Research

Top 5 characteristics of a Successful Movie Trailer

• It should be humble, good movie trailers shouldn't have critic reviews plastered throughout it, not only does this distort the mood and effect of the trailer it also doesn't let the movie speak for itself which shows weakness.
• it should set up the basic plot of the movie but not give any crucial factors away
• it should introduce some of the main characters in the movie by showing them more frequently in the trailer
• the music in the trailer should be powerful and be just as important as the visual as it should reflect the mood of the movie
• Capture the mood or the movie, this will draw the audience into the world of the trailer

Horror movie trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUZTybLlWKI
 'Drag me to Hell' 's trailer is very effective and meets the majority of the criteria as stated above. It clearly indicates the leading characters (the blonde lady and the old woman) by showing them often. This is so we can follow their journey in depth and form emotional attachments to the characters in the hope we will enjoy watching the film more. A key aspect as to why this trailers so intense and grabbing is that it builds slowly, throughout getting more into the story and eventful. By the end the music is very dramatic and gives the trailer even more of an impact on the audience. However it doesn't give away to many of the important factors to the movie just the basic plot line as we are still unsure if she does in fact get taken, this plants a seed in the audiences head which will then mean they want to go and watch it at the cinema to find out.


Decision
Following on from feedback from our teachers who pointed out that our groups trailer was more of a psychological thriller than a horror, we had to switch our research and look into the psychological thriller genre and get more background knowledge on this.

General facts about a psychological thriller:


Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the bran ranged thriller and horror genres. It also integrates elements of mystery and drama so its a very diverse genre, in addition has the traits you would imagine that follow a typical thriller genre.


Themes included in Psychological thrillers:

Mind- Human consciousness, all involving the mind, it focuses on characters battle with their own minds to reach a deeper understanding of their perception
Reality- What is real? The characters often attempt to determine what is true and what is in their head through the narrative
Death- Characters often have a fascination with death
Perception- often characters misperceive the world and people around them, or they are altered compared to reality this is shown through the narrative.
Identity- Characters are often unsure or doubt who they are


Psychological Thrillers Audience:


The typical target audience for this type of film is 18+ this is due to a lot of violence being involved and various psychological issues which younger viewers may find upsetting and disturbing. Warnings are usually on the back of the DVD covers to tell viewers if it has extreme violence or sexual scenes for example. Due to psychological thrillers being conflicts of the mind, this attracts female audiences slightly more than male audiences, this is because they are more emotional struggles than physical, action struggles. This being said male audiences are still attracted to psychological thrillers. A lot of adults also like psychological thrillers as ages of 50-80 watch this genre, however this is not the typical age range.


Codes and Conventions: Mise-En-Scene-


Location: In a lot of psychological thrillers, the openings are set in urban and modern settings. Often countryside isn't used due to the possibility of this being confused with a horror.


Props: Mirrors are used often in psychological thrillers to show the use of reflections of a characters inner self as well as showing a diverse side to the character known as their 'dark side'


Shadows and low key lighting- these are a very common convention of this genre as they build up tension and again can be used to show the characters 'dark side'


Camera Movement: This is a huge factor when it comes to psychological thrillers, quick rapid camera movements are made to build tension and portray panic to the scene making the audience feel on edge and as if they are actually in the situation themselves from their point of view.


Editing: Flashbacks are a typical convention for this genre as it makes it clear to the audience what previously happened and can highlight important key factors of the plot, showing how the character got to the current position their in.
Montage & obstructive editing is often used to show and highlight feelings and characters emotions when tension is building during a scene .

An example of the BBFC website:

The following information is provided by the BBFC and is what they feel is appropriate for 15 year old's should be aloud to watch:

What does the 15 symbol mean?

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Are there any limits on what sort of theme a work can have at 15?

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

What might I see in a 15 rated film or video?

Any of the following:

•   strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

How much strong language is allowed in a 15?

