My textual analysis is on the teaser trailer for the highly anticipated horror film ‘Freddy vs. Jason’. The film is a crossover of the popular ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Friday the 13th ‘franchises featuring iconic serial killers ‘Freddy Krueger’ and ‘Jason Voorhees’. The slasher was released in mid-August 2003. It features Robert Englund as ‘Freddy’ and Ken Kirzinger as ‘Jason’. The film also features the likes of Kelly Rowland and Jason Ritter in significant roles. ‘Freddy vs. Jason’ was written by Victor Miller and legendary horror writer Wes Craven. The director of the film was Hong Kong movie writer and director, Ronny Yu and producing the film was the same producer behind the Friday the 13th franchise, Sean S Cunningham. New Line Cinema produced and distributed the film. New Line Cinema is an American film studio and subsidiary of Hollywood Major Company Warner Bros. New line Cinema have been responsible for many smash hit films such as the Dark Knight and they are the company who produced and distributed both ‘The Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Friday the 13th ‘ franchises.
The film took in over $36million in its opening weekend. It was noted as one of the most successful horror films of 2003. Overall the film grossed $114,908,830 (£72,326,564) worldwide, therefore making the film a profitable success as it cost just under $30,000,000 to produce.
The aim of a movie teaser trailer is to advertise an upcoming film. A good teaser trailer is one that effectively ‘teases’ its audiences and efficiently advertises the film without giving away too much information. It works alongside the film poster to proficiently advertise the film and develop a fan base for the film prior to the film’s release. A teaser trailer is the first helping of a new film before official full-length trailer is released. The difference between teasers and full-length trailers is that teasers are produced to tease. They do not reveal any significant plot details and are meant only to give a minor glimpse as what is to come. Whereas a trailer, on the other hand, is more detailed and often provide plenty of detail as to what the plot is about.
The average teaser trailer length ranges between 30-45 seconds. Some can often last longer than a minute and others can be as short as 15-20 seconds. This trailer is a lengthier teaser trailer as it lasts 1minute and 13 seconds, however, despite the length the teaser successfully carries out the task of just giving the audience glimpses of the upcoming film.
Mise-en Scene
Lighting
Low key lighting is used throughout most of the trailer. The use of low key lighting successfully foreshadows the darkness of the upcoming film. From watching the trailer and seeing how dark the trailer and the small segments from the film were, you can gather how dark the film itself will be and anticipate the level of horror and terror that will feature in the film itself. An example of low key lighting is seen below. The use of red lighting also cleverly supports the horror genre, as red is a conventional colour of horror films as it is representative of blood and danger.
Non-verbal communication
This is featured quite frequently in the trailer. Characters in the trailer have frightened facial expressions and anxious body languages. The facial expressions connote terror and fear, which are essential features for a successful horror film. The body languages seen in the trailer are good in expressing the anxiety and fearfulness of the characters in the film. The NVC in the trailer foreshadows the fear, terror and horror that will feature in the film and allows audiences to build a growing anticipation for the horror film before it is our. Therefore the NVC in the trailer successfully works together with other aspects of the trailer to advertise the upcoming film well before its release.
Setting
Based on the build up at the start of the trailer and the costume of the characters I gathered that the film is set in modern day (21at century). There are various settings featured in this teaser trailer such as lakes, hospitals, streets, warehouse buildings etc. A common factor of all of these settings is that they dark and empty. The darkness foreshadows that something bad or gruesome is to take place in each of these locations. The emptiness of each location connotes the lack of help and support that each victim will experience against the killers, ultimately implying that each of their deaths will be horrific.
Costumes, Props and Makeup
The costume worn by the killers in the teaser trailer are the same as the costumes both killers wore in their own previous horror series’. Freddy still wears a striped crew neck sweatshirt, smart trousers paired with his signature brown fedora. His costume seems quite ordinary and simple which contrasts with his serial killer nature, burned and disfigured face (make-up) and his killer clawed glove (prop).
His costume, make-up and prop portray the danger that he is and the sight of him produces fear and anxiety and scares audiences, therefore making him an effective horror movie killer.
Jason’s costume consists of a green patterned shirt with a tattered effect, matching trousers and vinyl hockey face mask. His outfit is more unusual connoting that he will be danger. His traditional weapon(prop) is a machete, likely to cause a very gruesome and bloody death indication a good deal of action in the upcoming film as well as effectively advertising a slasher horror film. To continue, the costume of the other characters connotes that they are all young people. Their costumes denote modern, fashionable attire, whilst others are dressed in varsity (college themed) costume, indicating that they may students. Dressing the characters as students adds a scare factor in this trailer, as it suggests the victims are more vulnerable, and less able of defending themselves.
