The trailer for the 1996 horror film Scream uses a montage of quick clips showing scenes of death, police cars, parties and blood to build mystery and atmosphere without revealing the plot. It introduces Sidney as the main character and potential victim surrounded by friends falling prey to the masked killer. Edited with fast cuts and music, the trailer effectively conveys the genre as a thriller focused on murder without giving away the full story.

1. Film Title: Scream Release Date: 1996 Genre: Horror.

2. Brief Plot Synopsis Female character Sidney relives the one year anniversary of her mother’s death. The murderer pipes up again killing their group of friends in an outfit of disguise, it turns out it was Sidney boyfriend and a well known friend of Sidney’s who the killer was. Briefly describe the content of the trailer The trailer starts off with the phone ringing and Sidney answering it. Whilst making popcorn. It then proceeds into a montage of clips from the smashing of glass door, police cars, sex scenes , teen parties, cry for help, blood, words on the screen.

3. Time in seconds of the whole trailer = 2.02 Count the number of shots = 69 Sequence time in seconds/ Number of shots = ASL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTWf9QGdJCQ

4. Describe the settings and range of locations – exterior/exterior? The setting of this trailer ranges, there are interior shots in Sidney’s house. Interior shots in the school, Interior shots when they’re at the house party, but mostly, the most effective ones are the exterior shots outside the house with the police cars. The shots lead up to murders in the garage, in the forest, in the van with the camera man. And many more. Describe the Star/s and characters (include dress/look/mode of address/stance etc). Are there typical horror character spheres? The main character Sidney is dressed very natural. She is the ‘virgin girl’ of the group and is dressed traditionally respectable, the innocent side to her soon changes when her ‘ex boyfriend Billy, comes clean out being the murderer and admits to raping her mother a year prior of her also being killed. Her friend Tatum is dressed more ‘tart’ like. This is a stereotypical convention of a horror for her to be one of the first people to die, she always wears shorts skirts and when she is lead to her death, she gets stuck in the garage because of her fake boobs that are in the way. Billy, is the heartthrob and is Sidney’s boyfriend. He is portrayed as the cool one of the group and more the leader.

5. What was the trailer about? Did it link to the film synopsis/title? The film trailer was a montage of lots of clips relating the incidents of all the deaths. The first clip in the trailer is Cindy making popcorn whilst on the phone to the killer talking about the scary movies she liked, it then goes onto to quick flashes of clips relating to the genre of horror and also backs up the synopsis. Were there any predominant themes? The predominant theme of scream is mainly death, it relates back to a story of Sidney’s mother being murdered a year prior to the day Sidney was about to get killed before she defeated the murderer, Billy her ex. A theme which also crops up in this film is the idea of Sidney being a virgin and Billy wanting to take that. He ends up sleeping with her and then openly admits when he has killed everyone that he raped her mother before killing her.

6. Were there any props significant to the trailer? At the start of the trailer, Cindy is cooking popcorn, this is a significant prop as she is about to watch a scary movie, this is a clever element this scene is what leads onto the main storyline of the film. Secondly, the outfit the killer wears, this disguised outfit is then recognised as danger, and as the killer. Pigs blood were one of the props, this was to fool Sidney that Billy had been hurt. How would you describe the camera work? Did it use particular types of shot? The types of shots used was all in favour of creating a montage, different shots such as close up, mid shots, establishing shots were used to all gain effect and to create motion within the trailer. The camera made the trailer look very effective; it used zooms which helped to create an atmosphere.

7. How was sound used on the trailer, was there scripted sections/voice over – style/tone. Music/Sound effects etc There is the idea of a sound bridge when the phone rings, the title of the production company comes up on the screen whilst they are still having a conversation on the phone. There is use of a narrator which creates meaning, the use of quiet but gloomy dull music relates on the fact of the creepy side of things. As a male character is going through the rules of a scary movie, rule number one is no sex. This scene then changes onto Sidney and billy getting intimate. The editing? Thing about pace, type of transitions e.g. cut/fade etc. How was it cut to the music? The editing relies on the idea of the quick motion of scene change with the montage. When each picture changes, it flashes to create effect. Many elements of zooming took place when focussing on the important issues. The clips within the montage are not continuity, they are not in order which is a clever idea as it creates more effect and mystery.

8. How was titling used on the trailer, how many title slides were there? Where did they appear in the trailer? What information did they provide. The first title is ‘dimension films’ this is shown a couple of seconds into the trailer, this shown the title name of the information of the film production company. There is use of fonts within the trailer which the camera focuses upon when Sidney writes to the emergency services for a cry for help, this creates effect. A title is shown saying, ‘DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE’ this is a strong message and is connoting danger. There are other titles, as many as 9 in total. However, there is on clip in the montage where the camera zooms onto the back of a male new reporter’s jacket which says ‘top story’ this is telling the audience about the film. Could you tell by the style of the trailer which genre the film belonged to? How? The gloomy atmosphere gave away the idea of the genre, in the respect of the different clips during the montage and what it showed. You could see all of the elements used during this and could tell that it belonged to a horror genre.

9. Write down anything you think worked particularly well on this Trailer? I thought that the idea of a montage with many different clip but not in order worked very well as it mixed up the storyline and created mystery. Anything you didn’t think worked? No, Ithought that this trailer was a perfectly good one.