There could potentially be a great deal. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (e.g. ‘f***’).
Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (e.g. 'c***'), depending on the manner in which they are used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification. However, continued or aggressive use will not normally be passed 15.

What about discriminatory or offensive terms?

There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this.
However, at 15 the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

How much sex and nudity is allowed at 15?

At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category.

Though nudity may be allowed in a sexual context there will usually be no strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

There can be strong references to sex and sexual behaviour, but especially strong or crude references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context.

Sex and sex references are treated the same irrespective of sexuality

Can there be strong violence?

Yes, at 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

What about sexual violence?

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.

What about horror works?

At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat.

Can you see drugs in a 15 rated film or video?

At 15 drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail).
The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances like aerosols or solvents is unlikely to be acceptable at 15.

Therefore our idea for our psychological thriller does fit this criteria therefore we can use the 15 rating, however we must be cautious whilst producing our film that we do not add any scenes that could be in danger of violating these rules otherwise we would have to change the rating.
Here is an exmaple of a BBFC Rating of a 15:

Insight is a service the BBFC provide to the client or consumer. It clarifies the decision process

Research:
We carried out a questionnaire to make sure we were choosing the best type of genre by asking 20 random people.

These were the findings from our questionnaire:

      

Although a lot of people we asked said they're favourite genre was a rom-com, thriller wasn't far behind as the second favourite.

When we narrowed down our research we found that when the people we asked would watch a thriller, what sub genre would be their favourite and many said psychological thrillers as well as spy thrillers, therefore we have better insight into what is a more popular sub genre when choosing what themes to add to our trailer.

The main feature our participants said they preferred seeing in a thriller was suspense and mystery. Therefore we can use this information to tailor what features to emphasize in our trailer to appeal to the audience.

'The gift' Trailer analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3IiZU9JBuE

As with a lot of psychological thrillers i have come to watch, the majority of them start with a positive outset where things seem normal and positive. The music reflects this in this trailer, with a simple high pitch piano note repetitively playing, gradually altering pitch slightly after a few seconds. This is to make you feel slightly on edge, possibly insinuating this is an out of the ordinary dynamic plot line as it changes repeatedly. The producer has purposefully used a dramatic build up sound (0.39 seconds in) to indicate to the audience //this is a very key part of the story and at this point the whole mood and feel to the trailer has altered as it is clear this is a thriller. You soon notice no bright colors are used in the mise-en-scene and in fact all the characters clothing are very dark colors. Suddenly after meeting 'Gordo' the music and mood changes dramatically, so that its blatantly obvious to the audience something potential bad is going to happen involving this man. Within seconds just from the music used we can pick out who is seen as the 'villain' of the story. Certain key features are emphasized, for example as soon as Simon places his hand on Gordos shoulder the camera angle is in the prime position for us to see his facial expression and his head quickly look towards where Simon placed his hand, so straight away we know something is wrong as usually this wouldn't be a big deal however this is clearly important as we are forced to notice it. Following on from this a dramatic clash of  a ride cymbal is there to indicate fear as Gordo emerges alarmingly which makes an automatic association in the audiences brain that with this scary, unexpected sound is Gordo the creepy 'villain'. (1.32 minutes in) the camera follows the lady running, along side this is a heart beat sound getting faster and faster, building up suspense for the audience as their heart beat may also have increased making more of an impact as the audience feel even more involved as if this is their heart beat increasing. From this point the whole trailer fast forwards and is much more intense. It also brings the children s game 'Simon says' into the trailer to make the trailer feel even more twisted as it turns a innocent child's game into something dark as we associate this game to be sweet and fun however its been used in a totally different way in this movie. Every sound effect in this trailer is emphasized to the maximum to improve the audiences experience.


