To make my horror trailer seem effective and 'scary' it's

important to make sure the editing techniques I use are

professional and stick to the genre conventions used in

horror films. To utilise the different techniques used in

existing trailers, I have looked at how the opening credits

to Sinister use a news report style at the beginning to set

up the narrative. This is something I wish to explore in my

own trailer. By using a TV broadcast the trailer starts to

enter the reality of the viewers, who will be familiar with

information presented in a factual style to report current

events.

Sinister

The trailer for Sinister a quick pace to create a disorientating feel to the spectator. I wish to do the same with my trailer, focusing on the facial expressions of my actors and cut the shots together with a sharp, edgy feel. This idea of quick shot lengths emphasizes the conventions to the horror genre.

I may also wish to look at the location in a ‘snapshot sense’ by shooting my trailer in a way that loos closely at the iconography of a scary woodland. I will also need to use a range of ‘interesting’ camera angles which will help disorientate the audience, this can be through close ups, extreme close ups, high and low angles, pans, tracking shots and POVs.

American Horror Story

To give my trailer a feeling of past and present, I shall use photographs in a similar concept. The way in which the photos are used to show death/ghostly figures works well for my supernatural subgenre, where I shall show my main protagonist (who has died) alongside a photo of her being destroyed as a metaphor for her leaving Earth and entering the in-between.

I shall use close ups and fast editing to show her photograph being destroyed and her eyes reacting to this as if it is burning/destroying her soul.

Stills that Inspire Me

What I have learnt

From these two examples I have learnt the

importance of speed and how the use of closes ups

can be used more often than in say action films or

romances. This is because the way in which horror

films shock/scare the audience is by showing things

in a subliminal or very controlled way. I shall

recreate this idea in my own trailer to give a lost and

panicked sense of loneliness in my woodland

location.