Textual Analysis for my main text (Film trailer)

In order to make my film trailer the best that it can be I must first look at professional film trailers which are similar to my trailer, therefore i can pick out bits which they do and make sure that this is included in my film trailer to make it the best that it can be. For a film trailer to analyse I have chose the film "The Hitcher". The reason I have chose this film is because this film is the same genre to my film, but also they are on the same lines as to the plot to my film.

Here is the trailer to the Hitcher, I will pick out aspects of the trailer that make it fit into the horror.

The thumbnail of the video itself is scary, a frog on a seat with blood in the background, to me this seems a horror straight away because the frog as a stuffed toy is associated with children and this also gives a sense of innocence about the frog, the blood suggests that there is danger or that something has happened with this innocence.

First shot in the trailer.

This is the first shot the viewer will see when they what this trailer about the hitcher, this first shot is of a road which appears in the middle of nowhere, there are headlights on the road as the car is travelling down the road which seems at a fast pace, the car from this shot is un-identified which would lead the audience to ask what car this is and what it is doing along which appears to be this deserted road.

This is the second shot in the trailer, the car driving along the road then fades into black, I believe that this goes to black because the colour black is menacing and is very bleak, many people are scared of black because they feel like they can not see, many monsters are associated with come out at night time, therefore the trailer for the first shot to flow into the second black shot, this gives a clear idea that the film will be dangerous and mysterious.

This is the third shot in the trailer, this shot cuts from the black screen in the previous shot, this is a shot of a car from the inside which appears to be driving down a deserted road in the rain, with the windscreen wipers wiping, from what appears there is nothing in the road whilst they are driving but the road looks mysterious with no head lights on.

After the third shot, this is the next shot. This a long shot of a character on the road in the rain, this character appears to be alone on the road, in the background you can see a car driving towards the character. You can not see this character but you can see the outline of this character, this character appears to be wearing a long coat and appears to be a male. This is menacing for the audience because the previous shots before this have crated suspense for the viewer because they fear that something will happen to the characters in the car and now the fears and thoughts have been answered with this.

This shot-reverse-shot from the two shots before shows the car driving along without a figure in the road, then the camera cuts to a figure in the road with a car driving towards him, cutting back to the car you see a figure now in the road. This shows how the characters were just simply driving along then they are stunned by this figure in the road. I believe the audience would have an emotional response because they are no expecting this character in the road. They would feel for the characters in the car because they can tell from all the mise-en-scene such as the rain and shadows everywhere meaning there is danger nearby.

  This medium-close up of the character in the car stopping to pick up this figure in the road, the window suddenly smashes and hands come through the window to grab this male driver in the car. This is a very quick action for the viewer and by the past shots the viewer would suggest that the figure in the road who was standing alone is the person who is grabbing the male driver, this gets an emotional response from the viewer because they feel for the driver but also because they know this figure is no normal hitchhiker.

After the window smashes the shot then cuts to black, i believe this has been done because this then ends this sequence for the trailer and creates a short story for the audience to peace together. By fading to black this can end a sequence which means that i could use this for my trailer to create a little short story for my audience.

This is a scene, where the screen looks dis-orientated, i think that this has been put in because in the before scenes where the driver has been grabbed by a figure, this shows how the audience will be feeling, the opening scene happened so quickly and therefore they feel dis-orientated.

This is the shot straight after the one before, this shot is very unusual because the viewer is forced to watch what appears to be an interview or question from the cam-recorder because the actors face is blurred up so because of this the viewer will watch the actor from the mini-camera screen. I believe this has been done because this shows that the trailer is in control, that this film has the ability to force the viewer into what they want to do, this could frighten the audience that the film has so much power over them. Also this leads questions as to why the actors face is blurred but not the one in the screen.

After the horrifying opening scene of the film trailer, you see this clip where you see the car drivers meeting in a nice open sunny town, which appears to have people around them. This is interesting to put this scene after the one before because the one before shows that they have been split up and that she is alone speaking the camera. This would get an emotional response because the audience would feel for the characters because they have just seen that they are very close together, possibly girlfriend and boyfriend?

As you can see from this shot that the male character is obviously intrigued by the female character getting dresses in his car, this could hint towards that maybe he wants to be more then friends, this would also get an emotional response from the audience because from the scene before with the male character being grabbed from his car but also because the female character was seen being by herself on the camera which would indicate that she is now by herself without her lover boy.

This shot is after the montage of the characters meeting and preparing for the road trip that they are about to take, this shot shows the car that they are in driving off into the deserted road, this shows the starts of their journey and how it all began. By adding this shot into the trailer could suggest that the trip that they had planned had never turned into the road trip that they were expecting, therefore this shows the audience that their expectations of the road trip were different to how it turned out.

This is the first text in the trailer that the audience will read, this shows what other films the producers have funded for, these films are; The Texas chainsaw massacre and The Amityville horror. These films are both thriller films which were successful and it would be added into the trailer because this would show the audience that the producers are capable of making good films. The effects which are on the trailer make the text seem to be fidgeting whilst being un-control, therefore this would match the film because the film is about a hitcher who is out to kill these characters on a road trip, therefore by the hitcher being un-control, therefore it would make sense to add this into the text. This text is introduced at 01:03 therefore this is about halfway through the trailer which means a good basis for the story line has been created for the audience before they introduce text.

With the text jittering and being un-control live, the trailer cuts to shots such as this one, these have had effects put onto the trailer, these shots last half of a second, so they are very quick between the text. This has been done to show the viewer the scariness of the trailer, with quick cuts between the text scars the viewer because they are scared of what is next. With the effects this will also scare the viewer because this is not what we perceive as normal footage, there is a black and white effect with a character screaming at the camera.

 This is the final shot of the trailer, this is a black screen with the title of the film in the same text as the text before, also the same effects of dis-orientation as before, this gives a theme to the film but also the text is more towards the bottom right of the frame. This shows that the film is unusual and things are not where you expect them to be. The black around the title shows that there is mystery and darkness which the audience is scared of.

This is the final shot of the trailer showing the release date of the film, this is centralised in the frame which is where the audience will be focusing on and therefore this will get the attention of the audience and they will know when the release date of the film.





By studying a professional film trailer for the film "Hitcher" I have learnt that in order to make a high professional film trailer there are things I must include in my own film trailer, such as;

•  To build suspense I will use shots which show the main characters are entering some sort of danger, such as they are laughing and in the background there is a figure which then could fade to black with a women screaming. I must show the audience what is going to happen rather than what is happening.
• I must also show some relation between the characters, this will engage the audience to feel more for the characters because they will be shown a relationship which the audience would feel guilt if this is torn apart, I could do this by showing the characters are related or they are deeply in love. 
•  Lastly I must show the titles after something dramatic has happened, such as a women screaming or a character dyeing, this will give the audience a last little buzz before the titles appear and then the audience will want to find out what has happened, then in return they will want to watch the film.