"Play Misty For Me" (1971) - trailer

How times have changed...

After some researching on the internet i found a list of 'Top 15 Psychological Thriller movies' including such classics as Fatal Attraction, Taxi Driver, Play Misty for Me, Cape Fear, American Psycho and the fabulous Silence of the Lambs.

All of these trailers are fairly old and therefore, styles have changed through the years. For example, the trailer for Play Misty for Me is quite frankly terrible in it's lack of subtelty. It is clear from watching the likes of these in comparison to more modern trailers that effects have a massive 'effect' on the style of the trailer. Simple fades in and out can make it look so much more creepy and more professional. I think this would be a good idea to base our trailer on. A modern trailer as opposed to an older one as newer one have more of an impact on the audience as a whole.

Mirrors Trailer

This particular trailer is very clever in the sense that they reflect the credits due to the theme of this film. Another example of this is The Grudge when their credits are focused around water as the girl died that way. Mirrors is produced in a similar style to The Haunting in Conneticut as it uses the flashing images towards the end. It also uses snapshot scenes of what looks like epic moments in the film. This particular trailer also uses the appealing director's name; 'the director of 'The Hills Have Eyes'' which is a popular and succesful horror film. This is a way of advertising the film by making it sound like it will be as good, if not better, than the revious film that this director made.

SAW V Trailer

This Saw V trailer is another completely different style of trailer. The majority of the trailer is haunting music and tag-lines with a slow zoom in of what seems like a man simply with his eyes closed. As it grows closer, the audience realise the seriousness of what is happening. By the time he is struggling to break free from his 'trap' the credits start to emerge. In comparison to the last trailer The Haunting in Conneticut it is completely different in it's approach to how a teaser trailer can appeal to an audience. Both trailers work in the sense that they make you want to watch thefilm however, as this film is a sequel, they can afford to with hold information as most people know the style in which Saw films work around. We are thinking of producing a more psychological thriller film rather than a slasher but the style of this trailer could be useful in our research.

The Haunting in Connecticut Trailer

I believe that this trailer is particularly effective as it uses the typical conventions of a horror teaser trailer. The spooky, intensifying music adds to the atmosphere. The 'what seems to be normal' beginning of the trailer gently intensifies due to the amount of action and abnormal behaviour that is happening in the house. This is a style that is widely used for horror trailers. The dim lighting used in the film and shown in the trailer adds to the atmosphere as well as the shots being shown for a certain time is sped up and almost flickers teaser scenes from the film. This makes it more appealing as the audience wants to know more and therefore the will watch the film.

Market research evaluation

We produced a graph, showing the prefered horror genre of the 22 people we asked varied from older to younger men and women.





This shows clearly that the prefered horror genre is psychological with realtes to films such as One Hour Photo which involves a lot of suspence and darkness. Coming in second is thriller genres so we could base some ideas on films such as The Ring as it is a supernatural thriller. We will use this research as a basis for our film. If this is what our audience want to see, this is what we will give them.





We asked our participants what their favorite film was and why. Many people said The Omen, Saw, The Ring and others of similar style. We found that The Omen was the most scary as it was 'simply terrifying', 'creepy', 'suspenceful' and 'scary as hell, haunted me for ages'. We will have to watch it as I for one haven't seen this spooky masterpiece. Saw is a famous psychological slasher however are more popular for it's continual storyline and iconic characher 'Jigsaw'. This makes people love this film as it has a point and is not simply hacking away at random strangers. Finally, The Ring is a supernatural thriller and is 'so spooky, seems real'. The particiapants enjoyed this one as it gre in suspence as the film went on, plus the sequal makes it more enticing. We can use this to determine our film style, we will use intertextuality from these particular films once we come up with a specific idea.



Our piechart showing the favoured way of advertising at the top of the blog entry. This shows that a trailer is by far the most prefered way to advertise and so we will use this information and priorotise our moving image (trailer) in comparison to the poster or magazine cover.



We asked our partipants how predictable they think horror films are nowadays and the majority agreed that they are always predicatble and few films have twist at the end nowadays. However some participants thought that this is not the case. Yes, many films are predictible but the few that outweigh this figure means that they become better films. This outcome shows that the few films that have a twist at the end are enjoyed more so we will try and convey this within our trailer.



We questions whether a film has to be American to be successful and it was concluded that mainly this is not the case. A lot of people thought that 'British and European horror films are mainly scarier due to the fact that they are more original and are less predicatable' We couldn't particularly expand on this in our own film making as we canot become American but apparently British works!



Finally, What makes a film the most appealing for you? Is it the actors, storyline, music, director or the action within the film? It was fairly spread out in results as more media based people we asked such as media students and teachers agreed that the director and actors is the most appealing factor, whereas many other people agreed that the storyline was the most important including a few participants who enjoyed the music. We will involve all of these factors and make them as appealing as possible including the most obvious factor of the amazing directors!

Notes about coursework

Film trailer

These are the types of sites that we have used to help find our research such as trailers and posters, which are constantly helping us throughout our process

• YouTube
• Social networking sites
• IMBD
• While filming, take photos for pre-lims, e.g. Poster and magazine

Production tips!

• Use lighting for effect
• Mise en scene
• Variety of camera shots and angles.
• Enigma codes.

Market Research

These are the 8 questions that we asked 20 people so we could determine the style and what our target audience would want to see in our film

1. What is your favorite horror film?
2. Give a reason for this.
3. What is your favorite style of horror? eg. Zombie, Thriller, Slasher, Supernatural or Psychological?
4. Which would you prefer - Suspenseful/psychological Vs. Gore/bloody
5. In your opnion, what would be the best way of advertising?
6. What is your opinion on the predictability of horror films nowadays?
7. Do you think horror has to be American to be successful eg. Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later Vs. The Ring and Halloween
8. What appeals to you most in a film. Storyline, actors, music, director or action?