This is my own personal blog where i will keep up to date on what research i have done.
My research will be on film trailers, specifically horror as that is our genre, looking at what works in the horror film trailers for example in the best horror film trailers do you see the monster? What colours are used? Is the full terror shown in the trailer or is that hidden for the full length film?, deconstructions of other film trailers, music used, film shots which give the best feel to that specific scene.
First of all me and Lousie decided on the genre of our media trailer, automatically we both jumped at the chance to make a scary trailer. The first part of my reseach started then which was the research into the top 50 scary movies of all time which i collected off boston.com. The 50 films was the following:
50.Arachnophobia
49.The innocents
48.Book of shaows:Blair witch 2
47.Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory
46.The Wicker man
45.The Blob
44.Rosemary's Baby
43.The Brood
42.Event Horizon
41.Dawn of the dead
40.Eraserhead
39.Amityville horror
38.Pet Sematary
37.Open Water
36.Nightmare on Elm Street
35.The Fly
34.Salems Lot
33.Gates of Hell
32.Session 9
31.In the Mouth of Madness
30.Altered States
29.Mouthman Prophecies
28.The mist
27.Videodrome
26.Seven
25.War of the world
24.Saw
23.Janghuia, Hongryeon (a tale of two sisters)
22.The silence of the lambs
21.Texas chainsaw massacre
20.Hellraisers
19.The Changeling
18.28 days later
17.Pans Labyrinth
16.Jacobs Ladder
15.Jaws
14.The Exorcist
13.Quatermass and the Pit
12.Cloverfield
11.The Shining
10.Audition
9.Halloween
8.Evil Dead 2
7.Dawn of the Dead
6.Invasion of the Body Snatchers
5.Alien
4.The Ring
3.Rec
2.Ju-on
1.The Thing
Deconstruction of the top 5 trailers:
5.
At number 5 is Alien. When Alien first came out to the cinema it was labeled the scariest film of all time. At the time in which the film was made special effects like todays only existed in directors dreams. When i watched the trailer it was clear how this film was scary and still is. Ater watching the trailer a few times i have seen a few things which are very typical of a Alien film.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eIpvZsEky4
During the trailer there are 6 seperate diiferent moments when there is a fade to black transition and green text is displayed. The green text displayed on the screen is shortened quotes or tag lines which give the audeince more of a feel of the films narrative and add more suspence. At 1 minute and 7 seconds in the trailer the last of the 6 tag lines is shown and from then on the trailer then becomes a lot more fast pace and quickly edited compared to before the last tag line when the lines fitted with the pace slowing the pace of the trailer down.
The first shot is of a space craft in outer space which starts at 6 seconds and ends at 13. This shot is quite long for the first shot but it is a good way of establishing the where abouts of where the film is being set. The fact the spave craft is alone, rather large and not the stereotypical NASA spaceship shows that the film is set in the future.
The next sequence of shots after the spacecraft shown, consist of some more establishing shots of a building on anouther planet. This building is very much like the spacecraft already shown with the exact same bluey/grey colour and with the black surroundings. The transition used to go from the shot of the space building to the next is very much like a television loosing it's signal in which the screem becomes black and white with the flickering effect. The shot this transition then becomes is of people in what look like space suits but not the stereotypical white type.
These new shots of the building and of the people ar very quick each one ending with the television like transition. The very last quick shot in this first quickly edited compostion is of a man in a control room in the space building pressing buttons above his head.
