Cloverfield

Aim: To research into how films using handle held cameras are put across to the audience in a horror/Thriller genre movie.

Cloverfield has a completely different lay out for the trailer than those that I have already researched into in the way that instead of one short clip after the other, there is a large scene taken from the film. Although it is edited slightly to be shorter to be able to fit into the trailer, you still know what’s going on.

I thought that this was very effective as the trailer has already begun to engage the audience into the narrative of the film leaving them with question of what will happen next. It also added that ‘hand held camera’ effect without having the film edited into sections. However, although I did find this very effective, I don’t think I shall be using this method in my own trailer as using it for a horror movie rather than an action thriller may not give the scary impression that I want it to.

The whole marketing campaign for this film was very unusual and the first to do it in this way. It was mostly viral marketing consisting of websites, blogs, vlogs etc that, at first look, seemed totally unrelated. Therefore this made people voluntarily research into this film as the information given about it was so well hidden. The trailer was also part of it. Having just a small scene shown to the audience, not much is given away, for example, what is actually creating this scene to turn so shocking. Even the name is not displayed in the trailer to add to that sense of mystery around this film. However, without having this sort of marketing campaign with my trailer, I don’t think that this will give the same effect with my own.

The trailer first starts with some credits glitching, again, giving the sense of a hand held camera. It then moves onto the scene where it begins with a surprise party for someone we later learn is Rob. Like both Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism, it starts of calm with not much really going on. It continues on for another 30 seconds or so making what happens next seem even more out of the ordinary. Again, there is a loud disturbing noise in the middle of the trailer put there to shock the audience and to get rid of that normality. I will definitely be using this sort of layout in my own piece as in all of the film trailers, including Cloverfield; I have found this to be very effective. The lights flickering with the car alarms going off also adds to the effect as it shows that something has clearly disturbed that normality.

Although this is one big scene there is still some similarity to the other films that I have researched in the way that towards the end of the other trailers, the edited shots get shorter to add to the intensity of the horror. In Cloverfield, the camera glitches on and off so there are very short period in between what we get to see where there is no images or sound. This adds more disturbance and horror. This will be used in my own trailer; however, I think I will draw on how it is used in either Paranormal Activity or The Last Exorcism more seeing as my trailer will consist of more that one edited scene.

Like in the other trailers, there is one big thing that happens at the end to grab the audience’s attention. For instance, the man being thrown at the camera in Paranormal Activity. Once the people have ran downstairs after seeing something being blown up in the distance, the streets are filled with screaming people with one shouting ‘ I saw it, it’s alive, it’s huge!’ . This all builds up the suspense for when the head from the statue of liberty gets thrown into a building and then roles down the street, metres away from where the man with the camera is stood. This leaves the audience with the burning question of what could have caused all of this. This final shock method will be used in my own trailer as the whole of my trailer is going to be getting more intense as it goes on so leaving it with something shocking seems the best way to leave my audience wanting more.

To finish the trailer, we see a short clip from the scene at the beginning of the film with a man saying ‘it’s going to be the best night ever’. Obviously, the character wasn’t intending this to be taken in the way the audience will but it gives that contrast from normality of the party to the horror of what happens next.

Paranomal Activity

Aim: To research into how films using handle held cameras are put across to the audience in a horror genre movie.

This trailer takes a completely different take on engaging the audience into the film by actually filming an audience watching it and then showing their reactions in the trailer rather than just the shots from the film itself. It starts the trailer off with the line of people waiting to go in with the credits explaining what they will see in the trailer. It then moves onto showing them in the theatre. The camera’s are placed at the back and the sides so we can either see close ups of the reactions or over their heads to see some shots of the film itself. Although this seems to be quite a good method to engage the audience with, it would be very difficult to do this for my own as the reactions may seem fake.


The sounds in the trailer are either the screams from the audience, the footage itself (all containing diagetic sounds only) with a loud banging for non diagetic sound each time something makes the audience jump or when cutting between shots. Another sound that seems to be constant throughout, although changes in volume, is a sound that seems to resemble wind going through a long tunnel. This adds a bit more creepiness to it. This is the kind of music and sound (excluding those from the audience) that I want in my own piece as the only non diagetic sounds in there are very subtle and doesn’t take away the impression of the hand held camera. The chosen music for this piece is also very effective as it does add a very disturbing tone.

The pace seems to be similar than the trailer for the Last Exorcism in the sense that it slowly gets more intense as it goes on. It starts with an introduction to the audience and the contents of the film moving onto the horrific parts of Paranormal Activity and finally several short cut shots of the audience’s reactions. I will be using this in my piece as having the intensity and horror progressively getting stronger certainly added excitement. Another thing that is similar to the trailer for the last exorcism is the glitching of the screen that occasionally happens throughout to add to that hand held camera affect of the film.

The credits that appear through the film begin with simple white typewriter lettering explaining that the audience is one of the first to watch the film. The same sort of lettering is then used to present some reviews given about the movie, for example, ‘genuinely horrifying – Film Threat’. Finally, as the film begins to get a bit more intense, the font changes to a bolder, brighter font which is glowing, saying ‘experience it for yourself’. The final lettering that shows up on the screen is the name ‘Paranormal Activity’ which stays for a few seconds, glitching slightly before it goes.

