used as he punchs the woman from the car in the face resulting in blood spraying everywhere.
- A title sequence brags about how gory and digusting the film is to try and entise the audience to see it as its an all out horror film, stereotypically french violin music is played.
- Lots of quickly cut shots are cut and edited into a fast pace montage of violence, close-ups of the victims faces are shown to connote the terror anger and emotional trauma they're experiencing the womans face is caked in mud signifying crime doesnt pay, prophetic fallacy is used to anchor emotions felt by the central protagonists, scenes of screaming cuting hair and gun fire connote they're so scared and beaten that they've been striped of their personal identity due to criem and violence. The seriousness of the topics seen in the trailer and raw emtion connotes also the genre of drama.
Dressed to kill.
Has very effective music and kept the audience in suspence.
Last house on the left
- Director: Wes Craven
- Release Date: 30th August 1972
- ' The events you are about to whitness are true-names and locations have been changedto protect those individuals still living' - could signify the genre of realsim as its talking about real events.
- Master establishing shots of lakes, woods, countryside- suggesting this is a key location as its the first thing the audience i shown.
- One of the main characters is shown, as he says his daughters name (mary) and her age 17, flashing shots of her.
- Red writing- signifying blood, death, the genre of horror/thriller.
- Father gives daughter a neclace and there is a close up zoom of the neclace- signifying its a key symbol in the film and the audience will probably see it again.
- two girls (main protagonists) running through a wood, by a river- signifying another key location.
- Close up zoom of the girls- as though someone is watching them.
- scene changes to the news- talking about some convicts- while the news reader is talking about them there are shots being shown of these convicts in their own house, getting dressed- one lady n the bath.
- one convict on the street- sees two girls loking for drugs so invites them in.
- lock girls in, sexual references throughout the film, guy rips girls shirt.
- shots going back to mary's parents getting ready for her birthday and then back to the two girls, this happens throughout the film- like a juxaposition.
- convict pulls knife out- signifying horror/thriller, death and blood and will show the audience that something bad is about to happen.
- take girls to a wood, the wood near mary's house as she sees her letter box- close up zoom of the letter box- suggesting its a significant symbol.
Welcome to the jungle
- Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
- Release Date: 15th April 2009
- Production company logos- showing audience who the production company is, encouraging audience to watch film.
- Boat with 4 people (friends) talkign about where they are going to visit, showing the sea and shots of the boat- giving audience sens of location which is important for a teaser trailer.
- Green, large font with black tints, looks unfinished- could signify the genre of horror/ thriller and adventure also links in with the name of the film, 'welcome to the jungle' and the colour green.
- Male and female getting into river girl says ' happy two weeks aniversary'- could signify that there is some romanace in the film so the film could be a hybrd genre.
- Doocumentary style film, characters looking straight into camera as though they know they are being film/watched.
- 'Discover the mystry'- also signifys the genre of adventure.
- Single beat music, zooming into the writing on the screen then fades out- could signify mystry and horror/thriller.
- POV shot of character looking at a book with a picture of a man, then all characters talk about him and what happened to him- signifying that he could play a vital part in the film.
- 1 blonde girl and 1 brunette girl, showing lots of bare skin- could suggest sexually available
- All characters walking- adventurous, fileds, jungles, rivers, middle of nowhere - giving the audience a sense of location.
- All friends arguing, leave one guy behind and take everything apart from a tent- suggests something bad could happen to him.
- On their adventure, see skulls, man saying ' your not going up there are you?'- suggesting that he knows what could happen to them, trying to stop them from going there and could tell the audience that something bad could happen to them on their travels.
- Shots of a tribe of people with knifes and sticks- suggesting violence and horror/thriller genre.
- Characters find a t-shirt with blood stains on it- signifying death.
- music gets faster as the editing gets faster too- typical editing for a teaser trailer.
- more POVs of the characters.
- 'Welcome to the jungle' film name is shown in the same green writing with black tints.
- Trailer ends with 'coming soon'
A Nightmare On Elm Street
- Director: Wes Craven
- Release Date: 16th November 1984
- 'New line cinema'- productions company logos, blue tinted lights- signifying horror/thriller, fades into black screen.
- Sont serif, red writing- signifying horror/thriller
- man running into abandond industrial property, man throwing fire bomb into the building, killing the other man- signifying horror/thriller and violence.
- 3 young girls in white dresses- signifying virginal, flashing images of these girls skipping and playing- showing their age.
- alot of artificial lighting, blue and yellow tints/lights- signifying horror/thriller.
- Close up of a girl who we assume is the main character, she talks about a man and as shes talking about him, he appears in the shot.
- The music is putting the audience in suspense which is soemthing else whch is typical for a horror/thriller film.
- see a sign for 'Elm Street'- giving the audience a sense of location.
- Children singing about man, typical song for a horror film, lots of candles- again artificial lighting.
- Low angle shot of two young blonde girls, trapped behind bars- could be significant. They cant move due to nale authority.
Hell Night
- Director: Tom Desimone
- Release Date: 28th August 1981
- shots of a girl screeming, location is a party, lots of friends having fun, drinking.
- soft rock music, fits in with genre and the characters as they are fairly young people.
- red writing, entering the screen liek a ghost- signifying blood and death.
- lots of long shots, panning across the house showing the audience whats happening.
- lots of shots of fires, could signify horror/thriller and death.
- shot of two characters (main protagonists)- males talking about another two characters ( also main protagonists) who have just entered the party.
- halloween night, as everyone is dressed up.
- Blonde female protagonist wearing red, strappy clothing- suggesting blood and that the girl is sexually available.
- The other female protagonist is wearing a red cape which is also signifying blood but she is covered up and has no bare skin like the other girl did.
- Male opening up big gate which is locked, locked for a reason? could suggest danger, that they shouldnt be going in there and could be suggesting to the audience that something bad is going to be happening.