The room in which he is in, is dark and you just see the person as more of a shaddow in all black then in normal daylight colours.The transition after the person being shown is a fade to black, which to me always gives the sense of something is coming to an end, straight after there is a tag line which reads 'return to the place' which means that maybe whats just been shown has happened in the past however straight after this tag line fades to black a shot of the spacecraft landing appears and then gives the audience that maybe they are now going back to this place now. This then also leads onto a sequence of fast edited shots of the same group of spacemen and the same television effect is used as the transition. The television loosing signal effect gives the impression that something bad may happen and they will loose their comunications just like the television.The tag line which then appears after this short sequence reads 'where no one can hear you scream'.This is creating a build up from the start where there was really no real fear or excitement being shown to the audience. Following on from the tag line there are 3 same length shots ending with a fade to black. After the third fade to black comes a longer shot of an egg type object openning with a single spaceman looking in. The the fast edited seqence we have had thew colour blue added which gives a calming feel to the situation, but the colours blue and green are quite commonly used within alien/space films. For anouther example of this Paranormal Activity used blue regulary at night time when the creature comes out to tourment.
The following tag line is a statement that this film is THE scariest movie ever made, again all the text that has been shown so far has been in green with a blur around the edge.
The next shot is of a persons finger tips, dirty and shaking placed on a ledge as if the person is hanging off something. The person then comes into shot as they have within a few seconds pulled themselves up so there face is in a close up shot. It is just that persons eyes and hair which come into shot, this gives the imeadeate feel that the person is hiding but from what? Again the colour blue is in the back ground before the persons head appears. After this shot again comes anouther text shot which is only shown for a very short time because straight after comes a shot of the same person from the finger tip shot, who is now backing them selves up into a wall giving the effect that they are still trying to distance themselves from something. The effect of the flashing lights over the shot also gives a second effect of that something is not right and ergency. The sound effects at this moment are of a siren or warning noise, this shot goes straight into anouther tag line which then fades to show the third shot of the same woman who is in the spaceman outfit. The shot is of her from the left side and slightly higher than herself. The shot shows the woman (Sigourney Weaver) turning around in the suit but the suit staying stationary and just her moving inside giving the impression again that she is hiding and trapped. Other key features which also give the impression she is hiding and scared is the fact she is low down in the suit and her mouth is mostly covered by the helment of the suit, the fact she is also shaking and still at this moment in the trailer no music has been used just the sound effects and the womans heavy breathing when she starts to appear in shots. Anouther feature of this trailer is that the heavy breathing carries on to be heard when the text appears on screan. The heavy breathing is used as not only a diagetic sound but also a non-diagetic. As soon as the woman has fully turned around in the suit, there is a quick edit straight to the alien behind her. You only see the alien for a split second before there is anouther quick edit after the womans scream to the point of view running shot, this gives the audience the effect they themselves are in fact trying to run away from the alien. After a small point of view shot it changes to a medium shot of the woman herself running down the same corridor. From this moment on the shots become fast and quickly paced unlike the ones in the earlier parts of the trailer. With the warning noise and the flashing lights and the darkness of the spacecraft it is difficult to see the aliens yourself. The quick shots which now follow are of snip-its from the film which set the scene for example there is a small shot of a liquid pouring on the floor, its bright yellow and starts to errode the floor.
After the woman screams and the quick shots follow there is a brilliant synchronization of the warning alarm to the lights flashing. In the fast section there are a few shots of the aliens where you don't see the full alien itself just sections of the alien which allow the audience to realise that these things are not human, however towards the end of the fast edited section more of the alien is shown right up to the end when there are two main shots of the alien in full. There are many reaction shots shown to show the audience the effect that whatever it is is having on people. After many a fast paced shots the title of ALIEN fades in with the contrast of the green which matches the tag lines that have been showing through out the trailer. The title ALIEN is in bold, white text making it stand out and be more eye catching on the plain black back ground. Straight after the title where it fades to black, there is a small scene where the woman is fixing something on the ship and after a couple of senconds an alien's arm falls which gives the audience their final shock of the whole trailer. The title on the trailer is normally when the climax of the trailer happens, this is the case in the Alien trailer but it is unusual in the fact there is a small scene afterwards. This could also come across as a trick as in the audience should never think it's over.
