Editorial Day

     Today, we had an editor come in to help us with our trailer; this is what he said: 
     Speed up shots - The initial trailer had various daytime shots that took 30 seconds. This was bad because we had established day-time in the first 5 seconds, so the trailer was extended and there was no tension. Consequently, the first half of the trailer was boring and uneventful. The second half of the trailer featured camping at night. The shots were much shorter and more frequent, which helped build tension and established that it was a horror trailer. We will therefore include shorter shots with razor cut transitions, and remove most of the day-time shots.

·     Add horror element – The trailer has several running scenes showing that people are being chased. Tension is built however it was lacking actual horror as there was no murderer/evil entity but constant scenes of fleeing. The editor told us that this would be ineffective as there was no release to the tension, and the scenes were repetitive. This could be achieved through a shot of a knife and a man in a mask.

·     Build tension and end with horror - The tension can be released by showing that someone has been killed/kidnapped. Through researching other hand-held horror trailers, I can see that music built up to a crescendo and often a lantern or camera would be dropped, which shows that something bad had happened. 

·     Car moving scene - The car moving scene establishes day-time and equilibrium. In our current trailer, the car scene is extremely long and boring. We will cut down this scene to show people waving, bags being packed and then the car moving away. This should take 5 seconds and keep the introduction interesting.

      A time-lapse will be added to show the transition from day to night.

      Overall the editorial day taught us to use time much more effectively by having quick shots which makes the trailer fast-paced, adding to the conventional horror theme.