'Paranormal Activity'
The entire trailer is filmed as though from a handheld camera with no tripod and jerky zooming in and out throughout the trailer. This reflects the movie itself, as the main plot line revolves around the idea that the audience is watching the characters through a home video. The first establishing shot of the trailer is a slow pan left along a long line of people queuing outside on a sunny day with the date and place displayed in the bottom left hand corner, as would usually be associated with a documentary. This motif is continued throughout the trailer, with a typewriter font, which carries connotations of memoirs and diaries, and helps to create the illusion for the audience that the characters of the film are real. The use of a typewriter font also creates a direct link to connotations of such great horror movies as 'The Shining' when Johnny The next shot is of people entering a cinema, where the lighting is slightly darker, and finding their seats. This sudden, though natural, contrast and change in lighting instantly creates a sense of foreboding, excitement and enigma for the audience watching the trailer. The lights then go out and the camera switches to a night vision camera mode and an over the shoulder shot of the audience as the opening credits of the movie begin. This makes the audience feel as though they are there in the audience and creates a desire to be there and watch the movie in a cinema with lots of random strangers, which tends to heighten the tension in the atmosphere. This arrangement continues, with the audience bathed in the green light from the night vision mode on the camera, as key shots, characters and parts of the plot are established on the movie screen. The camera cuts quickly and frequently between the audience and the cinema screen to show dramatic key moments from the narrative of the film and the audience's reactions to them, which includes them hugging each other, jumping around in their seat, screaming and generally panicking. This creates a sense of enigma, as the audience is instantly curious as to what the audience in the trailer is watching, and as to why they are so scarred by what they are seeing. The camera cuts to black still shots with white noise behind and quotes about the film written in white over the top. The contrast between the black and the reverse out writing creates enigma, and makes the words look sharper and more visually dynamic, though they are still written in a typewriter font, which maintains continuity and is a visually occurring motif. The editing gets faster and faster as the trailer draws to it's climax, which creates tension and enigma. The trailer draws to a dramatic close when the male lead is thrown into the handheld camera on the movie, and another black screen is shown, with the title of the film, which twitches, distorts and flickers, as though it too is being possessed by a ghost. Flashes of the characters shaking violently, screaming, and writhing in agony appear, and add to the enigma and fear that the audience is feeling for them. The final shot in the trailer is a black still with 'Coming Soon' and the production team's information displayed at the base of the screen. The overall effect of this trailer is to build tension and create enigma for the audience, whose morbid curiosity is awakened, and they want to find out what happens to the characters.
'Final Destination'
This trailer challenges traditional horror film trailer conventions as, unlike it's predecessors, it is set predominantly in the daytime in bright sunlight. This is unusual for a horror film, which are normally set in the dark of the nighttime where it is more enigmatic and inescapable, much like the nemesis in the film. The trailer opens with an establishing shot of a racetrack and the group of friends who are the main characters of the film enjoying a day out and cheering on the drivers from the safety of the stands. Multiple close ups and extreme close ups of parts of the main character's face and parts of the cars and the stands which builds tension for the audience and helps to demonstrate the character's emotional panic as he has a premonition and realises the danger to himself and his friends. A recurring motif throughout the trailer is a flash of a black still, which connotes death and danger and creates enigma for the audience. When the car begins to crash, the black still is shown very quickly as though it is flashing, which creates enigma, draws the audience's attention to the screen and shocks them, as they don't know what's happening or why. The combination of low shots, high shots and canted angle shots of the cars racing past combined with the quick editing builds enigma and heightens the emotional climax for the audience. A slow zoom into the character's face as his premonition begins and he realises what's going to happen, and as the audience sees the same premonition, creates dramatic irony and a sense of urgency as the audience wills the characters to escape their fates. This also creates an emotional link between the audience and makes them want to watch the film in order to find out what happens to the characters. This sense of urgency and dramatic irony is heightened further as the main character attempts to save the others. When the car explodes, the brightness of the resulting fireball dramatically contrasts the darkness of the stands, which are secluded and under cover from the bright sunlight and potential rain. A flash of white appears across the character's faces as the main character turns to his friends with a terrified expression and tells them that "We have to get out of here!". This contrasts the black flashes and emphasises the emotional state and the character's innocence and blind terror as he tries to save his friends. The use of the colour white here connotes that their fates are yet to be filled in, and are, as yet, uncertain. The first of his friends is killed almost instantly afterwards, as a stray tier flies towards her head from behind. Though the trailer does not show her actual death, the shot is immediately followed with a flash of a still shot of a plain red screen, which connotes blood and violence and death. The production company logo is the next symbol to appear on the screen and it is splattered with red, which the audience will commonly associate as being blood and meaning that she has been killed as a result of the stray tier. The trailer goes on to show key moments of the narrative from 10 years later where other characters are killed off in progressively more violent and horrific ways, combined with quick and frequent flashbacks to the original premonition, which creates dramatic irony, and the audience wants to discover if the main character survives.
'The Forgotten'
The establishing shots of the trailer are of the main character, the mother, playing with her son and kissing her husband, and enjoying a typical family life. This is something which many of the audience members will be able to associate with, and creates both enigma and an emotional link, as the audience is curious as to what will happen to upset the equilibrium of their family. The narrative of the trailer progresses, showing the mother meeting another father at the park where their children are playing together. The shots flash with a white light as two separate shots are interlaced over one another, and the children and other people in the park disappear. The remaining shot is bathed in a soft, white gradient light, which gives the illusion that the character is dreaming and connotes innocence and that the character is the heroine of the film. This effect continues on to the next shot of the mother chasing her son down a sunlit corridor. Black stills with reverse out generic white writing questions the audience's motives and beliefs and, in turn, makes them question themselves. This creates enigma as the audience wonders what they would do in that situation, and want to watch the film so that they can find out what the main character does. As the trailer progresses, it shows key moments which are fundamental to the plot of the film, and uses media devices such as the visual motif of a family photograph in which the son gradually fades away, to communicate to the audience that the main character is not dreaming, whilst still keeping alive the enigma of what really happened to her son. The trailer shows the balance of the happy family deteriorate, as the mother's behaviour becomes more and more erratic as she clings to the memory of her son, fighting with every character who tries to 'help' her, and the audience questions their own assumptions. Flashes of colour reoccur throughout the trailer, and connote to the audience that the disappearance of the mother's son may have something to do with an alien abduction. This again raises curiosity amongst the audience, particularly amongst mothers, as they fear for the child and for the mother's life if she gets too close to unraveling the mystery and uncovering the truth.
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