Alien Film Poster:
Of course in true horror,monster and alien film style the back ground of the Aliens poster is plain black to re-enforce what is actually on the poster itself. Just like the trailer, the text and colour in which Alien the title is written in is kept the same which adds anouther feature that a person looking would remember to associate with the trailer or vice versa. The only other text on the poster along with the title is tag line of 'in space no one can hear you scream'. This one sentence gives anyone who has not yet seen the trailer the knowledge that the film is in space and the fact that they have used 'scream' lets them also know that the film is in fact a horror due to the use of the word scream. Both Pieces of text are in the same font and colour but the tag line is alot smaller drawing the audiences attention to the main picture in the middle of the poster. The main image in the poster is of what the audience (myself) would percive as some type of alien egg or planet. The fact in which the egg or planet objust is slightly cracked and openning gives the impression that something is insideabout to come out, something bad is about to happen.The openning of the object on the crack is a very floresent green colour which is keeping the same with the green and black colour scheme but is more eye catching and noticable due to the large contrast to the other colours of greens used.
The bright green colour coming out of the egg is given the effect to look almost like a fluid leaking out of the egg object. The more the fluid has escaped from the egg at the main crack the more the green changes colour to be the same colour as the green used in the rest of the poster.The set out which has been used,gives a kind of triangle effect which draws the audiences eyes down making them look at the whole poster in sections instead of as a whole.
At the bottom of the page is what looks like a covering of some sort, from my point of view it looks like humans all in rows linking arms. Most of the bottom feature image is in shaddow, leaving the audience to not fully see what is happening. As the bottom picture carrys on to the background of the poster as perspective makes the flooring/humans linked look like they are getting smaller the further back it goes. Not only is the unknown image on the bottom getting smaller it's also getting darker, more and more in shaddow until you can not see where it goes.Just where the unknown covering ends is where there looks to be a sort of green sun rising up. The sun like object is the same colour as the liquid seaping out of the egg. The sun as a whole object in any text is the symbol of a new start, something is about to start, a new day or simply a new begining.
At the bottom of the poster is the common grey box used to give the films details in small print as such. The information includes the likes of who is acting in the film and who directed the film. An example of that of the film 'Alien' is Sigourney Weaver:
 | |||
| Sigourney Weaver |
How The Poster Helps The trailer:
This poster has used a few silmular features from the trailer which ensure any one who had watched the trailer would know that this poster was for the same film. For an example the Title of the film 'Alien'. Even though the title is not that unique on it's own the way in which it has been written and what text style and colour is what makes it different and allows the audience to remember and associate it with the trailer.
Anouther simularity is the colour scheme. The black and green is the same colours and shades as the trailer which adds anouther link from trailer to poster and vice versa.
4.
The ring.
When 'The ring' came to cinemas in 2002 it was a real shock at just how good horror films had become. The trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjayLABf60I&NR=1
The pace of the film trailer starts off slowly, in fact slower than most film trailers. Unlike most horror film trailers which quickly raise the tension, pace and have a long quickly edited sections at the end, the trailer for 'the ring' gradually gets a faster pace and has a normal length peak point where the suspension is at it's highest and the editing is at it's quickest. These are the sections in the trailer where the audience makes their decision on whether or not the go and watch the film or not.
When the trailer becomes a faster pace the music at that moment changes. There is a scene where the phone rings and the woman answers and at that moment where she answers the calming slower paced music stops and quickly swaps to more 'up beat' music which sounds almost gospel with men singing.
The fact the music has changed to a more 'up beat' pace allows the audience to feel the rush and urgency of what is happening in front of them. They feel part of what is unfolding and this is when the become part of the the film. When the music changes, the music it changes to is almost gospel with men singing faintly in the background. Not only are there men in the song, but there is also loud chiming/banging noises like a bell ringing perhaps. This convention of chiming in the music adds anouther sence of panic and that the person in the shot maybe doesn't have long to live and the sort of singing which is also in the music is like that of a religious kind. There are a lot of conotations of the type of music playing over the trailer for example religious, church and death. There is also an extremely significant noise everytime the ring is shown in the screen flickering, aswell as this, when the music changes a constant ticking noise starts and stops from then on in sections through-out the trailer.