I didn’t think that that the reviews being shown on the screen made this trailer any more effective. I thought that the audiences opinions (based on their reactions) would probably be more reliable to those watching the trailer. However, again, I thought that the fonts used for the introduction and then the different font for the line given was very effective so I shall think about using this method in my own trailer.

The Last Exocism

Aim: To research into how films using handle held cameras are put across to the audience in a horror genre movie.

At the beginning of the trailer, it gives a brief introduction to the type of things that the audience should expect from this film such as demons and the religious background to exorcism. It shows this almost like a documentary as the man seems to be talking directly to the audience in an informative way. The music that it begins with is quite a religious sounding one as its choir music, however, it has a disturbed tone to it.

Although the music did fit in well with the trailer and the film genre, in my opinion, I thought that the concept of ‘less is more’ probably would have fit in better. Seeing as this film is done with a hand held camera, so there would be no music in the actual movie, having little or no music may have given that impression more. These sorts of horror films are becoming more popular so this impression was probably an important one to get across.

It then breaks the normality and safety with a small scene where a teenager gives the crew a warning to leave and then throws something at the back of their car. From this point on the music and shots change dramatically to add a more ‘creepy’ feel. This is helped with glitches in some of the shots with high pitched noises, a fast knocking beat and the occasional bang as non diagetic music.

In my own trailer I plan to do something similar to this in the way that something breaks the normality as it was very effective. I will also try to use the glitching in my own piece as this gave a very creepy feeling to the trailer. I thought the ‘music’ in this part was much more appropriate as well as, although it was non diagetic music so didn’t fit into the concept of the hand held camera, It was much more subtle so added more fear but without taking attention away from the images.

It then goes back to introducing some more of the story, however, occasionally, the screen would glitch and show another shot of a red face or just have that shot tinted red. To create some sense of suspense, when showing a more horrific shot (in this case, the girl clicking her neck) the screen would go black for a couple of seconds with no music in the background and then suddenly a loud noise as well as the clicking from the neck while the screen goes back to that image to make the audience jump. I think that this fading to black and cutting to the images was the most effective thing in this trailer as it helps add a lot of suspense

From this point on, the images become more horrific, with less time in each shot as well as having black screens in between. This seemed to make the audience to concentrate more on what is being said or to anticipate the next shot. The last 20 seconds or so, the shots become even shorter, snappier with the music volume getting increasingly louder until it finished on the name of the film.

Throughout the trailer, there are credits in between some of the shots. To begin with, the lettering is white. This is while the credits are narrative. Once they begin to display producers etc or a more horrific line (he preys on the flesh of the innocent), the Writing become bigger with a more ‘in your face’ font with a red glow coming from it. I plan to have the same order in my own piece where the lettering starts of very plain to maybe give narration and then move onto more elaborate fonts.

Personal Skills Evaluation

5 detailed examples of a practical skill acquired/developed for you AS coursework that will directly be used in your A2 coursework

In AS Media Studies; I learned how to use adobe editing software. Although I did have quite a bit of experience using a much simpler editing programme (windows movie maker), having this new skill has and will allow me to do more with my trailer with much more ease. For example, being able to add variety and uniqueness to my credits.

Having done 2 short films at AS, I know the planning stages I must go through such as organising actors, times and places. Knowing the mistakes that set us back from our deadline last year will help me avoid them at A2.

Camera work was also a skill that I developed from AS. Although I had a different role in my group so was not entirely in charge of the camera, I still had the chance to observe how to use the camera and the camera stand. I was also able to see how the camera had to follow the shots script precisely.

In the group that I was in at AS, my role was the script writer. This meant that I had to write the script for dialogue and camera shots. This will help me write the scripts for my trailer at A2 as I have had some experience.

I found that last year, we had a lot of problems with the lighting which forced us to change some of our script to adjust to it. I will hopefully take this and develop some more skills with adjusting lighting or planning my script around the expected lighting available.

How has your creativity developed though using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

Using blogger, YouTube and Google documents for my coursework in AS helped hugely for many different reasons. Firstly, it allowed me to keep updating regularly what I have been doing as well as linking easily scanned in documents that are relevant through Google documents. This organisation assured me that there was nothing that I had forgotten to upload as well. I was able to add in some YouTube videos to show what films I had been researching as well as print screen of my progress in editing our final piece.

5 detailed examples of paper-based/research skill acquired/developed for you’re AS coursework that will directly be used in your A2 coursework

For the research, our group chose to look at old coursework film entries to get an idea of what we could do with our own. Seeing as this was very successful and allowed us to come up for an idea fairly quickly, I plan to do the same for my trailer.

Our group then went on to researching into opening sequences to films with the same genre such as 'hairspray' to get an idea of what music, camera shots should be used. This again will be used to gather ideas for my trailer.

Other research that I did that will help onto A2 is researching into my intended audience. This way I will know what my chosen audience will want and expect from the genre that I will be using.

Paper based work included planning the name, genre and audience. As I was in a group last time, this planning was more of a discussion, however there were some spider diagrams to help us. Although I shall be choosing these things on my own this year, I shall still be using the same method to decide as I found it helped.

Paperwork also helped when planning the best location to film in. As we had to draw an outline of the room and include things such as lighting, power supply, hazard areas etc, this made it clear that it was the right location. This will help me in A2 as I, again, will know the best location for my piece.