Trailer analysis
I will analyse the debut trailer of the film “Paranormal Activity”
this film is low budget with no recognisable actors. It was originally only
aired in few places in America, but due to viral advertising and trailers was
demanded around the world.
The trailer has a similar feel to “Blair Witch Project” as
they have elements of home cameras.
The Trailer starts with footage that is not in the film,
this footage is of the crowd going to the first viewing of Paranormal Activity.
This is a recurring theme during the trailer as it shows the shocked reactions
of the audience during the viewing. I believe this is the USP of the trailer as
it makes the viewer think that it really is a disturbing film, which is
something that the target audience would want; to be terrified. After the
initial footage of the crowd attending the theatre, the actual film footage
begins, the editing starts at a slow pace with edits lasting for about 1 to 2
seconds. Ambient and eerie sounds are played during the trailer to add
suspense.
Once we get an introduction to what the story is about via
shots of the main characters talking to the video camera; we begin to get
faster paced edits of spooky shots such as a lampshade moving by itself. Stings
and other undiagetic sounds, alongside very quick and short edits are used
during the faster paced clips to add more drama to the shots. Generally these
stings and other uses of audio come straight after a slower clip; this
opposition is what makes the trailer “jumpy” at times.
After the clip has progressed and we have an idea of what is
happening in the film the pace builds up until we are left with a climatic shot
of a character being thrown at the camera violently. This is very generic of
many trailers as it is usually followed by the name of the film, which it is;
too make the viewer remember the film, also it helps to make the audience watch
the whole trailer.
A strong sense of narrative structure is achieved in this
trailer, we are given location characters and what is happening to the
characters, this leaves us to think what will become of them, a generic structure
for many trailers, but effective. This trailer definitely follows Tzvetan
Todorov’s narrative structure theory.
Another theorist worth mentioning is Claude Levi-Strauss who
looked at binary oppositions. This is also portrayed in the trailer through the
juxtaposition of normal and paranormal.
