Trailer Conventions; Similar to our Horror film ideas.

WORLD WAR Z



Through analysing various Horror film Trailers, as a group, we felt that the 'World War Z' trailer possess similar conventions to which we want to emulate for our own product. First of all, similarly to our main group idea, the sub genre of this particular horror film is a Zombie Apocalypse. The main plot or synopsis of 'World war Z' starts with a miracle drug, again similar to our idea, that results in the battle and survival of what little humanity is left. The protagonist(s) is portrayed by the main character 'Gerry Lane' played by Brad Pitt fighting to save the world and more importantly the survival of his family through finding a cure.

The mood of the film shown by the trailer at first is quite calm and cheerful, shown by a family sat in their car playing a game. After this the cars wing mirror is knocked off the mood quickly changes and from then on the audience are on edge this is reinforced by a jump scare when the police officer on the motorcycle is hit full force by a lorry/van, as if to suggest the driver of the vehicle has lost control and then the chaos begins. For our Trailer for 'The Few' we want to create a similar effect, a normal and calm atmosphere mood at the beginning that builds up to the event that starts the horror, or in this case the zombie apocalypse

Through the planning of our own trailer, for background noise and music we wanted an electronic noise or beat of some sort that starts and gradually speeds up as the cross cuts become quicker and the trailer reaches its climax. The starting background music/noise in 'World War Z' is again very similar to the sort of thing we want to do, it builds the tension well and fits in well with the theme/genre, enhancing the sense of suspense and fear.


THE CRAZIES

   

Similarities within The Crazies regarding horror trailer conventions which we would like to use within our own trailer is first of all the narrative structure. The normal narrative structure proposed by Todorov, Equilibrium, dis-equilibrium followed by Equilibrium is the normal narrative structure for normal Hollywood films. However the narrative structure for horror films is usually the opposite where they can start and end with a disequilibrium. This is what we plan to do in our own product.

Similar to World War Z the very beginning of the trailer contains a very calm and relaxed atmosphere to begin with but increasingly becomes more and more thrilling as it contains more horror. Also The Crazies trailer contains a number of quick jump cuts, also something we plan to do in our own product as it creates tension and reveals action without spoiling too much of the film. 

THE WALKING DEAD

The Walking Dead had heavily inspired our horror film and trailer idea so we decided as a group it was suitable that we used one of the season trailers. We chose season 3 of all the trailers as we felt that this season in particular reflects more similarities in the stories narrative. As the two previous horror tailors contain characters that are mostly related and are families, The Walking Dead almost contains an entirely unrelated group of survivors with the exception of a few, much alike our own product. 

Watching the trailer we aim to recreate some of the shots that the trailer has used, as the action scenes containing the zombies are very similar to what we had initially planned. Looking through these trailers it was easy to spot a similarity between them all as they first begin very calm and eventually become more chaotic. Also the scenes of the environment around the characters are also a very similar attribute we want to bring to our horror trailer as it gives the audience a better understanding of the surroundings.