The colours of the trailer for 'the ring' are very much grey. There ars significant objects through-out the trailer which are grey for example the umbrella and the telephone. They grey scheme starts when there is a section towards the begining of the trailer where the black and white tv screen is shown with static.
In the section in which there is black and white television static, there is a short shot of a woman brushing her hair in a mirror. This shot has a slight sepia effect over it which gives an immediate aged look or a flashback/dream feel. There are several points where the intensity is shown through one close up shot following a zoom onto on certain object. On most occasions this happens when the phone rings. once these two things have happened together once or twice the audience then start to associate the phone ringing with some sort or suspence or tension which mean on the other points where the phone rings the zoom in is no longer needed.
There is a lot of repetition through out the trailer. An example of this is where several people say the same line from the film 'before you die you see the ring'. The repetition of this give the audience the sence that this maybe important and this may be of some significance. There is anouther point where a teacher says that she is worried about the drawings by a boy who is a pupil in her class. The boys drawings are mostly of objects and shots which flash up on the screen quickly. Some of his pictures are of horse's, a well, dead people and rings. The repetition of the quote about 'before you die you see the ring' also is shown with several shots of a white ring with black all around. This is quite a significant part to the narrative but something i have also seen is that a television tape is also i large part. The rings on the tapes are some what simular to those that the boy had drawn images of.
Through out the whole of the trailer there is a lot of voice over used to tell the narrative (story line). The film as a whole for those who have watched it can be quite confusing so maybe this is a good idea to give a simplistic version of the narrative in the trailer. The use of voice over has completely cancelled the use of text on screen which can sometimes be alot easier as you can say a lot more to an audience through the use of voice overs (tone of voice, accent, speed) rather than using text which can look out of place and too bulky. The use of a voice over also keeps the pace of the trailer consistant and can be used to add more emotion or speed the pace up. A lot of the voice over is diagetic but some lines for example the repetition on the line of seeing the ring is also none diagetic. The first speach in the trailer is a short speach which is a simple setting of the narrative. The speach explains the basis of the tape.
Through out the whole of the trailer there is a theme of time. With the phone call which explains you have 7 days left to live, to the ticking of a clock and the shots of the woman brushing her hair in the mirror which gives an aged feel with the sepia effect.
All the conventions used in the trailer are those typical of a horror film trailer. There is one main difference that there is no blood shown in the trailer, this convention not being there shows the audience that this film isn't going to be the normal gory horror, blood and guts film. There is conections with the ring to many objects through out the trailer for example eyes. There is the strongest conection with eyes and then this is filtered out to such things as horse's eyes and wells. When the ring is shown and the outside circle is white with a black middle the way it looks is slightly like a total eclipse. Total eclipses are very rare and can hurt your eyes if you look at them so this could give a conotation that something may seem innocent but is harmful at the same time.
The ring Film Poster:
This is the poster for the film 'The Ring'. This poster is simple and is very effective in the fact it works well for being associated with the trailer.
The repeated line through-out the trailer is featured on the poster witch is an automatic link between the two. The main images of the ring is centered which draws your eyes staright to it.The colour scheme of the poster is just plain black and white which is yet anouther simple but effecting link to the trailer.
On the poster is the first time you see how the title is set out and what it looks like properly compared to the couple of seconds you see the title on the screen for in the trailer. The poster is the exact same shot which is in the film making it an easy association between the two.
At the bottom again there is the coming soon line and the studios whomade the film.
3.
REC*
REC is a spanish horror film which came out in spain in november 2007. The film has been remade in 2008 practically shot for shot for American audiences and re-named.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAnbWCjmOkA
The trailer for this film is extremely simple and quick but is unbelieveably good for what it's trying to do (scare the audience) and of course make them want to see the film. The trailer in no way what so ever gives to much away and is filled with simple classic horror conventions which work so well. The trailer is only 1minute and 18 seconds long which is pretty short compared to others, but in no way does this trailer fall lower than any others.