Other characters are shown to be even more vulnerable when their costume consists of nothing at all. A character is nude in the shower, this would connote that this character would be caught completely off-guard, and in the costume she is in, she would be appear to be incapable of defending and protecting her herself.
The costumes shown in this trailer give audiences a great deal of meaning, whilst effectively portraying this upcoming film as a good horror.
Sound
Many teaser trailers feature a voiceover to narrate the trailer and upcoming film. In this trailer there is no presence of a voiceover, instead dialogue from the film is included to accompany the music and sound effects. The teaser begins with eerie music with a repetitive piano key sound. This is followed by Foley sound effects of heavy footsteps, slamming doors, and the sharpening of ‘Freddy’s’ claws. These sounds assist the eerie music in developing suspense for the audience. Fast-paced music is played in unison with dialogue and sound effects from the film to act as the soundtrack for the trailer. At the climax of the trailer, the pace of the music becomes much faster to match the pace of the action in the trailer and synchronous sound is also present in the trailer. The growing fast-pace of the trailer makes the teaser appear more exciting and action packed, enhancing the effectiveness of the teaser trailer and making it more enjoyable and captivating.
Camera Angles, Shots & Movement
The teaser trailer features a variety of different camera shots, angles and movement to depict key elements of the film and the horror genre to the audience. A medium close-up denotes one of the killers, ‘Freddy’, emerging through steam.
This shot connotes his arrival, marking the re-start of his murderous campaign. Another significant shot in the trailer is an extreme close up. This extreme close-up gives the audience a very close glance of one of the film’s killers, ‘Jason’.
This shot would successfully incorporate fear in the audience, which would be the aim of the creators, keeping close to the horror genre. The extreme close up denotes a killer with one eye and what appears to be badly charred skin covered with a hockey mask. This would connote that the killer had become this way as a result of a distressing event, with an appearance too frightening it has to be covered with a mask. This would make people curious as to what lays behind the mask, and the mask could be representative of the audience’s inability to understand the character, as no-one is aware of what is behind the mask.
Another extreme close-up is used to denote a female character inside a locker.
The shot connotes that the girl is hiding from something, and the alert eyes connote that the she is on the lookout for danger. The locker in the shot could be a high school locker, which could suggest the hiding character is a young female teen therefore less able to defend herself from danger.
A key low angle/wide angle shot is used to show both killers in a blazing building. In the shot, both killers appear to be going head to head, which ties in well with the film’s title. The use of a low-angle makes the killers seem bigger to the audience, which connotes their great power and strength, and also makes them appear more intimidating and scary.
A bird’s eye view is used to show the audience a spread of fire in a field. This could be representative of the spread of fear and murder throughout the actual film, this would make the film seem exciting and increase anticipation for its release.
The teaser trailer includes the wide use of panning, tracking and zooming-in to closely follow the intense action of the teaser trailer. The movement helps to enhance the audience’s experience of the teaser as the action of the trailer is clearer through movement. Altogether the camera movement, shots and angles play a key part in making the teaser trailer and effective advertisement for the upcoming film.
On-screen captions
The captions used are in bold white font, with a black background making the captions more eye-catching. A majority of captions are used at the beginning of the teaser trailer. These trailers help recap the history of the legendary killers in the film. The captions also introduce the upcoming battle of the two horror movie killers, indicating that the film will include the intense battle between two mighty murderers. This kind of information would increase the audience’s interest in the upcoming film. The remainder of the captions used tell the audience when to expect the film and reiterates the key battle between ‘Freddy’ and ‘Jason’.
Editing
The teaser trailer features key forms of editing such as match on action, reaction shots, and jump cuts to maintain a fast motion, increasing tempo and fast pace throughout the teaser trailer. The match on action combines shots from different events in the film to suggest parallels and create suspense. The match on action works in sync with the soundtrack and music of the teaser trailer, maintaining the excitement gained from the teaser. The reaction shots depict the different characters’ reactions to event in the film, building up the fear, suspense and anticipation within the audience.
CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) is also featured in this teaser, from the actual film itself, showing ‘Freddy’ murdering in ‘nightmare form’. This shows ‘Freddy’ is a sub-human almost liquidised state. This would connote that even in liquidised form he is just as dangerous and murderous. This is a frightening and shocking discovery, but equally exciting and captivating.
To conclude, evidently a vast amount of thought and consideration must be incorporated into the planning and production of a teaser trailer. If successful, the full-length film will be successful. In regards to ‘Freddy vs. Jason’, the full-length film enjoyed great success, therefore making this teaser trailer a very effective form of advertisement for the upcoming film.
The film took in over $36million in its opening weekend. It was noted as one of the most successful horror films of 2003. Overall the film grossed $114,908,830 (£72,326,564) worldwide, therefore making the film a profitable success as it cost just under $30,000,000 to produce.
The aim of a movie teaser trailer is to advertise an upcoming film. A good teaser trailer is one that effectively ‘teases’ its audiences and efficiently advertises the film without giving away too much information. It works alongside the film poster to proficiently advertise the film and develop a fan base for the film prior to the film’s release. A teaser trailer is the first helping of a new film before official full-length trailer is released. The difference between teasers and full-length trailers is that teasers are produced to tease. They do not reveal any significant plot details and are meant only to give a minor glimpse as what is to come. Whereas a trailer, on the other hand, is more detailed and often provide plenty of detail as to what the plot is about.
The average teaser trailer length ranges between 30-45 seconds. Some can often last longer than a minute and others can be as short as 15-20 seconds. This trailer is a lengthier teaser trailer as it lasts 1minute and 13 seconds, however, despite the length the teaser successfully carries out the task of just giving the audience glimpses of the upcoming film.
Mise-en Scene
Lighting
Low key lighting is used throughout most of the trailer. The use of low key lighting successfully foreshadows the darkness of the upcoming film. From watching the trailer and seeing how dark the trailer and the small segments from the film were, you can gather how dark the film itself will be and anticipate the level of horror and terror that will feature in the film itself. An example of low key lighting is seen below. The use of red lighting also cleverly supports the horror genre, as red is a conventional colour of horror films as it is representative of blood and danger.
Non-verbal communication
This is featured quite frequently in the trailer. Characters in the trailer have frightened facial expressions and anxious body languages. The facial expressions connote terror and fear, which are essential features for a successful horror film. The body languages seen in the trailer are good in expressing the anxiety and fearfulness of the characters in the film. The NVC in the trailer foreshadows the fear, terror and horror that will feature in the film and allows audiences to build a growing anticipation for the horror film before it is our. Therefore the NVC in the trailer successfully works together with other aspects of the trailer to advertise the upcoming film well before its release.
Setting
Based on the build up at the start of the trailer and the costume of the characters I gathered that the film is set in modern day (21at century). There are various settings featured in this teaser trailer such as lakes, hospitals, streets, warehouse buildings etc. A common factor of all of these settings is that they dark and empty. The darkness foreshadows that something bad or gruesome is to take place in each of these locations. The emptiness of each location connotes the lack of help and support that each victim will experience against the killers, ultimately implying that each of their deaths will be horrific.
Costumes, Props and Makeup
The costume worn by the killers in the teaser trailer are the same as the costumes both killers wore in their own previous horror series’. Freddy still wears a striped crew neck sweatshirt, smart trousers paired with his signature brown fedora. His costume seems quite ordinary and simple which contrasts with his serial killer nature, burned and disfigured face (make-up) and his killer clawed glove (prop).
His costume, make-up and prop portray the danger that he is and the sight of him produces fear and anxiety and scares audiences, therefore making him an effective horror movie killer.
Jason’s costume consists of a green patterned shirt with a tattered effect, matching trousers and vinyl hockey face mask. His outfit is more unusual connoting that he will be danger. His traditional weapon(prop) is a machete, likely to cause a very gruesome and bloody death indication a good deal of action in the upcoming film as well as effectively advertising a slasher horror film. To continue, the costume of the other characters connotes that they are all young people. Their costumes denote modern, fashionable attire, whilst others are dressed in varsity (college themed) costume, indicating that they may students. Dressing the characters as students adds a scare factor in this trailer, as it suggests the victims are more vulnerable, and less able of defending themselves.
Other characters are shown to be even more vulnerable when their costume consists of nothing at all. A character is nude in the shower, this would connote that this character would be caught completely off-guard, and in the costume she is in, she would be appear to be incapable of defending and protecting her herself.
