Inspirational Horror Trailers

Trailer #1 - Red Riding Hood (2011):

This is the first trailer that i have gathered some inspiration from. I was drawn to using this film's trailer, as i know that in the classic tale of 'Little Red Riding Hood', the majority of the scene is set in a forest, with a wolf following and scaring an innocent girl. This relates to my horror story because my plot also starts with a girl innocently walking through the woods when she comes to the realization that she is been followed by an unknown figure.

 The beginning of this trailer shows a hand held camera running through the forest, which immediately drew my attention and gave me inspiration for my video. By seeing how effective this worked in this trailer, i want to incorporate the same idea into my trailer once the girl has realized that she is being followed and starts to run away, as i feel that the sudden first-person view of the situation will put the audience in her shoes; creating a sense of terror and understanding of how that character is feeling.

 Throughout this trailer, the wolf is never actually revealed physically, and it keeps the audience wondering what it looks like, as the entire video focuses on people talking about how terrifying it is, therefore the audience immediately wants to see it. The way that it does not get shown creates a sense of mystery, and it will make the viewers curious about what it is, and this is what probably attracted a lot of people to go and see the film.

 My initial thoughts were that i would show what was chasing the girl in my horror trailer, however if i'm unable to create something frightening enough, i may use this trailer's idea and create the same idea of suspense and mystery by not revealing what is actually hiding in the forest. 

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Horror Trailer #2 - Cabin in the Woods (2012)

This is my second existing horror video which inspired me with ideas for my own horror trailer. I chose to watch this trailer because of the film title; 'Cabin in the Woods', as i was looking for existing films that were set in a forest-like environment, in order to get a feel of what to aim for when shooting my own trailer. After watching it, i noticed that not too much footage of the actual woods was included, however there were some other features of this trailer that i really liked and would like to incorporate into my own work.

The trailer starts off with a happy family in a car, the music is upbeat and everything seems pleasant. Then, as the 'Lionsgate' logo shows up in a slightly darker font than usual, the music suddenly loses the upbeat tone, and suddenly turns very eerie; making the audience feel slightly on edge as they know something is about to go wrong. This is something i would like to involve in my video, as i want my story to start with a girl all happy and content leaving college with her friends, then as soon as she enters the forest i want it to be apparent that she has made a mistake. Therefore by using incidental music to set the mood for the audience, i think it would prove really effective.

Throughout the trailer, the video is split up with screens of text telling the story, such as "You think you know the story...", "You think you know the place...", "Think again". I think this is a really effective way of telling the story without anyone actually verbally speaking, and i think it would look more professional for me to set the scene in this way, rather than trying to verbally explain.

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