Analysis of Shrooms Trailer

I am choosing to analyse the trailer for Shrooms because it is Intertexual to the trailer I am
going to create.
The beginning of the trailer starts with an introduction of the characters in a conversational style. There is little sound at this point only the diagetic sound of the chara
cters talking. The beginning of the trailer sets up the narrative to the viewer that the characters are meeting up to take some shrooms in the woodland. The
characters are aged around 20 meaning the target audience for the film would be 16-24 which is typical of most horror films.
The first sign that something could go wrong is the shots of the characters in the woods where one of them is telling a story. This engages the viewer as the story is being told to them just as much as those characters in

the film.

Then there is the first introduction of titles. The titles are over layed onto a tracking shot of the woods; this is also an establishing shot showing the location. This story accompanied by the titles suggests that these woods have something wrong with them. The guy seems to be saying a

premonition rather than a tale of past events, because little does he know w

hat he is saying could become there reality. One of the characters then jumps and scares another character in turn scaring the audience and putting them out of ease. This is the first sign of a

disruption in the narrative.

There is then a nice overhead shot of the characters exploring the woods, an effect has been put onto the shot to make the people appear to be moving fast, this has been done to make it look trippy to mimic a shrooms trip. There is a voiceover this shot to establish the narrative, the

h will essentially make you trip out. protagonist explains that the purpose of the trip to to take some shrooms whic

There is then another shot used to insinuate a trip. This is done for the viewer to understand what the characters are experiencing. This shot is a close up shot made to look like double vision which is typical of a psychedelic drug trip. This is done perhaps for those who do not understand what a trip looks like to the characters. This also helps the audience identify with the characters because they feel like they are experiencing the same thing. This shot also has a voice over it saying ‘shrooms are just incredible’ this voice is distorted with an echo which is also something which could e typical to a shrooms trip.

The non diagetic music now takes a change and become creepy in a minor key, this is where the trailer takes a turn because the first sign of any disturbance is shown. A girl is them shown to have sex and is then flashed into negative which could mean that she is likely

to die because she is not virtuous. Shortly after this encounter the girl says ‘there is someone there’ which is a clue to the audience that something is about to happen and the drugs could take a turn for the worst.
At this point in the trailer to music is eery and sounds creepy it also builds up suspense in the narrative because the music is quite tense. It almost sounds like wind blowing which connotes a silence in the dark which could spook the audience giving them the impression that someone is there but not making a sound meaning they could be anywhere.
The trailer then poses the question of what is real and what is not, this is a question a

sked by the blonde main girl. This girl is represented as a good girl who is always a little uneasy about taking the drugs. The trailer shows how when you do not stick to your morals bad things happen to you. For example if you take drugs you will suffer the consequences.

The pace of editing and music is then sped up and a soundtrack is added to the trailer

to add to the action of it all. There is at this point a montage of shot of the characters trying to defend themselves with weapons they have found.

One of the final shots is of an empty car and the camera zooms into it slowly, a hooded figure then jumps out screaming at the camera this shocks and scares the audience which re affirms our thoughts that it belongs to the horror genre. This is quite a conventional method of making the audience frightened, suspenseful hold a slowly moving shot accompanied by tense music then immediately bring something onto the screen with a loud burst of the soundtrack. I shall try to incorporate this method into my trailer.

There is then a noise that brings the soundtrack to a stop allowing dialogue, the girl says that she wishes she hadn’t taken the shrooms. This could suggest to the view that they may be having a bad trip and this leaves the audience confused what is real and what is not, ultimately making them want to view the film to see what is coming after the characters.

Over this close up shot is a heartbeat which was added upon post production. This heartbeat could suggest the characters are experiencing a fair bit of adrenaline making their heart beat faster. It also adds a sense of realism to the trailer.

The rest of the trailer includes running shots which are conventional of horror trailers and also heavy breathing from the characters. This editing is of a faster pace and is evoking t

ension in the audience to whether they will get away or not.

The music at this point has became alot more bassy and has a fast bass line which sounds like the banging of running feet and almost mimics these footprints perfectly.
But of course a cliff hanger is left meaning you will have to watch the film to find out what happens. At the end of the trailer there is a pan shot where we briefly see what we believe to be the killer in the trailer. The pan shot is almost like a spin which could insinuate the state of the girls head ‘spinning’ meaning nothing is clear or stable in her mind. We also have another heartbeat but this time starting of slow and getting faster showing the adrenaline speeding up the girl’s heart. This represents she s scared because when you are scared your heart beats faster. This shot creates suspense because it is a reaction shot of what she is seeing which is later clear to the audience when the 'killer' is exposed.

The final shot is of the girl running from the supposed killer; she is almost looking to camera which could make a connection between the viewer and the lead girl.

This shot is the last shot and it has a skull edited over the girl’s face which could suggest that she is going to die.
In conclusion the trailer sticks to all the main conventions of a horror trailer including fast paced editing, spooky fast bassy music, association with the characters through close up shots as well as a setting up of the narrative using voiceover and titles. All these key media techniques a

re used to create an affective piece of advertising.