Mirrors Trailer

This clip is the Trailer for "Mirrors" this is slightly longer than "The Blair Witch Project" but is still classed as a teaser trailer. The whole trailer is about 1 minute 39 seconds and consists of 72 frames approx. It was quite difficult to count as the cuts are quite fast so i roughly worked it out to be 1 cut per 2 seconds. But being the cuts are quick all the way through it adds to the pace and excitement we get from watching this trailer as an audience which then entices us to go and watch the actual film.This trailer is slightly different to others we have looked at in the way that there is no speech throughout it. There is a constant music accompaniment which starts with an eerie, light piece of music which gradually turns more orchestral and a heavy beat begins which gets louder right up until the end. Starting with the first frame we see a lady looking into a bathroom mirror with the camera gradually panning following her movements. The music played over the clip is quite interesting as it starts off quite calm but gradually gets louder at the points where the action is more exciting. For example the volume starts to increase and the beat gets stronger , gradually building tension for the audience.

The next clip gradually appears dissolving from one frame to another. We as the audience are shown a white wall, with what looks like blood dripping down it. I look at this and straight away think... Murder scenes. There is much use of blood in the next few clips which is a common convention found in a horror movie. Especially as we can't see the victim just yet, it gets us thinking what exactly has happened? We then are faced with the first shot of a male character who looks as if he is trying to protect himself, a mid-shot is used for this as we can still see his facial expressions clearly (and can also see his posture and body language, showing tension and fear). In the meantime the camera switches to a mirror so we can still see whats happening. Moving on from this there is a quick cut to a close up of a woman underwater struggling to find the surface. Her facial expressions show terror, fear and confusion, but we then understand why as the next shot merges in showing us a close up of her feet moving rapidly next to a bath perhaps in hope to lift her head from the water. This is another convention, the use of water. It is often used in scary movies not only to play on peoples fears (the fear of drowning) but the sound of the water also gives different effects depending on the flow. For instance if the flow of water is fast it creates an atmosphere and tension, but if its slow or even dripping it also has the same effect which is quite eerie.

Reflecting back on what i mentioned before about the quick cuts making the audience excited and also enticing them to watch more, this film in particular does a lot of this. This is particularly interesting as it conveys to the audience that something bad is going to happen. Looking at the next scene we see various shots of another man looking into a mirror about to cut his throat. This gets the audience thinking "what relevance does this have to the film?" , "who is this character?" and maybe.. "why do we keep seeing people looking into mirrors?" It gets their minds working , and their adrenaline pumping as they are gradually enticed into watching more. In this clip we see most of the codes and conventions a horror movie holds , the dark gloomy atmosphere, blood pouring down the mans neck and not forgetting the loud music playing over the top. Titles are then also layered over the top of this scene beginning to send a message across to the audience keeping their minds working. Credits flash up in time with the beat of the music, the contrast of white against a black background helps the audience absorb them and imprints them on our brain whilst watching the forthcoming action. The lighting used in many parts of this teaser trailer is dark and drab making the shot not very visible, only things closer to the camera can be seen clearly. This also conveys something bad is going to happen but you are unaware of what exactly.

So blood and water are both typical in a scary movie but not always seen together in the same scene. Unlike other movies Mirrors has decided to combine the both of these together to create an all round horrific effect. While blood pours out of the girls broken jaw she slowly sinks into the deep bath and gradually see the clear water turn into a pool of blood. A not so pleasant but interesting effect that works. To ensure the audience can see the action clearly a birds eye view/ high angle shot has been used so we can see where she is and what exactly is in the shot without taking the focus off the action. Also it seems to me that the gestures and body movements of the girl have been exaggerated dramatically to get across to the audience how horrific this incident is, showing panic and distress. Cutting very quickly we then see the head of the girl in the bath. This is particularly interesting as the camera work used could lead us to believe two things : that her body is rising out of the water or even the bath is just draining out around her. They have done this by gradually panning up flowing with the slight movement in the scene, creating a sort of illusion as it tricks the eye. One of the parts of this trailer which was particularly interesting to me was when we see the contrast between ages, the clip where the little boy falls into the pool of water on the floor. And then the quick cut and pan to the old lady sitting in a chair with her prayer beads ( religion is also another common factor of a horror film, mainly crucifixes). But its quite strange as she is seen to be the vulnerable one , not the little boy. Which is normally what happens in these types of films , the children are seen to be weaker and are more likely to be targeted. Also in one clip there are Newspaper headlines which appear and zoom into the important section - this contextualises the events of the trailer - letting the audience know that they were drastic and infamous.

Special effects are used in this film to fulfill the desired effects, for instance the person on fire in the beginning , the rippling of the mirrors and also the explosion where the fire crashes across the water nearer the end. I think it is quite a good idea to have this at the end as it leave the audience at a cliffhanger as it doesn't tell the whole story, they want to know why that happened and it leaves them with a lasting effect. So unlike "The Blair Witch Project" I would say this film was produced on quite a large budget due to the special effects and the depth and detail it goes into, especially when looking at the camera work (being professionally filmed & constructed). The audience of this film would be different too as they have to be prepared for a lot of gore , blood and dramatised action mainly attracting an older audience than "The Blair Witch Project". Which is why a teaser trailer is often useful so the audience can get a sense of what is going to happen with out telling the complete story.

Lauren :)