The costumes shown in this trailer give audiences a great deal of meaning, whilst effectively portraying this upcoming film as a good horror.
Sound
Many teaser trailers feature a voiceover to narrate the trailer and upcoming film. In this trailer there is no presence of a voiceover, instead dialogue from the film is included to accompany the music and sound effects. The teaser begins with eerie music with a repetitive piano key sound. This is followed by Foley sound effects of heavy footsteps, slamming doors, and the sharpening of ‘Freddy’s’ claws. These sounds assist the eerie music in developing suspense for the audience. Fast-paced music is played in unison with dialogue and sound effects from the film to act as the soundtrack for the trailer. At the climax of the trailer, the pace of the music becomes much faster to match the pace of the action in the trailer and synchronous sound is also present in the trailer. The growing fast-pace of the trailer makes the teaser appear more exciting and action packed, enhancing the effectiveness of the teaser trailer and making it more enjoyable and captivating.
Camera Angles, Shots & Movement
The teaser trailer features a variety of different camera shots, angles and movement to depict key elements of the film and the horror genre to the audience. A medium close-up denotes one of the killers, ‘Freddy’, emerging through steam.
This shot connotes his arrival, marking the re-start of his murderous campaign. Another significant shot in the trailer is an extreme close up. This extreme close-up gives the audience a very close glance of one of the film’s killers, ‘Jason’.
This shot would successfully incorporate fear in the audience, which would be the aim of the creators, keeping close to the horror genre. The extreme close up denotes a killer with one eye and what appears to be badly charred skin covered with a hockey mask. This would connote that the killer had become this way as a result of a distressing event, with an appearance too frightening it has to be covered with a mask. This would make people curious as to what lays behind the mask, and the mask could be representative of the audience’s inability to understand the character, as no-one is aware of what is behind the mask.
Another extreme close-up is used to denote a female character inside a locker.
The shot connotes that the girl is hiding from something, and the alert eyes connote that the she is on the lookout for danger. The locker in the shot could be a high school locker, which could suggest the hiding character is a young female teen therefore less able to defend herself from danger.
A key low angle/wide angle shot is used to show both killers in a blazing building. In the shot, both killers appear to be going head to head, which ties in well with the film’s title. The use of a low-angle makes the killers seem bigger to the audience, which connotes their great power and strength, and also makes them appear more intimidating and scary.
A bird’s eye view is used to show the audience a spread of fire in a field. This could be representative of the spread of fear and murder throughout the actual film, this would make the film seem exciting and increase anticipation for its release.
The teaser trailer includes the wide use of panning, tracking and zooming-in to closely follow the intense action of the teaser trailer. The movement helps to enhance the audience’s experience of the teaser as the action of the trailer is clearer through movement. Altogether the camera movement, shots and angles play a key part in making the teaser trailer and effective advertisement for the upcoming film.
On-screen captions
The captions used are in bold white font, with a black background making the captions more eye-catching. A majority of captions are used at the beginning of the teaser trailer. These trailers help recap the history of the legendary killers in the film. The captions also introduce the upcoming battle of the two horror movie killers, indicating that the film will include the intense battle between two mighty murderers. This kind of information would increase the audience’s interest in the upcoming film. The remainder of the captions used tell the audience when to expect the film and reiterates the key battle between ‘Freddy’ and ‘Jason’.
Editing
The teaser trailer features key forms of editing such as match on action, reaction shots, and jump cuts to maintain a fast motion, increasing tempo and fast pace throughout the teaser trailer. The match on action combines shots from different events in the film to suggest parallels and create suspense. The match on action works in sync with the soundtrack and music of the teaser trailer, maintaining the excitement gained from the teaser. The reaction shots depict the different characters’ reactions to event in the film, building up the fear, suspense and anticipation within the audience.
CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) is also featured in this teaser, from the actual film itself, showing ‘Freddy’ murdering in ‘nightmare form’. This shows ‘Freddy’ is a sub-human almost liquidised state. This would connote that even in liquidised form he is just as dangerous and murderous. This is a frightening and shocking discovery, but equally exciting and captivating.
To conclude, evidently a vast amount of thought and consideration must be incorporated into the planning and production of a teaser trailer. If successful, the full-length film will be successful. In regards to ‘Freddy vs. Jason’, the full-length film enjoyed great success, therefore making this teaser trailer a very effective form of advertisement for the upcoming film.
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