STOCK CHARACTERS: Our stock characters rather adhere to the conventions of the horror genre due to the fact that a male protagonist is indeed the villain, similar to many mainstream horror trailers such as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Dracula etc
However we challenge conventions of the horror genre through the stock characters as we have not included all of them. This is because we felt that the character description of the jock, and popular girl followed conventions that were based on the American horror genre and therefore did not fit into our British Horror trailer because audience members would not be able to identify with the fictional characters. Furthermore, by having a predominantly al male cast we have adhered to Mulvey's male gaze theory as we present the female character as passive and vulnerable. Additionally, the camera does linger on her body features witch also displays the female character as a sexual object.
SOUND: The music and sound track used adheres to typical forms and conventions of trailers as it uses lyrical music as a form of outlining the story and builds to a climax. My soul to take and Last house on the left have also used musicians to portray their storyline. Typical soundtracks of heart beats, doors slamming, and airy music are also used to complement the action on screen and add greater fear and impact to our trailer. The pace of shots of shots in horror trailers usually begin slow, simply outlining the story and then further proceed into a fast paced edit of shots. Therefore I have purposely chosen to used a rock sound track as it follows a similar pace and temp to my tailer.
SETTINGS: The main location used adheres to the typical layout of what an audience would expect to see in a horror feature film. The void is dark, empty, and abandoned, its initial appearance highlights horror. Through my research i discovered that many horror features such as Halloween, Scream and A Nightmare on elm street share the common feature of being located within the suburbs and places that are cut off from society. The void is an isolated area and i believed this would adhere to existing horror traits.
PROTAGONIST: The protagonist in our horror trailer is the unknown villain .Through my research of looking into the villains and protagonists in horror films I learnt that the villains are usually male, such as Jason Voorhees from Friday 13th. The protagonist featured in my trailer challenges some forms and conventions of the horror genre due to the fact that the villain within our piece is unknown. Films which share a similar trait include Scream, Saw, and My Bloody Valentine as the villain within these pieces is not revealed until the end of the film and films such as saw reveal the villain over a number of sequels. .
THEMES: The main themes that are shown throughout my trailer are binary opposites such as success vs failure and revenge vs avengeance. All of these indicate some sort of a journey. These themes all have negative connotations, something that through my research I discovered most horror films have. I made sure that the central themes which were expressed throughout my trailer linked to my films tagline which is “If you cant be famous, be Infamous”
ICONOGRAPHY: My horror trailer featured many iconographical features which helped to express the horror genre. Dark lighting was commonly used to evoke fear and build up tension. Additionally, the use of shot shots and quickly changing from one scene to the next made my piece appear more abrupt and sudden. However we also challenged typical forms and conventions of icons within horror though our choice of weaponry. Instead of typically using a common knife or gun we used musical instruments which are not seen as weapons of horror however though our trailer can now be recognised as weapons.
DIALOGUE: Dialogue is very minimal across the entire trailer because the lyrical music used illustrates the story from the bands perspective. Phrases such as “ What gives you the right to say anything” and “ “So you don’t mind telling lies, You’re just a devil in disguise” clearly portray the frustration of the band and the “X-Factor” style judging. Dialogue that was included such as “Did you hear about that Judge being Murdered” simply further highlight the main features of the story line. Limited dialogue was used because, as a group, we decided we did not want to express the entire storyline and rather we wanted to lead the audience on without revealing who the killer was. This would build up the anticipation and desire to watch the film in order to discover who the killer is and, according to Todorov, what the new equilibrium is accepted.
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