The first section where two men come into a building sets the scene straight away. This is because as soon as you see someone in a uniform for example police or firemen, you know what their jobs are so automatically jump to conclusions. After the firemen have stood still for a few seconds looking around you hear one none-diagetic scream or shreak from something or someone. This automatically puts thoughts into the audience heads that the firemen are there to sort out a fire or save someone. This automatic conclusion is increased by the screaming of the child.
To end the first shot of seeing the men in sincronisity both men look up when the scream has been screamed, it is just a simple fade to black transition which ends the shot and takes the audience to the first sentence of text which is also setting the scene.
'Last year the spanish emergency services recieved over 23 million calls'
Without anyone talking already the audience know that this film is going to be set in spain and it's about the emergency services. We had already gathered that the men were firemen from their clothing which played a large part.
The trailer carries on contiune with the next shot being a hand-held shakey run up the stairs. Not much is shown apart from fire fighters helmets whilst running. Not yet thought has the audience heard anymore screams or even seen smoke to sujest they are where ever they are for a fire. The lighting is just plain artificial which is not too clear but give a dark and moderatly scary feel to the shots.
That running hot ends again with a fade to bad acompanied with a slight effect of electic failing with the static jumping across the screen.
The next text on the screen again gives a slightly more direct narrative getting closer and closer to what the audience want to know. It reads: 'The firemen of Barcelona attended to 15,003 incidents'. To the audience the numbers are getting smaller so it becomes a sort of count down getting closer to something which can link across to the footage in the trailer as the firemen are travelling around a building to find out exactly what is going on. Again the fade to black after to text on the screen fades straight to anouther shot of the firemen running up the stairs. It is the same type of movement as the first shots which seems to be hand held and jerky. This hand held jerking camera gives a great sence of panic especially in running shots.
The next fade to black leads to text on the screen again. This time there is no more than just a figure of fires there were out of the calls the Barcelona firemen recieved.
'Fires:4,171'
From this the audience now know the numbers are getting smaller but it hasn't finished its countdown and the firemen haven't founf out what is wrong. Through out the trailer the text it kept the same just simple plain white text on a black background, being shown inbetween the shots of the firemen. Straight after this fade to black then next action shot is an ariel view of the building which is of the stair case looking down. The audience can see the firemen running up the stairs due to there bulky clothing. The lighting is almost moonlit with the stairs in light but the railings in shaddow. Again like the pattern of the trailer so far there is a fade to black which links into the next text. The next text reads:
'Rescues:4,059'
Straight after this is a jump straight to the firemen now on the correct floor running along a corridoor. The whole time the hand help camera has been behind the 3 firemen, giving the effect you are one of them. There is still no smoke or any more screams just the natural noises of foot steps and breathing. At the end of this shot the firemen stop and one turns around. The shot ends there and fades straight into anouther text shot. Each text shot had the noise of an individual dialing tone which keeps the pace consistant and links the text to the shots. The text is about the phone calls the Spanish emergency services get. The next piece of text reads:
'other:6,768'
The next shot after the text again is a shot of the firemen this time walking into the camera. This gives the effect that you are not one of them at all that you are just in the way as the men in a way walk into you. By now the building is a lot more darker than before and they now have tourches on. The firemen walk past a loft hatch which just happens to swing open. The noise of the swinging is eere and unconfatable. All the men turn to look which then fades to black again to then show text. The next text reads: 'Unclassified:4' which had the effect over the top which blurs the text for a split second that when the text next becomes visable it reads 'unclassified:5'. The slight clue allows the audience to work out that they dont know why they are there and that this is an unclassified call.
