During the research and planning for the trailer, poster and magazine cover, we looked at the conventions used and what functions they perform. For example, theatrical trailers are longer, and they have voiceovers that concentrate more on the narrative whereas teaser trailers focus more on portraying the atmosphere of the film and highlighting the stars and/or director. We needed to understand the commonalities so we that could make our production work capable of properly marketing the film.
The Trailer
We decided to go for a very common teaser trailer convention: using short clips edited at a fast tempo. We leave the title and release date highlighted at the end of our trailer to maximise the duration and drive home the main message - a common technique. Teaser trailers are increasingly found online. Online means smaller screens, lower resolution and poorer sound quality. We had to consider all this when making our trailer, as it will be shown online: for example on Apple’s trailer site and on my blog.
A teaser trailer is also supposed briefly to introduce the main characters and the basic relationships between these characters. Our trailer does this through individual ‘interviews’. These are intended to convey the personalities of the main characters in a brief snapshot. My character (Alfie) challenges the stereotypes of the main protagonist (the killer) in ‘slasher’ horror films. He is not a typical scary character. The costume – glasses, curly hair, tie and blazer – is not typically scary. However, in some ways he does conform.
In my research I did notice that the killer would generally have some sort of inner moral (at least to him) reason for why he is killing. The reason why Alfie has become a killer is because he has been bullied and become so frustrated and distraught that he has turned insane. He thinks his group will never be able to get him a passing grade and therefore he kills them all to finish it by himself. This gives the film narrative a logical rationale, allowing the audience to become more involved, and it ensures that Alfie conforms to the conventions of a mainstream ‘slasher’ movie killer.
From my research I noticed that ‘slasher’ movie killings are usually a result of an amoral action from a group of teenagers, taking drugs, underage drinking or sex, for example. In this case we have bullying and not doing your media coursework. A common theme in ‘slasher’ horror movies, I know!
We noticed that theatrical trailers generally had voiceovers but teaser trailers did not. The teasers that had a voiceover used it more for dialogue and to reinforce the text on screen. We decided not to use a voiceover because we were striving for verisimilitude and thought that a voiceover would change the mood and atmosphere of the trailer making it less scary and involving.
I would say that the teaser trailer we made both challenges and conforms to various different conventions. We tried to adopt those conventions that help to ensure that the trailer is successful in attracting audiences but we also challenged some of the stereotypes - the Alfie character and the 'interview' technique used to introduce him and the other characters, for example.
The Poster
The poster is more conventional. It uses tried and tested techniques to grab audience attention. A common technique is to have a face staring out at the audience. This engages them and draws them in. Hence our face looking directly out of a black background. Most posters have minimal wording and big, bold titling. many also have a witty strap line - we did our best with '4 eyes are better than 2'.
We felt that it was better to adopt and mimic some of the better examples out there than to try and develop our own non-conventional techniques. We used the Movie Poster Addict website to look for examples we felt were strong and dynamic and then tried to come up with our own visual montage to reflect the narrative and theme of our movie. There are quite a few examples of the types of posters we felt were strong and successful included in an
earlier post - Researching the Poster. Here are two other examples.
Obviously we had to ensure that we incorporated all the necessary components as well, such as credits, stars, logos, certificates and so on. It was the main visual though that was hardest to get right. We needed to have something that conveyed both the menace and the slightly surreal and ironic quality of the movie. Using the blood-dripping typeface was a real aid to achieving this. I feel that we very much re-inforced the typical conventions of a horror movie poster.
The Cover
In a similar way to the poster our magazine cover uses many of the conventions and techniques employed by publishers - particularly film magazine publishers - when trying to attract readers. The title of the magazine is strong and clear so that regular readers won't miss it on the newsagents' shelves. The title of the main article movie (our movie) is prominent as well, with a very recognisable image from the movie used (the same one as in the poster). There is an overall them to the magazine for that issue - Halloween. And there are a number of other highlighted features and articles around the cover. Once again we felt that using the best of the available techniques was a better way to go than trying to challenge the conventions in any significant way. Good magazine covers work, and trying to achieve that affect whilst breaking new ground or pushing barriers would be difficult.
Overall I think we did a pretty good job of it all, considering time and budget limitations. I think we tied in the trailer to the poster fairly well, considering we had a change of heart late on, and delivered a fairly professional teaser trailer that conforms to the primary conventions of a ‘slasher’ horror movie trailer, whilst we challenged some of the conventions through the use of a-typical protagonist. The trailer is short, punchy, atmospheric and clearly gets over the message: that a great new ‘slasher’ movie called Attack of The Nerds is coming out on October 31st. The poster and cover are strong visually and work well in our opinion.
The movie is aimed at a target audience of people aged 15 and above. Filmworks also want the movie to appeal to independent, creative and aspiring adults. The intention is to have produced a trailer, poster and cover that fulfil both those objectives. I believe we have done that. The nature of the movie is an almost automatic lure to teenagers – who love ‘slasher’ movies. By using less conventional film techniques and effects when shooting and incorporating those shots into the trailer, with highly atmospheric music and little additional audio, other than brief dialogue snippets the trailer should also appeal to the ‘art house’ movie crowd – in a similar way to the Blair Witch Project.
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