The Blair Witch Trailer

This is the teaser trailer for The Blair Witch Project which is roughly about 30 seconds long which is a typical time length for a trailer of its kind. It consists of 8 frames all of which ranging from 3-5 seconds long. Where as a theatrical trailer would be considerably longer due to it including more information and clips. Before the trailer begins it displays the Institution "Artisan Entertainment" which is often used for horror movies etc. As the film begins i started to notice it includes most of the typical codes and conventions of a horror movie including the dark less a lot, eerie music played throughout and synchronous screaming is used quite frequently. I found as the film started the music playing was very effective as it sets the scene and really gets the audience thinking about whats going to happen next.

Then fading in from Black text appears also setting the scene (a long shot) adding to the tension, giving brief details about the background of this film. I also noticed that the transitions of the writing is particularly interesting as it is in-time with the music, making it seem quite abrupt and choppy. This effect is particularly interesting as it conveys to the audience that something bad is going to happen. Lighting also contributes to this being there isn't much lighting and the shot isn't very visible it makes it look quite scary as you are unaware of whats going to happen. This can be seen as an Establishing shot as it sets the scene of the film. Yet again a re-occurring transition which we have seen previously, in time with the music a quote is flashed over the dark background. This gives the audience some positive feedback about the film as a reliable source who has already seen it makes the audience more eager to see the film. Especially the quote "One of the creepiest films since the Exorcist". This is basically saying if you found that scary then this is just as good, capturing the audiences attention. Even looking at the camera work in this trailer, it doesn't look professional which gives it a bit of an edge, as its quite realistic and looks as if someones filmed it with a hand camera, it could also be said to be Point of View Shot . Being the shots aren't clear either it puts the audience in the characters position, as if they were actually there. They most probably wouldn't be seeing clear their vision would be all over the place, so this also helps. The next clip shows a person, giving us our first preview of one of the characters. Its a close-up shot showing us the persons facial expressions and we can see their actions clearly. They look rather distressed which gets the audience thinking... Why?

Then we start to hear voices , these are loud and powerful also showing distress but in a different way. Meanwhile the camera is Tracking through what looks like an undergrowth which gives us the feeling that someone is running. And then also over the top of that we have the white quotes standing out over the shot gradually getting bigger, and then fades out. Now finally we are faced with the title of the movie which has been linked in by the flashing transition as if its slightly jumping out at you. But now the music has nearly faded out and we are left with distant screams ( a typical code & convention of a horror movie). Then finally we see one last clip of sort of a repetition of the previous one , someone screaming and the camera panning around at about 180 degrees which then leaves us with yet again another Black screen, when "This Summer" appears informing the audience when it is possible to go see the film and finally a website comes up in a while glowing font giving the viewers a choice as to whether they go online to find out more. But even when it gets to the end we still have the synchronous sound of screams , which obviously is typical of a horror movie but unusual as they normally have music played in parts. Even then looking at the trailer as a whole i wouldn't say it looks like an expensive product but overall i think this is a good thing to have as it seems more realist, due to it not containing special effects.

Lauren :)