Presentation on Conventions of Horror Trailers - 03/11/11

We were asked previous to today's lesson to create a Power Point Presentation on the codes and conventions of horror trailers, which would help us to improve our understanding on how they are created and how we need to make our trailers. My presentation had five slides in total including the title page.

Slide two was about the music within horror trailers. I explained how it is one of the main elements of old horror trailers as it sets the atmosphere for what the film is going to be about and creates the right amount of tension depending on the content of the film itself. I pointed out how it is usually an eerie noise, maybe starting off quiet and slow but eventually building up into a big noise. This could lead to a sudden silence to invoke more tension and fear into the audience. Most modern horror trailers don't have any music at all during the trailer, as for some people, utter silence is the worst sound of all, therefore it would be playing on the audience's fears.

The next slide was about the voice over featured within a horror trailer. I outlined how the voice over must be deep, creepy or lingering to make the effect of it being the villain who is speaking. Short, snappy sentences leaves the audience with a lack of detail, making them want to learn more and therefore watch the film. In a lot of modern horror trailers there is no voice over, which makes the trailer seem more real and suspense-filled. 

The next slide indicated the importance of what content is used within the genre of horror trailers. I explained how showing very little of the film or the gore/scares builds a fear of the unknown for the audience and also intrigues them into watching the film. For example, is a lot of trailers we would see something like: a man approaching a women with a knife, lifting it, and perhaps lunging towards it... but this would be where the scene would cut and the audience wouldn't know whether or not he actually stabs her or whether she escapes this fate. They must watch the film in order to gain this information.

My final slide was about lighting within a horror trailer - this seems quite obvious to most that there would be little or no lighting as most horror films like to play on the most common fear of all - fear of the dark! Nyctophobia is not actually the fear of the dark itself, but a fear of what could be hiding or lurking in the darkness, therefore this link in with the fear of the unknown. People feel safer in familiarity which is why we prefer to be in the light, where we can see our surroundings. Thus, setting a horror film and it's trailer in dark surroundings where it is difficult to see what is there would definitely access this fear in most of the audiences minds.

I uploaded this presentation onto Slide Share and have embedded it here:

<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_12799462"> <strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaLeah/research-of-horror-trailers" title="Research of horror trailers" target="_blank">Research of horror trailers</a></strong> <iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/12799462" width="425" height="355" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px"> View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint" target="_blank">PowerPoint</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaLeah" target="_blank">MelissaLeah</a> </div> </div>