Analyse: Insidious trailer and poster

For my second trailer, I decided to look at the film Insidious. Insidious is a American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. The film is about a family who are trying to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further. Insidious is within the horror genre which helps me to explore how horror films are advertised especially as this is the genre I want to focus my film trailer on. This film is a fairly recent film (2010) which would help me to find out what is popular and currently appealing to the present day audiences. Also Insidious was a quite successful movie being the most profitable film of 2011. Therefore this trailer must have been a successful one to encourage so many people to watch the film!

Again this film trailer starts with the warning message, telling the audience what to expect. I think this is very important especially in the horror genre as some viewers may not be the appropriate age to view it. This then followed by a image of the film company and this is when the non-diegtic sound begins, which is the sound of a pendulum.

After this the first shot the view is a mid shot of a male characters in the film. There is diegetic dialogue of a short conversation, "Are you ready?" then "Yes." This short conversation could almost be the characters asking the audience if they are ready for the film to begin.

This medium shot then jump cuts to a close up shot of a pendulum. The ticking noise coming from the pendulum can be heard for a significant amount of time throughout the trailer. The ticking sound is exaggerated  with longer echos from each tick. This creates a sinister atmosphere. The ticking creates a beat for the trailer especially when used as a sound bridge in the following shots of text where the words appear on screen to the beat of the pendulum. Considering the pendulum is heard of quite a while of the trailer, it could be representing that the family are running out of time for their son.

There is medium slightly high angle shot of the family to show to the audience who the film is about.The shots of the family are edited to cut in time with the ticking of the pendulum. The only high key lighting is used when there are shots of the family all together. This then protrays to the audience that these are ment to be the happy times.

However this over-the-shoulder long shot changes the happy atmosphere of the family. The child is seen to be in a hospital bed with an oxygen masks which indicates to the audience that something bad has happened. The pendulum ticking is going and along with diegetic sound of a hospital machinery beeping. The diagetic dialogue following from this shot, “He’s not in a coma, they don’t know what to call it”, also shows the audience that something else is going on. This then gives hints about the story line and makes the audience wonder what else is going to happen.

This high angle shot makes the women appear to be the victim within the story. The camera angle makes her seem weak, vulnerable and can disorientate the audience slightly. Also because this angle is from a humans perspective, it could in fact be from the spirits or ghosts angle instead. There is diegetic sound of someone muttering then a scream saying "NOW!" The audience cant see where the diegetic sound is coming from there creates a spooky feeling. Straight after this the editing becomes fast pace showing that the spirits are in control.









This extreme close-up shot of a woman’s eye while she is speaking to the family is used to express the emotions and thoughts of the women, and maybe even sympathize with her. At the same time diegetic dialogue can be heard of her speaking to the family. The dialogue is about what she thinks is happening to the family. This relieves information about the story line but not too much to give anything away. The background is blurred making her the main focus of the image also the rule of thirds is used with this shot.

Towards the end of the trailer there are lots of really short cuts of action building up a really fast pace. There is non-diegetic sound throughout them high pitched, heavy breathing and clapping that all helps to build up this tense atmosphere that will have the audience on the edge of their seats. The film’s title is displayed again, at the end and the screen goes black.

The black screen makes the audience believe that the film trailer is over. However a really quick, close up shot of a ghost like figure is shown along with a loud screaming noise which leaves the audience feeling scared for one last time. This then also surprises and makes them unaware of what to expect. As it is the last image the audience see before viewing the whole film it needs to have a lasting effect. 

The first film poster I looked at was Insidious. I have already looked at the film trailer for this film and wanted to see how the poster compare.

Reflection on Trailer and Poster

Warning Sign
After looking at this trailer from the film Insidious I will make my own green warning sign for my trailer in powerpoint. These are a typical convention of a trailer and would make mine look professional and more realistic. This sign also implies that the film trailer is for a horror film as the text warns the audience what the film includes such as blood and violence. I will place words like these in my warning sign to make the audience aware of what the trailer includes.

Audience Feedback
On the poster I really like how the poster has placed audience feedback in the form of star rating and a small comment. This is effective yet simple and draws the audiences attention. I want to place a similiar idea onto my poster because even at a glance of the poster, the audience can oick up on the fve stars and know it has had good ratings. I will keep the quote simple but something that will stick in the viwers mind.

Sound
In this trailer, another component that really stood out for me was the use of sound. The pendulum ticking sound worked really well and was an effective use of building up tension. The constant beat made me feel uncomfortable and that something bad was going to happen. I really think this constant beat is really significant and is an idea I want to corparate into my trailer.