Creating the Film Trailer

Zoe & Bradley

Firstly we imported all of our footage onto Premiere Pro and then recorded the

shots we needed. We saved each of them individually and saved them by names

describing the shot so as we could easily work out which was which further along

the process. Once this was done we inserted each shot on to the timeline into the

order which we had worked out.

Once everything was in order we started to edit each shot. For example the shot of

the characters walking into the woods. For this clip we wanted to create a jump

shot, this was to show the passing of time as they walk through the woods. Firstly

we cut the clip up using the ‘Razor Tool’. Once they were cut up, we merged two

appropriate clips together to create the jump shot effect. We used a cross dissolve

transition effect to give it an eerie feel and to emphasise the passing of time.

At the beginning of the trailer we thought a simple cut was too quick and harsh,

therefore we used transitions. The main transition we used was the ‘Dip to Black’

as this was very conventional for the horror genre. It also gave the effect of a

stable equilibrium, yet mysterious atmosphere. Other transitions we used were

‘Cross Dissolve’. However some clips we did not use any transitions as it gave a

quicker pace. This was particularly used in the montage to help build up tension.

We included two intertitles in our film trailer. We downloaded our font from ‘DaFont’ it was named ‘Freaky Typewriter’. We think it was suitable for the horror genre. In addition when doing our research we noticed that other horror trailer such as Paranormal Activity 4 (right) used similar font choices for their intertitles. The colours we have chosen are very conventional for trailers as they are simple yet stand out because of the extreme contrast. Lastly the black background helps to portray the ‘fear of the unknown’ and links into our narrative.

The music we had chosen consisted of a continuous beat, in which we could sync our clips to. For example, in the worms eye shot of the feet hitting the ground we were able to sync the feet hitting the ground to the beat.

We made a pan of the woods to give the viewer an establishment of the main

location. However the speed of the shot was too fast so we had to slow it down

in order to give a better effect. We reduced the speed of the clip by 20% and

this looked more suitable.

From reviewing audience feedback we decided to add a heartbeat sound

effect as they said there wasn’t enough emotional tension. By adding this it

gives off that particular effect.