Right from the start I wanted my horror movie to stick reletively closely to the conventions of classic 1980 movies like John Carpenter's Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street. I wanted to do this as I have always had a love for these movies and have been watching them from a very young age, so in a way I wanted my film to represent this affection. As well as this I felt that it would be easier, and more accessable for a viewer to watch and enjoy than if I had created a product that breaks down classic horror conventions. However, I did want to put a British spin on my product; making it more believable and use actors and characters who are more closely tied to real life British people, than the glamorous and in some ways unbelievable people portrayed in the likes of Halloween. I did this partly because it would be a lot easier to use ordinary British people to play the characters, as I could simply use my friends and family. On top of this I could simply shoot it in mine and my friends houses and local areas without having to struggle to make then look like different places completely. However, I also wanted to do this I love the gritty British realism that directors such as Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle bring to table. I enjoy the way that they portray Britain in a completely real, and un-glorous way; therefore I also wanted my movie to be a nod to these types of films.
With my trailer I wanted to stick as closely as I could to the classic horror movie trailer layout as I could. Looking at the Halloween trailer gave me the idea to have quite a long sequence at the beginning, broken up by titles which would create an intense mood, then hopefully shock the viewer at the end of the sequence with the girl being dragged out of bed, which I feel was unexpected. This is very similar to the first person perspective sequence at the beginning of Halloween, where we are put into the shoes of a young Michael Myers, who then unexpectantly murders his sister. I then went on to show lots of shorts clips, cut together very quickly and fluidly. I used this to represent the intensity, speed and horror of the film whilst also using it to show the sheer amount of events that happen in the film. This would hopefully grab a lot of peoples attention, as it shows some of the horrific scenes in the film, whilst also not giving much information away about the film at all. This would hopefully hook viewers, and keep them interested as they want to find out the full story of the film. This again is used regularly in horror movies, spanning right from the 1970's up until current day, but I mainly took the idea from the Halloween trailer, as it shows how effective this sort of advertisement tequnique can be. However, I did tweak it a little, to add a little bit of my own tist to it. I shot it mainly in the day time, to show that even when you're awake the nightmares can still get you. This then breaks down the classic convention of shooting horror in the dark, but I did this to hopefully make the bold, and hopefully scary idea that you can't escape the horror, even during the day.
I think that the music for my trailer was very effective, and again I stuck strongly to classis horror trailer conventions. I used the tinkly, but also creepy sounding music box music which I recorded myself to lull the viewer into a false sense of security, while at the same time "creeping them out", almost subliminally. Then, after the girl gets dragged out the bed, the music changes quite rapidly to a faster paced, modern sounding dark ambient song which my friend Indiana made on his music software. This technique of placing two highly different songs within one trailer is used in many horror trailers that stick to the conventions laid down by John Carpenter, as it makes a stark contrast which I feel is used to represent the unexpected, horrific events that disrupt peoples ordinary, menial lives. I also used it to represent the changing pace of the film, as well as to almost the audiences "adrenaline flowing" and create an excitement to the trailer that the would hopefully get the audience interested in, and make them want to watch the entire film.
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