The last and final fade to black goes to a shot of the firemen walking down a dark coridoor with a shaddow of a small child at the end. At first the men act like they have not seen her yet shining their lights at her but not responding. It is only when they get close to her and the audience see her that the firemen realise she is not normal. The firemens lights shine on the little girls face to reveal bruses and blood on her face.The camera also carries on to zoom into the child who then leaps at the firemen screaming. There is an almost imeadiate fade to black to finally reveal the title of the film. While the last title is on the screen you can still hear the none-diagetic sounds of the firemen shouting and screaming.
The very last shot is of something or someone chasing the camera down the stairs. This is only shown for a split second because if it was shown for too long the audience wouldnt be as scared once watching the film. The fact the audience havent had a long enough tie to see what it was still adds suspence and fear.
This trailer is a very basic one and work extremely well because it made me want to see this film and after all that is exactly what a trailer is ment to do. It used the typical horror film conventions with the tourches, the dark, screams and swinging doors but using a child is breaking the mold slightly in it's own way.
The way the tourch lights only highlight certain bits of the child so the whole situation cannot be seen at once gives the film trailer anouther fear factor.
REC film poster:
The poster first of all is all black which is very typical of the traditional horror conventions used in a film poster. The way the title is written is the same as how it was shown in the trailer and therefore adds an immeadiate link between the trailer and the poster.
Like all film posters there is all the information at the bottom of the poster which includes in the information such as release date, director, actors and copyright laws. Not only this but the studios in which the film was shot maybe included in the box/text at the bottom.
The main image used is of a girl who is holding her hands out. This gesture sujests she needs help or is hurt. The expresion on her face says the same that she is in pain, scared and alone. On the white top she is wearing there is blood covering most of it. This then tells the audience that maybe she is dying or is being chased by something or someone.
The light which is shining on her is simular to that of the firemen from the trailer when they found the child alone in the corridoor. The womans hands being held out shows she needs help and the fact her mouth is slightly open sujests again that maybe she is talking to someone, out of breath or shouting help.
The fact her skin and hair looks wet maybe says she has been running from something and has been for a while. Behind the girl on the wall is a selection of what look like photographs. Another typical horror convention to show that someone has been following the news, has family mising or when the police have picture boards for missing person cases. Just the simple light on the girl also lights the pictures behind. Because you can not see what the pictures are of the audience can make no futher conclusions.
2.
Ju-on
Ju-on also known as 'the Grudge' for english audiences is a japanese film made in 2003.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sicuc0XH-K8&feature=related
The trailer starts off with fast pace images which straight away establish that the film is horror and about a female character. It does this by showing a few quickly edited shots of film. These consist of a shot of a woman in a suit and a woman covered in blood as it looks as if she is crying blood. One shot which is thrown into the quick selection of shots is one of what looks like a old, dirty male pushing dirty, bloody covered fingers into his mouth. This is quite disturbing but is only shown for less than a second. Already with this type of shot the audience will have decided whether or not the film will be for themselves. Just like the trailer for 'the ring' the trailer has shots with the television effect on. This gives a good distorted look to images as they can look old and grainy. 'The ring' and 'Ju-on' are directed by the same director which means that their trailers are simular in many ways, hense the television effect.
After the short edited clip of footage there is a fade to black which takes a few seconds for the blackness to change into a blue and white clouded background with text that comes forward. The text that becomes larger as it comes closer to the screen is in white and has its own sort of back light which is also a dark blue which keeps the colour scheme that same. There is a great contrast however between the blood and the white from the previous edited clips at the begining to the black and blue of the text which apears on the fade to black. Blue on black is normally used for films which have ghosts or paranormal activty in them. An example of this is the film 'paranormal activity' which uses a lot of blue on black through out the film, where as green on black is used for films in which aliens are present for example the film 'Alien'. In the trailer for both of those films the colours are present and are used also through out the film.
