Key Elements That Should Be Included Within A Trailer (Of The Selected Genre)

The genre of our film is Teenage Horror/Thriller therefore there are obvious things that should be included in our trailer. I had undertaken some research with other trailers such as 'The Exorcisty, The Ring and Saw (Series).

Here are the trailers:

The Exorcist


As you can see the trailer for 'The Exorcist' is very old fashion, however it uses elements such as lighting, cinematography and the story throughout the trailer is understandable due to the clear editing of the trailer.

The Ring


'The Ring' is a film of the more modern year as the editing and cinematography within the trailer is much more different due to the modern techniques of producing a trailer, however the concept is still the same as they use lighting and story to get the message across to the audiences.

Saw


As you may have noticed my group has embedded the 'SAW' trailer several times. This is because the trailer is very inspiring, it has an interesting story it uses lighting incredibly well to build up the suspense and the story is clear. I do not like the 'SAW' movies, but what attracts me to watch the SAW Series are the trailers that are produced. They always bring something new and unexpected. The only thing that are predictable are the gruesome executions. Again this film uses the same techniques that are used by nearly all horror/thriller film genres therefore this is why their trailer are so successful.

Here are my key elements, which I would and should include in our movie trailer:

• Quick Editing - as this gets the audiences into the mood of the film and give them the experience that they are actually there. 
• Lighting - as this sets the atmosphere throughout the trailer, a good example of this is at the beginning of the 'SAW' trailer where the photographer can not see properly due to the dark room. 
• Sound - this is very important as without sound the experience is not the same as you would not have a clew what is going on through the trailer and music really builds up the suspens in a certain scene, so for example in a scene if there is something unusual about to happen you can hear music, which gives you an ideas of what might happen therefore it makes you think and really concentrate on the film.
• Title - should be introduced either at the beginning of the film or at the end so that the audiences know the title if they are interested to see it.
• Time - is essential as a trailer can not be to long or to short for obvious reasons such as it might give to much of the story away or the audiences might not understand the storyline due to too much or too little information given to them. 
• Actors/Actresses - are probably one of the most imortant elements in a film as they dictate what is going on. It is imortant for our tariler to include teenage characters as the genre of our film is teenage horror/thriller, it is also important that the chracters are good at acting as it spoils the film the if acting is poor. 
• Cliff Hangers - this I believe is a technique that nearly all horror/thriller trailers use as it attracts audiences to actually see the film and find out what happens at the end. 

All these elements that I have listed are important as only one element can not make an effective or interesting trailer, therefore it is important for our group to include these key elements within our trailer.

Posted by Sultan Mackinnon 
Candidate Number 3641