The Blair Witch
Project
Trailer Analysis
The very first image presented in this teaser trailer is
Artisan entertainment. This not only sells the film as a high quality viewing
as the audience may have watched films by these before but also keeps the fact
that it is a film secluded from the rest of the teaser trailer to keep the
realism for the audience and hold the tension without it being broken up by credentials.
This first frame is also joined with a non
diegetic, very bassy droning sound – conforming to soundtracks often used in
supernatural horrors. It adds a lot of suspense as it is a sustained note and
the major key gives connotations of danger and death.
Following this frame is a piece of text that is used
throughout the marketing of this film, about the disappearance of the three
students. It is a very concise
description of the happenings within the film and gives the audience a good
insight without giving too much away. It is also used to make the audience
really believe in the story which is why it is written such a point of fact
way. The typography is very simple and
almost rounded giving the impression that it is factual.
This shot is joined with
sounds of a girl quietly crying and faint banging sounds which both shows the
distress of the protagonists and shows the danger that they are in.
Straight
after this, a final additional line is added at the bottom of this paragraph.
This explains to the audience that they will be viewing the occurrences that
led up to the disappearance of these three students, which is both frightening
for the audience as they do not know what disturbing things they are about to
watch, but at the same time this is quite an exciting concept for them due to
the human nature of curiosity, which links in to our social context of how the
public are sick as they would watch a person suffer just to satisfy their
curiosity and entertainment needs.
Alongside this line of
text, there is non-diegetic sound which sounds like a large metal basin being
hit. It is louder than the faint banging
in the previous shot and so gives the impression that the danger is getting
closer to the girl who is crying.
After this the screen fades to black, inviting the audience
into the fear of not knowing what is around you. The shot stays black as the girl begins to
talk.
Her diegetic dialogue
is directly addressed to the camera, and it is apparent that she is leaving a
message for whoever finds the camera.
This again brings the audience into the frightening atmosphere that has
been created throughout the trailer. You
can hear from the girl’s voice that she is still crying and extremely
frightened and so the audience will naturally empathise with her. However the
audience still don’t know what has made her react in this way, which is
effective in a teaser trailer as they haven’t given too much away. She mentions
that “It” is her fault as it was her project.
This
is followed with the title screen showing “The Blair Witch Project” and
underneath the Blair Witch symbol is shown. The typography is all in capitals
in a straight style font, conforming to the traditions of supernatural horror.
The white font and bright glow around the text also emphasises this. The symbol
isn’t emphasised as it is in the poster, however it does show the link between
this symbol and the Blair Witch. This title screen comes in by flashing on the
screen and then flickering, which shows the idea of there being a presence, and
is also often used in supernatural horrors to show the abnormality of the
situation.
As the title screen is shown you can hear a
sound that is similar to thunder and the volume gradually increases making the
presence of the danger even more intense. You can then hear the girls breathing
pick up as she starts to hyperventilate which quickly. She then says “I’m so
scared” and the audience really start to sense her panic.
This is then visualised as a shot of her face appears, the
same image as in the poster, showing the top half of her face, mainly
highlighting the fear in her eyes, she is shown crying, which evokes sympathy
from the audience. It is quite
disturbing to watch, and therefore is more entertaining to the audience.
Finally,
the trailer breaks out of the realism to give the viewers details about the
film – the web address and when it is being released. Both of these things are in the same font as
the title, signifying their importance and making them stand out.
With this repeats the
non diegetic metallic sound that we heard earlier in the trailer, just to
reinforce this idea one final time for the audience.
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