With the major contrast in the Ju-on trailer it gives the kind of effect that the white and red is human life for example in the real world and the blue and black is something paranormal which happens or is happening at the same time. In the background while the black/blue smoke is travaling around is like a page of writting where the font has been given the effect to look large because of how the shot has been taken. You are able to make out a few words as they pass on the screen. The text in the back ground is actually the same text that is being shown in the white text with the glow behind it, this gives a slight aged effect as if what is behind on the background is some sort of text from a book.
After the text on screen shot there is anouther fade to black which leads straight into anouther medium paced sequence of short clips. This one is not as quick as the first one but this one is also like the first made up of disturbing images.In this sequence of clips the televison static effect is used again which is the theme of repetition which gives the trailer a sence of flowing.
What is shown in the second medium paced sequence is not actually obvious and may not have have any link to the film but it is disturbing and scary which maybe a clue to what the film is about for example the man spinning in circles could be a clue to characters in the film becoming mad or just be there for a scare factor. There is a shot at the end of a girl who just comes into shot from behind a wall. The shot is originaly in black and white like the medium paced sequence that has just finished but comes into colour. This gives the trailer an effect such as, the black and white was the past and now the colour represents whats happening now.
The shot of the girl as soon as in full colour swaps to show a very quick shot of someone/something crawling on the floor. This shot is in colour also and the way the shot of the person crawling is filmed, is very much like the girl from the last shots point of view, and again this two shot sequence is ended by the same television static. After this static the trailer goes to anouther sequence of clips. The television static in a way is marking the end of something and then it starts something else. It seperates the sequences into a sort of order which then builds suspence.
In the next sequence of shots after a quick zoom into a house the main character is introduced where we see her in a few situations for an example lying in bed with two other people who are extremely white are staring at her and the way she doesnt look at them lets the audience know that she can not see them but she can feel them as she is pulling the cover up slighty over her face and she is looking around paniced.
The shots in this sequence most of the shots are of a woman character approaching doors which automaticlly gives an eerie effect. The affect this has on the audience is that they will feel that something is about to start or a new begining is about to happen. This is just from the shot of a female character walking towards a door and the first zoom into the house is anouther clue to that whatever had happened in the past or whatever is about to happen is going to unfold in the house. The seqence also shows shots or cctv cameras with a man being guided by a black shape into a room as if he is not in control. This, along with the two white ghost like people now matches the original black and blue colour scheme.
1. The Thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZkkIsLiNg
The opening section to the trailer for ‘The Thing’ starts with an extremely slow zoom out of a white bold and capital letter I. This in total lasts 32 seconds of the trailer. While the zoom out is taking place there is a non-diagetic voice over which is a may-day call out for help. The voice says about there being people who have found ‘something’ in the ice. We, as an audience do not know what it is that they have found but this not knowing aspect adds suspense. The voice over also mentions that they need help and this automatically puts fear into the audience. The voice over itself stops at the 23 second mark but the zoom out carries on to then show the other letters coming in from the sides. When all the title of the film is present on the screen and the director’s name is shown above the screen then goes to a fade to white to then reveal an action shot of a helicopter flying towards the camera, which then is swapped to a shot of the helicopter flying past to the left. Under where the helicopter is flying is a small area where black shapes of building like structures are shown. This is the first shot where the environment is shown and the audience now can see that the conditions at this time are snow and cold.
There is a short pan of the surroundings and a building before there is another quick edit so show the next shot of three men who appear to be looking down at the camera as if they have found something. At this moment as well there is another voice over which starts and the first line he says is ’12 men have just discovered something’. This then links in to the shot where the men are looking down at the camera but more importantly it is synchronised to the quick change of the shot to a shot of what the men have found. At the moment where the voice over’s first line ends there is music which starts in the background but is not at first that noticeable. The music is very repetitive and is extremely eerie. The voice over then goes on to explain that whatever they have found has been buried in the ice for 100,000 years. The face the voice over calls whatever they have found ‘IT’ shows that they themselves don’t know what it is. This adds another scary aspect to the trailer. The music carries on playing now for the rest of the trailer which gives the trailer a nice following rhythm.
