Thursday, 29 April 2010

Trailer analysis: Halloween 1978

Halloween 1978


The hyperlink to the Halloween trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHXRi0WwGBw


The trailer starts of with a caption that mentions the title, which moves on to a shot of the house at which the camera jolts.[voice over with a very faint piano note]


This shows a safe looking house which the audience feel comfortable with how ever the jolting of the camera puts the audience on edge as this is a contradiction.


The camera seems to be wearing a mask only seeing a knife that looks like it is stabbing something, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable as they are positioned as the killer. The camera starts to go down the stairs and leaves the house, into the dark. [Degetic sound of some scream and non degetic sound of a loud piano key. The non- degetic sound seemed to be getting deeper as the camera goes outside where the car has pulled up.] The camera is played as a character at that moment. This done to leave the audience confused as to what is going on as they can’t see the full picture.


Then the audience find out the killer is a little boy. [the non- degetic sound is carried out however degetic sound is added of the father saying something ]


The juxtaposition of the masked camera that was doing the st5abbing and the little boy having a bigger effect as the audience are shocked and surprised that something thought to be innocent is actually a twisted murderer.


A caption appears [non- diegetic sound and the voice over repeating the caption] the caption says ‘Halloween’ and so does the voice, this is done to reinforce the name of the film but also reinforces that it is Halloween on that day.


A shot of an old man say some important lines that give a sense of the narrative [non degetic sound that is really low and degetic sound of the man talking]. There is not much sound when he says the lines because these lines are there to effectively tell the audience a bit about the narrative of the film and also building tension.


Shots form a scene showing the killer attacking the women in the car [non- degetic sound and degetic sound of the woman screaming and of the window smashing]. The audience will respond to this because it shows the killer actually trying to kill a person and shows what the killer is capable of, however he isn’t revelled creating the enigma which is who is he?

A shot of the old man saying that he thinks the killer is going to come back [degetic sound of the man talking]. A shot of the old man again saying and hinting to the audience what happens in the film.


A shot of the girls talking and walking down a suburban street and then turning around and looking shocked [only degetic sound of the girls talking, then non- degetic sound is added which increases in volume]


This scene is effective because of the juxtaposition of the old man saying that he thinks the killer is going to come back and the shot of the girls turning back, which implies that the killer is going to come into the girls lives.


Another caption [degetic and non degetic sound]

A shock of the killer wearing the bed sheet and a shot of the girl lying in bed not really scared [degetic sound of the door creaking open and non degetic sound] this shot is effective because of the dramatic irony of the girl who doesn’t seem to be bothered by the person wearing the bed sheet, looking quite comical. However the audience are aware that it is the killer creating a disturbing effect on the audience.


A montages of shots that show something bad happening and creating a sense pace [degetic and non- degetic sound]

Then shot of the girl that has fallen down the stairs and the killer is coming down after her [non- degetic and degetic sound of the girl crying, screaming and falling down the stairs, which is then followed piano notes playing at a beat] this shot set tension when the killer comes down the stairs and the sounds goes to the pace of the killer.


A shot from outside the house of the girl running across the street, screaming, whilst the killer follows [non- degetic sound and degetic sound of the girl screaming]. This shot is effective because the suburban street is shown which is known to be a safe place but in this case it isn’t and looks empty.


A shot of someone watching TV [non- degetic sound and degetic sound of the TV]. This shows that everybody seems to be busy and oblivious to the fact that there is a killer outside, also echoing the audience’s situation.


A shot of the main character banging on the door [degetic sound of banging and shouting. Non degetic sound of music and a voice over]


This is followed by the killer coming closer


The trailer finishes with the name of the film [degetic of the girl banging on the door and non degetic sound]. The trailer ends with the girl banging on the door, ending the trailer with a cliff hanger and leaving the audience questioning whether the girl got away.

1 comment:

  1. excuse me how did you get this work? this is the exact same file that i stored on my emails as a set of notes about the trailer for my media coursework?

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