Analysis of Film Trailer 'Would You Rather?'

Analysis of Film Trailer "Would You Rather?"

I started by analysing the film trailer "Would You Rather?" I chose this film as its genre is horror and that is a genre I am considering for my film trailer.

The lighting in the film trailer tended to be very low key. I believe this would have been done to create a mysterious atmosphere to build tension for the audience. 

On one occasion, strobe lighting was used during a scene. This would be to manipulate the audiences senses. The intention would be to shock and scare the audience.

The sound in the film trailer was one of the most important aspect in terms of building tension. All the non-diegetic music used was loud and fast paced to create the most tension possible. The non-diegetic sound effects were always pleonastic to create shocking moments to scare the audience. Lots of the pleonastic sounds were stereotypical in horror films. These included a telephone ringing, screaming, crying, gun shots, creaking doors and slashing from a knife.

The camera work and editing also really helped to build a tense and scary atmosphere. This was done by the cutting, angles and shots of the camera. 

The cuts used in "Would You Rather?" were all quick cuts. This helped to build tension as the audience were exposed to a lot of shocking footage really quickly and it didn't give them time to process what they had just watched.

The camera angles really helped to portray who was vulnerable and who had the power. All the protagonists were framed in high angle shots to connote their vulnerability. This made the audience sympathies with the characters more as they saw them as powerless. Moreover, it made the audience feel frightened as some of the high angles were point of view shots, thus making them feel vulnerable themselves. The antagonists were all framed in low angles. This portrayed their dominance over the situation. 

The camera shots were mainly close ups or extreme close ups of the protagonists and antagonists. This helped to show the audience how the protagonist/antagonist was feeling. Most of the time, the emotions were extreme. Therefore, having an extreme close up of this would be very frightening and highly tense. This really helps to entice their audience into watching the film.

The mise-en-scene was extremely beneficial to the tension of the film trailer in a number of different ways. 

The costume played a huge role in foreshadow what was going to happen in the film. All the characters were dressed in dark, dull colours such as black, grey and white. The black and grey can connote death and danger. The white also connotes vulnerability. This helps to foreshadow events that are going to unfold in the film.

The main protagonist was a blonde female. This is a regressive archetype as she was vulnerable. Blonde females are often used throughout horror films as they are portrayed as the weakest characters. 

The antagonist were all male which was another regressive archetype. This is because all men are assumed as the 'bad guys'.

The use of props were major in creating a shocking atmosphere. The props used were mainly large weapons to create a shocking atmosphere. These included guns, knives, swords, whips, an electric shock machine and a huge barrel of water. They were often an extreme size to shock and scare the audience. The size paired with the pleonastic sound should really make the audience feel on edge.

Moreover, the use of make-up created a lot of shocking scenes. The fake blood and prosthetics were very bold and creating shocking and gory moments throughout the trailer. This should entice the audience into watching the trailer as they would find it shocking even though it is stereotypical in a film which is of the genre horror. 

Overall, I think this trailer was extremely successful in portraying the genre of horror and included shocking and scary factors which is what an audience member would expect. This will really help me when I create my trailer if I was to pick the genre horror. I would now know what sort of things I would need to include to scare audience members.