The shots the trailer is made up of sections of the film for example shots of the workers in the snow and assailing down the snow to investigate whatever they have found. The other shots include seeing the characters walking towards the screen and shots of looking at something unusual which is wrapped in a sheet and steaming. There is another section in the trailer which is more like a scene in itself. The section shows all the men standing outside in the snow which shows how harsh the conditions are and also how many men there are. The ‘leader’ as such of their group is talking to them about the situation and this gives the audience more insight into what actually is happening. The man explains that some of the men may still be human and some may not be. This then lets the audience know that they have found must be an alien of some sort. The section in total by itself lasts 16 seconds which is the longest single section in any of the film trailers I have looked at. This is a good way of telling the audience all they need to know about the film in one whole 16 second clip without having to give little sentences the whole way through the trailer. At 1 minute 15 seconds all the voice over and speaking from characters stops all together and the music becomes louder and carries on playing to the end of the trailer. In the music there is a beat every second like a drumming rhythm, and on every beat the shot changes. This only starts when the dialogue in the trailer stops and the pace of the clips become quicker. The shots and clips of film footage from then on being shown are more of a scary factor showing what this ‘Thing’ can do for example the shots of one of the men’s necks being pulled and stretched, and bodies of the characters exploding.
The end shot is of one of the characters in a medium shot screaming loudly but by his faceal expression he is not in pain or scared. This gives the audience the impresson that maybe the thing is inside him. Because there is that factor that the audiecne don't know what it is or who it is affecting the fear factor in the audience is created. After the male character has screamed/howled for 2 seconds there is a fade to black where from then on the trailer goes back to how it started with the back background and the white text white appears after a short while. The text indicates who is featured in the film and when it will be released. Again the title is shown with the directors name above but this just apears and does not have any zoom out as before.
After the title is shown and a fade to black ends the title being shown, the first piece of text is shown (apart from the title). This is the tag line which goes with the film which reads "man is the warmest place to hide". This is a good opposition to the trailer being set in snow and ice.
The colours of the trailer are very dark colours with the contrast of the snow which is of course white. When they find 'the thing' it is day light but when whatever it is starts causing chaos it becomes night time which adds another fear factor because the audience can not see whats coming and can not always see whats about to happen.
Deconstruction of 'The Thing' film poster:
This is the poster for the film ‘The Thing’. The film was made in 1982 and therefore the technology we have today was not available then. The poster is in cartoon type effect and includes the 12 men from the film. In the trailer the fact that there are 12 men in the film is mentioned so anyone looking at the poster would then understand that the 12 men on the poster are those from then film.
The colours of the poster which are green and cream are similar to those colours used and shown in the trailer. This is another connection the audience can make from the trailer to the poster. On the poster there are a few sections which have red to highlight important features such as the title.
Again just like the trailer the director’s name is featured about the title of the film and is also red in colour to stand out and be more eye catching.
The largest man featured on the poster is at the top and is holding a flame thrower gun which is used frequently throughout the trailer. The small amount of flame coming out of the guns nozzle is also highlighted in red and so is inside the nozzle which is shown. There is one of the beasts which is positioned behind this man at the very top of the poster. There are parts on this beast/monster which are the colour red as well to highlight the eye and such.
At the very bottom of the poster is the image of the camp the men are living/working in at the time when they find ‘the thing’, and just behind this is the main title of the film which is large text and in the same font that was shown in the trailer. This is another connection between the trailer and the poster although the text was white in the trailer and now is red.
The size of the man on the poster reflects their role in the film. For example the biggest man on the poster is the main character in the film. Apart from this all the other pictures like the dog are relevant to the film. Along with these things there are also the normal poster information such as who stars in the film and who produced it and so on. These are present at the bottom of the poster where they are normally stereotypically thought to be.
