Narrative structure in full

Our Trailer's Narrative Structure

The trailer will start off in a library scene with the idea of a old tale that the characters are discussing, however there been watched by the killer. The students are not aware of this, this shows that were following the conventions of horror films as the equilibrium is showing the students having a good time and not aware of the danger that is surrounding them.

After a jump cut is used to show that the unknown killer is socialising and persuading the group to go visit the location in where the old tale was created. This shows how the story line is progressing into the next stage, a change in the equilibrium.

The killer then invites them to visit a church and grave yard as a joke, knowing that the popular teenagers would take up the offer. This is a stereotypical location for a horror setting as we connote churches and graveyards with death, blood and isolation.

Once the students are standing outside the church, there will be a panning shot of the killer watching the teenagers outside the church gate, thus giving the impression of a sinister atmosphere, which adds to the conventions of a typical horror film trailer.

When the students are in the church, we will use the effects of shadows, non-digetic and digetic music such as a young female character screaming, the sound of the killers shovel and other sound effects used. This will effectively make it a good value production horror trailer that will appeal to our target audience.

In the horror trailer there will be only two killings that are shown through fast editing, this again follows the convention of horror trailers. The decision to have the killer kill two characters was because we didn’t want to reveal the whole story and wanted to keep the audience interested in the trailer. 

Throughout the horror trailer the killer’s identity is never revealed to the audience, we wanted to do this as it would create a darker atmosphere within the trailer and will scare our target audience.

The most significant prop used in the trailer will be the killers shovel and the sound of the shovel this shows the audience how a garden utensil can become such a violent weapon which will show our unique selling point of the trailer and brand our own identity.