'Black Swan' - A psychological thriller - horror film


Trailer analysis 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coVi98u5RL0

This trailer is 2.12 minutes long and its not until 2.05 that we find out the name of the film, this is to entice the audience to watch the trailer and by showing the name of the film at the end it will be more memorable. We are also told who is starring in the film at the end in order to encourage people to go and see the film as people may be more inclined to watch it if their favourite actors/actresses are starring in it. A common theme in psychological thrillers seems to be that at the start they have a simple happy slow paced constant note playing in the background and the 'Black Swan' is no exception. however as soon as the villein character appears the tone changes completely along with the background sound. Dramatic heavy drums are used to indicate the important key bits of the trailer so peoples attention have no choice but to be drawn to watch. It also gives us a clue as to the genre of the film as their are inconsistent patterns in the sound and random changes giving the audience an unnerving feel. The start of the trailer keeps at a fairly average pace showing the initial story  and then around 1.44 minutes into the trailer the speed completely changes and its a lot more fast paced.
I also noticed that during the end of the trailer within this fast paced period the majority of the shots are close up of the various different characters faces. This is to show the audience the general emotion and vibe of the trailer as all the faces shown are serious/upset/scary again reflecting the genre of a psychological thriller.

Gone girl - Trailer analysis (psychological thriller)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym3LB0lOJ0o

The trailer starts of with an establishing shot of a large house and open garden which sets the scene and foundation of the narrative straight away. The lighting is very stark, grungy and darkly lit which is what you would expect in a psychological thriller however there are candles effectively used to light up the emotional, depressed faces of the characters. We see a short glimpse of a woman in the initial section of the trailer which is later made clear that she is the missing woman as we see a shot of a a missing poster with her photograph largely presented on it. 0.56 seconds into the trailer we see a flashback shot from when Amy wasn't missing and was at home which reminds the audience who she is so that her identity is not lost from all the different short snippets of the story line that appear as this is a fast moving trailer. Due to this being a crime film trailer there are a few extreme close up shots of different pieces of evidence which is a typical convention for this type of trailer and also indicates this to the audience. I will take this information and consider it when doing my trailer as we plan to have some photographic evidence which is key to the plot line that will need to be made to stand out for the audiences understanding. I feel a key factor of indicating this trailer being a psychological trailer is when the photo of Amy is shown (1.11 minutes in) as usually when showing a item a character is holding its likely the camera would be held from either the person holding its perspective or an over the shoulder shot, however in this case the camera is held from below looking up at the photo with a strong light shining down on the photograph making this trailer that bit more abstract. The way this trailer is edited is a key feature in the trailer (and film) as it becomes more and more apparent that Nick is the main suspect for the film due to how the characters are portrayed to act towards him and how the evidence suggests this, however this is a plot twist which messes with the audiences mind making them more intrigued to find out if he actually did it and why. There are constant flashbacks to when Amy was around and the audience see him push her but then it reverts back to him saying 'I never touched her' to the police officer so instantly the audience sees the contraction and are curious to know why he did this. 2.19 minutes into the trailer a shot dedicated to the famous names that star/produce the movie which may persuade the audience to go and watch the film due to previous work they have done that they have enjoyed. 2.24 minutes in we see Amy's 'dead body' as she turns pale white under water. The would totally shock the audience as we go from seeing snippets of her alive and talking to floating looking lifeless in the water which is seen as very unexpected and leaves the trailer on a cliff hanger. A lot of the locations use typical low-key lighting, for example the streets, the bathroom, the homeless centres, this is to create a dangerous, depressing, sad type of mood which runs as a theme at all these various locations.







Research into Film producer companys

 Legendary is a very well known media company and has produced some of the most succsesful films such as 'The Dark Night Rises' which grossed $1,084,439,099 and 'The Hangover'. This is why we chosen this company to produce out film as we are confident it will be succsesful due to their previous ratings. Anothey key reason is that Legendary are ovbiously trying to put their foot in the door for psychological/horror films as they have already producted films of this genre. For example 'As Above, So Below' and 'Crimson Peak'.