A teaser trailer is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming film. Trailers consist of a series of shots from the film being advertised. The purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film and to persuade them to pay money to go and see the film. The scenes are not in the order in which they appear in the film.
Scream 4 is an American horror slasher film, it is the forth instalment in the ‘Scream’ series. It was released on April 15, 2011 to mixed reviews and it took in $19.3 million in its opening weekend. Scream was directed by Wes Craven of who is also known for directing and writing the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchise which was also a slasher. Both, Scream 4 and A Nightmare on Elm Street are both similar as the plot revolves around teenagers who are the victims. The producers of Scream 4 were Kevin Williamson, Wes Craven and Iya Labunka. The production companies for Scream 4 were Dimension Films, Outerbanks Entertainment, Midnight Entertainment and Corvus Corax Productions. The stars involved in Scream 4 were Courtney Cox who is an A-List actress, Davis Arquette and Neve Campbell who played the ‘final girl’ in the film; the final girls in horror films are usually the good quiet girl with dark hair. Scream was originally a series; the plot of each series has been very similar as they each still revolve around teenagers.
Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro after ten years as part of her book tour. Prescott, Gale and Dewey Riley team up to stop the murders. At the beginning Sidney becomes a suspect in the murders after evidence is found in her rental car, and she has to stay in town until the murders are solved. On the fifteenth anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders, high school students were killed by Ghostface. They begin to notice that these killings were not normal that something suspicious is going on, Dewey begins to investigate the murders.
The trailer opens with a scene of with Sidney having a phone conversation with the Antagonist. This phone conversation goes straight into what the plot is about as the Protagonist talks about the killings he has committed. This automatically lets the audience know what is likely to take place in the film.
The shot that follows is a quick cut showing Dewey (the police officer), which tells us that he is significant in the film and a main character. Also, before the shot of the police officer was shown Ghostface was saying to Sidney “you’re a survivor aren’t you Sidney”, this tells us that Dewey is the reason why Sidney is alive as it portrays that he is protecting her from being killed.
The next four quick cut shots that follow are of Sidney’s close friends. This indicates to the audience that these are screams next victims maybe in order of how they were shown during the quick cuts. From this we automatically know who is going to be killed which may create suspense and tension with the audience as we are waiting for the inevitable to happen. Also, the shots shown of the victims were all at different locations this may connote that the places shown are where they will be killed.
It is quite ironic of how they speak of the protagonist in the classroom “the rules have changed, the killer has gotta be way more extreme.” The irony of what they are saying is very effective as they don’t know that is going to happen but we as the audience do. Also, the rules have changed as they said and infact the killer is more extreme in this sequel. Also, almost everyone in that classroom is a victim and the only person who survives is sindney. In this scene Sidneys facial expressions shows that she is scared as they are speaking about the killer we can also tell from her facial expressions that deep down she knows what is going to happen.
The students in the classroom also say “the girl should be filming the murder, that’s the next step in slasher movies”. After that shot it quick cuts into this shot of Neve Campbell filming the killings, this was ironic as she almost filmed her own killing as the Protagonist jumped out and attacked her. It’s almost like the students speaking about the killings are narrating every step that is going to happen in the film. In the next couple of shots we see quick cuts of the victims being attacked and or trying to escape from the Protagonist in different locations. Non-Digetic music is played maybe to match the mood of what is occurring in each scene and a lot of Close –Ups are used to capture the facial expressions on the victim’s faces. Also, quite a few panning shots were used to capture the motion of the victims running.
A common theme that takes place throughout the teaser trailer is that all of the victims were attacked unexpectedly and inside a building were nobody could see them.
In Conclusion, the teaser trailer ends with another phone conversation with a character. This tells us that the phone is a key prop in this film as it was used in the beginning of the trailer as well as the end. Also, we know from the trailer that the phone is a key prop that the Protagonists use to contact its victims.
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