Trailer Analysis 

The Conjuring (2013)

To further research my chosen genre, I watched the trailer for 'The Conjuring'. The film is based loosely on true events of Ed and Lorraine Warren who are paranormal investigators and the Perron family. The Perron family asked The Warrens to investigate their paranormal activities within the house, and the film follows their investigations. 
The trailer starts with Ed Warren being filmed in the basement, it is low key lighting due to the only light coming from a torch, which makes it hard to see anything, adding to the uncomfortable atmosphere.The laughing then appears, the laughing sounds innocent as it sounds like a small girl, which makes the atmosphere more tense. The two then go to explain to an audience that they are paranormal investigators, giving the audience an insight into the plot further, a juxtapositional and contrapuntal music starts to play, but stop when the clock is shown, and the mood suddenly changes. Audio codes are key in this trailer, as we very rarely see the actual 'monster' so the audio builds up to when we do see the monster. The trailer mostly consists of diegetic sounds such as screaming and dialogue, but does have non-diegetic sound like the music I have just mentioned. In between some acts there is a black screen with text, in the same font as the title, these make the editing feel more fast paced compared to the dramatic pause of the text screen. 
As the trailer develops, the events become more and more serious, making the audience want to watch it as they want to see what happens and if the family get rid of the spirits.

Oculus (2014)

The first thing that you hear within the trailer is the sound of a heartbeat, and the sound of whistling wind. This makes the audience feel nervous and uncomfortable. The trailer does not reveal a lot at all, and there is not a lot of key moments from the film shown in the trailer which is unusual as horror/thriller films normally show gory parts of the film to entice the target audience in. The first thing we see in the trailer is the camera slowly panning, this makes the viewer feel like the victim peering round the door to see if the room is safe, or like the monster is searching for the prey of the victim. In the middle of the room is a mirror, and is illuminated, highlighting its significance. 
There is a credit screen saying that they have also produced films such as Paranormal Activity and Insidious, this hints the audience that the film is going to be good as they have produced other well-known films. The screen then goes blank, and the sheet is ripped off of the mirror in a way that looks like there is someone from the mirror side tearing it down, but when it completely falls off it reveals just a plain mirror, hinting that the film could have a supernatural theme running through it. The leaves flying away from the movement of the sheet foreshadows that events in the film could have an echo/ripple affect on things and people around. Connotations of a white sheet like that used in the trailer could be ghosts, shroud of death and illness. The little girl voiceover for the trailer adds suspense as she is talking very slowly and carefully, and relates to the screen as she is talking about the mirror, and then ends with ''I can feel you staring back'', this shows that the little girl has a connection to the mirror and the thing within it. The whistling wind noise is present the whole time the girl is talking, but gets louder when she has finished talking, showing and warning the viewer that something is going to happen, and again, a black screen appears, jolting and distracting the audience. There is fast pace editing, showing the fast pace action, but there are longer pauses when the monsters are shown, for example when there are two figures cloaked in a white sheet-like that shown in the beginning of the trailer over the mirror- so shows that they are connected. Computer graphics are used to shows blood flowing down the mirror, this connotes the blood and gore that will be a major part of the film. There are extreme close ups and normal close ups used to show fear in the victim's face and their expression and reaction to the events. The black screen occurs again and the title of the film is shown through blood, again connoting the horror and gore of the film. Then another black screen and a shot of the demon is shown to make the viewer jump.