Research: Trailer Analysis - Sorrority Row

Name – Sorority row

Genre – Horror

Target Audience – The target audience for this film would range from teenagers aged 17 – 19 and young adults aged 20 – 30. The beginning of the trailer suggest that the film is a ‘chick flick’ however watching further on reveals that it’s a horror film, therefore the target audience would be interested in watching the film as it shows enigma and ambiguity.

Plot – When five sorority girls accidentally cause the murder of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong, they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again, so they can get on with their lives. This seems easier said than done, as at a sorority party while everyone is wearing sorority gowns covering their face one of them is killed.
Length – 2.28

Number of characters – In this trailer there are a variety of main characters which are dominated in particular scenes. The main characters throughout the whole trailer are the 5 sorority girls. The other main character which is also shown is Megan’s (the one who gets murdered) boyfriend, However he is mainly showed at the beginning of the trailer. Another main character would be the unknown ghost/spirit which comes back to life towards the end of the trailer. There are also a number of background characters shown throughout the trailer. These include the people partying at the beginning of the trailer, the teacher which gives a speech on life to the girls and the students which are graduating. The background characters normally don’t have much dialogue but portray their actions through body language and facial expressions. The audience would be able to identify the main characters instantly as they are shown in most scenes as they have a significance importance to the storyline. However compare to the background characters that are less likely to be in most shots, background characters are showed when needed to provide a good setting and help the audience establish the scene at the time.

Number of shots – Approximately 113
The shots from this trailer last about 2/3 seconds using a mixture of camera angles and shots, however as the pace gets faster and more action is shown the shots begin to get shorter lasting about 1 / 2 seconds. The camera angles which are mainly used in this trailer as close ups and medium shots. This is to show key emotions of the characters whilst portraying the location/setting however the camera angles used try not to give the narrative away at the same time. The beginning of the trailer starts off by using an establishing shot of the school and the party scene. This is so the target audience get an understanding of the setting. The beginning of the trailer also shows each main character individually in a separate shot. This lasts for approximately 1 second each; this is done so the target audience can straight away indentify the main characters.

Music – The music at the beginning of the trailer starts off as upbeat party music which later goes into a scene of a party. This would confuse the target audience as this type of music convention is not normally used for horror trailers. This type of music is used up until the scene where is stabs her with a cross. From this scene on the music starts normal familiar music conventions which means it starts to build up to create tension and gets louder as the action gets more intense. This would keep the target audience engaged throughout the trailer as it uses a variety of music from different genre thus going against the normal conventions of a horror trailer. In this trailer there is about 10 seconds where they is no music and diegetic sounds such as the phone ringing and dialogue take over. However the music only starts to appear again when the sprit is shown, this is done is create huge enigma and build up the tension for what is going to happen next. Towards the end of the trailer the music gets louder as the pace is becoming faster and intense, finally the music cuts and the title is shown. This would therefore leave the target audience is great amounts of suspense resulting in them wanting to watch the film.

Voiceover – No voiceover

Production Company – The production company which is shown in this trailer is “Summit Entertainment”. Showing the production company is very important as it can help attract the audience. If the production company is a recognisable brand that will encourage people to watch the film as they would have a good reputation for film making and people would assume that film would be to a high standard. Another important factor in showing the production company in a trailer is surrounding copyright laws and to ensure them the trailer won’t be copied.

Credits/Intertitles – There are a number of Intertitles shown throughout the trailer
0.35 – 0.36 ‘A Prank’
0.40 – 0.41 ‘No One Would Ever Forgot’
1.08 – 1.09 ‘A Secret’
1.14 – 1.15 ‘No One Would Ever Tell’
1.50 – 1.51 ‘Sister For Life’
1.59 – 2.00 ‘And Death’
2.20 – 2.22 ‘Sorority Row’
2.26 – 2.30 ‘Coming soon’ – All the Intertitles are written in upper case lettering which suggest that they are powerful credits. It also it written in upper case lettering as it wants it to be eye catching and appealing to the audience. Most of the credits are only shown for approximately 1/ 2 seconds however they appear slowly on the screen and the texts gradually gets bigger. This is so the credits are read by the audience so they are kept engaged and interested.

Editing – The transitions used in this trailer are mainly straight cuts and fade to black. The 5 seconds of the trailer starts off by using a fade to black transitions however when the camera goes to show the main characters individually it uses a straight cut. This is so the characters are shown properly to the target audience and they don’t get confused whereas using a fade at the beginning is only setting the scene. As the pace of the trailer picks up the transitions become straight cut so it’s easy for the target audience to understand and see clearly to action. Using straight cut when the action is building up helps to create fast action and build up the anticipation within the trailer. The pace of this trailer starts off slow but as the storyline becomes more open the pace begins to speed up in order to keep the target audience interested.

Dialogue – Conversation are heard they keywords from these are: dead, kill, prank, lesson, cheat Theta Pi