The Strangers Trailer

As well as watching a number of Thrillers when looking for ideas and inspiration, i also looked at trailers, as i found these tend to include a lot of there best clips, using these to promote there film. I particularly liked 'The Strangers' trailer.

They imediately introduce us to a house, that looks warm and cosy due to the night lights that are on and the carefully cut grass surounding it, however, the camera shakes perposlely, disorientating the audience slightly and giving us the sence that someone is holding the camera itself, looking into the house. Non-diagetic sound also plays straight away, making us aware that something is going to happen and that the house is or will perhaps not be as happy as it first seems.

It cuts to a close up of the bed with romantic leaves on in what we asume is inside the house we have been looking at from the outside. There is a panning shot done of this, effectively changing into a panning shot of lit candels on the table. There are alot of fast cuts present here as we are shown a man proposing to a woman - this is all very cleverly done. Using binary oppositions to effect the audience. This is also a good way of showing how happy and close the couple living in this house are, allowing us to get to know the characters and therefore worry more than we would have done.

The door bangs and there is a medium reaction two shot, showing panick in the couples faces. A voice over can also be seen, asking a question which is cleverly narrated, asking a question in which the audience are also thinking, again causing us to relate to the character and showing she is just like one of us.

I particularly like how the music fades before stopping as we see a person in a mask behind the woman in which she has not seen yet. The silence allows us to hear her sign, hearing her fear. This is also used to scare the audience with the music itself, starting the music again loadly, rather than gradulary as we cut to another shot, causing us to jump. Near the end of the clip we also hear a record playing, using this as background music now as we cut away from it - it seems to be of a child singing and relates slightly to victorian times, somehow making it feel extreamly scary. Lots of fast editing is done here as the record playing is made to sound like it is being moved and distorted, repeating the lines it has already said.

This trailer in particular shows the effect of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds and how important they can sometimes be. It is very cleverly used here and i will try and make as much use out of sound as they have when doing my opening.