Inkeepers trailer analysis

1.       The genre of this film is a Psychological thriller. 

2.       The audience is able to identify this at the beginning of the trailer from the airy music and darkened out portrait of a woman which looks quite scary.

3.       I think the target audience for this film is between the ages 15-25 mixed gender as that is similar to the characters in the film. It targets the audience well as it tells a background story of why a woman killed herself in this place which I think is a good technique to entice the audience into thinking what made her want to commit suicide?

4.       The film trailer last 2 minutes and 6 seconds which is your average length of a film trailer.

5.       There are 80 shots throughout this trailer. The opening shot of this film trailer is close up shot of a portrait which seems quite old. It then zooms in closer to show you the blank expression on the woman’s face. The next shot is of a high angled shot of the hotel showing that that is the place where it occurred. The camera then focus on a medium long shot of a corner of a room before the door slams shut, this could be representing where she hung herself.

6.       There are quite a lot of fade to black transitions throughout this trailer, I believe this is a good editing technique as its builds up more suspense for the audience as their left wondering what will happen next?

7.       The diegetic sound in this trailer is a mixture between dialogues and sounds effects. The one male character says “I have my microphone so we can make do with EVP investigations” This shows that they are going to try and investigate the paranormal to try and see if the can connect to Madeline (woman who committed suicide) The main female character says “we might have a good chance of catching some real contact” this suggests that they want to paranormal to talk to them and they want a reaction off them. The next piece of interesting dialogue that the spiritual woman says is “They want to live” this shows that want to escape and are going to make themselves known.  At the end of the trailer it hits its climax this is where you hear screaming from the girl before you see her hiding in a room suggesting that something is chasing her. They diegetic sounds are the exaggerated sounds of doors creaking, this shows the age of the building and it also emphasises on the dowser that smashes on the floor this could be representing the spirits escaping and coming to life.

8.       The Non-diegetic sounds used throughout this trailer is the voice over of the girl who is describing the background story of the building and what happened there.  The music  starts of being airy and low beat with a scratchy noise making it seem paranormal, the beat increases each time the screen cuts making each scene more dramatic, The piano plays by itself a chilling tune showing that the spirits are trying to frighten the people. The music at the end is old fashioned jazz music this is to make the audience feel that it was a long time ago when this incident happened.

9.       The trailer represents the characters as being work colleagues who both have a hobby in paranormal activity, The girl is quite young as seems to be quite interested in finding out why the woman committed suicide and if she’s still in the hotel. She is represented as being the main character as she is shown throughout the trailer and the camera mostly focuses on her, she is also shown in of the final scenes suggesting that she survives. Whereas the male character is only shown briefly showing that he isn’t the character that the audience should be focusing on.

10.   The narrative of this trailer is that they go to a hotel where a woman commited suicide because her fiancé left her at the alter and that ever since then people have reporting seeing her roaming the halls looking for a new love. The two characters got there to try and communicate to her but it seems like they get more than they wanted, when strange things start happening and at the end you see weird faces and a man’s shadow doing frightening movements, you then see a stretcher being wheeled out with a body under the sheet suggesting that someone has been killed, before seeing the girl panting will blood on her face suggesting that the thing that they’ve unleashed is chasing her.

11.   What this reveals about the plot is that the woman that killed herself is evil and starts terrorising the characters by  chasing them and killing them, its suggested that the female character survives as she’s is the final scenes, which makes you wonder if the male character got murdered.

12.   The film trailer creates a code of enigma as the audience is left to wonder why the spirit begins to start attacking them, it also sets up the mystery of if there’s any survivors and if so who?

13.   The trailer communicates with the audience by using inter titles such as “there is a secret in every room” this makes the audience feel like they are the only ones who know this and that there is more to this hotel than they first thought. The use of a voice over also makes the audience feel like the trailer is interacting them more in the film as its giving them background knowledge of the hotel.

14.   The mood and expectations of this film is that it will be scary and there will be some suspense scenes for example people lurking in the shadows etc. you also expect there to be some murders and a lot of psychological scenes which plays with your mind.

15.   The camera shots that are used mostly in film trailers are close-ups of the main characters faces to show the emotion of them, there are also a lot of quick pace cutting shots this is so that it doesn’t give too much of the film away but makes the audience want to go and watch it.

16.   The mise-en-scene is constructed in this trailer by the use of costume and the setting of the hotel rooms where the furnishing and wallpaper is dated suggesting that there hasn’t been any changes since they suicide happened and the prop of the blood on the girls face at the end shows that she has been hurt and is fighting to get out.

17.   The film studio has used this trailer to market its product as it uses the most exciting scenes in the film to try and make it the most appealing to the audience as possible, so they will spend money to watch the film in the cinema.

18.   This film trailer is successful in targeting the audience as it uses the unique selling point of a documentary instead of your standard horror movie.

19.   The codes and convention of this film trailer are that its film like a documentary which is different from other horrors, what also makes it different is that they have gone there with the intention of communicating and interacting with paranormal presences whereas in other horrors the characters are clueless to the things like that. However there is a main female character which is usually in every horror film but what makes it different in this trailer is that she is seen as being a strong character instead of being you stereotypical vulnerable character. It also sets the audience up to feel sympathy for the woman who committed suicide which unusual for a horror to do.

20.   I believe that film trailer are an effective promotional device for films as its gives the audience a little taste of what the film will be like, film trailers are also easy to access at any time you want by going on YouTube or searching it on Google and is the most important thing that will entice the audience.